The author of a seminal work ofNazi ideology,The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930), Rosenberg is considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including itsracial theory and its hatred of the Jewish people, the need forLebensraum, abrogation of theTreaty of Versailles, and opposition to what was considered "degenerate" modern art. He was also known for his hatred and rejection of what he regarded as "negative" Christianity,[2][3] however, he played an important role in the development of German nationalistPositive Christianity, which rejected the Old Testament.
Rosenberg was born on 12 January 1893 inReval (nowTallinn, Estonia), then in theGovernorate of Estonia of theRussian Empire. His mother Elfriede (née Siré), who hadFrench and German ancestry, was the daughter of Louise Rosalie (née Fabricius), born nearLeal (modernLihula, Estonia) in 1842, and of the railway official Friedrich August Siré, born inSaint Petersburg, Russia, in 1843.[4][5] Born in the same city in 1868, Elfriede Siré received the Christian sacrament ofConfirmation in Reval at 17 in 1885. She married Woldemar Wilhelm Rosenberg, a wealthy merchant from Reval, in theLutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (St-Petersburg) in 1886.[5] The young Rosenberg's mother died two months after his birth.[6][5]
His paternal grandfather, Martin Rosenberg, was a master shoemaker and elder of hisguild. Born inRiga in 1820, and probably partly ofLatvian descent, he had moved to Reval in the 1850s, where he met Julie Elisabeth Stramm, born inJörden (now Estonia) in 1835. The two married in the German St. Nicholas parish of Reval in 1856.[4][5]
TheHungarian-Jewish journalist Franz Szell, who was apparently residing inTilsit,Prussia,Germany, spent a year researching in Latvian and Estonian archives before publishing an open letter in 1936, with copies toHermann Göring,Joseph Goebbels, Foreign MinisterKonstantin von Neurath and others, accusing Rosenberg of having "no drop of German blood" flowing in his veins. Szell wrote that among Rosenberg's ancestors were only "Latvians, Jews, Mongols, and French."[7] As a result of his open letter, Szell was deported by Lithuanian authorities on 15 September 1936.[8] His claims were repeated in the 15 September 1937 issue of theVatican newspaperL'Osservatore Romano.[9]
The young Rosenberg graduated from the Petri-Realschule (currentlyTallinna Reaalkool) and enrolled in architecture studies at theRiga Polytechnical Institute in the autumn of 1910. In 1915, as the German army was approaching Riga, the entire school evacuated to theMoscow Imperial Higher Technical School[10][11] (Russian:Императорское Московское техническое училище (ИМТУ)), where he completed his PhD studies in 1917. During his stays at home in Reval, he attended the art studio of the famed painterAnts Laikmaa—though he showed promise, there are no records that he ever exhibited.
Rosenberg sympathized and identified withTalaat Pasha and theCommittee of Union and Progress that carried out theArmenian genocide, also claiming that there was "a deliberately Jewish policy which had always protected the Armenians" and that "during the world war, the Armenians have led the espionage against the Turks, similar to the Jews against Germany".[20][21]
In November 1923, after the failedBeer Hall Putsch, Hitler, who had been imprisoned fortreason, appointed Rosenberg as the leader of the Nazi movement. Hitler remarked privately in later years that his choice of Rosenberg, whom he regarded as weak and lazy, was strategic; Hitler did not want the temporary leader of the Nazis to become too popular or hungry for power, because a person with either of those two qualities might not want to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release. However, at the time of the appointment Hitler had no reason to believe that he would soon be released, and Rosenberg had not appeared weak, so this may have been Hitler reading back into history his dissatisfaction with Rosenberg for the job he did.[22]
On 1 January 1924, Rosenberg founded theGreater German People's Community, a Nazifront organization. Headquartered inMunich, it was largely limited toBavaria, the birthplace of National Socialism, had no substantial presence outside that State and became a haven for Nazi Party members from that area. Prominent members includedMax Amann,Phillip Bouhler,Hermann Esser,Franz Xaver Schwarz andJulius Streicher.[23]: 49 Rosenberg, one of the least charismatic of the Nazi leaders and lacking in leadership qualities, was soon pushed aside by Streicher, a far more ruthless and abrasive personality, who was elected Chairman on 9 July 1924 with Esser, also a coarse, bullying sort, as his Deputy Chairman.[24]
Adolf Hitler (standing) delivers a speech on the occasion of the refoundation of the NSDAP in February of 1925. Next to him from the perspective of the onlooker: On the right:Gregor Strasser andHeinrich Himmler. On the left:Franz Xaver Schwarz,Walter Buch and Alfred Rosenberg. Behind Hitler the Blutfahne (blood-flag), a central relique within the propaganda of the National-Socialists, can be seen attached to the wall.
Rosenberg was on the rostrum at the refoundation of theNSDAP in February 1925.
In 1929 Rosenberg founded theMilitant League for German Culture. He later formed the "Institute for Research on the Jewish Question", the first branch of a projectedAdvanced School of the NSDAP,[25][26] dedicated to identifying and attacking supposed Jewish influence in German culture and to recording the history of Judaism from a radical nationalist perspective. In 1930, he published his book onracial theoryThe Myth of the Twentieth Century (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts) which deals with key issues in the Nazi ideology, such as the "Jewish question". He condemnedIslam in the book as well which he described as being against European races and as anti-Christian. Rosenberg intended his book as a sequel toHouston Stewart Chamberlain's above-cited book. Despite selling more than a million copies by 1945, its influence within Nazism remains doubtful. It is often said to have been a book that was officially venerated within Nazism, but one that few had actually read beyond the first chapter or even found comprehensible.[27] According toAlbert Speer, Hitler called it "stuff nobody can understand"[28] and disapproved of its pseudo-religious tone.[14] Contradicting this, other authors noted that Hitler considered it the most important book of party ideology. Rosenberg also played a key role in developing Hitler’s belief in Jewish conspiracies by introducing him toThe Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[29]
Rosenberg helped convince Hitler, whose early speeches focused on revenge against France and Britain,[31] that communism was a serious threat to Germany. "Jewish-Bolshevism" became an ideological target for Nazism during the early 1920s.[14]
In Rome during November 1932 Rosenberg participated in theVolta Conference about Europe. British historianSir Charles Petrie met him there and regarded him with great distaste; Petrie was a Catholic and strongly objected to Rosenberg's anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic sentiments.[32]
The following year, following theNazi seizure of power, Rosenberg was named leader of theNazi Party's Foreign Policy Office in April, and on 2 June 1933 he was named aReichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.[33] In May 1933 Rosenberg visited Britain, to give the impression that the Nazis would not be a threat and to encourage links between the new regime and theBritish Empire. It was a notable failure. When Rosenberg laid a wreath bearing aswastika atthe Cenotaph,James Edmond Sears, aLabour Party candidate, slashed it, later threw it in theThames and was fined 40 shillings for willful damage at Bow Street magistrate's court.[34][35]
On 27 January 1934, Hitler made Rosenberg the "Führer's Representative for the Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP."[37][38] This was the origin of theAmt Rosenberg, or Rosenberg Office, which was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party. It was also known as the Reich surveillance office.[39]
Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg speaks during the 1942 funeral ceremony ofGauleiterKarl Roever.Rosenberg hosted in an official capacity such individuals asVidkun Quisling.
In 1940 Rosenberg was made head of theHohe Schule (literally "high school", but the German phrase refers to a college), the Centre of National Socialist Ideological and Educational Research, out of which theEinsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce) developed for the purpose oflooting art and cultural goods. The ERR were especially active in Paris in looting art stolen from famous Jewish families such as theRothschilds and that ofPaul Rosenberg.Hermann Göring used the ERR to collect art for his own personal gratification.[40]He created a "Special Task Force for Music" (Sonderstab Musik) to collect the bestmusical instruments and scores for use in a university to be built in Hitler's home town ofLinz,Austria. The orders given to theSonderstab Musik were to loot all forms of Jewish property in Germany and of those found in any country taken over by the German army, and any musical instruments or scores were to be immediately shipped toBerlin.[41]
Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
Rosenberg had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of the conquered Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts, to replace the previouslySoviet-controlled territories with newReichskommissariats. These would be:
Moskowien (Moscow metropolitan area and the rest of nearest Russian European areas)
Although Rosenberg believed that all of the peoples of the Soviet Union were subhumans because of theircommunist beliefs,[42] such suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian forms of nationalism and promote German interests for the benefit of futureAryan generations, in accord with geopolitical "Lebensraum im Osten" plans. They would provide a buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of Communism andBolshevism by decisive pre-emptive military action.
