It's been an exhausting century

German burnout | TLS

At the link  is an interesting review of a couple of books that look at the particularly German interest in modern life causing "exhaustion" or "burnout".  The funny thing is, "modern" life has been causing this for a very long time, apparently:

Martynkewicz marshals an impressive range of evidence to establish that
numerous German bourgeois and bohemians living around the turn of the
twentieth century felt physically and emotionally drained by the demands of
what they perceived as an ever more complex modernity. Perceptive case
studies include the “tired colossus” Otto von Bismarck, the diet-obsessed
Friedrich Nietzsche, the sharp and ascetic Cosima Wagner, the depressed
Protestant Max Weber, and the fitness fanatic Franz Kafka, as well as Gustav
Meyrink, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke and many other key figures of
German modernism.

Rilke’s famous dictum “Du mußt dein Leben ändern” neatly sums up the resolute
attempts of these characters to counter their exhaustion-related disease by
subscribing to various tenets of Lebensreform (lifestyle reform). It
is one of the many strengths of this fine study that the intricate
connection between these salvation-promising reform movements and exhaustion
is so cogently demonstrated: Martynkewicz shows that the fin de siècle
did not just produce exhaustion, but also saw the advent of numerous
strategies to counter and even to prevent its effects. “In times of weakness
and illness”, he writes, “the longing for salvation and redemption, as well
as for saviours, spiritual guides, prophets, trainers and dieticians,
multiplies.” Among the prophets we encounter are the naturopath Ernst
Schweninger, whose allegedly miraculous regime was said to have transformed
the “obese and miserable dotard” Bismarck into a strong and “elastic” young
man; the raw food advocate and deviser of Bircher muesli, Max
Bircher-Benner; his colleague Heinrich Lahmann; and the endocrinologist
Eugen Steinach, who performed and popularized dubious and later discredited
rejuvenation operations.

Other practices that were frequently mobilized to counter exhaustion include
nudism, vegetarianism, macrobiotics, gymnastics, yoga, gardening and
expressive dancing.

 Rather a pity they weren't too exhausted for World War 2, though....