The decline of the West

by Oswald Spengler

1848. Wagner’s “Death of Siegfried”; Siegfried as social-ethical revolutionary, the Fafnir hoard as symbol of Capitalism.

1850. Wagner’s Kunst und Klima; the sexual problem.

1850-1858. Wagner’s, Hebbel’s and Ibsen’s Nibelung poetry.

1859 (year of symbolic coincidences). Darwin, “Origin of Species” (application of economics to biology). Wagner’s “Tristan.” Marx, Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie[Ökonomie].

1863. J. S. Mill, “Utilitarianism.”

1865. Dühring, Wert des Lebens—a work which is rarely heard of, but which exercised the greatest influence upon the succeeding generation.

1867. Ibsen, “Brand.” Marx, Das Kapital.

1878. Wagner “Parsifal.” First dissolution of materialism into mysticism.

1879. Ibsen “Nora.”

1881. Nietzsche, Morgenröthe; transition from Schopenhauer to Darwin, morale as biological phenomenon.