And a Happy New Year from ARPLAN
For Christmas this year ARPLAN presents two brief articles from 1930s Germany, each exploring the celebration of Christmas from a Germanic, völkisch-socialist perspective. The first is a 1935 piece by Jakob Wilhelm Hauer, an academic Indologist and religious expert and the leader of the ‘neopagan’ German Faith Movement (Deutsche Glaubenbewegung, DGB). The second is an earlier, 1930 essay by Alfons Hitzler, a former brewer and industrial worker and the NSDAP Kreisleiter for Plauen, Saxony. In each article the author describes certain ceremonial aspects of the German celebration of Christmas – the Christmas tree, the lighting of candles, the veneration of the ‘child of light’ – with quiet reverence, tying them back not so much to the Christian religious doctrine which they ostensibly represent, but rather to key facets of the Germanic racial tradition and the “German soul.” Despite their authorship, neither article is overtly anti-Christian in tone. Hauer’s DGB was a federation of various paganist and Nordicist organizations, ‘German-believing’ communities (deutschgläubige Gemeinden), and ‘freethinking’ Protestant groups, with their overarching concern being that certain key features of Christian theology and religious practice (most particularly that of the figure of Christ) be divested of their ‘Eastern-Semitic’ character and reincorporated instead into a new faith tradition more suitable to German blood, spirit, and soul; this aspect of the Faith Movement worldview is reflected in the conclusion of Hauer’s article, where the author promises the “deepening” of the celebration of Christmas rather than “the naked renunciation of Christian tradition.” Alfons Hitzler is a somewhat more obscure figure than Hauer, and although his article is more overt in its defense of mainstream Christianity (he specifically criticizes the “anti-Christian preaching” of Social-Democracy), Hitzler did have “Gottgläubige” inclinations – a term used in National Socialist and völkisch circles to describe those who rejected Germany’s established religious denominations without rejecting a general belief in God, Christ, or in some other form of ‘higher power’. Like Hauer, Hitzler also seems to advocate a Christmas celebration oriented around the German Volk rather than any higher concern for humanity’s salvation, a position which places him among the ranks of the more religiously radical segments of the NSDAP. I hope that readers enjoy these articles, and that you all enjoy a safe and happy Christmas season.
Christmas – Yulefest
By Jakob Wilhelm Hauer
Published 21 December, 1935 in
völkisch newspaper Reichswart,1 vol. 16, no.51
Christmas – Yulefest has a special place in the cycle of the year. Yule-solstice, that ancient Indo-Germanic celebration of the victory of light, of the birth of the young sun-god and the new year, requires a ceremony outdoors in the forest or on a quiet hill, where the deep winter night surrounds us or where the soul expands under the tree of light that is the starry sky. It makes sense to decorate with lights a fir tree, one perhaps covered deeply in snow, as a worldly-human response to the shimmering of the eternal stars. Currents of cosmic connectedness pervade our soul. And when we see the solstice fires flaring up over upon the neighboring heights, greeting ours throughout the night, we know that we are one with all of those celebrating among the Volk, and with those kindled hearts who have borne the light of the High Spirit and the love for Volk and German territory through the millennia of our Teutonic-German history. The German youth movement has discovered anew such a ‘Christmas’ [‘Weihnacht’] and has learned these celebrations out of a sense of deep emotion for such realities. These celebrations are among the most treasured memories of our lives. Today they should be the common property of all those who set out to search for something new. But such celebrations outdoors are only for the young, and for a few steadfast old ones.
Christmas is also a family celebration. It is impossible for us to imagine children who are not standing within the protective circle of the family under the dazzling tree of lights2 on Christmas Eve [am heiligen Abend] in order to there greet the ‘child of light’ in the radiance of their own joy. What doesn’t merge together at such a celebration: the children’s solemn joy at the tree of lights and their jubilation over the gifts; the older ones’ remembrances of childhood, which bring the rhythm of the generations to life for us so vividly; the mysterious turn of the year, when the snow is falling quietly outside or when storms are blustering, storms in which gods and spirits once swept out in order to bless the land with fruitful mystery; the knowledge that millions are celebrating with us within the sacred circle of the family? The inner value of this circle comes close to consecrating us. The soul thus imbues a goodness and a capaciousness which embraces others. In active love we give thanks for the benevolence which has blessed the world with great and kind people who came from the eternal depths and gave their Volk and their world a new light and a new life. All of this must be harmonized together in such a celebration of ‘Christmas’ – nobody should rob us of this good German word – as a ceremony of joy and goodwill towards all who need us. For a Christmas which is not also an opportunity for us to make others happy is like a Yulefest without snow.
