Bellicism

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Bellicism ( lat. Bellum "war"; bellicosus "concerning the war"; bellicus "belonging to the war"), also known in German as war glorification , is a word formation that emerged in the early 20th century under the influence of the synonymous French bellicisme . The term denotes an ideological support for war and the tendency to generally resolve international conflicts through military force . It stands for the dogmatic advocacy of military actions and measures, for an exaggerated warlike spirit and is also used in the sense of warmongering and militarism . The opposing ideological assessment of the war can be found under the antonym pacifism .

Main features

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Bellicism not only regards military means as a legitimate means of achieving political goals, but also prefers peaceful means in case of doubt and tends to philosophically exaggerate war as the purest expression of an assumed combative nature of man. Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke saw “the noblest human virtues” unfolded during the war. In his war diary, In Stahlgewittern, Ernst Jünger advocated a strongly individualistic and adventurous bellicism. Erich Ludendorff coined the term total war as the most complete willful effort of a people. The anti-enlightenment syndicalist Georges Sorel also saw the meaning of a non-decadent life in war and in the violent rebellion of a mass strengthened by a political myth , with which he influenced later fascists such as Benito Mussolini . Bellicism thus goes well beyond assessments that at least include struggle and violence ( Max Weber , Norbert Elias , Thomas Hobbes ), but also war as such ( Carl Schmitt , Carl von Clausewitz ) as a central, but also highly problematic, element of dealing of people looking at each other.

Bellicism is partly equated with militarism , partly - as Emilio Willems - clearly differentiated from it.

The followers of bellicism are called bellicists . A self-designation as a bellicist is unusual, however, since the term is usually used derogatory.

Quotes

  • The philosopher Hegel in the year 1820 (philosophy of right): [The war] has the greater meaning that through it, as I have expressed it elsewhere, 'the moral health of the peoples in their indifference to the solidification of finite determinations is preserved, such as the movement of the winds preserves the sea from the putrefaction, into which it is a permanent calm, just as a permanent or even an eternal peace would bring the peoples. ' [...] In peacetime civil life expands more, all spheres settle in, and in the long run people become boggy; their particularities become more and more solid and ossified.
  • The former head of the army command in the Reichswehr Ministry , Colonel General a. D. Hans von Seeckt , in 1936: War is the highest increase in human performance, it is the natural, last stage of development in the history of mankind.
  • The member of the General Staff Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener to Reich President Friedrich Ebert on September 17, 1919: We must never succumb to the self-deception of pacifist ideologues, as if by suppressing any national and warlike spirit in a nation eternal peace and human happiness could be achieved. [...] Only in the constant struggle for life are the spiritual and moral forces strengthened and tempered, which alone form the wings for the ascent of a people. Which people violate this natural law is internally sick and destined to decline. It is false prophets who recommend the people to forego steeling and the use of physical powers in the struggle for existence. In the following years of peace Germany must prove to be a great people that does not want to go down, that holds fast to the will to struggle for existence and resumes this struggle with the peoples of the earth to the extent and with the means that are reasonable for it according to its condition Strength at hand.

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Bellicism  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Schulz, Otto Basler , Gerhard Strauss: German Foreign Dictionary . Volume 3, 2nd edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-11-015741-1 , p. 243 (keyword “Bellicism”).
  2. ↑ Hegel, GWF: Works: Basics of the Philosophy of Law, or Natural Law and Political Science in Outlines, Volume 8 . Publisher Duncker and Humblot, ed. E. Gans et al., Berlin 1833, p. 418 f.
  3. ↑ Hans von Seeckt: The willpower of the general . Military scientific review, 1st year 1936, Mittler & Sohn publishing house, Berlin 1936, p. 2.
  4. ↑ Wolfram Wette: The Wehrmacht. Enemy images, war of extermination, legends . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt / M. 2005, ISBN 3-596-15645-9 , p. 148 f.