Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) shows a famous German war hero (Karl von Müller) as an example of the Nordic type. The term Weimar Republic ( ˈvaɪmarɐ repuˈbliːk is used by historians to signify the democratic and Republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Karl Friedrich Max von Müller ( June 16 1873 &ndash March 11 1923) was Captain of the famous German commerce raider the

The Nordic race was one of the racial categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the first half of the twentieth century. The term race or racial group usually refers to the concept of categorizing Humans into Populations or groups on the basis of various sets The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. The debates about this topic are nowadays mostly not considered scientific, but ideological. ^[1] Ideologies of racial supremacy that claim that the Nordic race, particularly Scandinavians and Germans, would constitute a master race because of an innate capacity for leadership^[2] are referred to as Nordic theory, Nordicism or Nordic thought. List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as The master race ( German: die Herrenrasse) is a concept in Nazi Ideology, which holds that the Germanic and Nordic Those ideologies were prevalent mainly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Western Europe and North America. Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' Nordic thought was a major influence on Nazism. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German

Attitudes before 1900

In 1899 William Z. Ripley published The Races of Europe^[3] where he divided Europeans into three main sub-categories: Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean. William Zebina Ripley ( October 13, 1867 &ndash August 16, 1941) was an American Economist, lecturer at Columbia University professor The Races of Europe is the title of two books related to the Anthropology of Europeans The first book was written by American sociologist/anthropologist The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Western anthropologists classified humans into a variety of races and subraces The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century The Nordic race resided in northern Europe, especially (but not exclusively) among speakers of the Germanic languages and was typified by tall stature, wide shoulders, long head and facial form, straight and fine blond, red, or light to medium brown hair, and blue, grey or green eyes. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Blond (also spelled blonde, see below) or fair-haired is a Hair color characterized by low levels of the dark Pigment eumelanin This article is about people with red hair also sometimes called redheads Brown hair is the second most common Hair color, with black being the most common Eye color is a Polygenic trait and is determined by the amount and type of Pigments in the Eye 's iris. While the concept of Nordic race became intertwined with a northern European cultural identity, the Alpine race was thought to predominate in central/Eastern Europe through to Turkey and the Eurasian Steppes of Central Asia and Southern Russia, and was said to be characterized by short stature, dark hair, dark eyes, narrower shoulders, a darker complexion and comparatively round head. In physical Geography, a steppe ( German, from степь - "a flat and arid land" степ - /stɛp/ тал - tal дала - /dɑlɑ/ pronounced The Mediterranean race was thought to be prevalent in southern Europe the Middle East and North Africa as well as in Wales, and was said to be characterised by dark hair, dark eyes, swarthy complexion, moderate-to-short stature, and moderate of skull. Complexion refers to the natural color texture and appearance of the Skin, especially that of the face ^[4][5]

Attitudes in ancient Europe

These categories expanded more ancient commentaries on the differences between northern and southern Europeans. Most ancient writers were from the southern European civilizations, and generally took the view that northerners were barbarians. Pale skin and light hair were described as signs of barbarism by Polemon in his book Physiognomica. ^[6] Pseudo-Aristotle (a writer using Aristotle's name as a pseudonym)^[7] noted differences between Greeks and the people of the north, believing that Greek superiority was visible in their medium skin tone, as opposed to pale northerners and dark Africans. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions He claimed that blue eyes were a sign of a cowardly nature, and that they indicated poor eyesight. ^[8]

Despite this, Aphrodite was often depicted with blond hair, as were deities associated with the sun. ^[9] Likewise, the Roman historian Tacitus idealized the Germanic tribes (which he considered autochthonous to their land) for qualities such as superior warlike ardor and chastity, in contrast to the Romans of his day—though his portrait is not unmixed, as he also portrays them as incurably lazy and addicted to gambling. Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. The term Indigenous Peoples or autochthonous peoples can be used to describe any Ethnic group who inhabit a geographic region with which they have the earliest historical ^[10][11] Many Romans believed that fair features were beautiful, at least for women. Wealthy Roman women paid for blond and red wigs made out of the hair of captured Germanic or Celtic women. ^[12].

