1842–1927
○ Natural causes
Danish critic of the Scandinavian “Modern Breakthrough” who gave the first lectures on Nietzsche in 1888
Born in 1842 into a non-observant Jewish family in Copenhagen, he opened the “Modern Breakthrough” in Scandinavian letters with his lecture series Main Currents in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Copenhagen in 1871, attacking Romanticism and championing realism, but his radical views, suspected atheism and Jewish background kept him from the chair. In 1884 he co-founded the daily Politiken. In 1888 he gave the first lecture series on Nietzsche's philosophy at the University of Copenhagen; when he called it “aristocratic radicalism”, Nietzsche replied that this was the cleverest thing he had yet read about himself. His 1909 book of the lectures and their letters made Nietzsche known across Europe. In his last years he condemned the imperialism of both sides in the First World War and co-signed the founding of the Clarté movement.
Also known as: Georg Morris Cohen Brandes
Activities and affiliations
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1871–1927
Scholarship and theory
Career Timeline
- 1859Entered the University of Copenhagen
- 1870Doctorate; translated John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women
- 1871Began the lecture series Main Currents in Nineteenth-Century Literature
- 1872–1875Main Currents, vols. 1–4
- 1877–1883Lived in Berlin
- 1884Co-founded Politiken
- 1888Lectures on Nietzsche at the University of Copenhagen
- 1889Essay on the Aristocratic Radicalism of Friedrich Nietzsche
- 1897–1898William Shakespeare
- 1909Friedrich Nietzsche (lectures and correspondence)