Roper, John H, Jr.

English

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International Social Science Review
Volume 89 | Issue 1 Article 8
2014
Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western
Culture by David B. Dennis
John H. Roper Jr.
University of Pennsylvania
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Recommended Citation
Roper, John H. Jr. (2014) "Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture by David B. Dennis," International Social Science
Review: Vol. 89: Iss. 1, Article 8.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/issr/vol89/iss1/8
Dennis, David B. Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture. Cambridge: 
Cambridge University Press, 2012. xvi + 541 pages. Hardcover, $35.00. 
 
In 1938, Richard Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg opened the Salzburg Festival. 
On that occasion, the Nazi Party's official newspaper and propaganda organ, the Völkischer 
Beobachter, reported the opera to be not only a theatrical production, but also "a program, a 
promise, and a symbol all in one" (p. 382). The same could be said of the Nazi understanding of 
artistic works in general, as historian David B. Dennis demonstrates in his exhaustive 
examination of culture writing published in the Völkischer Beobachter during its 25-year press 
run.  
 Dennis carefully traces how the paper interpreted and employed an esteemed cast of 
historical cultural figures, including Goethe, Schiller, Beethoven, and Nietzsche––but with 
Wagner always the most referenced and revered of them all––in order to support and inspire 
Nazi political goals. In thematically organized chapters, Dennis guides the reader through the 
paper's use, or as is more often the case, abuse, of the artistic contributions of these figures 
during major stages in the party's history: from raging against the doomed Weimar Republic to 
seizing power and enacting anti-Semitic policies to finally plunging the world into war.  
 By Dennis's calculations, over ninety percent of authors writing on cultural topics in the 
paper were "occasional contributors" (p. 459). The output from these writers could range from 
only a single piece to dozens during the paper's run. But the writers, nearly forty percent of who 
were academics, belonged to a group of individuals striving to work toward the opinions of the 
Führer. As a result, their interpretations of key cultural figures were protean and contradictory. 
This very conflict demonstrates how Nazi cultural policy was built piecemeal, responding to 
shifting political imperatives, but rarely coordinated from the top down.  
 As the largest daily in Nazi Germany and the first German newspaper to reach a circulation 
of over 1 million, the Völkischer Beobachter makes for an important site of inquiry. Previous 
works in the historiography of cultural reception have looked at Nazi publications targeted at 
specific audiences, but rarely at how the party communicated to a broad public. Dennis 
decisively illustrates that cultural criticism was used not merely to validate the anti-Semitic and 
anti-modern agendas of Nazism, but also to provide an essential rationale for those beliefs.  
 While the paper was successful as an organ for trumpeting outrages, it was much less 
confident in articulating a coherent cultural policy for the Reich. Even so, race was always 
inextricably intertwined with culture. An excellent example is the paper's championing of racial 
and völkisch theorists such as the British-born Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927), who 
asserted that the "elemental force of all art lies in race, that art must announce an idea, that true 
German art requires a German philosophy of life" (p. 266). A race's worth could be determined 
by its cultural production and, by extension, either could be marked for elimination if perceived 
as failing to meet the Führer's espoused ideals. 
 The book's frequent use of direct quotations has the benefit of never shielding the reader 
from the turgid prose and endless repetition that marked the paper's style. In contrast, Dennis's 
writing is always clear and often engaging. But what is frequently lacking is active, repeated 
interpretative intervention from the author. As a result, readers without a firm command of 
German cultural history may at times be left to wonder how much the Völkischer Beobachter's 
interpretations distorted contemporaneous or currently accepted historical understanding. Dennis 
acknowledges his debt to the interdisciplinary work of pioneering historians George L. Mosse 
and Fritz Stern, but his work largely complements their insights rather than providing new 
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Roper: Inhumanities by Dennis
Published by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository, 2014
interpretive analysis. For this reason, those works remain essential companion pieces to properly 
contextualize Dennis's research. 
 Dennis attempts a synthesis of thematic analysis and chronological coverage with mixed 
success. The final chapters, grouped under the heading "Nazi 'Solutions'," form one of the 
strongest portions of the book. In this section, the clearly delineated chronological focus lets the 
reader easily understand how Germany’s annexations and conquests before and during the 
Second World War transformed the party's deployment of cultural figures, notably expanding to 
include such additional figures from Western culture as Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci, and 
Goya. In earlier chapters, however, a primarily thematic organization tends to obscure 
connections between contemporary events and the paper's content. For instance, the very popular 
exhibition of "degenerate art" in 1937 and the subsequent auction of pieces purged from national 
museums in 1939 would surely have influenced the paper's writing and understanding of 
accepted style. But explicit connections with such key events are often lacking or so quickly 
noted as to be easily missed.  
 Nonetheless, the book rewards careful reading. It is a near compendium of Nazi cultural-
historical writing and a confirmation of scholarly participation in the politicization and 
nationalization of the arts that will be of significant benefit to historians. In addition, its 
contribution to the study of propaganda will be of interest to a range of disciplines, including 
political science, sociology, and psychology. Inhumanities is an essential demonstration of the 
pivotal role culture played in Nazi conceptions of national and racial identity and an important 
addition to any campus library. 
 
John H. Roper, Jr. 
Ph.D. Candidate in History 
University of Pennsylvania 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
 
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International Social Science Review, Vol. 89 [2014], Iss. 1, Art. 8
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Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture by David B. Dennis

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Inhumanities: Nazi Interpretations of Western Culture by David B. Dennis

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