Jean Mabire (8 February 1927—29 March 2006) was a French journalist and essayist, author of over a hundred published works.[1] Aneo-pagan andnordicist, Mabire is known for theregionalist andeuronationalist ideas that he developed in bothEurope-Action andGRECE, as well as his controversial books on theWaffen-SS. He was one of the founders, in 1968, of the Union for the Norman Region (URN), along with Gaullist deputy Pierre Godefroy and student activist Didier Patte.[2]
Jean Pol Yves Jacques Mabire was born inParis on 8 February 1927,[3] to a bourgeois family originally fromVire,Normandy. He attended theCollège Stanislas, where he earned abaccalauréat in literature and philosophy.[4]
In 1949, at the age of 22, Mabire created theregionalist magazineViking and in 1951 left Paris to settle inCherbourg, Normandy, where he founded agraphic arts workshop.[5] Mabire wrote the majority of the 162 articles published by the magazine until its end in 1958.Viking had 300 to 400 subscribers and the most popular issues sold around 1,000 copies. He regarded theNormans as part of the "Nordic race" and his magazine gave a great importance to Scandinavian cultures and Viking history.[6]
In 1958, Mabire was sent as a reserved soldier to North Africa during theAlgerian War (1954–62) and demobilized in October 1959 as a Reserve Captain.[7] Between 1963 and 1965, he wrote articles in Philippe Héduy'sL'Esprit public, and was a contributor inCahiers universitaires, the magazine of theFederation of Nationalist Students (FEN). In 1965, he was part of the grassroots committees of far-right presidential candidateJean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, and wrote in January a book to explain his endorsement.[8]
In 1968, Mabire became a founding member of theMouvement Normand,[11] and the following year he helped Georges Bernage establishHeimdal, aregionalist magazine and intellectual successor ofViking. Mabire wrote inHeimdal about Norman poets,Nordicism andScandinavian mythology. The magazine was a success and sold at more than 3,000 copies.[8] He became an active member ofGRECE in 1970, and took part in its "federal council" and "commission of traditions".[12]
In 1973, Mabire co-founded theneopagan scouting organizationEurope-Jeunesse withJean-Claude Valla andMaurice Rollet.[10] The same year, Mabire's literary career began with the publication of a saga on the history of the French SS:La Brigade Frankreich, La Division Charlemagne andMourir à Berlin. He participated, along with otherGRECE members Pierre Vial andJean Haudry, in the founding of the associationTerre et Peuple in 1995.[13]
His books on theWaffen-SS have been regarded as ahagyographic andromantic rehabilitation of Nazism.[14] Mabire describes for instance some units in those terms: "TheSS carry thePrometheus torch andSigurd's sword to the Caucasus. They are the sons of the old Germanic warriors who emerged from the ice and forests. They are theTeutonics who replaced the cross of Christ with the wheel of the Sun. They areAdolf Hitler's SS."[15]
After his wife's death from cancer in 1974, he married Katherine Hentic in 1976, with whom he had three children.[16] He moved in 1982 to Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), in the Saint-Servan quarter. Jean Mabire died ofleukemia on 29 March 2006 inSaint-Malo,Brittany, at the age of 79.[17]
Les Hors-la-loi. Robert Laffont, 1968; re-edited asCommando de chasse
Les Samouraï, with Yves Bréhéret. Paris, Balland, 1971
Les Waffen SS, under the pseudonym "Henri Landemer". Balland, 1972
La Brigade Frankreich. Fayard, 1973
Ungern, le Baron fou. Balland, 1973; corrected re-edition asUngern, le dieu de la guerre andUngern, l'héritier blanc de Genghis Khan
La Division Charlemagne. Fayard, 1974
Mourir à Berlin, Paris. Fayard, 1975
Les Jeunes Fauves du Führer. La division SS Hitlerjugend en Normandie. Fayard, 1976
L'Été rouge de Pékin. Fayard, 1978
Les Panzers de la Garde Noire. Presse de la Cité, 1978
La Division « Wiking ». Fayard, 1980
Les Paras du matin rouge. Presses de la Cité, 1981
La Crète, tombeau des paras Allemands. Presses de la Cité, 1982
Chasseurs alpins. Des Vosges aux Djebels. Presses de la Cité, 1984;Écrivains Combattants prize
Les Paras perdus. Presses de la Cité, 1987.
Les Diables verts de Cassino. Presses de la Cité, 1991.
Les Paras de l'enfer blanc, Front de l'Est 1941-1945. Presses de la Cité, 1995
Division de choc Wallonie, Lutte à mort en Poméranie. Éditions Jacques Grancher, 1996
Les Guerriers de la plus grande Asie. Dualpha, 2004
On paganism
Thulé, le soleil retrouvé des Hyperboréens. Paris, Robert Laffont, 1978.
Les Solstices. Histoire et Actualité, with Pierre Vial. GRECE, 1975
Les Dieux maudits. Copernic, 1978; re-edited asLégendes de la mythologie nordique
Balades au cœur de l'Europe païenne (collective work). Les Éditions de la forêt, 2002.
On Normandy
Histoire de la Normandie, en collaboration avec Jean-Robert Ragache (Hachette, 1976; réédition : France-Empire, 1986, 1992) : awarded by theMouvement Normand
Les Vikings, rois des tempêtes, with Pierre Vial. Versoix, 1976; re-edited asLes Vikings à travers le monde
La Saga de Godefroy Le Boiteux. Copernic, 1980; re-edited asGodefroy de Harcourt, seigneur normand
Histoire secrète de la Normandie. Albin Michel, 1984
Guillaume le Conquérant. Art et Histoire d'Europe, 1987
Les Ducs de Normandie. Lavauzelle, 1987
Grands Marins normands. L'Ancre de Marine, 1993
Légendes traditionnelles de Normandie. L'Ancre de Marine, 1997
Jean Mabire et le Mouvement Normand. Éditions de l'Esnesque, 1998
Vikings : cahiers de la jeunesse des pays normands. Veilleur, 1999
La Varende entre nous. Présence de La Varende, 1999
Des poètes normands et de l'héritage nordique. Antée, 2003
^Picco, Pauline (2018).Liaisons dangereuses: Les extrêmes droites en France et en Italie (1960-1984) (in French). Presses universitaires de Rennes. p. 91.ISBN9782753555761.
^Bruneau, Ivan (2002). "Un mode d'engagement singulier au Front national. La trajectoire scolaire effective d'un fils de mineur".Politix. Revue des sciences sociales du politique.15 (57):183–211.doi:10.3406/polix.2002.1214.
^Mabire, Jean (1976).Les Jeunes Fauves du Führer, la Division SS Hitlerjungend dans la bataille de Normandie, Fayard, pp. 46–47.
^Jahan, Sébastien (2007).Histoire de la colonisation: réhabilitations, falsifications et instrumentalisations (in French). Indes savantes. p. 166.ISBN9782846541688.
Hamelin, Bertrand; Marpeau, Benoît (2009). "Intellectuel normand ou intellectuel en Normandie ? Michel de Boüard et Jean Mabire, itinéraires croisés".Annales de Normandie.35 (1):269–293.doi:10.3406/annor.2009.2544.
Jacob, Yves (1981).Les grands moments littéraires de Normandie : du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Charles Corlet.ISBN9782402049269.
