Folklore as a Political Tool in Nazi Germany

Abstract

WITHIN THE CONTEXT of National Socialist ideology, folklore emerged as a field of central importance, and it seemed predestined by its very name to aid Hitler in building the new Reich. The term folklore, however, did not necessarily mean what we think it does today. Throughout the National Socialist movement we can observe an increasing ambiguity concerning such concepts as thought, folkdom, and movement. The lack of a clear distinction between the traditional cultural heritage of the common folk and the new values of the order was one of the major reasons why folklore's status as a science came into serious discredit, particularly after the war. In the late forties, a German sociologist suggested that folklore be abolished altogether as a university discipline, so as to clean the air of the Nazis' ideological pollution.' Fortunately, his suggestions were not followed up, and thus folklore again received an opportunity to assert itself in nonpolitical and international terms. After 1935, German folklore professors were under pressure by the Party to adapt their theories and findings to the National Socialist Weltanschauung. This not only implied the obligation to join in the search for Nordic-Germanic symbols at the expense of other interests, but it also meant giving priority to those elements that might be of immediate ideological usefulness to the Party. According to Hermann Bausinger, the German Folklore Association was professional enough to withstand the pressure and to continue its work along customary lines, although enough other groups and individuals were engaged in producing folkish absurdities in sufficient quantity to mark a new trend in the history of folklore studies.2