Sunday, May 03, 2020

Fueling the Third Reich
ARNOLD KRAMMER
https://ia801008.us.archive.org/16/items/FuelingTheThirdReich/Fueling%20the%20Third%20Reich.pdf

"The Kingdom of Heaven runs on righteousness," declared Ernest Bevin during a heated argument in the British Parliament over a distasteful decision in the Middle East, "but the Kingdom of Earth runs on OIL!" If these words were a political reality to Britain in 1948, they would have been embraced with religious fervor by Germany during the period of the Third Reich. Without oil, and the fuel and lubricants which are produced from oil, every form of mechanized transportation, heating, and military defense is paralyzed. Any nation in that position becomes utterly dependent upon foreign sources for its life's blood and, in effect, surrenders its sovereignty. For Germany, between 1919 and 1945, the question of oil-its production, importation, synthesization, stockpiling, allocation, and consumption occupied a status which was second only to the survival of the political state. History proved that these priorities were not, in fact, in error, for with the destruction of the fuel industry, the collapse of the state was virtually assured. Germany's preoccupation with fuel, however, and its crucial relationship to the state, became a reality as a result of the First World War.

DR. KRAMMER is associate professor of history at Texas A&M University. He is the
author of numerous works on modern Germany and is a principal investigator of a
major project to reevaluate German technology on synthetic petrochemicals for potential current application.
1978 by the Society for the History of Technology. 0040-165X/78/1903-0003$02.25 

A Comparative Study of War and Sport Metaphors in Political News Headlines 
https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/tfg/2018/196074/Perez_Carla_TFG.pdf
Abstract
This paper examines conceptual metaphors based on war and sport that are used in
political headlines in English and Spanish from a contrastive perspective. By dint of
analysing news headlines, collected from more than seventy online newspapers, the study
aims to reveal not only the analogies between both languages but also the connections
between the target domain politics and the source domains war and sports. Following Lakoff
and Johnson’s theories (1980), the corpus of headlines used in this paper is examined through a
detailed metaphor analysis which includes a descriptive, an interpretative and a comparative level.
This analysis shows that the frequent use of metaphors in political headlines serves a two-fold
purpose: first, to show the reader hidden issues and political views and second, to catch the
readers’ attention and shape our personal thinking about politics. 
BUILDING THE THIRD REICH 
JOHN DE WILDE JUNE 1939

A SURPRISINGLY ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF REALITY OF THE  THREAT OF NAZI GERMANY 

ANALYSIS OF THE PARTY, LABOUR FRONT, POLITICS, ECONOMICS. ONE HAS TO WONDER WHY IT STILL TOOK AMERICA THREE YEARS TO ENTER THE WAR 
THAT WOULD BEGIN LATER THAT YEAR.

IT GIVES LIE TO THOSE WHO SAID THEY DID NOT KNOW, WHICH REALLY MEANS THEY DID NOT WANT TO KNOW

THE KEY IS THE NAZI'S WERE FIGHTING COMMUNISM FOR THEIR OWN ENDS AND TO GAIN SUPPORT OF THE RULING CLASSES IN EUROPE TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY AS THEY EXPANDED INTO EASTERN EUROPE.

https://archive.org/details/buildingthirdrei00dewi_0/page/n3/mode/2up






DEVELOPMENT OF A CONTROLLED ECONOMY

 In recent years Germany has witnessed the gradual establishment of a government-planned and controlled economy not designed to favor any particular class or economic interest, but to enlist industry and agriculture, capital and labor for the purpose of increasing the political power of the state. The regimented economic system pre¬ vaiam. Their anti-capitalism consisted of a vague detestation of laissez-faire economics, a fear of large corporations and a hatred of “finance capitalism” which took the form of de¬ mands to break the “servitude to interest.” Their “socialism” amounted primarily to a requirement tling today is not the product of deliberate intention, but rather the result of improvisation to meet repeated exigencies. When the National Socialists came to power they had little idea of economic planning. Their platform was a series of slogans, not a carefully thought-out progrhat individual and group economic interests should be subordinated to those of the state. As a matter of fact, the first economic measures of the regime proved to be entirely orthodox, motivated as they were by a desire to stimu¬ late private enterprise. The automobile industry was aided by aboli¬ tion of the tax on new cars. Replacement of machinery and equip¬ ment was stimulated by tax remission, and subsidies were given to 39 encourage repairs to houses and barns. These measures were supple¬ mented by relatively modest appropriations for public works. Al¬ though steps were taken to send labor back to the farms and to give employment to older workers at the expense of younger men and women employees, this type of regimentation was moderate compared to what came later. It was only after the government actively embarked on a rearma¬ ment program late in 1934 and undertook more and more projects, that measures of control became increasingly necessary. The task of equipping Germany with a complete air, naval and land armament required enormous amounts of money, men and material, particu¬ larly once the tempo of the arms race became accelerated. Huge de¬ mands were also made by the Four-Year-Plan, launched in 1936 to increase the output of domestic raw materials. New resources had to be exploited and large, expensive plants erected to make oil from coal and lignite, rubber from coal and limestone, and synthetic fibres from wood and straw. At the same time the government continued to push the construction of a comprehensive network of express highways. It also let contracts for hundreds of public buildings and launched vast projects for the rebuilding of Berlin and other major cities of the Reich. In addition, time, money and material had to be found to relieve in some measure the serious housing shortage, and at least to maintain the output of goods for peace-time consumption. Soon it developed that the available supply of goods, capital and labor was not equal to all these tasks. One measure after another had to be taken to relieve the tensions resulting from a restricted supply confronted with a growing demand. Labor, money and materials had literally to be controlled, rationed, and apportioned among vari¬ ous projects and industries according to their relative importance in the government’s opinion. In this allotment or planning, produc¬ tion for civilian use generally took last place.

