Nietzsche and Wagner their influence on national socialism
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Ethel Celeste Johnston (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
- Advisor
- Lenore O'Boyle
Abstract: In 1943 during the blackest days of World War II the United States Department of State issued a booklet on National Socialism— a summary of our enemy's ideology, its background, and its present application. In the booklet's analysis of Nazism's basic principles appeared the following statements: The ideological concepts on which the Nazi movement and the Third Reich are based have well-defined antecedents in certain aspects of German political thought of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The theses of these nineteenth century doctrinaires were amalgamated and expanded by the Nazis for their own purposes....The contribution of the Nazis has not been to create a new political ideology but rather to crystallize the political aspirations of these doctrinaires and to achieve them by unscrupulous and ruthless methods. Among the theorists of the nineteenth century accused of being forerunners of Nazism were Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche. The writers of the booklet held Wagner to blame because of his racism and anti-Semitism. Nietzsche was believed guilty because his writings gave impetus to German imperialism, "glorified the blond Teuton beast and advocated the use of utter ruthlessness by Germans in achieving their goals.”1
Nietzsche and Wagner their influence on national socialism
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Created on 1/1/1949
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Honors Project
- Language: English
- Date: 1949