On
this date, October 16, 1946, a Nazi War Criminal, Alfred Rosenberg was executed
by hanging. I will post information about him from Wikipedia.
Alfred Rosenberg in
January 1941, photograph by Heinrich Hoffmann
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Leader
of the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP
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In
office
1933–1945 |
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Preceded by
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Position established
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Succeeded by
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None
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Commissar
for Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP (aka Rosenberg
office)
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In
office
1934–1945 |
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Preceded by
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Position established
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Succeeded by
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None
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Reich
Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
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In
office
1941–1945 |
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President
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Adolf Hitler (Führer)
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Chancellor
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Adolf Hitler (Führer)
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Preceded by
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Position established
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Succeeded by
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None
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Reichsleiter
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In
office
2 June 1933 – 8 May 1945 |
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Leader
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Adolf Hitler
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Personal
details
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Born
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Alfred Ernst Rosenberg
12 January 1893 Reval, Governorate of Estonia, Russian Empire |
Died
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16 October 1946 (aged 53)
Nuremberg, Germany (Executed by hanging) |
Nationality
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German
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Political party
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National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP)
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Spouse(s)
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Hilda Leesmann
(1915–1923; divorce) Hedwig Kramer (1925–1946) |
Children
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2
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Alma mater
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Riga Polytechnical Institute
Moscow Highest Technical School |
Profession
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Architect, politician, writer
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Cabinet
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Hitler
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Alfred Ernst Rosenberg (12 January 1893 – 16 October 1946) was an early
and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first
introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important
posts in the Nazi government. He is considered one of the main authors of key
Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theory, persecution of the Jews, Lebensraum,
abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles, and opposition to
"degenerate" modern art. He is also known for his rejection of
Christianity, having played an important role in the development of Positive
Christianity, which he intended to be transitional to a new Nazi faith. At
Nuremberg he was tried, sentenced to death and executed by hanging as a war
criminal and for crimes against humanity.
Early life
Rosenberg
was born on 12 January 1893 in Reval (today's Tallinn, in Estonia, then part of
the Russian Empire) to a family of Baltic Germans: his father, Waldemar Wilhelm
Rosenberg, was a wealthy merchant from Latvia, his mother, Elfriede (née Siré),
was from Estonia. (Tallinn archivist J. Rajandi claimed in the 1930s that
Rosenberg's family had Estonian origins.) According to the newest research,
based on birth and death records from Estonian and Latvian parishes,
Rosenberg's father Wilhelm is half-Estonian and half-Latvian of origin, and his
mother Elfriede is German with initially French background.
The
young Rosenberg studied architecture at the Riga Polytechnical Institute and
engineering at Moscow's Highest Technical School completing his PhD studies in
1917. While in Riga, he was a member of the Baltic German student fraternity
"Rubonia". During the Russian Revolution of 1917 Rosenberg supported
the counter-revolutionaries; following their failure he emigrated to Germany in
1918 along with Max Scheubner-Richter who served as something of a mentor to
Rosenberg and to his ideology. Arriving in Munich, he contributed to Dietrich
Eckart's publication, the Völkischer Beobachter (Ethnic/Nationalist
Observer). By this time, he was both an antisemite – influenced by Houston
Stewart Chamberlain's book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
(one of the key proto-Nazi books of racial theory) – and an anti-bolshevik (as
a result of his family's exile). Rosenberg became one of the earliest members
of the German Workers' Party (later the National Socialist German Workers'
Party, better known as the Nazi Party), joining in January 1919; Adolf Hitler
did not join until October 1919. Rosenberg had also been a member of the Thule
Society, with Eckart. After the Völkischer Beobachter became the Nazi
party newspaper (December 1920), Rosenberg became its editor in 1923. Rosenberg
was a leading member of Aufbau Vereinigung, Reconstruction Organisation, a
conspiratorial organisation of White Russian émigrés which had a critical
influence on early Nazi policy.
Alfred Rosenberg
around 1935
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Nazi party
In
1923, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler, who had been imprisoned for
treason, appointed Rosenberg as a leader of the Nazi movement, a position he
held until Hitler's release. Hitler remarked privately in later years that his
choice of Rosenberg, whom he regarded as weak and lazy, was strategic; Hitler did
not want the temporary leader of the Nazis to become overly popular or hungry
for power, because a person with either of those two qualities might not want
to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release. However, at the time of
the appointment Hitler had no reason to believe that he would soon be released,
and Rosenberg had not appeared weak, so this may have been Hitler reading back
into history his dissatisfaction with Rosenberg for the job he did.
In
1929 Rosenberg founded the Militant League for German Culture. He later formed
the "Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question", dedicated to
identifying and attacking Jewish influence in German culture and to recording
the history of Judaism from an antisemitic perspective. He became a Reichstag
Deputy in 1930 and published his book on racial theory The Myth of the
Twentieth Century (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts) which deals with
key issues in the national socialist ideology, such as the "Jewish
question". Rosenberg intended his book as a sequel to Houston Stewart
Chamberlain's above-cited book. Despite selling more than a million copies by
1945, its influence within Nazism (beyond providing specious intellectual cover
for unintellectual governance) remains doubtful. It is often said to have been
a book that was officially venerated within Nazism, but one that few had
actually read beyond the first chapter or even found comprehensible. Hitler
called it "stuff nobody can understand" and disapproved of its
pseudo-religious tone.
Rosenberg
convinced Hitler of the communist threat and of the supposed fragility of the
Soviet Union's political structure. "Jewish-Bolshevism" was accepted
as a target for Nazism during the early 1920s.
Rosenberg
was named leader of the Nazi Party's foreign political office in 1933, but he
played little practical part in the role. He visited Britain in that year,
designed to reassure the British that the Nazis would not be a threat and to
encourage links between the new regime and the British Empire. It was a notable
failure. When Rosenberg laid a wreath bearing a swastika at the tomb of the
unknown soldier, a British war veteran promptly threw it in the Thames. In
January 1934 Hitler granted Rosenberg responsibility for the spiritual and
philosophical education of the Party and all related organizations.
Racial theories
As
the Nazi Party's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a
human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's genocidal policies.
Rosenberg built on the works of Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain
and Madison Grant, as well as the beliefs of Hitler. He placed blacks and Jews
at the very bottom of the ladder, while at the very top stood the white or
"Aryan" race. Rosenberg promoted the Nordic theory which regarded Nordics
as the "master race", superior to all others, including to other
Aryans (Indo-Europeans).
Rosenberg
reshaped Nazi racial policy over the years, but it always consisted of Aryan
supremacy, extreme German nationalism and rabid antisemitism. Rosenberg also
outspokenly opposed homosexuality – notably in his pamphlet "Der
Sumpf" ("The Swamp") – having viewed homosexuality (particularly
lesbianism) as a hindrance to the expansion of the Nordic population.
Rosenberg's
attitude towards the Slavs was politically motivated and depended on the
particular nation involved. As a result of the ideology of "Drang nach
Osten" Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the
Slavic East. In Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts Rosenberg describes
Russian Slavs as being overwhelmed by bolshevism. Regarding Ukrainians he
favoured setting up a buffer state to ease pressure on the German eastern
frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia should be exploited for
the benefit of Germany.
Alfred Rosenberg in
1939
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Religious theories
Rosenberg
argued for a new "religion of the blood," based on the supposed
innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its noble character against
racial and cultural degeneration. He believed that this had been embodied in
early Indo-European religions, notably ancient European (Celtic, Germanic,
Baltic, Roman) paganism, Zoroastrianism and Vedic Hinduism.
He
rejected Christianity for its universality, for original sin, at least for
Germans whom he declared on one occasion were born noble, and for the
immortality of the soul. Indeed, absorbing Christianity enfeebled a people.
Publicly, he affected to deplore Christianity's degeneration owing to Jewish
influence. Following Chamberlain's ideas, he condemned what he called
"negative Christianity," the orthodox beliefs of Protestant and
Catholic churches, arguing instead for a so-called "positive"
Christianity based on Chamberlain's claim that Jesus was a member of an
Indo-European, Nordic enclave resident in ancient Galilee who struggled against
Judaism. Significantly, in his work explicating the Nazi intellectual belief
system, The Myth of the Twentieth Century, Rosenberg cryptically alludes
to and lauds the anti-Judaic arch-heretic Marcion and the Manichaean-inspired,
"Aryo-Iranian" Cathari, as being the more authentic interpreters of
Christianity versus historically dominant Judaeo-Christianity; moreover these
ancient, externally Christian metaphysical forms were more "organically
compatible with the Nordic sense of the spiritual and the Nordic 'blood-soul'."
For Rosenberg, the anti-intellectual intellectual, religious doctrine was
inseparable, in the peculiar Nazi outlook of "mystical Darwinist
vitalism", from serving the interests of the Nordic race, connecting the
individual to his racial nature. Rosenberg stated that "The general ideas
of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do
not, therefore, accord with our (German) soul." His support for Luther as
a great German figure was always ambivalent.
Wartime
activities
In
1940 Rosenberg was made head of the Hohe Schule (literally "high
school", but the German phrase refers to a college), the Centre of
National Socialist Ideological and Educational Research. He created a
"Special Task Force for Music" (Sonderstab Musik) to collect
the best musical instruments and scores for use in a university to be built in
Hitler's home town of Linz, Austria. The orders given the Sonderstab Musik
were to loot all forms of Jewish property in Germany and of those found in any
country taken over by the German army and any musical instruments or scores
were to be immediately shipped to Berlin.
