Christa Kamenetsky, Folklore As Political Tool in Nazi Germany
Christa Kamenetsky, Folklore As Political Tool in Nazi Germany
Christa Kamenetsky, Folklore As Political Tool in Nazi Germany
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
http://www.jstor.org
CHRISTA
KAMENETSKY
1 Hermann
Bausinger, "Volksideologie und Volksforschung," in Deutsches Geistesleben und
Nationalsozialismus, ed. Andreas Flitner (Tibingen, I965), 140-I4I.
2
Ibid., 140.
CHIRISTAKAMENETESKYY
222
cestors.At the sametime, both journalsreflectedthe National SocialistWeltanof the subject,or by the insertion
schauung,eitherby theirpeculiarinterpretations
of commentsor entire articlesrelatedto ideologicalissues.To what extentthese
journalsreachedthe publicmaybe gatheredfrom the factthatby the end of 1936
Kunst und Volk alreadycounted I5,000 subscribers.3Shortlybefore the war,
Rosenberg issued still another folklore journal, more or less as a rival to the professional Zeitschrift fir Volkskunde published by the German Folklore Associ-
GermanSagas,Legends,andHeroTales
3. GermanFolkBookson Customs,Mores,andRegions
4. GermanFolkHumorandFables
2.
6. EarlyGermanicHistory.7
of the
Obviouslythis seriesof "folk books"was a responseto the recommendation
same organizationin I933-that all Germanschoolsshould give primaryattention to the subjectof GermanfolkloreandancientGermanicliterature.8
Underlyingthe revivalof Germanfolklorewas the questfor a culturalunity
and a permanenceof the Volk. "A folk culturedoes not representprogress,but it
does representa gradualdevelopment,"wrote folkloristOtto Schmidt."Basically
3 Rudolf Ramlow, "Der deutsche Stil des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts," Bausteine zum deutschen
Nationaltheater, ed. National Socialist Kulturgemeinde, vol. 4 (1935), 99.
4 Gerhard Boehle
Hirschberg, "Die deutsche Kulturzeitschrift der Gegenwart," cited in Joseph
Wulf, Die bildenden Kiinste im Dritten Reich: Eine Dokumentation (Giitersloh, 1963), 23I.
5 See Walter Hoffmann, Die deutsche Volksbiicherei (Bayreuth, 1934).
6 Walter A. Behrendsohn, Die humanistische Front: Eine Einfiihrung in die deutsche EmigrantenLiteratur (Zurich, 1946), 27.
7
Hamburger Lehrerzeitung, October 30, 1937, p. 456.
8 "Aufruf des N.S.L.B. zur Pflege germanischen Schrifttums," Deutsches Bildungswesen, io
(<933),245-467.
223
3I3-3I9.
224
CHRISTA KAMENETSKY
lingian Renaissance (about 800 A.D.), and, third, the cultural forces of Humanism and Neo-Humanism in Germany that had cultivated the contrastsbetween the
"learned" upper classes, conversing in French, Italian, or Latin, and the common
folk communicating in the vernacular. Boehm expressed his confidence in the
National Socialist Party's initiative in reestablishing Germany's confidence in her
native culture by linking the concept of peasant folklore with that of national
unity.14
Under the influence of National Socialist policy, folklore changed not only its
meaning but also its structure as a field of study. The Party did not think it sufficient merely to explore the sources of tradition, unless they could also be used to
serve the desired ideology. Consequently, the practical application of folklore to
other disciplines received much attention. Boehm, who became the first Professor
of Folk Theory at the University of Berlin, strongly advocated an interdisciplinary
approach to folklore. He stressed that folklore, as a science, should embraceall the
neighboring disciplines, so as to guard against the pitfalls of over-specialization,
a "disease" that, in his opinion, had already affected such disciplines as philology,
sociology, national psychology, and ethnography. Particularly, he emphasized the
danger of an abstract thinking in terms of society at large and of an international
point of view. Boehm gave special credit to Friedrich L. Jahn and Wilhelm H.
