German Federation

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The Deutschbund was one of the first organizations of the ethnic movement to emerge in the German Empire . He was racist and anti-Semitic .

history

The Deutschbund was founded in Berlin in 1894 by the journalist Friedrich Lange and had a decidedly racist, anti-Semitic and anti-social democratic attitude from the start. Thanks to its official structure, its financial resources and influential members, so-called Deutschbund communities were formed in numerous cities and regions of the German Empire, the number of which grew to around 1,500 by the First World War. In the mid-1920s, the federal government already had 3,200 members, making it one of the strongest ethnic organizations of the Weimar Republic.

The "Race Work Plan" published by the Deutschbund in 1913 formulated völkisch racial hygiene , d. H. how to operate " population policy and breeding policy ... according to the teachings of race care":

“On the one hand, the elimination of the inferior is to be aimed for: exclusion of the mentally and nervously ill, sexually ill, etc. from the offspring, medical certificate at the marriage. On the other hand, the reproduction of the capable and noble people components is to be encouraged ..., but also the already very threatening decline in population increase in general must be counteracted: stronger tax rebates for large families, a military tax for the military, taxation of bachelors, infant and maternity protection, Breastfeeding bonuses and the like ... Establishment of a Teutstiftung to support racially valuable offspring ... The choice of spouse (successes) based on racial ability, ... a certificate of marriage (must be presented for marriage); ... that the large mother in the public opinion again receives her due place of honor. "

- Max Robert Gerstenhauer, Race Work Plan 1913, excerpt

Accordingly, in 1913, the Federation prepared "race statistics" for its members and their family members as part of the race work plan; the project was postponed when the war broke out. It was based on preliminary work by Otto Ammon , who, apparently with the consent of the government, had already racially "rated" young conscripts in Baden en masse in 1893 .

The members (called "Brothers") of the Deutschbund congregations often came from Protestant-conservative dignitaries . The congregations acted as conspiratorial circles, the members saw themselves as a racial elite and strove to deepen "Germanness" in political, religious, social, economic and cultural terms. The elitist self-image of the federal government also justified its claim to form the “General Staff” and the “War Academy”, which were to provide officers for the national mass organizations.

The federal government's application for admission contained a paragraph that linked admission to Aryan descent. On site, the Deutschbund members kept a root directory listing the origins of well-known "Aryans" and "non-Aryans" of the place. Full membership in the Deutschbund was preceded by a one-year trial period.

Despite numerous crises, the federal government maintained its leading position in the nationalist movement even after the First World War . The lawyer and Thuringian ministerial advisor Max Robert Gerstenhauer (1873-1940), Federal Grand Master from 1921 until his death, played a special role in this . The early rapprochement with National Socialism and the NSDAP , with which he established close personal contacts as early as the mid-1920s, can also be attributed to him. In 1930 the leadership of the Deutschbund joined the party as a whole, and the members were obliged to cooperate fully with the NSDAP. The Supreme Court of the NSDAP party also recognized because of its April 25, 1934 German Bund as the oldest ethnic association and allowed party members to double membership.

The federal government kept a newsletter, the "Deutschbund-Blätter", and was the publisher of numerous völkisch works. Relationships existed with the Armanen publishing house in Leipzig, he published a. a. a 40-year commemorative publication whose small size also indicates the relative insignificance of the association at the beginning of the Nazi reign. In 1945 the Allies banned the Deutschbund.

Organizational structure

The head of the federation was formed by the federal administration with the federal grand master, federal warden, federal chancellor and federal chamber. The subdivisions consisted of districts led by jugglers and local Deutschbund communities under the leadership of "German Masters".

