("South German Monthly", also credited as ) was a German magazine published in Munich between January 1904 and September 1936. After beginnings as an art and literary venue, liberal but highly critical of modernism, it made a turn toward politics before World War I. Especially supportive of German conservatism, it was also sympathetic toward Völkisch ideologists, and published propaganda in favor of militarist politicians such as Alfred von Tirpitz. Having for its founder and editor Paul Nikolaus Cossmann, an assimilated Jew, was generally antisemitic—strongly so after 1920, when it hosted calls for racial segregation.
Its publication of conspiracy theories such as the stab-in-the-back myth paved the way for Nazi propaganda, but was more closely aligned with the mainstream right. It played a part in conspiratorial alliances supporting the policies of Gustav von Kahr, although it also had Conservative Revolutionaries among its core contributors. In its late years, turned to Bavarian nationalism and Wittelsbach loyalism, becoming a target for the Nazi regime. Cossmann was imprisoned for dissidence, then deported for his Jewishness; took over, leading until its disestablishment in 1936.
Beginnings Established as a mainly social-liberal tribune by Cossmann, a Jewish writer who had converted to Catholicism, initially sought to reaffirm the cultural importance of Southern Germany and solidify its symbiotic relationship with Prussia, creating cultural bridges between Catholics and Protestants.Alexandre, pp. 195–196, 210–212 Joining the directorial staff in the first edition was liberal pastor-politician Friedrich Naumann (its political director to 1913),Alexandre, p. 196, 199–200, 210–212 who shared editorial oversight with painter Hans Thoma and composer Hans Pfitzner."Chronique allemande", Bibliothèque Universelle et Revue Suisse, Vol. 39, Issue 115, pp. 635–636 Protestant social reformer and Joseph Schnitzer, a Modernist Catholic, were noted guest writers, with Cossmann acting as neutral host.Alexandre, pp. 196–198 During the federal election of 1907, the magazine hosted debates between Schnitzer and Center Party militant , on Political Catholicism and its role in society (a divisive one, according to Schnitzer).Alexandre, p. 206 However, according to historian Adam R. Seipp, was mainly an interface for traditional Munich—Catholic, "deeply conservative", "suspicious of outside influences", and antithetical to the modernist Simplicissimus.Adam R. Seipp, The Ordeal of Peace: Demobilization and the Urban Experience in Britain and Germany, 1917–1921, p. 39. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2009.
Cossmann managed to attract important writers to the magazine's permanent staff, including and Karl Alexander von Müller. In its early issues, hosted mainly essays by the likes of Hofmiller (such as his 1909 putdown of the modernist author Robert Walser),Bernhard F. Malkmus, The German Picaro and Modernity: Between Underdog and Shape-shifter, p. 65. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011. Carl Spitteler, and Karl Voll, and poetry by .
Some of the cultural and social chronicles had nationalist undertones, debating over the requirements of German modernization. As Anglophiles, Hofmiller, Lujo Brentano, and suggested fusing Anglo–American lessons in modernity with the German Volkstum, to make Germany a more competitive capitalist nation; in 1906, a Dr. Paul Tesdorf went further, promoting eugenics as a means to engineer a better people.Alexandre, pp. 197–198, 200–202 In contrast, Naumann and other authors worried about finance capitalism and oligopolies, exhorting a German nationalism based on "democratic capitalism" or syndicalism, and following closely the development of Marxist revisionism.Alexandre, pp. 202–204. See also Struve, p. 90 In a February 1906 obituary for the "legal socialist" Anton Menger, Eugen Ehrlich commented that the term "socialism" had virtually lost its mystique.Thilo Ram, "Juristensozialismus in Deutschland", in Quaderni Fiorentini per la Storia del Pensiero Giuridico Moderno, Vols. 3–4 ("Il 'Socialismo giuridico': ipotesi e letture. I"), 1974–1975, p. 15
The magazine took a distinctly liberal position on education reform, with Rade supporting the Jewish studies movement.Christian Wiese, "'The Best Antidote to Anti-Semitism'? Wissenschaft des Judentums, Protestant Biblical Scholarship, and Anti-Semitism in Germany before 1933", in Andreas Gotzmann, Christian Wiese (eds.), Modern Judaism and Historical Consciousness: Identities, Encounters, Perspectives, pp. 153–154. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2007. Most of the contributors, in particular Gustav Wyneken, were critics of the Herbartian educational tradition; Wyneken's polemics with the more conservative Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster were taken up by .Alexandre, pp. 207–208 In 1909, the journal was also one of the first to host Hans Driesch's philosophical tracts, discussing the concept of becoming in history and nature.Caterina Zanfi, Bergson e la filosofia tedesca, 1907–1932, p. 151. Macerata: Quodlibet, 2013. In 1913, it aired Moritz Geiger's grievances against experimental psychology, implicitly a defense of classical phenomenology.Martin Kusch, Psychologism. A Case Study in the Sociology of Philosophical Knowledge, p. 195. London: Routledge, 1995.
