The Aim: Appeals to Active Mind

A century-old call to ethical action - newly resonant today. In 1916, amid war, political collapse, and cultural upheaval, Kurt Hiller gathered some of the most daring voices of German modernism to ask a simple but radical question: What does it mean for thought to act? Das Ziel - The Aim - is their answer. Featuring essays by Heinrich Mann, Walter Benjamin, Franz Werfel, Gustav Wyneken, and Hiller himself, this collection argues that mental life is not a retreat from the world but a force within it. The contributors demand clarity, courage, and responsibility from writers, thinkers, and citizens alike. They insist that culture must not merely reflect history - it must intervene. More than a century later, their urgency feels startlingly familiar. In an age of political polarization, cultural fragmentation, and moral fatigue, Das Ziel speaks again: a reminder that the "active mind" is not an abstraction but a practice, a stance, a way of living. This new translation presents Hiller's landmark work in a contemporary voice, illuminating its philosophical depth and its unexpected connections to early queer history. Das Ziel is not only a document of its time - it is a challenge to ours.