Duncan Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262870
- eISBN:
- 9780191734892
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262870.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely ...
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This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely from Schmitt's terms of reference, and how his account of rationality and the modern state drew upon Weber. This cross-fertilization of conceptual ideas, coupled with his own political sympathy for a socialist state under a fully democratized Weimar Constitution, offers an intriguing context within which to explore his route to Behemoth. This chapter also presents a detailed assessment of his analysis of National Socialism.Less
This chapter discusses the thought of Franz Neumann, up to and including the publication of his famous work Behemoth in 1942. It shows how Neumann's legal and constitutional ideas developed largely from Schmitt's terms of reference, and how his account of rationality and the modern state drew upon Weber. This cross-fertilization of conceptual ideas, coupled with his own political sympathy for a socialist state under a fully democratized Weimar Constitution, offers an intriguing context within which to explore his route to Behemoth. This chapter also presents a detailed assessment of his analysis of National Socialism.
Timothy J. Gorringe
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198752462
- eISBN:
- 9780191695117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198752462.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, History of Christianity
Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War ...
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Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two Commentaries on Romans, begun during the First World War. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after the Second World War. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology the book shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics. In conclusion the book asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation.Less
Karl Barth (1886–1968) was the most prolific theologian of the 20th century. Avoiding simple paraphrasing, this book places the theology in its social and political context, from the First World War through to the Cold War by following Barth's intellectual development through the years that saw the rise of national socialism and the development of communism. Barth initiated a theological revolution in his two Commentaries on Romans, begun during the First World War. His attempt to deepen this during the turbulent years of the Weimar Republic made him a focus of theological resistance to Hitler after the rise to power of the Nazi party. Expelled from Germany, he continued to defy fashionable opinion by refusing to condemn communism after the Second World War. Drawing on a German debate largely ignored by Anglo-Saxon theology the book shows that Barth responds to the events of his time not just in his occasional writings, but in his magnum opus, the Church Dogmatics. In conclusion the book asks what this admittedly patriarchal author still has to contribute to contemporary theology, and in particular human liberation.
Todd H. Weir
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197266915
- eISBN:
- 9780191938177
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266915.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter proposes that apologetics, a term borrowed from Christian theology, can provide a new analytical tool for understanding and comparing the structures and dynamics not just of religious ...
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This chapter proposes that apologetics, a term borrowed from Christian theology, can provide a new analytical tool for understanding and comparing the structures and dynamics not just of religious but also of secularist movements in modern culture wars. It builds an ideal-typical model of apologetics using observations of the German Christian Churches of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and then tests it on the anticlerical associations of the socialist and communist movements. The chapter then examines apologetics as a zone of contention in which religious and secularist actors exchanged ideas and strategies in the course of their conflict. It seeks to demonstrate the value of this approach to the history of ideas through a conceptual historical exploration of Weltanschauung or worldview. It argues that competition with National Socialism and Communism led some German Protestant apologists to pursue definitions of ‘Christian worldview’ that brought them close to elements of their opponents’ worldviews.Less
This chapter proposes that apologetics, a term borrowed from Christian theology, can provide a new analytical tool for understanding and comparing the structures and dynamics not just of religious but also of secularist movements in modern culture wars. It builds an ideal-typical model of apologetics using observations of the German Christian Churches of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) and then tests it on the anticlerical associations of the socialist and communist movements. The chapter then examines apologetics as a zone of contention in which religious and secularist actors exchanged ideas and strategies in the course of their conflict. It seeks to demonstrate the value of this approach to the history of ideas through a conceptual historical exploration of Weltanschauung or worldview. It argues that competition with National Socialism and Communism led some German Protestant apologists to pursue definitions of ‘Christian worldview’ that brought them close to elements of their opponents’ worldviews.
Kristen Renwick Monroe
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151373
- eISBN:
- 9781400840366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151373.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Psychology and Interaction
This chapter showcases a Dutch collaborator named Fritz. Fritz shared many of Tony's prewar conservative opinions in favor of the monarchy and traditional Dutch values, although he was of ...
