72 Chapter 3
TheThreeProphetsof the ThirdReich
Holdingparticularlystrongswaywiththe NaziswerethreeRomanticistGermanintel-
lectuals:ArthurMoellervande Bruck(1876–1925),Paulde Lagarde(1827–1891),and
JuliusLangbehn(1857–1901).^139 Moellerhappensto be the one whocoinedthe expression
ThirdReich.^140 In the estimateof GeorgeL. Mosse,Lagardepubliclypreachedagainst
rationality,“industrialism,” liberalrepublicanism,and“urbanism.” Lagarde“attempted
to preservethe organiccharacterof the Volk,andaccordinglydenounced... moder-
nity... and socio-economicprogress.” To summarizeLagarde’s 1878bookGermanWrit-
ings, “Neither... economicgrowthnor nationalprosperityreflecteda unityand content-
mentamongthe generalpopulation.” Capitalismand eudemoniawerefalseidols“which
hadbeenimposedwithoutregardfor the spiritualcharacter... of the Germannation.”
MossealsodescribesLagarde’s fideismandsocialcollectivism:“History,for Lagarde,
was the expressionof a religiousspirit.... Likeall Volkishthinkers,Lagardethoughtthat
the individual” mustbe subordinateto “the largerunit,the Volk.Personalrevelation
couldcomeonlywithinthe confinesof the community,a conceptjustifiedby Christ’s
proclamationof the Gospelto the communityof the Apostles.... God’s kingdomwasthe
Volk.... Whenfusedwiththe Volkishconceptof nature,sucha religionwouldguide
menout of the discordof modernity.... For inspirationand innercontentment,Lagarde
wrote,manshouldlistento the voiceof natureunfoldingwithinthe treesof the wood....
The unityof the nationwould,correspondingly... be re-establishedaccordingto... the
concreteexpressionof the commonspiritual,emotional,andmysticalqualitiesof the
Germanpeople.” Lagarde’s assertionscan be chalkedup to his revulsionfor the “indus-
trialage andmodernvalues.... Ratherthanthe tradition-defyingbourgeois-capitalist
individual,” it wasthe collectiveunityof the Germanrace,and theirforgingtheirbonds
withthe undevelopedlandscape,thatwouldfulfillthe Volk.JuliusLangbehncorre-
spondedwith Lagardeand, in published works, expanded upon Lagarde’s fideist
thought.^141
Besidestheirhatredfor capitalism,observesFritzStern,the triumvirateof Moeller-
Lagarde-Langbehnwereromanticistthinkers—feelers, actually—in rebellionagainstmod-
ernity.Thesethreebemoaned“the era’s loss of religiousfaith.. .” Theyloved“unreason”
andhated“secularization.” WhatSternfindsparticularlystrikingaboutthesethreeare
“theirviolently‘anti-Western’ sentiments,” and“theirrejectionof the ideasof 1789and
the Enlightenment.”^142 Theanti-capitalist,environmentalistGermanYouthMovement,
whichcameto be the modelfor HitlerYouth,indoctrinatedits adolescentmemberswith
the doctrinesof Lagardeand Langbehn.
Notionsof the occultandthe supernaturalhadcurrencyamongthe Volkishphiloso-
phersanda considerablenumberof theirNazisuccessors.Paulde Lagarde’s publisher,
EugenDiederichs,himselfbecamean authorinfluentialin Volkishcircles.Diederichs
namedthe ideology,whichhe heldin commonwithLangbehnandthe Volkists,New
Romanticism. Oneof the mostsignificantaspectsof the Volkishromanticismwasfaithin
theGeist, whichroughlymeansspirit. Notethatgeistsoundslikeghostandis partof the
longerGermantermpoltergeist. TheGeistthatDiederichsextolledwasa supernatural
spiritthateverymemberof the Germanraceheldcollectively,andwhichcouldnot be
sharedby profit-accumulatingJewishindustrialists.^143 Sometimesthe termenunciated
wasVolk-geist. Mossewritesthatin the philosophyof anotherVolkishintellectual,Johan
G. von Herder,everyethnicity,exceptfor the Jews,had its ownVolkgeist, which“encom-
passedthe wholecommunity.”^144
Diederichs,Mosseverbalizes,detested technologicalcommerce.“Thespectercon-
frontinghimwasthe generationof economicempirebuilders,in mid-passagein Europe
as wellas the UnitedStates.In reaction to thisgildedage,Diederichsandhis New