Reich
Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
Following
the invasion of the USSR, Rosenberg was appointed head of the Reich Ministry
for the Occupied Eastern Territories (Reichsministerium für die besetzten
Ostgebiete). Alfred Meyer served as his deputy and represented him at the
Wannsee Conference. Another official of the Ministry, Georg Leibbrandt, also
attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request.
Rosenberg
had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of the conquered
Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative
districts, to replace the previously Soviet-controlled territories with new
Reichskommissariats. These would be:
- Ostland (Baltic countries and Belarus),
- Ukraine (Ukraine and nearest territories),
- Kaukasus (Caucasus area),
- Moskau (Moscow metropolitan area and the rest of nearest Russian European areas)
Such
suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian nationalism and to
promote German interests for the benefit of future Aryan generations, in accord
with geopolitical "Lebensraum im Osten" plans. They would provide a
buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of
Communism and Bolshevism by decisive pre-emptive military action.
Following
these plans, when Wehrmacht forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they
immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats of
Ostland and Ukraine, under the leadership of Hinrich Lohse and Erich Koch,
respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to
conflict between Rosenberg and the SS over the treatment of Slavs under German
occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered
Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to
Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples. He
proposed creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica,
Ukraine, Caucasus. He made no complaints about the murders of Jews. At the
Nuremberg Trials he claimed to be ignorant of the Holocaust, despite the fact
that Leibbrandt and Meyer were present at the Wannsee conference.
Wartime
propaganda efforts
Because
the invasion of the Soviet Union intended to impose the New Order was
essentially a war of conquest and extermination, German propaganda efforts
designed to win over Russian opinion were, at best, patchy and inconsistent.
Alfred Rosenberg was one of the few in the Nazi hierarchy who advocated a
policy designed to encourage anti-Communist opinion.
Amongst
other things, Rosenberg issued a series of posters announcing the end of the
Soviet collective farms (kolkhoz). He also issued an Agrarian Law in
February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming, restoring family
farms for those willing to collaborate with the occupiers. But
decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food
production, and Hermann Göring demanded that the collective farms be retained,
save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land
as "stupid".
There
were numerous German armed forces (Wehrmacht) posters asking for
assistance in the Bandenkrieg, the war against the Soviet partisans,
though, once again, German policy had the effect of adding to their problems.
Posters for "volunteer" labour, with inscriptions like "Come
work with us to shorten the war", hid the appalling realities faced by
Russian workers in Germany. Many people joined the partisans rather than risk
being sent to an unknown fate in the west.
Another
of Rosenberg's initiatives, the "Free Caucasus" campaign, was rather
more successful, attracting various nationalities into the so-called Eastern
Legion (Ostlegionen), though in the end this made little difference.
Alfred Rosenberg at the Nuremberg trials. Rosenberg is first from right, with Hans Frank (centre) and Alfred Jodl (left) |
Trial
and execution
Rosenberg
was captured by Allied troops at the end of the war. He was tried at Nuremberg
and found guilty of all four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace;
planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression; war crimes; and crimes
against humanity. The final judgment against him named him one of the principal
planners of the invasions of Norway and the Soviet Union. It also held him
directly responsible for the systematic plunder of the occupied countries of
Europe, as well as the brutal conditions in Eastern Europe.
He
was sentenced to death and executed with other condemned co-defendants at
Nuremberg on the morning of 16 October 1946. Throughout the trial, it was
agreed that Rosenberg had a decisive role in shaping Nazi philosophy and
ideology; such examples include: his book, Myth of the Twentieth Century,
which was published in 1930, where he incited hatred against "Liberal
Imperialism" and "Bolshevik Marxism"; furthering the influence
of the "Lebensraum" idea in Germany during the war; facilitating the
persecution of Christian churches and the Jews in particular; and opposition to
the Versailles Treaty.
According
to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, who covered the executions for the International
News Service, Rosenberg was the only condemned man, who when asked at the
gallows if he had any last statement to make, replied with only one word:
"No".
Alfred Rosenberg after
his hanging
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Nazi policy and Rosenberg's views
Hitler
was a leader oriented towards practical politics, whereas, for Rosenberg,
religion and philosophy were key and culturally he was the most influential
within the party. Several accounts of the time before the Nazi ascension to
power, indeed, speak of Hitler as being a mouthpiece for Rosenberg's views, and
he clearly exerted a great deal of intellectual influence.
Rosenberg's
influence in the Nazi Party is controversial. He was perceived as lacking the
charisma and political skills of the other Nazi leaders, and was somewhat
isolated. In some of his speeches Hitler appeared to be close to Rosenberg's
views: rejecting traditional Christianity as a religion based on Jewish
culture, preferring an ethnically and culturally pure "Race" whose
destiny was supposed to be assigned to the German people by "Providence".
In others, he adhered to the Nazi Party line, which advocated a "positive
Christianity".
After
Hitler's assumption of power he moved to reassure the Protestant and Catholic
churches that the party was not intending to reinstitute Germanic paganism. He
placed himself in the position of being the man to save Positive Christianity
from utter destruction at the hands of the atheistic antitheist Communists of
the Soviet Union. This was especially true immediately before and after the
elections of 1932; Hitler wanted to appear non-threatening to major Christian
faiths and consolidate his power. Further, Hitler felt that Catholic-Protestant
infighting had been a major factor in weakening the German state and allowing
its dominance by foreign powers.
Some
Nazi leaders, such as Martin Bormann, were anti-Christian
and sympathetic to Rosenberg. Once in power, Hitler and most Nazi leaders
sought to unify the Christian denominations in favor of "positive
Christianity". Hitler privately condemned mystical and pseudoreligious
interests as "nonsense". However, he and Goebbels agreed that after
the Endsieg
(Final Victory) the Reich Church should be pressed into
evolving into a German social evolutionist organisation proclaiming the cult of
race, blood and battle, instead of Redemption and the Ten
Commandments of Moses,
which they deemed outdated and Jewish.
Heinrich
Himmler's views were among the closest to Rosenberg's, and their estrangement
was perhaps created by Himmler's abilities to put into action what Rosenberg
had only written. Also, while Rosenberg thought Christianity should be allowed
to die out, Himmler actively set out to create countering pagan rituals.
Lieutenant
Colonel William Harold Dunn (1898–1955) wrote a medical and psychiatric report
on him in prison to evaluate him as a suicide risk:
He gave the impression of clinging to his own theories in a fanatical and unyielding fashion and to have been little influenced by the unfolding during the trial of the cruelty and crimes of the party.
Summarizing
the unresolved conflict between the personal views of Rosenberg and the
pragmatism of the Nazi elite:
The ruthless pursuit of Nazi aims turned out to mean not, as Rosenberg had hoped, the permeation of German life with the new ideology; it meant concentration of the combined resources of party and state on total war.
Family life
Rosenberg
was married twice. He married his first wife, Hilda Leesmann, an ethnic
Estonian, in 1915; after eight years of marriage, they divorced in 1923. He
married his second wife, Hedwig Kramer, in 1925; the marriage lasted until his
execution. He and Kramer had two children; a son, who died in infancy, and a
daughter, Irene, who was born in 1930. His daughter has refused contact with
anyone seeking information about her father.
Writings
- Unmoral im Talmud, 1920, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Immorality in the Talmud")
- Das Verbrechen der Freimaurerei: Judentum, Jesuitismus, Deutsches Christentum, 1921 ("The Crime of Freemasonry: Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity")
- Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Being, principles, and goals of the National Socialist German Worker's Party")
- Pest in Russland. Der Bolschewismus, seine Häupter, Handlanger und Opfer, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("The Plague in Russia. Bolshevism, its heads, henchmen, and victims")
- Bolschewismus, Hunger, Tod, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Bolshevism, hunger, death")
- Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die jüdische Weltpolitik, 1923 ("The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Jewish World Politics")
- The Jewish Bolshevism, Britons Pub. Society, 1923, together with Ernst Boepple
- Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1930 ("The Myth of the 20th Century")
- Dietrich Eckhart. Ein Vermächtnis, 1935 ("Dietrich Eckhart: A Legacy")
- An die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit. Eine Antwort auf die Angriffe gegen den „Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts“, 1937 ("The Obscurantists of Our Time: A Response to the Attacks Against 'The Myth of the 20th Century'")
- Protestantische Rompilger. Der Verrat an Luther und der „Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts“, 1937 ("Protestant Rome Pilgrims: The Betrayal of Luther and the 'Myth of the 20th Century'")
Diary
- Unmoral im Talmud, 1920, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Immorality in the Talmud")
- Das Verbrechen der Freimaurerei: Judentum, Jesuitismus, Deutsches Christentum, 1921 ("The Crime of Freemasonry: Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity")
- Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Being, principles, and goals of the National Socialist German Worker's Party")
- Pest in Russland. Der Bolschewismus, seine Häupter, Handlanger und Opfer, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("The Plague in Russia. Bolshevism, its heads, henchmen, and victims")
- Bolschewismus, Hunger, Tod, 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Bolshevism, hunger, death")
- Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die jüdische Weltpolitik, 1923 ("The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Jewish World Politics")
- The Jewish Bolshevism, Britons Pub. Society, 1923, together with Ernst Boepple
- Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1930 ("The Myth of the 20th Century")
- Dietrich Eckhart. Ein Vermächtnis, 1935 ("Dietrich Eckhart: A Legacy")
- An die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit. Eine Antwort auf die Angriffe gegen den „Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts“, 1937 ("The Obscurantists of Our Time: A Response to the Attacks Against 'The Myth of the 20th Century'")
- Protestantische Rompilger. Der Verrat an Luther und der „Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts“, 1937 ("Protestant Rome Pilgrims: The Betrayal of Luther and the 'Myth of the 20th Century'")
Flag of the German Christians, the movement associated
with Positive Christianity
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Rosenberg
Sourced
- No.