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This chapter showcases a Dutch collaborator named Fritz. Fritz shared many of Tony's prewar conservative opinions in favor of the monarchy and traditional Dutch values, although he was of working-class origins, unlike Tony and Beatrix, who were Dutch bourgeoisie. But unlike Beatrix or Tony, Fritz joined the Nazi Party, wrote propaganda for the Nazi cause, and married the daughter of a German Nazi. When he was interviewed in 1992, Fritz indicated he was appalled at what he later learned about Nazi treatment of Jews but that he still believed in many of the goals of the National Socialist movement and felt that Hitler had betrayed the movement. Fritz is thus classified as a disillusioned Nazi supporter who retains his faith in much of National Socialism, and this chapter is presented as illustrative of the psychology of those who once supported the Nazi regime but who were disillusioned after the war.Less
This chapter showcases a Dutch collaborator named Fritz. Fritz shared many of Tony's prewar conservative opinions in favor of the monarchy and traditional Dutch values, although he was of working-class origins, unlike Tony and Beatrix, who were Dutch bourgeoisie. But unlike Beatrix or Tony, Fritz joined the Nazi Party, wrote propaganda for the Nazi cause, and married the daughter of a German Nazi. When he was interviewed in 1992, Fritz indicated he was appalled at what he later learned about Nazi treatment of Jews but that he still believed in many of the goals of the National Socialist movement and felt that Hitler had betrayed the movement. Fritz is thus classified as a disillusioned Nazi supporter who retains his faith in much of National Socialism, and this chapter is presented as illustrative of the psychology of those who once supported the Nazi regime but who were disillusioned after the war.
Mattias Gardell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195156829
- eISBN:
- 9780199784806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019515682X.003.0018
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This essay presents a historical overview and analysis of the development of racist religions in North America. White religious racism is not a unified creed, but a heterogeneous category that ...
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This essay presents a historical overview and analysis of the development of racist religions in North America. White religious racism is not a unified creed, but a heterogeneous category that comprises many different congregations and philosophies, ranging from racist recasts of Christianity to a plethora of racist pagan, occult fascist, and Satanist constructs. The racist religions considered fall into three main categories: racist (particularly Identity) Christianity, religious national socialism, and racist paganism. Though paganism has been gaining ground among younger racists, the importance of Christianity to traditional American culture means that Identity is unlikely to be completely supplanted by racist paganism.Less
This essay presents a historical overview and analysis of the development of racist religions in North America. White religious racism is not a unified creed, but a heterogeneous category that comprises many different congregations and philosophies, ranging from racist recasts of Christianity to a plethora of racist pagan, occult fascist, and Satanist constructs. The racist religions considered fall into three main categories: racist (particularly Identity) Christianity, religious national socialism, and racist paganism. Though paganism has been gaining ground among younger racists, the importance of Christianity to traditional American culture means that Identity is unlikely to be completely supplanted by racist paganism.
Elizabeth Harvey
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204145
- eISBN:
- 9780191676123
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204145.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Social History
On taking over in June 1932 the role of the head of an openly reactionary government in the Reich, von Papen declared an offensive on the policies of the parliamentary governments with no prospect of ...
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On taking over in June 1932 the role of the head of an openly reactionary government in the Reich, von Papen declared an offensive on the policies of the parliamentary governments with no prospect of a solution to the economic crisis in sight, employees in public sector welfare institutions faced the dilemma of being part of a shrinking system with which many could no longer identify. In the sphere of youth work and welfare, cuts in staff and pressure to allocate priorities for resources meant that it was impossible to intervene in all cases of educational need. Meanwhile, the basis of the Weimar welfare state's approach to preventing and curing delinquency was undermined. Some analyses stressed the specific attraction of National Socialism for young voters.Less
On taking over in June 1932 the role of the head of an openly reactionary government in the Reich, von Papen declared an offensive on the policies of the parliamentary governments with no prospect of a solution to the economic crisis in sight, employees in public sector welfare institutions faced the dilemma of being part of a shrinking system with which many could no longer identify. In the sphere of youth work and welfare, cuts in staff and pressure to allocate priorities for resources meant that it was impossible to intervene in all cases of educational need. Meanwhile, the basis of the Weimar welfare state's approach to preventing and curing delinquency was undermined. Some analyses stressed the specific attraction of National Socialism for young voters.
Ulrike Ehret
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079436
- eISBN:
- 9781781702017
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079436.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book compares the worldviews and factors that promoted or, indeed, opposed anti-semitism amongst Catholics in Germany and England after the First World War. As a prequel to books on Hitler, ...
