The Portrayal of Christianity in the History Textbooks of Nazi Germany

1980 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-445 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilmer W. Blackburn
Keyword(s):  
Normal Condition ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Divine Will ◽  
High Tension ◽  
Foreign Influence ◽  
National Spirit

The study of history in National Socialist Germany served a demolition function. Students were taught to recognize threats to their way of life, all of which were subsumed under Jewish internationalism and included Christianity, Marxism, democracy, liberalism and modernity. The history written by the Nazis undergirded an ersatz religion whose central theme was the German people's faltering attempts to obey the divine will of a racial deity. A major priority of Nazi educators was the liberation of the fierce Germanic instincts which more than a thousand years of foreign influence had repressed; and in their estimation, Christianity bore a major responsibility for blunting the expression of that Germanic spirit. The new German schools would help create a militarized society which would both purge the national spirit and promote the high-tension ethos which accepted war as a normal condition in a life of struggle.

Revolutionary Moment: Interpreting the Peasants' War in the Third Reich and in the German Democratic Republic

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-218
Author(s):  
Laurenz Müller
Keyword(s):  
Third Reich ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
West Germany ◽  
German History ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
National State ◽  
Organic Community ◽  
German Revolution ◽  
The Third Reich

History textbooks speak of an American, an English, a French, and a Russian revolution, but historians do not recognize a “German Revolution.” For this reason the formation of a German national state was long described as an aspect of a German “divergent path” (Sonderweg) or exceptionalism. While this concept established itself in post-1945 West Germany, German historical scholarship had even earlier insisted on a uniquely German transition from the Old Regime to the modern state, fundamentally different from what took place in the other western European countries. Still earlier, German idealist thinkers had declared the national state (Reich) to be the German people's historical objective. Around 1900 the Reich was understood to be not a rational community based on a contract between independent individuals, as were France and England, but a national community of destiny. The German ideal was not a republic split up into political parties but an organic community between the Reich's people and its rulers. This is why German history had never known a successful revolution from below. During the nineteenth and the early twentieth century, this alleged unity was seen in a positive light, but after 1945 it inspired an explanation, which quickly became canonical, of why German history had led to a catastrophe. German exceptionalism was now understood, especially by German social historians, as a one-way street toward the National Socialist regime.

Ambivalent Capitalists: The Roots of Fascist Ideology among Bohemian Nobles, 1880–1938

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eagle Glassheim
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Industrial Capitalism ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Modern Economic ◽  
Late Nineteenth

Although fascism has often been considered a plebeian, even radically egalitarian ideology, many of its outspoken proponents were members of the old European elite: nobles, clericalists and representatives of the haute bourgeoisie. Historians of Nazi Germany have puzzled over the affinity of German conservatives such as Paul von Hindenburg and Franz von Papen to Adolf Hitler's National Socialist version of fascism. A small but extremely wealthy noble elite struggled to maintain its long-standing social, economic and political influence in Bohemia. By the late nineteenth century, the Bohemian nobility was a self-consciously traditional social group with a decidedly modern economic relationship to agrarian and industrial capitalism. This chapter examines the response of the Bohemian aristocracy to the new state of Czechoslovakia. This restricted caste of cosmopolitan latifundist families was more German than Czech in sentiment, and further alienated by land reform. The aristocrats entertained divergent assessments of Nazism and responded in different ways to the crisis of the state by 1938.

Antijüdische Politik und deren Bewältigung. Das Wirken der Sozialversicherungsabteilung des Reichsarbeitsministeriums im „Dritten Reich“

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Alexander Klimo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Servants ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Anti Jewish

