Karl Otfried Müller: Ethnic Criterion and Dorian Essentialism as Sources of Academic Authority in the 19th Century Historiography
Abstract
The research carried out in 1824 by K. O. Müller, a pioneer of Ancient History as a scientific discipline, on the Dorian tribe (Stamm) is an excellent example of a source of academic authority, as it influenced, in one way or another, studies on ancient Greece throughout the rest of the nineteenth century; in National Socialist Germany his theses were given an important revival as the starting point for the racial state model applied to history that the Nazis found in Sparta and which served to legitimise certain eugenic, educational and agricultural policies practised by the regime. In this paper we examine, on the one hand, the political, cultural and ideological context in which Müller imbibed (the Prussian state and German Romanticism), as well as Müller’s understanding and interpretation of the ancient Dorians, to whom he attributes innate traits and customs that make them superior to the rest of the Greek ethnic groups; on the other hand, we also deal with the deep influence that his «scientific» criteria, marked by an essentialism that ignored the historical processes through which the peoples were passing, exerted on modern historiography of the ancient Greek world, mainly Prussian/German but also of other nations, transcending strictly academic circles to permeate European high culture.
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Andurand, A. (2013). Le Mythe grecque allemande. Histoire d´une affinité elective. Rennes: Presses Universitaire de Rennes.
Antón Bendicho, J. (2018). Los dorios: la construcción de la identidad de un éthnos griego. (Tesis inédita de doctorado). Universidad de Zaragoza.
Blok, J.H. (1998). “Romantische Poesie, Naturphilosophie, Konstruktion der Geschichte”: Karl Otfried Müller’s Understanding of History and Myth. En Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.). Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur (pp. 55-97). Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Bouidghaghen, N. (2023). La belle mort spartiate: l’histoire française d’un mirage européen au XXe siècle. (Tesis inédita de doctorado). Université Paris XIII.
Butler, E.M. (1935). The tyranny of Greece over Germany. A study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.) (1988). Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur. Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Calder III, W.M., Trzaskoma, S. (Ed.) (1996). George Grote Reconsidered. A 200th Birthday Celebration with a First Edition of his Essay "Of the Athenian Government", Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Cambiano, G. (1984). L’Atene dorica di Karl Otfried Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 1045-1067.
Canfora, L. (1989). Le vie del classicismo. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Canfora, L. (1992). Nota. En Paradiso, A. (Ed.), Pierre Bayle, Sparta nel “Dizionario”. Palermo: Sellerio.
Castelar, E. (1887). Galería histórica de mujeres célebres. Tomo IV. Madrid: José María Faquineto.
Chapoutot, J. (2012). Le nazisme et l´Antiquité. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Christ, K. (1986). Spartaforschung und Spartabild. En Id. (Ed.), Sparta (pp. 1-72). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Christ, K. (1990). Neue Profile der Alten Geschichte. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Christien, J. (1992). Le mythe Spartiate: essai en historiographie, Lakonikai Spoudai, 11, pp. 93-104.
Demetriou, K. (1999): George Grote on Plato and Athenian Democracy: A Study in Classical Reception. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Demetriou, K. (2002). Bishop Connop Thirlwall: Historian of Ancient Greece. Quaderni di Storia, 56, pp. 49-90. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003420774-2
Demetriou, K. (Ed.) (2014). Brill´s Companion to George Grote and the Classical Tradition. Leiden: Brill.
Duruy, V. (1867)6. Histoire Grecque. Paris: Hachette. [1ª ed. 1851].
Fornis, C. (2018). Apropiaciones de Esparta por el nacionalsocialismo alemán: el Estado racial. En Cortadella, J., Olesti, O., Sierra, C. (Ed.), Lo viejo y lo nuevo en las sociedades antiguas (pp. 583-597). Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.
Fornis, C. (2019). El mito de Esparta. Un itinerario por la cultura occidental. Madrid: Alianza.
Geslot, J.-C. (2009). Victor Duruy. Historien et ministre (1811-1894). Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
https://doi.org/10.4000/books.septentrion.40601
Grote, G. (1869-1870)2. A History of Greece. 12 vols. London: Murray. [1ª ed. 1846-1856].
Hoffmann, G. (2007). L´eugénisme spartiate en questión, de Xénophon à Barrès. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 391-405). Athens: Alexandria.
Loraux, N., Vidal-Naquet, P. (1992). La formación de la Atenas burguesa. En Vidal-Naquet, P. (Ed.), La democracia griega, una nueva visión. Ensayos de historiografía antigua y moderna (pp. 129-176). Madrid: Akal (orig. 1990).
Losemann, V. (1988). Die Dorier im Deutschland der dreiβiger und vierziger Jahre. En Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.), Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur (pp. 313-348). Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Losemann, V. (2007). Sparta in the Third Reich. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 449-462). Athens: Alexandria.
