Georg Brandes

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was born on February 4, 1842, in Copenhagen into an assimilated Jewish family. A prodigiously cultured scholar, he traveled across Europe, befriending John Stuart Mill, Ernest Renan, and Friedrich Nietzsche.

On November 3, 1871, at the University of Copenhagen, Brandes delivered his famous opening lecture in the series Main Currents in 19th Century Literature, throwing down the gauntlet: 'That a literature in our days lives shows itself in its submitting problems to debate.' He catalyzed Scandinavian literary modernism, championing Henrik Ibsen, August Strindberg, and J.P. Jacobsen, and introducing Nietzsche's philosophy to the international intellectual public.