scholarly journals Een protestantse Flamenpolitik? Otto Bölke - dominee, heemkundige, Jongvlaams propagandist

2013 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-327
Author(s):  
Winfried Dolderer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Local History ◽  
World War ◽  
Far Right ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Political Radicalism ◽  
First World

De Duitse dominee Otto Bölke (1873 – 1946) was geboren en werkzaam op de Fläming, een streek ten zuidwesten van Berlijn die in de middeleeuwen door inwijkelingen onder meer uit Vlaanderen en Nederland was gekoloniseerd. De vermeende Nederlandse afkomst van zijn voorouders heeft hem levenslang geïntrigeerd en aangezet tot een intense heemkundige bedrijvigheid alsmede een vroegtijdige belangstelling voor de Vlaamse beweging. Vanuit die belangstelling ontbolsterde Bölke zich tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog tot propagandist van de Flamenpolitik. Hij was betrokken bij een netwerk van Duitse sympathisanten van de meest radicale, Jongvlaamse variant van het activisme. De stichting van België kwam voor hem neer op een ‘verovering’ door de franstaligen; de Belgische staat noemde hij een ‘fabriek’ tot Romanisering van de Germaanse bevolking. Met Domela Nieuwenhuis maakte Bölke begin 1917 in Berlijn kennis. Domela leefde in onmin met het burgerlijke bezettingsbestuur, maar beschikte over Duitse vrienden in militaire evenals uiterst rechtse annexionistische kringen aan wie hij tot op het laatst verknocht bleef, De talrijke protestantse dominee's in dit netwerk waardeerden niet alleen de Nederlandse ambtsbroeder, maar evenzeer zijn politiek radicalisme dat strookte met hun eigen antidemocratisch conservatisme. Bölke toonde na de oorlog belangstelling voor het Vlaams nationalisme en kwam uiteindelijk in nationaalsocialistisch vaarwater terecht. Hij was een typische vertegenwoordiger van een Duits-nationaal protestantisme dat uit het keizerrijk doorgroeide tot in het Derde Rijk. ________ A Protestant Flamenpolitik (Flemish policy)? Otto Bölke – protestant pastor, expert on local history, propagandist of the Young FlemishThe German pastor Otto Bölke (1873 – 1946) was born and worked in the Fläming, a region southwest of Berlin, that had been colonised during the Middle Ages by immigrants from areas including Flanders and the Netherlands. The supposed Dutch origin of his ancestors intrigued him throughout his life and inspired his profound interest in local history as well as his early interest in the Flemish Movement.During the First World War that interest turned Bölke into a propagandist of the Flamenpolitik. He was involved in a network of German sympathizers of the most radical Young Flemish version of the activism. He considered the foundation of Belgium the equivalent of a ‘conquest’ by French speakers. He described the Belgian state as a ‘factory for romanising the Germanic population.’ Bölke made the acquaintance of Domela Nieuwenhuis in Berlin at the beginning of 1917. Domela was at odds with the civilian occupying administration but had German friends at his disposal in military as well as far right circles favouring annexation, to whom he remained attached until the end. The numerous Protestant pastors in this network valued not only their Dutch colleague, but also his political radicalism that reflected their own antidemocratic conservatism.  After the war Bölke was interested in Flemish nationalism and finally ended up in the National Socialist arena. He was a typical representative of a German national Protestantism that evolved from the Empire to the Third Reich.

From illusion to destruction: the Germanic bid for world power, 1897–1945

1976 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Biddiss
Keyword(s):  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
First World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
The Third ◽  
World Power ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
First World

Over the last two decades none has done more than Fritz Fischer to compel major reinterpretation of German ambitions between the 1890s and the end of the Third Reich. In 1959–60 this Hamburg historian published two articles that hinted at the coming storm. It broke dramatically in 1961 with the appearance of his huge Griff nach der Weltmacht This densely documented treatment of Germany's objectives in the First World War was striking enough to become before long the object of official displeasure at Bonn. Nor did Fischer's thesis win any easy support from professional colleagues, who argued bitterly about it during the 1964 German Historical Convention. Its still wider impact was clear from the deliberations of the International Historical Congress held at Vienna in 1965. That same year saw the publication of Fischer's Weltmacht oder Niedergang, a brief volume in rebuttal of criticism, and soon scholars in many countries were swelling the tide of relevant literature. By 1969 this included Kreig der Illusionen in which Fischer greatly amplified his original arguments. All three books are, at last, available in English. The translation of Griff nach der Weltmacht dates from 1967, but only lately have the other two been similarly treated. It seems appropriate to review these alongside recent works by Dr John Moses, on Fischer's revolutionary place in a national historiographical tradition, and by Professor Norman Rich, on the German aims associated with the war that broke out in 1939.

