“The good wanderer leaves neither footprints nor traces”: On Georg Simmel’s “Individualismens Former” published during WWI

Abstract

In January 1917, an article by Georg Simmel, “Individualismens Former”, appeared in the Danish journal Spectator. Citing an editorial note herein, Simmel researchers have trusted that Simmel wrote the text in Danish and authorized the article (Rammstedt et al, 2015: 690; Christensen et al (eds.): 2019).On the contrary, we use archives, memoires and historical research to show that the editorial note in fact concealed the true provenance of Simmel’s text. The German propaganda machine during World War 1 secretly financed the journal Spectator. The editor therefore had a motivation to alter a crucial passage in the text.