La nazionalizzazione delle masse: Simbolismo politico e movimenti di massa in Germania

by George L. Mosse

A lo largo del siglo XIX el nacionalismo alemán se transformó en una religión secular, una nueva forma de política que se manifestó en un mundo de mitos, símbolos, fiestas y ritos. Recorriendo la filosofía y las artes, la política y la estética, George L. Mosse traza el desarrollo histórico de dicha religión secular, así como de las cambiantes formas de la política de masas en Alemania que finalmente se precipitaron en la esencia del Nacional Socialismo. «Un estudio fascinante y original que culmina en lo que puede denominarse la “ética nacional” de Alemania en el tiempo del ascenso de Hitler al poder», Times Literary Supplement «Una aportación imprescindible en el campo del nacionalismo y del totalitarismo», American Historical Review

Genres: History, Germany, Politics, Nonfiction, Essays, European History, 19th Century

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

German-born American social and cultural historian.

Mosse authored 25 books on a variety of fields, from English constitutional law, Lutheran theology, to the history of fascism, Jewish history, and the history of masculinity.

He was perhaps best-known for his books and articles that redefined the discussion and interpretation of Nazism.

Reviews

[AC · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Mosse (pronounced Máh-zee) is perhaps responsible for the modern revolution in fascist studies, that began with the launching of the Journal of Contemporary History in 1980 (Mosse published a volume of memoirs a few years ago: http://tinyurl.com/2fgbuz8).

This is one of his earlier books, and it is seminal. Mosse often seems to speak ex cathedra, and so modern scholars may not always realize the deep learning and deep sensibility that his books contain; and it is also true that -- though he published in English - his prose still reeks of German, both in the sentence structure and in the paragraph structure -- so reading Mosse sometimes requires a bit of work. That said, the effort will repay itself in multiples.

Fascism, Mosse says, cannot be understood in terms of dogma, as it does not have a coherent doctrine [-- this, by the way, is incorrect; one of the best correctives to this view is: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...], but is instead more of an 'attitude'. A large part of this 'attitude' derives from the feelings engendered by rapid industrialization that all of the totalizing patterns and relations of our traditional, pre-industrial relations have been disrupted, and by the urgent desire to reintegrate oneself into the organic whole, the integral whole (from which we have been wrenched). Fascism is thus in this respect a revolt against modernity -- that is, against fragmentation, atomization, urbanism, cosmopolitanism (and its representatives…).

Since fascism, however, does not (or cannot) look to doctrine to accomplish this reintegration, it looks to action, which involves it in the politics of action, in drama, ritual, and liturgy -- whose tools include symbolism and myth. Thus, the Nazi 'kultur' operation was not simply a crass propagandistic vehicle for the cynical manipulation of the bourgeoisie-- but is a method, not unlike Christian liturgy (many of whose tokens it actually adopts; see below), for reintegrating (at an emotional and affectual level) the alienated individual.

Hence arises what Mosse calls "the aesthetics of politics" and "its objectification in art and architecture…. force which linked symbols, myths, and the feeling of the masses" back into a reintegrating and satisfying whole. It was serious business, in other words, much of it was stage-managed by Albert Speer. (The material for Italy -- which started with D'Annunzio -- can be found in the writings of Emilio Gentile)

Chapter three deals with the development, starting with Winckelmann, of the aesthetic cult in Germany. The chapter is subtle, and I will not attempt to summarize it in full. Mosse describes the 'inwardness' that was fostered by German Pietism, and which formed the subsoil in which many of the subsequent developments were rooted. Beauty came to be seen (in the works of men like Schiller and F.T. Vischer), as a metaphysical absolute which, when concretized in the surrounding world, could penetrate with its rays deep into men's souls…, and thus ennoble them, lift them upwards towards a higher ideal, and reconcile them (in the drabness of their daily bourgeois existence) to the painful realities of mortal life (Modern society, with its urbanism and fragmentation, obviously rendered Beauty's work impossible.) Thus the task of the Neo-classical revival in art and architecture was, in part, a religious one.

Early on, however, these ideals were put in the service of celebrating German national unity -- that is, they were secularized -- a movement driven primarily through monumental architecture and its attendant festivals… Here are two examples that show quite clearly, I think, what Mosse is talking about.

"A.F. Kraus, a contemporary of Gilly, submitted a design for a monument to Frederick the Great which further extended the cultic nature of such monuments. Kraus placed a bust o Frederick the Great upon an altar under which the king was supposed to be buried. Every year the Prussian army was to gather round this altar in order to pay tribute to Frederick's memory. The tomb was surrounded by a wood in which monuments to patriotic Prussians were to be placed. A 'pilgram's road' (to use his own phrase) led from the City of Berlin to the altar. This design presented a conscious substitution of the worship of the Prussian nation for the traditional worship of Christianity." (51).

