For the free and great Germany. Revolutionary conservatives’ ideas for the Reich (until 1933) Cover Image

O wolne i wielkie Niemcy. Rewolucyjnych konserwatystów idee Rzeszy (do 1933 r.)
For the free and great Germany. Revolutionary conservatives’ ideas for the Reich (until 1933)

Author(s): Marek Maciejewski
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, History, Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Recent History (1900 till today), Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939)
Published by: Uniwersytet Opolski
Keywords: The German Reich; freedom; greatness; national commonwealth; anti-liberalism; authoritarianism

Summary/Abstract: In the doctrines of revolutionary conservatism, which were taking shape after the First World War, the question of freedom meant, first of all, Germany’s independence from internal factors (liberalism, democracy, parliamentarianism and sometimes – even – socialism), as well as external ones (the influence of the Western civilization and international results of the Reich’s military defeat in 1918). Freedom, in the understanding of those ideologists, did not have anything in common with its liberal or Christian framing. The problem of internal and external freedom of Germany and the Germans was considered in the revolutionary conservatism, especially in the context of the concepts of the future new Reich, advocated by its founders, as an anti-thesis of the Weimar-Versailles order. The future German state was to be great in the extremely nationalistic or even chauvinistic understanding of that greatness. In the article, the following variants of the new Reich were discussed: as a creation of almost divine qualities, as a political myth, as crowning of the process of historical development, as a new territorial order in Europe and as great German territory. Each of those visions of the future Reich, at least partially, contained all of its mentioned concepts. They, in turn, promoted primarily the nationalistic idea of the German nationalistic commonwealth (deutsche Volksgemeinschaft), on which the remaining elements of the doctrine of revolutionary conservatism were founded.

  • Issue Year: XIII/2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 83-105
  • Page Count: 23
  • Language: Polish
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