Germanisierung als Abwehr des Flüssigen

Über das Verhältnis von Männlichkeiten, Körpern, Nation und Territorium in völkischer und nationalsozialistischer Ideologie

Abstract

English abstract: From the German Empire to National Socialism, the „Slavic flood” served as a metaphor for a perceived demographic threat in Germany’s eastern borderlands. This article argues that the flood metaphor highlights a close connection between masculinities, bodies, nation, and territory in völkisch and National Socialist ideology. Statistical records of ethnicity had liquefied the German eastern border since the turn of the century. Subsequent calls for its solidification by means of population policies focused primarily on the female body. By connecting birth rates and territorial boundaries völkisch and National Socialist biopolitics operated not only in the dyad of the individual and the social body, but in a triad including space. It is therefore no coincidence that the flood metaphor used for territorial boundaries resembles the body perceptions identified by Klaus Theweleit in his study of (fascist) masculinities. The articles shows how boundaries of bodies, gender, and territory were closely intertwined.