Riehl for having perceived during the previous century the central importance of
folklore in the university curriculum. In his introduction to Riehl's lecture on
"Die Volkskunde als Wissenschaft" (Folklore as a Science), which originally
appeared in I858, Boehm pointed out Riehl's genuine perception of the folk community and national unity, and of his far-sighted cultural program. However, he
pronounced that, while Riehl had merely suggested to merge the social and political spheres, the National Socialists had the mind and the means to carry out this
goal. At any rate, more was needed than a popularization of folklore in the old
sense. It should emerge as a new field of study and take upon itself the political
leadership.15
A glance at university catalogues during the thirties betrays that Boehm's appeal did not go unheard, or else that the Party cared to promote a folklore policy
in the curriculum akin to that which Boehme recommended. Such course titles as
"Folk and State," "The Science of Folk and Race," "Family Inheritance and
Heritage," "Mores, Customs, and Folkish Prophesy," and "Life Stages of Customs and Beliefs" reveal an interdisciplinary approach to the topic.16 The Nazis
made a special effort to get rid of the formalistic approach until then prevalent
and to merge related subjects, such as folklore and sociology, folklore and race
theory, and folklore and early history. Of course it was up to them to decide,
rather than to academic "experts," which subjects were related and which ones
were not. They introduced the new subject of Volkssoziologie (folk sociology),
which drew heavily upon folklore, and folklore also became a central frame of
reference for the disciplines of history, ethnography, demography, geopolitics,
and area planning (Raumplanung). It seemed indeed as if a dream of "Turn14
15
19-20.
225
41:I
(i94),
99-II3.
See Josef Stzygowski, Geistige Umkehr: Indogermanische Gegenwartsstreifziige eines Kunstforschers (Heidelberg, I938).
20
226
CHRISTA KAMENETSKY
does not belong spiritually.Strobelthought that it was the folklorist'sfirst responsibility"to weed out" all alien elements that had crept into the NordicGermanicmyths, customs,and rituals,and to select and propagatethat folklore
which was as purelyas possiblerelatedto "the ancestors."A conscientiousstudy
of North Germanichistory should go hand in hand with a study of the saga
literatureof Icelandand Norway. Beyondall this, the folkloristshould develop
a true understandingof the National SocialistWeltanschauung,so as to be able
to help build the greatfuture.In orderto be well equippedfor this task,the new
folklorist should study and masternot only the subjectof folklore but also the
subjectsof race theory and early history.23The racial-culturalinterpretationof
folklore also received primaryattentionin Matthes Ziegler's Volkskundeauf
rassischerGrundlage (Folklore on Racial Foundations,I934), and in Georg
Beitl'sDeutscheVolkskunde(GermanFolklore,1934), both of whichwerecited
frequentlyin booklists recommendedby the Party.
Strobelrecommendedas an exemplarywork along the lines of his suggestions
the book by Karl von Spiess, Deutsche Volkskundeals Erschliesserindeutscher
Kultur (German Folklore as a Key to GermanCulture). The same book was
also praisedby the renownedcriticJosephNadler for its emphasison race,culture, and early history. Nadler himself considered in an essay the relationship
between folklore, ethnology, and racial theory, wherein he came to the conclusion
that folklore was a most reliable means to a deeper understanding of the "spiritual
life" of the Germanrace. At the same time, folklore, as the basis of a nation's
21 AlfredRosenberg,Der Mythosdes 20. Jahrhunderts
(Munich,1933),
289.