THE LABOR FRONT AND ORGANIZATION OF BUSINESS 


The first to be established was the Labor Front, which was im¬ mediately erected on the ruins of the old free labor unions. Its membership includes both employers and employees, “fraternally organized to work together in the interests of the state. In theory membership is voluntary, but in practice it is nearly always essential to retaining or obtaining a job. At present the Labor Front counts well over 20,000,000 members, and its annual revenue must approx¬ imate 600,000,000 marks. The organization is built up on the basis of the “plant community,” which includes all those active in a single factory or business concern; all plant communities in one branch of trade or industry then constitute a national plant com¬ munity. The actual administration is carried on by a hierarchy of offices and officials, of whom perhaps the most important is the representative of the Labor Front in each business enterprise. He is often the go-between in the relations of employer and employees. His task is to watch that capital and labor pull together in ac¬ cordance with National Socialist principles. 36 The most important function of the Labor Front is to keep work¬ ers and employers “in line,” to see that they work together and have a proper appreciation for each other’s interests. While the employer has the right to fix wages within narrow limits defined by the state, the Labor Front exercises considerable influence over other working conditions. It provides machinery for the constant adjustment and conciliation of minor grievances, in particular of disputes arising from the interpretation of labor contracts. One of its departments, rather curiously called “Beauty of Work,” has been instrumental in getting many employers to improve lighting and sanitary facilities, to provide rest rooms, canteens and warm meals, and facilities for sport and recreation. The standards of many con¬ cerns which were unprogressive in this respect have undoubtedly been raised. The Labor Front stages annual competitions among business enterprises, and the Fiihrer awards prizes every May ist to those adjudged the most efficient and pre-eminent in the establish¬ ment of a spirit of teamwork between labor and capital. Since the function of the Labor Front is also to develop “willing and able” workers, it has arranged similar competitions to test the technical skill, all-round abilities and Weltanschauung of craftsmen, laborers and apprentices. The most spectacular activity of the Labor Front has been its large-scale provision for the leisure and recreation of the masses. Its division, “Strength through Joy,” has enabled millions of Ger¬ mans to attend theatres, concerts and lectures, and to participate in sport courses, outings and vacation trips at very low costs. It has built a number of recreation homes and is constructing a huge bathing resort on the Baltic Sea to provide accommodation for thousands of workers and employees in the course of the season. The organization has even chartered steamships for short cruises to Scandinavia, the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean, and has had two rather luxurious ocean liners built for this purpose. Not far from Hannover it is constructing a huge plant designed to turn out a light, economical, popular-priced car which will be within the reach of many now unable to afford automobiles. An Organization for Trade and Industry has been established to include, on a compulsory basis, all industrial, commercial and craft enterprises. It is organized vertically in functional groups and sub¬ groups, each representing a branch of trade or industry; horizontally or regionally, the various branches are linked together in Chambers 37 of Commerce and Industry. The crafts have a separate organization consisting of guilds and Chambers of Handicrafts. A national Eco¬ nomic Chamber, subordinate to the Minister of Economics, caps the whole structure. The general objective of this organization is to convey the wishes and opinions of business to the authorities, and to transmit the gov¬ ernment’s orders and recommendations to business. In practice, the latter task is the most important. In no sense can it be said to be a legislative, or policy-making organ. It assists in the collection and administration of export subsidies, in the application of foreign ex¬ change regulations, and helps to mobilize industry for the purpose of carrying out the Four-Year Plan for greater self-sufficiency. At the direction of the government it is bringing about the introduction of a uniform cost-accounting system to permit better control of costs and improvements in methods of production. The organization is forbidden to regulate markets, but since 1936 it has had limited powers of supervision over cartels and similar price or production agreements.


THE LOT OF THE WORKER AND FARMER 


The German worker views National Socialism with mixed feel¬ ings. He is no longer laboring under the constant fear of losing his job. Longer hours, and, in some cases, higher hourly pay have raised his weekly wage. Very often his wife and children have also found work and now add to the family income. If he has three or more 44 minor children, the state pays him a subsidy. He may get a longer vacation and take a trip to the seashore or the mountains which he formerly could not afford. His employer and foreman must treat him with respect; otherwise they may be punished by a so-called “court of social honor.” On the other hand, the worker has lost his right to strike and bargain collectively. He is no longer represented by leaders of his own choice. The Labor Front may do things for him, but frequently he resents its patronizing attitude and is in¬ clined to consider its officials as “not his own kind.” The employees’ council, or Vertranensrat, which exists in every enterprise with ten or more workers, was originally picked by the Labor Front steward and the plant leader. It was simply “confirmed” by the workers in 1935 and has never been re-elected. Besides, the council has but lim¬ ited consultative powers. The employee, who at first welcomed a longer working week, is now apt to tire of the over-long hours de¬ manded of him in many industries. If he is a mason or carpenter, he may suddenly be drafted for work on fortifications or other state projects; and if he was formerly a farm laborer but is now engaged in industry, he may be sent back to the land. The government may also step in to prevent him from obtaining higher wages or chang¬ ing his job. The trades people, artisans and small business men have not fared as well as they had expected. Many of them have lost their independence by being virtually conscripted for industry. Only those who remain have benefited by a greater turnover. The profits of shopkeepers, particularly in the handling of foodstuffs, have been small. Regulation of retail trade has been especially severe. The owners of small business enterprises often do not obtain a propor¬ tionate share of government orders and are in many cases illequipped to cope with the maze of official regulations. Yet mem¬ bers of the lower middle class have obtained many lucrative jobs in the party and state bureaucracy. The regime has cleverly catered to their desire for self-importance. They constitute the bulk of the SS and SA, have their uniforms, their minor posts and opportun¬ ities to exercise a modicum of authority. The German farmer enjoys a fairly stable income under National Socialism. His debt burden has been somewhat reduced and the Hereditary Homestead Law of 1933, which applies to about 700,000 medium-sized German farms, protects him against foreclosure and loss of his land. Yet the peasant, too, has his troubles. He is con45 stantly urged to produce more, but an acute shortage of labor often prevents him from obtaining the necessary help, and his inability to mortgage the land makes it difficult to procure credit for im¬ provements and purchase of machinery. The farmer often grumbles that he and his family are expected to work harder and harder without adequate compensation. If he neglects his task and proves inefficient, the government may even appoint a trustee to supervise his work or take over the management entirely. The peasant may not mind that the Hereditary Homestead Law requires him to leave his farm to a single heir, but he wonders how he can provide for his other children particularly when he can raise no money, or when so much of the arable land is frozen in “hereditary homesteads.” The Nazis once promised to break up big estates into small farms for agricultural laborers and farmers’ sons, but in practice they have decided to retain large landholdings, if only as an important and indispensable grain reservoir for the nation. Frequently the peas¬ ants’ sons have no alternative but to become simple laborers or wander off into trade or industry, thus aggravating the flight from the land. 

