Armin Mohler
Encyclopedia
Armin Mohler was a Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

-born far right
Far right
Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 political writer and philosopher associated with the Neue Rechte
Neue Rechte
The Neue Rechte is a German political movement, founded in opposition to the "New Left" generation of the 1960s. Ideologically, they are linked to the ideologues of the Weimar Conservative Revolution, which included such people as Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, Oswald Spengler and Ernst von Salomon...

 movement.

Life

Born in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, Mohler studied at the University of Basel
University of Basel
The University of Basel is located in Basel, Switzerland, and is considered to be one of leading universities in the country...

 where for a time he supported communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

. He was called up to the Swiss army
Military of Switzerland
The Swiss Armed Forces perform the roles of Switzerland's militia and regular army. Under the country's militia system, professional soldiers constitute about 5 percent of military personnel; the rest are male citizen conscripts 19 to 34 years old...

 at the age of 20 but, after reading the works of Oswald Spengler
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West , published in 1918, which puts forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations...

 and the German invasion of the Soviet-Union in June 1941, he became a supporter of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and defected to that country in 1942 with the aim of joining the Waffen SS. Mohler was not trusted by SS-authorities and they refused to accept him. Despite of that he remained in Berlin for another year before returning to Switzerland, where he was incarcerated for desertion
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...

.

After World War II he returned to study in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and completed his doctoral thesis Die Konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918-1932 (The Conservative Revolution in Germany, 1918-1932) under Karl Jaspers
Karl Jaspers
Karl Theodor Jaspers was a German psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jaspers turned to philosophical inquiry and attempted to discover an innovative philosophical system...

 in 1949. The very term "conservative revolution", as it is commonly used today, was coined by Mohler. The aim of his thesis was not merely scientific, but also providing old traditions for new pathways for a non-national-socialist Right in post-war Germany. In the same year, he worked as a secretary for his idol Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...

, but increasingly felt he had become too moderate for his taste after the end of the war.

Mohler went on to work as a correspondent in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 for Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...

from 1953 to 1961. After that he lived in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, working for the Siemens Foundation
Siemens Foundation
The Siemens Foundation is a non-profit organization run by Siemens AG. It is responsible for the Siemens Westinghouse Competition, a prestigious science award for high school students in the United States, and also is involved in the Siemens AP Scholar Award...

. For a brief period he worked as a speech writer for Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauss was a German politician. He was the leader of the Christian Social Union, member of the federal cabinet in different positions and long-time minister-president of the state of Bavaria....

, but his influence was marginal. In 1967, he became the first to receive the Konrad Adenauer Prize
Konrad Adenauer Prize
The Konrad Adenauer Prize is an award that was infrequently awarded by the Germany Foundation, an organisation associated with the Christian Democratic Union, from 1967 to 2001...

, which provoked strong media attacks on him.

In 1970 he became a major contributing editor to Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing's conservative monthly magazine Criticon, Germany's most important platform for non-mainstream conservative thought for almost three decades. He died in Munich in 2003 at the age of 83.

Writings and ideas

Mohler's seminal work is his book Die Konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918-1932 (The Conservative Revolution in Germany, 1918-1932) (initially his doctoral thesis) which tried to unearth Weimar Republic right-wing thought and tradition apart from and alternative to National-Socialism. Amongst the most crucial thinkers of the "Conservative Revolution" he counted Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger was a German writer. In addition to his novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience during World War I. Some say he was one of Germany's greatest modern writers and a hero of the conservative revolutionary movement following World War I...

, Oswald Spengler
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West , published in 1918, which puts forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations...

, Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt
Carl Schmitt was a German jurist, philosopher, political theorist, and professor of law.Schmitt published several essays, influential in the 20th century and beyond, on the mentalities that surround the effective wielding of political power...

, Ernst Niekisch
Ernst Niekisch
Ernst Niekisch was a German politician. Initially associated with mainstream left-wing politics he later became a Prominent exponent of National Bolshevism.-Bavaria:...

, Hans Blüher and Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...

 (before his turn to liberalism).

