 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French. (July 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
TheVölkisch movement (German:Völkische Bewegung[ˌfœlkɪʃəbəˈveːɡʊŋ], English:Folkist movement, also calledVölkism) was aPan-Germanethno-nationalist movement active from the late 19th century through the dissolution of theThird Reich in 1945, with remnants in theFederal Republic of Germany afterwards. Erected on the idea of "blood and soil", inspired by the one-body-metaphor (Volkskörper, "ethnic body"; literally "body of the people"), and by the idea of naturally grown communities in unity, it was characterized byorganicism,racialism,populism,agrarianism,romantic nationalism and – as a consequence of a growing exclusive and ethnic connotation – byantisemitism from the 1900s onward.[1][2]Völkisch nationalists generally considered the Jews to be an "alien people" who belonged to a differentVolk ("race" or "folk") from the Germans.[3] AfterWorld War II, theVölkisch movement became viewed as aproto-fascist or proto-Nazi phenomenon in the context of German society.[4]
TheVölkisch movement was not a homogeneous set of beliefs, but rather a "variegated sub-culture" that rose in opposition to the socio-cultural changes ofmodernity.[5] The "only denominator common" to allVölkisch theorists was the idea of a national rebirth, inspired by the traditions of theAncient Germans which had been "reconstructed" on a romantic basis by the adherents of the movement. This proposed rebirth entailed either "Germanizing"Christianity or the comprehensive rejection of Christian heritage in favor of a reconstituted pre-ChristianGermanic paganism.[6] In a narrow definition, the term is used to designate only groups that consider human beings essentially preformed by blood, or by inherited characteristics.[7]
TheVölkischen are often encompassed in a widerConservative Revolution by scholars, a Germannational conservative movement that rose in prominence during theWeimar Republic (1918–1933).[8][9] During the period of theThird Reich,Adolf Hitler and the Nazis believed in and enforced a definition of the GermanVolk which excluded Jews, theRomani people,Jehovah's Witnesses,homosexuals, and other "foreign elements" living in Germany.[10] Their policies led to these "undesirables" being rounded up and murdered in large numbers, in what became known asthe Holocaust.
The adjectiveVölkisch (pronounced[ˈfœlkɪʃ]) is derived from the German wordVolk (cognate with the English "folk"), which has overtones of "nation", "race" or "tribe".[11] WhileVölkisch has no direct English equivalent, it could be loosely translated as "ethno-nationalist", "ethnic-chauvinist", "ethnic-popular",[12][page needed] or, closer to its original meaning, as "bio-mysticalracialist".[1]
IfVölkisch writers used terms likeNordische Rasse ("Nordic race") andGermanentum ("Germanic peoples"), their concept ofVolk could, however, also be more flexible, and understood as aGemeinsame Sprache ("common language"),[13] or as anAusdruck einer Landschaftsseele ("expression of a landscape's soul"), in the words of geographerEwald Banse.[14]
The defining idea which theVölkisch movement revolved around was that of aVolkstum, literally the "folkdom" or the "culture of theVolk".[15] Other associated German words includeVolksboden (the "Volk's essential substrate"),Volksgeist (the "spirit of theVolk"),[5]Volksgemeinschaft (the "community of theVolk"),[16] as well asVolkstümlich ("folksy" or "traditional")[17] andVolkstümlichkeit (the "popular celebration of theVolkstum").[15]
TheVölkisch movement was not unified, instead, according to Petteri Pietikäinen, it was "a cauldron of beliefs, fears and hopes that found expression in various movements and were often articulated in an emotional tone".[18] According to historianNicholas Goodrick-Clarke,Völkisch denoted the "national collectivity inspired by a common creative energy, feelings and sense of individuality. These metaphysical qualities were supposed to define the unique cultural essence of the German people."[19] Journalist Peter Ross Range writes that "Völkisch is very hard to define and almost untranslatable into English. The word has been rendered as popular, populist, people's, racial, racist, ethnic-chauvinist, nationalistic, communitarian (for Germans only), conservative, traditional, Nordic, romantic – and it means, in fact, all of those. Thevölkisch political ideology ranged from a sense of German superiority to a spiritual resistance to 'the evils of industrialization and the atomization of modern man,' wrote military historian David Jablonsky. But its central component, said Harold J. Gordon, was always racism."[20]
Völkisch thinkers tended to idealize the myth of an "original nation", that still could be found at that time in the rural regions of Germany, a form of "primitive democracy freely subjected to their natural elites."[9] The notion of "people" (Volk) subsequently turned into the idea of a "racial essence",[5] andVölkisch thinkers referred to the term as a birth-giving and quasi-eternal entity—in the same way as they would write on "the Nature"—rather than a sociological category.[21]
The movement combined sentimental patriotic interest inGerman folklore,local history and a "back-to-the-land"anti-urban populism. "In part this ideology was a revolt against modernity", Nicholls remarked.[22] As they sought to overcome what they felt was the malaise of ascientistic andrationalistic modernity,Völkisch authors imagined a spiritual solution in aVolk's essence perceived as authentic, intuitive, even "primitive", in the sense of an alignment with a primordial and cosmic order.[5]
TheVölkisch movement emerged in the late 19th century, drawing inspiration fromGerman Romanticism and the history of theHoly Roman Empire, and what many saw as its harmonious hierarchical order.[1] The delayedunification of the German-speaking peoples under a singleGerman Reich in the 19th century is cited as conducive to the emergence of theVölkisch movement.[19] The Volk were convinced that they were renouncing the ideals of the Enlightenment.[23]