Following these plans, whenWehrmacht forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats ofOstland andUkraine, under the leadership ofHinrich Lohse andErich Koch, respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to conflict between Rosenberg and theSS over the treatment ofSlavs under German occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples.[43] He proposed the creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica, Ukraine, and Caucasus.[44]
Some six million Jews still live in the East, and this question can only be solved by a biological extermination of the whole of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Question will only be solved for Germany when the last Jew has left German territory, and it will only be solved for Europe when not a single Jew stands on the European continent as far as the Urals... And to this end, it is necessary to force them beyond the Urals or otherwise bring about their eradication.[45]
Since the invasion of theSoviet Union intended to impose theNew Order, it was essentially a war of conquest. German propaganda efforts designed to win over Russian opinion were, at best, patchy and inconsistent. Alfred Rosenberg was one of the few in the Nazi hierarchy who advocated a policy designed to encourageanti-Communist opinion among the population of the occupied territories. His interest here was mainly in the non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Baltic States; however, supporters of theRussian Liberation Army were somewhat able to win him over.[46]
Amongst other things, Rosenberg issued a series of posters announcing the end of the Soviet collective farms (kolkhoz). He also issued an Agrarian Law in February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming and restoring family farms for those willing to collaborate with the occupiers. But decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, andHermann Göring demanded that the collective farms be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as "stupid".[47]
There were numerous German armed forces (Wehrmacht) posters asking for assistance in theBandenkrieg, the war against theSoviet partisans, though, once again, German policy had the effect of adding to their problems. Posters for "volunteer" labour, with inscriptions such as "Come work with us to shorten the war", hid the appalling realities faced byRussian workers in Germany. Rosenberg noted that many joined the partisans when volunteers for work details declined and the Germans resorted to force to acquire workers from the East.[48]
Rosenberg was captured byAllied troops on 19 May 1945 inFlensburg-Mürwik.[49] He was tried atNuremberg and found guilty of all four counts: conspiracy to commitcrimes against peace; planning, initiating and wagingwars of aggression;war crimes; andcrimes against humanity. The final judgment against him named him one of the principal planners of theinvasion of Norway and the invasion of the Soviet Union. It also held him directly responsible for the systematic plunder of the occupied countries of Europe, as well as the brutal conditions in Eastern Europe.[50] During his trial he wrote his memoirs, which were published posthumously and with analytical commentary bySerge Lang and Ernst von Schenck.[51]
He was sentenced to death and executed with other condemned co-defendants at Nuremberg Prison on the morning of16 October 1946.[52] His body, like those of the other nine executed men and that ofHermann Göring, was cremated atOstfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the riverIsar.[53][54][55]
Throughout the trial, it was agreed that Rosenberg had a decisive role in shaping Nazi philosophy and ideology. Examples include: his bookThe Myth of the Twentieth Century, which was published in 1930, where he incited hatred against "Liberal Imperialism" and "BolshevikMarxism"; furthering the influence of the "Lebensraum" idea in Germany during the war; facilitating the persecution of Christian churches and the Jews in particular; and opposition to theVersailles Treaty.[56][57]
According to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, who covered the executions for theInternational News Service, Rosenberg was the only condemned man who, when asked at the gallows if he had anylast statement to make, replied with only one word: "No".[58]
Hitler was a leader oriented towards practical politics, whereas, for Rosenberg, religion and philosophy were key and he was the most culturally influential within the party.[59] Several accounts of the time before the Nazi ascension to power speak of Hitler as being a mouthpiece for Rosenberg's views, and he clearly exerted a great deal of intellectual influence.[60]
The question of Rosenberg's influence in the Nazi Party is controversial. He was perceived as lacking the charisma and political skills of the other Nazi leaders, and was somewhat isolated. In some of his speeches Hitler appeared to be close to Rosenberg's views, rejecting traditional Christianity as a religion based on Jewish culture, preferring an ethnically and culturally pure "Race" whose destiny was supposed to be assigned to the German people by "Providence". But Hitler rejected Rosenberg's spiritual views on race and instead based his views on biology.[61]