THE BUSINESS MAN IN THE THIRD REICH 


As for the wealthier classes, their experience with the system is also mixed. There has been no marked shift in the distribution of wealth. Private property is maintained in principle, although the government has no scruples about directing its use for specified purposes. Those people who live on income from their investments have been hit by the limitation on dividend payments, restrictions on rents, and semi-compulsory bond conversions. With the govern¬ ment providing more than enough work, business men and cor¬ porations no longer have such great risks, and their profits have been ample in many cases. On the other hand, they have to make heavy disbursements for taxes and social welfare. They work under a growing mass of restrictions and regulations of all sorts; their prices and raw material supplies are strictly controlled, their books and production costs closely scrutinized, and their financial reserves often mobilized for investment in the so-called Four-Year-Plan industries. The independent entrepreneur whom the Nazis profess to admire has little or no practical influence on the government. He may won46 der about the huge expenditures of the state and entertain vague fears regarding the future. Often he has condemned government measures as utterly impossible or disastrous, only to see them work out all right in practice. The older type of business executive, ad¬ dicted to private initiative, worries about the ultimate trend of gov¬ ernment control and enterprise. True, the Nazis at first “re¬ privatized” many banks and concerns in which the government had acquired a controlling interest during the depression, but in the last few years they have again taken a direct hand in industry. The huge automobile plant now being built for the Labor Front threatens to drive private industry out of the small-car field entirely. The Hermann-Goering-Werke, established by the government to make iron and steel from domestic ore, has taken over the big Alpine-Montan concern in Austria and rapidly extended its holdings to other metal¬ lurgical and machinery plants as well as transport enterprises. Today it is one of the largest industrial combines in Germany. The younger corporation executives are not so alarmed. In their opinion the days of unfettered private enterprise are beyond recall, and it matters little to them whether they direct the destinies of a private or a state corporation. Some business men are reassured, too, by the frequent assertions of government officials that economic regimentation is the product of an emergency. They hope that the country’s economic “living space” may one day be large enough, or that international trade will revive in sufficient measure, to permit the gradual relaxation of all troublesome regulations. For the present, at least, the Nazi system is not primarily inter¬ ested in raising the material welfare of the German people. Having put every one to work, the government regards as its primary task the mobilization of the country’s resources to enhance the power of the state and strengthen its position in the world. To this broad aim each class interest and social objective has been subordinated. For the Nazis power is in itself desirable. They ridicule the idea that society should have only material or even cultural aims. At the same time, they do consider power as a means of obtaining a greater share of the world’s natural wealth for Germany. In their opinion only political and economic expansion can ultimately bring about an improvement in the material lot of the German people. 

Folder: Charles Kindleberger to John C. de Wilde
Collection: Truman and the Marshall Plan 

Series: State Department File
Documents
Charles Kindleberger to John C. de Wilde, August 14, 1946
Charles Kindleberger to John C. de Wilde, March 24, 1947
Charles Kindleberger to John C. de Wilde, April 18, 1947

THE WORLD BANK GROUP ARCHIVES PUBLIC DISCLOSURE AUTHORIZED 
Folder Title: De Wilde, John - Articles and Speeches (1957 - 1968) 
Folder ID: 1651557 
Fonds: Records of Office of External Affairs (WB IBRD/IDA EXT)  
Digitized: December 20, 2013
De Wilde, John C., et al, Experiences with Agricultural Development in Tropical Africa, Vol. I: The Synthesis, Vol. II: The Case Studies, (or a combined price of $15.00 for both volumes)
Jean M. Due
American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Volume 49, Issue 4, November 1967, Pages 955–958, https://doi.org/10.2307/1236962
Published: 01 November 1967

JOHN DE WILDE WORKS AT ARCHIVE.ORG https://tinyurl.com/ybjoyx36

John de Wilde, 89, Dies - The Washington Post
May 11, 2000 - John C. de Wilde, 89, an economist who specialized in African development at the World Bank, died of congestive heart failure April 27 at his ..
John C. de Wilde, 89, an economist who specialized in African development at the World Bank, died of congestive heart failure April 27 at his home in Redwood City, Calif. A former resident of Alexandria, he had moved from Columbia to California in 1995.

Mr. de Wilde was born in Holland and raised in New Jersey. He was a graduate of Harvard University in 1930 and did graduate work in economics at Columbia University and at Kiel University in Germany.

During the 1930s, he was a correspondent of the Foreign Policy Association in Germany. Before World War II, he was co-author of "A Handbook of the War" and other publications about Europe. During the war, he was assigned by the U.S. government to the Board of Economic Warfare in London and India.

Mr. de Wilde worked on the Marshall Plan as a State Department economist before joining the World Bank. He went on to lead bank missions to Japan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Africa, Pakistan and Jamaica.

He was principal author of "Experiences with Agricultural Development in Tropical Africa" and "Agriculture, Marketing and Pricing in Sub-Saharan Africa." After he retired in the 1970s, he was a consultant to the World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Mr. de Wilde was a member of Beverley Hills United Methodist Church in Alexandria.

Survivors include his wife, Martha de Wilde of Redwood City; two sons; and five grandchildren.
OSWALD SPENGLER AND THE SOUL OF RUSSIA


Kerry Bolton

In so doing the role of Russia in the unfolding of history from this era onward could be easily dismissed, opposed or ridiculed by proponents of Spengler, while in Russia his insights into culture-morphology would be understandably unwelcome as being from an Slavophobic German nationalist. However, while Spengler, like many others of the time in the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution, regarded – partially - Russia as the Asianised leader of a ‘coloured revolution’ against the white world, he also considered other possibilities. This paper examines Spengler’s views on Russia as a distinct culture that had not yet fulfilled her destiny, while Western civilisation is about to take a final bow on the world historical stage. His views on Russia as an outsider are considered in relation to the depiction of the Russian soul by seminal Russians such as Gogol.

Russia’s ‘Soul’

Spengler regarded Russians as formed by the vastness of the land-plain, as innately antagonistic to the Machine, as rooted in the soil, irrepressibly peasant, religious, and ‘primitive’. Without a wider understanding of Spengler’s philosophy it appears that he was – like Hitler – a Slavophobe. However, when Spengler wrote of these Russian characteristics he was referencing the Russians as a still youthful people in contrats to the senile West. Hence the ‘primitive’ Russian is not synonymous with ‘primitivity’ as popularly understood at that time in regard to ‘primitive’ tribal peoples. Nor was it to be confounded with the Hitlerite perception of the ‘primitive Slav’ incapable of building his own State.

To Spengler, the ‘primitive peasant’ is the well-spring from which a race draws its healthiest elements during its epochs of cultural vigour.

Agriculture is the foundation of a High Culture, enabling stable communities to diversify labour into specialisation from which Civilisation proceeds.

However, according to Spengler, each people has its own soul, a German conception derived from the German Idealism of Herder, Fichte et al. A High culture reflects that soul, whether in its mathematics, music, architecture; both in the arts and the physical sciences. The Russian soul is not the same as the Western Faustian, as Spengler called it, the ‘ Magian’ of the Arabian civilisation, or the Classical of the Hellenes and Romans. The Western Culture that was imposed on Russia by Peter the Great, what Spengler called Petrinism, is a veneer.

