Franz Roh's Nach-Expressionismus and the Weltanschauung of the Weimar Republic

While Franz Roh's Nach-Expressionismus is widely cited as a foundational definition of Neue Sachlichkeit in painting, the book's theoretical assumptions have received scant attention. In this article I show that Roh belongs to a wider art historical tendency in applying Dilthey's conception of Weltanschauung to interpret artistic styles. But in defining the Weltanschauung of the present Roh inevitably entered the domain of politics. His defense of the latest art as embodying values of stability, order, and enlightenment spoke unequivocally for political centrism. This was both a conscious ideal and one that corresponded with the limitations of the Diltheyan method.