The arrangement of this celebration must start at its center, with the child. Our children are also ‘children of light’, living symbols of the young god of sun and seasons who was the ‘Christ Child’ in the Christian millennium of our history. Child and mother are joyful tidings [Frohbotschaft] from the Eternal, the great signs of its benevolence. The tree, however, which we decorate with lights and perhaps festoon with red-cheeked apples from our garden, directs us towards the ever-expanding mystery of that life which is perpetually new to the world and to human goodness and human greatness. The German soul will not trivialize the celebration of Christmas through naked renunciation of Christian tradition, but will instead deepen it in its divine breadth and fullness. That is exactly why the symbolism for this celebration must be quite simple, as well as the words spoken, and the music. The source from which such a celebration springs is a childishly-moved soul.
German Christmas
By Alfons Hitzler
Published 23 December, 1930, in
Der Freiheitskampf,3 vol.1 no.122.
“The countenances of the hungry and the freezing are weakened and troubled, and those who wish to aid them are obliged not to deceive the despairing nor to comfort them with empty phrases, but to take up the fight against the present circumstances and to try to win over those who are suffering.”
So wrote the Volkszeitung für das Vogtland4 in its Christmas message of 24 December 1923, issue no.298, which finished up as a rallying-call and battle-cry for the proletariat. Thus it was in those days, when the majority of the German Volk were forced to make the distressing discovery that inflation had robbed them of all their accumulated labor power – their savings. Millions of German folk-comrades found themselves in abject poverty, and in desperation thousands put an end to their lives. Christmas, the celebration of love, was just around the corner. Memories rose up out of the days of childhood. People drew new courage to face life from the past. Inspired by an unshakeable faith in the future, millions began anew the struggle for life.
Full of hope, the world looked to the peace-heralding angel of Locarno, and Germany in particular to the Dawes Plan with its promises of bread.
“It is a matter of deciding the immediate future of the economy, the future of the German Volk.”
Social-Democracy saw in this plan the guarantor of life, and preached the safeguarding of peace. Heaven on Earth was promised to those in despair, and a better future to the hungry and the freezing.
In spite of the Young Plan, the masses today stand disappointed by the fact that the army of unemployed has increased twentyfold since then; that the achievements of Marxist and bourgeois statesmanship are bankruptcies and foreclosures, twenty-thousand suicides a year, hunger, hardship, poverty, misery, the brutality of the despairing, murder, and heartlessness. The wretchedness of the entire system is evident in the Brüning-Wirth government’s practiced brutality and in its ruthless exploitation of the productive Volk, and in the inflammatory, anti-Christian preaching of the Social-Democracy standing by its side. The latter has bewitched the masses with fine speeches, has disappointed the despairing, has magnified our poverty and misery, and has thus taken on a debt that must not go unpunished. Bitterness rises greatly on account of the wicked deeds which have exposed a Volk to annihilation and which have sparked a struggle of all against all.
Christmas is round the corner. The Christmas tree candles are not alight yet, and so it is difficult to banish the strain of the present from one’s heart. But now we all wish to shake hands in spirit and to gather round the Christmas tree, reflecting on the fact that this celebration of love is a truly German festival. Not all of Christendom celebrates as we do. The early Christians did not celebrate the birth of the Savior with any solemnity at all. The celebration of the date of Jesus’s birth is also not founded on Christian belief per se, for this day plays no role in ecclesiastical dogmatics. The figure of the Christ Child is an invention of the German mind, an expression of our tender inner life. The Christmas tree derives from an old Germanic custom of decorating the home with sprigs of fir at Yulefest. The candles on the Christmas tree can be attributed to an ancient mystical love of fire. The glow of the flame is, for us, a symbol of purity. The old Germanic Yulefest was able to merge so intimately with the figure of Christ because the German perceives Jesus less as the founder of a new religious doctrine than as the singular manifestation of perfect spiritual purity. Thus, for the true German, an idea which harbors pure eternal values is closer and greater to us than the materialistic revenge-tendencies of the present era.