After Hitler's assumption of power he moved to unify the churches into a national church which could be manipulated and controlled.[62] He placed himself in the position of being the man to save Positive Christianity from utter destruction at the hands of theatheistic antitheist Communists of theSoviet Union.[63] This was especially true immediately before and after the elections of 1932; Hitler wanted to appear non-threatening to major Christian faiths and consolidate his power.[64][65]
Some Nazi leaders, such asMartin Bormann, wereanti-Christian and sympathetic to Rosenberg.[66] Once in power, Hitler and most Nazi leaders sought to unify the Christian denominations in favor of "positive Christianity". Hitler privately condemned mystical and pseudoreligious interests as "nonsense",[67] and maintained that National Socialism was based on science and should avoid mystic and cultic practices.[68] However, he andJoseph Goebbels agreed that after theEndsieg (Final Victory) theReich Church should be pressed into evolving into a Germansocial evolutionist organisation proclaiming the cult of race, blood and battle, instead ofRedemption and theTen Commandments ofMoses, which they deemed outdated and Jewish.[69]
Heinrich Himmler's views were among the closest to Rosenberg's, and their estrangement was perhaps created by Himmler's abilities to put into action what Rosenberg had only written. Also, while Rosenberg thought Christianity should be allowed to die out, Himmler actively set out to create countering pagan rituals.[70]
Lieutenant Colonel William Harold Dunn (1898–1955) wrote a medical and psychiatric report on him in prison to evaluate him as a suicide risk:
He gave the impression of clinging to his own theories in a fanatical and unyielding fashion and to have been little influenced by the unfolding during the trial of the cruelty and crimes of the party.[71]
Summarizing the unresolved conflict between the personal views of Rosenberg and the pragmatism of the Nazi elite:
The ruthless pursuit of Nazi aims turned out to mean not, as Rosenberg had hoped, the permeation of German life with the new ideology; it meant concentration of the combined resources of party and state ontotal war.[72]
Rosenberg got the racial termUntermensch from the title of Stoddard's 1922 bookThe Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-men, which had been adopted by the Nazis from that book's German versionDer Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925).[75]
Rosenberg reshaped theNazi racial policy over the years, but it always consisted ofAryan supremacy, extremeGerman nationalism and rabidantisemitism. Rosenberg also outspokenly opposedhomosexuality – notably in hispamphlet "Der Sumpf" ("The Swamp", 1927). He viewed homosexuality as a hindrance to the expansion of the "racially pure" Nordic population.
Rosenberg's attitude towardsSlavs was flexible because it depended on the particular nation which he referred to.[notes 2][notes 3] As a result of the ideology of "Drang nach Osten" ("Drive to the East"), Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the Slavic East.[76][77] InThe Myth of the Twentieth Century, Rosenberg describes Russian Slavs as being overwhelmed by Bolshevism.[notes 4] RegardingUkrainians, he favoured setting up abuffer state to ease the pressure on the German eastern frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia could be exploited for the benefit of Germany.[44] During the war, Rosenberg was in favour of collaboration with theEast Slavs against Bolshevism and offering them national independence unlike other Nazis such as Hitler and Himmler who dismissed such ideas.[78][79]
Rosenberg criticised those who did not subscribe to his racial theories. For example, he attackedFascist Italy for what he perceived as its incorrect and improper stance on race and Jewishness.[80]
Rosenberg was raised as aLutheran, but he rejected what he called "negative"Christianity later in life.[81] Instead, Rosenberg argued for a new "religion of the blood", which was based on the supposed innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its noble character against racial and cultural degeneration.[82]
In his 1920 bookImmorality in theTalmud, Rosenberg identified Jews with theantichrist.[notes 5] He rejected negative Christianity because of its universality, for its doctrine oforiginal sin (as he believed that all ethnic Germans were born noble), and for its teachings on theimmortality of the soul,[83] saying, "indeed, absorbing Christianity enfeebled our people."[84] Publicly, Rosenberg affected to deplore Christianity's degeneration owing to its Jewish influence.[85] He took inspiration fromHouston Stewart Chamberlain's ideas and condemned what he called "Negative Christianity" (which was conventional Christianity preached byProtestantism andCatholicism), instead Rosenberg was arguing for a so-called"Positive" Christianity[notes 6][notes 7] which was based on the argument that Jesus was not a Jew but a member of an Indo-European enclave which was resident in ancientGalilee who fought againstJudaism.[notes 8][notes 9] Significantly, in his work explicating the Nazi intellectual belief system,The Myth of the Twentieth Century, Rosenberg cryptically applauds the early Christian hereticMarcion (who rejected the Old Testament as well as the notion of Christ as the Jewish Messiah) and the Manichaean-inspired, "Aryo-Iranian"Cathari, as being the more authentic interpreters of Christianity versus historically dominant Judaeo-Christianity;[notes 10] moreover these ancient, externally Christian metaphysical forms were more "organically compatible with the Nordic sense of the spiritual and the Nordic 'blood-soul'." For Rosenberg, the anti-intellectual, religiousdoctrine was inseparable[notes 11] from serving the interests of the Nordic race, connecting the individual to his racial nature.[notes 12] Rosenberg stated that "The general ideas of theRoman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our (German) soul."[86][notes 13] His support for Luther as a great German figure was always ambivalent.[87][notes 14][notes 15][notes 16]