Mohler was one of the first German publishers to write about the ideas of his long-time friend Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...

, founding father of the Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite
Nouvelle Droite is a school of political thought founded largely on the works of Alain de Benoist and GRECE .-Etymology and history:...

. Similar as Benoist, Mohler advocated a Right that would oppose both socialism and liberalism, with an decided emphasis on the latter.

One of his favourite targets was the so-called "Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Vergangenheitsbewältigung
Vergangenheitsbewältigung is a composite German word that describes processes of dealing with the past , which is perhaps best rendered in English as "struggle to come to terms with the past"...

", which he criticized in several books. This argument involved the claim that post-war Germany should 'step out of Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

's shadow'. In this respect it has been claimed that Mohler was a forerunner of Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte is a German historian and philosopher. Nolte’s major interest is the comparative studies of Fascism and Communism. He is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 to 1991. He was previously a Professor at the University of Marburg...

 and associated thinkers involved in the Historikerstreit
Historikerstreit
The Historikerstreit was an intellectual and political controversy in late 20th-century West Germany about the historical interpretation of the Holocaust. The German word Streit translates variously as "quarrel", "dispute", or "conflict"...

.

In the 1950s Mohler contributed to journals such as Nation Europa
Nation Europa
Nation Europa is a monthly magazine, published in Germany, that was originally established in support of Pan-European nationalism...

and Die Tat (not to be confused with an older paper of the same title
Die Tat
Die Tat was a monthly publication of politics and culture. It was founded in April 1909 and its publisher was Eugen Diederichs from Jena. From 1939 until 1944 Die Tat was continued as Das XX. Jahrhundert.-1909-1912:...

), whilst also writing for mainstream newspapers such as Die Zeit
Die Zeit
Die Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...

and (in the 1960s and 1970s) Die Welt
Die Welt
Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...

. In his later years he supported the "Neue Rechte" weekly paper Junge Freiheit
Junge Freiheit
The Junge Freiheit is a German weekly newspaper for politics and culture, that describes itself as liberal-conservative...

. Under the alias Michael Hintermwald he also contributed two articles to Gerhard Frey
Gerhard Frey (politician)
Gerhard Frey is a German publisher, businessman and politician. He was the chairman and main financial backer of the far-right party Deutsche Volksunion, which he founded in 1971. He resigned as chairman in January 2009....

's Deutschen National-Zeitung, for which he was much criticized.

Political activism

Mohler was initially a supporter of Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauß
Franz Josef Strauss was a German politician. He was the leader of the Christian Social Union, member of the federal cabinet in different positions and long-time minister-president of the state of Bavaria....

 and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria
Christian Social Union of Bavaria
The Christian Social Union in Bavaria is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany. It operates only in the state of Bavaria, while its sister party, the Christian Democratic Union , operates in the other 15 states of Germany...

 but later worked with Franz Schönhuber
Franz Schönhuber
Franz Xaver Schönhuber was a German journalist and author. He gained fame as a founder and eventual chairman of the German Party The Republicans.-Career:...

 in the founding of The Republicans. Internationally he was close to Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist
Alain de Benoist is a French academic, philosopher, a founder of the Nouvelle Droite and head of the French think tank GRECE. Benoist is a critic of liberalism, free markets and egalitarianism.-Biography:...

.

Fascism

Mohler's notion of Conservative Revolution has been described as fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, with Roger Griffin
Roger Griffin
Roger D. Griffin is a British academic political theorist at Oxford Brookes University, England. His recent efforts have focused on a definition and examination of fascism...

 arguing this point. In a newspaper interview Mohler accepted that he was a fascist but only in the tradition of José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...

 and with the acceptance of the notion that fascism had its roots in the far left
Far left
Far left, also known as the revolutionary left, radical left and extreme left are terms which refer to the highest degree of leftist positions among left-wing politics...

 as argued by Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell
Zeev Sternhell is an Israeli historian and one of the world's leading experts on Fascism. Sternhell headed the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and writes for Haaretz newspaper.-Biography:...

.

External links

Literature by and about Armin Mohler
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