Entre Berlín i Londresimatges metropolitanes en l´ideal educatiu de Joan Crexells

Abstract

It is well known that Georg Simmel referred in 1903 to the relationships between large cities and spiritual life. In this paper we present the visions or images that Joan Crexells (1896-1926) provided �through his articles as a correspondent� on Berlin and London in the years following World War I. Despite his attraction for England, he considered London a «trap», an opinion that generated a controversy in which Josep Pla also got involved. What probably happened was that, despite his being an Anglophile, Crexells was impressed by the collective consciousness of the German people, immersed in a profound crisis after the Great War, and in particular was disappointed by the differences that existed between the various English social classes. Whatever the case, Crexells designed an ideal educational project based on the liberal spirit of British ascendency, shot through with a humanist and encyclopaedic vision of culture that valued training above teaching and therefore prioritised the understanding of things.