Origins of Nordicism

During the Renaissance blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin were regularly portrayed in literature as signs of beauty, and were associated with noble moral qualities. The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere ^[13] This imagery was largely aesthetic. It was not typically theorised in terms of racial difference, drawing instead on traditional symbolism of light as opposed to darkness. From the 17th century on, as Northern European countries became more powerful, Northern peoples began to adapt such aesthetic traditions into arguments for their own superiority. Benjamin Franklin proposed a clear distinction between "white" Europeans and "swarthy" Europeans, stating that immigration to the newly-born United States should favour the "white" Saxons and Englishmen rather than the "swarthy" Germans (except for the German Saxons), Italians, French, Russians, Spaniards and Swedes. Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. ^[14] Franklin believed the white Europeans to be more "lovely", at least to his taste.

By the early nineteenth century these ideas were attached to emerging theories of racial hierarchy. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer attributed civilizational primacy to the "white races" who gained their sensitivity and intelligence by refinement in the rigorous North:

The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmans, the Incas, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands. All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers and invent and perfect all the arts in their struggle with need, want and misery, which in their many forms were brought about by the climate. This they had to do in order to make up for the parsimony of nature and out of it all came their high civilization. ^[15]

Influence of Aryanism

The Roman emperor Augustus. Augustus ( Latin: IMPERATOR·CAESAR·DIVI·FILIVS·AVGVSTVS September 23 63 BC – August 19 AD 14) born Gaius Octavius Thurinus, was H. F. K. Günther (1927) argued that the description of Augustus in Suetonius' Lives of twelve Caesars suggested that he displayed "Nordic qualities" (e. g. that he was "fair", had "light eyes" and a "mild expression"). ^[16]

Such arguments became especially significant when allied to the theory of Aryanism in the mid-19th century. The " Aryan race " is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries This theory held that speakers of the Indo-European languages ("Aryans") are an innately superior branch of humanity, responsible for most of its greatest achievements. Its principal proponent was Arthur de Gobineau in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855). Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau ( July 14, 1816 — October 13, 1882) was a French Aristocrat, novelist and man of Though Gobineau did not equate Nordic peoples with Aryans, he argued that Germanic people were the best modern representatives of the Aryan race. Adapting the comments of Tacitus and other Roman writers, he argued that "pure" Northerners regenerated Europe after the Roman empire declined due to racial "dilution" of its leadership.

By the 1880s a number of linguists and anthropologists argued that the Aryans themselves had originated somewhere in northern Europe. Theodor Poesche proposed that the Aryans originated in the north, but it was Karl Penka who popularized the idea that the Aryans had emerged in Scandinavia, and could be identified by the distinctive Nordic characteristics of blond hair and blue eyes. The distinguished biologist Thomas Henry Huxley agreed with him, coining the term "Xanthochroi" to refer to fair-skinned Europeans (as opposed to darker Mediterranean peoples, who Huxley called "Melanochroi"). Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895 was an English Biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy The Nordic race was one of the racial categories into which the Europeans were divided by anthropologists in the first half of the twentieth century Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS (4 May 1825 – 29 June 1895 was an English Biologist, known as "Darwin's Bulldog" for his advocacy ^[17][18] This distinction was repeated by Charles Morris in his book The Aryan Race (1888), which argued that the original Aryans could be identified by their blond hair and other Nordic features, such as dolichocephaly (long skull). Charles Morris may refer to Charles Morris (jurist (1711&ndash1781 army officer officeholder and judge Charles Morris (naval officer Cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum width of the head to its maximum length (i The argument was given extra impetus by the French anthropologist Vacher de Lapouge in his book L’Aryen, in which he argued that the "dolichocephalic-blond" peoples were natural leaders, destined to rule over more brachiocephalic (short-skulled) peoples. Georges Vacher de Lapouge ( 1854 - 1936) was a French Anthropologist and a theoretician of Eugenics and Racialism ^[19]

