Otto Builds Everything

When Otto receives a toolbox for his birthday, he gets right to work. His parents are astonished as his projects keep getting bigger and better. The question is, what will he build next?

Hubsch's argument that the technical progress and changed living habits of the nineteenth century rendered neoclassical principles antiquated is presented here along with responses to his essay by architects, historians, and critics over two decades.

This book provides an up-to-date treatment of Rudolf Otto and his work, placing him in the context of comparative religion, theology, and the philosophy of religion. Yoshitsugu Sawai shows how Otto has “three faces”: the Lutheran Theologian, the Philosopher of Religion, and the Comparative Religionist. The book also shows how, of these, Otto saw himself primarily as a Lutheran Theologian, and provides an account of Otto's engagement with India and the centrality that Hindu theology had on his thinking. In Otto's theory of religion, his well-known concepts including “wholly other” and “numinous” constitute a multiple structure of meaning. For example, his concept of the “wholly other” (das ganz Andere) no doubt has the meaning of “God” in his Christian theological studies. At the same time, however, from the perspective of comparative religion or the phenomenology of religion, this same term semantically implies the “ultimate reality” of other religious traditions; “Brahman” and “God” (Isvara) in Hindu religious tradition as well as “God” in Christianity.

W.M. Otto PhD was director of the IJsselmeerpolders Development Authority, in the Netherlands, from 1963 to 1967. His contribution to the first development of Flevoland, which had been newly reclaimed from the sea, was very important. So the name ‘starter motor of Flevoland’ is justified. In this biography has been told how he led the designing and the first phase of the development of the new towns Lelystad and Almere. Will Otto was a tireless lobbyist for the interests of the former and the future population of Flevoland. A lot of them were originally inhabitants of Amsterdam. Otto was at the same time ‘landdrost’ of the Southern IJsselmeerpolders Public Authority, in Lelystad as well as in Dronten. He exercised the duties and powers of the municipal council, the municipal executive and the mayor together. In practice Otto cooperated well with the advisory council, which had been elected by the citizens. Otto also contributed to the land-use planning and the forestry policy in the Netherlands. His first job was forester in Dutch East Indies (1946-1950). Later he developed a vision on saving the tropical rainforest, especially in Indonesia. He initiated PROSEA (Plant Resources of South East Asia). This international project published 24 manuals, based on a database. This describes economically useful plants and trees in Southeast Asia. This title is a translation of Will Otto (1919-2008), Startmotor van Flevoland, which appeared in 2017 in Dutch. The PDF of the original title is free for all as well, and can be found here: https://www.barkhuis.nl/product/will-otto-1919-2008/.

Otto Höfler (1901–1987) was an Austrian Germanist and Scandinavist. His research on ‘Germanic culture’, in particular on Germanic Männerbünde (men’s bands), was controversial and remains a topic of academic debate. In modern discourse, Höfler’s theories are often fundamentally rejected on account of his involvement in the National Socialist movement and his contribution to the research initiatives of the SS Ahnenerbe, or they are adopted by scholars who ignore his problematic methodologies and the ideological and political elements of his work. The present study takes a comprehensive approach to Höfler’s research on ‘Germanic culture’ and analyses his characterisation of the ‘Germanic peoples’, contextualising his research in the backdrop of German philological studies of the early twentieth century and highlighting elements of his theories that are still the topic of modern academic discourse. A thorough analysis of his main research theses, focusing on his Männerbund-research, reveals that his concept of ‘Germanic culture’ is underscored by a belief in the deep-seated religiosity of the ‘Germanic peoples’ formed through sacred-daemonic forces.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1868.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1868.