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Arthur Moeller van den Bruck | |
|---|---|
 van den Bruck in 1930 | |
| Born | (1876-04-23)23 April 1876 Solingen, Westphalia, German Empire |
| Died | 30 May 1925(1925-05-30) (aged 49) Berlin, Weimar Germany |
| Spouse | |
Arthur Wilhelm Ernst Victor Moeller van den Bruck (23 April 1876 – 30 May 1925) was a Germancultural historian,philosopher, and key intellectual figure of theConservative Revolution.
As an author and political theorist, he remains best known for his controversial 1923 bookDas Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich"), which promotedGerman nationalism and ended up strongly influencing theNSDAP; despite his open opposition to and numerous criticisms ofAdolf Hitler.[1]
From 1906 to 1922, he also publishedElisabeth Kaerrick's first full German translation ofDostoyevsky's written works.
Moeller van den Bruck was born on 23 April 1876 inSolingen, Westphalia, as the only child ofbourgeois parents. His father was Ottomar Victor Moeller, a Germanstate architect, and his mother was Elise van den Bruck, the daughter ofDutch architectvan den Broeck and (allegedly) aSpanish mother. Moeller van den Bruck'sgiven name was "Arthur" in honour ofArthur Schopenhauer, but he would later drop that part from his name.[2]
He was expelled from agymnasium, a German secondary school, for his indifference towards his studies. The young Moeller van den Bruck believed German literature and philosophy, particularly the works ofNietzsche, to be a more vital education.[3] He later continued his studies on his own inBerlin,Paris andItaly.
In 1897 he marriedHedda Maase (later Eulenberg). She divorced him in 1904.
Moeller van den Bruck's eight-volume cultural historyDie Deutschen, unsere Menschengeschichte ("The Germans, Our People's History") appeared in 1905. In 1907, he returned to Germany, and in 1914, he enlisted in the army at the start ofWorld War I. Soon, he joined the press office of the Foreign Ministry and was attached to the foreign affairs section of the GermanSupreme Army Command.
His essayDer Preußische Stil ("The Prussian Style") in which he celebrated the essence of Prussia as "the will to the state" appeared in 1916 and marked his embrace ofnationalism. It showed him as an opponent ofparliamentary democracy andliberalism, and it exerted a strong influence on theJungkonservativen ("young conservative movement").
After anervous breakdown, he committedsuicide inBerlin on 30 May 1925.
Moeller van den Bruck was the joint founder of the "June Club" (Juniklub), which sought to influence young conservatives in the fight against theTreaty of Versailles. Later, it was renamedDeutscher Herrenklub ("German Gentlemen's Club"), became very powerful and helpedFranz von Papen to becomeReichskanzler in 1932.
In his 1918 bookDas Recht der jungen Völker ("The Right of Young Nations"), Moeller van den Bruck presents a version of theSonderweg theory in which he developed the theme of Russia as representing communist civilisation and the United States representing capitalist civilisation, both of which are rejected. Germany is held up as the model between the two extremes. In the same book, Moeller van den Bruck advocated an expressly anti-Western and anti-imperialist philosophy of the state (Staatstheorie), which attempted to bridge the gap between nationalism and concepts of social justice.
He had a major influence on theJungkonservativen (Young Conservatives) in their opposition to theWeimar Republic. He may have also supplied the Nazis with some of the concepts underpinning their movement, but upon meeting Hitler in 1922, Bruck rejected him for his "proletarian primitiveness".[citation needed] The Nazis still made use of his ideas where they could, including appropriating the title of his 1923 bookDas Dritte Reich (meaning "The Third Reich") as a political slogan and the GermanicÜbermensch idea.[citation needed]
Das Dritte Reich (The Third Reich) formulated an "ideal" of national empowerment, which found many adherents in a Germany desperate to rebound from theTreaty of Versailles.