The basis of the Russian soul is not infinite space – as in the West’s Faustian (Spengler, 1971, I, 183) imperative, but is ‘the plain without limit’ (Spengler, 1971, I, 201). The Russian soul expresses its own type of infinity, albeit not that of the Western which becomes even enslaved by its own technics at the end of its life-cycle. (Spengler, 1971, II, 502). (Although it could be argued that Sovietism enslaved man to machine, a Spenglerian would cite this as an example of Petrinism). However, Civilisations cannot do anything but follow their life’s course, and one cannot see Spengler’s descriptions as moral judgements but as observations. The finale for Western Civilisation according to Spengler cannot be to create further great forms of art and music, which belong to the youthful or ‘ spring’ epoch of a civilisation, but to dominate the world under a technocratic-military dispensation, before declining into oblivion that all prior world civilisations. It is after this Western decline that Spengler alluded to the next word civilisation being that of Russia. At that stage Spengler could only hint at the possibilities.

Hence, according to Spengler, Russian Orthodox architecture does not represent the infinity towards space that is symbolised by the Western high culture’s Gothic Cathedral spire, nor the enclosed space of the Mosque of the Magian Culture, (Spengler, 1971, I, 183-216) but the impression of sitting upon a horizon. Spengler considered that this Russian architecture is ‘not yet a style, only the promise of a style that will awaken when the real Russian religion awakens’ (Spengler, 1971, I, p. 201. Spengler was writing of the Russian culture as an outsider, and by his own reckoning must have realised the limitations of that. It is therefore useful to compare his thoughts on Russia with those of Russians of note.

Nikolai Berdyaev in The Russian Idea affirms what Spengler describes:

There is that in the Russian soul which corresponds to the immensity, the vagueness, the infinitude of the Russian land, spiritual geography corresponds with physical. In the Russian soul there is a sort of immensity, a vagueness, a predilection for the infinite, such as is suggested by the great plain of Russia. (Berdyaev, 1).

‘Prussian Socialism’, ‘Russian Socialism’

Of the Russian soul, the ego/vanity of the Western culture-man is missing; the persona seeks impersonal growth in service, ‘in the brother-world of the plain’. Orthodox Christianity condemns the ‘I’ as ‘sin’ (Spengler, 1971, I, 309). Spengler wrote of ‘Prussian Socialism’, based on the Prussian ethos of duty to the state, as the foundation of a new Western ethos under the return to Faith and Authority during the final epoch of Western civilisation. He contrasted this with the ‘socialism’ of Karl Marx, which he regarded as a product of English economics, (Spengler, 1919) as distinct from the German economics of Friedrich List for example, described as the ‘ national system of political economy’, where nation is the raison d’etre of the economy and not class or individual.

The Russian concept of ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, and of impersonal service to the expanse of one’s land implies another form socialism. It is perhaps in this sense that Stalinism proceeded along lines different and often antithetical to the Bolshevism envisaged by Trotsky et al. (Trotsky, 1936), and established an enduring legacy on Russia.

A recent comment by an American visitor to Russia, Barbara J. Brothers, as part of a scientific delegation, states something akin to Spengler’s observation:

The Russians have a sense of connectedness to themselves and to other human beings that is just not a part of American reality. It isn’t that competitiveness does not exist; it is just that there always seems to be more consideration and respect for others in any given situation.

Of the Russian concept of property and of capitalism, Berdyaev wrote:

The social theme occupied a predominant place in Russian nineteenth century thought. It might even be said that Russian thought in that century was to a remarkable extent coloured by socialistic ideas. If the word socialism is not taken in its doctrinaire sense, one might say that socialism is deeply rooted in the Russian nature. There is already an expression of this truth in the fact that the Russian people did not recognize the Roman conception of property. It has been said of Muscovite Russia that it was innocent of the sin of ownership in land, the one and only landed proprietor being the Tsar: there was no freedom, but there was a greater sense of what was right. This is of interest in the light that it throws upon the rise of communism. The Slavophils also repudiated the Western bourgeois interpretation of private property equally with the socialists of a revolutionary way of thinking. Almost all of them thought that the Russian people was called upon to give actual effect to social troth and righteousness and to the brotherhood of man. One and all they hoped that Russia would escape the wrongness and evil of capitalism, that it would be able to pass over to a better social order while avoiding the capitalist stage of economic development. And they all considered the backwardness of Russia as conferring upon her a great advantage. It was the wisdom of the Russians to be socialists during the period of serfdom and autocracy. Of all peoples in the world the Russians have the community spirit; in the highest degree the Russian way of life and Russian manners, are of that kind. Russian hospitality is an indication of this sense of community. (Berdyaev, 97-98).

Here again, we see with Berdyaev, as with Spengler, that there is a ‘Russian Socialism’ based on what Spengler referred to as the Russian ‘we’ in contrast to the Late Western ‘I’, and of the sense of brotherhood dramatised by Gogol in Taras Bulba, shaped not by factories and money-thinking, but by the kinship that arises from a people formed from the vastness of the plains, and forged through the adversity of centuries of Muslim and Mongol invasions.

The Russian Soul - Русская душа

The connections between family, nation, birth, unity and motherland are reflected in the Russian language.

род [rod]: family, kind, sort, genus
родина [ródina]: homeland, motherland
родители [rodíteli]: parents
родить [rodít']: to give birth
роднить [rodnít']: to unite, bring together
родовой [rodovói]: ancestral, tribal
родство [rodstvó]: kinship

Russian National Literature starting from the 1840s began to consciously express the Russian soul. Firstly Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol’s Taras Bulba, which along with the poetry of Pushkin, founded a Russian literary tradition; that is to say, truly Russian, and distinct from the previous literature based on German, French and English. John Cournos states of this in his introduction to Taras Bulba:

The spoken word, born of the people, gave soul and wing to literature; only by coming to earth, the native earth, was it enabled to soar. Coming up from Little Russia, the Ukraine, with Cossack blood in his veins, Gogol injected his own healthy virus into an effete body, blew his own virile spirit, the spirit of his race, into its nostrils, and gave the Russian novel its direction to this very day.

Taras Bulba is a tale on the formation of the Cossack folk. In this folk-formation the outer enemy plays a crucial role. The Russian has been formed largely as the result of battling over centuries with Tartars, Muslims and Mongols. Cournos writes of the Gogol myths in reference to the shaping of the Russian character through adversity and landscape:

This same Prince Guedimin freed Kieff from the Tatar yoke. This city had been laid waste by the golden hordes of Ghengis Khan and hidden for a very long time from the Slavonic chronicler as behind an impenetrable curtain. A shrewd man, Guedimin appointed a Slavonic prince to rule over the city and permitted the inhabitants to practise their own faith, Greek Christianity. Prior to the Mongol invasion, which brought conflagration and ruin, and subjected Russia to a two-century bondage, cutting her off from Europe, a state of chaos existed and the separate tribes fought with one another constantly and for the most petty reasons. Mutual depredations were possible owing to the absence of mountain ranges; there were no natural barriers against sudden attack. The openness of the steppe made the people war-like. But this very openness made it possible later for Guedimin’s pagan hosts, fresh from the fir forests of what is now White Russia, to make a clean sweep of the whole country between Lithuania and Poland, and thus give the scattered princedoms a much-needed cohesion. In this way Ukrainia was formed. (Cournos, ‘Introduction’, ibid).

