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REVIEWS
| The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany: A Social History, 1890–1930. By Michael Hau (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. x plus 286 pp. 48 illustrations).
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| If Friedrich Nietzsche had maintained a healthier lifestyle, eating more vegetables and taking advantage of alternative cures, he would have lived longer, avoided insanity and, perhaps, contributed more immortal works to the canon of German philosophy and literature. That, at least, was the opinion of an anonymous contributor to an 1895 issue of the Vegetarische Rundschau (Vegetarian Review), one of the many health magazines circulating in Germany at the time. But since age seventeen, the philosopher had neglected his body, resorting to medical treatment rather than bathing and a vegetarian diet when treating open wounds and lingering ailments. As a result, the Vegetarische Rundschau claimed, various disease substances were imprisoned in Nietzsche's body where unable to "leave" their cell, they eventually poisoned the philosopher's brain. |
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A cult of health and beauty swept across Germany around the turn of the twentieth century and lingered on well into the Weimar period. For four decades German scientists and pseudo-scientists, quacks and lay people turned to the body as both a reflection of their own social problems and a utopian answer in their search for control, perfectionism and an ideal world. In their approach, these "life reformers" differed widely from each other. Some simply advocated exercise, a healthy lifestyle, and a balanced diet. Many, however, turned to vegetarianism, nudism, bodybuilding, eugenics or alternative cures in their efforts to improve and perfect the architecture and inner workings of the human body. Why, Michael Hau asks, did German society become so obsessed with physical appearance and well-being at precisely this moment in time? |
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To Hau, this question cannot be answered in terms of the history of science alone. He argues, instead, that what may have begun as a medical interest grew into a social phenomenon, an integral part of turn-of-the-century bürgerliche Kultur at a time when lower middle-class Germans developed an increasing amount of angst over their economic and professional future. Fears that they would never land a permanent job. Fears that they would never climb up the social ladder. Fears that their lives would never change, never improve, never realizes the hopes and promises they had had. In this scenario, control over the body became an ersatz belief for people's increasing sense of loss of power over their lives. Confronted with a future where he might never move up the career ladder, a life and a system over which he presumably held no control, a white-collar worker could at least maintain control over his own body, improve his physical self and, thus, gain additional self-respect. Stuck in a boring job with no prospect of improvement, people could improve their own lives and convince themselves of being more attractive than those blessed with a higher income or more fortunate living circumstances. |
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But it wasn't just that. Modernity, rapid industrialization, an overwhelming bureaucracy did not simply imbue citizens with a sense of powerlessness. All three also seemed to attack man's (and woman's) health and body directly, causing it to degenerate and decline in a very direct way. Processed food, an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, and office or factory work all inspired a sense of drudgery that seemed to force human bodies to perform in unnatural ways to the extent that obesity, ugliness, and early decay were increasingly becoming the norm. In response, life reformers offered a variety of programs centering around food intake and physical exercise designed to restore man's original fitness and, thus, withstand the onslaught of modern life. |
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