In January 1934, Hitler appointed Rosenberg cultural and educational leader of the Reich.[37][38] TheSanctum Officium in Rome recommended that Rosenberg'sMyth of the Twentieth Century be put on theIndex Librorum Prohibitorum (list of books forbidden by the Catholic Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, and the very fundamentals of the Christian religion".[88]
Rosenberg has been described as anatheist by some people, includingHenry F. Gerecke, the Lutheran chaplain who communed with some of the Nuremberg prisoners with Lutheran backgrounds, likeJoachim von Ribbentrop andWilhelm Keitel.[89][90][91][92]Gustave Mark Gilbert, Rosenberg's prison psychologist during his trial, reports that Rosenberg described himself having "always been anti-Catholic" and criticised the Church's power.[93] Due to his criticism of traditional Christianity, some polemical texts have called him aneo-pagan.[94][95]
Unmoral im Talmud, 1920,Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Immorality in the Talmud")
Das Verbrechen der Freimaurerei: Judentum, Jesuitismus, Deutsches Christentum, 1921 ("The Crime of Freemasonry: Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity")
Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Being, principles, and goals of the National Socialist German Worker's Party")
Pest in Russland. Der Bolschewismus, seine Häupter, Handlanger und Opfer, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("The Plague in Russia. Bolshevism, its heads, henchmen, and victims")
Bolschewismus, Hunger, Tod, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Bolshevism, hunger, death")
Der staatsfeindliche Zionismus. ("Zionism, the Enemy of the State"), 1922.
Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die jüdische Weltpolitik, 1923 ("TheProtocols of the Elders of Zion and the Jewish World Politics")
The Jewish Bolshevism, Britons Pub. Society, 1923, together withErnst Boepple
Dietrich Eckart. Ein Vermächtnis, 1935 ("Dietrich Eckart: A Legacy")
An die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit. Eine Antwort auf die Angriffe gegen den "Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts", 1937 ("The Obscurantists of Our Time: A Response to the Attacks Against 'The Myth of the 20th Century'")
Protestantische Rompilger. Der Verrat an Luther und der "Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts", 1937 ("Protestant Rome Pilgrims: The Betrayal of Luther and the 'Myth of the 20th Century'")
Portrait eines Menschheitsverbrechers, 1949, with analytical commentary by Serge Lang and Ernst von Schenck ("Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg: With Commentaries")[51]
During theNuremberg trials, Rosenberg's handwritten diary was translated byHarry Fiss, Chief of Documentation for the American prosecution.[96] After its use in evidence during the Nuremberg trials, the diary went missing, along with other material which had been given to the prosecutorRobert Kempner (1899–1993).[97] Kempner had taken the diary, along with several other documents pertaining to the Nazi prosecutions back to his home.[98] This was considered to be against standard government procedure, and illegal.[98] It was recovered in Lewiston, N.Y., on 13 June 2013 after a lengthy investigation by theUnited States Department of Homeland Security.[98][99] Written on 425 loose-leaf pages, with entries dating from 1936 through 1944, it is now the property of theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington.[97] Henry Mayer, the museum's senior archivist, and the son of a Holocaust survivor, was able to access the material and while "not given enough time to read [the] diary entry from beginning to end," he "could see that Rosenberg focused on certain subjects, including brutality against Jews and other ethnic groups and forcing the civilian population of occupied Russia to serve Germany."[97] Meyer also noted Rosenberg's "hostile comments about Nazi leaders," which he described as "unvarnished."[97] While some parts of the manuscript had been previously published, the majority had been lost for decades. FormerFederal Bureau of Investigation agentRobert King Wittman, who helped track down the diary, said, "there is no place in the diary where we have Rosenberg or Hitler saying the Jews should be exterminated, all it said was 'move them out of Europe'".[100]The New York Times said of the search for the missing manuscript that "the tangled journey of the diary could itself be the subject of a television mini-series."[101][102]Since the end of 2013, the USHMM has shown the 425-page document (photos and transcripts) on its homepage.[103]
Rosenberg was married twice. In 1915, he marriedHilda Leesmann [et], an ethnicEstonian; they divorced in 1923. Two years later, in 1925 he married Hedwig Kramer,[104] to whom he remained wed until his execution by the Allies. He and Kramer had two children: a son who died ininfancy and a daughter, Irene, who was born in 1930.[105] His wife died in 1947.
