On the Religious Origin of Runes

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 4. 1942

 

Few people imagine that the language we speak every day is not only a means of communication in human relations, but is the expression of the soul in its deepest roots. The language of the poet expresses the greatest mysteries and always influences linguistic creation. The sound of a word, its nuance, its musical content, often expresses more than logical concepts. Finally, language and writing have a religious origin, just like art. Our ancestors were aware of this. In the Edda song about the awakening of the Valkyrie, the creation of the runes, i.e. the signs that our ancestors engraved in small characters, is attributed to Odin: “Interpreted them/ Engraved them/ Conceived them Hopt”. But in Viking times, Odin was the god of warriors and scaldes and thus also the holder of the mysterious original wisdom. The myth of the essence of the runes is given to us in two verses of the Edda. Odin speaks about himself:

 

I know I’m hanging

AI ’arbre battu des vents

Nine full nights,

Sorry about a spear And given to Odin,

I myself have given,

I looked underneath,

I picked up the runes,

Screaming I picked them up,

From there, I fell back.

 

In his extreme distress, Odin delivered himself by collecting the runic characters. In the sublime poem of the Edda, The Seer’s Prediction’, there is the verse The Aesir gather .../ Remembering/ The great events/ And the ancient runes/ Of Fimbultyr’. Fimbultyr is Odin.

 

The Nobely stone, dating from around 600, attests to the same conception of the origin of the runes through the inscription: “I painted the runes from the counsellor” (Odin). For the Germans, the runes are part of creation, part of the power guiding the world.

 

The words “runes” do not only refer to the characters of the runic script, but to the sacred, mysterious signs of strength, giving divine grace, protecting from all dangers threatening body and soul, and also being able to harm and destroy. The popular belief in the immense power of runic signs continued in the northern countries until modern times, especially in cases of illness or disappointment in love. But it also lived and reigned in ancient Germany. The verb “becheren” (to give a gift) tells us this. Its original meaning was: to create or make something for someone by cutting runes. The name of the magical mandrake root (Alraun), which is endowed with mysterious powers, is also related to this. The key to understanding this Germanic folk belief lies in the questioning of fate by throwing small pieces of wood, as mentioned by Tacitus. The marks made by the spell were so powerful that the gods themselves were subjected to them; they must therefore have been powerful, sacred and come precisely from the powers of fate.

 

The ancient runes used by the old Germanic tribes.

  

 

These characters will already command respect because of their great age. For research in the last decade has probably discovered that at least a quarter, if not half, of the runes in the Common Germanic Futhark can be traced back to prehistoric symbols that have disappeared.

 

The Futhark characters cited were derived from names embracing the entire conceptual world of the Germanic people: they reflected the world of the Germanic peasants in the Germanic-Nordic settlement area. Each mark therefore corresponded to a particular word, for example the fourth rune to the word ‘anzuz’, i.e. Ase. At the drawing of lots, three small sticks were collected and a verse was written by hand from the sign-words that represented the answer to fate. But this could only be done when the sign was considered both as a sign with an initial sound, and thus as a character, whose initial sound, for example ‘anzuz’, served as the letter ‘a’. This dual aspect of the runes has only become clear in the last decade.

 

The Germans also possessed, through their predictive characters, a set of letters that could be used to communicate in writing. Who had the creative idea for this use and where did it take place are questions that remain unanswered for the time being. Some indications given by Roman authors lead to the conclusion that this art was practised very early by the spiritual leaders of the Germanic tribes.

 

However, it is clear from all this that our ancestors were aware of the religious origin of the runic script and thus also of the language. In 1938, research led to the conclusion that the runes were more than just a means of communication. Their engraving has a religious basis and a purpose similar to the ancient rock drawings: to strengthen and immortalise.

German-German Authority

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 2, 1939

 

The destiny of a people is linked to the greatness and worth of its ruling class. In it is expressed the revolutionary power of courage, will and aspiration. The laws on which it depends, which govern its actions, are timeless and eternally valid. Only men who love risk and danger, its tireless promoters, are called to be leaders; they never lose the creative fever, put on their helmets after every victory and constantly seek out more difficult and more attractive tests in new battles. In the past, the history of our nation was shaped by these forces. Periods of weakness and historical emptiness for our people reigned when they failed and with them this courageous spirit. But after this decadence, and long before the popular force withered away in a desolate renunciation, the nation was taken in hand by a strong leader, straightened by a new will. The history of our people is the history of its leaders. Whoever wants to understand it and learn from it must go back to its sources.

