Conservative Revolutionary movement
Encyclopedia
The Conservative Revolutionary movement was a German
national conservative
movement, prominent in the years following the First World War
. The Conservative Revolutionary school of thought advocated a "new" conservatism
and nationalism
that was specifically German, or Prussia
n in particular. Like other conservative movements in the same period, they sought to put a stop to the rising tide of democracy
and communism
, partially they advocated their own brand of "conservative socialism".
("folk-community") rather than class conflict
and ochlocracy
. These writers produced a profusion of radical nationalistic literature that consisted of war diaries, combat fictional works, political journalism, manifestos, and philosophical treatises outlining their ideas for the transformation of German cultural and political life. Outraged by liberalism
and egalitarianism
, and rejecting the commercial culture
of industrial and urban civilization, they advocated the destruction of the liberal order
, by revolutionary means if necessary, in order to make way for the establishment of a new order, founded on conservative principles. The movement had a wide influence among many of Germany’s most gifted youth, universities, and middle classes.
The term "Conservative Revolution" predates the First World War, but the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal
and the political theorist Edgar Julius Jung
were instrumental in making this term an established concept of the Weimar period. Thomas Mann
used the term to describe Friedrich Nietzsche
, whose philosophy greatly influenced many of the thinkers associated with the movement.
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
was (initially) the dominant figure of the conservative revolution in the Weimar republic. Rejecting reactionary
conservatism, he proposed a new state, a 'Third Reich' which would unite all classes under authoritarian rule based on a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism
of the left. Jung promoted a fascist version of Conservative Revolution from the 1920s to the 1930s, which like fascism: spoke of nations as being singular organic entities
; attacked individualism
while promoting militarism
and war; promoted "total mobilization
" of human and industrial resources; and promoting the productive power of modernity
, similar to the futurism
espoused by Italian Fascism
. While Carl Schmitt promoted anti-Semitic
views, he claimed that he held no fondness towards the National Socialism
of Adolf Hitler
which he considered to be too vulgar.. Hermann Rauschning
was typical of the Conservative Revolutionaries. For Rauschning the Conservative Revolution “meant the prewar monarchic-Christian revolt against modernity that made a devil’s pact with Hitler during the Weimar period”.
The Conservative Revolutionaries, many of whom were born in the last decade of the nineteenth century, were all basically formed by their experiences of the First World War. The war and the German Revolution
was for them a clean break from the past, which left them greatly disillusioned. First, the experience of the horrors of trench warfare
, the filth, the hunger, the negation of heroism to a man’s effort to stay alive on the battlefield and the random death led to many recognizing that there was no meaning to this war, or to life itself. They also had to contend with the Dolchstoßlegende ("stab-in-the-back legend") of the end of the war. Second, in this Kriegserlebnis, they sought to re-establish the Frontgemeinschaft (the frontline camaraderie) that defined their existence on the warfront. They felt that they were "like a puppet which has to dance for the demonic entertainment of evil spirits". Some were attracted to nihilist
ideas. In their Froschperspektive writings, they sought to give their experience meaning.
The Conservative Revolutionararies held an ambivalent view of the Nazis. After 1933 some of the proponents of the conservative revolutionary movement were persecuted by the Nazis
, most notably by the SS
of Heinrich Himmler
, who wanted to prevent reactionaries
from opposing or deviating from the Hitler regime in this early time. Jung would lose his life in the 'Night of the Long Knives
' and this would for many Conservative Revolutionaries end the alliance between them and the Nazis. Rauschning came "to the bitter conclusion that the Nazi regime represented anything other than the longed-for German revolution" and his position was "generally typically of the majority" of Conservative Revolutionaries.
Some conservative revolutionary movement members went into anonymity, some arranged themselves within the new regime
and became NSDAP members. Rauschning defected to the West and wrote against the Nazi regime. Others, like Claus von Stauffenberg, remained inside the Reichswehr
and later Wehrmacht
, to silently conspire in the 20 July plot of 1944. The historian Fritz Stern
stated that it was "a tribute to the genuine spiritual quality of the conservative revolution that the reality of the Third Reich aroused many of them to opposition, sometimes silent, often open and costly".
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
national conservative
National conservatism
National conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism as well as upholding cultural and ethnic identity, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far-right...
movement, prominent in the years following the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The Conservative Revolutionary school of thought advocated a "new" conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
and nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
that was specifically German, or Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
n in particular. Like other conservative movements in the same period, they sought to put a stop to the rising tide of democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and 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...
, partially they advocated their own brand of "conservative socialism".