^Rosenberg wrote: "No people of Europe is racially homogeneous, also Germany is not. According to the latest research, we accept five races all of which reveal perceptibly different types. But it is beyond question that the true culture bearer for Europe has been in the first place the Nordic race. Great heroes, artists and founders of states have grown from this blood."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p.576
^Rosenberg wrote: "The Czechs, for their part, were stratified by race into a Nordic-Slavic nobility, and lower orders of an Alpine Dinaric stamp, thus displaying that type which the modern Czech so plainly embodies." Page 108, "The one eyed maniacal Ziska of Trocnow, whose head in the Prague National Museum shows him to have been an eastern hither Asiatic type, was the first expression of this totally destructive Taborite movement, which theCzechs must thank for the extermination of the last remaining Germanic powers active within them, as well as the repression of all that was truly Slavic."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p.109
^Rosenberg wrote: "The entire east is diversified throughout; one will need to speak here of the Russian character, of the Germanised peoples ofFinland,Estonia andLithuania, whereat alsoPoland has developed its clearly outlined individuality."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p.643
^Rosenberg wrote: "In the year 1917, Russian Man finally disintegrated. He fell into two parts. The Nordic Russian blood gave up the struggle, the eastern Mongolian, powerfully stirred up, summoned Chinese and desert peoples to its aid, Jews and Armenians pushed forward to leadership, and the Kalmuch TartarLenin became master. The demonry of this blood directed itself instinctively against everything which outwardly still had some honest effect, looked manly and Nordic, like a living reproach against a type of man whom Lothrop Stoddard described as 'subhuman'."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p.214
^Rosenberg wrote: "The hate of Jesus combined with an unfathomable lack of understanding for Jesus that is showing in the works of today's Jewry almost without disguise and culminates in the systematic Jewish Bolshevik persecution of Christianity in Russia goes back almost 2000 years. The personality ofChrist was the strongest storm against Jewish nature, which the Jew has always felt and known and only Christian over-tolerance could deem it possible to build a bridge. There can be no peace between Christ and the antichrist; there can only be a winner."Original in German: "Der Haß, verbunden mit abgrundtiefer Verständnislosigkeit der Person Jesu gegenüber, der in den Erzeugnissen der heutigen Juden kaum mehr verhüllt zum Ausdruck kommt und in den planmäßigen Christenverfolgungen seitens der jüdischen bolschewistischen Machthaber in Rußland seinen Höhepunkt erreicht hat, dieser Haß dauert jetzt bald 2000 Jahre unverändert fort. Die Persönlichkeit Christi ist der stärkste Ansturm gegen jüdisches Wesen; das hat der Jude von jeher gefühlt und gewußt, einzig christliche Übertoleranz könnte glauben, hier eine Brücke schlagen zu können. Frieden kann es zwischen Christ und Antichrist nicht geben; es siegt entweder der eine oder der andere."Rosenberg, Alfred (1943) [1920]Unmoral im Talmud. Franz Eher Verlag, p.19
^Rosenberg wrote: "From the description of Jesus one can select very different features. His personality often makes its appearance as soft and pitying, then, again, bluff and rough. But it is always supported by inward fire. It was in the interest of the Roman church, with its lust for power, to represent subservient humility as the essence of Christ in order to create as many servants as possible for this motivated 'ideal'. To correct this representation is a further ineradicable requirement of the German movement for renewal. Jesus appears to us today as self-confident lord in the best and highest sense of the word."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 604
^Rosenberg wrote: "For this reason Jesus, in spite of all Christian churches, signifies a pivotal point in our history. He became the god of the Europeans, yet, not seldom did he appear in a repellent distortion.
