Summary
Johann Chapoutot: Nazism and Antiquity
"National Socialism's relation to antiquity has hardly aroused the interest of historians: it is easy for us to imagine that the Nazis could have initiated an authentic and undoubted Germanism, but we abhor the thought that National Socialism can be associated with Greco-Roman antiquity. Yet we find this connection everywhere: in the neo-Greek sculptures-acts of sculptors such as Arno Breker and Josef Thorak, in the neo-Dorian architecture of Troost, in Speer's neo-Roman buildings, and school textbooks show an incredible picture of antiquity in the Mediterranean, academic works reveal detailed studies on Blond hair among the Indo-Germanic peoples of antiquity, or else articles full of ideological motives on the topic of 'Jews in Greco-Roman antiquity.' Völkischer and the daily Das Reich publish articles about the Second Punic War and the reversal of fortunes of Rome against Hannibal-Stalin.
None of this diminishes our astonishment: what kind of mania in the middle of the 20th century could lead the officials of the Nazi regime to talk so much about the Greeks and Romans? To order the creation of neo-antique works and newspaper articles about Rome and the Fabians through academic works and reforms of school programs carefully changed into the ideological garb of modernity?"
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.