The Subjective Dimension of Nazism

Abstract

A B S T R A C T . The present historiographical review discusses the subjective dimension of Nazism, an ideology and regime that needed translation into self-definitions, gender roles, and bodily practices to implant itself in German society and mobilize it for racial war. These studies include biographies of some of the Third Reich's most important protagonists, which have important things to say about their self-understandings in conjunction with the circumstances they encountered and subsequently shaped; cultural histories of important twentieth-century figures such as film stars, housewives, or consumers, which add new insights to the ongoing debate about the Third Reich's modernity; studies that address participation in the Nazi Empire and the Holocaust through discourses and practices of comradeship, work in extermination camps, and female 'help' within the Wehrmacht. In discussing these monographs, along the way incorporating further books and articles, the piece attempts to draw connections between specific topics and think about new possibilities for synthesis in an overcompartmentalized field. It aims less to define a 'Nazi subject' than to bring us closer to understanding how Hitler's movement and regime connected different, shifting subject positions through both cohesion and competition, creating a dynamic that kept producing new exclusions and violent acts.

ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE WAR ZONE: AUGUST SCHÖRGENDORFER AND THEKUNSTSCHUTZON CRETE DURING WORLD WAR II

“…Despite its Catholic outlook and its differences from the Nazi rhetoric, the Fatherland Front placed more value on adherence to the notion of Volksgemeinschaft (‘people's community’), namely solidarity based on kindred social values, than to a social class or stratum (Föllmer 2005, 203, 217–18). This ideological framework, which claimed to offer the potential for self-empowerment (Föllmer 2013, 1107–9), seems to have appealed to Schörgendorfer. His childhood education under the auspices of the Catholic Church which opposed pan-German ideology (Thorpe 2011, 85–6) probably played a large role in shaping his patriotic feelings.…”

“…This paper starts from the premise that discussion should be grounded in an understanding of the social and ideological background prevailing in Germany and Austria during the pre-World War II era (Schlanger 2004, 165). We essentially need to explore how the core values of the National Socialist New Order ( Neuordnung ), namely the ideas of ‘people's community’ ( Volksgemeinschaft ) and racial exclusion, were filtered through personal worldviews and individual interests in this time of social conflict (Föllmer 2013, 1109–11, 1131–2). A generation of archaeologists pursuing or already holding academic posts were confronted with the challenge of adapting to the political system, especially in the period after 1933 and 1938 when the radicalisation of German and Austrian universities, respectively, intensified (Schücker 2012, 165).…”