The Last Form Of Government To Redeem The World

The futuristic novels written between 1929 and 1933 joined the theoretical utopias of this period in playing down the theme of an apocalyptic struggle for the world, which only became truly popular in utopias and science fiction novels after the transfer of power to the National Socialists in 1933. Although the theme of a relatively self-contained and rejuvenated Germany tended to be foregrounded in the novels before 1933, there were nevertheless a few noteworthy exceptions, i.e., utopian novels that envisioned either a future German world mission or at least a leading role for the white race in coming wars or coming economic struggles between nations. These novels fall into two groups: one that embellished its nationalistic fantasies of a German rise to world power with various idealistic, humanitarian, and social-liberal phrases, and another that expressed clearly and in brutally imperialist terms the leadership claims either of the Germans alone or of a white race led by the Germans.

Of this first group, Wilhelm Götz’s Before New World Catastrophes: A Warning and a Goal: A Social Novel of the Future; 1931, is paradigmatic. The novel begins with a programmatic statement, which, while it appears to derive directly from Spengler, nevertheless gives voice to more general feelings of resentment:

“The white race has lost the respect of the coloreds as a result of the last war. Our esteem sank in the eyes of the rest of the world. This development was strengthened by the wars and unrest within Europe, events that came about as a result of impoverishment and class differences. Europe learned nothing from the war, and America, whose promises had led the Germans to lay down their arms, would later have to pay dearly for its lack of action with regard to the dictated peace of Versailles. As a result of the war, the civilization of the white race along with its industry were adopted by the coloreds. They were able to manufacture products in their own countries at considerably less expense and thus needed no imports from Europe. As a result, the level of exports from the industrial countries sank lower and lower and unemployment rose unremittingly, for the workers in the industrial countries were not allowed to earn anything.”

Confronted with this situation, Götz concludes that the West must quickly come up with a “new idea” before it is too late and the rest of mankind loses its “faith in the leadership abilities of the white race.” Referring to the “dictated peace of Versailles,” Götz articulates his volkish sympathies in the claim that such leadership is only to be found among the German Volk. In the West, the Germans are not only the “youngest” of peoples, they are also a “Volk caught up in a massive process of ferment, seeking a new form,” a people whose “colossal energies spur on and urge forward a new world order.” According to Götz, only Germany’s release from the French yoke of slavery, the “greatest shame and disgrace” ever committed by “whites against whites,” will deliver the West from certain catastrophe. Only then will Germany have the chance to “show the white race the path of salvation.” No other “Volk on this earth,” one reads later, possesses such “strength for its tasks, such spiritual depth, such universal bonds, and such unattainable goals of political unity as the German Volk.” In a later section, Götz writes:

“You are the last among peoples, from thy womb the form of government of the future will grow. On this land the eternal spirit prepares its earthly form. That is your earthly mission! You can do nothing to change it, and no earthly power can hinder you! You are the heart of Europe, and Europe would die if its heart no longer beat. Germany, you are the youngest of the nations born on this earth, and divine inspiration will give to you the last form of government, and with that you will redeem the world.”

The plot of the novel reflects an ideology whose main tenet is that the white race cannot remain passive if it still desires to maintain its “predominance on this earth.” The outcome joins all of the European peoples within one united and powerful state structure, whose dominion extends deep into the lands of Asia and Africa. In economic terms, the victor is a kind of liberalized socialism, which proves to be highly beneficial to all citizens of the Reich.

The one remaining opponent of the new Reich worth mentioning is a plutocratic United States, where ten ruthless business magnates have seized power. In the twenty-second century, an apocalyptic struggle between the two superpowers breaks out in which the technologically superior Eurasia emerges victorious. After its conquest, Eurasia widens its territory to become the “United States of the Earth.” In this way, the “humiliated” Germany of the first half of the novel succeeds in becoming the greatest power on earth. Germany is subsumed within a larger state structure only in order to fulfill its ultimate “world mission,” setting for the world a shining example of true greatness, true magnanimity, and true “Faustian striving.”

-Excerpted from “Old Dreams of a New Reich” by Jost Hermand (1988)