Losemann, V. (2010). Sparta, I. Image and Interpretation. En Brill´s New Pauly, Classical Tradition (vol. V, pp. 223-247). Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Mas, S. (2014). Alemania y el mundo clásico (1896-1945). Madrid: Plaza & Valdés.
Momigliano, A. (1984). Premessa per una discussione su K.O. Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 895-909.
Müller, K. O. (1824). Die Dorier. 2 vols. Breslau: Josef Max.
Murray, O. (2007). British Sparta in the Age of Philhellenism. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 345-388). Athens: Alexandria.
Perono Cacciafoco, F. (2009). Sulle piste dei Dori. Ipotesi a confronto tra linguistica, archeologia e storia. Pisa: Plus-Pisa University Press.
Pfeiffer, R. (1976). History of Classical Scholarship: From 1300-1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Pisano, C. (2013). Sparta e Atene tra Francia e Prussia: da Benjamin Constant a Georg Busolt (1804-1878). Anabases, 17, pp. 11-25. https://doi.org/10.4000/anabases.4079
Plácido, D. (1994). Nacionalismo, imperialismo y democracia: la Historia de Grecia de George Grote. Revista de Occidente, 152, pp. 25-36.
Rawson, E. (1969). The Spartan Tradition in Western Thought. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rebenich, S. (2001). Alte Geschichte in Demokratie und Diktatur. Der Fall Helmut Berve. Chiron, 31, pp. 457-496.
Rebenich, S. (2002). From Thermopylae to Stalingrad: The Myth of Leonidas in German Historiography, en Powell, A., Hodkinson, S. (Ed.), Sparta: Beyond the Mirage (pp. 323-349). Swansea-London: Classical Press of Wales-Duckworth.
Rebenich, S. (2018). Reception of Sparta in Germany and German-Speaking Europe. En Powell, A. (Ed.). A Companion to Sparta (pp. 685-703). Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119072379.ch27
Roche, H. (2013). Sparta´s German children. The ideal of ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps, 1818-1820, and in National Socialist elite schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales.
Ruzé, F. (1999). La légende de Sparte. L´Histoire, 232, pp. 46-49.
Sancho Rocher, L. (2021). Georges Grote (1794-1871). En Duplá, A., Núñez, C., Reimond, G. (Ed.), Pasión por la Historia Antigua. De Gibbon a nuestros días (pp. 31-50). Pamplona: Urgoiti.
Will, É. (1956). Doriens et Ioniens. Essai sur la valeur du critère ethnique appliqué à l´étude de l´histoire et de la civilisation grecques. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Wittenburg, A. (1984). I Dori di K.O. Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 1031-1044.
Andurand, A. (2013). Le Mythe grecque allemande. Histoire d´une affinité elective. Rennes: Presses Universitaire de Rennes.
Antón Bendicho, J. (2018). Los dorios: la construcción de la identidad de un éthnos griego. (Tesis inédita de doctorado). Universidad de Zaragoza.
Blok, J.H. (1998). “Romantische Poesie, Naturphilosophie, Konstruktion der Geschichte”: Karl Otfried Müller’s Understanding of History and Myth. En Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.). Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur (pp. 55-97). Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Bouidghaghen, N. (2023). La belle mort spartiate: l’histoire française d’un mirage européen au XXe siècle. (Tesis inédita de doctorado). Université Paris XIII.
Butler, E.M. (1935). The tyranny of Greece over Germany. A study of the influence exercised by Greek art and poetry over the great German writers of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.) (1988). Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur. Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Calder III, W.M., Trzaskoma, S. (Ed.) (1996). George Grote Reconsidered. A 200th Birthday Celebration with a First Edition of his Essay "Of the Athenian Government", Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Cambiano, G. (1984). L’Atene dorica di Karl Otfried Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 1045-1067.
Canfora, L. (1989). Le vie del classicismo. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
Canfora, L. (1992). Nota. En Paradiso, A. (Ed.), Pierre Bayle, Sparta nel “Dizionario”. Palermo: Sellerio.
Castelar, E. (1887). Galería histórica de mujeres célebres. Tomo IV. Madrid: José María Faquineto.
Chapoutot, J. (2012). Le nazisme et l´Antiquité. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Christ, K. (1986). Spartaforschung und Spartabild. En Id. (Ed.), Sparta (pp. 1-72). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Christ, K. (1990). Neue Profile der Alten Geschichte. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Christien, J. (1992). Le mythe Spartiate: essai en historiographie, Lakonikai Spoudai, 11, pp. 93-104.
Demetriou, K. (1999): George Grote on Plato and Athenian Democracy: A Study in Classical Reception. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Demetriou, K. (2002). Bishop Connop Thirlwall: Historian of Ancient Greece. Quaderni di Storia, 56, pp. 49-90. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003420774-2
Demetriou, K. (Ed.) (2014). Brill´s Companion to George Grote and the Classical Tradition. Leiden: Brill.