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This book compares the worldviews and factors that promoted or, indeed, opposed anti-semitism amongst Catholics in Germany and England after the First World War. As a prequel to books on Hitler, fascism and genocide, it turns towards ideas and attitudes that preceded and shaped the ideologies of the 1920s and 1940s. Apart from the long tradition of Catholic anti-Jewish prejudices, the book discusses new and old alternatives to European modernity offered by Catholics in Germany and England. Numerous events in the interwar years provoked anti-Jewish responses among Catholics: the revolutionary end of the war and financial scandals in Germany; Palestine and the Spanish Civil War in England. At the same time, the rise of fascism and National Socialism gave Catholics the opportunity to respond to the anti-democratic and anti-semitic waves these movements created in their wake. The book is a political history of ideas that introduces Catholic views of modern society, race, nation and the ‘Jewish question’. It shows to what extent these views were able to inform political and social activity.Less
This book compares the worldviews and factors that promoted or, indeed, opposed anti-semitism amongst Catholics in Germany and England after the First World War. As a prequel to books on Hitler, fascism and genocide, it turns towards ideas and attitudes that preceded and shaped the ideologies of the 1920s and 1940s. Apart from the long tradition of Catholic anti-Jewish prejudices, the book discusses new and old alternatives to European modernity offered by Catholics in Germany and England. Numerous events in the interwar years provoked anti-Jewish responses among Catholics: the revolutionary end of the war and financial scandals in Germany; Palestine and the Spanish Civil War in England. At the same time, the rise of fascism and National Socialism gave Catholics the opportunity to respond to the anti-democratic and anti-semitic waves these movements created in their wake. The book is a political history of ideas that introduces Catholic views of modern society, race, nation and the ‘Jewish question’. It shows to what extent these views were able to inform political and social activity.
Maiken Umbach
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199557394
- eISBN:
- 9780191721564
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557394.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History, European Modern History
This epilogue compares German bourgeois modernism with Nazi cultural politics. It argues that continuities should not be studied in terms of isolated ideas, but through the constellations in which ...
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This epilogue compares German bourgeois modernism with Nazi cultural politics. It argues that continuities should not be studied in terms of isolated ideas, but through the constellations in which such ideas were operationalized politically. This approach is explored through a comparison of different uses of red brick, the archetypal Heimat material. For Schumacher, red brick invoked local traditions that invited an identification with place and civitas. For Fritz Höger, however, red brick embodied the archaic roots of civilization, and a spiritualist vision of collective salvation. Höger looked to material culture to forge a sense of social unity and political totality. He saw this as compatible with Nazi ideology, although after 1933, his work was rejected as excessively irrational. By contrast, bourgeois modernism, however repressive, also remained pluralist, thriving on the visible juxtaposition of history and memory, order and nature, nation and region, the progressive and the archaic.Less
This epilogue compares German bourgeois modernism with Nazi cultural politics. It argues that continuities should not be studied in terms of isolated ideas, but through the constellations in which such ideas were operationalized politically. This approach is explored through a comparison of different uses of red brick, the archetypal Heimat material. For Schumacher, red brick invoked local traditions that invited an identification with place and civitas. For Fritz Höger, however, red brick embodied the archaic roots of civilization, and a spiritualist vision of collective salvation. Höger looked to material culture to forge a sense of social unity and political totality. He saw this as compatible with Nazi ideology, although after 1933, his work was rejected as excessively irrational. By contrast, bourgeois modernism, however repressive, also remained pluralist, thriving on the visible juxtaposition of history and memory, order and nature, nation and region, the progressive and the archaic.
CHUSHICHI TSUZUKI
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205890
- eISBN:
- 9780191676840
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205890.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, Political History
This chapter describes Japanese-style fascism. Japan's ultra-nationalism was deeply ingrained on all levels. Though the Miyazaki group remained faithful in their support of Chinese nationalism, it ...
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This chapter describes Japanese-style fascism. Japan's ultra-nationalism was deeply ingrained on all levels. Though the Miyazaki group remained faithful in their support of Chinese nationalism, it soon became clear that other Japanese nationalists, who were also expansionsists, came to regard Chinese nationalists as enemies. Gondo Seikyo and Tachibana Kozaburo, and Kita Ikki and his national socialism are discussed. In addition, the 26 February incident, proto-fascists and fascist societies before 1936, the role of the special higher police, universities under attack, and Minobe's ‘organ theory’ are reviewed. Next, the chapter explains the last vestiges of liberalism, national socialism, and the case of Tsuda Sokichi.Less
This chapter describes Japanese-style fascism. Japan's ultra-nationalism was deeply ingrained on all levels. Though the Miyazaki group remained faithful in their support of Chinese nationalism, it soon became clear that other Japanese nationalists, who were also expansionsists, came to regard Chinese nationalists as enemies. Gondo Seikyo and Tachibana Kozaburo, and Kita Ikki and his national socialism are discussed. In addition, the 26 February incident, proto-fascists and fascist societies before 1936, the role of the special higher police, universities under attack, and Minobe's ‘organ theory’ are reviewed. Next, the chapter explains the last vestiges of liberalism, national socialism, and the case of Tsuda Sokichi.
