Oswald Spengler

Who was Oswald Spengler?

Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West, published in 1918 and 1922, covering all of world history. He proposed a new theory, according to which the lifespan of civilizations is limited and ultimately they decay.

He wrote extensively throughout World War I and the interwar period, and supported German hegemony in Europe. His other writings made little impact outside Germany. In 1920 Spengler produced Prussiandom and Socialism, which argued for an organic, nationalist version of socialism and authoritarianism. Some Nazis held Spengler as an intellectual precursor but he was ostracised by the Nazis after 1933 for his pessimism about Germany's and Europe's future, his refusal to support Nazi ideas of racial superiority, and his critical work The Hour of Decision.