 

The association of all popular forces and their coming together to serve a higher community based on the idea of a ruling class and a troop, are not inventions of National Socialist ideology, arising after the period of political impotence and internal fragmentation of the post-war period. Rather, it resurrected them. For the notion of the leader is an essential component of the nature of German-German man. It is, so to speak, an inherent law of the blood, a vital expression of the racial essence that aspires to order in the community and corresponds to the innermost need to commit one’s life to a cause or a work. It gives meaning to the life of the individual only within the group and enables him or her, as part of the community, to put national values to work in a creative sense. Without the organic unity of leaders and troops, no national and social achievement on the part of the Germanic people could be expected, even in the past. All periods of national expansion found at their head those figures whom we can look upon with pride and admiration. But their achievement was always based on a voluntary and faithful recognition of their ability to lead the community.

 

Elite chefs

 

Every genuine ruling class in the German-German spirit has risen from the bottom, from the people, to the top, and this by force of personality, by its predispositions and worth. This natural selective process goes back a long way in the recent history of our people and corresponds to the political concept of the Germanic peasantry, from the individual and his economy to the community, extending in ever-widening circles to the peoples and ethnic groups. The intelligence of an organic interplay between all the forces present in the organised community blocks that arose from daily needs was aroused by the particularity of the peasant farm in which all members work together. Like the peasant leading the farm, which is part of a whole, a chief was at the head of larger communities and popular groups, concentrating all units on the basis of voluntary subordination. However, the will of the chief did not influence the communal order; only the autonomy of the free members was decisive. The people had all the rights, the chief had no legal power of his own. He was a mere delegate of the people and had duties to fulfil towards his group.

 

The choice or acceptance of the Germanic leader was based on his origin and personal worth. The Germanic man considered that his ability to lead the community came from the quality of his blood, the clan from which he came. To this racial selection was added the judgement of personality: what the racial origin promised in virtue, character and value of the individual, was valued in his achievements and its approval was made by the clan and the community. It was according to these two principles that Germanic men co-opted their leaders. It has been rightly said that Germanic life was a ‘man evaluation’ where aptitude and deeds were judged reciprocally in order to identify the best in the community. Only the best, noblest, bravest and proudest could be elected as chief, the first of all.

 

The leader and the troop

 

The Germanic ruler did not rule over subjects. His relationship was based on a faithful alliance and a pact of assistance between free men and equals in rights; this pact was established on a voluntary feeling, dignity, love of freedom, pride and a sense of responsibility. All rights and duties between the leader and the troop were reciprocal and determined by purely practical, legal, economic and political aspects of life, thus giving rise to a high moral standard. The leader saw his troop’s right as his own, his distress as his own, and his honour and fame as his own, and his affront or outrage as that of the whole troop. “On the battlefield,” wrote the Roman writer Tacitus in his Germania, “it is a shame for the leader to be defeated in courage, it is a shame for the companions not to match the courage of the leader. But above all it is a blight on one’s life and a disgrace to have returned from a battle in which one’s leader has perished; to defend him, to save him, to bring to his glory his own exploits, is the essence of their commitment: the leaders fight for victory, the companions for their leader.”

 

The clan held the source of earthly life, which was fed by the hereditary position indissolubly linked to the lineage. The product of the field, the Odal, was the lifeblood of every legitimate Germanic man, chief and trooper alike. Since the ethnic communities consisted solely of peasants, the peasant chiefs were also chiefs of peoples. Neither the confrontation with the Roman world and the troubles of the great migrations, nor the glory and joy of battle destroyed the peasant roots of the Germans. Their aim was to preserve the freedom of the home and the land at all costs, to protect the work and effort of the peasants. When Bojokal, the leader of the Angrivarians, met the Roman monarchs with the intention of finding land, he spoke out, looking up at the sun with his arms raised: “As the sky is given to the gods, so is the earth given to mankind, and any land that is abandoned must become someone’s possession. The Roman legate was mistaken about the legitimate request of the Angrivarians: he only wanted to give the arable land to their chief, with the intention of making him an ally. However, Bojokal refused such an absurdity, ‘as a token of treason’, saying: ‘We may lack the land to live, but not to die’. The loyalty of the Germanic leader bound to his troop for better or for worse was expressed in this attitude, and he preferred death to accepting an advantage of which his people were to be deprived.

 

Sense of freedom

 

The names of the great Germanic leaders and their political deeds are unforgettable. The words of Hermann the Cheruscan express how strong their ethnic consciousness was: "If they (the Germans) preferred the fatherland, the ancestors and the ancient customs to the despots and the new Roman colonies, then they had to follow him as their leader to gain fame and freedom. And when he later met his brother Flavus (the fair-haired one), who had joined the Romans, he laughed at “the low reward for his servitude” and spoke of “the sacred rights of the fatherland which they inherited from their ancestors”. The dignity and statesmanship with which Ariovistus, the Germanic leader, confronted Caesar’s general-in-chief is exemplary: ’I do not dictate to the Roman people how they should use their right. If Caesar declares that he will not consider the hostility of the Aedui without reacting, then he must know: no one has yet fought with me without falling. If Caesar feels like it, he can fight: he will see that the invincible Germans are heroes. These words express the same nationalistic pride as the Fiihrer’s speech at Wilhelmshaven on the policy of insolent English interference in matters of German life and territory.