History
The Conservative Revolutionaries based their ideas on organic rather than materialistic thinking, on quality instead of quantity, and on VolksgemeinschaftVolksgemeinschaft
Volksgemeinschaft is a German expression meaning "people's community". Originally appearing during World War I as Germans rallied behind the war, it derived its popularity as a means to break down elitism and class divides...
("folk-community") rather than class conflict
Class conflict
Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....
and ochlocracy
Ochlocracy
Ochlocracy or mob rule is government by mob or a mass of people, or the intimidation of legitimate authorities.As a pejorative for majoritarianism, it is akin to the Latin phrase mobile vulgus meaning "the fickle crowd", from which the English term "mob" was originally derived in the...
. These writers produced a profusion of radical nationalistic literature that consisted of war diaries, combat fictional works, political journalism, manifestos, and philosophical treatises outlining their ideas for the transformation of German cultural and political life. Outraged by liberalism
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
and egalitarianism
Egalitarianism
Egalitarianism is a trend of thought that favors equality of some sort among moral agents, whether persons or animals. Emphasis is placed upon the fact that equality contains the idea of equity of quality...
, and rejecting the commercial culture
Commercialism
Commercialism, in its original meaning, is the practices, methods, aims, and spirit of commerce or business. Today, however, it primarily refers to the tendency within open-market capitalism to turn everything into objects, images, and services sold for the purpose of generating profit...
of industrial and urban civilization, they advocated the destruction of the liberal order
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
, by revolutionary means if necessary, in order to make way for the establishment of a new order, founded on conservative principles. The movement had a wide influence among many of Germany’s most gifted youth, universities, and middle classes.
The term "Conservative Revolution" predates the First World War, but the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...
and the political theorist Edgar Julius Jung
Edgar Julius Jung
Edgar Julius Jung was a German lawyer born in Ludwigshafen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was a leader of the Conservative Revolutionary movement in Germany, which stood not only in opposition to the Weimar Republic, whose parliamentarian system he considered decadent and foreign-imposed,...
were instrumental in making this term an established concept of the Weimar period. 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...
used the term to describe Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, whose philosophy greatly influenced many of the thinkers associated with the movement.
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck was a German cultural historian and writer, best known for his controversial book Das Dritte Reich...
was (initially) the dominant figure of the conservative revolution in the Weimar republic. Rejecting reactionary
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
conservatism, he proposed a new state, a 'Third Reich' which would unite all classes under authoritarian rule based on a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
of the left. Jung promoted a fascist version of Conservative Revolution from the 1920s to the 1930s, which like fascism: spoke of nations as being singular organic entities
Integralism
Integralism, or Integral nationalism, is an ideology according to which a nation is an organic unity. Integralism defends social differentiation and hierarchy with co-operation between social classes, transcending conflict between social and economic groups...
; attacked individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
while promoting militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
and war; promoted "total mobilization
War effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort refers to a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force...
" of human and industrial resources; and promoting the productive power of modernity
Modernity
Modernity typically refers to a post-traditional, post-medieval historical period, one marked by the move from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialization, secularization, rationalization, the nation-state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance...
, similar to the futurism
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
espoused by Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
. While Carl Schmitt promoted anti-Semitic
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
views, he claimed that he held no fondness towards the National Socialism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
of Adolf 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...
which he considered to be too vulgar.. Hermann Rauschning
Hermann Rauschning
Hermann Rauschning was a GermanConservative Revolutionary who briefly joined the Nazis before breaking with them. In 1934 he renounced Nazi party membership and defected to the United States where he denounced Nazism...
was typical of the Conservative Revolutionaries. For Rauschning the Conservative Revolution “meant the prewar monarchic-Christian revolt against modernity that made a devil’s pact with Hitler during the Weimar period”.
The Conservative Revolutionaries, many of whom were born in the last decade of the nineteenth century, were all basically formed by their experiences of the First World War. The war and the German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
was for them a clean break from the past, which left them greatly disillusioned. First, the experience of the horrors of trench warfare
Trench warfare
Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
, the filth, the hunger, the negation of heroism to a man’s effort to stay alive on the battlefield and the random death led to many recognizing that there was no meaning to this war, or to life itself. They also had to contend with the Dolchstoßlegende ("stab-in-the-back legend") of the end of the war. Second, in this Kriegserlebnis, they sought to re-establish the Frontgemeinschaft (the frontline camaraderie) that defined their existence on the warfront. They felt that they were "like a puppet which has to dance for the demonic entertainment of evil spirits". Some were attracted to nihilist
Nihilism
Nihilism is the philosophical doctrine suggesting the negation of one or more putatively meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value...
ideas. In their Froschperspektive writings, they sought to give their experience meaning.
