Richard Walther Darré
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Richard Walther Darré | |
---|---|
Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture | |
In office 29 June 1933 – 6 April 1944 (On leave from 23 May 1942) | |
Chancellor | Adolf Hitler |
Preceded by | Alfred Hugenberg |
Succeeded by | Herbert Backe |
Chief of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office | |
In office 1 January 1932 – 12 September 1938 | |
Preceded by | Office established |
Succeeded by | Günther Pancke |
National leader (Reichsleiter) | |
In office 3 June 1933 – 23 May 1942 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Ricardo Walther Óscar Darré 14 July 1895 Agronomist |
Cabinet | Hitler cabinet |
Military service | |
Allegiance | German Empire |
Branch/service | Imperial German Army |
Rank | Leutnant SS-Senior group leader (SS-Obergruppenführer) |
Battles/wars | World War I |
Richard Walther Darré (born Ricardo Walther Óscar Darré; 14 July 1895 – 5 September 1953) was one of the leading
Early life
Darré was born in
Darré's parents sent him to Germany at age nine to attend school in Heidelberg. In 1911, he attended King's College School in Wimbledon as an exchange student. The rest of the family returned to Germany in 1912. Richard (as he was known in the family) then spent two years at the Oberrealschule in Gummersbach, followed in early 1914 by the Kolonialschule for resettlement in the German colonies at Witzenhausen, south of Göttingen, which awakened his interest in farming.
After a single term at Witzenhausen, he volunteered for army service. He was slightly wounded a number of times while serving during World War I.[6]
When the war ended, he contemplated returning to Argentina for a life of farming, but the family's weakening financial position during the years of inflation made that impossible. Instead, he returned to Witzenhausen to continue his studies. He then obtained unpaid work as a farm assistant in Pomerania. His observation of the treatment of returning German soldiers there influenced his later writings.
In 1922, he moved to the
He married twice. In 1922, he married Alma Staadt,[d] a schoolfriend of his sister Ilse. The marriage produced one daughter, Anneliese, born 1923. He and Alma divorced in 1927 and, in 1931, he married Charlotte Freiin von Vittinghoff-Schell, who survived him. The second marriage also produced one daughter, Elin, born 1938.
Political career
As a young man in Germany, Darré initially joined the
Darré's first political article (1926) discussed Internal Colonisation and argued against Germany attempting to regain its lost colonies in Africa. Most of his writing at that time, however, concentrated on technical aspects of animal breeding. He wrote his first book, Das Bauerntum als Lebensquell der nordischen Rasse ('Peasantry as the life-source of the Nordic Race'), in 1928.[9] It asserted that German farms had previously been bestowed on one son, the strongest, ensuring the best were farmers, but partible inheritance had destroyed that. [8] Darré demanded the restoration of the ancient tradition, as well as serious efforts to restore the purity of Nordic blood through eugenics.[8]
In her biography of Darré, Anna Bramwell interprets his writing as an early example of "
Those who heard and heeded Darré's arguments included Heinrich Himmler, himself one of the Artaman. [8]
Darré's work also glorified "peasant virtues" – as found in the remnants of the Nordics who lived in the country – and disparaged city living. [9]
In his two major works, he defined the German peasantry as a homogeneous racial group of Nordic antecedents, who formed the cultural and racial core of the German nation, and promoted the idea that since the Nordic birth-rate was lower than that of other races, the Nordic race was under a long-term threat of extinction.[12]
Nazi Party member
In July 1930, after Paul Schultze-Naumburg had introduced him to Adolf Hitler, Darré joined the Nazi Party (# 248,256) and the SS (# 6,882).[13] On 1 January 1932, the chief of the SS (Reichsführer-SS) Himmler appointed him chief of the newly established SS Race and Settlement Main Office, a racist and antisemitic organization concerned with the implementation of racial policies and the control of the racial integrity of SS members.[14] In 1932 Darré was given the rank of SS-Group leader (SS-Gruppenführer) and in November 1934 he was promoted to SS-Senior group leader (SS-Obergruppenführer).[15] During the 1932 presidential election, Darré engaged in a campaign of anti-Semitic harassment against Theodor Duesterberg, the candidate of the conservative German National People's Party, who, it emerged during the campaign, was the grandson of a Jewish convert to Lutheranism.[16] Duesterberg was so wounded by Darré's attacks that he challenged him to a duel, a challenge that Darré declined under the grounds that it was beneath him to fight a man with "Jewish blood".[16] Duesterberg then took up his dispute with Darré before the court of honor of the Former Officers of the 1st Hanoverian Field Artillery Regiment of Scharnhorst, number 10 to which Darré belonged.[16] The court ruled in Darré's favor.[16]
Darré was first elected to the
Darré went on to set up an agrarian political apparatus to recruit farmers into the party operating along three main directives: to exploit unrest in the countryside as a weapon against urban governments; to win over the farmers as staunch Nazi supporters; to gain a constituency of people to be used as settlers displacing the Slavs in future land grabs in the East. The German historian Klaus Hildebrand described Darré together with Himmler and Alfred Rosenberg as one of the leaders of the "agrarian" fraction within the NSDAP who championed anti-industrial and anti-urban "blood and soil" ideology, expansion into Eastern Europe to gain Lebensraum, an alliance with Great Britain to defeat the Soviet Union, and staunch opposition to restoring the pre-1914 German colonial empire.[20] The "agrarian" fraction took the view that Wilhelmine imperialism had taken Germany in the wrong direction by colonizing lands that were unsuitable for mass colonization by German settlers and had unwisely antagonized Britain.[20] The lesson that the Nazi "agrarians" drew from the German Empire was that Germany must focus its ambitions to the continent of Europe in order to win an alliance with Britain and land suitable for German colonization.[20]
Darré was instrumental in founding the Nazi Reich Food Society (
At the Nazi 'agricultural school' in Burg Neuhaus, the "Reich School of the Reichsnährstand for Physical Exercises" Darré promoted Nordic racial purity through eugenics and the "New nobility of blood and soil". Darré appointed the photographers Anna Koppitz and German sports photographer Hanns Spudich to produce pictures of the hand-picked young peasant farmers exercising for Rudolf Bode's Neuhaus gymnastik.[23] The pictures appeared in the June 1939 Die 5. Reichsnährstands-Ausstellung ("5th Reich nutrition exhibition") in Leipzig and in Odal, the organ of Nazi propaganda.