The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche also referred in his writings to "blond beasts": amoral adventurers who were supposed to be the progenitors of creative cultures. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15 1844 August 25 1900 ( was a nineteenth-century German philosopher and classical philologist ^[20] In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), he wrote, "In Latin malus . On the Genealogy of Morality, or On the Genealogy of Morals (German Zur Genealogie der Moral) subtitled "A Polemic " ( Eine Streitschrift . . could indicate the vulgar man as the dark one, especially as the black-haired one, as the pre-Aryan dweller of the Italian soil which distinguished itself most clearly through his colour from the blonds who became their masters, namely the Aryan conquering race. "^[21] By 1902 the German archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna claimed to have identified the original Aryans (Proto-Indo-Europeans) with the north German Corded Ware culture, an argument that gained in currency over the following two decades. Gustaf Kossinna ( 28 September, 1858 in Tilsit &ndash 20 December, 1931 in Berlin) was a linguist and professor The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language, who likely lived around 4000 BC, during the Copper Age and the The Corded Ware culture, alternatively characterized as the Battle Axe culture or Single Grave culture is an enormous European Archaeological horizon that He placed the Indo-European urheimat in Schleswig-Holstein, arguing that they had expanded across Europe from there. Urheimat ( German: ur- Original, Ancient; Heimat Home, Homeland) is a linguistic term denoting the is the northernmost of the 16 ''Bundesländer'' in Germany. The former English name was Sleswick-Holsatia the Danish name is ^[22]

By the early 20th century this theory was well established, though far from universally accepted. Sociologists were soon using the concept of a "blond race" to model the migrations of the supposedly more entrepreneurial and innovative components of European populations. As late as 1939 Carleton Coon wrote that "The Poles who came to the United States during the nineteenth century, and the early decades of the twentieth, did not represent a cross-section of the Polish population, but a taller, blonder, longer-headed group than the Poles as a whole. Carleton Coon may refer to Carleton Coon American jazz musician co-founder of the Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawk Orchestra Carleton S "^[23] The "high brow"/"low brow" distinction, derived from such theories, also became enshrined in language.

The concept of a Nordic race

"Expansion of the Pre-Teutonic Nordics" — From Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History (1916); Grant's conception of Nordic influence spreading over Europe in ancient times. Madison Grant ( November 19, 1865 &ndash May 30, 1937) was an American Lawyer, known primarily for his work as a

Madison Grant's map, from 1916, charting the "present distribution of European races", with the Nordic race shown in bright red; green indicates the Alpine race; yellow, the Mediterranean race. Madison Grant ( November 19, 1865 &ndash May 30, 1937) was an American Lawyer, known primarily for his work as a the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Western anthropologists classified humans into a variety of races and subraces The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

The term "Nordic" itself was initially proposed as a racial group by the Russian born French anthropologist Joseph Deniker in 1899. Joseph Deniker ( March 6, 1852, Astrakhan &ndash March 18, 1918, Paris) was a French naturalist Deniker's use of Nordique was meant to simply translate as "Northern", and his idea of what it stood for was more akin to an "ethnic group" (another term which he coined) than a biological "race". He defined nordique by a set of physical characteristics: The concurrence of fair, somewhat wavy hair, light eyes, reddish skin, tall stature and a dolichocephalic skull. Cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum width of the head to its maximum length (i ^[24] Of six 'caucasian' groups Deniker accommodated four into secondary ethnic groups, all of which he considered intermediate to the Nordic: Northwestern, Sub-Nordic, Vistula and Sub-Adriatic, respectively. ^[25]

It was the already mentioned work of sociologist/economist William Z. Ripley which popularized the idea of three biological European races. William Zebina Ripley ( October 13, 1867 &ndash August 16, 1941) was an American Economist, lecturer at Columbia University professor Ripley borrowed Deniker's terminology of Nordic (he had previously used the term "Teuton"); his division of the European races relied on a variety of anthropometric measurements, but focused especially on their cephalic index and stature. The Teutons or Teutones (from Proto-Germanic * Þeudanōz) were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek and Roman authors Anthropometry ( Greek άνθρωπος man and μέτρον measure literally meaning "measurement of humans" in Physical anthropology, refers to the Human height varies according to both "nature" and "nurture". Compared to Deniker, Ripley advocated a simplified racial view and proposed a single Teutonic race linked to geographic areas where Nordic-like characteristics predominate, and contrasted this areas to the boundaries of two other types, Alpine and Mediterranean, thus reducing the 'caucasoid branch of humanity' to three distinct groups. the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries many Western anthropologists classified humans into a variety of races and subraces The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century ^[26]

