220 Chapter 9
wereto be not onlycompellingexamplesfor the Volk,but alsolivingindictmentsof
moderncapitalism.... To themthe migrationto the city and the commercialexploitation
of the peasantsrepresentedthe destructionof the organicbaseof the Volk.” Thecom-
munessworethat the peasantestateshouldneverbe “replacedby a factory.” Mossegoes
on that“therewasa distinctelementof anti-capitalism” in the literatureof the Volkish
communemovement,as “presented... in the famousbookwrittenby FerdinandFried
(FriedrichZimmerman), DasEndedes Kapitalismus(The Endof Capitalism) (1931),and
publishedby EugenDiederichs,” the mysticwhoalsopublishedPaulde Lagarde.Fried
“decriedcapitalismin its modernform,labelingit ‘Manchesterism.’” Thebook’s “argu-
mentculminatedin the defenseof socialistcommunalarrangementsinsofaras theyfacili-
tatedthe goalof completenationalizationof the land.” Youmayrecallfromour discus-
sionof intellectualpropertyrightsfromBookTwothat HenryGeorgeadvocatednational-
izationof realestate.He wasactuallymorepopularin Europe,particularlyamongthe
Volkishromantics,thanhe wasin his nativeUnitedStates.^136 Amongotherenvironmen-
talistromanticswasRudolfSteiner,academicallytrainedas a scientistbut mostfamous
for espousinghis religiousviewsin the twentiethcentury’s threeearliestdecades,firstin
the TheosophicalSocietyandthenin his ownAnthroposophicalSociety.^137 A volume
publishedby RudolfSteiner’s ownpressfirmannouncesproudlythatSteiner’s “main
endeavouris to counterthe narrowcause-and-effectconceptionswhichdominatemodern
outlookandresearch.He seesthe latentpossibilitiesin manof advancingbeyondthe
present-daylimitationsof cognitionto include‘knowledgeof higherworlds.’”^138 Anti-
realistepistemologyand radicalenvironmentalismare morecloselylinkedthanmanyof
us wouldpreferto think.
RichardGrunbergeradmitsthat the Nazis’ explicitphilosophyplayedupona desireto
returnto a moreprimitiveage,one that precededthe IndustrialRevolution—“Pre-capital-
ist yearnings,i.e. the desirefor... a statictraditionalorder,createdan undertowwithin
the generalanti-capitalistcurrentof the period.”^139 It wasfromRiehl’s teachingsthatthe
Volkishmovementformedthe ideathata goodGerman’s life mustprioritizeBloodand
Soil. As we recallfromchapter3, thebloodofBloodand Soilrefersto supposedlyunchosen
obligationsto one’s bloodline—one’s family,ethnicity,andtribe.Embeddedintothesoil
is a twofoldmeaning.As numerousleft-wingscholarsconfirm,thesoilalludesto the
nationand fatherland—the Germans’ nationalisticdevotionto theircountry.Yet thereis a
secondmeaningthatleft-wingscholarsmentionless often.It is thatone mustbe loyalto
thesoilmoreliterally—thatis, willingto preservethe landscapein its wildcondition,to
be foreverundevelopedand untrammeledby industrialtechnology.
TheStudentsBecomingthe Masters
HitlerYouthpatterneditselfafterthe turn-of-the-twentieth-centuryenvironmentalist
GermanYouthMovement,whichfoundinspirationin Riehl’sPlacesand People, as wellas
the anti-capitalismof Paulde LagardeandJuliusLangbehn.Thismovement,writes
GeorgeL. Mosse,“immersedyouthin a romanticismbaseduponthe nativelandscape”
andnostalgiafor the allegedlost paradiseof Germany’s preindustrialpast.Despitethe
youthmovement’s whitesupremacism,one if its leaders,KarlFischer,taughtadolescent
membersto holdthe AmericanIndiansin awe,as theywereseenas wiseon accountof
theirreputationfor beingsociallycollectivist,preindustrial,andstronglybelievingin
wildernessdeities.
Muchas withthe HitlerYouthwhosucceededthem,the GermanYouthsoughta
ThirdWayas a middlepathbetweenpolitical-economicliberalizationand communism,a
collectivistconcepttheycalledtheBund(groupor bundle).Mosseexplainsthat“the idea
of theBund... waselevatedto a generalprinciplenot onlyof life but of governmentas