 

Although the Germanic state idea lacked a solid external framework— the concept of borders—and was thus deprived of a homogeneous strike force, it was distinguished by an elaborate justice and a good structure. The extension of the communal order to several tribes and peoples depended even more on the ability of the individual chieftain to create a state than on kinship. Thus, the Roman historiographer Velleius Paterculus reports that Marbod, the chief of the Marcomans, ’did not gain power among his countrymen by a coup de force or the favour of fate; after strongly consolidating his empire, he took the royal power and then brought his people out of the Roman sphere of influence. As some peoples had yielded to the superiority of arms, he decided instead to advance where he could enhance his personal power. He took possession of the ... fields surrounded by the Hercynian forest ... and subdued the whole neighbourhood by war or treaty. Under his authority, the mass of those who protected his Empire and who had almost acquired through constant training the strong structure of Roman military discipline, reached in a short time a great level of development, dangerous for our (Roman) Empire.

 

But when Marbod turned from an ethnic and peasant leader into a stubborn ruler and allied himself with the Romans ‘to increase their tyranny’, his proud Marcan Empire went to war with the Cheruscians fighting ‘for their old fame and soon recovered freedom’. Tacitus tells us (Annals II): The strength of the two peoples, the worth of their chiefs were equal, but the title of king made those of Marbod odious, while Armin (Hermann) won all the favours as a freedom fighter’. The resistance of the people was not against kingship per se, which is a Germanic form of expression, but only against the abuses of royal power, and for this reason most of Marbod’s troops went over to his enemy Hermann in order to fight under his command for their ancient right and freedom. Throughout the Germanic period and into the Middle Ages, there were uprisings led by the ruling class united with the people against rulers who were considered degenerate because they no longer wanted to be leaders of the people, the first of all, but masters of their subjects and thus muzzle the old order and freedom. Julius Civilis, the leader of the Batavians, expressed this feeling of Germanic freedom in these words: “May Syria, Asia Minor and the East which have been won over to the king, remain in their servitude: in Gaul there are still many people who were born before a tribute was imposed on the country ... nature gives dumb animals a sense of freedom. On the other hand, virile virtue is the hallmark of the human race. And the gods are favourable to him who has the greatest courage. (Josephus, Bell. Jud. IV).

 

Example and attitude

 

The framework of the Germanic communal order only appeared in extraordinary events. It was most evident in external political events, colonisations and warlike expeditions. The tasks of the leader then went far beyond those of everyday life and, in addition to courage and bravery, required a special political skill, intelligence and prudence. In the national assemblies, the most worthy of the innumerable small tribal chiefs was raised to the podium. “Kings are chosen according to their nobility, chiefs according to their courage,” reports Tacitus, “but the power of kings is not unlimited or arbitrary, and chiefs, by example more than by authority, if they have decision, if they attract attention, if they fight in front of the front, impose themselves by admiration.”

 

In war as in peace, the Germanic leader was an example of valour and action. When his competence was tested in turbulent and battle-filled times, the troops closed ranks around him and demanded that he express his sense of duty unreservedly to the death. The sovereign power of the leader was not, however, unlimited; a higher right only implied greater duties. The man in the troop owed less obedience than loyalty to his leader. This was the bond, the basis of the relationship of mutual responsibility. If the leader betrayed, he lost the right to obedience of his troop, for the German- German man owes obedience only as long as loyalty demands it. Despotism and blind obedience are alien to him.

 

The purely human relationship between leader and troop is only healthy and natural when it is determined by friendship and comradeship and does not violate the natural distance conditioned by value and its respect. But it would be a mistake to confuse this distance from the troop by any true leader with a lack of comradeship. The lack of distance and the crude familiarity also exclude any notion of authority; the person in this position is an individual among others. The leader must share joys and sorrows with his troop in good times and bad, be one with them in prosperity and misfortune. He must, however, constantly maintain his dignity, be an example in the best sense, prevent excesses and outbursts, keep a sense of proportion and respect good morals. These qualities are a manifestation of the nature of the German-German man, especially of the peasant, who can only maintain his authority over the members and subordinates with whom he closely cohabits under one roof by means of distance, power and dignity. In a genuine ruling class, the feeling of distance reflects the living heritage of Germanic blood. It must not be lost under any circumstances and forbids even the display of emotions before the troops.