Corey Ross
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199278213
- eISBN:
- 9780191707933
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199278213.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter investigates how republican political elites participated in the discourse discussed in Chapter 7, and how they attempted to devise a more democratic form of public relations distinct ...
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This chapter investigates how republican political elites participated in the discourse discussed in Chapter 7, and how they attempted to devise a more democratic form of public relations distinct from the negative connotations of ‘propaganda’ reverberating after the excesses of the war. The attempt to devise a rational form of democratic ‘instruction’ is discussed. The chapter then analyses the challenge posed by the aggressive and in many ways cutting-edge image campaigns of the radical anti-republican movements, especially the National Socialists, and how both the deepening crisis of the early 1930s and the ‘lessons’ of the wider discourse on propaganda eventually led to a hesitant yet fateful process of re-thinking on these issues within government and democratic circles.Less
This chapter investigates how republican political elites participated in the discourse discussed in Chapter 7, and how they attempted to devise a more democratic form of public relations distinct from the negative connotations of ‘propaganda’ reverberating after the excesses of the war. The attempt to devise a rational form of democratic ‘instruction’ is discussed. The chapter then analyses the challenge posed by the aggressive and in many ways cutting-edge image campaigns of the radical anti-republican movements, especially the National Socialists, and how both the deepening crisis of the early 1930s and the ‘lessons’ of the wider discourse on propaganda eventually led to a hesitant yet fateful process of re-thinking on these issues within government and democratic circles.
Melinda Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780823285716
- eISBN:
- 9780823288793
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823285716.003.0005
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Economy
After almost a decade of punishing austerity and social-democratic paralysis, the electoral success of the far right appears as a real and credible threat across Europe. This chapter focuses on the ...
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After almost a decade of punishing austerity and social-democratic paralysis, the electoral success of the far right appears as a real and credible threat across Europe. This chapter focuses on the resurgence of a specifically anti-neoliberal or national-social far right in Europe today and investigates its complex relationship with a hitherto hegemonic neoliberal far right. This resurgent anti-capitalist far right has obvious affinities with the German conservative revolution of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialism of the Third Reich. But it also has more proximate origins in the French Nouvelle Droite of the late 1960s, which very rapidly distinguished itself through its opposition to neoliberal economics and its mimetic relationship to the new left. This chapter looks at the disquieting parallels between the German debt deflation of the 1930s and the long aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis today. It then turns to the complex relations between the pro-neoliberal and anti-neoliberal factions in the European far right, focusing in particular on the key influence of the French intellectual Alain de Benoist in articulating an anti-capitalist neofascism for the twenty-first century. The chapter argues that the left needs to take the anti-capitalist far right more seriously than it often does.Less
After almost a decade of punishing austerity and social-democratic paralysis, the electoral success of the far right appears as a real and credible threat across Europe. This chapter focuses on the resurgence of a specifically anti-neoliberal or national-social far right in Europe today and investigates its complex relationship with a hitherto hegemonic neoliberal far right. This resurgent anti-capitalist far right has obvious affinities with the German conservative revolution of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialism of the Third Reich. But it also has more proximate origins in the French Nouvelle Droite of the late 1960s, which very rapidly distinguished itself through its opposition to neoliberal economics and its mimetic relationship to the new left. This chapter looks at the disquieting parallels between the German debt deflation of the 1930s and the long aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis today. It then turns to the complex relations between the pro-neoliberal and anti-neoliberal factions in the European far right, focusing in particular on the key influence of the French intellectual Alain de Benoist in articulating an anti-capitalist neofascism for the twenty-first century. The chapter argues that the left needs to take the anti-capitalist far right more seriously than it often does.
Ulrike Ehret
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079436
- eISBN:
- 9781781702017
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079436.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The Catholic right has been a stepchild of historical research into German conservatism and its relationship to National Socialism. The antisemitism of the Catholic right was certainly the most ...
