Gobineau, Joseph Arthur, Comte de (1816–1882)

French diplomat and writer who wrote Souvenirs de voyage and Nouvelles Asiatiques, books of exotic short stories and La Renaissance, 1877, a series of dialogues in which the masters of the Italian Renaissance discuss art, letters, statesmanship, and life's lessons. In Germany he was the subject of an ardent cult.

The work which made him popular in Germany is his pseudoscientific book extolling the Nordic races, entitled Essai sur l'inegalite des races humaines 1853–55. This won him the friendship of Wagner and Nietzsche and profoundly influenced both men. Through his literary descendants Gobineau was one of the founders of the pan-German school of the early-20th century, and he supplied the pseudoscientific foundation for Hitler's 'Aryan paragraph' and persecution of the Jews as a non-Aryan race.

His other writing includes a history of the Persians, a long poem ‘Amadis’ and some novels, including Les Pleiades, 1874, and L'Abbaye de Typhaines. He was born at Ville d'Avray. De Tocqueville, as foreign minister, made Gobineau chief of his secretariat. From 1849 Gobineau filled various posts in the diplomatic service but retired in 1876.