New examination of Pío Baroja’s inclination for, or rejection of, Germany

Abstract

German thinkers and researchers were very present in Pío Baroja’s scientific training and cultural interests. Thus, a strong inclination towards Germanism arose in him, which excluded the imperialist and military policies of that nation. During the Great War, Baroja remained consistent with his recognition of German science and culture in the face of what he considered to be a decadent France regarding those areas. This led him to be labelled by Spanish Francophiles as an outright Germanophile. When the Second World War broke out, his implacable criticism of militaristic and totalitarian Germany exposed his thinking very clearly. That is to say, reading his writings from that period, two of which are recovered here for the first time and included in an appendix, there is no doubt of his opposition to the furious belligerence of the German nation.