By the early 20th century, Ripley's tripartite Nordic/Alpine/Mediterranean model was well established. Most nineteenth-century race-theorists like Arthur de Gobineau, Otto Ammon, Georges Vacher de Lapouge, and Houston Stewart Chamberlain had preferred to speak of "Aryans," "Teutons," and "Indo-Europeans" instead of "Nordic Race". Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau ( July 14, 1816 — October 13, 1882) was a French Aristocrat, novelist and man of Otto Georg Ammon ( December 7, 1842, Karlsruhe - January 14, 1916, Karlsruhe was a German Anthropologist. Georges Vacher de Lapouge ( 1854 - 1936) was a French Anthropologist and a theoretician of Eugenics and Racialism Houston Stewart Chamberlain ( September 9, 1855 - January 9, 1927) was a British -born author of books on political philosophy natural Only in the 1920s did a strong partiality for "Nordic" begin to reveal itself, and for a while the term was used almost interchangeably with Aryan. The " Aryan race " is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ^[27] Later, however, Nordic would not be co-terminous with Aryan, Indo-European or Germanic. Aryan is an English word derived from the Sanskrit " Ārya " meaning "noble" or "honorable" The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic ^[28] For example, the later Nazi minister for Food, Richard Walther Darré, who had developed a concept of the German peasantry as Nordic race, used the term 'Aryan' to refer to the tribes of the Iranian plains. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Richard Walther Darré (born Ricardo Walther Oscar Darré, 14 July 1895 - 5 September 1953 was an SS - Obergruppenführer and one of the leading ^[28]

However, there was considerable dispute about the relative importance of these races. The fact that Mediterranean peoples had been responsible for the greatest of ancient civilizations was an obvious problem for Nordicist theory. Nordicists dealt with this problem by the speculative claim that Nordics had formed upper tiers of ancient civilizations, which had declined once this dominant race has been assimilated. Thus they argued that ancient evidence suggested that leading Romans like Nero , Sulla and Cato were blond or red-haired ^{[29][30][31][32]} Some Nordicists did argue that the Mediterranean race had many positive characteristics, some even admitting that the Mediterranean was superior to the Nordic in terms of artistic and intellectual ability. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( December 15, 37 – June 9, 68) born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix ( Latin: L•CORNELIVS•L•F•P•N•SVLLA•FELIX (c Marcus Porcius Cato ( Latin: M·PORCIVS·M·F·CATO (234 BC Tusculum &ndash149 BC was a Roman statesman surnamed the Censor The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century The Nordic race, however, was still regarded as superior on the basis that, although Mediterranean peoples were culturally sophisticated, it was the Nordics who were alleged to be the innovators and conquerors, having an adventurous spirit that no other race could match. The Alpine race was usually regarded as inferior to both the Nordic and Mediterranean races, making up the traditional peasant class of Europe while Nordics occupied the aristocracy and led the world in technology, and Mediterraneans were more imaginative. ^[33]

Opponents of Nordicism rejected these arguments. The anti-Nordicist writer Giuseppe Sergi argued in his influential book The Mediterranean Race (1901) that there was no evidence that the upper tiers of ancient societies were Nordic, insisting that historical and anthropological evidence contradicted such claims. Giuseppe Sergi (1841 – 1936 was an influential Italian anthropologist of the early twentieth century notable for his opposition to Nordicism (cf The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Sergi argued that Mediterraneans constituted "the greatest race in the world", with a creative edge absent in the Nordic race. They were the creators of all the major ancient civilizations, from Mesopotamia to Rome. Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial This argument was later repeated by C. G. Seligman, who wrote that "it must, I think, be recognized that the Mediterranean race has actually more achievement to its credit than any other". ^[34] Even Carleton Coon insisted that among Greeks "the Nordic element is weak, as it probably has been since the days of Homer. . . It is my personal reaction to the living Greeks that their continuity with their ancestors of the ancient world is remarkable, rather than the opposite. "^[35]

The notion of a distinct northern European race was also rejected by several anthropologists on craniometric grounds. Craniometry is the technique of measuring the Bones of the Skull. Rudolf Virchow attacked the claim following a study of craniometry, which gave surprising results according to contemporary scientific racist theories on the "Aryan race. Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow ( 13 October 1821 &ndash 5 September 1902) was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews The " Aryan race " is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries " During the 1885 Anthropology Congress in Karlsruhe, Virchow denounced the "Nordic mysticism," while Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races," furthermore declaring that the "results of craniology" led to "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race". Karlsruhe (ˈkaɐ̯lsʁuːə population 285812 in 2006 is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near ^[36].

