Happy New Year! I hope the Yuletide festivities treated you well. I was planning to read two books and post about them here, but ended up busier than expected. I did finish one of them, however, and that book is A New Nobility of Blood and Soil by Richard Walther Darré. This was only translated into English rather recently, so it was nice to get something fresh that hasn't been discussed much in English speaking National Socialist circles. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find a pdf version to upload or link here, but the hard copy is sold by Antelope Hill and is reasonably priced.
Darré argues for the necessity of a nobility saying that the growth and prosperity of a people is directly related to the health of its nobility. Darré discusses the nature of the German nobility and states that the upper class can only become a nobility when it consists of families rather than individuals. It is necessary for the German nobility to ensure the hereditary nature of its proven leadership talents through an educational tradition that guides the noble youth. Nobility is the selection of gifted generations promoted into an achievement based leadership stratum, providing a continuous performance test and proof of achievement for future generations. Put simply, the nobility is simply a pool of individuals of proven stock that could potentially make up the leadership of the nation. The new nobility would need to retain the blood of proven value in a hereditary line, repel inferior blood, and retain the ability to absorb newly emerging talents from the people. The hereditary line would also provide a eugenic benefit as there can only be one heir. The head of a family with many children can choose the best to inherit his nobility. Darré does not believe that a nobility based on merit alone can lead the Reich, although a ruling class based on merit would have to create the nobility in the first place, but follows the Nietzschean ideal that blood alone ennobles the spirit. Darré then goes into the history of the German nobility, detailing how their nature was subverted by the influence of Christianity, the idea that all people are equal as the children of God, and became subservient to the Roman Empire. Although Rome recognized the inequality of man, the inequality of Rome was based on ownership of property rather than blood dynasties. Land as an asset to be bought and sold at a whim and also as a speculative asset is a major issue in our time as well and the time of this book's writing. For the Aryan, land is inherently tied to family and is a necessary link in the unity of the Aryan people. This separates National Socialism from materialistic ideologies such as Liberalism and Marxism. Darré also discusses how Germanic peoples are incompatible with city life, preferring the countryside. This echoes our previous discussion of Tacitus. That we have unknowingly come to the same conclusions as those considered foundational to National Socialism shows that we are stumbling upon some universal truths and that our discussions have been worthwhile.
As for who will make up this nobility, Darré asserts it will be composed of individuals who are not driven by egocentric goals, but rather goals superior to his own ego. A man who puts his people above himself and will set an example for others. Darré notes that Germany at the time of his writing has an abundance of potential new nobles as the brave men who fought in the World War all meet this criteria. If those bloodlines could have been preserved, they could have provided descendants who would be up to the task if called upon again. As it was pointed out earlier, we no longer have this sort of grouping of brave men to choose from. If a new nobility were to be created in our times, we would need another source.
Darré struggles with two conflicting facts. That state involvement in land ownership will erode the confidence in the inviolability and permanence of property and that a change in land organization must happen. Much like today, the Germany of Darré's time had large estates owned by a small number of elites. Darré proposes splitting the land between living relatives or friends of the elites or providing monetary compensation for the land to be reorganized. Darré also proposes the formation of a Noble Cooperative, a self governing body composed of each German noble that provides a confirmation of the inheritance of a hegehof (Darré's all encompassing term for the noble estate). Darré proposes a Peasant Cooperative to operate independently, but alongside the Noble Cooperative. This Peasant Cooperative would be functionally identical to its Noble counterpart, but would work in matters of the peasantry and their heirs. The peasant's land may or may not be as large as a hegehof, with peasants owning only as much land as is needed to feed his family. Darré goes on to describe in detail his proposed layout of various noble organizations at the local, Gau, and Reich levels. His organization seems rather convoluted with multiple organizations and sub-organizations performing what appear to be the same tasks. I question this since each organization would have to be funded and staffed somehow, but it's obvious that some organization would have to exist to allow the nobility to manage themselves and their lands for the good of the Volk.
Darré spends about 1/3 of the book discussing marriage and breeding laws. This concept should be fairly self explanatory for those already familiar with the movement, so I won't go too far into discussing it. One interesting thing Darré does here is outline how women would be divided for eugenic purposes. He forms four classes, 2 for women who are desirable and 2 for women who aren't. Class I has women who are desirable in every respect. This would be roughly the top 10% of women and any young hegehof candidate can freely choose his wife from this class. Class II consists of women whose marriage and reproduction would be considered desirable, however the hegehof candidate would need the approval of the Noble Cooperative to marry a woman from this class. This would be the largest group, containing most women. Class III is made up of those who could potentially marry, but due to some hereditary flaw could only marry if their childlessness could be guaranteed. Finally, Class IV is all those women who are fit for neither marriage nor children. These are the mentally ill, criminals, and illegitimate children of unknown origin. On the subject of illegitimate children of unknown origin, they may be moved up to Class II if they are deemed fit through their own merit. These clear divisions seem like a suitable sketch for what eugenic breeding laws should look like, but I would suggest putting men in similar classes as well if they were applied to the general population rather than just to the proposed nobility. Of course, pedigree alone is not enough to determine someone's class and Darré recognizes this. Only through consistent performance testing can an individual attain status in Class I or II. A person who fails to meet these minimum requirements, even if she were born to a young noble and a Class I woman, would be dropped to Class II or even lower.
Darré also tackles the subject of education, much as we discussed before. He separates the education of a German citizen into three stages: education of the community, vocational education to create a functional person with useful skills, and civic education to turn that functional person into a citizen of the Reich (which includes compulsory military service). Outfitting a citizen with technical skills early in life then allowing them to exercise those skills in the military or labor force while also using the time in those programs for civic education is certainly efficient. I'm interested in seeing how the Reich's education system was really set up, but information seems scarce. The outline given by Darré here reinforces our previous ideas on proper education and the importance of a reformed education system throughout the West cannot be stressed enough.
Ultimately, Darré doesn't seem to be arguing for the restoration of the monarchy, but rather the restoration of the Prussian spirit of Germany as described by Spengler. Nevertheless, this book would probably be of great interest to any monarchists you encounter in your travels and I'll be using it as a regular recommendation. As a text highly influential on the NSDAP's policy, I'd consider it a must read for National Socialists as well. Darré includes an extensive list of related works in an appendix at the end of the text, all with descriptions of their content. Sadly, most are untranslated, but maybe one day in the future we will be able to use this as a legitimate reading list.
>>1277
I've been slowly reading through this archive over the last year or two and I finished the pre 1933 section in its entirety. There are a lot of good articles there that are just as relevant now as they were then. There's a lot to be learned there and it's really an invaluable resource.