The German celebration of love is Christmas. Not that love which the newspapers speak of today, not even pacifist love, but love which can also hate. We do not love humanity, but we love our German Volk and their nature with all of our heart. But we also hate those who contaminate our Volk and drive them to despair. We hate the enemies of our nature, but we love the humblest street-sweeper of our blood as a brother. All those who are disillusioned, hungry, and freezing are joining together in recognition of their common need, in order to shoulder their common lot in common love and to fight for a better future. Someday the day of light and German freedom will come. A German Christmas. When we sit by the Christmas tree, we will think of the words of the German poet Walter Flex, who fell in the Great War:
“I want you to be allowed to love,
For love is what is German and true –
With love we wish to crown
Each and every German servant.”
Translator’s Notes
1. The Reichswart was a weekly newspaper owned and edited by longtime völkisch-socialist activist Ernst Graf zu Reventlow. Originally appearing in October 1920 and published fairly consistently until 1943, the Reichswart technically represented a political line independent of official National Socialist publications; Reventlow until 1927 had been a member of the German Völkisch Freedom Party, and after joining the NSDAP he was associated with the party’s left-wing and was regarded as not having the most amicable relationship with Hitler. Reventlow was a prominent member of the German Faith Movement after its establishment, and from its 31 December 1933 edition onwards the Reichswart advertised itself as the “Organ of the German Faith Movement,” including a supplement dedicated to the Movement’s news and ideology within its pages.
2. “Tree of lights” – in German, “Lichterbaum,” a word sometimes used synonymously with “Christmas tree” (“Weihnachtsbaum”).
3. Der Freiheitskampf (“The Struggle for Freedom”) was the NSDAP’s official party-organ for Gau Saxony. Published daily, it appeared from 1 August, 1930 to 8 May, 1945.
4. The Volkszeitung für das Vogtland was a Plauen, Saxony-based Social-Democratic publication.
Bogumil,
Have you ever wondered if other people visit the ARPLAN Blog just to gather research or historical references? Although there are people who do in fact read and disseminate your translations of “National Bolshevik Manifesto” and “Der nationale Sozialismus,” the idea of somebody finding inspiration on ARPLAN might seem fantastical to me until recently.
A while back, I recalled mentioning somewhere in an earlier ARPLAN post that one of the video games that I would play every few months or so is called “Collapse: A Political Simulator” by Kremlingames, a Russian cooperative and game developer. Set in a fictional former Soviet Republic from 1992 to 2004, the goal is to win power in the newly-established Parliament and reshape the country in the image of a political party. Late last month, the developer introduced a new update that added some interesting features like status buffs/debuffs, party coalitions and alliances, modding tools, and new entries on all seven playable parties in the in-game encyclopedia. The developer added enough lore on the former Soviet Republic to make me wonder if they were familiar with the ARPLAN Blog by any chance.
One of the parties that piqued my curiosity is the “National People’s Party (NPP),” whose ranks are split between National Bolsheviks and Pan-Germanic Socialists. The developer described the party as emerging from Soviet-era hardliners opposed to the Economic and Social Liberalization of their Soviet Republic during Perestroika and Glasnost. They were especially critical of the pro-Neoliberal factions within their Soviet Republic’s Communist Party (known in-game as the “Communist Party of the Republic, CPR”). When the Soviet Union collapsed, these pro-Neoliberal factions would later form their own parties (“Conservative Party,” “Liberal Party,” “Social-Democratic Party,” and “Socialist Party”) to vie for power in the new Parliamentary Democracy. The NPP believed that it was time to gain power through the electoral process, except the party’s Left-Wing and Right-Wing both have conflicting ideas on what to do after taking power. Thus, the developer wrote that the Left-Wing coalesced around the legacies of Ernst Niekisch and Gregor Strasser, whereas the Right-Wing chose Otto Ernst Remer and Otto Strasser. How the player determines the party’s alignments will affect whether the Left-Wing rejoins the Communist Party and whether the Right-Wing joins the Fascist Corporatist party, the “Blue Guards (BGs).”