Nevertheless, by the early twentieth century the concept of a "masterly" Nordic race had become so familiar that the British psychologist William McDougall, writing in 1920, could say with confidence:

Among all the disputes and uncertainties of the ethnographers about the races of Europe, one fact stands out clearly — namely, that we can distinguish a race of northerly distribution and origin, characterized physically by fair color of hair and skin and eyes, by tall stature and dolichocephaly (i. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and William McDougall ( June 22, 1871 in Chadderton, Lancashire, England - November 28, 1938 Durham, e. long shape of head), and mentally by great independence of character, individual initiative, and tenacity of will. Many names have been used to denote this type, . . . . It is also called the Nordic type. ^[37]

Nordicism in the USA

President Coolidge signs the 1924 immigration act, restricting non Northern European immigration. John J. Pershing is on the President's right. John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, GCB ( September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was an officer in the United States Army

In the USA, the primary spokesman for Nordicism was the eugenicist Madison Grant. Eugenics is a social Philosophy which advocates the improvement of Human Hereditary traits through various forms of intervention Madison Grant ( November 19, 1865 &ndash May 30, 1937) was an American Lawyer, known primarily for his work as a His 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History about Nordicism was highly influential among racial thinking and government policy making. The Passing of The Great Race or The racial basis of European history was an influential book of Scientific racism written by the American eugenicist lawyer and ^[38] Grant used the theory as justification for immigration policies of the 1920s, arguing immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe represented a lesser type of European and their numbers in the United States should not be increased. Grant and others urged this as well as the complete restriction of non-Europeans, such as the Chinese and Japanese. Grant argued the Nordic race had been responsible for most of humanity's great achievements, and admixture was "race suicide" and unless eugenic policies were enacted, the Nordic race would be supplanted by inferior races. Future president Calvin Coolidge agreed, stating "Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. John Calvin Coolidge Jr (July 4 1872 January 5 1933 was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923–1929 The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides. "^[39] The Immigration Act of 1924 was signed into law by President Coolidge. The Immigration Act of 1924, or Johnson-Reed Act, including the National Origins Act, Asian Exclusion Act, (43 Statutes-at-Large 153 was a United This was designed to reduce the number of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, exclude Asian immigrants altogether, and favor immigration from Northern and Western European countries.

The spread of these ideas also affected popular culture. F. Scott Fitzgerald invokes Grant's ideas through a character in part of The Great Gatsby, and Hilaire Belloc jokingly rhapsodied the "Nordic man" in a poem and essay in which he satirised the stereotypes of Nordics, Alpines and Mediterraneans. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24 1896 – December 21 1940 was an American writer of Novels and Short stories, whose works are evocative of the The Great Gatsby is a Novel by the American author F Scott Fitzgerald. Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (27 July 1870 &ndash 16 July 1953 was a French -born Writer who became a Naturalised British subject ^[40] Writers such as Jack London, Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft reflected Nordicist ideas in their fictions. Jack London (January 12 1876 &ndash November 22 1916 was an American author who wrote The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and The Robert Ervin Howard ( January 22 1906 &ndash June 11 1936) was an American pulp writer of Fantasy, Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy

Critique of Nordicism

By the 1930s, criticism of the Nordicist model was growing in Britain and America. The British historian Arnold J. Toynbee in A Study of History (1934) argued that the most dynamic civilisations have arisen from racially mixed cultures. This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article. In southern Europe the theory had less influence. Some Lombard nationalists took it up in Italy, but even after the establishment of Mussolini's fascist government racial theories were not prominent. ^[41] Mussolini stated, "Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist". ^[42]

Nordic thought in Germany

In Germany, however, the influence of Nordicism remained powerful. There it was known under the term "Nordischer Gedanke" (Nordic thought). The German eugenicists Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz published their work Human Heredity, which insisted on the innate superiority of the Nordic race. Erwin Baur better known as Ian Baur (1875 - 1933 was a German Geneticist and Botanist. Eugen Fischer ( July 5, 1874 &ndash July 9, 1967) was a German professor of Medicine, Anthropology and Fritz A Lenz ( March 9, 1887 in Pflugrade, Pommern &ndash July 6, 1976 in Göttingen) was a German Geneticist Adapting the arguments of Schopenhauer and others to Darwinian theory, they argued that the qualities of initiative and will-power identified by earlier writers had arisen from natural selection, because of the tough landscape in which Nordic peoples evolved. Natural selection is the process by which favorable Heritable traits become more common in successive Generations of a Population of This had ensured that weaker individuals had not survived. This argument was derived from earlier eugenicist and Social Darwinist ideas. Social Darwinism is a theory that competition among all individuals groups nations or ideas drives Social evolution in human societies According to the authors, the Nordic race arose in the ice age, from,