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The Catholic right has been a stepchild of historical research into German conservatism and its relationship to National Socialism. The antisemitism of the Catholic right was certainly the most virulent form of Jew-hatred amongst Catholics in Weimar Germany. The German National People's Party (DNVP) would express its hope for an ‘unconditional denominational peace’ and stress the need for Germany's rebirth in a Christian spirit, and for a German culture and economy based on a ‘true Christian-religious worldview’. The antisemitism expressed across the network of the Catholic right was an amalgam of Christian, cultural and Darwinian anti-Jewish sentiments and reflects their Catholic faith and their discontent with the political and economic changes in Germany. The organisations of the Rechtskatholiken and Distributism worked with similar methods for the same aim: Christian national re-education. Negative images of Jews remained an unfailing part of the public discourse in both Catholic communities.Less
The Catholic right has been a stepchild of historical research into German conservatism and its relationship to National Socialism. The antisemitism of the Catholic right was certainly the most virulent form of Jew-hatred amongst Catholics in Weimar Germany. The German National People's Party (DNVP) would express its hope for an ‘unconditional denominational peace’ and stress the need for Germany's rebirth in a Christian spirit, and for a German culture and economy based on a ‘true Christian-religious worldview’. The antisemitism expressed across the network of the Catholic right was an amalgam of Christian, cultural and Darwinian anti-Jewish sentiments and reflects their Catholic faith and their discontent with the political and economic changes in Germany. The organisations of the Rechtskatholiken and Distributism worked with similar methods for the same aim: Christian national re-education. Negative images of Jews remained an unfailing part of the public discourse in both Catholic communities.
A. J. Nicholls
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208525
- eISBN:
- 9780191678059
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208525.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter explores the concept of neo-liberalism and its alternatives. Adolf Hilter's accession to power in January 1933 underlined the impotence of the economics profession in the face of the ...
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This chapter explores the concept of neo-liberalism and its alternatives. Adolf Hilter's accession to power in January 1933 underlined the impotence of the economics profession in the face of the world economic crisis, since the liberal viewpoint was entirely bleak. Although Nazi economic policy was soon run by the apparently ‘respectable’ Hjalmar Schacht, it involved increased cartel regulation in the domestic market and stringent controls over foreign trade. Capitalism and the anarchy of the market were blamed for the depression. The Nazis damaged the German universities by dismissing or forcing staff to leave, and the professional bodies representing staff and the student organizations were also put under Nazi control. The phenomenon of the Third Reich strengthened neo-liberals' aversion to violence, national egoism, and power-worship, and also tended to weaken their fastidious attitude towards the masses and political democracy. Neo-liberal intellectuals continued to seek their ‘middle way’ between laissez-faire and collectivism, operating under adverse circumstances and sometimes in isolation from one another. The aftermath of the Great Depression revealed how unplanned and chaotic Germany's capitalist system was.Less
This chapter explores the concept of neo-liberalism and its alternatives. Adolf Hilter's accession to power in January 1933 underlined the impotence of the economics profession in the face of the world economic crisis, since the liberal viewpoint was entirely bleak. Although Nazi economic policy was soon run by the apparently ‘respectable’ Hjalmar Schacht, it involved increased cartel regulation in the domestic market and stringent controls over foreign trade. Capitalism and the anarchy of the market were blamed for the depression. The Nazis damaged the German universities by dismissing or forcing staff to leave, and the professional bodies representing staff and the student organizations were also put under Nazi control. The phenomenon of the Third Reich strengthened neo-liberals' aversion to violence, national egoism, and power-worship, and also tended to weaken their fastidious attitude towards the masses and political democracy. Neo-liberal intellectuals continued to seek their ‘middle way’ between laissez-faire and collectivism, operating under adverse circumstances and sometimes in isolation from one another. The aftermath of the Great Depression revealed how unplanned and chaotic Germany's capitalist system was.
Ingo Farin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262034012
- eISBN:
- 9780262334631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262034012.003.0019
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter situates the Black Notebooks within the relevant hermeneutical, i.e., historical and philosophical, situation in which they were written. It is argued that Heidegger’s involvement with ...