 

A genuine German-German legal community is characterised by the participation of the entire free people in political life and by the small social gap between the leaders and the people. The extension of this elementary principle is revealed today in the naturalness of our National Socialist state system, whose internal structure is based on the clear recognition of our particularity. When the Nordic peasant Aki replies to his king in the Heimskringla: “If I am your man, king, then you are also mine”, he is expressing what we still feel today, namely that the relationship between leader and troop is based on the mutual duty of loyalty and assistance.

 

Peaceful missions

 

The Germanic ruling class not only participated effectively in war and combat, but also influenced the peace of the homeland, law and civility, honour, calm, order and prosperity. It still lacked an external framework at that time, for ‘during peace’, says Caesar (B. G. VI), ‘there is no common authority, but the chiefs of the tribes of the provinces and districts discuss with their people, law and benign quarrels...’. The fact that these chiefs of small communities belonged to noble racial communities or that they were large free peasants determines in an essential way their peculiarities and their tasks. In the old Norse texts, they are all generally referred to as tribal or clan chiefs, ‘the first of the region’ or ‘the ruler of the province’, in contrast to their troop of Thing people’. Such Thing communities constituted legal and administrative units; their chiefs were considered ‘the first of all’ on the basis of their origin, achievements, and honourability, and formed the supporting pillar of the political order and community structure. This relationship between the Thing and the ruling class at the origin of the political order of the community can best be defined as a happy connection between a democratic (popular sovereignty) and an aristocratic (noble sovereignty) principle.

 

Apart from this military authority in war, the tasks of the Germanic leader extended to the exercise of religious faith, the safeguarding of law and administration. As a leader, the chief was also the one most entitled to perform religious ceremonies in public and in the community and to preside over the great cultural festivals. For the ruling class touched on all areas of life that still formed a whole, such as faith, morals and law. The knowledge of the sacred was not monopolised by wizards but was the common property of all, and the acts of consecration were performed both by each peasant in his own community and by the chief of the Thing.

 

As regards the safeguarding of law, the chief only had the power to practice the right of assembly, the calling and holding of the Thing Assembly. He had little influence on jurisprudence itself, for pronouncing, enacting law and making laws was the business of the Thing assembly. “Then the king or the chief,” says Tacitus, “each according to his age, according to his nobility, according to the glory of his campaigns, according to his eloquence, make themselves heard by the ascendancy of persuasion rather than by virtue of their power to command. If the advice has been displeased, they reject it with murmurs; if it has pleased, they stir up their frames: the most honourable assent is praise with arms.” Only his great legal knowledge enabled the chief to assert himself, to safeguard the rights of his Thing people and to guarantee their protection. In the old Norse texts, the emphasis is on knowledge of the law, for example in the Njala: “There was a man named Mord ... a powerful tribal chief and a great legal adviser, so learned in the law that no judgement was considered lawful unless he attended it” “Skapti and his father were great tribal chiefs and great scholars of the law.”

 

Legal knowledge, helpfulness, righteousness and insight were as valuable as warlike fame. At a time when there were no treaties and no neutral jurisdiction, but only self-defence and the law of the quarrel, they were the best instrument at the disposal of the chieftain to settle problems peacefully and to maintain the community order through honourable agreements and arbitration. The words of the great Nordic legal chief Njal express the importance attached to keeping the law and laws to ensure peace: “Our country is built by law, but devastated by lawlessness.

 

The Germanic people voluntarily placed themselves under the protection and authority of the chief; they looked to him for friendly help, not only in words and advice, but also for energetic social support when they suffered from bad harvests and old nuisances. In the Nordic sagas, the generous chief is referred to as ‘the most beloved man in the region’ or as ‘one of the noblest of the pagan era’. The human relationship between the chief and the troop was a pact of assistance that was driven by a genuine spirit of comradeship and imposed on the first man in the community a sense of duty to help when misery struck. “It is customary,” says Tacitus, “for the cities, by voluntary and individual contributions, to offer to the chiefs large cattle and wheat, which, received as a tribute, provides for their needs.” The chief received as much as he gave; the gifts made to him were considered cooperative capital for the relief he distributed in a patriarchal manner. For the troop man, his contributions were voluntary, he provided the chief with no imposed services or contributions but with friendly help and gifts as is customary between free and equal men.

 

The law of honour

 

The Germanic ruling class was not only concerned with the ‘leadership of the province’, the legal order and administration on an external level, but also with the definition of morality. The laws that were generally recognised as moral values were the foundation. The supreme moral law was ‘life with honour’, to which the ruler was even more strongly bound than any other. For the man of the old Germanic period, honour was of decisive importance, enabling him to judge the value of his life and his character. At the level of public judgement honour was also the proof of one’s ability and value to the community. On honour depended the individual’s self-esteem and commitment, the consciousness of his own worth. It determined his authority as well as his political and social position. It related to personal pride as well as to public judgement and was generally regarded as the recognised law governing human life and by which judgement was made.