quite a small group which, under stress of rapidly changing conditions (climate, beasts of the chase) was exposed to exceptionally rigorous selection and was persistently inbred, thus acquiring the peculiar characteristics which persist today as the exclusive heritage of the Nordic race. . . . Philological, archaeological and anthropological researches combine to indicate that the primal home of the Indo-Germanic [i. e Aryan] languages must have been in Northern Europe.

They went on to argue that "the original Indo-Germanic civilization" was carried by Nordic migrants as far as India, and that the physiognomy of upper-caste Indians "disclose a Nordic origin". ^[43]

By this time, Germany was well-accustomed to theories of race and racial superiority due to the long presence of the Völkish movement, the philosophy that Germans constituted a unique people, or volk, linked by common blood. The völkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement with a romantic focus on Folklore and the "organic" While Völkism was popular mainly among Germany's lower classes and was more a romanticized version of ethnic nationalism, Nordicism attracted German anthropologists and eugenicists.

The word "Nordischer Gedanke" first occurred in a textbook on "heritability science" and "race hygiene" by Baur, Fischer and Lenz. ^[44] Hans F. K. Günther, one of Fischer's students, first defined "Nordic thought" in his programmatic book Der Nordische Gedanke unter den Deutschen. Hans Friedrich Karl Günther ( February 16 1891 in Freiburg – September 25 1968 also in Freiburg ^[45] He became the most influential German in this field. His Short Ethnology of the German People (1929) was very widely circulated.

In his Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (Race-Lore of the German Volk), published 1922, Günther identified five principal European races instead of three, adding the East Baltic race and Dinaric race to Ripley's categories. The East Baltic race is one of the subcategories of the Europid ( White; Caucasian) race into which it was divided by anthropologists in the early 20th century In Physical anthropology, the Dinaric race (or Adriatic race or Epirotic race) is one of the subcategories of the Europid ( White; Caucasian ^[27] He used the term Ostic instead of Alpine. ^[27] He focused on their supposedly distinct mental attributes. Günther criticised the Völkish idea, stating that the Germans were not racially unified, but were actually one of the most racially diverse peoples in Europe. Despite this, many Völkists who merged Völkism and Nordicism embraced Günther's ideas, most notably the Nazis. ^[46][47]

Nazi Nordicism

Adolf Hitler read Human Heredity shortly before he wrote Mein Kampf, and called it scientific proof of the racial basis of civilization. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Mein Kampf ( English: My Struggle/My Battle) is a book by Adolf Hitler. ^[48] Its arguments were also repeated by the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, in his book The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930). (12 January 1893 16 October 1946 was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. The Myth of the Twentieth Century ( Der Mythus des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts) is a book by Alfred Rosenberg Rosenberg argued that the Nordic race had evolved in a now-lost landmass off the coast of North Western Europe, and had migrated through Scandinavia and northern Europe, expanding further south, and as far as Iran and India where it founded the Aryan cultures of Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Zoroastrianism (ˌzɔroʊˈæstriəˌnɪzəm is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings Hinduism is a religious tradition that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Like Grant and others, he argued that the entrepreneurial energy of the Nordics had "degenerated" when they mixed with "inferior" peoples.

