Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938-1945

5. “Nordic-Germanic” Dreams and National Realities

5 “Nordic-Germanic” Dreams and National Realities A Case Study of the Danish Region of Sønderjylland, 1933–1945 S T E F F E N W E R T H E R Whenon9April1940,GermantroopsmarchedintoDenmarktheywereenthusiasticallygreetedbymembersofsouthDenmark ’sGermanminority, manyof whomsympathizedwiththeNaziregimeinGermany.LocalGermansbelieved thatthelong-awaitedrevisionoftheDanish-Germanborderwasathand.They hopedthattheborder,whichhadbeenshiftedaftertheFirstWorldWar,would be now returned to its original position and North Schleswig (known in Denmark as Sønderjylland) would once again become part of the German Reich. However, theGermanminority’shopesproved invain.The Nazi leadership in Berlinhadmorefar-reachingforeignpolicygoals.Inparticular,Reichsführer-ss HeinrichHimmlerwasobsessedwiththeideaofredrawingthemapofEuropein ordertounitetheallegedlyblood-related(blutsverwandten)Germanicpeoples within a Greater Germanic Reich (grossgermanischen Reich).1 The occupation of Denmark and Norway, Himmler hoped, was a stepping-stone toward making this vision a reality. 130 S T E F F E N W E R T H E R The Nazi goal was actually not an extension of German borders but Denmark ’svoluntaryincorporationintotheThirdReich.Inthisregardthedemands of south Denmark’s German minority and of its branch of the Nazi Party, the nsdap-n (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei-Nordschleswig), weremoreofahindrancethanahelpbecausetheycausedstrifebetweenDanes and Germans.2 Therefore Berlin demanded that the nsdap-n and its leader, Jens Möller, show great restraint when it came to the border issue. Indeed, the German minority was directed to behave as a sort of mediator. Its mission was to improve understanding between Danes and Germans. This meant that the German minority had to perform a complete volte-face when it came to its goals and policies. Initsattempttoimplementits“GreaterGermanic”ideology,theSchutzstaffel (ss) also drew upon the support of Denmark’s National Socialist Workers’ Party (Danmarks Nationalsocialistiske Arbejder Parti, or dnsap). The Nazi invasion placed the Danish Nazi Party’s members in a difficult position. The dnsap’s leader, the south Danish physician Frits Clausen, admired Hitler. Yet he was also an ardent Danish nationalist who had opposed the nsdap-n’s demandsforaborderrevisionformanyyears.CollaborationwiththeGerman authorities offered Clausen and his small Danish party definite opportunities butalsoinvolveddangers.Ontheonehand,theGermanauthoritiesmighthelp Clausen gain significant political power. On the other, working with the GermansalsomeantriskingbeingdismissedasatraitorbytheDanishpopulation . Consequently, Clausen’s cooperation with the ss proved conflict ridden, not leastbecauseHimmler’ssupranational“GreaterGermanic”ambitionsclashed with the former’s hopes to reclaim Danish sovereignty. This chapter will open with an overview of the ss’s “Germanic” policy. It will then look specifically at the Danish region of Nordschleswig/Sønderjylland .3AcasestudyofthissouthernmostpartofDenmark,whichuntil1920was part of the German Reich, is significant not only because of the presence of a sizable German minority but also because this region was the organizational hub of the Danish Nazi Party.4 The ss, which defined itself as both Nordic and Germanic,hadtodealwithtwoseparategroupsthatwereatoncesympathetic to Nazism and anchored in Denmark as Germany’s collaborationist partners, yet with a history of mutual antagonism dating back to the beginning of the 1930s. The leaders of the ss, and in particular the leaders of the two local Nazi parties, were faced with difficult political and ideological choices. “Nordic-Germanic” Dreams and National Realities 131 Thischapterwillexaminetheensuingconflicts,ingrainedinsouthDenmark’s competing and sometimes overlapping national, racial, and in part regional conceptsofidentity.ItwillalsolookathowDanishNazisandtheVolksdeutsche respondedtothe“GreaterGermanicidea”bothbeforeandduringtheGerman occupation.Theirambivalentreactionstoss demandssuggestthatthess racial ideologycouldnoteffectivelyerasethenationalistpassionsthatseparatedthese otherwise“blood-related”peoples.Rather,thess’ssupranationalGreaterGermanicvisionentangledbothcollaboratingpartiesinapoliticaldilemma ,since national identity was a fixed constituent in party members’ self-conception. The “Germanic” Politics of the SS Although today the ss’s racial ideology is primarily associated with degradation and racial exclusion leading ultimately to the genocide of the Jews, in the context of North Schleswig it also involved lesser-known, inclusive, and idealizing elements of ss racism, which were applied to the allegedly blood-related GermanicpeoplesofnorthandwestEurope.TheallegedexistenceofaNordic race andastrictlyGermanicspacewasanintrinsicpart ofNaziideology. In his capacityasheadoftheGermanpoliceandthess,Himmlersoughttomakehis organization into a consistent exponent of “Germanic” politics, defining the ss as“anOrderofNordic-destinedmen”(OrdennordischbestimmterMänner). The construction of the “Nordic race”—supposedly superior to others in terms of character and physical prowess—can be roughly situated in the first decades of the twentieth century. One of the dominant ideas was the fear that the “Nordic race” faced the prospect of extinction or, at the very least, degeneration . Racial hygiene was thus perceived as a crucial weapon in the survival of the race. Considered the main exponent of Nazi “Nordic thought,” Hans F. K. Günther belonged among those who believed that the “Nordic race” was endangered.5Headvocatedan“all-Nordicmovement”(allnordischeBewegung), asortof“blondInternational,”torevivethethreatened“GreatRace.”6Beginning in 1922 Günther published a series of treatises, which created a foundation for the ss’s racial ideology.7 On 11 November 1938 Himmler gave a speech to ss officers in which...