- When asked if he had any last words, 10/16/46. Quoted in "The Mammoth Book of Eyewitness World War II" - Page 564 - by Jon E. Lewis - History - 2002
- From education by the Church to education by Germanic value is a step of several generations. We are the transition from one education to the other. We are the conquerors of one era and the founders of a new - also religious - epoch. We bear a heavy and therefore a great destiny. To destroy images is something every revolution has been able to do. But to establish its cause upon nothing and yet not to burn all bridges behind it: that is the nobility of character of the National Socialist era. The German people is not marked by original sin, but by original nobility. The place of Christian love has been taken by the National Socialist, Germanic idea of comradeship...which has already been symbolically expressed through the replacement of the rosary by the spade of labour.
- Quoted in Chapter 13, Part 3 of "The Face Of The Third Reich" by Joachim C. Fest
- How can we still speak of the salvation and reformation of Europe, when we have to ask Europe's destroyer for help?
- On the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 171 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999
- I have the feeling that this Moscow Pact will at some time or other exact vengeance upon National Socialism.
- Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 171 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999
- I would adopt a standpoint, irrespective of whether someone was for or against it, if I felt deeply that it was right for the movement.
- Quoted in "The Face of the Third Reich: Portraits of the Nazi Leadership" - Page 165 - by Joachim C. Fest - History - 1999
- History and the task of the future no longer signify the struggle of class against class or the conflict between one church dogma and another, but the settlement between blood and blood, race and race, Folk and Folk. And that means: the struggle of spiritual values against each other.
- Geschichte und Zukunftsaufgabe bedeuten nicht mehr Kampf von Klasse gegen Klasse nicht mehr Ringen zwischen Kirchendogma und Dogma sondern die Auseinandersetzung zwischen Blut und Blut, Rasse und Rasse, Volk und Volk. Und das : Ringen von Seelenwert gegen Seelenwert. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Author's Introduction - Page xlvii - 1930)
- However, the values of the racial soul, which stand as driving forces behind this new image of the world, have not yet become a living consciousness. Soul means race seen from within. And, conversely, race is the external side of a soul. To awaken the racial soul to life means to recognise its highest value, and, under its dominance, to allot to other values their organic position in the State, in art, and in religion. That is the task of our century; to create a new human type out of a new view of life. And for this, courage is needed; courage of each single individual, courage of the entire generation growing up, indeed of many following generations. For chaos has never been mastered by those without courage, and a world has never been built by cowards. Whoever wishes to go forward, must therefore also burn bridges behind him. Whoever sets out on a great journey, must leave old household goods behind. Whoever strives for what is highest, must turn his back on what is lesser. And to all doubts and questions the new man of the coming great German Reich knows only one answer: But I have the will!
- Aber die Werte der Rassenseele, die als treibende Mächte hinter dem neuen Weltbild stehen sind noch nicht lebendiges Bewusstsein geworden. Seele aber bedeutet Rasse von innen gesehen. Und umgekehrt ist Rasse die Außenseite einer Seele. Die Rassenseele zum Leben erwecken, heißt ihren Höchstwert erkennen und unter seiner Herrschaft den anderen Werten ihre organische Stellung zuweisen: in Staat, Kunst und Religion. Das ist die Aufgabe unseres Jahrhunderts: aus einem neuen Lebens-Mythus einen neuen Menschentypus schaffen. Dazu bedarf es Mut. Mut eines jeden Einzelnen Mut des ganzen heranwachsenden Geschlechts, ja vieler noch folgender Generationen. Denn ein Chaos wird nie von Mutlosen gebändigt und noch nie ist von Feiglingen eine Welt gebaut worden. Wer vorwärts will, muss deshalb auch Brücken hinter sich verbrennen. Wer sich auf eine große Wanderung begibt, muss alten Hausrat liegen lassen. Wer ein Höchstes erstrebt, muss Minderes beugen. Und auf alle Zweifel und Fragen kennt der neue Mensch des kommenden Ersten Deutschen Reichs nur eine Antwort: Allein ich will! (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Author's Introduction - Page xlviii - 1930)
- The finance enchains with golden bonds states and peoples, the economy becomes nomadic, the life uprooted.
- Die Finanz umschlingt mit goldenen Stricken Staaten und Völker, die Wirtschaft wird nomadisiert, das Leben entwurzelt., Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 1 - 1930
- Racial history is therefore natural history and the mysticism of the soul at one and the same time; but the history of the religion of the blood, conversely, is the great world story of the rise and downfall of peoples, their heroes and thinkers, their inventors and artists.
- Rassengeschichte ist deshalb Naturgeschichte und Seelen-Mystik zugleich; die Geschichte der Religion des Blutes aber ist, umgekehrt, die große Welterzählung vom Aufstieg und Untergang der Völker, ihrer Helden und Denker, ihrer Erfinder und Künstler. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 5 - 1930)
- The Amorites founded Jerusalem, they formed the Nordic weft in later Galilee, that is, in the "pagan region" whence some day Jesus was to come.
- Die Amoriter gründeten Jerusalem, sie bildeten die nordische Schicht im späteren Galiläa, d.i. in der "Heidengau", aus der einst Jesus hervorgehen sollte. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 27 - 1930)
- At last, Mythic feeling and conscious perception no longer confront each other as antagonists but as allies. Passionate nationalism is no longer directed toward tribal, dynastic or theological loyalties, but toward that primal substance, the racially based nationhood itself. Here is the message which will one day melt away all dross, eliminate all that is base, and bring into being all that is noble.
- Mythisches Ergreifen und bewusstes Erkennen stehen sich heute im Sinne des deutschen Erneuerungsgedankens endlich einmal nicht feindlich, sondern sich gegenseitig steigernd gegenüber: der glühendste Nationalismus nicht mehr auf Stämme, Dynastien, Konfessionen gerichtet, sondern auf die Ursubstanz, auf die artgebundene Volkheit selbst, ist die Botschaft, die einst alle Schlacken schmelzen wird, um das Edle herauszuholen und das Unedle auszumerzen. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 45 - 1930)
- The authority of a king or duke, territorial limits to episcopal sees, and personal freedom—are all directly rooted in the soil, even though these forces competed, and still do, for ascendancy. If it is clear now that it was the most purely Nordic Germanic states, peoples and tribes which most consistently and resolutely defended themselves against the assault on everything organic by Roman ecumenical conformism, then we shall be able to see that even before the great victorious awakening of those forces from the hypnotic influence of Rome and the Levant, there was an heroic struggle in progress directly linked to the still "pagan" Teutons. The history of the Albigensians, Waldenses, Cathars, Arnoldists, Stedingers, Huguenots, the reformed church and the Lutherans, as well as of the martyrs of free research and the heroes of Nordic philosophy, draws an edifying picture of a gigantic contest for character values, those prerequisites of soul and spirit without the assertion of which there could have been neither European nor national culture.
- Der Königs- und Herzogsgedanke, raumbegrenzter Episkopalismus, Persönlichkeitsfreiheit, das alles wurzelt unmittelbar im Erdreich, so sehr diese Mächte auch unter sich um die Vorherrschaft gerungen haben und noch heute ringen. Und erscheint es auch jetzt mit Händen greifbar, dass die am reinsten nordisch-germanischen Staaten, Völker und Stämme sich, als die Zeit gekommen war, am entschiedensten und am folgerichtigsten gegen den römischen Universalismus und gegen die alles Organische bekämpfende geistige Einheitsform (Unitarismus) wehrten, so werden wir auch vor diesem siegreichen großen Erwachen aus der römisch-vorderasiatischen Hypnose diese Kräfte — in unmittelbarer Anknüpfung an die noch "heidnischen" Germanen — in einem heroischen Kampf am Werke erblicken können. Die Geschichte der Albigenser, Walenser, Katharer, Arnolbisten, Stedinger, Hugenotten, Reformierten, Lutheraner zeichnet neben der Geschichte der Märtyrer der freien Forschung und der Darstellung der Helden der nordischen Philosophie das erhebende Bild eines gigantischen Ringens um Charakterwerte, d.h. um jene seelisch-geistige Voraussetzung, ohne deren Durchsetzung es keine abendländische, keine volkliche Gesittung gegeben hätte. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 47 - 1930)
- But the Teuton has not, unfortunately, kept up his guard. Magnanimously, he conceded to alien blood those same rights which he had gained for himself as a result of his great sacrifices through the centuries. He carried tolerance of religious diversity and scientific speculation into areas where he would have done better to lay down strict limitations; the areas involving the creation of the national state and of the folkish type. Such are the prerequisites for organic life in general. He failed to see that a spirit of tolerance, as between catholic and protestant religious convictions concerning God and immortality, was not at all the same thing as toleration of anti-Germanic character values. Surely it is obvious that there is no equivalence of rights as between the stock market manipulator and the heroic man; or those who follow the immoral and non-Germanic laws of the Talmud cannot be accorded equal rights in shaping the national life as a Hanseatic merchant or a German officer. From this sin against the own blood sprang the national guilt ...