Activists

Federal publications (selection)

  • From a German heart. Lyric and semi-epic poems, selected by the German Federation . Soltau's Verlag, Norden 1898
  • Deutschbund sheets. Confidential communications for our members . Deutschbund, Melsungen or Berlin 1901–1943
  • German songs, selected by the Deutschbund . German Federation, Berlin 1908
  • German Volkswart. Monthly for ethnic German education . Leipzig 1913–1927
  • German songbook. 502 fatherland, war, folk and wandering songs . Verlag der Kanzlei des Deutschbund, Gotha 1916 (10th edition)
  • What is and what does the Deutschbund want? J. Schmidt, Friedrichroda undated (around 1918)
  • MR Gerstenhauer: Race theory and race care . Deutschbund (Ed.), Sis Verlag , Zeitz 1920
    • Regular role of the German Federation. Bernecker, Melsungen 1926
    • Work plan in the race question . Edited by Deutschbund, Melsungen 1931
    • Teutblätter for the promotion of German families and clans. The pedigree of the German Federation. Teutblätter, 1, 1932; Supplement to German Federal Gazette, 1932
  • What we want. [Who we are; What we do] . German Federation, Melsungen 1931
  • Deutschbund newsletter. For essential German mental care . German Federation, Berlin 1931 to 1940
  • Deutschbund news. Notices for our members . Bernecker, Melsungen 1938–1943

Communities of convenience

The Deutschbund u. a. affiliated:

  • Teut Foundation and Federal Race Office
  • German home school Bad Berka and from 1931 Altenburg
  • German national headquarters
  • German art society
  • German-Christian working group
  • German Volkischer Writers' Association
  • Adolf Bartels Foundation (later: Bartelsbund Correspondence)
  • Employment office for Germanness abroad
  • Deutschbund parish "Hermannsland" in Detmold, under Wilhelm Teudt

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Daniela Kasischke-Wurm: Anti-Semitism in the mirror of the Hamburg press during the Empire, 1884-1914 , LIT Verlag Münster, 1997, page 434 of 457 pages, online at Google Books
  2. ↑ Stefan Breuer: The dispute about the "Nordic thought" in the national movement , magazine for religious and intellectual history ZRGG, issue 1/2010, p. 3
  3. ↑ Gregor Hufenreuter: Völkisch-Religious Strömungen im Deutschbund , in Uwe Puschner, Clemens Vollnhals (Ed.): The Völkisch-Religious Movement in National Socialism , Göttingen 2012, p. 219
  4. ^ First: Deutschvölkische Hochschulblätter, 3, 1913/1914, pp. 18f; again at Gangolf Huebinger , ed .: European scientific cultures and political orders in the modern age 1890-1970, therein: Uwe Puschner : Appendix: Work plan "Racial Political Tasks of the German People." Oldenbourg, Munich 2014, pp. 118ff. - The plan comes from Gerstenhauer; a revised version by him from 1921 is known, preserved in the archive in the Friedrich Lange estate, Bundesarchiv Berlin, N 2165/17
  5. ^ Rassestatistik im Deutschbund, in Deutschbund-Blätter 19, 1914 p. 46f.
  6. ↑ Ammon, The Natural Selection in Humans. Jena 1893
  7. ↑ Stefan Breuer: The dispute over the "Nordic thought" in the national movement , in: Journal for Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, Issue 1/2010, p. 3, Potsdam 2010
  8. ^ NN documents from NSDAP and NS organizations in Lippe , online at the portal of the archives in NRW
  9. ↑ different editions in different publishers; first in 1913
  10. ↑ Family tree, as is usual with pedigree animals, to be filled out by the member himself up to the 5th generation
  11. ↑ Ibid.
  12. ↑ More details in Lemma Max Robert Gerstenhauer
  13. ↑ The latter was brought into being on March 2, 1931 by Kurt Bromme and representatives of the German Federation and was based on the school in Bad Berka in terms of both content and personnel. Lecturers in Altenburg were z. B. Ernst Schrumpf with “The German Goethe”, Georg Stammler with “German Not and German Hope”, Max R. Gerstenhauer with “Rasse und Volkstum” as well as “State and Economy” and Theodor Scheffer with “Blood and Iron in German History "
  14. ↑ on him see the lemma Max Robert Gerstenhauer, note