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The articles of this volume treat the expansion of the Nordic ideology in the first half of the twentieth century. They concentrate on the amalgamation of scientific, religious and political features, which transformed the idea of the North into a mainstay of extreme nationalism. Lacking positive norms and values, the Nordic idea depended on the opposition against everything deemed un-Nordic. Völkisch Nordicism shared with conventional forms of nationalism the enmity with Judaism and Bolshevism and - to a lesser extent - with Anglo-Americanism and Catholicism. Beyond that, it constituted a mythological counter narrative that combined the idea of spiritual kinship with biological lineage, on Pagan as well as on Christian grounds.
List of contents
Contents: Uwe Puschner: The Notions Völkisch and Nordic: A Conceptual Approximation - Horst Junginger: Nordic Ideology in the SS and the SS Ahnenerbe - Debora Dusse: The Eddic Myth between Academic and Religious Interpretations - Bernard Mees: Charisma, Authority and Heil: Walter Baetke and the Chasm of 1945 - Luitgard Löw: The Great God's Oldest Runes - Anders Gerdmar: «Luthers Kampf gegen die Juden»: A Völkisch Reception of Luther's View of the Jews - Lena Berggren: Völkisch Thought in Sweden: The Manhem Society and the Quest for National Enlightenment 1934-44 - Andreas Åkerlund: Nordic Studies in National Socialist Germany: A Possible Career Path for Swedish Academics - Hartmut Walravens: Sven Hedin and German Scholars: The Cases of Wilhelm A. Unkrig and Ferdinand Lessing - Isrun Engelhardt: The Holy City of Lhasa: Dreams and Destination for Sven Hedin and Ernst Schäfer - Stefanie v. Schnurbein: The Use of Theories of Religion in Contemporary Asatru - Herman Wirth: Summary of «The Great God's Oldest Runes». Fimbultý's Prehistoric Runes (Voluspá 60).
About the author
Horst Junginger, PD and PhD in history of religions, is currently professor of the study of religion at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich.
Andreas Åkerlund, PhD in history, is research fellow and research leader at the Department of History at Uppsala University.
