In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

INDIVIDUALITY VS. COLLECTIVITY 299
were; their sanctions are declining in force. We are in need of something
to take the place of the old order" (Richards, 40-41).
Since there are no generally accepted collective ideals or goals, private
interests easily dominate the scene. But because the breakdown of the
collective sphere is a much-feared possibility, aggressive mass instincts
brutally target those who dare to activate such fear. This is the mechanism
behind the case of Theodor Lessing, a fifty-four-year-old associate
professor of philosophy at the Technical University of Hannover. In May
and June, hundreds of nationalist students armed with oak maces occupy
the classroom where Lessing is scheduled to teach; they persecute and
physically threaten him on his way home from the university; and finally,
thousands of students announce that they will transfer to the Technical
University in nearby Braunschweig if Lessing is not fired (Marwedel,
289f£.). During the previous year, Lessing twice provoked the unstable
collective psyche. He published a newspaper article on the newly elected
Reichsprasident, Paul von Hindenburg, in which he ironically praised
this war hero as the epitome of a specifically German style of thickheadedness.
And in his press coverage of the trial against the mass murderer
Haarmann, Lessing not only discussed the relation between crime and
society, but also revealed a disturbing collaboration between Haarmann
and the Hannover legal authorities, who had hired him as a police spy.
[see Murder] The point of convergence between Lessing's interventions
is apparent: focusing on two very different social situations, they both
underscore how strained the relations are between Individuality and
Collectivity. But only in conjunction with his Jewishness do Lessing's
publications incite the national Right and its press organs. As in so many
other persecutions of individuals, this act of aggression against an outsider
substitutes for the nonexistent "national" unity. In mid-June, the
Ministry of Culture in Berlin decides that Lessing's professorship should
be downgraded to a paid research contract.
The only social roles that fit easily into the collective sphere are those
devoid of any agency. This is why the status of the employee is among
the most successful formulas of the day; this is why assembly lines have
become an object of pride and a topic of intellectual conversation; and
it is the relinquishing of independence that makes "intoxicating" new
forms of dance so popular. In contrast, asserting the importance of
individual instruments and musicians makes the ensemble work of jazz