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This chapter situates the Black Notebooks within the relevant hermeneutical, i.e., historical and philosophical, situation in which they were written. It is argued that Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism is a short-lived episode, based on his initial hopes in the charismatic Führer, but with little ideological overlap between Heidegger’s themes and official Nazi programs and policies. The Black Notebooks show how Heidegger’s growing disaffection with and criticism of National Socialism leads to his signature critique of metaphysical subjectivism as the crucial problem of modernity. Contra Trawny, it is argued that Heidegger developed no systematic or “ontohistorical anti-Semitism,” although a certain kind of non-racially based cultural anti-Semitism does seep into his texts. Philosophically speaking, the Black Notebooks show how Heidegger gradually frees himself from metaphysical thinking and eventually abandons the key-focus on the historical in favour of the topological domain of being.Less
This chapter situates the Black Notebooks within the relevant hermeneutical, i.e., historical and philosophical, situation in which they were written. It is argued that Heidegger’s involvement with National Socialism is a short-lived episode, based on his initial hopes in the charismatic Führer, but with little ideological overlap between Heidegger’s themes and official Nazi programs and policies. The Black Notebooks show how Heidegger’s growing disaffection with and criticism of National Socialism leads to his signature critique of metaphysical subjectivism as the crucial problem of modernity. Contra Trawny, it is argued that Heidegger developed no systematic or “ontohistorical anti-Semitism,” although a certain kind of non-racially based cultural anti-Semitism does seep into his texts. Philosophically speaking, the Black Notebooks show how Heidegger gradually frees himself from metaphysical thinking and eventually abandons the key-focus on the historical in favour of the topological domain of being.
Julie Thorpe
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079672
- eISBN:
- 9781781703199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079672.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter maps the dynamics that characterized the pan-Germanism project's efforts at garnering support and simulating nationalistic assimilative desires among German minorities abroad. Absolute ...
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This chapter maps the dynamics that characterized the pan-Germanism project's efforts at garnering support and simulating nationalistic assimilative desires among German minorities abroad. Absolute establishment of Germanic culture in the fatherland being the aim, the project also envisaged force purging or metamorphosis of non-German identities into the German culture. While some German-national elements displayed great skepticism vis-à-vis the extremes of the nascent National Socialism, all nationalists agreed that a genuine national movement, including National Socialism, would be instrumental in heralding German political unity. The intersections between state propaganda and policy on the one hand, and nationalist activism in the coordinated public sphere of the state on the other, show how Austrofascists and German nationalists each sought to define the particular and universal expressions of Austrian pan-German identity – Austria as a German state and Austria within the German nation – in the years before Anschluss.Less
This chapter maps the dynamics that characterized the pan-Germanism project's efforts at garnering support and simulating nationalistic assimilative desires among German minorities abroad. Absolute establishment of Germanic culture in the fatherland being the aim, the project also envisaged force purging or metamorphosis of non-German identities into the German culture. While some German-national elements displayed great skepticism vis-à-vis the extremes of the nascent National Socialism, all nationalists agreed that a genuine national movement, including National Socialism, would be instrumental in heralding German political unity. The intersections between state propaganda and policy on the one hand, and nationalist activism in the coordinated public sphere of the state on the other, show how Austrofascists and German nationalists each sought to define the particular and universal expressions of Austrian pan-German identity – Austria as a German state and Austria within the German nation – in the years before Anschluss.
Henning Grunwald
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199609048
- eISBN:
- 9780191744280
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609048.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Political History
What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an ...
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What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an exclusive focus on reactionary judges and a preoccupation with number-crunching verdicts has obscured precisely that aspect of trials most fascinating to contemporary observers: its drama. Drawing on untapped sources and material previously inaccessible in English, it shows how an innovative group of party lawyers transformed dry legal proceedings into spectacular ideological clashes. Supported by powerful party legal offices (hitherto almost entirely disregarded), they developed a sophisticated repertoire of techniques at the intersection of criminal law, politics, and public relations. Harnessing the emotional appeal of tens of thousands of trials, Communists and (emulating them) National Socialist institutionalized party legal aid in order to build their ideological communities. Defendants turned into martyrs, trials into performances of ideological self-sacrifice, and the courtroom into a ‘revolutionary stage’, as one prominent party lawyer put it. This political justice as ‘revolutionary stage’ powerfully impacted Weimar political culture. This book's argument about the theatricality of justice helps explain Weimar's demise but transcends interwar Germany. Trials were compelling not because they offered instruction about the revolutionary struggle, but because in a sense they were the revolutionary struggle, admittedly for the time being played out in the grit-your-teeth, clench-your-fist mode of the theatrical ‘as if’. The ideological struggle, their message ran, left no room for fairness, no possibility of a ‘neutral platform’: justice was unattainable until the Republic was destroyed.Less
What role did the courts play in the demise of Germany's first democracy and Hitler's rise to power? This book challenges the orthodox interpretation of Weimar political justice. It argues that an exclusive focus on reactionary judges and a preoccupation with number-crunching verdicts has obscured precisely that aspect of trials most fascinating to contemporary observers: its drama. Drawing on untapped sources and material previously inaccessible in English, it shows how an innovative group of party lawyers transformed dry legal proceedings into spectacular ideological clashes. Supported by powerful party legal offices (hitherto almost entirely disregarded), they developed a sophisticated repertoire of techniques at the intersection of criminal law, politics, and public relations. Harnessing the emotional appeal of tens of thousands of trials, Communists and (emulating them) National Socialist institutionalized party legal aid in order to build their ideological communities. Defendants turned into martyrs, trials into performances of ideological self-sacrifice, and the courtroom into a ‘revolutionary stage’, as one prominent party lawyer put it. This political justice as ‘revolutionary stage’ powerfully impacted Weimar political culture. This book's argument about the theatricality of justice helps explain Weimar's demise but transcends interwar Germany. Trials were compelling not because they offered instruction about the revolutionary struggle, but because in a sense they were the revolutionary struggle, admittedly for the time being played out in the grit-your-teeth, clench-your-fist mode of the theatrical ‘as if’. The ideological struggle, their message ran, left no room for fairness, no possibility of a ‘neutral platform’: justice was unattainable until the Republic was destroyed.
