Militant League for German Culture
Encyclopedia
The Militant League for German Culture [German: Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur (KfdK)], was a nationalist-minded anti-Semtic political society during the Weimar Republic
and the Nazi era. It was founded in 1928 as the Nationalsozialistische Gesellschaft für deutsche Kultur (NGDK) [National Socialist Society for German Culture] by Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg
and remained under his leadership until its dissolution in 1934. The aim of the association was to make a significant imprint on cultural life in Germany of the a the aims and objectives of the inner circles of the Nazi party. Upon its dissolution, the club was merged with the association "Deutsche Buhne" [German Stage] and the "NS-Kulturegemeinde" [National Socialist Cultural Community]. This was connected with the establishment of the official body for cultural surveillance "Dienstelle Rosenberg" (DRbg) later Amt Rosenberg
after the Nazis took power in 1933.
The members and supporters included representatives of the extreme right wing of the National Socialist movement. These included anti-Semitic literary historians Adolf Bartels
, Ludwig Polland, Gustaf Kossinna
, physicist and Einstein-opponent Philipp Lenard
, publishers Hugo Bruckmann
and Julius Friedrich Lehmann, the leaders of the Bayreuth Socieity Winifred Wagner
, Daniela Thode, Hans Freiherr von Wolzogen, the widow of racial ideologist Houston Stewart Chamberlain
, Eva Chamberlain, the composer Paul Graener
, the poet and later president of the Reichsschrifttumskammer Hanns Johst
, the architect Paul Schulze-Naumburg, who edited the periodical Kunst und Rasse [art and breed], and who spoke at many events, Gustav Havemann, a violinist and later leader of the Reichsmusikammer (who founded and lead a Kampfbund orchestra), the theater director Karl von Schirach, Fritz Kloppe who lead Wehrwolf, a paramilitary organization, and the theologian and nationalist musicologist Fritz Stein.
Corporate and organizational members included the Association of German Fraternities [Deutsche Bursenschaft], the German Homeland Association [Deutsche Landsmannschaft], the Association of German Parochial Colleges [Turnerschaften an deutschen Hochschulen], The association of German Associations [Deutsche Gildenschaft], the Association of German Glee Clubs [Deutsche Sängerschaft], the German College Music Society [Sondershäuser Verband], and German College Art Society [Deutscher Hochschulring].
, Kurt Tucholsky
, Thomas Mann
, Bertolt Brecht
, Walter Mehring
, and the Berlin Institute for Sexual Research. Later the most frequently mentioned were Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, the Bauhaus Movement, Emil Nolde, Karl Hofter, Max Beckmann, and Georg Grosz. Books by Ernst Toller, Arnold Zweig, Jakob Wassermann, Lion Feutchwanger, Arnolt Bronnen, Leonhard Frank, Emil Ludwig, and Alfred Neumann were dismissed as not properly German. In 1930, the society directed a campaign against Ernst Berlach and the so-called "Racial art" (Hetzkunst) of Käthe Kollwitz
.
The Society published "German Culture Watch: Journal of the KfdK" in October 1932, reprinted in 1933, under the editorship of Hans Hinkel
.
Their activities had a nationwide impact. In 1930 Wilhelm Frick
, the Nazi Interior and Cultural minister of Thuringia and KdfK regional leader, named Hans Severus Ziegler of the Schultze-Naumburg firm as director of the Weimar Architecture Institute. He immediately dismissed all practitioners of the Bauhaus style. Frick ordered artworks by "degenerate artists" to be removed from the Palace Museum in Weimar. These included works by Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, Kandinsky, Klee, Barlack, Oskar Kokoschka, Mranz Marc, and Emil Nolde. Works by modernist composers Stravinsky and Hindemith were struck from state-subsidized concert programs, and books by Erich Maria Remarque, and films by Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Georg Wilhelm Pabst
were banned outright.
The KfdK, under Frick's auspices, arranged its first major youth conference on Pentecost in 1930. It presented Nazi leaders Baldur von Schirach, Goebbels, Goering, and Darré. Referencing Weimar's "spiritual heros" a resolution called for "strengthening German military will" and, in reference to the arts, "resistance against all populist harmful influences in the area of theater, literature and fine arts, and against alien architecture." The following Pentecost in 1931, saw a youth and cultural meeting in Potsdam, where Rosenberg gave a lectures on "Blood and Honor," and "Race and Personality" and Göring on the theme "Readiness to fight to protect our culture."
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and the Nazi era. It was founded in 1928 as the Nationalsozialistische Gesellschaft für deutsche Kultur (NGDK) [National Socialist Society for German Culture] by Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
and remained under his leadership until its dissolution in 1934. The aim of the association was to make a significant imprint on cultural life in Germany of the a the aims and objectives of the inner circles of the Nazi party. Upon its dissolution, the club was merged with the association "Deutsche Buhne" [German Stage] and the "NS-Kulturegemeinde" [National Socialist Cultural Community]. This was connected with the establishment of the official body for cultural surveillance "Dienstelle Rosenberg" (DRbg) later Amt Rosenberg
Amt Rosenberg
Amt Rosenberg was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party, headed by Alfred Rosenberg.It was established in 1934 under the name of Dienststelle Rosenberg , with offices at Margarethenstraße 17 in Berlin, to the west of Potsdamer Platz.Due to the long official...
after the Nazis took power in 1933.
Members and Followers
The number of members, who were organized in local chapters, rose from approximately 300 in 25 chapters in April 1929 to ca. 38,000 in 450 chapters by October 1933.The members and supporters included representatives of the extreme right wing of the National Socialist movement. These included anti-Semitic literary historians Adolf Bartels
Adolf Bartels
Adolf Bartels was a German journalist and poet. Known for his völkisch worldview, he has been seen as a harbinger of National Socialist anti-Semitism....
