SPENGLER, OSWALD. — Philosopher, b. 29 May 1880 at Blankenburg, d. 8 May 1936 at Munich. He studied mathematics and philosophy at Munich and Berlin. He taught mathematics at Munich.
In his best-known but amateurish and superficial work, *Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Umrisse einer Morphologie der Weltgeschichte*, 2 vols., 1918–22, he carries historicism (v.) to its extreme conclusions: historical structures succeed one another inevitably (without meaning or purpose, like the families of fauna and flora), and the values they express fade and pass like flowers and leaves (absolute relativism). Every “civilization” is characterized by a “form,” constitutes a “formal universe” embracing all manifestations of an epoch (art, philosophy, religion, science, etc.), is born, flourishes, and dies. Western civilization is “Faustian,” and its law is “force.” This civilization, expressed above all by Germany, is fated to decline. Spengler wrote this after Germany’s defeat in the First World War, which he saw as the collapse of Pan-Germanism and Bismarck’s political ideal (v.). With the advent of Nazism, Spengler again saw Germany as the heir of Faustian civilization (*Jahre der Entscheidung*, vol. 1, *Deutschland und die weltgeschichtliche Entwicklung*, Munich 1933).