I found the idea of having the NPP divided over the legacy of the Strasser brothers to be a peculiar design choice, especially since the party is already split between National Bolsheviks and Pan-Germanic Socialists. It makes sense in a gameplay context because the party was always the hardest one to play as, but the difficulty is now higher due to new status debuffs on party unity and poorer relations with other parties and foreign governments. Another status buff is the former Soviet Republic’s HDI (Human Development Index), which is its standards of living.
From a backstory and lore perspective, however, I feel that they had to have somehow known about the distinctions between the two Strasser brothers. Honestly, I have no idea if the developer knows about ARPLAN, but I know for a fact they are familiar with politics in the Soviet Union, Eastern Bloc, and the PRC. It would be kind of interesting either way to find out. Based on how the NPP’s Left and Right are both described through in-game events, there are two ARPLAN posts that lends credence to the idea that the developer is familiar with the Strasser brothers:
Visions of National Socialist Democracy, Part V: Strasser: https://arplan.org/2019/07/24/national-socialist-democracy-strasser/
Gregor Strasser’s ‘Thoughts About the Tasks of the Future’: https://arplan.org/2019/05/20/gregor-strasser-thoughts/#more-1300
Signed,
-DAH
PS: Usually, I play the Communist Party in “Collapse” because of their bonus gameplay features.
It is an unusual feature, but it’s factually accurate, so it shows they have good historical knowledge. The two brothers had differing interpretations of National Socialism (Gregor was a lot more ‘moderate’), something which Otto downplayed after Gregor’s death, when he began using his dead brother as a kind of propaganda tool.
Bogumil,
I was thinking the same thing as well about how Kremlingames portrayed the legacies of the Strasser brothers, Otto Ernst Remer, and Ernst Niekisch in Collapse as well as another game of theirs, Ostalgie: The Berlin Wall. In the latter game, the developer was already arriving at the conclusion that the Conservative Revolution, Pan-Germanic Socialism, and National Bolshevism were more at home in East Germany and the Eastern Bloc countries than in West Germany and the Western Bloc. It made sense there in the context of an East German playthrough, but Collapse recontextualizes that same legacy within a post-Soviet Republic that may or may not be on the eastern fringes of the German-speaking world.
True, the Strasser brothers did have differing views on what Pan-Germanic Socialism should be, even though both were in contact with Rudolf Jung at one point. I felt the developer made those distinctions clearer by factoring how their opposing perspectives affect the HDI (Human Development Index) of a fictitious former Soviet Republic trying to apply their ideas through NPP. A pro-Gregor NPP entails improving the country’s HDI, which fell significantly after the Soviet Union’s collapse. Meanwhile, a pro-Otto NPP can afford to keep HDI low in order to focus on protecting State and national interests (like combating Separatism, confronting NATO expansion, mitigating corruption and crime). The player loses political power and party popularity if they let the country deviate from either brother’s vision.
That design choice does raise some important questions. Should the country’s living standards improve rapidly or gradually? Should Pan-Germanic Socialism contribute to ongoing pursuits of Post-Capitalism by realizing a “Socialism of the 21st century” or is its version of Statism more aligned with Fascist Corporatism? Does Pan-Germanic Socialism have a vested interest in promoting Socialistic causes in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia? Where does the ideology stand on the former Yugoslavia, North Korea, China, Venezuela, post-Soviet Russia, these United States and its Empire of Liberty?
These questions, even if they are situated in 1990s-2000s politics, are still relevant for anyone who thinks that Pan-Germanic Socialism still has a chance in this century, Bogumil. The fundamental one overall remains constant: if a country somewhere in Eastern Europe decides to readopt Pan-Germanic Socialism for whatever reason, how would it govern itself politically, economically, and socially and why?
Signed,
-DAH