Konrad H. Jarausch (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691140421
- eISBN:
- 9781400836321
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691140421.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This book is a collection of the World War II letters of Dr. Konrad Jarausch, a German high-school teacher of religion and history who served in a reserve battalion of Adolf Hitler's army in Poland ...
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This book is a collection of the World War II letters of Dr. Konrad Jarausch, a German high-school teacher of religion and history who served in a reserve battalion of Adolf Hitler's army in Poland and Russia, where he died of typhoid in 1942. He wrote most of these letters to his wife, Elisabeth. His son, the author of this book, brings them together here to tell the gripping story of a patriotic soldier of the Third Reich who, through witnessing its atrocities in the East, began to doubt the war's moral legitimacy. The letters grow increasingly critical, and their vivid descriptions of the mass deaths of Russian prisoners of war are chilling. They reveal the inner conflicts of ordinary Germans who became reluctant accomplices in Hitler's merciless war of annihilation, yet sometimes managed to discover a shared humanity with its suffering victims, a bond that could transcend race, nationalism, and the enmity of war. The book is also the powerful story of the son, who for decades refused to come to grips with these letters because he abhorred his father's nationalist politics. Only now, late in his life, is he able to cope with their contents—and he is by no means alone. The book provides rare insight into the so-called children of the war, an entire generation of postwar Germans who grew up resenting their past, but who today must finally face the painful legacy of their parents' complicity in National Socialism.Less
This book is a collection of the World War II letters of Dr. Konrad Jarausch, a German high-school teacher of religion and history who served in a reserve battalion of Adolf Hitler's army in Poland and Russia, where he died of typhoid in 1942. He wrote most of these letters to his wife, Elisabeth. His son, the author of this book, brings them together here to tell the gripping story of a patriotic soldier of the Third Reich who, through witnessing its atrocities in the East, began to doubt the war's moral legitimacy. The letters grow increasingly critical, and their vivid descriptions of the mass deaths of Russian prisoners of war are chilling. They reveal the inner conflicts of ordinary Germans who became reluctant accomplices in Hitler's merciless war of annihilation, yet sometimes managed to discover a shared humanity with its suffering victims, a bond that could transcend race, nationalism, and the enmity of war. The book is also the powerful story of the son, who for decades refused to come to grips with these letters because he abhorred his father's nationalist politics. Only now, late in his life, is he able to cope with their contents—and he is by no means alone. The book provides rare insight into the so-called children of the war, an entire generation of postwar Germans who grew up resenting their past, but who today must finally face the painful legacy of their parents' complicity in National Socialism.
Ulrike Ehret
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719079436
- eISBN:
- 9781781702017
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719079436.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter describes how the ‘Jewish question’ and its ‘solution’ were defined in Catholic publications. The call to strengthen Christian values in the modern age and the call to convert the Jews ...