With the rise of Hitler, Nordic theory became the norm within German culture. In some cases the "Nordic" concept became an almost abstract ideal rather than a mere racial category. Hermann Gauch wrote in 1933 that the fact that "birds can be taught to talk better than other animals is explained by the fact that their mouths are Nordic in structure. Hermann Gauch was a Nazi race theorist noted for his dedication to Nordic theory. " He further claimed that in humans, "the shape of the Nordic gum allows a superior movement of the tongue, which is the reason why Nordic talking and singing are richer. "^[49] Such views were extreme, but more mainstream Nordic theory was institutionalized. Hans F. K. Günther, who joined the Nazi Party in 1932, was praised as a pioneer in racial thinking, a shining light of Nordic theory. Most official Nazi comments on the Nordic Race were based on Günther's works, and Alfred Rosenberg presented Günther with a medal for his work in anthropology. Fischer and Lenz were also appointed to senior positions overseeing the policy of Racial Hygiene. Racial hygiene (often labeled a form of " Scientific racism " is the selection by a government of the putatively most physical intellectual and moral persons to raise Madison Grant's book was the first non-German book to be translated and published by the Nazi Reich press, and Grant proudly displayed to his friends a letter from Hitler claiming that the book was "his Bible. "^[50][51] The Nazi state used such ideas about the differences between European races as part of their various discriminatory and coercive policies which culminated in the Holocaust. The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as Ironically, in Grant's first edition of his popular book, he classified the Germans as being primarily Nordic, but in his second edition, published after the USA had entered WWI, he had re-classified the now enemy power as being dominated by "inferior" Alpines. Günther's work agreed with Grant's, and the German anthropologist frequently stated that the Germans are definitely not a fully Nordic people. Hitler himself was later to downplay the importance of Nordicism in public for this very reason. The standard tripartite model placed most of the population of Hitler's Germany in the Alpine category, especially after the Anschluss. The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi

J. Kaup led a movement opposed to Günther. Kaup took the view that a German nation, all of whose citizens belonged to a "German race" in a populationist sense, offered a more convenient sociotechnical tool than Günther's concept of an ideal Nordic type to which only a very few Germans could belong. Nazi legislation identifying the ethnic and "racial" affinities of the Jews reflects the populationist concept of race. Discrimination was not restricted to Jews who belonged to the "Oriental-Armenoid" race, but was directed against all members of the Jewish ethnic population. ^[52]

The German journalist Kurt Caro (*1905) who emigrated to Paris in 1933 and served in the British army since 1943^[53] , published a book under the pseudonym Manuel Humbert unmasking Hitler's "Mein Kampf" in which he stated the following racial composition of the Jewish population of Central Europe: 23,8% Lapponid race, 21,5% Nordic race, 20,3% Armenoid race, 18,4% Mediterranean race, 16,0% Oriental race. ^[54]

By 1939 Hitler abandoned Nordicist rhetoric in favour of the idea that the German people as a whole were united by distinct "spiritual" qualities. Nevertheless, Nazi eugenics policies continued to favor Nordics over Alpines and other racial groups, particularly during the war when decisions were being made about the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Reich. . "^[55][56][57] In 1942 Hitler stated in private,

I shall have no peace of mind until I have planted a seed of Nordic blood wherever the population stand in need of regeneration. If at the time of the migrations, while the great racial currents were exercising their influence, our people received so varied a share of attributes, these latter blossomed to their full value only because of the presence of the Nordic racial nucleus". The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name ^[58]

Hitler and Himmler planned to use the SS as the basis for the racial "regeneration" of Europe following the final victory of Nazism. Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945 was a Nazi German politician and head of the Schutzstaffel (SS. The ( German for "Protective Squadron" abbreviated SS - or ( Runic)- was a major Nazi organization under Adolf Hitler and the The SS was to be a racial elite chosen on the basis of "pure" Nordic qualities. ^[59][60][61]

Addressing officers of the SS-Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" Himmler stated:

The ultimate aim for those 11 years during which I have been the Reichsfuehrer SS has been invariably the same: to create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany; which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced; to create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, Nordic blood, in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning, will fight against us. The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler ( SS-LAH) founded in September 1933 was Adolf Hitler 's personal Bodyguard Regiment. ^[62]

Decline of Nordicism

Even before the rise of Nazism, Grant's concept of "race" lost favor in the USA in the polarizing political climate after World War I, including the Great Migration and the Great Depression. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All See also Second Great Migration (African American The Great Migration was the movement of approximately seven million African-Americans out of the The influx of African-Americans into the Northern states resulted in a "flattening" of racial categories into what eugenicist Lothrop Stoddard named as "bi-racialism" — an absolutist black/white distinction maintained by declaring mixed-race people to be considered "black". African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Lothrop Stoddard ( June 29, 1883 &ndash May 1, 1950) born Theodore Lothrop Stoddard, was an American political theorist This required the abandonment of Grant's gradations of "white" in favour of the "One-drop theory" — which was embraced by white supremacists and black nationalists alike. The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry is considered black unless Among the latter were Marcus Garvey, and, in part, W.E.B. Du Bois, at least in his later thought. Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr, National Hero of Jamaica (17 August 1887 10 June 1940 was a Publisher, Journalist, Entrepreneur, Black nationalist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist ^[63]

