National mysticism

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National mysticism (German: Nationalmystik) or mystical nationalism is a form of nationalism that elevates the nation to the status of numen or divinity. Its best-known instance is Germanic mysticism, which gave rise to occultism under the Third Reich. The idea of the nation as a divine entity was presented by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. [1] National mysticism is closely related to Romantic nationalism,[ citation needed ] but goes beyond the expounding of romantic sentiment, to a mystical veneration of the nation as a transcendent truth. It often intersects with ethnic nationalism by pseudohistorical assertions about the origins of a given ethnicity. [2]

Contents

National mysticism is encountered in many forms of nationalism other than Germanic or Nazi mysticism and expresses itself in the use of occult, pseudoscientific, or pseudohistorical beliefs to support nationalistic claims, often involving unrealistic notions of the antiquity of a nation (antiquity frenzy) or any national myth defended as "true" by pseudo-scholarly means. [3] [4]

Notable examples

See also

Related Research Articles

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Richard Friedrich Wetzell is an American historian specializing in German criminology and research fellow at the German Historical Institute.

References

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  16. e.g. Alexander Sokurow, www.faz.net; see also Arkaim.
  17. Described as national mysticism in Christian Kind, Der Wille zur Macht -Wie sich Milosevic zum Herrscher über Serbien erhob NZZ Folio 06/99
  18. Aytürk, İlker (2004). "Turkish Linguists against the West: The Origins of Linguistic Nationalism in Atatürk's Turkey". Middle Eastern Studies. 40 (6): 1–25. doi:10.1080/0026320042000282856. ISSN   0026-3206. JSTOR   4289950.
  19. Moshe Sharon, Studies in Modern Religions and Religious Movements and the Babi-Baha'i (2004), p. 77.