Hans Naumann's gesunkenes Kulturgut and primitive Gemeinschaftskultur

Hans Naumann is known primarily for the term gesunkenes Kulturgut, to such a degree that he is inseparable from the term. It is rarely translated but just left in the German original. It was, however, his conception of primitive communal culture that caused the harshest reaction to his work, evoked negative criticism during Nazism, and was condemned to the end of the twentieth century. Hans Naumann assumed a theoretical stance in the 1920s that thrust him into a maelstrom of controversy he could not possibly have anticipated, the final results of which affected his reputation and cost him his academic position and nearly his life. This paper will survey much of that scholarship for the English-speaking world; it will probe the contents of the two works in which his primary concepts are presented; there will be detail on Naumann's excursions into Nazism—based to some degree on information found in a 2001 "biographical novel" by his son Andreas Naumann, which has not yet been assessed by Naumann scholars. Hans Naumann's work will be treated by shifting our gaze away from "sunken goods" and toward "primitive communal culture," suggesting why such a reassessment is important today. Finally, in order to contribute to our understanding of the role Hans Naumann has played in folklore, translations into English of the two works where his concepts appear will be presented.