An even clear instance of this use of monuments to create a "sacred space" for the sanctification of the nation -- a secularized religion - is found in Mosse's account of the Walhala (1830-1842), a Greek temple of monumental proportions constructed as a sacred monument to German unity by Ludwig I of Bavaria:



Planned to celebrate the triumph of over Napoleon, and named after the sacred heroes of German legend (the field of Odin/Wotan), the south frieze presented the German states gathered around a victorious 'Germania', the north frieze showed Arminius (Hermann) defeating the Roman Legions at Teutoburger Forest. Inside the halls were filled with busts of famous and patriotic Germans:




The next few chapters (4-7) are tedious and, if the reader knows something about the topic, they can be skimmed. They cover the details of 19th cen nationalizing festivals, organizational groups (choirs, youth-groups, sharpshooters, and even workers groups), etc.

But Chapter 8 -- on Hitler's tastes -- are a tour de force and a brilliant display of why Mosse is so important a scholar of fascism. Again, the chapter is subtle, and I will not attempt to summarize it in full.

Just as 19th cen German monumental architecture was a strange mixture of the neo-classical and the monumental -- both Gothic and Romantic --, so Hitler's own tastes were a mixture of the neo-classical imbibed in his youth in Vienna -- the art of 1870-1890, which he never outgrew -- and the racist theosophy of the Thule group from which he learned his mystical anti-semitism. In this context, Mosse analyzes and makes some stunning observations not only on Nazi architecture, but even more on Hitler's use of speech and spectacle in what Mosse has called the "New Politics" -- which was a politics of style, rather than of context (i.e., of doctrine, of axioms, of theorems -- as with socialism). This nuanced examination of the fascist style, over fascist thought, is what distinguishes the school of Mosse.

This explains, moreover, why fascism was able to cut across class-boundaries. (As an aside, fascist corporatism, as is well known, is a form of social organization that mobilizes the masses by sector, rather than by class; hence, cross-class trade unions, etc. etc.). Faced with the alienation produced by the jagged and shattering effects of modernization and rapid industrialization, the decay of old, traditional values and social relations of family and town -- people from EVERY class felt the same longings for "getting back" to a safe and happy womb, for a reintegration, for wholeness, into an integral union higher than that of the atomized individual (which atomization was celebrating by modernists and by the avant-garde) -- to return to those kitschy ideals of rural Germanic cherubic life -- something we see clearly in play in the movement of the Christian Right in America. This reintegration, however, cannot be brought about at an intellectual level -- especially in the masses, who are not intellectual -- but has to be created at an emotional and affectual level -- through actions, dramas, liturgies, spectacles, symbols, myths, and the like -- controlled, of course, by the over-riding vision of the Party.

This is a somewhat difficult book to read, as I've mentioned -- but is of great importance.

[Lorién Gómez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una pieza de historiografía fundamental en los estudios del nacionalismo; así como de los orígenes culturales del fascismo y, en concreto, del III Reich.

Mosse analiza cómo el nazismo, a través de toda una liturgia y de ritos colectivos establecidos desde el final de las Guerras Napoleónicas -iniciados a través de la arquitectura (monumentos nacionales), bandas de música, corales, teatro, y un largo etcétera- supuso una radicalización del proyecto de nacionalización de las masas.

Especialmente recomendable el capítulo sobre la "aportación obrera" a esa nueva litúrgia de la política de masas.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mosse argued that National Socilaism was the climactic end point of a 'new politics' which had emerged in the Nineteenth century as a means to restore popular sovereignty in the face of rapid societal and technological changes. It focused on creatign and restoring national myths and used symbols and symbolism as it's form of political communication.

This new politics emphasised the importance of the general will, which was given expression in the form of the nation. It took on romantic features over time, prioritising aesthetics and romanticism over rationality, and was particularly popular in Germany, where it was coopted by the state during the Second Empire before emerging in an organic fashion in the Weimar years. New politics were popular with workers and borgeoise alike.

Mosse's work helped to provide historical context for the rise of Nazism, but could not answer the question of why Germany, and not the rest of Europe, given that new politics was a European, not merely German trend. It also solely focuses on the importance of national symbols, where other symbols (such as the hammer and sickle) were often used to press counter-narratives.

Quotes:

1.
“The new politics attempted to draw the people into active participation in the national mystique through rites and festivals, myths and symbols which gave a concrete expression to the general will. The chaotic crowd of the “people” became a mass movement which shared a belief in popular unity through a national mystique. The new politics provided an objectification of the general will.” (2)

2.
“It was precisely the myths and cults of the earlier mass movements which gave fascism a base from which to work and which enabled it to present am alternative to parliamentary democracy. Millions saw in the traditions of which Mussolini spoke an expression of political participation more vital and meaningful than the “bourgeois” idea of parliamentary democracy. This could happen only because of a long previous tradition, exemplified not only by nationalist mass movements but by the workers' mass movements as well.” (4)

3.
“The atomization of traditional, world views and the destruction of traditional and personal bonds were penetrating into the consciousness of a large element of the population. The myths, which formed the basis of the new national consciousness whether of a Germanic or classical past, stood outside the present flow of history.” (6)

4.
“The veiling and subduing of the past was accomplished through myth and symbol, and the artistic thus became essential to such a view of the world. So did the dramatic, which will preoccupy us constantly throughout the study, for the idea of the new politics was to transform political action into a drama.” (8)

5.
“After 1871 and until the birth of the Weimar Republic, the new German state attempted to manipulate the liturgy, to bend it toward an officially sanctioned nationalism. This attempt seemed to stifle the liturgical impulse which had been in the forefront during the earlier period.” (“imposition of a liturgy from above”) (19)

[EMILIO SCUTTI · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il nazifascismo analizzato da un ‘angolatura tutta particolare : un regime totalitario non nasce dall’oggi al domani agiscono molte circostanze, coincidenze storiche che ne fanno lo spirito del tempo. Il testo approfondisce con grande acume l’architettura, l’arte, riti e rituali che fanno preparato la nascita del terzo Reich. Le ultime pagine ed in particolare il capitolo “ i gusti di hitler” valgono tutto il libro è li che l’autore va in profondità e coglie in modo sintetico e magistrale quella saldatura tra popolo germanico, mito ariano, credenze e pseudoreligiose che hanno trovato l’incarnazione nel fuhrer. Peccato veramente che il testo non sia corredato da nessuna foto , disegno o grafico che potesse aiutare il lettore nel capire come l’architettura nazista si fosse ispirata a quella greco -romana !

[Alberto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cuando un libro se convierte en clásico se convierte por algo. Excelente ensayo sobre la puesta en marcha del nacionalismo alemán y su manifestó práctica en monumentos, festivales, teatros, óperas, etc. Hitler no fue una singularidad sino el último escalón de una escalera que dio inicio en el año 1813.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Mosse had the sort of career that the history profession doesn’t really allow for today. No matter how brilliant an individual historian might be, the way the profession is now structured does not allow for the kind of pivots Mosse pulled. Starting as a specialist in the Reformation, Mosse left the early modern period behind mid-career and became one of the leading historians of fascism. There’s something to be said for the way we do things now. The kind of granular analysis you see in contemporary historians of fascism, like Johann Chapoutot, is in part the product of the sort of hyper-specialization you didn’t have in Mosse’s day. But earlier methods had their advantages, too, and not just in terms of career flexibility.

What got the German people, who had lived for centuries in many separate domains and were separated along religious lines, on board with the unified German nation-state, indeed, many of them so amped for a united Germany that they went overboard and left the traditional nation-state form behind to create an apocalyptic all-conquering German empire? This is the question Mosse wrestles with in several books, including “The Crisis of the German Ideology” and “The Nationalization of the Masses.” In the former volume, he dealt with the content of the “volkish” ideology that washed over Germany in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, which unified a critical mass of the German people behind the idea of themselves as a “volk,” a race with a unique and all-important destiny. In the book under discussion here, Mosse discusses the forms that this nationalization took, what allowed for all of these people to take hold of nationality and make it meaningful to their lives.

Later scholars of nationality, like Benedict Anderson, would put a lot of emphasis on what we today call “the discourse” — back then, mostly newspapers — for its role in causing a national identity to gel. “Nationalization of the Masses” makes the interesting point that if you want to cement a given national identity as transcending time — as the nationalists of Germany did — newspapers are almost an impediment, being a reminder of the transitoriness of things. Early German nationalists, for their part, preferred to instill national feeling in the masses through architecture, ritual, and popular participation in a nationalist liturgy- a full-fledged secular religion, in Mosse’s telling.

Mosse goes on to describe the various efforts to create a national secular religion of German-ness. Until the Third Reich got a hold of it, this was mostly an unofficial project mounted by nationalism-enthusiasts. The Second Reich, under Bismarck and the Kaisers, was leery of some of the nationalistic extremes and popular enthusiasms of the movements involved, and most of these people were anti-republican and so wanted nothing to do with the Weimar Republic. So it was mostly poets, philosophers, educators, and the sort of people who like getting clubs together who formed this national religion. As such, it formed something of a hodgepodge. Classicism was popular among German nationalists, especially in architecture- lots of big white buildings with columns, etc. So too was romanticism, which you’d figure would operate at cross-purposes to classicism, but the kitschy eclecticism of the small minds of nationalism “made it work.” You see much the same dynamic on the right today, with its (mis)appropriation of both classical and medieval styles. Hitler, for his part, was a big one for classicism, or anyway massive classical kitsch; for all the Nazi regime harkened back to a mythical Germanic past, Hitler personally hated stuff like “ancient Germanic dress” and folkloric theater architecture, we find out in an interesting chapter on his personal tastes.

