This thesis was written to examine Goethe's efforts to emulate the Greeks and write in their spirit. Works most helpful in the study were Humphry Trevelyan's Goethe and the Greeks, Kenry Hatfield's Aesthetic Paganism in German Literature, Eliza Butler's The Tyranny of Greece over Germany, and the works of Goethe which show his relationship with the Greeks.

This work attempts to examine the relationship shared by two ideologically opposed groups during the post-World War I period in Germany. The officer corps is viewed as a relic of the traditional imperial state while the socialists represented the harbinger of the modern, democratic, industrialized state. Although it should seem evident that these two factions of society would be natural enemies, the chaos of World War I pushed these ideological, opposites into the same corner.