Imagining a Greater Germany

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin R. Hochman
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
Political Right

This book looks at the questions of state- and nation-building in interwar Central Europe. Ever since Hitler annexed his native Austria to Germany in 1938, the term “Anschluss” has been linked to Nazi expansionism. The legacy of Nazism has cast a long shadow not only over the idea of the union of German-speaking lands but also over German nationalism in general. Due to the horrors unleashed by the Third Reich, German nationalism has seemed virulently exclusionary, and Anschluss inherently antidemocratic. However, as the text makes clear, nationalism and the desire to redraw Germany's boundaries were not solely the prerogatives of the political right. Focusing on the supporters of the embattled Weimar and First Austrian Republics, this book argues that support for an Anschluss and belief in the großdeutsch idea (the historical notion that Germany should include Austria) were central to republicans' persistent attempts to legitimize democracy. With appeals to a großdeutsch tradition, republicans fiercely contested their opponents' claims that democracy and Germany, socialism and nationalism, Jew and German, were mutually exclusive categories. They aimed at nothing less than creating their own form of nationalism, one that stood in direct opposition to the destructive visions of the political right. By challenging the oft-cited distinction between “good” civic and “bad” ethnic nationalisms and drawing attention to the energetic efforts of republicans to create a cross-border partnership to defend democracy, the book emphasizes that the triumph of Nazi ideas about nationalism and politics was far from inevitable.

Issues Surrounding the Development of the Neo-Nazi Scene in East Berlin

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Brothers
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Culture ◽  
East Berlin ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich

The rise of neo-Nazism in the capital of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) was not inspired by a desire to recreate Hitler's Reich, but by youthful rebellion against the political and social culture of the GDR's Communist regime. This is detailed in Fuehrer-Ex: Memoirs of a Former Neo-Naxi by Ingo Hasselbach with Tom Reiss (Random House, New York, 1996). This movement, however, eventually worked towards returning Germany to its former 'glory' under the Third Reich under the guidance of 'professional' Nazis.

scholarly journals Neurosciences in the Third Reich: from Ivory Tower to Death Camps

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Shevell
Keyword(s):  
Medical Practice ◽  
Physical Disabilities ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Slippery Slope ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
The Political ◽  
Racial Hygiene ◽  
The Third ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
The Third Reich

Abstract: It is commonly thought that the horrific medical abuses occurring during the era of the Third Reich were limited to fringe physicians acting in extreme locales such as the concentration camps. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that there was a widespread perversion of medical practice and science that extended to mainstream academic physicians. Scientific thought, specifically the theories of racial hygiene, and the political conditions of a totalitarian dictatorship, acted symbiotically to devalue the intrinsic worth to society of those individuals with mental and physical disabilities. This devaluation served to foster the medical abuses which occurred. Neurosciences in the Third Reich serves as a backdrop to highlight what was the slippery slope of medical practice during that era. Points on this slippery slope included the “dejudification” of medicine, unethical experimentation in university clinics, systematic attempts to sterilize and euthanasize targeted populations, the academic use of specimens obtained through such programs and the experimental atrocities within the camps.

Der Schatten der Kierkegaard-Renaissance. Eine rezeptionsgeschichtliche Studie über die dezisionistisch-irrationalistischen Kierkegaard-Interpretationen zwischen den Weltkriegen in Deutschland

2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Keisuke Yoshida
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Interwar Period ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
The Third ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Third Reich

AbstractDuring the first half of the 20th century, especially between the two world wars, the German-speaking countries experienced the so-called Kierkegaard Renaissance. Although at that time a wide range of thinkers engaged with Kierkegaard’s writings, Georg Lukács and Theodor W. Adorno argue that Kierkegaard exercised a particularly strong influence on fascist thought. Furthermore, Wilfried Greve claims that Kierkegaard was widely interpreted in the decisionist-irrationalist fashion during the Third Reich, which resulted in the appropriation of Kierkegaard by the ideologues of National Socialism, particularly by Alfred Baeumler, a leading intellectual of National Socialism, and by Emanuel Hirsch, a leading theologian of the “German Christians” movement at the time. In the present article I examine historical examples of the decisionist-irrationalist Kierkegaard interpretation. Then I discuss Carl Schmitt’s appropriation of Kierkegaard and the critical responses to it from Karl Löwith and Norbert Bolz. This discussion leads to the conclusion that the decisionist-irrationalist Kierkegaard interpretation takes on an “occasionalistic” character and thereby willy nilly renders the arbitrary or accidental content of the decision absolute. It can be maintained that this “occasionalistic” character of the decisionistirrationalist interpretation paved the way for a Kierkegaard appropriation favored by fascist ideologues in the interwar period

Teaching in Vain

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Weimar Republic ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
German State ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Third Reich

This chapter traces Carl Schmitt’s attempt, in his 1932 book The Concept of the Political, to quell the near civil war circumstances of the late Weimar Republic and to reinvigorate the sovereignty of the German state through a reappropriation of Thomas Hobbes’s political philosophy. The chapter then examines Schmitt’s reconsideration of the Hobbesian state, and his own recent reformulation of it, in light of the rise of the “Third Reich,” with particular reference to Schmitt’s 1938 book The Leviathan in the State Theory of Thomas Hobbes.

