A German worldview: Historical, philosophical and religious influences that shaped a people and a nation

Abstract

How did elements of a German worldview in the 19th century influence the development of the German State? This thesis examines a historically situated and dynamic German worldview, presented as the dominant worldview of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to illuminate how intellectual, cultural, philosophical, and religious influences contributed to the formation of the German nation-state in 1871. While focusing on dominant intellectual and cultural currents, the study acknowledges the internal heterogeneity of the German population, including regional, religious, class-based, gendered, and ideological differences that shaped and at times contested the formation of a German worldview. This worldview is understood as a historically evolving construct, collectively expressed by those who identified as German and participated in the project of nation-building, with its boundaries defined and redefined by the events and intellectual currents of the period. Rather than treating worldview as a timeless essence, the thesis analyzes it as a fluid interpretive framework shaped by the specific intellectual, cultural, and political conditions of eighteenth and nineteenth century Germany. A worldview acts as a heuristic lens, offering a wider focus of analysis by identifying influences that span multiple fields of inquiry. This interdisciplinary study draws on history, philosophy, political theory, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Specifically, it identifies four components of a German worldview: German Intellectualism: German Idealism and Liberalism; A Particular Ontology – a German concept of the human expressed through a societal vision; the German Mythos of the Volk as self-identification; and Religion and Spirituality: traditional Christianity. By examining these components together, the thesis demonstrates how philosophical ideas, ontological assumptions, mythic narratives, and religious traditions converged to influence the intellectual foundations of the German State. This worldview lens provides a broader interpretive framework revealing how deeper cultural and intellectual forces shaped the development of the German nation-state and the identification of its people.