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This chapter describes how the ‘Jewish question’ and its ‘solution’ were defined in Catholic publications. The call to strengthen Christian values in the modern age and the call to convert the Jews were the most common solutions offered in English Catholic newspapers. The Tablet, the Catholic Times and the Catholic Herald did not change their view that the Jews brought their fate upon themselves, despite anger at the brutality of the pogrom. The Gelben Hefte did not share the self-restraint that the papers of political Catholicism tried to practise. National Socialism could tap into a stream of antisemitic stereotypes that were popular and common since the First World War. Most literature on Catholic antisemitism asserts that racial antisemitism was firmly rejected by Catholics. Generally, this discussion shows the nature of anti-Jewish prejudices and times and occasions when the intensity of antisemitic articles was specifically high.Less
This chapter describes how the ‘Jewish question’ and its ‘solution’ were defined in Catholic publications. The call to strengthen Christian values in the modern age and the call to convert the Jews were the most common solutions offered in English Catholic newspapers. The Tablet, the Catholic Times and the Catholic Herald did not change their view that the Jews brought their fate upon themselves, despite anger at the brutality of the pogrom. The Gelben Hefte did not share the self-restraint that the papers of political Catholicism tried to practise. National Socialism could tap into a stream of antisemitic stereotypes that were popular and common since the First World War. Most literature on Catholic antisemitism asserts that racial antisemitism was firmly rejected by Catholics. Generally, this discussion shows the nature of anti-Jewish prejudices and times and occasions when the intensity of antisemitic articles was specifically high.
Anthony Kauders
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206316
- eISBN:
- 9780191677076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206316.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
This chapter qualifies statements regarding Adolf Hitler's supposed lack of interest in the ‘Jewish question’ towards the end of the Republic. Not only do such arguments overlook what happened at ...
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This chapter qualifies statements regarding Adolf Hitler's supposed lack of interest in the ‘Jewish question’ towards the end of the Republic. Not only do such arguments overlook what happened at local and regional levels, where National Socialists continued their campaign against the Jews, they also ignore the fact that ‘saturation’ can set in fairly early for an electorate to believe in the contents of a given piece of propaganda. The chapter then attempts to recapitulate some of the developments which led to this confidence on Hitler's part. It is divided into four sections, the first giving an account of the more general attitudes towards the ‘Jewish question’ in both cities, the second discussing possible explanations for differences in approach, the third assessing the extent to which both cities were representative of Germany at large, and the fourth offering concluding remarks on the implications of the discussions above.Less
This chapter qualifies statements regarding Adolf Hitler's supposed lack of interest in the ‘Jewish question’ towards the end of the Republic. Not only do such arguments overlook what happened at local and regional levels, where National Socialists continued their campaign against the Jews, they also ignore the fact that ‘saturation’ can set in fairly early for an electorate to believe in the contents of a given piece of propaganda. The chapter then attempts to recapitulate some of the developments which led to this confidence on Hitler's part. It is divided into four sections, the first giving an account of the more general attitudes towards the ‘Jewish question’ in both cities, the second discussing possible explanations for differences in approach, the third assessing the extent to which both cities were representative of Germany at large, and the fourth offering concluding remarks on the implications of the discussions above.
George Michael
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813033501
- eISBN:
- 9780813038698
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813033501.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter examines the far right's disillusionment with Christianity, which originally commenced in Germany and Austria in the early part of the twentieth century, but later spread to America ...
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This chapter examines the far right's disillusionment with Christianity, which originally commenced in Germany and Austria in the early part of the twentieth century, but later spread to America after World War II. Over the past few decades, other non-Christian religions have gained currency. Increasingly, Aryan revolutionaries in both North America and Europe are adopting neopaganism as their new religion. This development is suggestive of a trend in which the far right has moved away from mainstream Christianity. Arguably, there is an inherent tension between contemporary Christianity and some variants of right-wing extremism. To better understand the influence of non-Christian religions on the contemporary extreme right, this chapter examines the events surrounding the rise of the Third Reich. Not only did various neopagan and nature cults influence National Socialism, but the historical period of the Third Reich looms large in the mythos of contemporary rightist pagans and Creators as well.Less
This chapter examines the far right's disillusionment with Christianity, which originally commenced in Germany and Austria in the early part of the twentieth century, but later spread to America after World War II. Over the past few decades, other non-Christian religions have gained currency. Increasingly, Aryan revolutionaries in both North America and Europe are adopting neopaganism as their new religion. This development is suggestive of a trend in which the far right has moved away from mainstream Christianity. Arguably, there is an inherent tension between contemporary Christianity and some variants of right-wing extremism. To better understand the influence of non-Christian religions on the contemporary extreme right, this chapter examines the events surrounding the rise of the Third Reich. Not only did various neopagan and nature cults influence National Socialism, but the historical period of the Third Reich looms large in the mythos of contemporary rightist pagans and Creators as well.
