George vs. Klages-Schuler: Context for Stefan George’s Poems “Nordics,” “Jews and Germans,” and “Templars”

In the Munich of early 1904, the Cosmic Circle (“Kosmische Runde”) of Ludwig Klages (1872–1956) and Alfred Schuler (1865–1923), deeming “the Jew the enemy of the human race,” gave their erstwhile friend and leader, Stefan George, this ultimatum: “What is your stand on Judah?”—they demanded he break with his leading disciple, the German Jewish scholar and poet, Karl Wolfskehl (1869–1948). George replied that he wished he had more such Jewish disciples. On other issues (as he confessed in old age to Edith Landmann) George’s views continued to overlap with those of the Cosmic Circle, especially in invoking (though more imperiously) the pagan earth mother of “Templars.” But on the race issue the break was permanent.