Debates about innovation were carried into the artistic realm. An early contributor, Henry Thode, wrote articles which censured modern art from conservative and antisemitic positions, attacking modernist critics such as Julius Meier-Graefe.Thomas W. Gaehtgens, "Les rapports de l'histoire de l'art et de l'art contemporain en Allemagne à l'époque de Wölfflin et de Meier-Graefe", Revue de l'Art, Vol. 88, 1990, pp. 35, 38 In 1911, the debate was taken further: hosted both Carl Vinnen's manifesto against French "invasion" in German art, as well as the more cautious, pro-modernist, replies to Vinnen, from: Thoma, Lovis Corinth, Gustav Klimt, Max Klinger, Max Slevogt, Count Kalckreuth, Wilhelm Trübner, and Auguste Rodin."Revue des revues. Süddeutsche Monatshefte", La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité. Supplément à la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, No. 23/1911, p. 182 In various other issues, carried polemical essays by aestheticists such as Rudolf BorchardtHeinz Politzer, "Rudolf Borchardt, Poet of Assimilation. The Extreme Case of an Extreme Tendency", in Commentary, January 1950 and Paul Zarifopol.Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. II, p. 868. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. ; Paul Zarifopol, "Tehnica artistică și cealaltă tehnică", Viața Românească, Nr. 7–8/1930, pp. 3–4
Wartime and revolution In January 1913, made official its doctrinal links with anti-democratic conservatism: Robert von Pöhlmann published an article condemning majoritarianism, demanding instead the remodeling of Germany into a ("civilization-state"), with a politically enshrined social stratification. Naumann resigned in protest against veiled accusations him in Pöhlmann's article, but also because the magazine had discarded liberal democracy.Alexandre, pp. 211–212
saluted the July 1914 Crisis and the outbreak of World War I: in the September issue, Karl Mayr wrote that the war signified "internal transformation".Verhey, p. 4 The magazine's nationalism became extreme over the following months, with Cossmann arguing in favor of ("victory peace")Cahnman, p. 107 and Müller celebrating Prussia as a "heroic-aristocratic warrior state";John C. G. Röhl, "Hof und Hofgesellschaft unter Kaiser Wilhelm II.", in Pariser Historische Studien, Vol. 21, 1985, p. 257 similarly, Hermann Oncken and Friedrich Meinecke wrote praises of militarism and Prussian virtues.Christoph Cornelißen, "Politische Historiker und deutsche Kultur. Die Schriften und Reden von Georg v. Below, Hermann Oncken und Gerhard Ritter im Ersten Weltkrieg", in Wolfgang Mommsen, Elisabeth Müller-Luckner (eds.), Kultur und Krieg: Die Rolle der Intellektuellen, Künstler und Schriftsteller im Ersten Weltkrieg (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Herausgegeben von der Stiftung Historisches Kolleg. Kolloquien 34), pp. 119, 136. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1996. promoted an increasingly radical right-wing platform, supporting militarists Alfred von Tirpitz and Erich Ludendorff while excoriating more moderate military and political elements. In 1916, Cossmann and his magazine defended Tirpitz's submarine war policy, submitting evidence that Tirpitz critic Veit Valentin had falsified military reports.Scheck, pp. 51–52 These were times of notoriety for the magazine: prior to the war, circulation stood at a few hundred copies,Alexandre, p. 96 rising to 3000-5000 ca. 1914, and increasing sharply after that, reaching 100,000 at times.
The journal hosted topical literature on war politics and alarming reports from the field, including Spahn's coverage of civilian defeatism in Alsace-Lorraine.Verhey, p. 95 In 1915, Eduard Meyer, Georg Kerschensteiner, and Ludwig Curtius published here their thoughts on the political and historical revelations of war, introducing theses about nationalist rivalry as the source of progress and European civilization.Jürgen von Ungern-Sternberg, "Wie gibt man dem Sinnlosen einen Sinn? Zum Gebrauch der Begriffe 'deutsche Kultur' und 'Militarismus' im Herbst 1914", in Wolfgang Mommsen, Elisabeth Müller-Luckner (eds.), Kultur und Krieg: Die Rolle der Intellektuellen, Künstler und Schriftsteller im Ersten Weltkrieg (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs. Herausgegeben von der Stiftung Historisches Kolleg. Kolloquien 34), pp. 77–78, 83–85. Munich: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1996. Aiming to strengthen German propaganda in neutral Spain, the magazine hosted exposes depicting Iberian Federalism as a product of French intrigues, and homages to the conservative Mauristas.Étienne Martin Saint-Léon, "Mélanges et notices. La légende de Ferrer. Une calomnie allemande réfutée", La Réforme Sociale, Vol. 76, July–December 1918, pp. 138–140
Taking much interest in the "Jewish Question" in German-occupied Poland, exaggerated the magnitude of conflicts between Jews and Poles."Affaires intérieures", Bulletin Périodique de la Presse Polonaise, No. 8/1916, p. 2 A special issue of February 1916 was dedicated to Ashkenazi Jews. It included a piece by of the Jewish Centralverein, who urged for assimilation, the "unwavering cultivation of German sentiments".Christel Goldbach, Distanzierte Beobachtung: Theodor Wolff und das Judentum (Oldenburgische Beiträge zu Jüdischen Studien Band 11), p. 38. Oldenburg: University of Oldenburg, 2002. Also featured were articles by Zionists Max Bodenheimer and Franz Oppenheimer, who purported that "Eastern Jews" were natural allies of German nationalism. More radical Jewish intellectuals, primarily Kurt Blumenfeld and , reacted against this juxtaposition, accusing Bodenheimer of having given up on Zionist ideals.Aschheim, pp. 163, 286–287 Cossmann was also irritated by the "uncritical" views of Bodenheimer and his followers, which, he argued, were essentially "platitudes".Aschheim, pp. 170–171