Duruy, V. (1867)6. Histoire Grecque. Paris: Hachette. [1ª ed. 1851].
Fornis, C. (2018). Apropiaciones de Esparta por el nacionalsocialismo alemán: el Estado racial. En Cortadella, J., Olesti, O., Sierra, C. (Ed.), Lo viejo y lo nuevo en las sociedades antiguas (pp. 583-597). Besançon: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.
Fornis, C. (2019). El mito de Esparta. Un itinerario por la cultura occidental. Madrid: Alianza.
Geslot, J.-C. (2009). Victor Duruy. Historien et ministre (1811-1894). Villeneuve d'Ascq: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
https://doi.org/10.4000/books.septentrion.40601
Grote, G. (1869-1870)2. A History of Greece. 12 vols. London: Murray. [1ª ed. 1846-1856].
Hoffmann, G. (2007). L´eugénisme spartiate en questión, de Xénophon à Barrès. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 391-405). Athens: Alexandria.
Loraux, N., Vidal-Naquet, P. (1992). La formación de la Atenas burguesa. En Vidal-Naquet, P. (Ed.), La democracia griega, una nueva visión. Ensayos de historiografía antigua y moderna (pp. 129-176). Madrid: Akal (orig. 1990).
Losemann, V. (1988). Die Dorier im Deutschland der dreiβiger und vierziger Jahre. En Calder III, W.M., Schlesier, R., Gödde, S. (Ed.), Zwischen Rationalismus und Romantik. Karl Otfried Müller und die antike Kultur (pp. 313-348). Hildesheim: Weidmann.
Losemann, V. (2007). Sparta in the Third Reich. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 449-462). Athens: Alexandria.
Losemann, V. (2010). Sparta, I. Image and Interpretation. En Brill´s New Pauly, Classical Tradition (vol. V, pp. 223-247). Leiden-Boston: Brill.
Mas, S. (2014). Alemania y el mundo clásico (1896-1945). Madrid: Plaza & Valdés.
Momigliano, A. (1984). Premessa per una discussione su K.O. Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 895-909.
Müller, K. O. (1824). Die Dorier. 2 vols. Breslau: Josef Max.
Murray, O. (2007). British Sparta in the Age of Philhellenism. En Birgalias, N., Buraselis, K., Cartledge, P. (Ed.), The Contribution of Ancient Sparta to Political Thought and Practice (pp. 345-388). Athens: Alexandria.
Perono Cacciafoco, F. (2009). Sulle piste dei Dori. Ipotesi a confronto tra linguistica, archeologia e storia. Pisa: Plus-Pisa University Press.
Pfeiffer, R. (1976). History of Classical Scholarship: From 1300-1850. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Pisano, C. (2013). Sparta e Atene tra Francia e Prussia: da Benjamin Constant a Georg Busolt (1804-1878). Anabases, 17, pp. 11-25. https://doi.org/10.4000/anabases.4079
Plácido, D. (1994). Nacionalismo, imperialismo y democracia: la Historia de Grecia de George Grote. Revista de Occidente, 152, pp. 25-36.
Rawson, E. (1969). The Spartan Tradition in Western Thought. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Rebenich, S. (2001). Alte Geschichte in Demokratie und Diktatur. Der Fall Helmut Berve. Chiron, 31, pp. 457-496.
Rebenich, S. (2002). From Thermopylae to Stalingrad: The Myth of Leonidas in German Historiography, en Powell, A., Hodkinson, S. (Ed.), Sparta: Beyond the Mirage (pp. 323-349). Swansea-London: Classical Press of Wales-Duckworth.
Rebenich, S. (2018). Reception of Sparta in Germany and German-Speaking Europe. En Powell, A. (Ed.). A Companion to Sparta (pp. 685-703). Hoboken (NJ): Wiley-Blackwell.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119072379.ch27
Roche, H. (2013). Sparta´s German children. The ideal of ancient Sparta in the Royal Prussian Cadet Corps, 1818-1820, and in National Socialist elite schools (the Napolas), 1933-1945. Swansea: Classical Press of Wales.
Ruzé, F. (1999). La légende de Sparte. L´Histoire, 232, pp. 46-49.
Sancho Rocher, L. (2021). Georges Grote (1794-1871). En Duplá, A., Núñez, C., Reimond, G. (Ed.), Pasión por la Historia Antigua. De Gibbon a nuestros días (pp. 31-50). Pamplona: Urgoiti.
Will, É. (1956). Doriens et Ioniens. Essai sur la valeur du critère ethnique appliqué à l´étude de l´histoire et de la civilisation grecques. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Wittenburg, A. (1984). I Dori di K.O. Müller. Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, 14, pp. 1031-1044.
Karl Otfried Müller: Ethnic Criterion and Dorian Essentialism as Sources of Academic Authority in the 19th Century Historiography. (2026). El Futuro del Pasado, 17, 179-194. https://doi.org/10.14201/fdp.32176
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