Their society and nationality were defined by religiosity, as was the West’s by Gothic Christianity during its ‘Spring’ epoch. The newcomer to a Setch or permanent village was greeted by the Chief as a Christian and as a warrior: ‘Welcome! Do you believe in Christ?’ —‘I do’, replied the new-comer. ‘And do you believe in the Holy Trinity?’— ‘I do’.—‘And do you go to church?’—‘I do.’ ‘Now cross yourself’. (Gogol, III).

Gogol depicts the scorn in which trade is held, and when commerce has entered among Russians, rather than being confined to non-Russians associated with trade, it is regarded as a symptom of decadence:

I know that baseness has now made its way into our land. Men care only to have their ricks of grain and hay, and their droves of horses, and that their mead may be safe in their cellars; they adopt, the devil only knows what Mussulman customs. They speak scornfully with their tongues. They care not to speak their real thoughts with their own countrymen. They sell their own things to their own comrades, like soulless creatures in the market-place. The favour of a foreign king, and not even a king, but the poor favour of a Polish magnate, who beats them on the mouth with his yellow shoe, is dearer to them than all brotherhood. But the very meanest of these vile men, whoever he may be, given over though he be to vileness and slavishness, even he, brothers, has some grains of Russian feeling; and they will assert themselves some day. And then the wretched man will beat his breast with his hands; and will tear his hair, cursing his vile life loudly, and ready to expiate his disgraceful deeds with torture. Let them know what brotherhood means on Russian soil! (Spengler, 1971, II, 113).

Here we might see a Russian socialism that is, so far form being the dialectical materialism offered by Marx, the mystic we-feeling forged by the vastness of the plains and the imperative for brotherhood above economics, imposed by that landscape. Russia’s feeling of world-mission has its own form of messianism whether expressed through Christian Orthodoxy or the non-Marxian form of ‘world revolution’ under Stalin, or both in combination, as suggested by the later rapport between Stalinism and the Church from 1943 with the creation of the Council for Russian Orthodox Church Affairs (Chumachenko, 2002). In both senses, and even in the embryonic forms taking place under Putin, Russia is conscious of a world-mission, expressed today as Russia’s role in forging a multipolar world, with Russia as being pivotal in resisting unipolarism.

Commerce is the concern of foreigners, and the intrusions bring with them the corruption of the Russian soul and culture in general: in speech, social interaction, servility, undermining Russian ‘brotherhood’, the Russian ‘we’ feeling that Spengler described. (Spengler 1971, I, 309). However, Gogol also states that this materialistic decay will eventually be purged even from the soul of the most craven Russian.

And all the Setch prayed in one church, and were willing to defend it to their last drop of blood, although they would not hearken to aught about fasting or abstinence. Jews, Armenians, and Tatars, inspired by strong avarice, took the liberty of living and trading in the suburbs; for the Zaporozhtzi never cared for bargaining, and paid whatever money their hand chanced to grasp in their pocket. Moreover, the lot of these gain-loving traders was pitiable in the extreme. They resembled people settled at the foot of Vesuvius; for when the Zaporozhtzi lacked money, these bold adventurers broke down their booths and took everything gratis. (Gogol, III).

The description of these people shows that they would not stoop to haggling; they decided what a merchant should receive. Money-talk is repugnant to them.

The Cossack brotherhood is portrayed by Gogol as the formative process in the building up of the Russian people. This process is, significantly, not one of biology but of spirit, even transcending the family bond. Spengler treated the matter of race as that of soul rather than of zoology. (Spengler, 1971, II, 113-155). To Spengler landscape was crucial in determining what becomes ‘race’, and the duration of families grouped in a particular landscape – including nomads who have a defined range of wandering – form ‘a character of duration’, which was Spengler’s definition of ‘race’. (Spengler, Vol. II, 113). Gogol describes this ‘ race’ forming process among the Russians. So far from being an aggressive race nationalism it is an expanding mystic brotherhood under God:

The father loves his children, the mother loves her children, the children love their father and mother; but this is not like that, brothers. The wild beast also loves its young. But a man can be related only by similarity of mind and not of blood. There have been brotherhoods in other lands, but never any such brotherhoods as on our Russian soil. It has happened to many of you to be in foreign lands. … No, brothers, to love as the Russian soul loves, is to love not with the mind or anything else, but with all that God has given, all that is within you. Ah! (Golgol, IX).

The Russian soul is born in suffering. The Russian accepts the fate of life in service to God and to his Motherland. Russia and Faith are inseparable. When the elderly warrior Bovdug is mortally struck by a Turkish bullet his final words are exhortations on the nobility of suffering, after which his spirit soars to join his ancestors:

‘I sorrow not to part from the world. God grant every man such an end! May the Russian land be forever glorious!’ And Bovdug’s spirit flew above, to tell the old men who had gone on long before that men still knew how to fight on Russian soil, and better still, that they knew how to die for it and the holy faith. (Gogol, IX).

The depth and duration of this cult of the martyrs attached to Holy Mother Russia was revived under Stalin during the Great Patriotic War. This is today as vigorous as ever, as indicated by the celebration of Victory Day on 7 May 2015, and the absence of Western representatives indicating the diverging course Russia is again taking from the West.

The mystique of death and suffering for the Motherland is described in the death of Tarus Bulba when he is captured and executed, his final words being ones of resurrection:

‘Wait, the time will come when ye shall learn what the orthodox Russian faith is! Already the people scent it far and near. A czar shall arise from Russian soil, and there shall not be a power in the world which shall not submit to him!’ But fire had already risen from the fagots; it lapped his feet, and the flame spread to the tree.... But can any fire, flames, or power be found on earth which are capable of overpowering Russian strength? (Gogol, XII).

The characteristics of the Russian soul that run through Tarus Bulba are those of faith, fate, struggle, suffering, strength, brotherhood and resurrection. Tarus Bulba established the Russian national literature that articulated the Russian soul.

EXCEPT TARAS BULBA WAS NOT RUSSIAN HE WAS FROM EASTERN UKRAINE AND GOGOL KNEW THIS BECAUSE HE WAS UKRAINIAN AS WELL.