Darré developed a plan for "Rasse und Raum" ("race and space", or territory) along the ideological lines of "Drive to the east" ("Drang nach Osten"), "Living space" ("Lebensraum") and "Hitler's dream of conquest" earlier expounded in Mein Kampf.[24]
Darré strongly influenced Himmler in his goal to create a German racial aristocracy based on selective breeding.[25] The extreme Nazi policies of eugenics would lead to the annihilation of millions of non-Germans. In the course of the preparations for the "Master Plan for the East" (Generalplan Ost), Himmler would later break with Darré, whom he saw as too theoretical.[26] Although Darré was considered one of the few Nazi ministers who knew his field well,[27] he was generally on bad terms with Economy Minister Hjalmar Schacht, particularly as Germany suffered poor harvests in the mid-1930s.[citation needed]
Discrediting and displacement
Darré's influence began to wane as Hitler and Himmler both came to feel that he was too much of a theoretician and an incompetent administrator.
The transcript of a 1940 speech, supposedly given by Darré, was published in
By blitzkrieg . . . before autumn . . . we shall be the absolute masters of two continents . . . a new aristocracy of German masters will be created . . . . [with] slaves assigned to it, these slaves to be their property and to consist of landless, non-German nationals . . . we actually have in mind a modern form of medieval slavery which we must and will introduce because we urgently need it in order to fulfil our great tasks. These slaves will by no means be denied the blessings of illiteracy; higher education will, in future, be reserved only for the German population of Europe . . . .[30]
After the war
In April 1945, the American authorities arrested Darré, interned him at
He was charged under the following counts:[31]
- Count I: participation in the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression and invasion of other countries. Found not guilty.
- Count II: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace and crimes against humanity: The count was dismissed, the tribunal finding that no evidence was offered.
- Count IV: crimes against humanity, relating to offenses committed against German nationals from 1933 to 1939. The count was dismissed upon the arguments of defense counsel.
- Count V: atrocities and offenses committed against civilian populations between 1938 and 1945. Found guilty.
- Count VI: plunder and spoliation. Found guilty.
- Count VII: slave labor. Found not guilty.
- Count VIII: membership of criminal organizations. Found guilty.
Darré was sentenced to seven years at Landsberg Prison. He was released in 1950 and spent his final years in Bad Harzburg. He died in a Munich hospital, on 5 September 1953, of liver cancer. He is buried in Goslar.
Works
Darré's works were primarily concerned with ancient and present Nordic peasantry, and the ideology of blood and soil. Within this context, he made an explicit attack against Christianity. In his two main writings,
- Das Bauerntum als Lebensquell der nordischen Rasse, [Peasantry as Life-source of the Nordic Race] (1928)
- Neuadel aus Blut und Boden, [New Nobility from Blood and Soil] (1930),
Darré accused Christianity, with its "teaching of the equality of men before God," of having "deprived the Teutonic nobility of its moral foundations", the "innate sense of superiority over the nomadic tribes".[32]
See also
- Hunger Plan
- List SS-Obergruppenführer
- Nazism and race
- Reich Harvest Thanksgiving Festival
- Ecofascism
Notes
- ^ Bramwell gives the middle name as "Oskar"[1][page needed]
- ^ Knobelsdorff gives Eleonore's parents as Theodor Erik Lagergren, born 1839 in Glömminge, Sweden, and Josefina Margarete Thole, born 1841 in Haselünne, Lower Saxony, Germany.[2]
- ^ He was baptised with the name "Richard" [written in Spanish as Ricardo]; the name "Walther" was adopted later to differentiate him from his father, also named Richard, and he became known by this name in political life, though he continued to sign his name as either "Richard Walther" or "R. Walther".[4]
- ^ Full name Alberta Helene Theresa Alma Staadt; date of marriage 29 April 1922.[7]
References
- ^ a b c Bramwell 1985.