- Aber der Germane ist leider nicht wachsam gewesen. Er überließ großherzig fremdem Blut dieselben Rechte, die er sich mit großen eigenen Opfern durch die Jahrhunderte erkämpft hatte. Er übertrug Duldung des religiösen und wissenschaftlichen Denkens auch auf ein Gebiet, auf dem er hätte scharfe Abgrenzungen treffen müssen: auf das Gebiet der Volksgestaltung, Menschenformung, Staatsbildung als erster Voraussetzung des organischen Daseins überhaupt. Er hatte übersehen, dass Duldsamkeit zwischen Protestanten und Katholiken in bezug auf ihre Überzeugungen über Gott und Unsterblichkeit nicht gleichbedeutend sein konnte mit Duldsamkeit gegenüber antigermanischen Charakterwerten. Dass der Heroische nicht gleiches Recht haben kann mit dem Börsenspekulanten; dass dem Bekenner der unsittlich-ungermanischen Talmudgesetze mit einem Hanseaten oder deutschen Offizier keine gleichen Rechte auf Lebensgestaltung der Nation zugesprochen werden durften. Aus dieser Sünde gegen das eigene Blut erwuchs die große Volksschuld ... (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 59 - 1930)
- Today a new faith is awakening—the Myth of the blood; the belief that to defend the blood is also to defend the divine nature of man in general. It is a belief, effulgent with the brightest knowledge, that Nordic blood represents that mystery which has overcome and replaced the older sacraments.
- Heute erwacht aber ein neuer Glaube: der Mythus des Blutes, der Glaube, mit dem Blute auch das göttliche Wesen des Menschen überhaupt zu verteidigen. Der mit hellstem Wissen verkörperte Glaube, dass das nordische Blut jenes Mysterium darstellt, welches die alten Sakramente ersetzt und überwunden hat. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 65 - 1930)
- Concerning Jesus' heritage there is, like Chamberlain and Delitzsch have already emphasized, not the slightest compelling reason to suppose that Jesus had Jewish ancestry, even though he was raised amid Jewish thinking. Interesting research results can be found in Dr. E. Jung's "Jesus - the historical personality" (Munich 1924). According to the Syrian Christian preacher Ephraem (4th century) Jesus' mother was a Danaite woman (that is, someone born in Dan) and he had a Latin as father. Ephraem sees this to be not unhonorable and adds: "Jesus thus derived his ancestry from two of the greatest and most famous nations, namely, from the Syrians on the maternal side and from the Romans on the paternal."
- Was Jesu Herkunft betrifft, so liegt, wie schon von Chamberlain und Delitzsch betont worden ist, nicht der geringste zwingende Grund zur Annahme vor, dass Jesus jüdischer Herkunft gewesen, wenn er auch in jüdischen Gedankenkreisen aufgewachsen ist. Einige interessante Forschungsergebnisse findet man bei Dr. E. Jung, "Die geschichtliche Persönlichkeit Jesu" (München 1924). Laut dem syrischen Christenprediger Ephraem (4. Jahrhundert) hatte Jesus zur Mutter ein danaitisches Weib (also aus Dan gebürtig) und einen Lateiner zum Vater. Ephraem sieht darin nichts Unehrenhaftes und fügt hinzu: "Jesus hat so seine Abstammung von zwei allergrößten und allerberühmtesten Völkern hergeleitet, die mütterliche nämlich von den Syriern, die väterliche von den Römern." (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 76 - 1930)
- On the other hand, heroism is basic to the character of the Nordic peoples. This heroism of the ancient mythic period—and this is what is decisive—has never been lost, despite times of decline, so long as the Nordic blood was still alive. Heroism, in fact, took many forms, from the warrior nobility of Siegfried or Hercules to the intellectual nobility of Copernicus and Leonardo, the religious nobility of Eckehart and Lagarde, or the political nobility of Frederick the Great and Bismarck, and its substance has remained the same.
- Heldenhaftigkeit jedoch ist der Grundtypus aller nordischen Völker. Diese Heldenhaftigkeit der alten Mythenzeit aber — und das ist das Ausschlaggebende — ist nie verloren gegangen trotz vieler Zeiten des Niederbruchs — solange dieses nordische Blut noch irgendwo lebendig war. Der Heroismus nahm zwar verschiedene Formen an, er führt vom Schwertadel Siegfrieds und Herakles zum Forscheradel Koppernings und Leonardos, zum Religionsadel Eckeharts und Lagardes, zum politischen Adel Friedrichs und Bismarcks, das Wesen ist das gleiche geblieben. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 81 - 1930)
- If in heroic conduct, whether of warriors, philosophers or scientists, we see what is of essential nature, then we know that all heroism groups itself around a supreme value. This has always been the idea of honour, spiritual and mental. But the idea of honour, like its corporeal representatives, was involved in a war of soul and spirit against the values represented by alien races or the offspring of racial chaos.
- Erblicken wir in der heldisch-künstlerischen Haltung hier das Wesentliche, gleich ob es sich um Krieger, Denker oder Forscher handelt, dann wissen wir auch, dass alle Heldenhaftigkeit sich um einen Höchstwert gruppiert. Und dies ist immer die Idee der geistig-seelischen Ehre gewesen. Die Ehre aber stand — gleich wie ihre Träger im physischen—in einem seelisch-geistigen Kampf mit den Werten andersrassischer Träger, bzw. mit den Gebilden des Völkerchaos. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 84 - 1930)
- Many wars during the last 1900 years have borne the stamp of wars of religion. In most cases justifiably, yet not always so. The very fact that struggles of extermination could be carried out at all for a religious conviction shows to what degree the Germanic peoples had been successfully alienated from their original character. Respect for religious belief was just as natural to the pagan Germanic peoples as to the later Arians; only the assertion of the claim by the Roman church that it alone offered salvation hardened the European heart and necessarily called forth defensive struggles in the opposing camp which, since likewise conducted for an alien natured form, resulted in spiritual narrow mindedness (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Puritanism). But in spite of everything, most of the struggles by leading heroes of our history were conducted less for theological principles of belief about Jesus, Mary, the nature of the holy ghost, purgatory and so on, than for character values. The churches of all denominations declared: as the faith, so the man. This was necessary for every church, and promised success, since in this way the value of a man was made dependent on its coercive principles, and men were thus spiritually enchained to the chosen church organization. On the other hand the Nordic European creed - whether consciously or unconsciously - has always been: as the man, so his belief. More exactly put, as the nature or content of his belief.
- Viele Kriege der letzten 1900 Jahre sind zu Glaubenskriegen gestempelt worden. Meist mit Recht, oft zu Unrecht. Dass aber überhaupt um einer religiösen Überzeugung willen Ausrottungskämpfe geführt werden konnten, zeigt, in wie hohem Maße es gelungen war, die germanischen Völker ihrem Urcharakter zu entfremden. Achtung eines religiösen Glaubens war für die heidnischen Germanen ebenso selbstverständlich wie für die späteren Arianer; erst die Durchsetzung des Anspruchs auf Alleinseligmachung seitens der römischen Kirche verhärtete das europäische Gemüt und rief im andern Lager naturnotwendig Verteidigungskämpfe hervor, die, da gleichfalls um eine artfremde Form geführt, ihrerseits eine seelische Verknöcherung hervorrufen mussten (Luthertum, Kalvinismus, Puritanismus). Trotz allem aber waren die meisten Kämpfe der führenden Helden unserer Geschichte weniger um theologische Glaubenssätze über Jesus. Maria, das Wesen des Heiligen Geistes, Fegefeuer usw. geführt worden, als um Charakterwerte. Die Kirchen aller Bekenntnisse erklärten: wie der Glaube, so der Mensch. Das war für jede Kirche notwendig und erfolgverheißend, da auf diese Weise der menschliche Wert von ihren Zwangssätzen abhängig gemacht, die Menschen also seelisch an die jeweilige kirchliche Organisation gefesselt wurden. Dagegen hat das nordisch-europäische Bekenntnis — bewusst oder unterbewusst stets gelautet: wie der Mensch, so sein Glaube. Noch genauer, so die Art bzw. der Gehalt seines Glaubens. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 145 - 1930)
- It is characteristic of Roman Christianity that where possible it eliminates the personality of its founder, in order to put in its place the church structure of a rulership by priests. Jesus is admittedly set up as the highest and holiest, as the source of all faith and bliss, but only for the purpose of investing the church representing him with the halo of an eternal and untouchable glory. For between Jesus and man, the church and its representatives intrude with the assertion that the way to Jesus can only lie through the church. Since Jesus does not live upon earth, man is in fact only concerned with this church which is fully "authorized" to bind or release forever.
- Bezeichnend ist für das römische Christentum, dass es die Persönlichkeit des Stifters nach Möglichkeit ausschaltet, um den kirchlichen Aufbau einer Priesterherrschaft an ihre Stelle zu setzen. Jesus wird zwar als das Höchste und Heiligste, als die Quelle alles Glaubens und alles Segens hingestellt, aber nur zu dem Zweck, um die ihn vertretende Kirche mit dem Glorienschein des Ewigen und Unantastbaren zu umgeben. Denn zwischen Jesus und den Menschen schieben sich die Kirche und ihre Vertreter ein, mit der Behauptung, dass der Weg zu Jesus nur durch die Kirche führe. Und da Jesus nicht auf Erden weilt, hat der Mensch es eben nur mit dieser Kirche zu tun, die "bevollmächtigt" ist, auf ewig zu binden oder zu lösen. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 160 - 1930)
- Alongside the mythos of the eternal free soul stands the Myth, the religion of the blood.
