ARTURO COLOMBO

Vittorio Beonio-Brocchieri interprete di Spengler 

N. 207

Summary - From the early work on "Spengler and the post-war political doctrine of Pan-Germanism" (1928) to the Italian translation of Jahre der Entscheidung ("Anni decisivi", 1934), to the entry on Spengler in the "Novissimo Digesto Italiano" (1970) and the "re-reading" of Spengler as one of the symbolic devil's witnesses ("Testimoni di Satana", 1976), this essay reconstructs the interpretations Vittorio Beonio-Brocchieri gave of the German thinker, leading to his characterization of Spengler as a "tumultuous and catastrophic genius". This is what emerges from Beonio-Brocchieri's complex contribution, which was one of the first to bring to light the "original and worrying" aspects of Spengler, the "prophet of the decline of the west". Already in the 1930s, however, Beonio-Brocchieri did not hesitate to criticise certain troublesome claims of Spengler favouring the leadership of the "Germanic race".