More than any particular artistic style, the most successful nationalizers emphasized making room for popular participation. Spaces of the national cult, like memorials to the dead in the Napoleonic wars and so on, were more successful when they had room for many people to make pilgrimages and participate in rituals. The rituals, in turn, did better when there was something for the crowd to chew on and participate in — songs, call-and-response chanting, the like — as opposed to the more didactic speeches of liberals and socialists. Groups like male choral societies (I guess women who liked to sing were shit out of luck?), sharpshooting groups, and gymnastics clubs came into the picture, giving nationalist content to leisure activities and providing bodies and content for nationalist rituals.

Mosse was a liberal — he was well known at the University of Wisconsin for both attracting and challenging student radicals through his lectures at that active campus — and is specifically arguing against a number of leftist ideas of the time in this book. This sort of cultural history in general flew in the face of the trend of econometrics-informed social “history from below” going at the time. More pertinently, he argued both that the relevant mass in German history was formed not by economic factors like industrialization but by incorporation into the national religion, and that the relationship between socialist/labor mass politics and nationalist/fascist mass politics was a two-way street. There was a commingling of influences and practices between the two groups, according to Mosse, and to the extent the nationalists wound up more successful, it was in part because they understood the dynamics of mass politics in its ritual element better than did their leftist counterparts.

I don’t know enough to judge Mosse’s conclusions there one way or another. Among other things, I’ve never had any meaningful feel for ritual myself. It all strikes me as a lot of nonsense and wasted time- the part I related to were the “volksfest” elements after the rituals where everyone gathered round to drink beer, exactly the sort of “frivolity” the more severe German nationalists tried to cut out of the movement. But people, or at least enough people, clearly like that sort of thing, enough to make it an important part of regimes like Nazism. Along with “The Crisis of the German Ideology” and “Towards the Final Solution,” this book forms a sort of triptych of Mosse’s efforts to grapple with the cultural and intellectual roots of Nazism — a regime he had to flee as a teenager — that form much of the basis for methodologically similar analyses today. *****

[Bigi]

“Persino al giorno d'oggi vi è il desiderio per una interezza di vita strettamente collegato col mito e il simbolo. […] Ma ciò che spesso viene condannato come politicizzazione di tutti gli aspetti della vita è in realtà una profonda corrente della storia che ha sempre condannato il pluralismo, la separazione della politica dagli altri aspetti della vita. Quando il governo rappresentativo, che simboleggia questa separazione, minaccia di crollare, gli uomini tornano a desiderare una casa bene arredata, dove ciò che è bello e dà piacere non sia separato da ciò che è utile e necessario. Per quanto fosse lontana da un vero umanesimo, la nuova politica offriva una casa come questa. La storia passata è sempre storia contemporanea. Il grandioso spettacolo da noi esaminato non è tanto lontano dai nostri problemi. Questo libro si occupa di un passato che per la maggior parte degli uomini sembrò concluso con la seconda guerra mondiale. In realtà è invece ancora storia di oggi”

[Paul Connuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterful work on the National Socialists' propagandizing of 19th and early 20th century developments in Volkish thought as reflected in symbolism, romanticism, neoclassical architecture, occult cultic rituals and liturgy, and transfer of religious holidays, rites, and worship to secular, nationalist practices.

[Beppe Longo · Rating 5 out of 5]

imperdibile

[Kara Severson · Rating 3 out of 5]

i read this for class not for fun

[Maria Chiara Giangrande · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Nicola Palumbo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tra i mie libri preferiti in assoluto

[M Shain]

An excellent review of the cultural traditions of the Germanic peoples after the Napoleonic Wars. Deepens one's understanding of the grass-roots organizational trends that were manipulated by political systems (NSDAP in particular) in order to shore up support. Dr. Mosse shows how the Nazis both reinvented and/or exerted control over a variety of cultural mechanisms in order to insert party doctrine into every-day life. A revealing and interesting study for anyone interested the roots of demagoguery and the rise of Hitler specifically.

[Sergi Caravaca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good explanation about why the nazism triumph

[Misterc]

molto molto interessante....la spiegazione, in parte , di come la germania abbia accolto il nazismo come una tradizione popolare

[Camilla Bonvicini · Rating 5 out of 5]

La storia passata è sempre storia contemporanea.