Historical Reflections: War and the End of the End of History

Version: 4 (current) | Updated: 11/13/2025, 6:20:41 AM

Added description

Description

Historical Reflections: War and the End of the End of History

Overview

A digital text collection created in 2005, written in English, that compiles primary and secondary materials on late‑18th‑century German history and contemporary political theory. The item is housed by the institution “test‑tooze” and is licensed © Purdue Research Foundation.

Background

The collection was assembled by the test‑tooze organization and transcribed by Andy Blunden. It incorporates a letter by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to Niethammer dated 13 October 1806, published in the Hegell Letters series (Indiana University Press, 2005). The letter was written during the French occupation of Jena and references Napoleon and the Prussian king. The collection also contains an interregnum analysis newsletter authored by Michel Aglietta, originally published in Newleftreview, which discusses contemporary political discontinuity and introduces concepts such as interregnum, brain‑tumour metaphor, presentism, and sacrificial generational divide.

Contents

* Letter Hegel → Niethammer (1806‑10‑13) – primary source detailing the French occupation of Jena. * Interregnum Analysis Newsletter – secondary analysis of modern political interregnum. * Transcription and translation notes – provided by Andy Blunden, Clark Butler, and Christine Seiler. * Metadata and provenance records – including institutional, linguistic, and subject tags (Hegel, Napoleon, Jena, Prussia, History, Politics, War, Interregnum, Gramsci).

Scope

The collection covers events from 1806 (the French occupation of Jena) to the early 21st‑century analysis of political interregnum. Geographically, it focuses on German locales—Jena, Weimar, Kapellendorf—within the broader context of Napoleonic Europe. Thematically, it addresses war, political philosophy, and contemporary political theory. Items that are purely biographical or unrelated to war and interregnum are excluded.

Entities

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Entity Relationships

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Raw Cheimarros Data

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@capitalisme_le_temps_des_ruptures:document {title: "Capitalisme: Le temps des ruptures", author: @michel_aglietta}
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@concept_interregnum:concept {definition: "Period of political discontinuity without a clear successor"}
@concept_brain_tumour:concept {metaphor: "ruling class inability to understand global change"}
@concept_presentism:concept {definition: "Focus on short‑term calculations at the expense of long‑term vision"}
@concept_sacrificial_generational_divide:concept {definition: "Generational split where the young sacrifice for the super‑rich"}

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Metadata

Version History (4 versions)

  • ✓ v4 (current) · 11/13/2025, 6:20:41 AM
    "Added description"
  • v3 · 11/13/2025, 6:03:49 AM · View this version
    "Added knowledge graph extraction"
  • v2 · 11/13/2025, 5:50:27 AM · View this version
    "Added PINAX metadata"
  • v1 · 11/13/2025, 5:42:49 AM · View this version
    "Reorganization group: Historical_Reflections"

Additional Components

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<h3><strong>Hegel to Niethammer October 13, 1806</strong></h3><div><hr></div><blockquote><p><strong>Source</strong>: <em>Hegel: The Letters</em>, translated by Clark Butler and Christine Seiler with commentary by Clark Butler, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, © Purdue Research Foundation.<br><strong>Transcribed</strong>: by Andy Blunden for Marxists.org, 2005.</p></blockquote><div><hr></div><blockquote><p>Jena, Monday, October 13, 1806<br>– the day the French occupied Jena and the Emperor Napoleon penetrated its walls.</p><p>From the timing, you yourself can gather an idea of the trepidation with which I mailed my manuscript last Wednesday and Friday. Last evening toward sundown I saw the shots fired by the French patrols from both Gempenbachtal and Winzerla. The Prussians were driven from Winzerla in the night, and the fire lasted until after twelve o'clock. Today between eight and nine o'clock the French advance units forced their way [into the city], with the regular troops following an hour later. It was an hour of anguish, especially because of general unfamiliarity with the right which everyone enjoys by the will of the French Emperor himself not to comply with the demands of these light troops but just quietly to give them what is required. Through clumsy behavior and a lapse of caution quite a few have landed in difficulties. However, our sister-in-law, as well as the Döderlein household, came through with nothing worse than anguish and has remained unharmed. She asked me, as I was talking with her this evening about the departure of the mail, to write to you and Mrs. Niethammer. She is presently quartering twelve officers. I saw the Emperor – this world-soul – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it. As for the fate of the Prussians, in truth no better prognosis could be given. Yesterday it was said that the Prussian King had his headquarters in Kapellendorf, a few hours from here. Where he is today we do not know, but surely further away than yesterday. The Duchess and her Princess had decided to remain in Weimar. Yet such advances as occurred from Thursday to Monday are only possible for this extraordinary man, whom it is impossible not to admire.</p><p>https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/letters/1806-10-13.htm</p></blockquote>
51976646.interregnum.html
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<p>Everyone is quoting Gramsci on the interregnum, but that assumes that something new will be or could be born.&nbsp;I doubt it. I think what we must diagnose instead is a ruling class brain tumour: a growing inability to achieve any coherent understanding of global change as a basis for defining common interests and formulating large-scale strategies.</p><p>In part this is the victory of pathological presentism, making all calculations on the basis of short-term bottom-lines in order to allow the super-rich to consume all the good things of the earth within their lifetimes. (Michel Aglietta in his recent <em>Capitalisme: Le temps des ruptures </em>emphasises the unprecedented character of the new sacrificial generational divide.) Greed has become radicalized to the extent that it no longer needs political thinkers and organic intellectuals, just Fox News and bandwidth.&nbsp;In the worst-case scenario, Elon Musk will simply lead a billionaire migration off planet.</p><p>https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/thanatos-triumphant</p>

Parent

01K9XVKB4J6SBXWM5YP80BPTZG

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