227
self-identification, also presented a hope for political unity and for unified political action.24
Ancient history became an aspect of folklore studies, as much as folklore became a part of every history class. In both fields it was the researcher's task to
detect the Nordic-Germanic characteristics,not just of certain peoples and events,
but also of folk tales, riddles, customs, and rituals. "The continuity of German
life and tradition finally has been proven a fact," wrote a reviewer of Groenbeck's
Kultur und Religion der Germanen (Culture and Religion of the Germanic
Tribes) in I940.25 By the same token, other reviewers pointed to the high skills
of various authors who had "proven" the Nordic-Germanic origin of German
drama, German nursery rhymes, and even German sports games. A measure of
the craze for the study in "continuity" designs is the 1937 edition of Urviter
Erbe in deutscher Volkskunst (Our Primal Fathers' Heritage in German Folk
Art), which contained about 2,500 symbols dating from the time of the IndoGermanic tribes through the Northern Stone Period up to the present.26
The confusion of geographical and ethnological concepts that occurred in connection with the Nazis' interpretation of their Nordic "heritage" may be interpreted not only as a racial bias, but also as a desperate attempt to identify with the
spirit of the "ancestors."To some extent, this trend may remind us of the Nordic
revival movement in Germany under Klopstock, Gerstenberg, Herder, and
Grimm, and later under Wagner and the Conservative Revolutionists. Unparalleled, however, was the National Socialist fanaticism in trying to prove a
superior civilization of the Germanic North. Also, the scope of the Nazis' public
appeal in this connection does not resemble anything that happened along these
lines in the past. On the one hand, for example, the Nazis might use for their
purposes the results of some archaeological diggings, such as scissors and manicure equipment, in order to build up their "case" that the ancestors could no
longer be considered "barbarians, dirty, uncultivated, half-naked, and wild."27
On the other hand, they interpreted the historic and literary documents of the
Nordic-Germanic past in such a way as to reveal a certain relevance of the ancient
"life style" to that of modern Germany under the leadership of the National
Socialist regime. The social and religious order of the Nordic-Germanic tribes,
they claimed, was the order of the present and, certainly, the order of the future.
In their effort to strengthen the German national self-consciousness, the Nazi
ideologists emphasized not only an identification with the heroic age of the past,
but also a deep contempt for the Roman civilization. In their view, the glorification of Rome and everything Roman had led to a serious weakening of Germany's folk unity. The "healthy" resources of Germany's own past had been
sacrificed to the admiration of Rome. The Minister of the Interior issued a public
statement in I939, underlining the idea that the time had come to get rid of all
24 Joseph Nadler, "Rassenkunde, Volkskunde, Stammeskunde," Dichtung und Volkstum, 35:I
(I934).
27
Bausinger,
I940;
34.
Heinrich Kaul, "Die Kultstitten unserer Vorfahren," in Neues Volk auf alter Erde, ed. Karl
August Walther (Berlin, 1935), 107.
228
CHRISTA KAMENETSKY
31
Bausinger, 125.
32 Schmidt, 92.
229
raceor a memberof a desirableclass.Often the peasantportrayalsreflecteda certain mysticism,and in that sensethey reflectedsomeRomantictrendsand also the
folk movementof the late nineteenthcentury.In someinstances,peasantcustoms
and ritualswere treatedwith a religiousreverence,and here and there literature
and film festivals conveyeda peasantspirit that was of a peaceful nature.Even
Darre'spropagandafilm on the Germanpeasantrycontainsscenesthat may be
consideredpeacefuland idyllic. A reviewercommentedon it in I939: "We witness herethe growingand ripeningof corn,the mowingof hayunderthe German
summersky in the country.We see how the windmillsare turning,and how the
breadis rising in the hot countryoven. Then the breadis broughtto the table of
the poor who, with pious gesture, cut it crosswise, accordingto an ancient
custom."34
Still, the peacefulelementof peasantlife took a verymoderateplacenext to the
numerousportrayalsof the peasantat war. The "fightingspirit"of the peasant
folk, and of the Volk in general,becamean integralpart of the Nazis' Weltanschauung,especiallyafter I939. Accordingto Heinrich Himmler, head of the
Gestapo,four laws dominatedthe world. The firstof these concernedwar and its
consequenceof naturalselection.Second,there was race.Race, he thought,was
an element that helped to prove not only Germansuperiority,but also her creativityand her power.Thirdwas the idea of the Reich,whichhe consideredto be
rootedfirmlyin the traditionsof the Nordic-Germanicancestors.Fourthwas the
Fiihrer,Adolf Hitler. He was a law unto himself, justifiedbyhis glory andleadership. Himmler said that an educationof the whole nation in the spirit of these
laws demandedan emphasisupon racialand Partyhistory,upon the saga literature with its peasant-warrior
leaders,and upon generalpeasantcustomsand rituals. The handwrittennotes to a speechdeliveredto his generalsin Polandin I944
show thatthe words "customsand rituals"are heavilyunderlined,thus indicating
theirsignificancewithinthe contextof his "folkeducation"theory.35
The new typeof peasantas he emergedunderthe influenceof the Nazi ideology
receivedhis visualexpressionas earlyas I937 in the nationalartexhibitsponsored
by the Partyin Munich'sHaus der Kunst. Despitenumeroustraditionalpaintings
representingin an idyllic manner the peasantand the countryside,shepherds,
wood choppers,and so on, the tone of the show was an aggressiveratherthan a
peacefulone. The peasant,althoughpredominantas a subject,appearedto be the
33 Boehm, Volkskunde, I2.
34 "Reichsminister Darre zum deutschen Bauernfilm," in Film Kurier, November II, I933; see
Joseph Wulf, Theater und Film im Dritten Reich; Eine Dokumentation (Giitersloh, I962), 374.
35 Himmler's
Speech to the Generals at the Front in Posen, I944 (Himmlers Rede vor den Frontgeneralen in Posen). Document MA 3I6 4842-4857, Institut fur Zeitgeschichte, Munich.
230
CHRISTA KAMENETSKY
chief representative of the new Weltanschauung. One critic observed in this connection that along with the worker and the soldier he was the best suitable object
to show the "heroic element." As far as the style of painting was concerned, he
noted: "[It is] heroic, monumental, fresh and healthy, yet not idyllic . .. the sentimental, soft and dreamy element, the feminine tone, if I may say so, has been
pushed into the background in favor of the heroic theme."36
We may observe a similar trend in the new peasant literature that flooded the
market after I933, much of which glorified the peasants as heroes of the NordicGermanic past or of the peasant wars in German history. Folklore, in promoting
the peasant theme, became similarly obliged to promote the heroic theme. It is no
accident that in a Party publication of 1934, citing the "one hundred first books"
to be circulated in the National Socialist libraries, folklore publications were listed
under the same category as those concerned with racial theory, demography, and
"the science of defense."37
With respect to the agricultural situation, the Party had some reason for concern, due especially to a sharp decline in the peasant population. While the population in the villages shrank, it increased heavily in the cities. The number of
large cities above Ioo,ooo had risen from five in I87I to fifty-one in I933. During the same span of time the rural population had declined to about one-third
of the total population, while formerly it had represented about two-thirds. The
National Socialists attributed various reasons of the decline of the rural population, including the economic after-effects of World War I.38 As late as I939
the Volkischer Beobachter noted the loss of farm labor to the cities and a continuing decrease of general farm productivity.39Obviously, the introduction of hereditary farm laws (Reichserbhofsgesetze) and the various new land planning measures had not contributedmuch to a change in this situation.
It remains a peculiar aspect of the Nazi ideology that the peasant and his
Mythos remained an integral part of the ideology, even at a time when statistics
demonstrated that his economic contribution to the Third Reich was insignificant.
His ideological importance thus outweighed his practical necessity, and he became more of a symbol than a reality. As a representative of his Nordic-Germanic
ancestor of the saga literature, he was a man who knew not only how to plow the
soil and how to preserve the cult of the forefathers, but also about war and defense, about love of kinship, hatred of aliens, and territorial conquests.
