The Course
Only loosely connected to the Part I Goethe's Faust Part I is arguably his true Faust. A wild fragmentary mixture of alchemy, finance, progress, and myth colliding. In this course we will move act by act: from the Emperor’s court and the birth of paper/fiat money, through the production of the homunculus, through the Classical Walpurgis Night and Faust's relationship with Helen, to Faust's late-life ambition and land-development schemes; in order to see the entirety of Faust as the myth of how we became modern. We will be reading the text closely spending two weeks on each act. Expect wild discussions on this whirlwind of a text which we have not even begun to come to terms with.
By the end of this course, you’ll be fluent in Goethe's Faust 2 and thus also with reading such multi-layered texts. You'll create a keen eye for understanding how the modern world works, from power, credit, technology, to nation-building. You’ll learn to connect court politics to modern monetary policy, visionary projects to environmental engineering and urban planning, and seductive bargains to leadership ethics and innovation culture. And also see which relationship we can still have with Antiquity.
Goethe's Faust Part 2 is one of the most pivotal mythopoetic works of modernity. As such we will understand it as a work that writes our destiny.
You want to understand what it means to be of this age. You want to grasp what made modernity and where it might be going.
Invitation from Johannes
If you happen to be one of the truly inquisitive minds who long to understand themselves and this age, this wondrous period we thoughtlessly refer to as modernity, then you must by all means read Goethe's second Faust. It is this is his true Faust, for here the Faustian spirit interwoven with Mephisto comes into its own and births modernity. This is a text not for the faint of heart and only the true aristocrat of the mind will be able to appreciate this allegorical masterpiece.
It is in the second part of the Tragedy of Modernity that Goethe no longer holds back. All pretence at residue Christianity is out the window. Mephistopheles now is the entirely released principle of negation, while Faust cleansed of his scholasticism seeks beauty in the newly emerging world.
The second Faust thus tells of the birth of modernity, a process through which we are still living, and which is by far not yet decided. It is an open occurrence, not a deterministic doom-loop as reactionary readings like Spengler's suggest. Faust and Mephisto, as two principles, invent the abstraction of paper money, by which the greatest land developments become possible; Faust's disciple produces an artificial human being who by the help of the first philosopher Thales aims to become fully human; Faust finds within his soul the profound memory of the Ancient world buried underneath the confusion of the Christian dream and seeks to reconnect and appropriate its beauty in the form of Helen; Faust ultimately becomes the first full man of planetary organisation, falling for the siren call of triumph over nature, an allegory for his denial of memory and all-too worldly pursuits. This, however, is by no means a deterministic view of history, but one possibility of technological modernity.
So I'd like to invite you to join my course on this masterpiece of world literature, where we shall trace the explosion that is modernity.
What you will learn
Across ten lectures and seminars we will devote two weeks on each act. The main reading will be Goethe's Faust Part 2. Where it makes sense I will link to further texts on the matter in the curriculum. If you enrol in the seminars or above there will be writing three assignments with clear submission guidelines that help you develop your piece for the Symposium.
Developing your thoughts, reviving and rejuvenating your capacity to think by learning how to write clearly as well as articulating your thoughts is the focus. You will learn to engage more meaningfully with the world and yourself in it.
Seminars, Writing Assignments & Private Tutorials
There will be 11 live lectures & seminars in total.
The first live lecture and seminar will take place on the Easter weekend, on Saturday, the 4th of April, 2026, from 6-8pm CET/ 12pm-2pm. All sessions are recorded and made available for the group. We will meet on 10 consecutive Saturdays, from 4 April till 6 June. The Symposium will take place on 20 June.
If you enrol in the seminars you will be able to submit three short writing assignments in week 3, 6, 9. More details to follow when you enrol. You may also present your final work at the Symposium.
If you enrol in the private tutorials, you will meet with Dr. Johannes A. Niederhauser privately in weeks 3,6 &9 to discuss your thoughts and work in depth. You may also submit up to six writing assignments. You may also present your final work at the Symposium.
If you enrol as self-study you may submit one essay during the length of the course.
Student Discount
If you are a currently enrolled university student please email us proof of enrolment at halkyon@halkyonguild.org
We will then issue a personalised coupon for you.
Curriculum
"If you truly want to understand modernity, you must read Goethe’s Faust Part 2. It’s the first decidedly post-Christian work, which is why it scared reactionaries like Spengler.
We haven’t even begun to grasp Faust’s true scope as our founding myth.
Goethe’s post-Christian Faust triggered Spengler into writing his feverish Decline of the Occident which to this day affects reactionaries and conservatives, who fail to see the true scope of Faustianism."
Johannes A. Niederhauser
Your Teacher: Dr. Johannes A. Niederhauser
I’m Johannes A. Niederhauser, founder and spiritus rector of the Halkyon Academy. a philosopher with a PhD from Warwick on Martin Heidegger. My work on Heidegger and German Idealism—including a review of Heidegger’s notes on Hegel’s negativity in the Hegel Bulletin and a book on Heidegger—shapes how I read Goethe’s Faust Part II: as a living drama of spirit, history, and freedom. This background lets me guide you through the poem’s philosophical depths without losing sight of its theatrical power and poetic music.
As founder of the Halkyon Philosophy Academy, I’m committed to the classical ideal of Bildung—the formation of soul, spirit, and character through patient thinking and dialogue. In this course, I bring that ethos to close reading and conversation: attending to Goethe’s language and images, tracing the work’s dialectical movements, and connecting its scenes—from imperial finance to the classical world—to questions that matter to us now.