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag beleuchtet die Rolle der Rentenversicherungspolitik des Reichsarbeitsministeriums im „Dritten Reich“. Auf der einen Seite stellt er dar, wie die Rentenversicherung herangezogen worden ist, um zusätzliche Arbeitskräfte für den Arbeitseinsatz zu gewinnen. Dabei wurde die Rentenversicherung durch die Gesetzgebung des Reichsarbeitsministeriums komplett auf die Anforderungen des nationalsozialistischen Arbeitseinsatzes ausgerichtet. Auf der anderen Seite beleuchtet er die Diskriminierung von jüdischen Versicherten und Rentnern. Die zuständigen Beamten des Reichsarbeitsministeriums und der Rentenversicherungsträger besaßen umfangreiche Freiräume, um die Ziele des Regimes zu verfolgen und zu unterstützen. Die nach dem Krieg verfolgten Rechtfertigungsstrategien und die mangelhafte Aufarbeitung der eigenen Rolle im „Dritten Reich“ hinderten hohe Beamte der Sozialversicherung nicht daran, ihre Karrieren in der Sozialverwaltung der Bundesrepublik fortzuführen. Abstract Anti-Jewish policy and its coming to terms with the past. The work of the social security department of the Reich Ministry of Labour in Nazi Germany The article examines the pension insurance policy of the Reich Ministry of Labour in Nazi Germany. On the one hand, it shows how the pension insurance has been used to generate additional workforces for the labour market. The pension insurance was completely aligned by the legislation of the Reich Ministry of Labour on the requirements of the National Socialist labour service. On the other hand, it highlights discrimination against Jewish insurants and pensioners. The responsible civil servants of the Reich Ministry of Labour and the pension insurance providers used their possibilities to pursue and support the goals of the Nazi regime. The justification strategies pursued after the war and the inadequate working up of one’s own role in Nazi Germany did not preventhigh civil servants from continuing their careers in the social administration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

scholarly journals Neither Hitler nor Quisling: The Ragnarok Circle and Oppositional National Socialism in Norway

Fascism ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-133
Author(s):  
Terje Emberland
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Active Resistance ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Winter War

From 1935 to 1945, Ragnarok was the most radical national socialist publication in Norway. The Ragnarok Circle regarded themselves as representatives of a genuine National Socialism, deeply rooted in Norwegian soil and intrinsically connected to specific virtues inherent in the ancient Norse race. This combination of Germanic racialism, neo-paganism, and the cult of the ‘Norwegian tribe’, led them to criticize not only all half-hearted imitators of National Socialism within Quisling’s Nasjonal Samling, but also Hitler’s Germany when its politics were deemed to be in violation of National Socialist principles. In Germany they sought ideological allies within the Deutsche Glaubensbewegung before the war, and the ss during the war. But their peculiar version of National Socialism eventually led to open conflict with Nazi Germany, first during the Finnish Winter War and then in 1943, when several members of the Ragnarok Circle planned active resistance to Quisling and the German occupation regime.

scholarly journals Ilya Mark Scheinker: Controversial Neuroscientist and Refugee From National Socialist Europe

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-344
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Zeidman ◽  
Matthias Georg Ziller ◽  
Michael Shevell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Nazi Persecution ◽  
University Of Cincinnati ◽  
The University

AbstractRussian-born, Vienna-trained neurologist and neuropathologist Ilya Mark Scheinker collaborated with Josef Gerstmann and Ernst Sträussler in 1936 to describe the familial prion disorder now known as Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease. Because of Nazi persecution following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany, Scheinker fled from Vienna to Paris, then after the German invasion of France, to New York. With the help of neurologist Tracy Putnam, Scheinker ended up at the University of Cincinnati, although his position was never guaranteed. He more than doubled his prior publications in America, and authored three landmark neuropathology textbooks. Despite his publications, he was denied tenure and had difficulty professionally in the Midwest because of prejudice against his European mannerisms. He moved back to New York for personal reasons in 1952, dying prematurely just 2 years later. Scheinker was twice uprooted, but persevered and eventually found some success as a refugee.

A Case Study in Fascism: The Styrian Heimatschutz and Austrian National Socialism

1976 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 251-273
Author(s):  
Bruce F. Pauley
Keyword(s):  
National Socialism ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Geographic Position

Until recently students of fascism have paid relatively little attention to Austria. This neglect is unfortunate since the country's geographic position exposed it to the crosscurrents of both Italian and German forms of fascism and made Austria a kind of microcosm of European fascism. The struggle between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy for control of the small Alpine Republic was reflected in Austria in the conflict between the pro-Italian Heimwehr and the pro-German Austrian National Socialist Party.