- Neben dem Mythus von der ewigen freien Seele steht der Mythus, die Religion des Blutes. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 161 - 1930)
- Dr. Adam, a leading catholic
theoretician, assures us that:
"Catholicism is not completely identical with early Christianity, or even to be identified with the message of Christ, any more than the fully grown oak tree with the tiny acorn."(*)
Here the sanctified arrogance of the church (the work bears the stamp IMPRIMATVR) concerning Jesus is openly expressed, and all further glorification of Christ serves, as said, only for the purpose of increasing the ruling tyranny of the church, not the message of Christ, of the little acorn. The office of the church rests completely in the hands of the priest who by the laying on of hands becomes the representative of the apostolic power. As a basis for this doctrine, the words of Jesus to Peter are quoted, according to which he calls him the rock upon which he will build his church. The fact that these words were a forgery inserted into the ancient texts much later by a true servant of the church(**), naturally does not prevent this demonstrably untrue doctrine from being repeated all over the world as the message of Jesus.
(*)Adam: "Das Wesen des Katholizismus", 1925.
(**)This passage (Matthew XVI: 18) is in fact an exceedingly clumsy one among the many pious forgeries, for a few verses later Jesus calls this same Peter a Satan who should get behind him. Jesus says the same in Mark VIII, 30). Would he have wished to build up a church upon such a man so clearly described, whose betrayal of him Jesus likewise foresaw? Such an assumption approaches an open abusing of the personality of Christ. Merx says in conclusion: "Historical research concerning Jesus cannot allow itself to be deceived forever by such forgery; there must be an end of it." (Die vier kanonischen Evangelien, III, 320). - Dr. Adam, ein führender
katholischer Programmatiker, versichert:
"Der Katholizismus ist nicht schlechtweg mit dem Urchristentum identisch, oder gar mit der Botschaft: Christi zu identifizieren, so wenig wie der ausgereifte Eichenbaum mit der kleinen Eichel."(*)
Hier ist die öffentlich geheiligte Überheblichkeit der Kirche (das Werk trägt den Stempel "Imprimatur") über Jesus mit dürren Worten ausgesprochen und alle weiteren Verherrlichungen Christi dienen, wie gesagt, nur dazu, die Herrschergewalt der Kirche, nicht die "Botschaft Christi" – der "kleinen Eichel" – zu erhöhen. Das kirchliche Amt ruht ganz in den Händen des Priesters, der durch Handauflegen zum Vertreter der apostolischen Gewalt wird. Zur Begründung dieser Lehre wird das Wort Jesu zu Petrus genannt, laut welchem er ihn den Fels heißt, auf den er seine Kirche bauen werde. Die Tatsache, dass dieses Wort viel später von einem treuen Diener der Kirche in die alten Texte hineingefälscht worden ist(**), hindert natürlich nicht, diesen nachweislich unwahren Lehrsatz unermüdlich in der ganzen Welt als Botschaft Jesu zu wiederholen.
(*) Adam: "Das Wesen des Katholizismus", 1925.
(**) Diese Stelle (Matthäus 16, 18—19) kennzeichnet sich selbst als eine reichlich plumpe der vielen frommen Fälschungen, denn wenige Verse später nennt Jesus den gleichen Petrus einen Satan, der sich von ihm hinwegheben solle. Das gleiche sagt Jesus Markus 8, 30 ff. Auf diesem so eindeutig Gekennzeichneten, dessen Verrat Jesus ebenfalls voraussah, soll er eine Kirche haben aufbauen wollen? Eine derartige Zumutung kommt einer offenen Beschimpfung der Persönlichkeit Christi gleich. Merx sagt abschließend: "Die geschichtliche Forschung über Jesus darf sich durch solche Fälschung nicht auf Ewigkeit hin täuschen lassen; es muss ein Ende haben" ("Die vier kanonischen Evangelien", III, 320).(Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 161 - 1930)
- Dr. Adam ... assures: "When the
catholic priest spreads the word of Christ, then it is not a mere man who
preaches, but Christ himself."
By this, the self-deification of the priest has been elevated into a dogma which certainly contains the height of arrogance in the view that if anywhere a leading personality "elevated his own poor self into a bearer of Christ's message" the church would at once have to utter its anathema over him: "And it would utter this anathema, even if an angel who came from heaven taught otherwise than has been accepted from the apostles." (Adam)
The last elimination of human self-reliance in favour of an unreal office is perfected in the sacraments: "The sacramental blessing is not produced by the personal moral and religious efforts of the receiver of them, but far more through the objective completion of the sacramental token itself. With this, the annihilation of the personality is demanded, its valuelessness as "religious" doctrine is announced. In the midst of a people who had placed honor – personal honor, family honor, race honor, national honor – above all else as the midpoint of life, the open broadcasting of such a demand would never have been able to be carried through. This has only been possible through the skilled replacing of the concept of honor by that of "love", followed by humility and devotion. That this "sacramental token" is represented as having been "established" by Jesus himself, should be noted only as a small proof of with what lack of concern "history" is formed and "structures of religion" are built.
It is self-evident that these ideas of a doctrine aiming at magic could not be maintained in such barren representation in Europe even after the denial of honor as a guiding idea. - Dr. Adam ... versichert:
"Wenn der katholische Priester das Wort Gottes verkündet, so predigt
nicht ein bloßer Mensch, sondern Christus selbst." Damit ist die
Selbstvergottung des Priesters zum Glaubenssatz erhoben, der wohl die
Höhe seiner Anmaßung in der Anschauung erhält, dass, wenn irgendwo eine
Führerpersönlichkeit das "eigene, arme Ich zum Träger der
Christusbotschaft erhoben" hätte, die Kirche umgehend ihr Anathema
aussprechen müsste: "Und dieses Anathema würde sie sprechen, selbst
wenn ein Engel vom Himmel käme, der anders lehrte, als sie von den
Aposteln überkommen hat" (Adam).
Die letzte Ausschaltung menschlicher Eigenständigkeit zugunsten eines schemenhaften Amtes vollzieht sich in den Sakramenten: "Die sakramentale Gnade wird nicht durch die persönlichen Bemühungen des Sakramentsempfängers erzeugt, gewirkt, sondern vielmehr durch den objektiven Vollzug des sakramentalen Zeichens selbst." Damit ist die Vernichtung der Persönlichkeit gefordert, ihre Wertlosigkeit als "religiöser" Lehrsatz verkündet. Inmitten eines Volkes, welches die Ehre – persönliche Ehre, Sippenehre, Stammesehre, Volksehre – unbekümmert um alles andere in rücksichtsloser Tat in den Mittelpunkt seines ganzen Lebens gestellt hätte, wäre die offene Verkündigung einer solchen Forderung nimmer durchführbar gewesen. Dies ist nur durch das geschickte Ersetzen des Ehrbegriffes durch die Idee der "Liebe", gefolgt von Demut und Ergebung, möglich geworden. Dass dieses "sakramentale Zeichen" als von Jesus selbst "festgelegt" hingestellt wird, sei nur als ein kleiner Hinweis vermerkt, mit welcher Unbekümmertheit "Geschichte" geformt und "Religionsgebäude" gezimmert werden.
Nun versteht es sich, dass diese klaren Fassungen einer auf Magie abzielenden Lehre in dieser dürren Darstellung in Europa auch nach der Aberkennung der Ehre als alles leitenden Idee nicht durchgesetzt werden konnten. (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 161 - 1930)
- But the festivals of the Christian church appeared on the same day as the early peoples celebrated them, whether these were the festival of the fertility goddess Ostara, which became the Easter resurrection festival, or the festival of the winter solstice, which became the birthday of Jesus. Thus the catholic church in its fundamental forms in northern Europe has also been conditioned in a Nordic manner. The grotesque thing about this fact is only that it seeks to make a virtue out of necessity, and claims the richness of spiritual life exclusively as its own. The coercive church dogma declares in all seriousness that every national complexion could have a place in the church, that every kind of religiosity was under its protection; nowhere "the personal freedom of religious expression" would have been so protected as in the catholic church. (Adam.) This is naturally a reversal of facts which speak only too clearly. From Bonifacius by way of Ludwig the Pious, who made efforts to exterminate everything Germanic with fire and sword, and a total of over nine million murdered heretics, we pass to the Vatican council which up to the present represents a unique attempt to assert a merciless uniform spiritual belief: one form, one compulsory dogma, one language, and one rite, identically for Nordics, Levantines, Niggers, Chinese and Eskimos. (One should consider, in this connection, the Eucharistic congress in Chicago in 1926, where nigger bishops celebrated mass). For two thousand years the eternal blood of all races and peoples revolted against this.
- Die Festtage der christlichen Kirche aber traten an die gleichen Tage wie das Urvolk sie feierte, ob dies nun das Fest der Fruchtbarkeitsgöttin Ostara war, das zum Auferstehungsfest, oder das Fest der Wintersonnenwende, das zum Geburtstag Jesus wurde. So ist die katholische Kirche in wesentlichen Formen Nordeuropas auch nordisch-rassisch bedingt. Das Groteske an dieser Tatsache ist nur, dass sie aus der Not eine Tugend zu machen sucht und den Reichtum seelischen Lebens ausgerechnet sich zugute schreibt. Allen Ernstes erklärt der kirchliche Zwangsglaubenssatz, jede nationale Farbigkeit hätte Raum in der Kirche, alle verschiedene Frömmigkeit stehe unter ihrer Obhut; nirgends sei „die persönliche Freiheit des religiösen Ausdrucks“ so geschützt, wie in der katholischen Kirche (Adam). Das ist natürlich eine Umkehrung aller nur zu deutlich sprechenden Tatsachen. Von "Bonifazius" über Ludwig "den Frommen", der alles Germanische mit Stumpf und Stiel auszurotten bemüht war, über die neun Millionen vertilgter Ketzer zieht sich bis zum Vatikanischen Konzil, bis auf heute, ein einziger Versuch, einen unerbittlichen geistigen Einheitsglauben (Unitarismus) durchzusetzen, eine Form, einen Zwangsglaubenssatz, eine Sprache und einen Ritus einheitlich für nordische Menschen, Levantiner, Nigger, Chinesen und Eskimos zu verbreiten (Man vergleiche den Eucharistischen Kongress zu Chikago 1926, wo Niggerbischöfe die Messe zelebrierten.) Seit zweitausend Jahren empört sich das ewige Blut aller Rassen und Völker dagegen. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 167 - 1930
- The "holy year" invented by Bonifacius VIII brought in a huge income from the sale of indulgences. But the jubilee absolution could only be purchased in Rome. At first the ANNVS SANCTVS was to be celebrated every 100 years. Then it was held every 50, every 33, finally every 25 years, to obtain large sums of money more frequently. The first "holy year" brought the pope 200,000 foreign visitors and 15 million golden guldens. In 1350 the Vatican took in 22 million. One therefore understands why, after the 33 years celebrated in remembrance of Jesus' s years of life (as the festival was called after the second shortening of the interval between holy years), an interval lasting only 25 years was introduced on account of the "brevity of human life". One sees that even the martyr's death of Jesus can be good for furthering the business of his "representative".
