Abstract

Taking its cue from Walter Benjamin’s methodological critique of Rudolf Borchardt’s anthology "Der Deutsche in der Landschaft", the article demonstrates how these different approaches connect 'intellectual history' and a specific idea of nature. While Borchardt proposes a unifying vision of nature (modelled after Goethe’s) that leads to a concept of history as continuity and a tradition that ist to be regained; with Benjamin the idea of a conceptual continuum and organic culturality collapses in the wake of fascism: 'Heimat' becomes precarious intellectually and naturally. Being-in-landscape as a saturated experience is furthermore only possible in a mode of remembrance, that is, as a testament to its own demise.