New Objectivity—Cool Rationality after Expressionism
This text is a preview of History of the Reception of Hegel, volume I, to be published in 2026 by Reflexivity Press.
“New Objectivity” (Neue Sachlichkeit)—a term coined in 1923 by the art critic Gustav Hartlaub—designated a tendency in painting, literature, and architecture that turned away from Expressionism. In place of emotion: coolness. In place of inwardness: observation. In place of vision: documentation.
The systematic basic idea: New Objectivity reacted against the inflation of feeling in Expressionism. The war had shown where the invocation of “experience” and “intensity” could lead. Against this, New Objectivity set sober analysis, precise observation, detached representation.
The paradox: New Objectivity was at once critique and continuation of the Hegelian project. Critique, insofar as it renounced all “reconciliation”—the world was shown as it is, not as it should be. Continuation, insofar as it relied on rationality—exact observation was meant to lead to knowledge, even if this knowledge offered no consolation.
Brecht and Epic Theater: Bertolt Brecht’s “epic theater” was the theatrical variant of New Objectivity. The “alienation effect” (Verfremdungseffekt) was meant to prevent the spectator from identifying emotionally—the audience should think rather than feel, analyze rather than sympathize. The theater became a “moral institution” in the Enlightenment sense—a school of rationality.