Geist, Eros und Jugend

Walter Benjamin’s treatise »The Life of Students« (1914/15) is not only an insightful document of the youth culture movement, but also an important philosophical contribution to the discussion on the idea and task of the university. In his critique of the contemporary university, the 22-year-old student develops the counter-concept of a future university that, rejecting all heteronomous functionalizations, finds its purpose in radical and risky intellectual work. This vision is rooted in the strict dichotomy of study and career, the origins of which lie in German educational idealism around 1800, and in the concept of creative Eros that refers back to Plato. The promise is to restore the productive synthesis of spirit, Eros and youth under the sign of the youth movement.

After a commentary on this little-noticed work (I.), the article outlines the contemporary context and the basic lines of the history of ideas between Kant, Fichte and Nietzsche, to which Benjamin refers with his concept (II.). The focus, however, is, following the concept of constellation research, on the critical comparison with the university concepts that have been developed between 1917 and 1923 by Max Weber, Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers (III.–V.). Although it was not a debate in the true sense, the reconstruction of this constellation in the history of ideas nevertheless allows to analyze the contradictions and deficits, but also the cognitive potential and the possible topicality of Benjamin’s treatise in a broader context.