- Viele Ablasseinkünfte brachte das "Heilige Jahr", erfunden von Bonifaz VI II. Der JubiläumsAblass war nur in Rom zu erwerben. Anfänglich sollte alle 100 Jahre das "Anno sankro" gefeiert werden. Dann wurde die Jubelfeier alle 50, dann alle 33, schließIich alle 25 Jahre begangen, um häufiger große Summen zu erhalten. Das erste "Heilige Jahr" (1300) brachte dem Papst 200000 Fremde und 15 Millionen Goldgulden. 1350 nahm der Vatikan 22 Millionen ein, man versteht also, warum nach den 33 Jahren "zum Andenken an die Lebensjahre" Jesu (wie es bei der zweiten Kürzung der Zeitspanne hieß), die nur 25jährige pause eingeführt wurde:"wegen der Kürze des menschlichen Lebens". Man sieht, selbst Jesus’ Martertod kann gut für Begründung der Geschäfte seines "Stellvertreters" sein. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 171 - 1930
- An event not fitting strictly into this work, but which is of deep inner significance, may be mentioned here as characterizing this spiritual attitude. On CORPVS CHRISTI day in 1929 at Munich, the procession was suddenly surprised by a violent thunderstorm. The monks, nuns, ministers, and so on, seized their crucifixes and candles under their arms and ran in all four heavenly directions. Later, Cardinal Faulhaber preached in the Frauenkirche and admonished the faithful not to allow their faith to be shaken by the bad weather, even if Jesus had this time not accepted the offering brought to him – Jesus is here represented as a rainmaker, and the rained upon CORPVS CHRISTI procession as an unsuccessful attempt at sorcery! The phrase medicine man philosophy – used without any offending intent – thus exactly characterizes the spiritual conduct of the Roman church.
- Ein äußerlich nicht in dieses Werk passendes Ereignis, das aber zu innerst tief bedeutend ist, mag hier zur Kennzeichnung dieser Geistesrichtung vermerkt sein. Am Tage des Fronleichnams 1929 zu München wurde die Prozession plötzlich von einem starken Gewitterregen überrascht. Die Mönche, Nonnen, Ministranten usw. packten ihre Kerzen und Kruzifixe untern Arm und verliefen sich in alle vier Himmelsrichtungen. Darauf predigte der Kardinal Faulhaber in der Frauenkirche und ermahnte die Gläubigen, sich ihren Glauben durch das Unwetter nicht erschüttern zu lassen, wenn auch Jesus Christus diesmal das ihm dargebrachte Opfer nicht angenommen habe – Jesus wird hier also als Regenmacher hingestellt und die verregnete Fronleichnamsprozession als ein missglückter Bezauberungsversuch! Das Wort von der Medizinmannphilosophie — ohne jede beleidigende Absicht gebraucht — kennzeichnet also genau die geistige Haltung der römischen Kirche. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 173 - 1930
- Jesuitism has drawn the last logical conclusions from the Roman system. The final stone in the structure of the medicine man philosophy was laid by the Vatican council. Here the medicine man was declared as god, as infallible god for the duration of exercise of his office. Strictly speaking, Jesus is no longer represented, but deposed; deposed and replaced by the Roman system, crowned by the medicine man invested with all power, who calls himself pope. "The new testament is indeed an important but not entirely exhaustive product of this apostolic tradition permeating the entire consciousness of the church", condescendingly writes the afore mentioned modern catholic theoretician, Professor Adam. Jesus is pushed aside; the Syrian-Etruscan superstition which at the beginning enveloped his personality like weeds, appears in his place as "apostolic tradition".
- Die letzten Folgerungen aus dem römischen System hat der Jesuitismus gezogen. Den Schlussstein in dem Bau der Medizinmannphilosophie schuf das Vatikanische Konzil. Hier wurde der Medizinmann für die Zeit der Ausübung seines Amtes zum Gott, zum unfehlbaren Gott erklärt. Jesus ist jetzt, streng genommen, nicht mehr in Stellvertretung, sondern abgesetzt. Abgesetzt und ersetzt durch das römische System, gekrönt von dem mit aller Macht ausgestatteten, sich Papst nennenden Medizinmann. "Die neutestamentliche Bibel ist zwar ein bedeutsamer, aber durchaus nicht ein erschöpfender Niederschlag dieser das Gesamtbewusstsein der Kirche erfüllenden apostolischen Überlieferung", schreibt herablassend der genannte moderne katholische Programmatiker Prof. Adam. Jesus ist hinausgedrängt, der syrisch-etruskische Aberglaube aber, der sich gleich anfangs um seine Persönlichkeit rankte, ist als "apostolische Überlieferung" an seine Stelle getreten. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 175 - 1930
- Every creature pursues its life
with an aim even if it be unknown to it. The human soul also has a
destiny: that is, to arrive at a pure knowledge of itself and a
consciousness of god. But this soul is "scattered and spread out"
in the world of the senses, of space and time. The senses are active in it
and weaken – at first – the power of spiritual concentration; the
precondition of "inner workings" is, therefore, the withdrawal
of all exterior powers, the extinguishing of all images and allegories.
But this "inner working" means: to draw heaven to oneself, as
Jesus is said to have testified and demanded of the powerful of soul. This
attempt by the mystic thus demands the exclusion of the world as idea, in
order to become, where possible, conscious, as pure subject, of the
metaphysical essence which lives within us.; and since this is not
completely possible, the idea of god is created as a new object of this
soul in order ultimately to announce the identical value of soul and god.
However, this act is only possible under the prerequisite of spiritual freedom from all dogmas, churches and popes. Meister Eckehart, the Dominican priest, does not shy away from joyfully and openly proclaiming this fundamental creed of every truly Aryan nature. - Jedes Geschöpf treibt sein Wesen
um eines wenn auch ihm selbst unbekannten Zieles wegen. Auch die Seele
besitzt ihr Ziel: rein zu sich selber und zum Gottbewusstsein zu
gelangen. Diese Seele aber hat sich in die Welt der Sinne, des Raumes und
der Zeit, "zerspreitet und zerstreut". Die Sinne betätigen sich
in ihr und schwächen — zunächst — die Kraft der seelischen
Zusammenballung; die Vorbedingung des "inneren Werkes" ist
deshalb das Einziehen aller nach außen wirkenden Kräfte, das Auslöschen
aller Bilder und Gleichnisse. Dieses "innere Werk" aber
bedeutet: das Himmelreich "an sich zu reißen", wie es Jesus von
den "Gewaltigen" der Seele bezeugt und gefordert habe. Dieser
Versuch des Mystikers fordert also die Ausschaltung der Welt als
Vorstellung, um uns möglichst als reines Subjekt des uns innewohnenden
metaphysischen Wesens bewusst zu werden; und da dies nicht vollkommen
möglich ist, wird die Idee "Gott" als neues Objekt dieser Seele
erschaffen, um zum Schluss die Gleichwertigkeit von Seele und Gott zu
verkünden.
Diese Tat ist aber nur unter der Voraussetzung der Freiheit der Seele von allen Dogmen, Kirchen und Päpsten möglich. Und Meister Eckehart, der Dominikaner-Prior, scheut sich nicht, dieses Grundbekenntnis alles arischen Wesens freudig und offen hinauszurufen. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 221 - 1930
- Jesus once caused a sick man to arise on the Sabbath and take up his bed, whereupon the pious of the land raised a great outcry. But Jesus answered with superior contempt that the Sabbath was there for the sake of man, not man for the sake of the Sabbath; consequently, man was also master over the Sabbath.
- Einst ließ Jesus einen Kranken auch am Sabbath aufstehen und sein Krankenbett tragen, worüber die Frommen des Landes ein großes Gezeter erhoben. Jesus aber antwortete mit überlegenem Spott: der Sabbath sei um des Menschen willen da, nicht der Mensch des Sabbaths wegen; folglich sei der Mensch auch Herr über den Sabbath. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 229 - 1930
- The Jewish idea of the "slave of god", one who receives mercy from an arbitrary, absolutist god, has thus passed over to Rome and Wittenberg, and can be attributed to Paul as the actual creator of this doctrine, which is to say that our churches are not Christian but Pauline. Jesus unquestionably praised the One-Being with god. This was his redemption, his goal. He did not preach a condescending granting of mercy from an almighty being in the face of which even the greatest human soul represented a pure nothingness. This doctrine of mercy is naturally very welcome to every church. With such misinterpretation the church and its leaders appear as the "representatives of god". Consequently, they could acquire power by granting mercy through their magic hands.
- Die jüdische Vorstellung vom "Knecht Gottes", der vom willkürlichen, absolutistischen Gott Gnade zuerteilt erhält, ist somit übergegangen auf Rom und Wittenberg, klammert sich noch immer an Paulus, als den eigentlichen Schöpfer dieser Lehre, womit gesagt sein soll, dass die Kirchen nicht christlich, sondern pauIinisch sind, da doch Jesus fraglos das Eins-Sein mit Gott als Erlösung und Ziel pries, nicht die herablassende Gnadengewährung eines allmächtigen Wesens, dem gegenüber auch die größte menschliche Seele ein reines Nichts darstellte. Diese Gnadenlehre ist natürlich jeder Kirche sehr willkommen, sofern sie und ihre Führer als die "Stellvertreter Gottes" auftreten und folglich auch die Macht des Gnaden-Spendens in ihren Zauberhänden vereinigen können. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 235 - 1930
- The ancient Germanic idea of god is likewise inconceivable without spiritual freedom. Jesus also spoke of the kingdom of heaven within us. The strength of spiritual search already shows itself in the world wanderer, Odin, and can be seen in the seeker and believer, Eckehart, and we see it in all great men from Luther to Lagarde. This soul also lived within the venerable Thomas of Aquinas and in the majority of the occidental fathers of the church.
- Der altgermanische Gottesgedanke wiederum ist ohne seelische Freiheit gar nicht denkbar. Und auch Jesus sprach vom Himmelreich in uns. Die Willenhaftigkeit des seelischen Suchens zeigt bereits der Weltenwanderer Odin, zeigt der Sucher und Bekenner Eckehart, zeigen alle Großen über Luther bis Lagarde. Diese Seele lebte aber auch im ehrwürdigen Thomas von Aquino und in den meisten abendländischen Kirchenvätern. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 247 - 1930
- A keen observer has correctly remarked that the Jesus child of the Sistine Madonna is "frankly heroic" in gaze and posture (Wölfflin). That is aptly expressed except that the fundamental ground is lacking as to why the allegedly Jewish family had a heroic look to it. Here, only composition and color distribution, not "inwardness" and "dedication", are determining. These are the prerequisites to the success of a formative will, once again, the racial ideal of beauty. To see in place of the light-brown haired, light skinned Jesus child a blue black, woolly haired, brown skinned Jew boy would be an impossibility. Equally, we cannot think of a Jewish Mother of god next to the holy, even if the latter had the "noble face" of an Offenbach or Disraeli.
- Ein feiner Beobachter hat richtig erklärt, das Jesuskind der Sixtinischen Madonna sei in Blick und Haltung "geradezu heroisch" (Wölfflin). Das ist treffend ausgedrückt, nur fehlt die wesentliche Begründung dafür, warum die angebliche jüdische Familie heroisch wirkt. Hier sind nicht nur Komposition und Farbenverteilung, nicht "Innigkeit" und "Hingabe" maßgebend, sondern, als Voraussetzung des Gelingens eines Formwillens, wiederum das rassische Schönheitsideal. An stelle des dunkelblondlockigen, hellen Jesuskindes ein schwarzblau wollhaariger, brauner Judenjunge wäre ebenso eine Unmöglichkeit, wie eine ähnliche "Gottesmutter" nebst Heiligem, selbst wenn dieser das "Edelgesicht" eines Offenbach oder Disraeli trüge. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 297 - 1930
- Hanns Heinz Ewers tells a short story of a boy who was so unnatural of disposition as to take a special delight in people sick with elephantiasis. Our "European intellectuality" finds itself in an identical condition today which, through Jewish pens, worships the Kokoschka, Chagalls and Pechsteins as the leaders of the Art of the future. Features of degeneracy are already apparent, as, for instance, with Schwalbach, who dares representing Jesus as flat footed and bow legged.
- Hanns Heinz Ewers erzählt in einer Novelle von einem Kinde, das so widernatürlich veranlagt war, an Elephantiasis-Kranken ein besonderes Wohlgefallen zu finden. In gleichem Zustande befindet sich heute unsere „europäische Geistigkeit“, welche durch jüdische Federn die Kokoschkas, Chagalls, Pechsteins usw. als die Führer der Malerei der Zukunft anbetet. Wo darüber hinaus sich Form hervorwagt, trägt auch sie die mestizenhaft-jüdischen Züge, wie etwa bei Schwalbach, der bereits Jesus als plattfüßig und krummbeinig darzustellen wagt. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 299 - 1930
- Not in the name of a necessary protection of the white race did the European break into China, but for the benefit of the Jewish-mercantile greed for profit. He thus dishonored himself, destroying a whole civilization, provoking justified indignation. China fights for its myth, for its race, and its ideals, as does the renewal-movement in Germany against the mercantile race that rules all stock markets and the actions of most governments.
- Denn nicht im Namen eines notwendigen Schutzes der weißen Rasse ist der Europäer in China eingebrochen, sondern zugunsten jüdisch-händlerischer Profitsucht. Er hat somit sich selbst entehrt, eine ganze Kulturwelt zerfetzt und in gerechte Empörung gegen sich gebracht. China kämpft um seinen Mythus, um seine Rasse und seine Ideale ebenso, wie die große Erneuerungsbewegung in Deutschland gegen die Händlerrasse, die heute alle Börsen beherrscht und die Handlungen fast aller Regierenden bestimmt., Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 653 - 1930
- For this reason Jesus, in spite
of all Christian churches, signifies a pivotal point in our history. He
became the god of the Europeans, yet, not seldom did he appear in a
repellent distortion.
If the concentrated feeling of personality which built Gothic cathedrals and inspired a Rembrandt portrait penetrated more clearly into the consciousness of the general public, a new wave of culture would begin. But the prerequisite for this is the overcoming of the former statutory values of the "Christian" churches. - Deshalb bedeutet Jesus trotz aller christlichen Kirchen einen Angelpunkt unserer Geschichte. Deshalb wurde er der Gott der Europäer, wenn auch bis auf heute in nicht selten abstoßender Verzerrung. Könnte dies geballt vorhandene Gefühl der Persönlichkeit, das gotische Dome baute, das ein Bildnis Rembrandts schuf, deutlicher in das Bewusstsein der Allgemeinheit dringen, es hübe eine neue Welle unserer gesamten Gesittung an. Die Voraussetzung dazu ist aber die Überwindung der bisherigen Werksetzungen der "christlichen" Kirchen. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 391 - 1930
- In the idea of personality, the metaphysical problem is condensed. Every man feels a number of formative possibilities within himself. He knows that many of his dispositions change and that other capabilities have enfolded or can enfold. Lacking mental freedom can only exist if there is the possibility of mental freedom at all and in every new deed he recognizes himself again. He knows that the structural lines of his essential nature remain the same. He sees himself as facing an apparently unconditional law. This inescapability from oneself and, again, the certainty of being a self, is the cause that recognizing the freedom of will as well as unyielding laws can at the same time dwell in a man. Jesus was of the opinion that a thistle could not bear fruit, thus, an evil man can not do good works.
- In der Idee der Persönlichkeit verdichtet sich gleichsam das metaphysische Problem in einem Punkte. Jeder Mensch fühlt eine Menge plastischer Möglichkeiten in sich, weiß, dass manche Anlage verkümmert, dass sich andere Fähigkeiten entfaltet haben oder entfalten können. Und Unfreiheit bedingt Freiheit doch erkennt er in jeder neuen Tat sich selbst wieder. Er weiß, dass die Baulinien seines Wesens die gleichen bleiben, er sieht sich scheinbar einem unbedingten Gesetz gegenüber. Diese Unentrinnbarkeit vor sich selbst und doch wiederum die Gewissheit, ein Selbst zu sein, ist die Ursache, warum die Anerkennung der Freiheit des Willens und die Anerkennung des unbeugsamen Gesetzes in einem Menschen beisammen häufen. Jesus meinte, eine Distel könne keine Feigen tragen, also auch kein böser Mensch gute Werke tun. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 392 - 1930
- It is a significant world historical fact: however religious the Europeans of earlier times were, however much a religious longing is again occurring (admittedly still concealed for many, but nevertheless in many places deep), however many mystics and devout men the Occident produced: absolute religious genius or completely autocratic embodiments of the divine in one man, is something that Europe still does not possess. However richly talented, however powerful and surpassing in forms it was, until the present, we have still not created a religious form worthy of us: neither Francis of Assisi, Luther, Goethe nor Dostoyevsky are founders of a religion for us.
- Es ist eine weltgeschichtlich bedeutsame Tatsache: so religiös der Europäer früherer Zeiten war, so sehr auch heute wieder, zwar noch verborgen für viele, aber doch vielerorts ein tiefes religiöses suchen vor sich geht, so viele Mystiker und fromme Männer das Abendland auch gezeugt hat: absolute religiöse Genies, d. h. vollkommen eigengesetzliche Verkörperungen des Göttlichen in einem Menschen hat Europa noch nicht besessen. So reich begabt, so gewaltig im Formen und Überwinden es war: eine unser würdige Religionsform haben wir dadurch bis auf heute nicht schaffen können: weder ein Franz von Assisi noch ein Luther noch ein Goethe noch ein Dostojewski bedeuten für uns Religionsgründer. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 441 - 1930
- From the description of Jesus one can select very different features. His personality often makes its appearance as soft and pitying, then, again, bluff and rough. But it is always supported by inward fire. It was in the interest of the Roman church, with its lust for power, to represent subservient humility as the essence of Christ in order to create as many servants as possible for this motivated "ideal". To correct this representation is a further ineradicable requirement of the German movement for renewal. Jesus appears to us today as self-confident master in the best and highest sense of the word.
- Man kann aus den Schilderungen über Jesus sehr verschiedene Züge herauslesen seine Persönlichkeit tritt oft weich und mitleidend, dann wieder schroff und rauh, immer aber von innerem Feuer getragen, hervor. Es lag im Interesse der herrschsüchtigen römischen Kirche, die unterwürfige Demut als das Wesen Christi hinzustellen, um sich möglichst viele an diesem "Ideal" heruntergezüchtete Diener zu verschaffen. Jesus erscheint uns heute als selbstbewusster Herr im besten und höchsten Sinne des Wortes. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 604 - 1930
- His [Paul] false humility was coupled with a desire for world dominion. He displayed an overheated “religious” longing as with all Orientals. He desired to march at the head of the rebels. Such was the Pauline falsification of the great figure of Christ. John has interpreted Jesus in an ingenious way. He recognized that here one was dealing with an anti Jewish spirit hostile to the old testament. But this has been covered over by a Jewish tradition which was linked with the spiritual waste products of the Hellenic world shaped anew in the Roman church. Europe has tried to renew, in vain, this Oriental church. Europe's reverence of its "Christianity" has condemned all attempts to failure. But the "Christian" churches are a monstrous, [partly] deliberate and [partly] unconscious falsification of the simple happy message of the kingdom of heaven within us. They are a falsification of the child of god, and of service for the good, and of passionate defence against evil.
- Die falsche Demut gepaart mit dem Schielen auf Weltherrschaft, ein brünstiges, wie bei allen Orientalen "religiöses" Verlangen, hier selbst an der Spitze der Rebellierenden zu marschieren, war die Paulinische Verfälschung der großen Gestalt Christi. Johannes hat Jesus genial gedeutet, aber seine Erkenntnis, es hier mit einem antijüdischen, dem Alten Testament feindlichen Geist zu tun zu haben, ist von der jüdischen Überlieferung überwuchert worden, die sich mit den geistigen Abfallerzeugnissen der hellenistischen Welt verband zur Neuformung in der Römischen Kirche. Europa hat diese morgenländische Kirche vergeblich zu erneuern getrachtet. Die bisherige Ehrfurcht vor ihrer "Christlichkeit" hat auch alle Versuche dazu zum Misserfolg verurteilt. Die "christlichen" Kirchen sind aber eine ungeheuerliche, bewusste und unbewusste Umfälschung der schlichten, frohen Botschaft vom Himmelreich inwendig in uns, von der Gotteskindschaft, vom Dienst für das Gute und von der flammenden Abwehr gegen das Böse. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 606 - 1930
- Anti-Semitism is the unifying element of the reconstruction of Germany.
- Quoted in "Famous Trials: Cases that Made History" - Page 104 - by Frank McLynn - 1995
- Germany will regard the Jewish question as solved only after the very last Jew has left the greater German living space... Europe will have its Jewish question solved only after the very last Jew has left the continent.
- Quoted in "World Politics in Our Time" - Page 375 - by David C. Jordan - 1970
- I didn't say that the Jews are inferior. I didn't even maintain they are a race. I merely saw that the mixture of different cultures didn't work.
- January 12, 1946. Quoted in "Nuremberg Diary" - Page 120 - by G. M. Gilbert - History – 1995
- If the distinction provided by Jesus' words: Give unto god, what is god's, and unto Caesar what is Caesar's! is carried through, then other necessary intrusions by the national state into the domain of church creeds can be completely avoided.
- Ist diese Trennung nach dem Jesuswort "Gebt Gott was Gottes ist und dem Kaiser was des Kaisers ist" durchgeführt worden, so werden die sonst notwendigen Eingriffe des Nationalstaates auf kirchliches Bekenntnisgebiet ganz unterbleiben können. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 609 - 1930
- Now we may certainly also say
that the love of Jesus Christ has been the love of one who is conscious of
his aristocracy of soul and of his strong personality. Jesus sacrificed
himself as a master, not as a servant. ... And also Martin Luther knew
only too well, what he said, when shortly before his death he wrote
"These three words, free – Christian – German, are to the pope and the Roman court nothing but mere poison, death, devil and hell. They can neither suffer, see nor hear them. Nothing else will come of it, that is certain." (Against the papacy donated by the devil in Rome, 1645) - Und jetzt dürfen wir wohl auch
sagen, dass die Liebe Jesu Christi die Liebe eines seines Seelenadels und
seiner starken Persönlichkeit bewussten Mannes gewesen ist. Jesus opferte
sich als Herr, nicht als Knecht. ... Und auch Martin Luther wusste nur zu
gut, was er sagte, als er kürz vor seinem Tode schrieb:
"Diese drei Worte, frei — christlich — deutsch, sind dem Papst und römischen Hofe nichts denn eitel Gift, Tod, Teufel und Hölle: er kann sie nicht leiden, weder sehen noch hören: da wird kein anderes aus, das ist gewiss." ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 622 - 1930
- Herder once demanded that the religion dedicated to Jesus should become a religion of Jesus. This was what Chamberlain strove for. A completely free man who disposed inwardly over the entire culture of our times, he has shown the deepest sensitivity for the superhuman simplicity of Christ. He represented Jesus as what he had once appeared to be: a mediator between man and god.
- Herder forderte einst, dass die Religion an Jesus zu einer Religion Jesu werde. Gerade dies erstrebte Chamberlain. Ein ganz freier Mann, der über die Gesamtkultur unserer Zeit innerlich verfügt, hat das feinste Gefühl für die große übermenschliche Einfalt Christi gezeigt und Jesus als den dargestellt, als der er einst erschienen war: als Mittler zwischen Mensch und Gott. ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Page 623 - 1930
- We let 50,000 Jewish intellectuals get across the border. Just as I wanted Lebensraum for Germany, I thought Jews should have a Lebensraum for themselves - outside of Germany.
- December 15, 1945. Quoted in "Nuremberg Diary" - Page 72 - by G. M. Gilbert - History - 1995
- As I said, I am grateful that you do take notes, but I do wish that you take them accurately and not misrepresent my rather complex theories and reasoning. After all, I am a philosopher and a student, and my thoughts may be complex. If at any time you don't follow me, please interrupt and I will explain further. I have to smile when some of the defendants say in court that they never read my books or works, because it is a reflection on their inabilities to follow a philosophic trend of thought, which to the common man is much too deep and profound. It is difficult for one to express important opinions and theories scientifically and at the same time use simple construction. However, I have always tried to be as lucid as possible and I never strived to make my work or writings beyond the comprehension of the normally intelligent man.
- To Leon Goldensohn, June 8, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
- The tribunal here and your American newspapers talk so much about our sharp Nazi methods, but do you realize that within the past year, since the defeat of Germany, 1 million Germans have been evicted from what was originally German territory and which has now been given to Poland? No League of Nations or other body intervened.
- To Leon Goldensohn, June 8, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
Misattributed
- The Myth is the Myth of the Blood, which, under the sign of the Swastika, released the World Revolution. It is the Awakening of the Soul of the Race, which, after a period of long slumber, victoriously put an End to Racial Chaos.
- Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - 1930 (in front of the actual text, not by Rosenberg himself)
About Rosenberg
- If Rosenberg was to decide ... we would only have rite, thing, myth and such kind of swindle.
- Hermann Göring ("... [wenn Rosenberg das Sagen hätte] ... gäbe es nur noch Kult, Thing, Mythos und ähnlichen Schwindel"; source: Goebbels, Ralf Georg Reuth; Piper; ISBN 3-492-03183-8, p. 304)
- I always had the impression that Rosenberg embodied German mysticism. I felt that he belonged to the Romantic era and that there was only a slight whiff of modernity about him. There was nothing unified or organized about the man. Now I want to say something terrible, which is not for the trial. This pure theoretician carries the main guilt of all those who sit here on the defendants' bench, although he carries that guilt to a certain extent innocently. In my opinion, he had a tremendous influence on Hitler, during the period when Hitler still did some thinking - later that stopped. I mean about between the years 1923 and 1928 Rosenberg influenced Hitler. Let me explain. Hitler was a man who lived in the present and was a tremendously active individual. Rosenberg's importance exists because his ideas, which were only theoretical, became in the hands of Hitler a reality and actually transpired.
- Hans Fritzsche to Leon Goldensohn, May 24, 1946
- Rosenberg was completely areligious. That was the deepest of his defects. Rosenberg has a one-track mind. He is a pedant. One gathers the impression certainly that he never obtained knowledge from his surroundings, which would be necessary in order to form new philosophic ideas, but he obtained his ideas from books and from his own mind, which was not subject to the influences of reality. Rosenberg had less influence among the old National Socialists than one would believe. But among the youth his ideas played a great part because they were utilized in every school. The tragic thing is that Rosenberg's fantastic theories were actually put into practice.
- Hans Fritzsche to Leon Goldensohn, May 24, 1946
- A party philosopher who was interested in historical research and had no idea of the violence which his philosophy was inciting in the twentieth century.
- It was Rosenberg, the intellectual high priest of the "master race," who provided the doctrine of hatred which gave the impetus for the annihilation of Jewry, and who put his infidel theories into practice against the Eastern Occupied Territories. His woolly philosophy also added boredom to the long list of Nazi atrocities.
- Robert H. Jackson
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