"If the concentrated feeling of personality which built Gothic cathedrals and inspired aRembrandt portrait penetrated more clearly into the consciousness of the general public, a new wave of culture would begin. But the prerequisite for this is the overcoming of the former statutory values of the 'Christian' churches."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 391
^Rosenberg quotes Dr. Emil Jung referring to statements by the Syrian Christian preacherEphraem (4th century): "Jesus' mother was a Danaite woman (that is, someone who was born in Dan), and he had a Latin as his father. Ephraem sees this to be not unhonorable and adds: 'Jesus thus derived his ancestry from two of the greatest and most famous nations, namely, from theSyrians on the maternal side and from theRomans on the paternal.'"The Myth of the Twentieth Century" (1930), p. 76
^Rosenberg wrote: "Herder once demanded that the religion dedicated to Jesus should become a religion of Jesus. This was what Chamberlain strove for. A completely free man who disposed inwardly over the entire culture of our times, he has shown the deepest sensitivity for the superhuman simplicity of Christ. He represented Jesus as what he had once appeared to be: a mediator between man and god."The Myth of the Twentieth Century" (1930), p. 623
^Rosenberg wrote: "It is characteristic of Roman Christianity that where possible it eliminates the personality of its founder, in order to put in its place the church structure of a rulership by priests."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 160
^Rosenberg wrote: "The ancient Germanic idea of god is likewise inconceivable without spiritual freedom. Jesus also spoke of the kingdom of heaven within us. The strength of the spiritual search already shows itself in the world wanderer,Odin, and it can be seen in the seeker and believer,Eckehart, and we see it in all great men fromLuther toLagarde. This soul also lived within the venerableThomas of Aquinas and in the majority of theoccidental fathers of the church."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 247
^Rosenberg wrote:"A keen observer has correctly remarked that the Jesus child of theSistine Madonna is "frankly heroic" in gaze and posture (Wölfflin). That is aptly expressed except that the fundamental ground is lacking as to why the allegedly Jewish family had a heroic look to it. Here, only composition and color distribution, not "inwardness" and "dedication", are determining. These are the prerequisites to the success of a formative will, once again, the racial ideal of beauty. To see in place of the light-brown haired, light skinned Jesus child a blue black, woolly haired, brown skinned Jew boy would be an impossibility. Equally, we cannot think of a Jewish Mother of God next to the holy, even if the latter had the "noble face" of an Offenbach or Disraeli."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 297
^Rosenberg wrote: "The Jewish idea of the "slave of god", one who receives mercy from an arbitrary, absolutist god, has thus passed over to Rome and Wittenberg, and can be attributed to Paul as the actual creator of this doctrine, which is to say that our churches are not Christian but Pauline. Jesus unquestionably praised the One-Being with god. This was his redemption, his goal. He did not preach a condescending granting of mercy from an almighty being in the face of which even the greatest human soul represented a pure nothingness. This doctrine of mercy is naturally very welcome to every church. With such misinterpretation the church and its leaders appear as the "representatives of god". Consequently, they could acquire power by granting mercy through their magic hands."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 237
^Rosenberg wrote: "Now we may certainly also say that the love of Jesus Christ has been the love of one who is conscious of his aristocracy of soul and of his strong personality. Jesus sacrificed himself as a master, not as a servant ... And also Martin Luther knew only too well, what he said, when shortly before his death he wrote 'These three words, free – Christian – German, are to the pope and the Roman court nothing but mere poison, death, devil and hell. They can neither suffer, see nor hear them. Nothing else will come of it, that is certain.'" (Against the papacy donated by the devil in Rome, 1645)The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 622
^Rosenberg wrote: "In all seriousness, the Cosmic God was said to be identical with the dubious spiritual assertions of the Old Testament! Hebrew polytheism was elevated to a model of monotheism, and no deeper knowledge had come to Lutheran theology from the original magnificent Aryan-Persian idea of the world and the cosmic comprehension of God. In addition there appeared the revering of Paul, an original sin of protestantism, against whichLagarde, as is known, attacked by the entire official theology of his day, fought in vain."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 11
^Rosenberg wrote: "However richly talented, however powerful and surpassing in forms it was, until the present, we have still not created a religious form worthy of us: neitherFrancis of Assisi,Luther,Goethe norDostoyevsky are founders of a religion for us."The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930) p. 441
Citations
^Sources which refer to Rosenberg as a "Baltic German" or equivalent include:
^Hofmann, Tessa (2016). "From Silence to Re-remembrance: The Response of German Media to Massacres and Genocide against the Ottoman Armenians".Mass Media and the Genocide of the Armenians: One Hundred Years of Uncertain Representation. Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 85–109.ISBN978-1-137-56402-3.
^Orlow, Dietrich (1969).The history of the Nazi Party. Pittsburgh.ISBN0-8229-3183-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Volume 3 (Fritz Sauckel – Hans Zimmermann), Fonthill Media, 2021, p. 351,ISBN978-1-781-55826-3.
^Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy (2005). "Roads to Ratibor: Library and archival plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg."Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 19, no. 3. pp. 390-458; here: p. 406.
^"Dr. Rosenberg's Wreath." Times [London, England] 12 May 1933: 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 6 February 2014. "There was a further charge against [Sears] of wilfully damaging the wreath which was laid on the Cenotaph on Wednesday by Dr Rosenberg on behalf of Herr Hitler".
