Ludwig Schemann

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Karl Ludwig Schemann (born October 16, 1852 in Cologne , † February 13, 1938 in Freiburg i. Br. ) Was a translator and racial theorist . He promoted anti-Semitism , which was later represented by the National Socialists and the national-conservative layers of the German population who were pacting with them.

Life

Schemann became known as a translator of the writings of the French cultural theorist and writer Arthur de Gobineau , which he translated between 1893 and 1902 under the title Experiment on the inequality of the human races. Like Gobineau, Schemann was of the opinion that Europe's cultural achievements were made by the “ Aryan race ”. However, in contrast to this, he saw the "Aryans not threatened with extinction". According to Schemann, the acting subject in the story is not only the individual but also the race. The "Aryan" race is called in the forefront to bring about the "salvation" of humanity.

Schemann was a librarian in Göttingen from 1875 to 1891 . In 1894 he founded the Gobineau Association, of which he was chairman until 1920.

With Adolf Bartels , Arthur Moeller van den Bruck , Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Henry Thode and Hermann Hendrich , Schemann was one of the founders of the Volkischer Werdandi-Bund and was a member of the Bayreuth circle around Richard and Cosima Wagner . He also got involved with other racial ideologues such as the anthropologist Otto Ammon and the writer Theodor Fritsch in the Pan-German Association .

Schemann was a member of the German Society for Racial Hygiene and in 1928 became a public sponsor of the National Socialist Society for German Culture . In 1933 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Freiburg. In 1937 he was made an honorary member of the National Socialist Reich Institute for the History of New Germany and was awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science by Adolf Hitler . Schemann saw his publication The Race in the Humanities. Studies on the history of racial thought as his "life's work".

His estate is in the Freiburg University Library .

Works (in selection)

  • De legionum per alterum bellum Punicum historia quae investigari posse videantur. Bonn: Univ. Diss., 1875
  • My memories of Richard Wagner. Stuttgart: Frommann, 1902
  • Count Arthur Gobineau. A souvenir picture from Wahnfried. Stuttgart: Frommann, 1907
  • The Gobineau Collection of the Imperial University and State Library of Strasbourg. Strasbourg: Trübner, 1907
  • Gobineau and German culture. Leipzig: Eckardt, 1910
  • Gobineau's racial work. Documents and reflections on the history and criticism of the "Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaines". Stuttgart: Fromm, 1910
  • Alexis de Tocqueville , lecture. Stuttgart: Frommann, 1911
  • Gobineau. A biography. Strasbourg: Trübner, 1913–1916
  • Twenty-five years of the Gobineau Association. Strasbourg u. a .: Trübner, 1919
  • Paul de Lagarde . A life u. Memory image. Leipzig u. a .: Matthes, 1919
  • From the German future. Thought One who set out to learn to hope. Leipzig: Weicher, 1920
  • Cherubini. Berlin et al .: Deutsche Verl.-Anst., 1925
  • Life journeys of a German. Leipzig u. a .: Matthes, 1925
  • The race in the humanities. Studies on the history of racial thought. , 3 vol., Munich: Lehmann, 1928ff.
  • Martin Plüddemann and the German ballad. Regensburg: Bosse, 1930
  • Hans von Bülow in the light of truth. Regensburg: Bosse, 1935
  • Wolfgang Kapp and the March company from 1920. A word of atonement. Munich u. a .: Lehmann, 1937

Letter issues

  • Letters to Ludwig Schemann / Cosima Wagner , ed. v. Bertha Schemann, Regensburg: Bosse, 1937

Translations

  • Arthur de Gobineau: Asiatic novels . Leipzig: Reclam, 1893
  • Arthur de Gobineau: The Renaissance. Historical scenes. Leipzig: Reclam, 1899
  • Arthur de Gobineau: Attempt on the inequality of human races . Original title: Essai sur l'inégalité des races humaine , translated and edited by Ludwig Schemann, 4 volumes, Frommann, Stuttgart 1900, DNB 560514352 .

Honors

Shortly after Schemann's death, a new street in Cologne-Neuehrenfeld was named after him. In 1946, however, it was renamed after Carl Rehorst, Alderman of the City of Cologne, who died in 1919 .

literature

  • Peter Emil Becker: Paths to the Third Reich. Part 2: Social Darwinism, Racism, Anti-Semitism and Völkisch Thought. Stuttgart u. a. 1990, 101-123 (with further references)
  • Kurt Nemitz: Anti-Semitism in the science policy of the Weimar Republic. The 'Ludwig Schemann case'. In: Yearbook of the Institute for German History, ed. v. Walter Grab, 12, 1983, pp. 377-407.
  • Julian Köck: Ludwig Schemann and the Gobineau Association. In: Zeitschrift für Geschichtswwissenschaft, 59/9, 2011, pp. 723–740.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook of Anti-Semitism . Hostility to Jews in the past and present . Second volume: people. 1. A – K and 2. L – Z , De Gruyter / KG Saur, Berlin. 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-24072-0 , p. 728.
  2. ↑ Handbook of Anti-Semitism. Hostility to Jews in the past and present. Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements. P. 10
  3. ↑ a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 530.
  4. ^ Paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries: Augustinermuseum Freiburg; Inventory catalog. Freiburg im Breisgau, Modo-Verl., 2004. ISBN 3-937014-01-2 . P. 170, no. 425
  5. ^ Karl Ferdinand Werner: The NS-historical image and the German historical science. W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1967. p. 82.
personal data
SURNAME Schemann, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schemann, Karl Ludwig Hendrik Lorenz Thomas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German translator and racial researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1938
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau