Folklore and Fascism: The Reich Institute for German Volkskunde (Folklore Studies in Translation) - Hardcover

Lixfeld, Hannjost

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0253335124 ISBN 13: 9780253335128

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2000

Synopsis

"Folklore and Fascism" offers a rare look at the genesis of the Reich Institute for German Folklore. When National Socialists came to power in 1933, the Institute presented the party with the means to coordinate the political and social orders. "Respectable" German folklorists willingly worked with the Nazis, paving the way for an inhuman concept of "volk" and nation. Lixfeld uncovers Nazi documents in archives of the former East Germany, exploding the myth of "two German folklores"-one of willing collaborators and one of unwitting scholars.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Folklore and Fascism explores the genesis of the Reich Institute for German Folklore during World War I and the time of the Weimar Republic. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, they recognized that such an organization could serve their purposes of coordinating the political and social orders. When the Nazis gave their support to the formation of the Institute, respected folklorists were swept up in this movement, which promised a realization of their dreams of a pan-German Folklore Center. Lixfeld discusses numerous folklorists in this volume, but special attention is paid to scholars such as John Meier and Adolf Spamer, who had long nurtured and promoted the idea of a Reichsinstitut but assumed an ambiguous stance in their dealings with the fascists. Lixfeld shows that two of the most powerful Nazi ideologists seized on the idea of such an institute and detailed plans to implement it. Alfred Rosenberg, the Commissioner for the Supervision of All Intellectual and World View Schooling and Education of the NSDAP, worked toward an advanced school that would help to implement the Reichsinstitut. Heinrich Himmler, who ran the rival SS Office of Ancestral Inheritance, was also involved in the plan to set up the Institute. Their purpose was always quite clear: the creation of a vehicle for disseminating the new National Socialist world-view. Lixfeld documents how ""respectable"" German folklorists willingly worked with the Nazis, paving the way for an inhuman concept of the ""volk"" and the nation. Nazi archival documents he uncovered in the former East Germany explode the myth of ""two German folklores"" - a folklore of willing Nazi collaborators and one of unwitting collaborators.

About the Author:

Hannjost Lixfeld is Akademischer Oberrat in the Department of Folklore at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau.

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0253335124
• ISBN 13: 9780253335128
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336
• Editor: Dow James R.