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Sophia
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http://www.btinternet.com/~j.pasteur/Voelkisch.html
VÃÆ’¶lkisch Bewegung
'VÃÆ’¶lkische Movement':
Ideological groups, unions, societies and federations,
most of which were founded immediately
after the First World War (1914-1918),
and which had a strong influence on the
practical political programme
of Adolf Hitler and the National-Socialists.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The closest equivalent English word for the term vÃÆ’¶lkisch is 'national,'
but in German the
word means more than just national.
It includes the eagerness to cultivate the features typical
of the nation and at the same time eliminate the material
and spiritual influences of other peoples or cultures.
Similar 'nationalistic-patriotic' organisations
had come into being during the imperial
Wilhelmine
era following the beginning of the Kulturkampf.
Following the Vatican's 1870 decrees advocating 'Ultramontanism'
(belief in the ultimate authority of the Papacy above that of loyalty to the State)
and the creation of an anti-Prussian Catholic Centre Party,
anti-Catholic 'Falk Laws' were passed by Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck
in May 1873 to subject the Church to State regimentation,
thus reinforcing the State's - and not the Church's -
prior claim on citizens' obedience.
The Laws seriously limited Catholics' rights in Wilhelmine Germany.
However, n
egotiations with Pope Leo XIII led to a relaxation
of the Laws and to a restoration of Catholics' rights in 1887.
Quasi-romantic societies such as the All-Deutsch Verein
(Pan-German League)
and the Ostm
arkverein (Eastern Provinces Association)
stressed vÃÆ’¶lkisch ideas during this time.
By the end of the First World War there were around
seventy-five vÃÆ’¶lkisch organisations workin
g within the Weimar Republic
on behalf of a feverish nationalist extremism.
The movement advocated race mysticism, pseudo-biology/science,
romantic yearning for a mythical Volksgemeinschaft
of past Germanic rural life, and anti-Semitism.
Its literature emphasized the idea of recasting history
as a primeval battle between the pastoral blond Nordic hero
and the urban parasitic J*w.
The later Nazi concept of Blut und Boden
found its origins in the vÃÆ’¶lkisch view of a pastoral Germanic past,
urging 'good German Aryan
students' to do rural labour service as
a patriotic duty.
The vÃÆ’¶lkisch movement provided the historical roots
and constituted the organisational as well
as the ideological starting point of N
ational-Socialism.
In MÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡¼nchen Hitler was deeply impressed by, particularly,
the Thule GeÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’Ãâ┚¬ ’ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬� ’ÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’â┚¬¦Ãƒ¢Ã¢”š¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�Å¡¸ellschaft,
the local group of the German VÃÆ’¶lkisch Protection and Defence League,
which included among its members Gottfried Feder
and Alfre
d Rosenberg, and only slightly less so the Tatkreis.
Point 19 of Hitler's Twenty-five Points of the NSDAP's
political programme demanded the abolition of Roman Law -
seen as 'a foreign importation beneficial only to the rich man
and his paid lackey, the lawyer' -
and its replacement by Germanic law.
At the same time, as a political propagandist,
he made certain to dissociate National-Socialism from the typical
vÃÆ’¶lkisch clubs,
which he regarded as sectarian groups run by bourgeois philistines.
The older vÃÆ’¶lkisch movement, he said, did not understand
that an idea had no value as long as it was not turned into action.
He himself would take a sterile and powerless idea
and transform it by the use of political power.
In essence this was the theme of Hitler's care
er.
The FÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡¼hrer himself, however,
wanted no independent-minded individuals
among the rightist ÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡©lite
any more than among his leftist enemies.
Many of the vÃÆ’¶lkisch groups had either merged with others
before Hitler's ascension to power in 1933,
or were absorbed into the NSDAP by 1936
during the Gleichschaltung ('Co-ordination'),
most members ha
ving already joined the Nazi Party.
Curiously, many of the American ultra-right groups
of the late-20th Century similarly advocate vÃÆ’¶lkisch ideas:
anti-democracy, anti-liberalism, anti-capitalism, anti-immigration,
and above all Aryan or Nordic 'racial superiority' over all other races,
as well as anti-Semitism at the heart of the notion of an
'historical struggle between the pastoral blond Nordic hero
and the urban parasitic J*w' ....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main sources:
Macmillan Dictionary of Historical Terms (The Macmillan Press Ltd.,
1983)
Dr. Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich (McGraw-Hill I
nc., 1976)
A.J. Nicholls, "Germany" in S.J. Woolf (ed.), Fascism in Europe. (Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1981), pp. 65-91.
http://www.btinternet.com/~j.pasteur/Voelkisch.html
VÃÆ’¶lkisch Bewegung
'VÃÆ’¶lkische Movement':
Ideological groups, unions, societies and federations,
most of which were founded immediately
after the First World War (1914-1918),
and which had a strong influence on the
practical political programme
of Adolf Hitler and the National-Socialists.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The closest equivalent English word for the term vÃÆ’¶lkisch is 'national,'
but in German the
word means more than just national.
