‘”An appendix of manageable proportions”: Heinrich Wölfflin and Hans Rose between Baroque Studies and National-Socialism

Abstract

The 1926 re-edition of Heinrich Wölfflin’s Renaissance und Barock was curated by one of Wölfflin’s pupils, Hans Rose. On the request of either Wölfflin or his publisher, Bruckmann, Rose added a long essay to original book, a Commentary, which discussed on recent developments in Baroque Studies. On a methodological level, this Commentary shows how Wölfflin’s formalistic method was combined with contextual approaches, but this essay specifically discusses Hans Rose's relations with the right-wing ‘Conservative Revolution’ in 1920s Munich taking place in the Bruckmann salon, how this had an impact on his career, and how the approach and contents of the Commentary fits into the political circumstances of pre-Nazi Germany.

Keywords

• Hans Rose
• Heinrich Wölfflin
• Bruckmann publishing house
• Conservative Revolution
• National Socialism
• homosexuality
• baroque studies