^Löhr, Hanns Christian (2018): Kunst als Waffe – Der Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Ideologie und Kunstraub im "Dritten Reich", Gebr. Mann, p. 38 ff.ISBN978-3-7861-2806-9
^Vries, Willem de (2000): Kunstraub im Westen, Alfred Rosenberg und derSonderstab Musik, S.Fischer Verlag.ISBN3-596-14768-9
^Kevin P. Spicer,Antisemitism, Christian ambivalence, and the Holocaust, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Indiana University Press, 2007, p. 308
^abAndreyev, Caterine (1990)Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Émigré Theories London: Cambridge University Press. p.30.ISBN0521389607
^Peter Longerich, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, p.289
^abRosenberg, Alfred (1949).Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg, with commentaries. Posselt, Eric, Lang, Serge and von Schenck, Ernst. Chicago: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. p. 328.OCLC871198711.
^Smith, Kingsbury (16 October 1946)."The Execution of Nazi War Criminals". Nuremberg Gaol, Germany. International News Service. Retrieved17 November 2019.
^Kershaw, Ian (2001).The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich.Oxford University Press. p. 109.ISBN0-19-280206-2.OCLC47063365.Hitler's evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity was crucial to the mediation of such an image to the church-going public by influential members of both major denominations. It was the reason why church-going Christians, so often encouraged by their 'opinion-leaders' in the Church hierarchies, were frequently able to exclude Hitler from their condemnation of the anti-Christian Party radicals, continuing to see in him the last hope of protecting Christianity from Bolshevism.
^Hürten, H. "'Endlösung' für den Katholizismus? Das nationalsozialistische Regime und seine Zukunftspläne gegenüber der Kirche," in:Stimmen der Zeit, 203 (1985) pp. 534–546
^Though Rosenberg does not use the word "master race". He uses the word "Herrenvolk" (i.e. ruling people) twice in his bookThe Myth, first referring to theAmorites (saying thatSayce described them as fair skinned and blue eyed) and secondly quotingVictor Wallace Germains' description of the English in "The Truth about Kitchener". ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Pages 26, 660 - 1930
^Michael, R. (2008).A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church. Springer. p. 128.
^Oświęcim, 1940–1945: przewodnik po muzeum, Kazimierz Smoleń, Państwowe Muzeum w Oświęcimiu, 1978, page 12
^Metapolitics: from Wagner and the German Romantics to Hitler, page 221, Peter Viereck, Transaction Publishers 2003
^Herbert, Ulrich (1997)Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany Under the Third Reich London: Cambridge University Press. pp.260–261ISBN0521470005
^Hertstein, Robert Edwin (1979)The war that Hitler won: Goebbels and the Nazi media campaign, UK: Hamish Hamilton. p.364ISBN0241100917
^"Within the NSDAP (as in the Germanvölkisch movement in general) there existed from the outset a group of old Hitler partisans who in contrast to the 'atheists' Alfred Rosenberg, Martin Bormann and others, believed in a union of National Socialism and Protestant Christianity."Broszat, Martin (1981)The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Tjird Reich. London: Longman. p.223ISBN9780582489974
^Callahan, Daniel ed. (1967)The Secular City Debate. New York: Macmillan. p.152
^Goldensohn, Leon (2005)The Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist's Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses. New York: Vintage. p.75.ISBN9781400030439
^"Apart from [Rosenberg] giving his name and replying 'No' to a question as to whether he had anything to say, this atheist did not utter a word. Despite his disbelief in God he was accompanied by a Protestant chaplain, who followed him to the gallows and stood beside him praying."Hitler's Third Reich: A Documentary History, p. 613
^Gilbert, Gustave Mark (1961).Nuremburg Diary.Signet Books. p. 110.
Bollmus, Reinhard (1970).Das Amt Rosenberg und seine Gegner: Studien zum Machtkampf im Nationalsozialistichen Herrschaftssystem. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt.
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1985).The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology - The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935.London:I.B. Tauris.ISBN0-8147-3054-X.
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2003).Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity. New York: New York University Press.ISBN978-0-8147-3155-0.
Hiio, Toomas (2018). "Noch einmal zu Alfred Rosenberg: Anmerkungen zu einer neuen Biografie".Forschungen zur Baltischen Geschichte.13:161–170.
Rothfeder, Herbert P. (1963).A Study of Alfred Rosenberg's Organization for National Socialist Ideology (Michigan, Phil. Diss. 1963). University Microfilms, Ann Arbor.
Rothfeder, Herbert P. (1981).Amt Schrifttumspflege: A Study in Literary Control, in: German Studies Review. Vol. IV, Nr. 1, Febr. 1981, p. 63–78.
Whisker, James B. (1990).The Philosophy of Alfred Rosenberg. Noontide Press.ISBN0-939482-25-8.
Wittman, Robert K.; David Kinney (2016).The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich. William Collins.ISBN978-0-00757-560-2.
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