The preservation of peasant life intrigued Hitler to the point that he assigned
to the new Ministry of Food and Agriculture the responsibility for sociopolitical
and agricultural questions, as well as that involving the total rehabilitation of the
guilds, the labor rights question, questions of law, and long-range plans concerning peasant schools, the hereditary law, settlement in the East, community life,
and peasant folklore.
In I935 the Party had already created about twenty peasant schools. Year after
36 Cited in Joseph Wulf, Kunst im Dritten Reich: Eine Dokumentation (Giitersloh, I962),
2II I-2I3.
37 Die
23I
year, the number of these schools was matchedby the growth of agricultural
institutes,colleges for farmers,and peasantworkshops,of which the last ones
were createdpersonallyby R. WaltherDarre,PeasantLeaderof the ThirdReich.
If we take a closerlook at the curriculaof the peasantschools,it is obviousthat
such subjectsas folklore and historypredominated,whereaspracticalskills were
kept to a minimum.This is especiallysurprisingin view of the fact that the Nazis
generallyblamedthe loss of hired laborto the citiesand factorieson the peasants'
lack of technicalknow-how and their insufficientgeneral education.40Agricultural Adviser Gbrlachconsideredit the primarytask of the peasantschools to
serve as an antidoteto certainevils of modernsociety.Primarilyhe had in mind
the by-productsof a growing urbanization,such as a generaldeclineof the birth
rate and the lack of a communityspiritamongthe masses.He thoughtthat,with
an emphasison folkloreand history,physicalhealthand discipline,and a practical
experiencein communityliving, the schoolswould be in a superbpositionto build
up Germanfolk consciousness."Thesearenot schoolsor institutesof higherlearning in the traditionalsense,"he explainedin a book he dedicatedto the German
peasantry,"but they are home communitieswith a military touch. Simplicity,
order, punctuality,obedience,and comradeshipare the basis of this community
life. The educationalgoals are fitnessof the body and readinessof the soul, as a
'textbook'serves German history, especially the history of the Germanpeasantry."41A similarcommentwas offeredby Doring of the Ministryof Food and
Agriculture,who in his applauseof the curriculumin Darre'sPeasantWorkshops
stressedparticularlythatthe curriculumconcentrated"onthe essentialsonly"and,
naturally, "on the history of the German peasantry."42
in Neues Volk
Gorlach,"Das Erziehungszielder Bauernschulen,"
auf alterErde,ed. KarlAugustWalther(Berlin, I935), I58.
42Ministerialrat
Dr. D6ring, "Die bauerlicheWerkschule,"Ibid., 159-I65.
43Boehm,Volkskunde,6-9.
44Schmidt,92.
232
CHRIXSTAKAMENETSKY
Of course, architecture alone was not responsible for determining the "German
style." As Steinacher put it in 1935: "A German society club overseas is not yet
a part of our folklore; yet a German peasant village in a foreign language environment is a vital part of our folklore."45 In his view, a peasant village differed from
a club in the sense that it was based on customs and traditions that would form the
"cement" of the community, thus preparing a fertile soil for the development of
the German folk spirit. This folk spirit was basically conceived of as a fighting
spirit, a spirit reflecting unity of purpose in the determination to conquer new
areas in the East. As such, it is difficult to reconcile with the peasant and settlement
spirit of the past, although the Nazis claimed that it was true to the fighting spirit
of the North Germanic forefather, who had known not only how to till the soil
but also how to handle the sword. Characteristicin this connection is a statement
by Foreign Minister Rust on the occasion of his opening speech in a new college
in Pomerania: "This institution shall represent the future ideal culture," he said,
"and, as such, its primary goal will be to concentrate all its efforts on the study of
folklore, the geography of defense, Germandom in the border areas, and race
theory."46The very selection of these subjects in the name of Germany's "future
ideal culture" betrays the new role of folklore as a weapon in the Nazis' eastern
expansionist policies. Further revealing is a publication, The History of Houses
and Settlements, which the Party advertised as "a valuable contribution to the
fighting spirit of development science."47
As long as folklore studies willingly served to justify the National Socialist
"living space" theories and policies in the East, they were hailed and respected.
