Between 1770 and 1830, a cultural golden age of the German countries, there emerged the concept of Bildung (Herder, Wieland, Humboldt). It is a complex concept, which comprises educational, cultural and political perspectives, and has "rationality", "autonomy", "autopoiesis" and civil society as central notions. The concept represents an emancipating project of the rising and progressive middle class in a politically fragmented and culturally backward country. It had considerable or even massive impact on the educational thought both in Germany and in the Nordic countries, and is undergoing a renaissance since the end of the eighties.One of its most consequential contributors is Friedrich Schiller, 1759- 1805, playwright, poet, philosopher and publisher, who emphasized the role of the aesthetic in education and in political life. His aesthetics revolve around the question of beauty, taste and imagination, and how the individual and society in their development may benefit from artistic activity. After having written minor texts on the subject alongside of his fictional writing, he intermits the latter between 1792-96, in order to concentrate on the aesthetic. In this period he produces amongst other texts three major tracts On Grace and Dignity (1994), On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters (1967) and, finally On the Naive and Sentimental in Literature (1981).The main object of analysis in this paper, however, is the essay On the necessary limits in the use of beautiful forms (1794), announced in and finished after On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters about 1794. Although the essay is hardly representative for Schiller's opus and does him poor justice, it may be considered a key text in another sense. It highlights some dangers intrinsic to the concept of Bildung, dangers, which the concept actually fell pray to. There appear aspects, which in Schiller's other texts are, although present, only alluded at and therefore easily overlooked. In The limits of beauty, however, they make them-selves stridently felt. I am at the end of a 3 - year project on Friedrich Schiller's aesthetic theory and its educational implications. In three articles I have explored Schiller's core idea that in aesthetic activity feeling and thought are "active at the same time", and how this idea may inform the concept of Bildung. In this paper, however, I turn to Schiller's dark side an wish to study the potentially damaging aspects of his theory hoping that this will lead to a better understanding of why and where the neo-humanistic concept of Bildung went astray and became the hallmark of anti-democratic, misogynous, and chauvinistic attitudes. The purpose of this article is to contribute to a reconstruction of the concept of Bildung, which I feel, may be a meaningful concept especially under conditions of a late capitalistic society and its predominant concept of education as a individual commodity and a societal means of competition.