Oswald Spengler

Oswald Spengler (Blankenburg, 1880 – Munich, 1936) earned his doctorate in 1904 at the University of Halle with a thesis on Heraclitus. He worked as a high school teacher until a small inheritance from his mother allowed him to move to Munich and dedicate himself to research. Exempt from military service due to health issues, Spengler did not directly participate in World War I, but the conflict significantly influenced his reflections on politics and history. The first volume of The Decline of the West, the work that catapulted the author to fame, was published in 1918 and the second volume in 1922.

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