However, they were ignored and rejected if they concerned themselves predominantly with the unique and universal aspects of the so-called alien cultures, either
at the expense of the Nordic-Germanic heritage theory or at the expense of their
usefulness to the Party.
While folklore studies were thus heavily confined and restricted, their circle of
associations and activities was expanded at a rate that would have surprised even
Riehl, the spiritual father of the Volkssoziologie (folk sociology). In an attempt
to establish criteria for the German expansion and settlement in the East, such
disciplines as Raumplanung (area development) and Raumwissenschaft (area
science) relied strongly upon folklore studies.48
The very concept of "fight for German folkdom" was not a new one, although
it achieved a high level of popularity in the thirties. It may be traced back to the
Deutscher Schulverein (German School League) that was founded in I88o in
Austria in order to support German schools in areas of mixed nationalities. Its
later name, Verein fur das Deutschtum in Ausland (League for Germandom
Abroad), dating back to I908, was again changed, as far as its first word is concerned, when Hans Steinacher became its president in the early thirties; Volks45 Hans Steinacher, "Vom deutschen Volkstum, von der deutschen Volksgenossenschaft und vom
volksgebundenen Staat," in Das Buch vom deutschen Volkstum, ed. Paul Gauss (Leipzig, 1935),
415.
46 Reichsaussenminister
Rust, speech in Lauenburg, I933; cited in Gerd Riihle, Das Drit:e
Reich; Dokumentar; Darstellung des Aufbaues der Nation, vol. i (Berlin, I934), I47.
47 Bausinger, 128-129.
48
Boehm, W. H. Riehl, 19-20.
233
Conclusion
Within the ideological framework of the National Socialist regime, the discipline of folklore was assigned a central position. At the same time, it lost its academic orientation and was applied in situations that had no peaceful purpose. The
uses of terminology alone did not always betray the Party's real intentions-a fact
that may excuse numerous German folklore professors for not recognizing immediately the far-reaching implications of the new folklore policy. Since the
Party claimed to build on the traditional concepts of folk and community as they
had been understood by such respected writers as Herder, Moser, Jahn, Girres,
49 See Raymond E.
Murphy, and others, eds., National Socialism. Basic Principles, Their Applications by the Nazi Party's Foreign Organization, and the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi Aims
(Washington, D. C., I943),
III--30;
also, Emil Ehrich, Die Auslands-Organisationen der
N.S.D.A.P. (Berlin, I937), 20.
50 Steinacher, 4 5.
51 See Wilhelm Volz, Der deutsche
Volksboden. Aufsatze zu den Fragen des Ostens (Breslau,
1926),
363.
52 Steinacher, 415.
234
CHRISTA KAMENETSKY
235
interestin the subjectfor its own sake.The intrinsicmeritsof folklorewere consideredof secondaryimportance,if of importanceat all, in comparisonwith the
practical"usefulness"of folklorewithin the contextof the new regime.Whereas
at earliertimesthe studyof folklorehad predominantlyenhanceda universalperspective,alongwith the spiritof freedomanda deeprespectfor the uniqueaspects
of the variousculturesof the world, the nationalisticand racialviews now severelylimited its scope. Even though the Partyclaimedto have elevatedfolklore
studiesto a science,it lackedthe objectiveapproachthat might have madeit into
a science."Scientific"was possiblyonly the methodthatthe Partyemployedin systematicallyexpandingthe field of folklorestudiesandin utilizingcertaindesirable
results for its purposes.Throughoutthe Nazi movement,folklore remainedan
effectiveandpotentiallydangeroustool of the NationalSocialistWeltanschauung.
CentralMichiganUniversity
MountPleasant,Michigan