[5] Kessler was a great believer in the concept of Bildung, an untranslatable German word that refers to a process of artistic and moral self-cultivation designed to make people into better human beings.

[3] Kessler was greatly heartbroken when one of his lovers, the handsome Bavarian aristocrat and officer cadet, Otto von Dungern, chose to marry in order to improve his prospects of promotion, which ended their relationship.

The short-lived journal also published graphic works by numerous artists including Henry van de Velde, Max Liebermann, Otto Eckmann and Ludwig von Hofmann.

[12] The ruins of the lost Maya civilization fascinated him, especially the pyramids with their elaborate ornamentation and the sculptured cascades of humans, gods, snakes, jaguars and demons.

[14] Kessler was also disturbed by the uniforms of the Porfiriato-era Mexico, which were clearly modelled after those of Imperial Germany right down to the Pickelhaube spiked helmets wore by high officials of Diaz's regime.

Kessler drew a contrast between the colorful street life of Mexico full of vibrancy and generally friendly people vs. the "depravity" of the Porfiriato state.

[14] Kessler was troubled by the sight of the Rurales dragging down the streets the mutilated bodies of those who were "shot while trying to escape" (the standard euphemism for an extrajudicial execution).

The consortium supported less acknowledged artists including Edvard Munch, Johannes R. Becher, Detlev von Liliencron and the painters of Die Brücke.

[3] The Dutch art historian Jaap Harskamp noted it took much effort on the part of Kessler to have the "firmly heterosexual" Maillol do a nude sculpture of Colin.

The Grand Duke was considered to be a "philistine" who was encouraged in his hostility to Kessler's artistic projects by the Emperor Wilhelm II who "loathed all innovative art".

[3] One of the Rodin drawings at Kessler's exhibition, a squatting female nude with her buttocks prominently exposed, was presented as an insult to the Grand Duke and all German royalty in general.

[clarification needed] About the Eulenburg affair sex scandal that rocked Germany in 1906-1908 when the best friend of the Kaiser Wilhelm II, Prince Philip von Eulenburg was exposed as gay, Kessler wrote in his diary that the scandal demonstrated how dangerous it was to be gay as the careers of even most highly placed homosexuals such as the Kaiser's favorite courtier, best friend and closest adviser could be destroyed if their sexuality came to public notice.

Around 1913, Kessler commissioned Edward Gordon Craig, an English theatrical designer and theoretician, to make woodcut illustrations for a sumptuous edition of Shakespeare's Hamlet for the Cranach Press.

This book, printed on fine paper, using different type-faces, with marginal notes with source quotations, and featuring Craig's woodcuts, is regarded by many as one of the finest examples of the printer's art to have been published in the 20th century.

On the initiative of Kessler, many prominent writers were invited to introduce a literary modernity to Weimar, but the hegemonic opinions were considered too conservative and nationalistic, and the plans for the Mustertheater failed.

[20] Kessler was a supporter of the duumvirate of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff, whom he was convinced were the duo capable of winning the war for Germany.

[20] In the spring of 1915, Kessler described the war in Galicia as "an almost enjoyable adventure" and described his Galician service as a "Cook's tour" through an exotic and unfamiliar part of Europe.

He described the Ukrainian peasants as beautiful while in a rare outburst of anti-Semitism called the Jews of Galicia "louses" who exploited the local Christian population.

[22] Between 22 June-29 June 1915, his unit attempted to cross the Dniester river, leading Kessler in his diary to complain about the stubborn and fierce Russian resistance in spite of the superior firepower of the Germans.

[24] Kessler served at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, and was discharged from the Prussian Army later that year under the grounds of "shell shock" that rendered him unfit for further military service.

[25] Kessler's association with the Angolphile Prince Max von Lichnowsky, the former German ambassador to the United Kingdom, did not help his military career.

[27] During World War I, Kessler and Karl Gustav Vollmoeller worked together at the German Embassy in Bern for the cultural department of the Foreign Office.

[23] The Polish government in exile based in Paris led by Roman Dmowski had recognized by Britain, France and the United States, and was expecting to arrive in Poland once the Allies won the war.

[30] In December 1918, he returned to his estate in Weimar, recording that although the house seemed unchanged from 1913 and his old servants and pets greeted him with affection, his collections of paintings, statues, books and mementos reflected a European intellectual and cultural community which was now "dead, missing, scattered .. or become enemies".

[31] In December 1918, he visited the former Imperial Palace in Berlin, which had been looted by the mutinous sailors of the High Seas Fleet who had just staged the November Revolution that had toppled the ancient House of Hohenzollern along with the rest of Germany's royal families.

Kessler wrote in his diary after viewing the looted palace: "“But these private apartments, the furniture, the articles of everyday use...are so insipid and tasteless, so philistine, that it is difficult to feel much indignation against the pilferers.

Only astonishment that the wretched, timid, unimaginative creatures who liked this trash, and frittered away their life in this precious palatial haven, amidst lackeys and sycophants, could ever make any impact on history.”[3] Writing about the former Emperor, Wilhelm II, a man whom he always disliked, Kessler called him: "this nincompoop and swaggerer who plunged Germany into misfortune...Not a facet of him is capable of arousing pity or sympathy.

[3] However, Kessler met and was actively engaged in correspondence with a number of leading figures in Europe such as Albert Einstein, André Gide, Jean Cocteau, Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, George Bernard Shaw, Isadora Duncan, and Josephine Baker.

He belonged to the left-liberal German Democratic Party (DDP) and wrote a biography of his 1922 murdered friend Walther Rathenau (then Foreign minister).

[33] Kessler wrote that this extreme idolization of Bismarck as a super-human, larger-than-life leader whose legacy was not to be questioned even in the slightest had a stifling effect in Germany as it led to a mindless reverence for the Prussian-German state as it currently existed.