“We Who Can Still Speak”

Karl Barth ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 268-313
Author(s):  
Christiane Tietz
Keyword(s):  
Home Country ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
Confessing Church ◽  
The Alps

In July 1935 Barth returned to Basel as professor. He retained his ties to the Confessing Church. In the 1938 Sudeten crisis, Barth wrote to the Czech professor Hromádka, encouraging the Czech to violent resistance against Hitler’s aggressive policies. In Nazi Germany Barth’s stand was viewed as treasonous and the Confessing Church withdrew from Barth. In the following years Barth’s engagement focused on refugees. He criticized how National Socialist ideology and antisemitism spread also in Switzerland and how Switzerland understood its neutrality. Barth’s texts were censored in his home country, and his phone was under surveillance. In 1941, Barth’s son Matthias died at age twenty in a tragic accident in the Alps. As the defeat of Germany became foreseeable, Barth called upon his compatriots to adopt a postwar attitude toward the Germans that combined friendship and criticism.

Teaching about Fascism(s): The Relationship between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in East German, West German, and Italian Textbooks, 1950–60

2021 ◽  
pp. 002200942110630
Author(s):  
Daniela R.P. Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Spanish Civil War ◽  
History Textbooks ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Educational Materials ◽  
School History ◽  
East German ◽  
The Relationship

The parallels and interconnections between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany are not merely a matter of contemporary scholarly interest, but also were and still are a charged political and societal question. Through an analysis of discourse in school history textbooks, this article analyzes how scholars, students, teachers and state authorities perceived these parallels and interconnections during the immediate postwar period. The paper investigates how the earliest history textbooks – published in the post-fascist successor states of East Germany, West Germany, and Italy between 1950 and 1960 – evaluated the relationship between Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany during the 1930s. The 1930s are key because they began with Mussolini as the senior fascist dictator; over the course of the decade – with the war in Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the passage of anti-Semitic racial laws, and the creation of the Pact of Steel – Hitler's Germany eclipsed Mussolini's Italy as the preeminent fascist power. By looking at postwar textbooks’ representations of the Fascist Italy–Nazi Germany relationship during the 1930s, we can see that the postwar post-fascist states often blamed each other for the emergence of the especially imperialist, racist and violent elements of fascism. Thus, this article illustrates how educational materials marshalled deflection strategies during the long process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung.

Antijüdische Politik und deren Bewältigung. Das Wirken der Sozialversicherungsabteilung des Reichsarbeitsministeriums im „Dritten Reich“

2019 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Alexander Klimo
Keyword(s):  
Civil Servants ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Nazi Regime ◽  
Pension Insurance ◽  
National Socialist ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
Anti Jewish

Zusammenfassung Der Beitrag beleuchtet die Rolle der Rentenversicherungspolitik des Reichsarbeitsministeriums im „Dritten Reich“. Auf der einen Seite stellt er dar, wie die Rentenversicherung herangezogen worden ist, um zusätzliche Arbeitskräfte für den Arbeitseinsatz zu gewinnen. Dabei wurde die Rentenversicherung durch die Gesetzgebung des Reichsarbeitsministeriums komplett auf die Anforderungen des nationalsozialistischen Arbeitseinsatzes ausgerichtet. Auf der anderen Seite beleuchtet er die Diskriminierung von jüdischen Versicherten und Rentnern. Die zuständigen Beamten des Reichsarbeitsministeriums und der Rentenversicherungsträger besaßen umfangreiche Freiräume, um die Ziele des Regimes zu verfolgen und zu unterstützen. Die nach dem Krieg verfolgten Rechtfertigungsstrategien und die mangelhafte Aufarbeitung der eigenen Rolle im „Dritten Reich“ hinderten hohe Beamte der Sozialversicherung nicht daran, ihre Karrieren in der Sozialverwaltung der Bundesrepublik fortzuführen. Abstract Anti-Jewish policy and its coming to terms with the past. The work of the social security department of the Reich Ministry of Labour in Nazi Germany The article examines the pension insurance policy of the Reich Ministry of Labour in Nazi Germany. On the one hand, it shows how the pension insurance has been used to generate additional workforces for the labour market. The pension insurance was completely aligned by the legislation of the Reich Ministry of Labour on the requirements of the National Socialist labour service. On the other hand, it highlights discrimination against Jewish insurants and pensioners. The responsible civil servants of the Reich Ministry of Labour and the pension insurance providers used their possibilities to pursue and support the goals of the Nazi regime. The justification strategies pursued after the war and the inadequate working up of one’s own role in Nazi Germany did not preventhigh civil servants from continuing their careers in the social administration of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document