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE 
 The Global Histories of Brooks Adams, Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee 
by P Kuokkanen - ‎2003 - ‎
THINKING BEYOND THE FÜHRER:
THE IDEOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL EVOLUTION
 OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM, 1919-1934
A Thesis
Presented to the
Faculty of California State University,
San Bernardino
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
in
Social Sciences and Globalization
by
Athahn Steinback
December 2019
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2052&context=etd

ABSTRACT

Much of the discussion of German National Socialism has historically
focused on of Adolf Hitler as the architect of the Nazi state. While recognizing
Hitler’s central role in the development of National Socialism, this thesis contends
that he was not a lone actor. Much of the ideological and structural development
National Socialism was driven by senior individuals within the party who were
able to leverage their influence to institutionalize personal variants of National
Socialism within broader party ideology. To explore the role of other ideologues
in the development of Nazi ideology, this thesis examines how Hitler’s leadership
style perpetuated factionalism, how when and by whom central elements of Nazi
ideology were introduced, as well the ideological sources from which these
concepts were adapted. After the party’s ultimate rise to power Hitler, always
centrally positioned, eliminated internal competition and institutionalized his own
variant of National Socialism whilst co-opting the concepts and structures
developed by other ideologues that offered useful tools to pursue his goals.
Through this analysis, this thesis seeks to demonstrate how the foundational
elements of National Socialism took form, even before the party achieved power,
and how these elements were subsequently utilized to consolidate Nazi control
over the German state. Above all else, this thesis sheds much-needed light on
the pivotal role of individuals and the conflict between them that engineered the
cataclysm of the Third Reich.

"German Foolishness" and the "Prophet of Doom": Oswald Spengler and the Inter-war British Press

Chapter (PDF Available) · August 2013 DOI: 10.13109/9783666101267.157
In book: Oswald Spengler als europäisches Phänomen. Der Transfer der Kultur- und Geschichtsmorphologie im Europa der Zwischenkriegszeit (1919-1939), Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Editors: Zaur Gasimov, Carl Antonius Lemke Duque, pp.157-184

Abstract
In this essay, I examine the public discourse about Oswald Spengler's ideas in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly the »cultural morphology« he developed in his two-volume work Der Untergang des Abendlandes (translated into English in the second half of the 1920s as Decline of the West). Previous work has suggested that Spengler’s work was greeted in Britain, overall, with measured scepticism, although there were some individual enthusiasts. Beyond such generalisations, however, there has so far been no systematic analysis of Spengler's British public reception in the two decades following the publication of Der Untergang des Abendlandes. As signalled in my title, I focus on press sources. These provide insight into three questions: how were Spengler's ideas described? With what other concepts or characteristics were they associated? How were patterns in their reception related to the cultural and political context of inter-war Britain? There was a focus across the period on what can be labelled Spengler's »organicism«, »relativism« and »determinism«. Moreover, Spengler's reception was also shaped by topics that were not specifically methodological: his erudition, pessimism, Germanness, advocacy of »Prussianism« and associations with Nazism.

WHAT HITLER'S SOCIALISM REALLY MEANS

The American right wing nuts like Dinesh De Souza and indeed its cabal of true believers elsewhere, likes to claim that the Nazi’s were socialist; because of course they had socialism in their name.

The fact is this was what at one time was called Prussian socialism by none other than that old national socialist himself Oswald Spengler.


And here is further evidence to the fact that the Nazi national socializmus (and the two have to go together) is outlined below by a propagandist for Hitler who published a glowing book about him in English for distribution from America around the world. Clearly it is a pseudonymous work by one so called Heinz A Heinz. This was in 1938 and it was popular amongst the German Bund in America and they distributed it widely at anti-war anti-interventionist AMERICA FIRST rallies that included the American Nazi Party.

 It is the kind of glowing bio Trump would love. 

EP

PS as I edited this copy for the site I had to correct a lot of spelling errors more than one would expect from a qualified printer on the other had it is what one would expect if the book was published in Germany and shipped to North America

GERMANY'S HITLER 
https://tinyurl.com/y98pfqgt

 


CHAPTER XIV 
WHAT THE "SOCIALISM" REALLY MEANS 
IT is scarcely necessary to enlarge, here, upon the " Nationalism " in Adolf Hitler's political creed . Enough has already been written about it. It has occupied so much space in the contemporary Press and been discussed in so many books it has come to be regarded with a certain degree of Chauvinism . 

I propose, therefore, to confine myself, in the conclusion of this work, to a few observations under the second heading of our double-barrelled title . It is so completely true that he who studies contemporary Germany with a view to forecasting the future of the country, must study it from inside and not from the outsider's point of view ." 

From outside one mainly perceives the nationalism . From the inside the drive and force of the socialism is most apparent . German Socialism-Adolf Hitler's Socialism-is a totally different thing from what is generally understood by this term, from the Socialism derived from Marxian and Communistic theory .

The first essential difference between the two consists in this, that the former is strictly national in aim, scope and limit ; the latter is international, without boundaries of race or land . The second vital distinction is that the first has been set up by the wish of the people concerned, the second is imposed .
Vide the period of the Soldiers' and Workmen's Councils in Munich 
AND THIS LATTER POINT THAT SOME HOW SOCIALISM IS IMPOSED RATHER THAN BEING ORGANIC AND OF THE PEOPLE  IS EXACTLY THE SAME THE RIGHT MAKES TODAY. THE GERMAN SOVIETS IN MUNICH AND OTHER CITIES WERE ORGANIC BUT THE RIGHT WING MILITARISTS CREATED ROVING BANDS OF THUGS WITH GUNS CALLED THE FREI CORPS AND THEY WERE ANYTHING BUT ATTACKING THE WORKERS IN THEIR BARRICADED FACTORIES AND COMMUNITIES 

Germany's political development has been along lines totally different from those in England, and has led to a type of political public opinion very different from that of the average Englishman . The latter make a great mistake to judge of affairs in another country as if they had happened in their own . This is the universal mistake of the onlooker and critic perhaps it accounts for two-thirds of the international misunderstanding in Europe to-day . 

A third contrast can be drawn inasmuch as German Socialism tends to draw all sections of the nation closely together, international socialism initiates class war. German Socialism is directed by the country's nationals ; international Socialism is an instrument of the Jews .' In the former it is the personality of the Leader which tells ; in the latter we have nothing but the inertia of the mass which is exploited by its organisers . 

By the above signs is German Socialism to be recognised and distinguished. When it has completely assimilated Germany to itself, it will extend and become the groundwork for the future development of other countries. Marxism and Communism are finished in Germany. They have played their part and their role is over . Long enough have they made their influence felt in every sphere of German life, intellectual, political and economic, to the suppression of the truer socialism

Socialism is not a thing to be apprehended through dreary theory only, but to be tested and proved in action . We have written enough, elsewhere, very fully to show that the present German Government is inspired in its legislation by the spirit of active philanthropy which it calls Socialism . This legislation incorporates the very essence of German Socialism .

