For those who prefer the printed page…
To all those who prefer the printed page, Black Front Press are producing a published collection of some of my translated articles: Germany on the Precipice: Left Alternatives to Fascism, 1904-1949.
The book collects a good chunk of many of the works which I’ve translated and posted since the blog’s inception. I won’t be removing any of the included articles from the blog – they’ll still be available here in electronic format for anyone who wants to read them. But there is a charm to physical media which digital content lacks, in my opinion, so for anybody who enjoys the blog and who prefers the weight of a book in their hands, the Black Front Press website will have more details:
BY the first half of the twentieth century, many European countries had entered a state of turmoil and few had become as dangerous and unpredictable as Germany. As the old Empire began to falter and the nation gradually fell into the clutches of the Weimar Republic, a dark shadow began to cast its length across the entire continent and once the nationalists had started to form alliances with the ruling class more drastic solutions were called for at home. These rare essays, pamphlets and manifestos feature a variety of leading Strasserites, communists, National Bolsheviks, socialists, feminists and various other anti-capitalist elements who took a defiant stand against the rise of totalitarianism and the increasing threat it posed to the German people…
The book is 175 pages long, with a cover by F. Albanese, and costs 20 Euros. Black Front Press can be contacted regarding purchases via email. The book is a compilation of the following articles, so the contents is fairly eclectic, running the gamut from the pre-WWI ‘national labor’ ideas of the original National Socialists in Austria-Hungary through to some of the emerging communist and conservative ideologies of post-WWII East and West Germany:
- The ‘Trautenau Programme’ of the original German Workers’ Party (Alois Ciller);
- The ‘Iglau Programme’ of the German Workers’ Party (Walter Riehl & Rudolf Jung);
- The ‘Vienna Programme’ of the German National Socialist Workers’ Party (Rudolf Jung);
- The Programme of the German Socialist Party (Alfred Brunner);
- ‘Nation and Working-class’ (Heinrich Laufenberg & Fritz Wolffheim);
- ‘The League of Communists’ (Heinrich Laufenberg & Fritz Wolffheim);
- ‘An Unpublished Letter Calling Hitler to Order’ (Gottfried Feder);
- The Draft ‘Hanover Programme’, aka The Strasser Programme (Gregor Strasser, Otto Strasser & Josef Goebbels);
- A Proposed Revision to the NSDAP Programme by the ‘Social-Revolutionary Left of the NSDAP’ (Karl Otto Paetel);
- ‘The Socialists leave the NSDAP!’ (Otto Strasser);
- ‘The Communist Party of Germany’s ‘National Bolshevist’ Programme’ (Central Committee of the KPD);
- ‘Clear Fronts!’ (Karl Otto Paetel);
- ‘A National Socialist Feminist Writes to Hitler’ (Sophie Rogge Börner);
- ‘The Manifesto of the Black Front’ (Otto Strasser);
- Speech on ‘Possedism’ at the Bonn am Rhein Whitsunday Celebrations (Fritz Kloppe);
- Extracts from ‘Der Possedismus’ (Fritz Kloppe);
- ‘Right or Left?’ (Hans Zehrer);
- Introduction to the ‘National Bolshevist Manifesto’ (Karl Otto Paetel);
- ‘The Marburg Speech’ (Franz von Papen);
- ‘The Manifesto of the National Committee for a Free Germany’ (National Committee for a Free Germany);
- The ‘Ahlen Programme’ (CDU Zone Committee); and,
- ‘Is There a Special German Road to Socialism?’ (Anton Ackermann)
Incidentally, on the topic of books, somebody wrote to me several months back informing me that a copy of my translation of Karl Otto Paetel’s National Bolshevist Manifesto is being sold on websites like Lulu and Amazon. I’d like to state that I don’t have anything to do with this. I wasn’t asked for permission about printing and selling the Manifesto, nor am I making any money off of it. It actually looks like a decently put-together print, and I don’t especially mind if people want to buy it – you can purchase a copy here, for example – but just keep in mind that I’m not receiving anything out of the deal. (A free copy would be nice). From what I’ve seen, the person producing it was at least decent enough (or perhaps just lazy enough?) to leave my introduction, notations, etc. within the book, including the URL of this blog. Silver linings.
Finally, some housekeeping: The translation of Rudolf Jung’s Der nationale Sozialismus is about 70% complete, and should finally be finished within the next few months; outside commitments have slowed it down a little recently. For the rest of the year, I have an idea of what material I’ll probably be focusing on, but don’t want to too firmly commit myself to anything yet. Articles on National Socialist corporatism, more völkisch-feminist essays, content from the German-Nationals (DNVP) and the Stahlhelm, and some theory from the nationalist wing of German Social-Democracy are a few of the things I’m currently looking at working on. Maybe also some more of Ernst von Salomon’s work, too, since it’s always enjoyable to work with.
Thank you for reading – I may not always be very communicative (I am awful when it comes to checking and answering emails, for example), but I do appreciate the kind words and attention this blog gets. It’s a relief to know that others are as interested as I am in a niche subject like esoteric ideological writing from almost a century ago.
– Bogumil
Bogumil,
This is outstanding news! I honestly felt that you were going to make arrangements for an Anthology at some point. Everything which you have posted on the ARPLAN Blog is crucial if we are ever going to make sense of the historical Reality of the previous Century. Today, we can now safely argue that the Old 20th Century is not over yet in this “New 20th Century.”
Regarding the National Bolshevik Manifesto, yes, I too had noticed that somebody went out of their way to have self-published copies available for sale. The accessibility is far more important. People need to know their history and that there are other possibilities, other alternatives, other ways of living.
As for the future Blog Posts, I will be looking forward to them, and I totally understand that you are preoccupied but it is to be expected.
Signed,
-DAH
Thanks, really appreciate it. Also appreciate your interest in the blog, people seem to really enjoy the effort you put into your comments and the extra insight you have on certain topics.
You’ll no doubt be interested in some of the other stuff I’ll be posting over the next few months, if everything goes well some of the material I hope to put up is economically-oriented, which I know is up your alley.
I am looking forward to those future posts, Bogumil.
Speaking of which, if anybody is interested in my research, I have recently unearthed some archaeological and anthropological evidence pertaining to the existence of Ancient Command Economies among the Ancients and a Command Economy in the US dating back to the Civil War (and might still be around to this day). These Ancient Command Economies, based on what I have been able to piece back together, may have been suppressed during the Cold War for political reasons.
Currently, I am investigating them and right now trying to figure out whether we can learn anything from the Ancients.
As for the other Command Economy from the American Civil War, I should point out that, for the record, I am not commenting here to promote any religion because there are plenty of other places on the World Wide Web for them. This is extremely important because the Command Economy in question just so happens to be among the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” otherwise known as the “Mormon Church.” For there is an Academic Journal Article from 1979, the year of the 1979 Energy Crisis and the rise of the Ayatollah’s Iran, which caught my attention.
Has anybody heard of this Journal Article, “The Mormon Church as a Central Command System” by any chance?
Here’s the link: (https://www.jstor.org/stable/29768951).
Just be aware that, if anybody is interested, the journal article is literally locked behind a “$49 USD” Paywall.
How it’s going, Bogumil? A belated Merry Christmas to you all! It’s nice to see you getting the recognition you deserve finally. It will be interesting to see how the next couple decades will turn out, but I think we will at some point reach a event horizon where all of our old ideas will become obselete. I hope I live to see it.
Thankyou! Things are looking a bit dark at the moment if you ask me, but hopefully there’s a shift for the better soon. “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
PS: Earlier this week, I mentioned about unearthing Post-1945 archeological and anthropological evidence of Ancient Command Economies. These Ancient Command Economies were scattered across our planet and had existed among the Ancients for millennia.
Not only do they provide clues as to why they all came into Being and what led to their demises, I am beginning to figure out why such factors are Synchronized with the Liberal Capitalists’ having every ‘Incentive’ in their ideological playbook to prevent Western Civilization from realizing its Authentic Dasein in Life. I say this because the evidence had actually been suppressed by Liberal Capitalists for political reasons during the Cold War.
The most noteworthy from South America is the “Inca Empire,” which lasted from the 15th Century until it was conquered by the Spanish Conquistadors led by Pizarro by the late 16th Century.
Economy of the Inca Empire: (http://www.discover-peru.org/inca-economy-society/).
The “Ancient Minoans” of Crete, and the “Mycenaeans” of Ancient Greece. I find it fitting that economic anthropologists (yes, that is in fact a legitimate field among the social sciences) and Dr. Karl Polanyi referred to them as a “Palace Economy” and maintained that while the concept of Currency (as Western Civilization understands it) did not exist, there was an equivalent in the forms of “Gift-Giving” and “Gift-Receiving.” Ironically, I found it highly peculiar that it bears a few similarities to my own understandings of Currency.
The Mycenaean Palatial Economy: Making The Most Of The Gaps In The Evidence: (https://www.jstor.org/stable/44687105?seq=1).
The “Chosŏn Dynasty of Korea,” which ruled from the 14th Century until the Imperial Japanese invasion in 1910, had a Command Economy known in Japanese History (in the “Warring States Period”) which was arguably the historical influence behind the DPRK’s “Songun Policy” and the “Juche” Idea. Chosŏn Korea, whenever it found itself at war with the Japanese and Chinese, sometimes implemented Market Reforms (an historical lesson understood on both sides of the 38th Parallel between North and South, especially more so for North Korea).
Curiously, the Chosŏn Civil Service is not well-known for inventing the concept of Food Delivery Services (which is very handy to have in an actual war or the Coronavirus Pandemic). The first recorded food delivery was a “Raengmyŏn” (the South Koreans refer to it as “Naengmyeon”), which is buckwheat noodle soup, in “July 1768.”
The Economic History of Korea: (https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-economic-history-of-korea/)
Korean History of Food Delivery: (http://www.kocis.go.kr/eng/webzine/201811/sub03.html)
For Centuries, Massive Meals Amazed Visitors to Korea: (https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/history-of-korean-food)
I should note that the US has yet to sign the proposed Peace Treaty with the DPRK and that the North Koreans are still waiting for a cessation of hostilities against the Americans, more than seventy years since the start of the Korean War. An end to the Korean War actually has its benefits for both the Koreans and the Americans. The only question on my mind are the Japanese on the one hand and the Chinese and Russians on the other,