The Conquest of Ruins: The Third Reich and the Fall of Rome

633 Pages·2019·5.779 MB·English

by  Julia Hell

The Conquest of Ruins

The Conquest
of Ruins
The Third Reich and the Fall of Rome
JULIA HELL
The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2019 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case
of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information,
contact the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL
60637.
Published 2019
Printed in the United States of America
28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 58805- 6 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 58819- 3 (paper)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 58822- 3 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org /10 .7208 /chicago /9780226588223 .001 .0001
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Hell, Julia, author.
Title: The conquest of ruins : The Third Reich and the fall of Rome / Julia
Hell.
Description: Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2018. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010427 | ISBN 9780226588056 (cloth : alk. paper)
| ISBN 9780226588193 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780226588223
(e- book)
Subjects: LCSH: National socialism and archaeology. | Germany—
Civilization— 20th century— Roman influences. | Europe—
Civilization— Roman influences. | Excavations (Archaeology)—
Political aspects— Germany— History— 20th century. |
Imitation— Political aspects— Germany. | Germany— History—
1933– 1945. | Imperialism— History.
Classification: LCC DD256.6 .H45 2018 | DDC 937/.09— dc23
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2018010427
♾ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48- 1992
(Permanence of Paper).
To George, as always
and
Franz Hell (1930– 2010)
and Waltraut Hell- Scherschlicht (1932– 2012),
in memoriam

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: Neo- Roman Mimesis and the Law of Ruin 1
PART ONE After Carthage: The Roman Empire and Its Ruins 37
Preface 37
1 In the Rubble of Carthage: Polybios’s Histories and the Time
That Remains 39
2 Building the Roman Stage: The Scenographic Architecture of the
Augustan Era 56
3 Virgil’s Imperial Epic and Lucan’s Pharsalia, or the Specter of
Hannibal and the Ruins of Rome 69
4 The Ruins of the Conquered: Josephus’s Jewish War and
Pausanias’s Periegesis 87
5 Rubble, Ruins, and the Time before the End: Paul, Tertullian, and
the Roman Empire as Katechon 99
PART TWO Neo- Roman Mimesis: Charles V at Tunis, 1535 109
Preface 109
6 “The Imagoes They Leave Behind”: Charles’s Death Masks and the
Desire of the Past 111
CONTENTS
PART THREE Neo- Roman Mimesis in the Modern Age: Cook’s
Second Voyage to the South Pacific and the French Conquest of
Egypt and Algeria 137
Preface 137
7 Against Neo- Roman Mimesis: Johann Gottfried Herder at Carthage and
François de Volney at Palmyra 141
8 Edward Gibbon and the Secret of Empire, or Scipio Africanus and the
Savages of the South Pacific 160
9 Aeneas Fragment and the Enigma of the End: Georg Forster’s Voyage
to the South Pacific and William Hodges’s Views of the Monuments of
Easter Island 180
10 Caught Up in “Eternal Repetitions”: Napoleon in Egypt and Rome 198
11 Repetition of a Repetition: The Conquest of Algeria, and Louis Bertrand’s
North African Latinité 214
12 Maori in Europe: Ruin Gazing and Scopic Mastery 230
PART FOUR From Germany’s Anti- Napoleonic Barbarians to the
Ruin Gazer Scenarios of the Conservative Revolution 239
Preface 239
13 Anti- Roman Barbarians: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Heinrich von
Kleist, C. D. Friedrich, and the Fight against Napoleon in the Ruins
of Germania 243
14 The Second German Reich: The Struggle for Rome, or Barbarians Becoming
Romans 256
15 Friedrich Nietzsche’s Modernist Mimesis and Gradiva’s Splendid Act
of Imitation 264
16 Empires, Ruins, and the Conservative Critique of Modernity: Friedrich
Ratzel and Oswald Spengler 277
PART FIVE With the End in Mind: The Nazi Empire’s Neo- Roman
Mimesis and the Ruined Stage of Rome 307
Preface 307
17 Hitler in Rome 1: Visiting the Mostra Augustea della Romanità, 1938 313
18 Roman Lessons: Theorizing Empire, Conquering the East 323
19 Creating the Twilight Zone of the Third Reich’s Neo- Roman Imaginary:
German Classicists, Resurrectional Performances, and the Trope of the
Neo- Roman Conqueror’s Fortified Gaze 338
viii
CONTENTS
20 Resurrections in a Modernist Mode: Greeks, Spartans, and Wild Savages,
or, the Restoration of Civilization’s Shattered Gaze 348
21 Berlin/Germania: Seeing with Roman Eyes, Building a Roman Stage 364
22 Hitler in Rome 2: The Führer as Ruin Gazer, 1938 378
23 Return to Carthage, or Hitler’s Aeneas/Dido Fragment 389
PART SIX Romans or Greeks? Carl Schmitt and Martin Heidegger 401
Preface 401
24 Katechon: Carl Schmitt’s Theology of Empire 403
25 Empire and Time: Martin Heidegger’s Anti- Roman Intervention 431
Epilogue: Anselm Kiefer’s Zersetzungen/Disarticulations 441
Notes 445
Bibliography 537
Index 581
ix