 As Dr. Goebbels writes : " Socialism, as we understand it, does not reduce men to a dead level, but ranges them in order according to their individual capacity and leading . If I were to try and put our aims and objects in this direction in a nutshell, I should say that it is our endeavour to build up in Germany a people who all possess the same rights in life . We want everyone, high and low, to belong to such a people . We desire that the highest among them shall feel themselves more closely united with the last and lowest of their own kith and kin than with the highest of any other nation . We aim at this -that the highest of our people would rather be the  lowest of his own nation, than the highest of any other nation. Such an aspiration can only be the outcome of an absolutely unified national will ." 

It would lead us too far afield to instance the many measures in which Hitler has exemplified his conception of true Socialism . We must confine ourselves to a mere sketch of the most important and obvious incorporations of the ideas through which he has restored to the German worker his honour and self-respect 
THE GERMAN LABOUR FRONT 

The law of April l0th, 1933, which arranged May 1st as a great Labour Day Holiday initiated the above named reorganization of labour in Germany . The first celebration of the new holiday was unanimous and universal : the Germans had never had anything like it before . Thousands of people gathered together at the same time, all over the country to listen to the Leader's speech, and then to make high holiday. All trades and callings and professions for the first time were assembled in common, symbolizing the unity which was henceforth to unite both types of labour-that of the head, and that of the hand, symbolizing the necessary equal value to the community of both. German Socialism recognizes no discriminating difference between the brain worker and the hand worker . 

Quick on the heels of May 1st and its celebrations, came action . The German Labour Front emerged . On May 2nd the premises of all Marxian Labour Unions were taken over and the contents sequestrated . Abroad, similar Marxist Unions described this action of Hitler's as a theft of the German workman's hardly earned pay, saved up for years and years in the Unions' funds . 

Such a charge could not be substantiated, since these moneys were not taken from the workmen, to whom they rightly belonged, but from the greedy grasp of union officials to whom they did not belong, but who administered them wastefully, or appropriated them in disproportionate salaries . With the workman himself went his money also, into the Labour Front . Here it could only be put to the best and most legitimate uses on his behalf. The great object of the Labour Front is to secure German industry from the incessant recurrence of strikes and all their disintegrating consequences . German Socialism utterly opposes itself to strife between employers and men. Here again it shows quite a different face from that of Marxian Socialism which seeks to foment such discord, whereby, moreover, it maintains its own sovereignty . 

In Germany to-day a strike is impossible for the reason that no employer dare pay less than the standardized daily wage, or the State would immediately take up the workers' grievance . On the other hand, were the workers to demand more than their due they themselves would bring about the collapse of the concern for which they worked . The standard of wages is arrived at by experts representing the men and concerned to secure their best interests . Together with wages, the question of hours has also been considered . 

In Marxist-Socialist Germany after the War,(WIEMAR REPUBLIC)very hard times set in for German working men. Their leaders had every opportunity to show what the theory could accomplish ; they had a majority in the Reichstag, a member of the Party was President of the Reich . Nevertheless, they were all either too lazy or too indifferent to carry out their programme . So long as the masses went hungry they were easy to inflame, and to excite against capitalism and the wealthy . 

While six and a half million unemployed hung about the streets while their wives and children were starving, selfish employers exploited this wretched state of things just because they were paying the dole, forsooth ! If a man grumbled he lost his job ; hundreds were only waiting to pounce upon it in his stead . If he sought the assistance of the Secretary of his Union he drew another blank. What cared the employer for the Unions ? Should a strike ensue all he had to do was to close shop or factory as the case might be, and say, " All right . We'll see who can stick it out the longest, you or I ." 

Days or even weeks might go by, but the result was always the same . The men came back with hangdog mien, glad of the work again at any cost ! This is where the German working man had lost in his own eyes . It was from this sort of victimisation and wretchedness that Hitler designed to rescue him, and give him back his self-respect. Hitherto he had been the prey of vicious circumstances, the slave of an unscrupulous class . All was altered in a twinkling when Adolf Hitler came to power. A cry of gratitude and relief went up from all ranks of German working men . 

The Brown Shirts were everywhere welcomed as they made their way into shop and factory and yard to enquire after the needs and circumstances of every employee in the place . Union secretaries were haled to account no less than unsocialistic minded employers . The German Labour Front was out to accomplish what it promised. With the exception of peasants and officials, who have their own organisations, the German Labour Front comprises workmen of all kinds, employees, employers and people working on their own account . 

Hitler is its patron, Dr . Ley is its Leader. The standards of wages are carefully regulated and observed by reliable workers themselves. The Reich is divided up, under this scheme, into Regions, these, in turn, into Districts, these into Circuits or Local Groups, and these latter again into Trade Communes, Cells and Blocks . 

STRENGTH THROUGH JOY 

Perforce of its iron will, its absolute refusal to compromise and its terrific onset, National Socialism wrenched itself suddenly into power . Long years before this happened its better ideas had attracted people away from those of the old system then in vogue, and so it is readily to be understood how, in March, 1933, the aforesaid old system simply collapsed . 

The first and greatest duty before National Socialism was to win the German people back to a sense of nationality, and in impressing its own principles upon them . A State that is to endure for centuries ahead must be built upon the very foundations of organic life, upon blood and soil, nationality and home . In order to replace one kind of State with another, and better one, it is not enough merely to do away with the former : the people themselves must be re-educated .

 In place of a system full of class enmity and distinctions and pride of place, there is now a commonwealth . The new State, organically designed, is founded upon the principle " The common good before that of the individual ." 

Under National Socialism the culture of an entire people must not be identified with any particular caste, class, or level : it must characterize and belong to the mass. Nor must aesthetic enjoyments be only for the few ; they must be common to all . Just as the creation of a united working people has been confided to the German Labour Front, so is it the business of another organisation, that of " Strength through joy," to make every member of the nation free of its cultural and artistic treasures and resources. The two endeavours are inter-related . 

By means of the latter every German working man can look to his free evening as a real opportunity for refreshment and " uplift " ; money which had formerly gone merely in organizing strikes, can now be spent far more profitably and agreeably . It is not the object of " Strength through joy " to educate the people politically . Few want to attend classes in civics after a hard day's work. Its aim is rather to bring the people together on a broad basis of enlightenment, an effort in which they, too, of course, must concur. 

The Director of " Strength through joy " is also Dr. Ley. His work is comprised under many headings . It is one of his principal endeavors to open up to worker and unemployed alike all the best sources of entertainment, opera, theatre and concert hall . 

For the fact that a workman in any German city can obtain admission to the finest operas for practically a nominal sum is Hitler himself directly to be thanked . Hitler often starved, in the old days, in order to buy the meanest standing room in the house, to hear Wagner . Now that he is Chancellor, no working man in Germany need be put to such shifts to gratify his artistic longings . 