 

The community felt it had a mandate as a judge to apply the law of honour to the chief. The latter had to prove his honourability and defend it. For the honour of the chief was also the honour of the troop. If a citizen’s honour or his own was damaged, then so was that of the whole community, and everyone had a duty to clear it up. The leader displayed a sense of honour, an extreme virtue before the troop and exerted his moral influence on the community. These moral values included heroic attitude, bravery and self-assertion, sense of dignity, individual and community responsibility, unconditional fulfilment of duty to the community relying on him. Apart from this, other particular virtues of the leader were celebrated such as magnanimity, generosity, generosity and constant dedication to support in deed and word those who need help.

 

All these qualities and virtues of leadership are not exclusive to one era. They do not only characterise the internal community structure of our

 

Germanic ancestors, but also constantly determine the nature of the authentic, mainly Nordic ruling class. To participate in them, to emulate them, is for us the noblest action, for there is always a lack of leaders, of men who cannot live without a goal and a struggle, without the desire and the fever for action, men who are inhabited by a creative force and whose self-control calls them to lead others.

 

Our generation is alone in the fleeting present. We must learn again to know the laws of life most characteristic of our popular existence, which was denied us by the direct route of natural transmission. The recent past up to the outbreak of the Great War shows us only satisfied and softened generations who manifested their own lack of culture and participated from afar in the struggle. We cannot draw any strength from the emptiness of their existence because we are now on the threshold of a new world. We have to look for a virgin path and walk with courage in the darkness of the future. We must find our own scale of values in the untroubled source of our history, in ancient Germanic history, and choose the models of its fighters and leaders to guide our dangerous existence. We are an awakened and creative generation that cannot live without its historical ties and its brothers from the past.

 

He who today claims to lead, must know what was the origin of the ruling class in the course of history, must be aware of the great duties he has to fulfil at all levels, towards the past and the future. He must beware of the spirit of complacency and be filled with a fiery Germanic pride that overcomes and breaks down all obstacles.

 

Edmund Weber

Beauty Under the Sign of the SS Runes

Source: SS Leitheft No. 2a, 1941

 

Allach, tasks and purpose

 

No people lives longer than the documents of its culture!

 

The Führer’s words are a point of reference for all cultural matters concerning the German people and they govern the spirit of the Allach Porcelain Factory in Munich.

 

Many people will ask why the SS produces porcelain. The explanation is simple. The Reichsführer had already planned for a long time to intensify the SS spirit of cultural work, which was not really possible until after he took power. In 1935, he therefore founded the Allach Porcelain Factory in Munich, the main instrument of his will in this field.

 

For the Reichsführer, it was not a question of founding a new porcelain factory with the aim of producing economic value – i.e. to make money. From the outset, Allach’s primary task was to use the most attractive material available, porcelain, to create artistic works of art and objects for everyday use that would reflect the spirit of the times and bear witness to the artistic feeling and creative will of our time for generations to come.

 

Each era produces its own forms of expression and adapts them to its cultural style. The same applies to our own. With the Führer’s large-scale constructions, we are witnessing the birth of a new style – our style – whose decorative art also includes the development of new ceramic forms.

 

In this spirit, the Reichsführer SS charged Allach with setting an example in artistic creation, in the quality of the material, in execution and workmanship, and in pricing.

 

A retrospective can show what the spirit of porcelain production was: In the past, almost all porcelain factories were founded by princes (Berlin by Frederick the Great, Meißen by Augustus the Strong, Sevres by the Marquise de Pompadour, to name but a few). With a few exceptions, their mission was to produce noble porcelain of great artistic value for the glory of their founders, disregarding any economic benefits. Great artists were hired and were able to carry out their projects in peace and seclusion, free from all material worries. The result was wonderful porcelain that reflected the spirit of the age, the Rococo and the Empire – artistic works that have always retained their value and deserve the greatest admiration because they express the artistic feeling of their creators.

 

Single copies and mass-produced items

 

But times change. For almost all porcelain factories (note the significant name “manufacture” [manu= with the hand], whose work still today requires the artistic hand of man), financial and economic issues became increasingly important. Soon profit was the decisive factor. Patrons of the arts and princely commission agents gave way to merchants. All too often, art was considered to be of little value. In this period of artistic decline, a few renowned manufactures managed to remain true to their spirit.

 

 

Aryanity as a representative of a certain type of values becomes the absolute reference in art. Porcelain from the SS factory in Allach.

 

 

Different porcelains from Allach: At the top is a vase with protohistoric motifs. Below that is a candlestick that was given to every child born to SS families.

 

Amazon.