scholarly journals The concept of “musical degeneration”: From fin-de-siècle pesimism to the nationalsocialist rule

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-252
Author(s):  
Maja Vasiljevic
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
History Of Ideas ◽  
Richard Wagner ◽  
Medical Terminology ◽  
The Third ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Given

The paper follows the discursive path of one of the dominant, and yet forgotten, terms in the history of ideas - that of ?degeneration.? The richness of uses and various illuminations of the term, as well as its discursive dispersion and blurring, can be seen from the mid 19th until the first decades of the 20th century. The term was almost inescapable in studies of thinkers from various fields starting in the middle of the 19th century, it was successfully adopted from French, Italian and British medical terminology into the art discourse of modern European societies. By focusing on music, the given term became permanently tied to thinking about relations of music and society in the German-speaking world. In a complex discursive development of the term, the author necessarily made certain choices, paying special attention to the Austro-Hungarian psychologists, Max Nordau who carried the concept of ?degeneration? from the medical to the art (and music) sphere. The debate regarding the ?degeneration of music,? was developed chronologically, starting from the Second Reich (being the time in which one of the most controversial composers lived, Richard Wagner). While Wagner developed a theory of ?degeneration? and its overcoming through ?regeneration,? he was still considered ?degenerated.? The given example reveals the complexity of the problem we face when we study the concept of ?degeneration of music.? The consideration is completed with a glance at the life of ?degenerated? musicians and music during the Weimar Republic, that is, their interpretation in the Third Reich.

scholarly journals Help of neutral countries in the return to life of the Women deportees from Ravensbrück camp. The Spanish Women case

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 024
Author(s):  
Rose Duroux
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Red Cross ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
Spanish Women ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
French Resistance

Nothing more usual than to find Spanish refugees of 1939 in the French Resistance as they continued their fight against fascism. Therefore, hundreds of Spaniards where caught in the nets of the Vichy Government and the Gestapo. They are imprisoned in the French jails (Toulouse, Montluc, Fresnes, Compiègne, etc.) alongside the French Resistant women. Both will be piled up in wagons to the camps of the Third Reich. Many ended at the women’s camp in Ravensbrück. Usually, the Spaniards were labelled “F”, “French”, because they were arrested in France. This “F” was part of the “red triangle” of the “political prisoners”. Some were even classified NN (Nacht und Nebel), i.e. called to disappear without a trace. As they were recognized by nobody (neither the French nor the Spaniards), this means: no mail, no parcels. They held on for life thanks to the links they forged randomly across blocks, satellite camps, languages, affinities... However, many died. For some of them, the release arrived in April 1944, thanks to “neutral” countries initiatives: in fact, a few Spanish women were able to slip into the Red Cross convoys transiting through Switzerland, which were initially reserved for French women. Others returned by Sweden. Others, finally, faced the apocalyptic evacuation of the camps of 1945 and the “marches of death”. We propose to study “the return to life” helps through some cases – obviously return to France since there could be no possible repatriation for these Spanish anti-fascist survivors, as the victory of the Allies did not affect General Franco’s power. After returning to France, this help continued for two or three years, in particular thanks to convalescent stays in Switzerland, Sweden and somewhere else, and thanks to one-off material contributions from the Swiss Grant (“Don suisse”) or from various organizations.

German Minorities and the Third Reich: Ethnic Germans of East Central Europe between the Wars

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Jay W. Baird ◽  
Anthony Komjathy ◽  
Rebecca Stockwell
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Third ◽  
Ethnic Germans ◽  
The Third Reich

Musicology in the "Third Reich": A Preliminary Report

2001 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 517-543 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anselm Gerhard
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
Music History ◽  
Shared Responsibility ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Third ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
National Heritage ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
National Orientation

Recent studies of musicology under the Nazi regime make it plausible to reach some conclusions, drawing particularly on four case studies: Heinrich Besseler, Friedrich Blume, Hans Joachim Moser, and (as a counterexample) Alfred Einstein. First, musicology is a small discipline and in 1933 was even smaller, making it particularly open to intrigue. Personal loyalties were more important than political and ideological ones; patriarchal teacher-student relations had more weight than factions born of clashes between rival groups within the National Socialist regime. Second, musicology is a decidedly German discipline: Into the 1930s, it existed as a university subject largely in the three German-speaking countries. A tradition of musicological scholarship that was firmly convinced of the preeminence of its own national heritage did not need to accommodate itself in the first place to the German jingoism of the National Socialists. On the contrary, scholars had perhaps more freedom because their national orientation could never seriously be doubted. Third, music as a conceptless art was not easily subsumed under "racial" and "vöölkisch" constructs. Many during the "third Reich" tried to explain European music history by drawing on the spirit of contemporary studies of race, but they often had to admit the difficulty if not the utter failure of the enterprise. In comparison with other disciplines it is noticeable that only those outside the university formulated overwhelmingly racist accounts of music history, and they could not pass muster with their nationalist or National Socialist colleagues. Finally, university musicologists, no less than their colleagues active in the Amt Rosenberg or in the Propagandaministerium, shared responsibility for a discourse of exclusion and vöölkisch terror both inside and outside the country. Culpability must be investigated individually, but a look at the field as a whole makes it possible to understand how after 1945, musicologists in the two Germanys and Austria could without difficulty resume work broken off before the final collapse of the National Socialist regime.

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