Still, the Greeks were far from perfect. Bergen, Doris L., Twisted Cross. , Mnchen, C.H. Hitler saw in Christianity a lethal plague that had affected Europe because of the Jews who made Christians out of Germans to weaken them. houston stewart chamberlain, the importance of race summary. Silent nature awakes to the consciousness of itself6. In the 1031 pages of the two volumes, Chamberlain borrowed ideas from the leading sciences of the time (history and the natural sciences) and stood up for the dominant ideas, at the Belle poque, of the European bourgeoisie: in other words, racism, social Darwinism and colonialism. I want to cry out, I want to weep.29. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1996. In the 1031 pages of the two volumes, Chamberlain borrowed ideas from the leading sciences of . Without him, the Indo-Europeans would have disappeared. You probably mean Arthur Neville Chamberlain(1869-1940), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.And yes, if you mean Field Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain (1820-1902), prominence in Munity etc . Despite his English birth and family, his early indifference toward England and all things English developed into a lifelong hatred. 1.7 Houston Stewart Chamberlain and the Race Struggle of Western History Like Theodor Fritsch, Houston Stewart Chamberlain represents an important link between the vlkisch anti-Semitism of the late 19th century and the ideology of Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1899 Chamberlain wrote his most important work, 'Die Grundlagen des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts' . Off we go. Wie Jesus zum Arier wurde. Encyclopdiste et dilettante la fois, amateur dart, il a pntr le cercle des wagnriens et est devenu le gendre de Richard Wagner. Hitler wanted the support of someone whose work had become a canonical book for the racist nationalists in Germany. 15The second Saviour (with a capital S) is Jesus Christ himself whom Chamberlain celebrates at length in his book. They then left testimonies of their genius in immaculate and pristine temples that were currently used, in the 19. century, to demonstrate the superiority of white mankind. This idea according to which the Greeks and the Germans shared the same taste for beauty had been a commonplace for, since Johann Winckelmann published, in 1764, his, In the words of Chamberlain: This assumption of the importance of the arts corresponds to a specific character of the German mind, if I am not mistaken, But what was to be said about Rome? The German Christian Movement in the Third Reich. This would be taught in the ideological courses every member of the party (among which, members of the SS) had to take. Regrettably, a number of Chamberlain's most important works are still accessible only to those who know German, the language in which he did It is no wonder that an Englishman like Chamberlain became part of the Wagner Circle for Britons were considered to be members of the Aryan race like any other German(ic) man. 8What is interesting, however, is the following statement: according to Chamberlain, the Romans and the Greeks, the founding fathers of our European civilization, were indeed Germans. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (Q57737) Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Thanks to this book, and because he was someone who mattered in Bayreuth, Chamberlain later became a very important mediator in the formulation of the Nazi ideology, before he died in 1927. copies. Sie sind ja gar nicht, wie Sie mir geschildert worden sind, ein Fanatiker, vielmehr mchte ich Sie als den unmittelbaren Gegensatz eines Fanatikers bezeichnen. Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926. 22 Den Jesus knnen Sie nicht zum Arier machen, das ist Unsinn. From his anthropological research, . I want to cry out, I want to weep. Historians must therefore make the effort to understand that, for Chamberlains coevals, his book was important in that it provided an answer, at the time, to important questions and, to a larger extent, tried to give a meaning to history. You are free: to share - to copy, distribute and transmit the work; to remix - to adapt the work; Under the following conditions: attribution - You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. If only those elites would come to that same awareness, they would crush any opposition and rule the world for good. 3This book has the reputation of being hard, if not impossible, to read. Sie haben Gewaltiges zu leisten vor sich, aber trotz Ihrer Willenskraft halte ich Sie nicht fr e, Resorting to antique concepts and quoting Goethe, Chamberlain celebrates Hitler as the creator of a, , the hero who fights against every sort of, : You know Goethe's distinction between force and force. Chamberlain could very well have been a poor mans Hegel: rewriting the history of civilization in a less than talented way, apologizing for not being able to elaborate further on what he was talking about because it would take too long and writing much nonsense on the science of the time which he was already busy repudiating. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Jetzt glaube ich einzusehen, da dies grade Ihr Wesen bezeichnet und sozusagen umschliet: der wahre Erwecker ist zugleich Spender der Ruhe. Chamberlain devotes some 500 pagesnearly half the bookto that period, providing his reader with ample material on Rome, Greece and the Jews as well as on another sacrosanct trinity: Athens, Rome and Jerusalem. He holds my hand and won't let me go. Both an art lover and a dilettante, he was welcomed into Richard Wagners larger circles when he became his son-in-law. Houston Stewart Chamberlain The real representative advocate of racial theory in the pre . The fanatic inflames the mind, you warm the heart. In 1899, his. His big eyes burn like fire. For todays readers, it is nothing more than a flood of words and phrases, an accumulation of commonplaces, false ideas and lies without any firm structure or real coherence. (). Jetzt glaube ich einzusehen, da dies grade Ihr Wesen bezeichnet und sozusagen umschliet: der wahre Erwecker ist zugleich Spender der Ruhe. Chamberlains later works included studies of Kant (1905) and Goethe (1912), various essays defending Germanys military efforts and aims during World War I, the autobiographical Lebenswege meines Denkens (1919; Paths of My Thought), and Rasse und Persnlichkeit (1925; Race and Personality). In these publications, Chamberlain emphasized the heroic Teutonic aspects in the composers works. Houston Stewart Chamberlain. 24 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, Sehr geehrter und lieber Herr Hitler 7. This is summed up by Chamberlain who, contrary to Hegel who wrote Ex oriente lux, pretends that Ex septentrione lux: the beacon of civilization lies in the north with the white Germanic race. Later, when the Jews rebelled in Palestine, under Vespasian and Titus, and then under Hadrian, they were beaten once again: There is a second roman delenda of overwhelming significance for world history: the delenda est Hierosolyma. The Jews of Semitic Carthage were defeated because the Romans (or Germans) were the best at fighting and winning. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2005. , New York, Columbia University Press, 1981. , Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1960. , London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1962. , Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926. , Wien, Zrich, New York, Europa Verlag, 1940. Houston Stewart Chamberlain (/ t e m b r l n /; 9 September 1855 - 9 January 1927) was a British-German philosopher who wrote works about political philosophy and natural science. Sie kennen Goethes Unterscheidung von Gewalt und Gewalt! cit., pp. cit., p.50. devotion baptism . An early Lord Haw-Haw of sorts who was even awarded the iron cross by Kaiser William II, not for fighting in the muddy trenches of the Somme, but for insulting London in vindictive articles. Those three cities had been, throughout the 19th century, the epitome of Western culture: the Greeks had bequeathed philosophy and the arts, the Romans the Law and the Empire, and Jerusalem had opened a new path to salvation with the teachings of Jesus Christ. 19Although he did not agree with everything he had written in the Foundations, Hitler knew how to value such honour. No. as sufficiently self-explanatory, despised Rosenbergs reflections which Goering himself went as far as to call a mere philosophical burp. 29 Goebbels, Joseph, Das Tagebuch von Joseph Goebbels, 1925-1926, Stuttgart, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 1960, 141p., in the English translation: The Early Goebbels Diaries, 1925-1926, London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1962, 156p., p.77. The fanatic wants to overwhelm people with words, you wish to convince, only to convince themand that is why you are successful. I, chap. Greek and Roman antiquity play an essential part in his argumentation. Jesus Christ was, strangely enough, of pure Germanic blood. 9During ancient times, the Germans ruled over their conception of the world and could therefore explore and organize it: the science of the Greeks helped understand the cosmos, while the legions and the laws of the Romans imposed the Nordic order to the world. Auswirkungen der Entjudaisierung Christi im 19. und zu Beginn des 20. Reassured though he was to have met the saviour of Germany and of the German race, Chamberlain did not die right away and had to wait four more years before falling into a deep and peaceful sleep. Long, long handshake! After France, Italy, Belgium, he ended up in Vienna, then in Geneva, where he earned a Bachelors degree in Science. After years of travelling and wandering/wondering about new ideas, he found in the racist theories of Schemann and other Rassentheoretiker of the time a unified vision of the worlda true Weltanschauung. What then could possibly have happened? The fanatic inflames the mind, you warm the heart. Athens was beautiful, but Greece was splendid: the people looked like statues, they had perfectly proportioned noses and marble skin, they spoke the language of books (written in Greek) and they invented not only mathematics but also the theatre and the art of warfare. There is the force that stems from chaos and in turn leads to chaos, and there is the force which shapes the cosmos, , Munich, Franz Eher Verlag, Zentralverlag der NSDAP, 1926, 782p. Quote f, Although he did not agree with everything he had written in the, , Hitler knew how to value such honour. Educated at Versailles, Geneva, and Vienna, Chamberlain became an admirer of Richard Wagner, publishing his first work, Notes sur Lohengrin (Notes on Lohengrin), in 1892. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 5 Sourced Quotes. Der Fanatiker will berreden, Sie wollen berzeugen, nur berzeugen, und darum gelingt es Ihnen auch; ja, ich mchte Sie ebenfalls fr das Gegenteil eines Politikers dieses Wort im landlufigen Sinne aufgefat erklren, denn die Asche aller Politik ist die Parteiangehrigkeit, whrend bei Ihnen alle Parteien verschwinden, aufgezehrt von der Glut der Vaterlandsliebe. allowed him to reach public fame. 18Resorting to antique concepts and quoting Goethe, Chamberlain celebrates Hitler as the creator of a cosmos, the hero who fights against every sort of chaos: You know Goethe's distinction between force and force. Decultot, Elisabeth, Johann Joachim Winckelmann. The son of a naval officerhis father was an admiral in the Royal Navy , he spent his whole youth travelling around Europe. 21 Hitler, Adolf, private talk from Oct. 21st, 1941, Fhrerhauptquartier, quoted in Hitler, Adolf, Monologe im Fhrerhauptquartier, 1941-1944. Rome was destroyed by the Jews because it had not protected the purity of its race and because it was never able to lead a proper racial war: a total war of annihilation. He then joined the Nazi party before he passed away in 1927. Among them were Houston Stewart Chamberlain and many members of what historians later called the Bayreuther Kreis, an informal circle of members and friends of the Wagner family, including Cosima Wagner, the wife of the Master, and Ludwig Schemann. 8 Demandt, Alexander, Politische Aspekte im Alexanderbild der Neuzeit. Houston had an enthusiasm towards superiority of the "Teutonic" race, a category that he used synonymously with "Aryan" and "Germanic." because of Houston's beliefs, he soon became a well-known writer for his articles on . SpracheRasseReligion, Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a typical member of the 19, century British gentry but had the most atypical destinya destiny which was built around the culture of two countries: England which he left early and Germany which was to become his true home. He became somewhat of a war hero during the First World War, during which he was a talented propagandist against his own country, Great Britain. In that respect, he is not being entirely fair to the author. Der Grieche war von jeher, was er noch heute ist, untreu, unpatriotisch, eigenschtig, Demandt, Alexander, Politische Aspekte im Alexanderbild der Neuzeit. Historic antisemitism , the rise of eugenics and nationalism , the aftermath of the First World War, the rise of the Nazis, the role of Adolf Hitler, the internal operation of the Nazi state, the Second World War and collaboration all played key roles in the timing and scale of the final catastrophe. In very ancient times, Germanic tribes had come from the north to colonize the south. Oktober 1923, quoted in. In this monumental piece of work, he tried to answer the following questions: what made (t)his period the most remarkable one in history? While the Greeks had given Europe a soul, the Romans were busy shaping the body: the Imperium, the jus romanum, the legions. Assistance with short selling your home Order: For "the most sacred of duties . Hitler saw in Christianity a lethal plague that had affected Europe because of the Jews who made Christians out of Germans to weaken them. Stackelberg, Roderick, Winkle, Sally, The Nazi Germany Sourcebook. 