The German Genuis, By Peter Watson

In the book by Peter Watson, The German Genuis, the author reflects greatly on the advancements as a result of Germany and its citizens. In chapter 17, Physics Becomes King,the reflect on the influence of Robert, Helmholtz, Clausius, Boltzmann, Riemann in the sciences greatly brought about a strong concentration of scientist to Germany. Unlike chapter 17, chapter 23: Money, the Masses, and the Metropolis highlights the literary growth Germany experienced. Both these chapters greatly reflected on the continuous growth of Germany in the aspect of education of the sciences and the sociologies.

The first chapter consisted strongly of the evolution of other studies as a result of the growth in physics in retrospect to the study of mechanics, electricity,

A popular novel to come from Theodor Fontane was Effi Breist, this highlighted the focus literature had on the unhappiness of society. Theodor Fontane was an example of how German writers where ahead of the literary movement. Another literary thinker was Wihlem Dilthey. He coined the phrase, “the enigmatic face of life”, which led to his conclusion that nothing was to be discovered behind life. One of Dilthey’s main theories was that purpose, value, and norms cannot be seen because they are a reflection of the mind. The other theory was that knowledge comes from two sources: the mind and history. Since history is in the past it no long exist, therefore feeding the main idea that no facts can back up life. Other major topic brought about by this chapter were growth of Capitalism in Germany and how it affected the individual and the Weber’s ideology of

The first advancements were in the sciences namely physics. It is interesting to see the reoccurring evolution of the sciences in Germany. Not only is it interesting as a student to see the numerous theories Germany supplied the world with but it is also intriguing because as a student the theories are applicable to the many classes. One example of the applicable theories is entropy, invented by Clausius, and another would be Riemann’s geometric approach on solving integrals. In Calculus 2, Riemann’s theory is used to prove many other ways of evaluating integrals. In the chapter 23, the mid-class perspective writing which some German writers focused on such as Theodor Fontane is reflected on in English Composition as a discretization of text. At the time Effi Briest was written, writers where namely higher in society as well as wealthy and white males. The concept that these German writers where focusing on the struggles of the minority is a total discretization and misrepresentation of mid-class women (the struggling minority) because their perspective is written by a high-society male. As a reader, it is enlightening not only to read about the effects Germany had on the educational world but to also experience them in the class