, Ludwig Polland, Gustaf Kossinna
Gustaf Kossinna
Gustaf Kossinna was a linguist and professor of German archaeology at the University of Berlin...
, physicist and Einstein-opponent Philipp Lenard
Philipp Lenard
Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard , known in Hungarian as Lénárd Fülöp Eduárd Antal, was a Hungarian - German physicist and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his research on cathode rays and the discovery of many of their properties...
, publishers Hugo Bruckmann
Hugo Bruckmann
Hugo Bruckmann was a German publisher.Born in Berlin, Bruckmann was the younger son of the publisher Friedrich Bruckmann. After his father's death in 1898 Hugo and his brother Alphons became the owners of F. Bruckmann KAG in Munich...
and Julius Friedrich Lehmann, the leaders of the Bayreuth Socieity Winifred Wagner
Winifred Wagner
Winifred Wagner was an English woman married to Siegfried Wagner, Richard Wagner's son. She was the effective head of the Wagner family from 1930 to 1945, and a close friend of German dictator Adolf Hitler....
, Daniela Thode, Hans Freiherr von Wolzogen, the widow of racial ideologist Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain was a British-born German author of books on political philosophy, natural science and the German composer Richard Wagner. He later became a German citizen. Chamberlain married Wagner's daughter, Eva, some years after Wagner's death...
, Eva Chamberlain, the composer Paul Graener
Paul Graener
Paul Graener was a German composer and conductor.-Biography:Graener was born in Berlin and orphaned as a young child. A boy soprano, he taught himself composition and in 1896 moved to London, where he gave private lessons and served briefly as conductor at the Haymarket Theatre...
, the poet and later president of the Reichsschrifttumskammer Hanns Johst
Hanns Johst
Hanns Johst was a German playwright and Nazi Poet Laureate.Hanns Johst was born in Seehausen as the son of an elementary school teacher. He grew up in Oschatz and Leipzig. As a juvenile he planned to become a missionary. When he was 17 years old he worked as an auxiliary in a Bethel Institution...
, the architect Paul Schulze-Naumburg, who edited the periodical Kunst und Rasse [art and breed], and who spoke at many events, Gustav Havemann, a violinist and later leader of the Reichsmusikammer (who founded and lead a Kampfbund orchestra), the theater director Karl von Schirach, Fritz Kloppe who lead Wehrwolf, a paramilitary organization, and the theologian and nationalist musicologist Fritz Stein.
Corporate and organizational members included the Association of German Fraternities [Deutsche Bursenschaft], the German Homeland Association [Deutsche Landsmannschaft], the Association of German Parochial Colleges [Turnerschaften an deutschen Hochschulen], The association of German Associations [Deutsche Gildenschaft], the Association of German Glee Clubs [Deutsche Sängerschaft], the German College Music Society [Sondershäuser Verband], and German College Art Society [Deutscher Hochschulring].
Publications and Political Action
The Society published the periodical Mitteilung des Kampfbundes für deutsche Kultur [proceeds of the KfdK] from 1929 to 1931. Under the heading "Signs of the Times" they listed their enemies: Erich KästnerErich Kästner
Emil Erich Kästner was a German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known for his humorous, socially astute poetry and children's literature.-Dresden 1899–1919:...
, Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...
, 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...
, Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director.An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the...
, Walter Mehring
Walter Mehring
Walter Mehring was a German author and one of the most prominent satirical authors in the Weimar Republic. He was banned during the Third Reich, and fled the country.-Biographical:...
, and the Berlin Institute for Sexual Research. Later the most frequently mentioned were Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Kurt Schwitters, the Bauhaus Movement, Emil Nolde, Karl Hofter, Max Beckmann, and Georg Grosz. Books by Ernst Toller, Arnold Zweig, Jakob Wassermann, Lion Feutchwanger, Arnolt Bronnen, Leonhard Frank, Emil Ludwig, and Alfred Neumann were dismissed as not properly German. In 1930, the society directed a campaign against Ernst Berlach and the so-called "Racial art" (Hetzkunst) of Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
.
The Society published "German Culture Watch: Journal of the KfdK" in October 1932, reprinted in 1933, under the editorship of Hans Hinkel
Hans Hinkel
Hans Hinkel was a German journalist and ministerial official in Nazi Germany....
.
Their activities had a nationwide impact. In 1930 Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick
Wilhelm Frick was a prominent German Nazi official serving as Minister of the Interior of the Third Reich. After the end of World War II, he was tried for war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials and executed...
, the Nazi Interior and Cultural minister of Thuringia and KdfK regional leader, named Hans Severus Ziegler of the Schultze-Naumburg firm as director of the Weimar Architecture Institute. He immediately dismissed all practitioners of the Bauhaus style. Frick ordered artworks by "degenerate artists" to be removed from the Palace Museum in Weimar. These included works by Otto Dix, Lyonel Feininger, Kandinsky, Klee, Barlack, Oskar Kokoschka, Mranz Marc, and Emil Nolde. Works by modernist composers Stravinsky and Hindemith were struck from state-subsidized concert programs, and books by Erich Maria Remarque, and films by Eisenstein, Pudovkin, and Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
were banned outright.
The KfdK, under Frick's auspices, arranged its first major youth conference on Pentecost in 1930. It presented Nazi leaders Baldur von Schirach, Goebbels, Goering, and Darré. Referencing Weimar's "spiritual heros" a resolution called for "strengthening German military will" and, in reference to the arts, "resistance against all populist harmful influences in the area of theater, literature and fine arts, and against alien architecture." The following Pentecost in 1931, saw a youth and cultural meeting in Potsdam, where Rosenberg gave a lectures on "Blood and Honor," and "Race and Personality" and Göring on the theme "Readiness to fight to protect our culture."