Armin Mohler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Armin Mohler (April 12, 1920-July 4, 2003) was a Swiss-born far right political writer and philosopher associated with the Neue Rechte phenomenon. Mohler's ideas owed more to the Nouvelle Droite strain associated with GRECE than the Ostpolitik-derived ideas of a strong German state associated with contemporaries such as Robert Spaemann and Gerd-Klaus Kaltenbrunner[1].
Contents |
[edit] Life
Born in Basel, Mohler studied at the University of Basel where for a time he supported communism. He was called up to the Swiss army at the age of 20 but, after reading the works of Oswald Spengler, became a supporter of Nazi Germany and defected to that country in 1942 with the aim of joining the Waffen SS. Although Mohler proved medically unfit for duty, he remained in Berlin for another year before returning to Switzerland, where he was incarcerated for desertion. After World War II he returned to study in Berlin and completed his doctoral thesis Die Konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918-1932 (The Conservative Revolution in Germany, 1918-1932) under Karl Jaspers in 1949. In the same year, he worked as a secretary for his idol Ernst Jünger, but that man had become too moderate for Mohler's taste after the end of the war. He went on to work as a correspondent in Paris for Die Zeit from 1953 to 1961. After that he lived in Munich, working for the Siemens Foundation. He later worked for both Franz Josef Strauß and Alain de Benoist. In 1967, he became the first to receive the Konrad Adenauer Prize. After German re-unification, Mohler attempted to exploit the confusion in the left to further his conservative ideas, but failed. He died in 2003 at the age of 83.[2]
[edit] Writings and ideas
Mohler's seminal work was the book Die Konservative Revolution in Deutschland 1918-1932 (The Conservative Revolution in Germany, 1918-1932) (initially his doctoral thesis) which argued that history was a spherical process that can move in any direction according to how it is driven by charismatic individuals, a process he described as 'nominalism.'[3] It has been argued that this is a view he shares with Gaia philosophy.
Mohler also argued against any notion of German guilt for the Second World War, arguing that post-war Germany should 'step out of Hitler's shadow'. In this respect it has been claimed that Mohler was a forerunner of Ernst Nolte and associated thinkers involved in the Historikerstreit.[4]
As well as this Mohler regularly contributed to journals such as Nation Europa and Die Tat whilst also writing for more mainstream newspapers such as Die Zeit and Junge Freiheit. Under the alias Michael Hintermwald he contributed articles to Gerhard Frey's Deutschen National-Zeitung.
[edit] Political activism
Mohler was initially a supporter of Franz Josef Strauß and the Christian Social Union of Bavaria but later worked with Franz Schönhuber in the founding of The Republicans. Internationally he was close to Alain de Benoist.
[edit] Fascism
Mohler's notion of Conservative Revolution has been described as fascism, with Roger Griffin arguing this point.[5] In a newspaper interview Mohler accepted that he was a fascist but only in the tradition of José Antonio Primo de Rivera and with the acceptance of the notion that fascism had its roots in the far left as argued by Zeev Sternhell.
[edit] External links
- (German) Literature by and about Armin Mohler
[edit] References
- ^ M. Minkenberg, 'The New Right in France and Germany: Nouvelle Droite, Neue Rechte, and the New Right Radical Parties', P. H. Merkl & L Weinberg (eds.), The Revival of Right Wing Extremism in the Nineties, London: Frank Cass, 1997, pp. 73-4
- ^ Balzer, Jens: Verspäteter Konservativer: Zum Tod des Historikers und Publizisten Armin Mohler in Berliner Zeitung 2003-07-12. Accessed April 19, 2007.
- ^ Interview with Robert Steuckers by Troy Southgate
- ^ Prelude, Interlude, Afterlude. Spotlights on German Debates
- ^ R. Griffin, The Nature of Fascism, London : Routledge, 1993, pp. 166-9
|
|||||||||||