The " Kulturant " has opened to the people all sorts of intellectual resorts hitherto sacred to the upper ten . It is a mistake to suppose that only such appreciate the best . In Germany Wagner takes precedence, even with the poorest people, over nigger minstrelsy and jazz .

Even the working man's week-ends are provided for . Previously he went for a bit of a walk in the park perhaps, on Sunday, or took a tram out of the suburbs to get a breath of air . If he were a single man he might spend the most part of his leisure in a beer hall, listening to the band. Although this sort of thing can still be observed everywhere, nowadays the workman looks to the sort of week-end right away which previously could only be enjoyed by the better to do . 

For a couple of marks, to-day, he can go thirty miles out of the city, follow a personally conducted tour around some beauty spots, and enjoy a good meal into the bargain . When his holiday comes round, it is provided for, lavishly as far as good things are concerned, at equally small cost . Workmen from Munich can now envisage holidays by the North Sea with all sorts of trips and bathing fun thrown in. Those from Berlin can go to the Alps, do a bit of mountaineering and try what hotel life is like . These are dreams come true which for whole generations past must have ever remained unrealisable. All thank ; to Adolf Hitler . 

The section of this activity which deals with " Volkstum and Heimat," seeks to revive, for urban populations, the knowledge of and delight in old peasant and traditional customs, songs, dances, costumes. This sort of thing reawakens love of the country and their origins in people long divorced from the land . It bridges the gull between the peasant and the townsman . 

Kraft durch Freude (" Strength through joy ") looks also to sport to give the working man zest and change in exercise . It is Hitler's keenest desire to see the worker, particularly the youthful worker (Hitler's Germany is all being built for the future-the past must now look after itself, " let the dead bury the dead " ) made " crisis resisting ." The young workman goes in for tennis and golf and every other vigorous game that's going . 

Through the instrumentality of innumerable exhibitions it is sought to rouse the worker's pride in his own achievements, in his niche in society, in the part he plays in the whole. His craft is displayed before him in its entire interest, or beauty, or significance . Prizes and competitions abound . Each man becomes conscious of the part he takes in the whole, and discovers fresh pride in his trade and in himself. 

Cheap classes are held for those who desire to advance in their particular calling, or to study more particularly the trade to which they belong, and for the acquisition of foreign languages . The best teachers are retained and the instruction is giver! in the buildings of the local University. People are assisted to acquire their own dwelling . houses. Loans for this purpose can be repaid by installments over a series of years . In this way it is hoped to promote a cheerful small villagedom beyond the limits of the greater cities . 

The department for propaganda aims at bringing all these activities and facilities before the people, to encourage them to make the utmost use of them . Only so will they be bringing about the National Socialist State envisaged by Adolf Hitler. There are still more departments in this one Movement alone, but space forbids their description . 

Much, indeed, has been written about the new Germany. In England and America so much attention has been directed to its political aspect, that these others have been neglected . Of that attention, moreover, by far the greater part is highly inimical, highly critical . Few outside Germany yet realize why Hitler is prepared to go to all lengths to save this new Germany from being torpedoed either from within or without . He saves it in his own way and from those he considers its enemies, whether his action is understood abroad or not . Let those disbelieve it who will, Adolf Hitler has done more for Germany since he came to power than any other statesman at any other time, and the wrecking of his work would not only spell the final ruin of Germany, but the ruin of Europe at large.

National Socialism Before Nazism:
Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914
By
Asaf Kedar
https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/etd/ucb/text/Kedar_berkeley_0028E_10454.pdf
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in
Political Science
in the
Graduate Division
of the
University of California, Berkeley
Committee in charge:
Professor Mark Bevir, Chair
Professor Wendy Brown
Professor Martin Jay
Spring 2010 

Abstract 
National Socialism Before Nazism: Friedrich Naumann and Theodor Fritsch, 1890-1914
 by Asaf Kedar 
Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science 
University of California, Berkeley
 Professor Mark Bevir, Chair 

This dissertation is a rethinking and critique of the concept of “national socialism.” I show that this concept not only emerged in Germany years before Nazism, but also arose within the mainstream of German society, alongside and independently of parallel developments in the radical right. Alarmed by the dramatic rise of an internationalist, Marxist socialism in the years following German unification, a succession of prominent public figures gave voice to an alternative, nationalist reading of the social problems accompanying capitalist industrialization. This endeavor involved a wholesale reconceptualization of social life and social reform, and a marginalization of the concern for social justice and emancipation in favor of a preoccupation with national order, homogeneity, and power. The dissertation focuses on two variants of national socialism developed in Germany prior to the First World War, one by the left-leaning bourgeois reformist Friedrich Naumann and the other by the right-wing völkisch antisemite Theodor Fritsch. Their differences notwithstanding, both strands of national socialism shared two major ideational foundations. First, both were underpinned by a national existentialism: the claim that the nation is facing a “struggle for existence” which necessitates aggressive international expansion, colonization, and ethnic purification. The social reforms demanded by national socialism were, accordingly, geared at systematically harnessing all socio-economic forces in the service of these purportedly “existential” struggles. Second, both variants of national socialism adhered to a national productivism that, by stressing the need for cooperation among all the “productive” strata of the nation, elided the class-based exploitation characteristic of industrial capitalism. On the basis of their national productivism, both Naumann and Fritsch were opposed simultaneously to Marxism with its class-conflict view of society on the one hand, and to liberalism with its individualistic worldview on the other hand. Given that Naumann and Fritsch were pivotal figures in their respective social, cultural, and political milieux—Naumann in the reformist bourgeoisie, Fritsch in the radical right—their articulation of a national-existential claim on the social is indicative of a profound generational shift in the ideational climate of Imperial Germany. This generational shift did not consist in the appearance of national socialism itself, which had already been articulated in the 1870s by 2 prominent figures such as political economist Gustav Schmoller and Christian socialist Adolf Stoecker. Rather, the shift consisted in the shedding of the ethical-conservative sensibility of the first generation of national socialism in favor of a sense of existential urgency grounded in a biologistic imagination. The impact of national socialism on the generation of Naumann and Fritsch reached its apex in the First World War, when an existential national socialism constituted the ideological underpinning of Germany’s war economy, i.e. the systematic regimentation and mobilization of the national economy in service of the war effort. Beyond the fresh perspective it offers on the historical dynamics of Imperial Germany, the dissertation also sheds new light on the intellectual-historical context in which national socialism made its way into the name and program of the Nazi movement from 1920 onward. The study suggests that the conceptual field of national socialism into which Nazism entered after the First World War was more variegated, more sophisticated, and had deeper historical and intellectual roots than previously believed.