From Second to Third Reich: The Problem of Continuity in German Foreign Policy

1979 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konrad H. Jarausch
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
German History ◽  
Political Repression ◽  
World War ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
German People ◽  
Nazi Era ◽  
First World

Ever since Heraklites' dictum “panta rhei,” historians have debated the relative priority of continuity and change. Although Nazi and Allied propagandists saw the Third Reich as the fulfillment of earlier traditions, postwar scholars stressed the unprecedented nature of its genocide, political repression, and external aggression. Sensitive to charges of “collective guilt,” many German historians preferred to see the Nazi era as something sui generis, an aberration from and not the culmination of German history. Handicapped by language, culture, and access to sources, American scholars often tended to concentrate on problems and themes within one of several airtight compartments such as the Wilhelmian Empire, Weimar Republic, or Third Reich. Because of efforts to restore the “historical consciousness of [the German] people,” the critical implications of Ludwig Dehio's and Hajo Holborn's revisionism were largely ignored. Hence the scholarly community reacted with anger and disbelief when Fritz Fischer drew attention first to the continuity of German expansionism and then to the continuity of historical apologetics in his provocative book on German Aims in the First World War.

Hitler, for Example: Registers of National Socialist Exemplarity in Contemporary Germany

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Nitzan Shoshan
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Moral Values ◽  
Moral Life ◽  
Far Right ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Moral Exemplars ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
The Third Reich

Abstract This article examines whether and how the figure of Adolf Hitler in particular, and National Socialism more generally, operate as moral exemplars in today’s Germany. In conversation with similar studies about Mosely in England, Franco in Spain, and Mussolini in Italy, it seeks to advance our comparative understanding of neofascism in Europe and beyond. In Germany, legal and discursive constraints limit what can be said about the Third Reich period, while even far-right nationalists often condemn Hitler, for either the Holocaust or his military failure. Here I revise the concept of moral exemplarity as elaborated by Caroline Humphry to argue that Hitler and National Socialism do nevertheless work as contemporary exemplars, in at least three fashions: negativity, substitution, and extension. First, they stand as the most extreme markers of negative exemplarity for broad publics that understand them as illustrations of absolute moral depravity. Second, while Hitler himself is widely unpopular, Führer-substitutes such as Rudolf Hess provide alternative figures that German nationalists admire and seek to emulate. Finally, by extension to the realm of the ordinary, National Socialism introduces a cast of exemplars in the figures of loving grandfathers or anonymous fallen soldiers. The moral values for which they stand, I show, appear to be particularly significant for young nationalists. An extended, more open-ended notion of exemplarity, I conclude, can offer important insights about the lingering afterlife of fascist figures in the moral life of European nationalists today.

scholarly journals THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF LEGAL AND REGULATORY LEGISLATION ON PRESERVATION OF HEALTH IN QUARANTINE CONDITIONS

2021 ◽  
pp. 465-468
Author(s):  
Oksana Shukatka ◽  
Illya Kryvoruchko
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
First World War ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
First World

The article raises an issue of preservation and strengthening health in pandemic conditions, because self-isolation and restrictions on the movement of people cause the loss of physical activity and the emergence of chronic diseases. It is known that all quarantine restrictions and rules are being created and regulated by the state at the legislative level. We appeal to the primary sources of quarantine legislation for deeper understanding of the issue. The purpose of the article is to investigate the historical background of legal and regulatory legislation on preservation of health in quarantine conditions. The following methods of analysis have been used: comparison and synthesis of theoretical data. The period of formation of quarantine legislation is divided into 3 phases: the period of the Middle Ages, the period before the First World War (the 19th century) and the postwar period. The article investigates the history of conduction of the first quarantine measures in Europe during the Middle Ages and the history of creation of the first quarantine legislation in Venice, Hetmanshchyna and the Russian Empire during the 14th – 18th centuries. It has been revealed that the rules of the fight against the spread of epidemiological diseases were established in the 19th century, the first international sanitary conventions and medical authorities in the Russian and Ottoman Empires were created to slow the spread of such dangerous diseases as cholera, plague and yellow fever, not harming the free international trade at that time. The article analyses the results of the first (1851), the fourth (1874) and the seventh (1892) International Sanitary Conferences and the positive and negative consequences of them. It also describes the creation of the first international medical organisations, such as the Office International d'Hygiène Publique (L'Office International d'Hygiene Publique), established in 1907, the Health Organization of the League of Nations, established in 1923 after the First World War, the Hygiene Committee of the League of Nations, established in 1926, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), established in April, 7, 1948 as the medical authority of the United Nations Organisation. The article generalizes the aims of the above-mentioned organisations and their contribution to the combat against the epidemiological diseases of the first half of the 20th century. It has been concluded that we should adhere to the classical principles of the preservation of health in the conditions of coronavirus pandemic to effectively withstand the spread of this virus.

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