Prussianism and Socialism

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Prussianism and Socialism

$22.99

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Two Socialisms

Oswald Spengler published Prussianism and Socialism in 1919, the year after the first volume of The Decline of the West made him famous. The essay draws a sharp distinction between two kinds of socialism. "English" socialism is parliamentary, commercial, individualist, rooted in the Manchester school and the labor movement. "Prussian" socialism is hierarchical, dutiful, corporatist, rooted in the Frederician tradition of the state as an organic community bound by obligation rather than contract.

The Argument

Spengler argues that the real political divide in Europe is not between left and right but between the English and Prussian conceptions of society. Marx, in his reading, was fundamentally an English thinker: materialist, economic, concerned with class interest. The Prussian tradition subordinates economics to duty, the individual to the whole, and private interest to the demands of the state. Spengler calls for a German socialism that rejects both Marxism and liberal capitalism, embracing instead a politics of national obligation.

Historical Context

This essay was widely read in Weimar-era Germany. Both the early Nazi movement and the broader Conservative Revolution drew on Spengler's distinction between English and Prussian socialism, though Spengler himself kept his distance from the NSDAP and died in disfavor in 1936. The text remains essential for understanding the intellectual landscape of interwar German politics. Short, blunt, and provocative.