Despite the previous lower-class connotation associated to the wordVolk, theVölkisch movement saw the term with a noble overtone suggesting a German ascendancy over other peoples.[5] Thinkers led byArthur de Gobineau (1816–1882),Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854–1936),Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927),Ludwig Woltmann (1871–1907) andAlexis Carrel (1873–1944) were inspired byCharles Darwin'stheory of evolution in advocating a "race struggle" and a hygienist vision of the world. They had conceptualized a racialist and hierarchical definition of the peoples of the world whereAryans (or Germans) had to be at the summit of thewhite race. The purity of the bio-mystical and primordial nation theorized by theVölkisch thinkers then began to be seen as having been corrupted by foreign elements, Jewish in particular.[1]
The same wordVolk was used as a flag for new forms of ethnic nationalism, as well as by international socialist parties as a synonym for theproletariat in the German lands. From the left, elements of the folk-culture spread to the parties of the middle classes.[24]
Although the primary interest of theGermanic mystical movement was the revival of native pagan traditions and customs (often set in the context of a quasi-theosophical esotericism), a marked preoccupation with purity of race came to motivate its more politically oriented offshoots, such as theGermanenorden (the Germanic or Teutonic Order), a secret society founded at Berlin in 1912 which required its candidates to prove that they had no "non-Aryan" bloodlines and required from each a promise to maintain purity of his stock in marriage. Local groups of the sect met to celebrate thesummer solstice, an importantneopagan festivity invölkisch circles (and later in Nazi Germany), and more regularly to read theEddas as well as some of theGerman mystics.[25][better source needed]
Not all folkloric societies with connections toRomantic nationalism were located in Germany. TheVölkisch movement was a force as well in Austria.[26] Meanwhile, the community ofMonte Verità ('Mount Truth') which emerged in 1900 atAscona, Switzerland is described by the Swiss art critic Harald Szeemann as "the southernmost outpost of a far-reaching Nordic lifestyle-reform, that is, alternative movement".[27]
The political agitation and uncertainty that followedWorld War I nourished a fertile background for the renewed success of variousVölkisch sects that were abundant in Berlin at the time,[9] but if theVölkisch movement became significant by the number of groups during theWeimar Republic,[28] they were not so by the number of adherents.[9] A fewVölkische authors tried to revive what they believed to be a true German faith (Deutschglaube), by resurrecting the cult of theancient Germanic gods.[29] Various occult movements such asariosophy were connected toVölkisch theories,[30] and artistic circles were largely present among theVölkischen, like the paintersLudwig Fahrenkrog (1867–1952) andFidus (1868–1948).[9] By May 1924, essayistWilhelm Stapel perceived the movement as capable of embracing and reconciling the whole nation: in his view,Völkisch had an idea to spread instead of a party programme and were led by heroes — not by "calculating politicians".[31] Scholar Petteri Pietikäinen also observedVölkisch influences onCarl Gustav Jung.[18]
A major political vehicle for theVölkisch movement during this era was the German Völkisch Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei, DVFP), founded in December 1922 when key antisemitic figures split from the conservativeGerman National People's Party. The DVFP openly called for a "völkisch dictatorship" and briefly formed a major electoral alliance with the bannedNational Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in 1924. Campaigning together as theNational Socialist Freedom Movement, the alliance won 32 seats in the Reichstag, demonstrating thatVölkisch ideology had a significant electoral presence independent of the early NSDAP.[32]
Thevölkisch ideologies were influential in the development ofNazism.[33] Indeed,Joseph Goebbels publicly asserted in the 1927Nuremberg rally that if the populist (völkisch) movement had understood power and how to bring thousands out in the streets, it would have gained political power on 9 November 1918 (the outbreak of theSPD-ledGerman Revolution of 1918–1919, end of the German monarchy).[34] Nazi racial understanding was couched invölkisch terms, as whenEugen Fischer delivered his inaugural address as Nazi rector,The Conception of the Völkisch state in the view of biology (29 July 1933).[35] Karl Harrer, theThule Society member most directly involved in the creation of the DAP in 1919, was sidelined at the end of the year when Hitler drafted regulations against conspiratorial circles, and the Thule Society was dissolved a few years later.[36] Thevölkisch circles handed down one significant legacy to the Nazis: In 1919, Thule Society member Friedrich Krohn designed the original version of the Naziswastika.[37]
In January 1919, the Thule Society was instrumental in the foundation of theGerman Workers' Party (DAP), which later became theNational Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), commonly called theNazi Party. Thule Society members or visiting guests of the Thule Society who would later join the Nazi Party includedRudolf Hess,Alfred Rosenberg,Hans Frank,Gottfried Feder,Dietrich Eckart andKarl Harrer. Notably,Adolf Hitler was never a member of the Thule Society andRudolf Hess andAlfred Rosenberg were only visiting guests of the Thule Society in the early years before they came to prominence in the Nazi movement.[38] After being appointed Chairman of the NSDAP in 1921, Hitler moved to sever the party's link with the Thule Society, expelling Harrer in the process; the Society subsequently fell into decline and was dissolved in 1925.[39]
Material from the majorvölkisch writers such asHerman Wirth,Wilhelm Teudt andBernhard Kummer has continued to appear in some post-war groups in German-speaking Europe, notably occult andmodern pagan far-right groups, such asArtgemeinschaft, andgreen-alternative groups interested invölkisch theses about Germanicmatriarchy andecology. There have been some supporters ofvölkisch material among theEuropean New Right. A fewvölkisch motifs have appeared among British and American modern pagans.[40] The literary scholarStefanie von Schnurbein argues that patterns reminiscent ofvölkisch thinking appear in somefantasy literature.[41]
Notes
Bibliography
.svg)
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
