Race and the Third Reich : Linguistics, Racial Anthropology and Genetics in the Dialectic of Volk by Christopher M. Hutton

Author:Christopher M. Hutton [Hutton, Christopher M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction
Publisher: http://inclibuql666c5c4.onion
Published: 2005-01-23T05:00:00+00:00

The view from psychology: Gerhard Pfahler

The psychologist Gerhard Pfahler (1897-1976) was concerned about the dangers of inner alienation, given the racial diversity of the German Volk (1938: 152). It would be a mistake to represent the German people as being of a single racial style. While it might be possible to have a Nordic psychology in an Alpine body, if all the members of the Volk were to claim that they were Nordic, then the whole discussion would have become a farce (1938: 127). Either there was a fundamentally valid principle of the connection between body and psychology, and this connection determined ineluctably the racial fate of each person; or the German Volk was, in spite of all the bodin variation, made up of individuals who were all more or less Nordic. But if this was the case, why should we take race so seriously? The second position made nonsense of racial anthropology (1938: 151). Pfahler argued that it was a mistake to ascribe a Nordic soul to people of other races; this would be the end of racial anthropology (1938: 150). We should not try to pretend that all Germans were Nordic (1938. 125); nor should we allow the misconception that children could be made more Nordic by the will of their parents (1938: -composure and loyalty, then every member of the Volk would have to count as Nordic. But this would be to undermine the fundamental tenets of racial anthropology, and the link between body and psychology or soul. If it were accepted that there were different races in the German Volk, then one single race could not have a monopoly on these virtues. Each core racial element (Rassekern) in the German Volk would then play its own Special role in laying the foundations of the new Reich (1938: 127). There were real correlations between race and hereditary personality (1938: 131), and these forms of hereditary endowment could not be wished away. Each core race had its own mission within the Volk.

Pfahler’s basic answer to this problem was that it was the task of education to unite the Volk, to shape and protect its unity (19381vii). Where there was a danger of inner division, the shared history and a common moral system would create a strong bond. It was the task of education to create these bonds, and this was why education maintained a central role in the life of the Volk, within the mission laid down by National Socialism. Each race had its own possibilities and could attain its fulfilment in the service of the Volk — there thus remained a zone of freedom of action and potential within the unchangeable framework established by hereditary nature. Outside the Volk, there was no possibility for the individual to exist (1938: 1623). It was the task of hereditary psychology (Erbcharakterologie) to give an account of the boundary between hereditary characteristics and environmental influences (1938: 24). However, this did not entail recognizing the equality and equal worth of all members of the Volk; education could not overcome these fundamental differences.

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