2A passionate and self-educated man, Houston Stewart Chamberlain studied and read a lot, eager to explore many different fields at once: history, philosophy or the natural sciences. For many people in the 19, : many Christian racists of the period could not bear the idea of their Messiah being a Jew. Camera Memoria: Photographic Memory from the Margins, Representing Whiteness in US Film and Television, Unheard Possibilities: Reappraising Classical Film Music Scoring and Analysis, Rethinking Laughter in Contemporary Anglophone Theatre, War in Poetry: Breaking into Family and Everyday Life, Lexprimental dans la littrature et les arts contemporains, Early American Surrealisms, 1920-1940 / Parable Art, Thomas Spence and his Legacy: Bicentennial Perspectives, Images on the Move: Circulations and Transfers in film, Coincidences / Circulating towards and across the British Isles, In Umbra Voluptatis : Shades, Shadows, and their Felicities/ Film Adaptations, New Interactions, South and Race / Staging Mobility in the United States. 4Thanks to this book, and because he was someone who mattered in Bayreuth, Chamberlain later became a very important mediator in the formulation of the Nazi ideology, before he died in 1927. The Germanic giants from the forests of the north were blood from their blood and spirit from their spirit12 and, as such, the true heir of the Romans and of the Greeks13. Omissions? Says the author, Chika Onyeani, "We are a conquered race and it is utterly foolish for . Houston Stewart Chamberlain Aryan World-view Because truth lays beyond the reach of the intellect, we can't use words for it. He eventually settled in Dresden, Germany, after his Prussian tutor had filled his young mind with Teutonic tales of Germanic greatness. Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1600-06, Houston Stewart Chamberlain.jpg 367 599; 94 KB. Chamberlain chose to revisit this holy triangle through the vlkisch perspective. Schemann, who held a doctorate in history from the University of Berlin, made a living as a raciologist (Rassenkndler) at the University of Freiburg and translated Gobineaus work in German. they believed that the Nordic race had become superior because harsh climatic conditions . These people are too stupid to think for themselves28. This book had already been published in 1850, but anonymously. While the Greeks rejoiced in the company of ideas, the Romans were materialists in both the best and the worst sense of the term. In the 1920s, he met Hitler. Sie haben Gewaltiges zu leisten vor sich, aber trotz Ihrer Willenskraft halte ich Sie nicht fr einen Gewaltmenschen. For many people in the 19th century, it was a vital question19: many Christian racists of the period could not bear the idea of their Messiah being a Jew. While their cousins who had stayed in the north still ate raw meat and lived in caverns, the Germans of the Souththat is to say, the Greeks and the Romansate healthy food and created civilisation. His most fundamental idea was that the Germanic race was the cornerstone and the pillar of civilization. He was therefore read and admired by the major figures of the Nazi ideologyone of whom was Hitlerand became, just before he died, in the 1920s, one of the leading minds of their movement. In Aryan Worldview Houston Chamberlain discusses the importance of Indology in the effort to gain deeper insight into the essence of Indo-European thought. Houston Stewart Chamberlain. Feb by Claudio. 17Indeed, this encounter and interview left such an impression on Chamberlain that he considered Hitler as the epitome of many essential virtuessuch virtues as warmth, kindness and selflessness, all embodied by the Fhrer of the NSDAP: You are not at all, as you have been described to me, a fanatic. What can you say of a 1200 years long history that does not offer a single philosopher, not even the most modest one? I also examine Chamberlain's influence on Nazism and suggest that Es gibt eine Gewalt, die aus Chaos stammt und zu Chaos hinfhrt, und es gibt eine Gewalt, deren Wesen es ist, Kosmos zu gestalten. A true anti-Semite, Wagner wrote an essay against the perversion of the arts by the Jews entitled Jewishness in Music (Das Judentum in der Musik1) that led Friedrich Nietzsche to break with him but that gained him the affection of many dubious devotees. , Leipzig, 1869. 20 Bergen, Doris L., Twisted Cross. Chamberlain scorned this racial chaos of the late Roman Empire, which destroyed any racial and national principle, this chaos of peoples of the decadent Roman Empire being a capital sin against nature. This beautiful race (in every regard) was dominant in Germany and Austria, but also within the elites of the British Empire and of the United States of America; it extended to the French elites as well, but only partly. (). emphasizes the importance of race, nation, personality, the creative idea in history . He spent his winters in Cannes and springs in Florence. He eventually settled in Dresden, Germany, after his Prussian tutor had filled his young mind with Teutonic tales of Germanic greatness. Here, in Greece, every river, every stone lives and is an individual. Wagner, Richard, Das Judentum in der Musik, Leipzig, 1869. This is a draft section of a chapter in my forthcoming Ph.D., in which I explore the racial