Spengler’s decline thesis resembled Nazi doctrine yet drew Nazi criticism and isolation

Evidence

Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), the author of The Decline of the West (Untergang des Abendlandes) (1918-22, English trans. 1926-8), held that the future for the West was a period of inevitable and irreversible decline. His ideas were similar to some Nazi doctrines, but he was criticized by the Nazis, and lived in isolation from 1933 until his death. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2876

Categorization

• XREF: Spengler’s cyclical-decline historicism connects to the earlier chapters on Horkheimer’s periodization of materialism and the Institute’s critique of philosophy-of-history approaches to fascism (chs 42-44).