It includes the eagerness to cultivate the features typical
of the nation and at the same time eliminate the material
and spiritual influences of other peoples or cultures.
Similar 'nationalistic-patriotic' organisations
had come into being during the imperial
Wilhelmine
era following the beginning of the Kulturkampf.
Following the Vatican's 1870 decrees advocating 'Ultramontanism'
(belief in the ultimate authority of the Papacy above that of loyalty to the State)
and the creation of an anti-Prussian Catholic Centre Party,
anti-Catholic 'Falk Laws' were passed by Reichskanzler Otto von Bismarck
in May 1873 to subject the Church to State regimentation,
thus reinforcing the State's - and not the Church's -
prior claim on citizens' obedience.
The Laws seriously limited Catholics' rights in Wilhelmine Germany.
However, n
egotiations with Pope Leo XIII led to a relaxation
of the Laws and to a restoration of Catholics' rights in 1887.
Quasi-romantic societies such as the All-Deutsch Verein
(Pan-German League)
and the Ostm
arkverein (Eastern Provinces Association)
stressed vÃÆ’¶lkisch ideas during this time.
By the end of the First World War there were around
seventy-five vÃÆ’¶lkisch organisations workin
g within the Weimar Republic
on behalf of a feverish nationalist extremism.
The movement advocated race mysticism, pseudo-biology/science,
romantic yearning for a mythical Volksgemeinschaft
of past Germanic rural life, and anti-Semitism.
Its literature emphasized the idea of recasting history
as a primeval battle between the pastoral blond Nordic hero
and the urban parasitic J*w.
The later Nazi concept of Blut und Boden
found its origins in the vÃÆ’¶lkisch view of a pastoral Germanic past,
urging 'good German Aryan
students' to do rural labour service as
a patriotic duty.
The vÃÆ’¶lkisch movement provided the historical roots
and constituted the organisational as well
as the ideological starting point of N
ational-Socialism.
In MÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡¼nchen Hitler was deeply impressed by, particularly,
the Thule GeÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’Ãâ┚¬ ’ÃƒÔ ’â┚¬� ’ÃƒÔ ’Ô� ’â┚¬¦Ãƒ¢Ã¢”š¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�Å¡¸ellschaft,
the local group of the German VÃÆ’¶lkisch Protection and Defence League,
which included among its members Gottfried Feder
and Alfre
d Rosenberg, and only slightly less so the Tatkreis.
Point 19 of Hitler's Twenty-five Points of the NSDAP's
political programme demanded the abolition of Roman Law -
seen as 'a foreign importation beneficial only to the rich man
and his paid lackey, the lawyer' -
and its replacement by Germanic law.
At the same time, as a political propagandist,
he made certain to dissociate National-Socialism from the typical
vÃÆ’¶lkisch clubs,
which he regarded as sectarian groups run by bourgeois philistines.
The older vÃÆ’¶lkisch movement, he said, did not understand
that an idea had no value as long as it was not turned into action.
He himself would take a sterile and powerless idea
and transform it by the use of political power.
In essence this was the theme of Hitler's care
er.
The FÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡¼hrer himself, however,
wanted no independent-minded individuals
among the rightist ÃÆ’ Ô�Å¡©lite
any more than among his leftist enemies.
Many of the vÃÆ’¶lkisch groups had either merged with others
before Hitler's ascension to power in 1933,
or were absorbed into the NSDAP by 1936
during the Gleichschaltung ('Co-ordination'),
most members ha
ving already joined the Nazi Party.
Curiously, many of the American ultra-right groups
of the late-20th Century similarly advocate vÃÆ’¶lkisch ideas:
anti-democracy, anti-liberalism, anti-capitalism, anti-immigration,
and above all Aryan or Nordic 'racial superiority' over all other races,
as well as anti-Semitism at the heart of the notion of an
'historical struggle between the pastoral blond Nordic hero
and the urban parasitic J*w' ....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Main sources:
Macmillan Dictionary of Historical Terms (The Macmillan Press Ltd.,
1983)
Dr. Louis L. Snyder, Encyclopedia of the Third Reich (McGraw-Hill I
nc., 1976)
A.J. Nicholls, "Germany" in S.J. Woolf (ed.), Fascism in Europe. (Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1981), pp. 65-91.