 

First, there is sculpture. It often gave rise to domestic horrors due to a lack of artistic spirit or sloppy workmanship. Allach therefore saw his first task as helping to bring the true national artistic sense to life. To be honest, this was not easy and not all projects could yet be realised. First of all, artists had to be found and hired who would create artistic works with their inspirational genius and creative talent.

 

But the Reichsführer said: Art must be present in every house, but above all in the house of my SSI Every table must be furnished with elegant dishes, not only in the living quarters but also – and primarily – in the canteens, so that the German worker and the combatant can draw new strength from the harmony of their surroundings in their hours of rest. There is no doubt that the simplest dish in a beautiful dish tastes better than the most expensive roast in a canteen! Allach wants to serve the Reichsführer’s plan as well as possible.

 

In the few years since the Allach factory was founded, it has acquired a privileged position in the field of porcelain production. Figures of heroic young men from the Wehrmacht or party associations, astonishingly authentic peasant folk figures and, above all, noble animal sculptures which show the animal in all its beauty, were produced with our present-day sensitivity. These are works that must be seen as evidence of a naturally strong artistic feeling and a creative will aware of its duty.

 

Ceramics, jugs, vases, candlesticks contain a beauty that benefits every German household. Thus, the Reichsführer SS’s aim that every utilitarian object – even the simplest water jug – should be of impeccable beauty was magnificently achieved. The great cultural treasures discovered in numerous excavations provided inspiration for design and decoration translated into the style of our time. A bridge was thus built, linking the natural creations of our ancestors with the artistic feeling of today.

 

Utilitarian objects were created – and will be created – which already sweep away all criticism by their beauty and utility. In the course of time, all the ugly and unsuitable forms will have to be eliminated and replaced by beautiful and utilitarian tableware.

 

Aware of the fact that the environment has an enormous influence on human well-being and attitude, the Reichsführer ordered his porcelain factory in Allach to act in this spirit. The home of every SS man, or simply of every German, should contain only artistic objects and tableware of the best taste. In this way, Allach offers the man working in his daily environment the beauty that regenerates him and makes him worthy of the great tasks given to him by our heroic age. 

W.

Artist and Soldier

Source: SS Leitheft No. 1, 1943

 

by Hans Klöcker

 

Each SS booklet is governed by a specific guiding idea. In this we have a clear intention.

 

Our aim is not only to make the notebooks interesting. Those who seek only entertainment will not find it in the SS Journals. The easy way out, i.e. to win the approval of everyone by writing articles that are easy to digest, would also be much easier and more enjoyable. But there are other books and notebooks for this purpose.

 

In the SS Notebooks we do not want to disperse and distract the reader, but rather to concentrate his best forces and make him reflect on himself, i.e. on his true substance. Only in this way can we help the comrades to realise themselves and to fulfil their mission within the clan community of the SS and the people. When we see the same sentence appearing again and again in letters in similar formulas: “For me the SS notebooks are a comfort before every new battle”, or when a young artist writes to us: “... This article made me feel for the first time what I still have to find within myself to become an artist”, such examples clearly indicate the path we are following.

 

This booklet is governed by the guiding principle of ‘Toughness’. The soldier knows how much toughness is needed to hold on in battle and to endure setbacks. And he also feels that it is toughness that makes any job possible.

 

But it does not occur to him that in order to understand art, one must also cross the threshold of harshness.

 

Some take as art everything that pleases them at first sight. They think that they have already entered the sanctuary and often refer to the words of the great master: “Serious is life and joyful is art”. They do not know that joyful art was often the result of a difficult struggle, such as that which Mozart gave us.

 

Others say, “I don’t understand it,” when it comes to art. Before they can learn the enrichment that art could bring to their lives, they close the door to its strengths. Instead, they settle for ersatz, more easily digestible food, insipid and superficial works of no value. They prefer a photograph to a work of art whose depth is not apparent at first glance. They swallow three-penny books by the dozen, while they supposedly have no time to read a valuable book. This cannot be our position.

 

He who took part in the harsh war in the East also knows that there are times of recollection when, precisely, one seeks simplicity in art and draws hidden forces from it.

 

Yet many say: “How can we compare our sense of combat and our artistic sense! Combat is work, fatigue, pain and sacrifice. But from art, we expect relaxation and distraction.

 

You say “relaxation and distraction”? Why are you so modest, you who can demand the greatest from it? Why do you ask so little of art? Why do you not demand from it creative force, eternal life and divine joy? Don’t you know that art can give all this? But perhaps you do not know the true meaning of art. For too long it has lost its rightful place in life. It was, like religion, only a nice accessory for a party night and Sunday. It was a colourful bird, a luxury that could be dispensed with in times of need.

 

But what is true art? It is the purest embodiment of the apprehension of the world. By the gift of art, God has granted men the ability to represent His law.

