The Collateral Campaign

This is a cultural project of the 19th and 20th centuries. This was focused in the lands of Germany, Prussia and Austria. There is a sense of collaboration on this project amongst these nations but there is also competition and there are jealousies. Many Americans have only been exposed to this as part of the 3rd Reich, but in truth Hitler's espousal of the greatness of the Germanic peoples and his cultural efforts to exalt the German nation/s was merely the perpetuation of this cultural campaign. The music of Richard Wagner characterizes this effort in the 19th century. Robert Musil also includes some of the contemporary German thinkers, particularly Nietzsche as participating in this mass scale project.

The novel was published in 1930, meaning that the 20th century is nearly 1/3rd of the way through. Given the hindsight, the novel and its historical situation can all...