The Conservative Revolutionararies held an ambivalent view of the Nazis. After 1933 some of the proponents of the conservative revolutionary movement were persecuted by the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, most notably by the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
, who wanted to prevent reactionaries
Reactionary
The term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
from opposing or deviating from the Hitler regime in this early time. Jung would lose his life in the 'Night of the Long Knives
Night of the Long Knives
The Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
' and this would for many Conservative Revolutionaries end the alliance between them and the Nazis. Rauschning came "to the bitter conclusion that the Nazi regime represented anything other than the longed-for German revolution" and his position was "generally typically of the majority" of Conservative Revolutionaries.
Some conservative revolutionary movement members went into anonymity, some arranged themselves within the new regime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
and became NSDAP members. Rauschning defected to the West and wrote against the Nazi regime. Others, like Claus von Stauffenberg, remained inside the Reichswehr
Reichswehr
The Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
and later Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
, to silently conspire in the 20 July plot of 1944. The historian Fritz Stern
Fritz Stern
Fritz Richard Stern is a German-born American historian of German history, Jewish history, and historiography. He is a University Professor Emeritus and a former provost at New York's Columbia University...
stated that it was "a tribute to the genuine spiritual quality of the conservative revolution that the reality of the Third Reich aroused many of them to opposition, sometimes silent, often open and costly".
Notable members
- Gottfried BennGottfried BennGottfried Benn was a German essayist, novelist, and expressionist poet. A doctor of medicine, he became an early admirer, and later a critic, of the National Socialist revolution...
- Hans FreyerHans FreyerHans Freyer, born July 31, 1887 in Leipzig, died January 18, 1969 in Ebersteinburg near Baden-Baden, was a conservative German sociologist and philosopher.-Life:...
- Stefan GeorgeStefan GeorgeStefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
- Martin HeideggerMartin HeideggerMartin Heidegger was a German philosopher known for his existential and phenomenological explorations of the "question of Being."...
- Hugo von HofmannsthalHugo von HofmannsthalHugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...
- Edgar Julius JungEdgar Julius JungEdgar Julius Jung was a German lawyer born in Ludwigshafen, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was a leader of the Conservative Revolutionary movement in Germany, which stood not only in opposition to the Weimar Republic, whose parliamentarian system he considered decadent and foreign-imposed,...
, a prominent leader in the movement, killed by the Nazis in the infamous Night of the Long KnivesNight of the Long KnivesThe Night of the Long Knives , sometimes called "Operation Hummingbird " or in Germany the "Röhm-Putsch," was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany between June 30 and July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders...
. - Ernst JüngerErnst JüngerErnst 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...
- Ludwig KlagesLudwig KlagesLudwig Klages was a German philosopher, psychologist and a theoretician in the field of handwriting analysis.-Life:...
- Thomas MannThomas MannThomas 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...
, distanced himself from the movement during the 1920s - Arthur Moeller van den BruckArthur Moeller van den BruckArthur Moeller van den Bruck was a German cultural historian and writer, best known for his controversial book Das Dritte Reich...
- Ernst NiekischErnst NiekischErnst Niekisch was a German politician. Initially associated with mainstream left-wing politics he later became a Prominent exponent of National Bolshevism.-Bavaria:...
- Hermann RauschningHermann RauschningHermann Rauschning was a GermanConservative Revolutionary who briefly joined the Nazis before breaking with them. In 1934 he renounced Nazi party membership and defected to the United States where he denounced Nazism...
, defected from Nazi Germany and wrote against the Nazis - Carl SchmittCarl SchmittCarl 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 von SalomonErnst von SalomonErnst von Salomon was a German writer and Freikorps member.He was born in Kiel, the son of a criminal investigation officer. From 1913 he was a cadet in Karlsruhe and Berlin-Lichterfelde; starting in 1919, he joined the Freikorps in the Baltic, where he fought against the Bolsheviks...
- Othmar SpannOthmar SpannOthmar Spann was a conservative Austrian philosopher, sociologist and economist whose radical anti-liberal and anti-Socialist views, based on early 19th century Romantic ideas expressed by Adam Müller et al...
- Werner SombartWerner SombartWerner Sombart was a German economist and sociologist, the head of the “Youngest Historical School” and one of the leading Continental European social scientists during the first quarter of the 20th century....
- Oswald SpenglerOswald SpenglerOswald 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...