 

An example: Through the observance of the racial laws we can, by the right choice of marriage, bring our race closer to the image that corresponds to the divine will. In sport we can work the body into the proper form for its predestined purpose. In art, however, genius can fashion an ideal human body in accordance with the natural law.

 

Another example: Originally, landscapes only roughly reflect the imprint of the Creator. Those modelled by pure breeds come close. However, to reflect the image of this landscape in all its splendour, it is to the artist that God has granted this gift, that is to say, to this artist (another does not deserve the name) who, himself, obliges the Creator to manifest himself to him.

 

The decisive fact is that the artist only manages to feel God by extreme work on himself. He restores His image in the human body or in the landscape he represents. Capturing this image in stone or on canvas is still a difficult task.

 

It is not possible to judge in the usual way how difficult it is for a creator to accomplish his great mission. Let us read the biographies of a Rembrandt, an Andreas Schlüter, a Tilman Riemenschneider, a Schiller, Mozart, Beethoven. They had to fight against themselves in order to get rid of all obstacles, all external or internal hindrances, in order to free the work, so that only the creative soul remained free to perceive and carry out the divine mission. There is only one comparison that can be made, and that is the toughness of the soldier who consciously risks his life.

 

In this field, soldier and artist are related in the success achieved through hard work.

 

In extreme danger, when all weaknesses are overcome, haven’t many of you felt that moment when, suddenly, previously unknown forces are released? It is as if an envelope in which you have always been enclosed is bursting open. You burst out of it and feel like a god or a child. There is no longer any hesitation, reflection, doubt or consideration. One acts freely and justly, and can do whatever, in the moment, must be done. This is the feeling that Schiller spoke of when he wrote: “He who can look death in the face, the soldier alone is the free man”.

 

A young poet of our time must have felt particularly clearly this creative kinship between the soldier and the artist. He wrote to us recently, in the midst of the fiercest fighting on the Eastern Front: "I cannot say what joy and pride I feel. I would like to tell a legend where a whole people would be born, would live for generations. I know that one day I will be able to express what my heart holds in this warlike hour. I want to become a gold digger in my own heart, to pass on all that I live and enrich all men.

 

Of course, toughness alone cannot bring knowledge to either the soldier or the artist. Other virtues and gifts are needed. Toughness is, however, a significant factor.

 

And this is the subject of my article. It is precisely this knowledge of the common character existing between artists and soldiers that must enable you, comrades, to enter into a new relationship with true art, which alone is worthy of you. The path is not easy. But who could achieve it if not you who have overcome the hardest fighting and the superiority of the Bolshevists? Understanding art is of course not what many of you still imagine. But it is not in conflict with the experience you had as soldiers and fighters. On the contrary, it is closely related.

 

In spite of everything, you got there more easily than the artists themselves. They precede you on the path; they look for the steep slope and point it out to you. But they themselves must follow it. It costs sweat and perseverance.

 

In return, the divine reward beckons you from the highest peak.

 

You will certainly find it because it is within you. Some people have already succeeded “by chance”. Having exhausted everything, they have had to resort to reading ‘serious stuff out of desperation, first reluctantly, then enthusiastically. In the end, they realised that you can’t swallow classical poetry like a Kolbenheyer novel, but that a real work of poetry can give you more strength and joie de vivre than a bunch of superficial literature. He who has been aware of this in a moment of clarity must also find the strength to emphasise the higher principles.

 

He will one day reap the fruitful fruits after having lived through the difficult moments when he was trying to understand great art, which are comparable to the most dangerous moments of combat. He will find treasures which he did not suspect until then and in front of which he passed blindly.

85 Years Since the German and European Crusade Against the Bolshevism!

The Awakening of Our Race

 

 

Source: SS Leitheft, No. 9, 1944

 

written by a Dutchman

 

The mission entrusted by history to the Germanic peoples is now inflexible. The Western world of ideas, in which we have lived for so long, has collapsed. New forces are at work. Europe is now being challenged by powers that want to reduce it to a colony. This Europe can only assert its autonomy, its space and its high culture if it fights together. It was from this continental thinking, from this awareness of the common character of the Germanic communities, that the first political alliances were born. The political consequences followed the awakening of the race. All the Germanic countries brought together a selection of their youth in the SS Order.

 

That Germany is ahead of us in fulfilling her mission of restoring political vigour to the Nordic race and spirit is due to the fact that we Germanic peoples have too long slumbered in the shadow of England.