With the rise of Nazism many critics pointed to the flaws in the theory, repeating the arguments made by Sergi and others that the evidence of ancient Nordic achievement is thin when set against the civilizations of the Mediterranean and elsewhere. The equation of Nordic and Aryan identity was also widely criticised. ^[64] In 1936 M. W. Fodor, writing in The Nation, claimed that racialised Germanic nationalism arose from an inferiority complex:

No race has suffered so much from an inferiority complex as has the German. An inferiority complex, in the fields of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way An inferiority complex, in the fields of Psychology and Psychoanalysis, is a feeling that one is inferior to others in some way Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. National Socialism was a kind of Coué method of converting the inferiority complex, at least temporarily, into a feeling of superiority. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Émile Coué ( February 26, 1857, Troyes, France &ndash July 2, 1926, Nancy) was a French ^[65]

After World War II, the categorization of peoples into "superior" and "inferior" groups fell even further out of political and scientific favor, eventually leading to the characterization of such theories as scientific racism. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Scientific racism denotes the use of scientific or ostensibly scientific findings and methods to support or validate racist attitudes and worldviews The tripartite subdivision of "Caucasians" into Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean groups persisted among some scientists into the 1960s, notably in Carleton Coon's book The Origin of Races (1962). Already race academics such as A. James Gregor were heavily criticizing Nordicism. A James Gregor (born April 2, 1929) is a Professor of Political Science at the University of California Berkeley who is well known for his views In 1961 Gregor called it a "philosophy of despair", on the grounds that its obsession with purity doomed it to ultimate pessimism and isolationism. Pessimism, from the Latin pessimus (worst is the decision to evaluate perceive and view life in a generally negative light Isolationism is a Foreign policy which combines a non-interventionist military policy and a political policy of Economic nationalism ( Protectionism ^[66] As late as 1977 the Swedish author Bertil Lundman wrote a book The Races And Peoples Of Europe mentioning a "Nordid Race". Bertil J Lundman (1899–1993 was a Swedish Anthropologist. He is best known for having created a racial classification system of Europeans in his book The The development of the Kurgan theory of Indo-European origins weakened the Nordicist equation of Aryan and Nordic identity, since it placed the earliest Indo-European speakers in central Asia. The Kurgan hypothesis (also theory or model) is a model of early Indo-European origins, which postulates that the Kurgan culture of the Pontic steppe The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups. Population genetics is the study of the Allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four evolutionary forces Natural selection, Genetic ^{[67][68][69][70]}

Recent IQ studies have also provided little support for Nordicist claims. The highest scores IQ scores are to be found among Germans in one study,^[71] but according to IQ and Global Inequality, a book published by Richard Lynn in 2006, and making an average of several studies, Italians have the highest IQ scores in Europe. IQ and Global Inequality is a Controversial 2006 book by Dr Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Ulster Richard Lynn (born 1930 is a British Professor Emeritus of Psychology who is known for his controversial views on racial and These studies show little correlation to the "Nordic" model. Among some white supremacists Nordic theory is still maintained, as, for example in the writings of Roger Pearson and Richard McCulloch, who adopted the term Nordish race, as a somewhat more inclusive label. For the Linguist please see Roger Pearson (linguist Roger Pearson (born 1927 is a British Anthropologist, advocate of Eugenics, and editor Richard Sears McCulloch Richard McCulloch (born 1949) is an American author and advocate for Racial preservationism. ^[72]

Notes

Literature

Hans Jürgen Lutzhöft (1971):Der Nordische Gedanke in Deutschland 1920-1940. (German) Stuttgart. Ernst Klett Verlag.

See also

• Genetic history of Europe
• Scandinavism
• Apartheid
• Aryan
• Ethnocentrism
• Germanic peoples
• Know-Nothing movement
• Ku Klux Klan
• Madison Grant
• Martial races theory
• Nordic aliens
• Nordish race
• Racial segregation
• White nationalism
• White supremacy
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
• Swastika

External links

• Examples of Nordics (plates 27-30 and 32-34) from Carleton Coon's The Races of Europe
• The Racial Basis of Civilization by Frank H. Hankins critique of the Nordic doctrine (full text)
• "Nordicism revisited, by A James Gregor