We have over 12,000 students, from over 100 countries, within one of the safest campuses in the UK
94% of Lancaster students go into work or further study within six months of graduating
Fatal Attraction of Nationalist Socialism
Project: Non-funded Project › Projects
1/01/06 → …
- Dr Thomas Rohkramer (Researcher)
This research addresses the important question of how a totalitarian regime could find mass support for its inhumane policies. It thus deals with an important historical question, which is also relevant to our own time: a study of the darkest aspect of German history offers more general insights into the fatal attraction of fundamentalist movements.
How could the German Right transform itself from a politics of the nobility into a fatally attractive, popular ideology? How could the Nazi Party gain mass support in free elections and remain popular far into its rule? Dr. Thomas Rohkramer is currently examining how the desire for a single communal faith played a decisive role in attracting German citizens to the extreme Right. This research addresses the important question of how a totalitarian regime could find mass support for its inhumane policies. It thus deals with an important historical question, which is also relevant to our own time: a study of the darkest aspect of German history offers more general insights into the fatal attraction of fundamentalist movements.
The project is divided into two parts: The first completed part, to be published in the book A Single Communal Faith? The German Right from Conservatism to National Socialism (in print), focuses on the intellectual expressions of the desire for a communal faith in Germany from 1800 to 1945. The second developing part focuses more specifically on the ideal of a harmonious community of the people (Volksgemeinschaft) and militarism, but takes a wider cultural approach and places the desire for a single communal faith within the theoretical frameworks of political theology.