 

Norway has its fleet, the Netherlands has its colonies, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, liberated with the help of Germany and England, are swinging between the two. Now, for all of us, the matter is serious. It is often said too easily that we are living through one of the greatest revolutions in the history of the world, a time at the end of many centuries. Generally speaking, people are not at all aware of the dimension of this era, which is not simply a change of governmental regime. The upheaval spans a century and what we are experiencing today is the succession of the French Revolution by the National Socialist Revolution. It is the beginning of an era in which the ideals of a so-called democracy dominated by international big business no longer prevail, but a turning point in history in which the renewal of our blood, the revolt of our race, influences our lives. Only in this way can we understand the superhuman performance of the German blood soldiers over the last four or five years. The men and women would not have endured the frightful bombardment of the cities with such greatness of spirit if they did not know that their very existence was at stake. All these millions of human beings act, fight, and die in a new religious upsurge. From their blood is born a new faith that enriches the natural and healthy forces of life. This law of blood is at the same time the law of the same race. He who betrays his blood betrays himself. All mixing leads to destruction. If a race is to survive, men must fight for the preservation of the species and women must be prepared to ensure the survival of the species for generations through their children. We fight as National Socialists and SS men for a life in keeping with our species, against all foreign psychic intrusion and against race mixing. We seek to return to the sources of our life and our species. The law that the bloods of related peoples attract each other demands a fight against all the powers that want to bastardize and fragment us. These are the same powers for whom, in their plan for world domination, peoples and races are merely targets to be exploited. They are also the ones who want to prevent people of the same blood from coming together. It is the Bolshevik-Plutocratic power with its new agents throughout the world, international big capital, the power of Judaism, international Freemasonry and as a third power, the politicised Christian Church with its thirst for political power. At the other end of the spectrum is the slogan for the reunification of the Germanic world: the fight for the Great German Empire.

 

We are fighting today, often misunderstood by our own people and branded as traitors to our homeland. It seems as if these people have taken over the role of the Jews and the Freemasons in the 1930s and are acting in their place. Peoples and races do not die out in wars if they remain true to their blood, but through internal decomposition, in the course of a long peace.

 

Wars are always nothing more than trials that history imposes on people. In Adolf Hitler we honour the leader of all Germans, and when we Germanic volunteers speak of Germania, it is because we believe that in the future our own survival is guaranteed only in the interests of the Germanic world as a whole.

 

The small Germanic countries on the periphery of the Great German Empire wanted to work towards a general European goal. Blood calls for blood. We must contribute our strength and will to a great German Empire because, more than Germany, we have fallen into disunity and foreign domination. Even if there had been no German Empire in history, there would still be time to build one. Not only would we then be following a law of nature, but our survival and freedom threatened by the Soviet Union, the United States and the British would be assured.

 

We must join this future community of all Germanic peoples with equal rights, but one can only speak of equal rights if one has fulfilled equal duties. This is a National Socialist principle for the common life of the peoples. Equality of rights presupposes equality of duties and benefits. We are convinced that in ten, twenty or thirty years’ time this great Germanic community will become a reality and that in the government of this great Germania there will sit men from the various Germanic regions who today fight in the SS. Just as today men from the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and Sweden fight together, so they will work in the new community of peoples, supported by the loyalty of their fellow citizens, for the whole nation. The small disagreements that have arisen from time to time cannot destroy this great picture, this hopeful opening to the future. Adolf Hitler is its guide and guarantor.

 

Let’s open an important parenthesis about the German Empire. My father served in the Dutch army but never had to risk his life, nor did my grandfather or great-grandfather. And then, suddenly, I myself am a soldier in the front line and this peaceful, middle-class clan life is interrupted for the first time by my going to the front. This act is an important contribution to the formation of the future German Empire. Moreover, for the first time in our clan, my son will have a father who was a soldier at the front. In this way we are entering the heroic tradition as it lives in Germany.

 

This new emerging tradition also includes a proud generation of soldiers’ wives. Thus we are assured of the future, for National Socialism, in its warlike expression, can only be based on front-line soldiers.

 

In one of his last speeches, the Führer said: “No bourgeois state will survive this war”. This was of great importance to many workers, but it must also be important to us. No bourgeois state will survive this war; this means that a totally revolutionary society will arise. The struggle will not end with our victory, and the men at the front in all the German-speaking countries must also set to work after the war to make National Socialism a reality. The SS must be the driving force behind the National Socialist Revolution. The SS is not the Party, but only the storm troop of National Socialist ideology.

 

It is, moreover, a community of the Order whose aim, after the battle, is to transmit the ideological heritage seamlessly from generation to generation.

 

As we can see, there is hardly anything that separates the Dutch from the German or the Norwegian. The greatness that we all share is the sublime heritage of the Nordic race and National Socialism as an ideology in keeping with our species. We consider the combination of these two things to be the most important, and we will overcome the small differences. In faith in our historic mission, we want to build the new Europe together with all Germanic people. We are not only soldiers, but also pioneers and as such the guarantors of the race and the future of Europe.

 

The reality of the heroic commitment of an elite of Germanic peoples on all the fronts of Europe is a striking proof of the value of Nordic blood in general.