Ernst Niekisch | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Ernst Niekisch in 1926 | |
| Born | (1889-05-23)23 May 1889 |
| Died | 23 May 1967(1967-05-23) (aged 78) |
| Political party | Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (1917–1919, 1919–1922) Social Democratic Party of Germany (1922–1926) Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (1919) Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (1926–1932) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | 20th century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Conservative Revolution |
| Main interests | Political philosophy |
Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD) and of theOld Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), he later became a prominent exponent of the National revolutionary branch of theConservative Revolution andNational Bolshevism.
Born inTrebnitz (Silesia), and brought up inNördlingen. After studying at a teaching seminar, and completing a one-year voluntary military service with theBavarian Army, he was appointed a public school teacher in Augsburg.[1] From 1914 to 1917, he served with theImperial German Army duringWWI.
He joined theSocial Democratic Party in 1917, returned to Augsburg as a teacher and was instrumental in the setting up of a short-livedBavarian Soviet Republic in1919.[1] Indeed, for a time at the start of the year, after the resignation ofKurt Eisner and immediately before the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, Niekisch wielded effective power as chairman of the central executive of Bavarian councils, an interim governing body.[2] He left the SPD soon afterward and joined theIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) for a time before he returned to his former party.[1] He served a brief spell in prison in 1925 for his part in the abortive Bavarian coup.[3]
In the 1920s, he stressed the importance ofnationalism and attempted to turn the SPD in that direction. He was so vehemently opposed to theDawes Plan, theLocarno Treaties and the generalpacifism of the SPD that he was expelled from the party in 1926.[1]
Upon his expulsion, Niekisch joined theOld Social Democratic Party of Saxony, which he influenced to his own nationalist form ofsocialism. He launched his own journal,Widerstand (Resistance),[1] and he and his followers adopted the name of "National Bolsheviks" and looked to theSoviet Union as a continuation of bothRussian nationalism and the old state ofPrussia. The movement took the slogan of "Sparta-Potsdam-Moscow".[1] He was a member of ARPLAN (Association for the Study of RussianPlanned Economy) withErnst Jünger,Georg Lukács,Karl Wittfogel andFriedrich Hielscher, under whose auspices he visited theSoviet Union in 1932.[1] He reacted favourably to Jünger's publicationDer Arbeiter, which he saw as a blueprint for a National Bolshevik Germany.[1] He also believed in the necessity of a German-Soviet alliance against the "decadent West" and theTreaty of Versailles.[4] The attempt to combine ultranationalism and communism, two extreme ends of the political spectrum, caused Niekisch's National Bolsheviks to be a force with little support.[5]
Althoughanti-Jewish and in favour of atotalitarian state, Niekisch rejectedAdolf Hitler, who he felt lacked any realsocialism, and Niekisch instead looked toJoseph Stalin and the industrial development of the Soviet Union as his model for theFührerprinzip.[1] Writing in 1958, Niekisch condemned Hitler as a power-obsesseddemagogue who was an enemy of the elitist spirit that Niekisch advocated.[6] He was particularly ill-disposed towardsJoseph Goebbels and, at a meeting between the two facilitated by their mutual friend,Arnolt Bronnen, Niekisch and Goebbels had almost come to blows.[7] Bronnen would break from Niekisch in 1932 after the latter published the pamphletHitler – ein deutsches Verhängnis, with Bronnen considering the attack on Nazism a personal insult.[8] In the immediate aftermath of theReichstag fire, his house was searched for evidence of any involvement, but that was not pursued.[9] He also discussed his opposition to the new regime withUlrich von Hassell although Niekisch did not join theGerman Resistance.[9]
Despite his criticisms of Nazism, he was allowed to continue editingWiderstand until the paper was banned in December 1934.[9] He was allowed to visit Rome in 1935 and held meetings withBenito Mussolini, who told Niekisch that he considered Hitler's aggressive stances towards the Soviet Union to be foolish and would later discuss opposition groups with the Italian Consul General while Italo-German relations were somewhat strained.[9]
In 1937, Niekisch and dozens of his colleagues were arrested by theGestapo for writing articles against the regime. In 1939, Niekisch was found guilty of 'literaryhigh treason by theVolksgerichtshof, along with fellow National Bolsheviks Joseph Drexel and Karl Tröger, and sentenced to life in prison.[1] Following the intervention of his former ally, Jünger, his family could retain his property, but not secure his release.[9] Niekisch remained in prison until April 1945, when he was liberated by theRed Army. By then, he had nearly goneblind.[1]
Embittered against nationalism by his wartime experiences, he turned to orthodoxMarxism and lectured insociology inHumboldt University inEast Germany until 1953 when, disillusioned by the brutal suppression of theworkers' uprising, herelocated toWest Berlin, where he died in 1967.[1]
Subsequent to his death, Niekisch was one of a number of writers, including the likes ofOswald Spengler,Arthur Moeller van den Bruck,Vilfredo Pareto andCarl Schmitt, whose works were promulgated by the likes of theGroupement de recherche et d'études pour la civilisation européenne and others involved in theConservative Revolutionary movement.[10]
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