and theological theories of 19th-century German philosopher Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In it, he provides his readership with a new approach to Western history in relation to the question of race and the necessary rise of Germanic power. "In this manner the ground was prepared for the emergence of a new race of'Supermen'," said Houston Stewart Chamberlain. What then could possibly have happened? But something is as clear as the sun at midday: if the Phenician people had not been exterminated () mankind would never have experienced () this 19th century that we can consider with pride and hope15. English author of books on political philosophy (1855-1927) edit. Results for 'Houston+Stewart+Chamberlain' 11 found. Ein Beitrag zur historischen Methodenkritik, in Archiv fr Kulturgeschichte, 64, 1972, pp. , Wien, Zrich, New York, Europa Verlag, 1940, p.51. , Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003, 463p. And Weindling, Paul. Meuchelmrderisch hatte sich der asiatische und. 325-363. (1855-1927) Houston Stewart Chamberlain, the Anglo-German race theorist and philosophical and . More importantly, they would prevent any further decadence and avoid mixing with inferior races, like the Jews or other crossbreds. Before praising the Romans for being good lawyers, he blames them for their lack of creativity: Can you find one single poetic genius among the Romans? houston stewart chamberlain, the importance of race summary . Introduction Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) is best known for his cultural history Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (Foundations of the Nineteenth Century; Munich, 1899) as well as for his studies of Kant, Goethe, Wagner, and Heinrich von Stein. 12/02/2021 . The Europe the Romans had ambitioned was saved by a racial messiah: the Germanic tribes which, by invading the Empire, preserved the continent and its civilization. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, who spoke fluent German, belonged from then on to the sanctum of Germano-maniac racism, a group of worshippers who had gathered around Richard Wagner: Wagner, the bard of a reinvented Germanic mythology, who celebrated heroic figures of oneiric purity and had a slight tendency of considering that his agethe 19, centurywas leading white Germanic mankind towards decadence, degeneration and death. Two of his uncles were generals, and a third was a . Jesus Christ was, strangely enough, of pure Germanic blood. DICE Dental International Congress and Exhibition. If Germanic blood is not protected against the Jewish infection, Europe will perish. This obsession with diseases and the assimilation of blood-mixing with infection is a common characteristic, as well as a deep concern, among the most convinced racists of the time. 23 Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century: A Translation from the German by John Lees, vol. Later, the Wagner family would welcome another subject of the British Empire: Winifred Williams. Being a Nazi in 1926 was just not the same than being a Nazi in 1938, 1942 or 1944. Greek and Roman antiquity play an essential part in his argumentation. is a form of prolonged indictment against the Jews, depicted as a race full of hatred, longing for might and vengeance. 21From the Foundations of the 19th to the Myth of the 20th Century, the vision of antiquity remained the same: a Germanic golden age in Greece and Rome which was scattered and shattered by the Jews. 27 Sie haben Gewaltiges zu leisten vor sich, aber trotz Ihrer Willenskraft halte ich Sie nicht fr einen Gewaltmenschen. An Anthology of Texts, Health, Race and German Politics between National Unification and Nazism, 1870-1945. , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989. , Leipzig, 1869. Chamberlain addresses a most respected and dear Herr Hitler, the only one who could give him strength and peace, confidence and energy, everything that he had lost in August 1914, when Germany entered a fateful war: Es hat meine Gedanken beschftigt, wieso gerade Sie, der Sie in so seltenem Grade ein Erwecker de, I have been wondering why it was you of all people, you who are so extraordinary in awakening people from sleep and humdrum routines, who recently gave me a longer and more refreshing sleep than I have experienced since that fateful day in August 1914 when I was first struck down by this insidious sickness. He was, for the Germans, the thinker who popularized Gobineaus ideas on the social Darwinists, providing the German bourgeoisie with a sense of its mission: am deutschen wesen soll die welt genesenthe German essence must heal the world. Frithjof Hallman On September 9, 1980, the 125th anniversary of the birth of Houston Steward Chamberlain, the renowned philosopher and son-in-law of the composer Richard Wagner, was celebrated by West German conservatives.