- ^ a b Knobelsdorff 1935.
- ^ a b Darré 1925.
- ^ Darré 1925, p. 11.
- ^ Letter to his wife Alma as quoted in Bramwell 1985.[page needed]
- ^ Swaney 2004, p. 53.
- ^ Catalog of archive materials held by the Munich Archives relating to Alma Darré available at http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/archiv/ed_0916.pdf Archived 30 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine (consulted 18 January 2014).
- ^ a b c d Pringle 2006, p. 40.
- ^ a b Miller Lane & Rupp 1978, p. 103.
- ISBN 9780521612777.
- .
- ^ Bramwell 1985, p. 55.
- ^ Biondi, Robert, ed., SS Officers List: SS-Standartenführer to SS-Oberstgruppenführer (As of 30 January 1942), Schiffer Publishing, 2000, p. 7
- ^ McNab 2009, pp. 23, 36.
- ^ a b Williams 2015, p. 227.
- ^ a b c d Wette 2006, p. 65.
- ^ Miller 2006, pp. 230–231.
- ^ Orlow 1973, p. 74.
- ^ Miller 2006, p. 231.
- ^ a b c Hildebrand 1973, p. 18.
- ^ Lovin, Clifford R. (October 1969). "Agricultural Reorganization in the Third Reich: The Reich Food Corporation (Reichsnahrstand), 1933–1936". Agricultural History. 43 (4): 447–461.
- ^ Tooze 2008, p. 182.
- OCLC 43366966.
- ^ Tooze 2008, p. 179.
- ^ Tooze 2008, p. 171.
- ^ ISBN 9780199592326.
- ISBN 9780795316999.
- ^ "Reich Changes Food Minister". No. New York Times. 7 April 1944. p. 2.
- ^ Zentner & Bedürftig 1997, p. 183.
- ^ "Secret Nazi Speech: Reich Minister Darré discusses the world's future under German rule", Richard-Walther Darré, Life, 9 December 1940 (Ginger Rogers cover), pp. 43–44. 'Life' suggested a lack of confidence in the veracity of the report with the comment "Even if [this address] was not delivered exactly as recorded here, it might have been"
- ^ a b "Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes Trials: United States of America v. Ernst Von Weizsaecker et al (Case XI). December 20, 1947 – April 14, 1949.". US Government archives
- ISBN 978-0521823715.
Bibliography
- Bramwell, Anna (1985). Blood and Soil: Richard Walther Darré and Hitler's 'Green Party'. Abbotsbrook, ISBN 0-946041-33-4.
- Darré, Richard [Oscar] (1925). Meine Erziehung im Elternhause und durch das Leben. Wiesbaden.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Farquharson, J.E. (1992) [1976]. The Plough and the Swastika: The NSDAP and Agriculture in Germany, 1928–45 J.E. London: Landpost Press. ISBN 1-880881-03-9.
- Hildebrand, Klaus (1973). The Foreign Policy of the Third Reich. London UK: BT Batsford Ltd.
- Knobelsdorff, Manfred v. (1935). Die Ahnen Deutscher Bauernführer: Band 1: R Walther Darré. Reichsnährstand Verlag.
- McNab, Chris (2009). The SS: 1923–1945. London: Amber Books. ISBN 978-1-906626-49-5.
- Miller, Michael D. (2006). Leaders of the SS & German Police. Vol. 1 Reichsführer SS – Gruppenführer (Georg Ahrens to Karl Gutenberger). R. James Bender Publishing. ISBN 978-9-329-70037-2.
- Miller Lane, Barbara; Rupp, Leila J. (1978). Nazi Ideology Before 1933: A Documentation. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-75512-0.
- Orlow, Dietrich (1973). The History of the Nazi Party: 1933–1945. University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 0-822-9-3253-9.
- ISBN 0-7868-6886-4.
- Rees, Philip, ed. (1991). ISBN 0-13-089301-3.
- Swaney, Keith R. (2004). "An Ideological War of 'Blood and Soil' and Its Effect on the Agricultural Propaganda and Policy of the Nazi Party, 1929-1939". The Gettysburg Historical Journal. 3: 45–74.
- ISBN 9781101564950.
- ISBN 978-0674022133.
- Williams, Max (2015). SS Elite: The Senior Leaders of Hitler's Praetorian Guard. Vol. I. Fonthill Media LLC. ISBN 978-1-78155-433-3.
- Zentner, Christian; Bedürftig, Friedemann, eds. (1997). The Encyclopedia of the Third Reich. New York City: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80793-9.
External links
- Das Erbhofgesetz (in German)
- Review of Anna Bramwell's biography of Darré, Blood and Soil at the Wayback Machine (archived 28 May 2005)
- Quotation of speech
- Neuordnung unseres Denkens "New Order of Our Thought" by Richard Walther Darré at archive.org
- Blut und Boden – Ein Grundgedanke des Nationalsozialismus "Blood and Soil – A Basic Tenet of National Socialism" by Richard Walther Darré at archive.org
- Information about Richard Walther Darré in the Reichstag database
- Newspaper clippings about Richard Walther Darré in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW