There’s a big misunderstanding in many circles that National Socialism, as both a Cosmo theoretic and political movement, had a revolutionary character, similar to the French Revolution in 1789 or the Bolshevist Revolution in 1917. This is a big, and in many cases in purpose, mistake. National Socialism had not a Revolutionary character against the tradition, but it is the Revolution of TRADITION against the leveling movements of democracy and bolshevism from the Ideal of Europe-Race.
It is a fact that this second element of National Socialism was not from the beginning in its political practice. In spite of the fact that there are specific mentions and claims about the IDEA of EUROPE – RACE in “Mein Kampf”, it is true that National Socialism gained its European Orientation mainly during the years of the Great War, 1939-1945. This was because seeking a new idea-nucleus to be the foundation of the NEW IMPERIUM it had to be defined on the basis of its Cosmotheory, the Race, specifically the White European Race that consists the wider biological framework, into which the German Folk belongs.
The Hellenic orientation of National Socialism is doubtless. I will mention as examples a few facts. The two great spiritual giants, who adored Germany during their time, were Wagner and Nietzsche, both deeply Hellenists. Who is not aware that Richard Wagner strived to revive the Spirit of the Ancient Hellenic Tragedies with the Overall Work of Art through his works? Who is not aware that Friedrich Nietzsche strived to approach the Great Meanings of Hellenic Philosophy through his works? “We are seeking the lost Temple of the Hellenes”, writes in his work “Twilight of the Idols” and afterwards “what I expect from the German Philosophy is to become one day physiologically Hellenes!” In “Mein Kampf” too, which consisted and still consists the Bible of National Socialism Hitler himself writes about “the Hellenic Ideal of Civilization” and for a New Civilization that will last for a thousand years, because it will embrace and combine Hellenism with Germanism. Who is not aware of the establishment that during the Olympic games, the Flame should be taken from Olympia to the city where they are held, was ordered during the Olympic games in Berlin in 1936, taking place in the National Socialist Germany? The buildings, the statues, the art, the ancient-like stadiums, built during the Third Reich were all Hellenic!
The Hellenic orientation of the National Socialists is doubtless. But the subject of this work is to point out how far the philosophy and biotheory of Ancient Sparta had influenced the German State of 1933, to show how far the Mythic Doric State inspired the Third German Reich. Beginning this effort, I would like to answer to those liberal “intellectuals” who consider Ancient Sparta as a vulgar state of uneducated soldiers with the words of the Great Plutarch from his Parallel Lives:
“Lykourgos brought not literature and speech to light, but a state without equal, proving to all those who thought that the so-called philosophical awareness was non-existent, that an entire state was able to philosophize”.
What exactly Ancient Sparta was is not the subject of this article, but its relationship with the National Socialist Germany, in spite of the distance of time, and this exact relationship will be examined limited of course, searching the common points of the construction of these two states, their Spirit, the Education of the Youth, their Patriotism, their Racial Politics, their Economy and their Military character.
Before I start this examination, it is my moral duty to inform the readers that a book about the relationship of National Socialist Germany with the Ancient Hellenic world was written by the late Vasileios Tsirimpas, Professor of the Philosophic School of the University of Munich. The book that examined the relationship of the Third Reich with the entire Ancient Hellenism was entitled “The Pioneers of National Socialist Education” and it was published in Athens in 1937. The second edition was done by the “Hellenic Tomorrow” publications – Thessaloniki 1981.
Something very important and that I must point out is that it is almost useless to examine the relationship or to define the character of a State, just by searching its political structure. A State is not defined by the way of election of its leaders or the way of governing, but from its Spirit, its Values and its Principles, its Central Idea and in which way it defines its COURSE in Time.
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A Spartan Mother Says Goodbye to her Son (1795) by Pierre Michel Alix[/caption]Patriotism and Race
The Ideal of Fatherland, the reality of Fatherland for Ancient Sparta and for Hitler’s Germany was of the Highest Value. Everyone and everything, men and objects, were under the roof of the Fatherland, dictating their being and their destination and in times of need they sacrificed their lives for it. Men are transient, individual interests, properties; everything is unimportant compared to the Greatness and the need of the Fatherland. It was that way and it was meant to be that way and it should be that way, but unfortunately as everyone knows it is not. We won’t have to go further on this.
Both States considered the foreign customs and the cosmopolitan influences a great danger for their very existence. In Ancient Sparta, the defense of the State against every foreign influence, every foreign habit that would try to infiltrate the State, was called Xenilasiae. National Socialist Germany fought as well against everything that was cosmopolitan and corrupted in the State. “I ceased to be a cosmopolitan and I became anti-Semite”, wrote Adolf Hitler in “Mein Kampf”. Clubs for the German Art, for the German Music, for the German Civilization were established, every alien influence was fought, and the corrupted monstrosity called “modern art” was prohibited.
The worship of the ancestors in both States was very important. In Ancient Sparta there were rites and athletic games in honour of Hercules, the High Ancestor of the Dorics and annual games in honour of those who fell during the wars, in Germany there were rites for Charlemagne and Otto the Great. There was in both States the common understanding that the Folk is a flowing river of Blood, constant and unbroken.
But the most distinguished aspect that displays the common spirit of both States was the importance of the Race, as well as the politics that both had to preserve its purity and its improvement. In the same way one had to be a Spartan by ancestry in order to be considered a Spartan, in the Third Reich one had to be of German Blood in order to be considered German citizen. Race mixing was severely punished in both States. In the same time, there was the common understanding for the superiority of Race. Motherhood was sacred and was protected in both States. In Germany there was a special law of protection as well as a special medal for childbearing. In Sparta, mothers were respected for their offering to the Fatherland. In one occasion, on the cause of this respect, a foreign woman told to Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas: “Only the Spartan women control their husbands” and she replied: “Yes, because only we are giving birth to men”.
Kaiadas in Sparta and the racial laws of Nuremberg in National Socialist Germany were protecting both States from the presence of weak, biologically deprived people who would lower the level of the Race and who would eternize in time their physical weaknesses.
Education of the Youth
“Because first of all Lycourgos thought that the children didn’t belonged to their fathers, but were common possession of the state.” Plutarch – Life of Lycourgos
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Three Spartan Boys Practising Archery - Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg.[/caption]The Youth in National Socialist Germany and in Ancient Sparta belonged to the Fatherland, the State. For this reason their Education had, as it’s very objective, to make them useful citizens who would love their Fatherland and if necessary, sacrifice their lives for it. Their Education in both States was under a strict control of the state and it was harsh because only through physical pains the spirit, the will, the patience, the aggression, can be formed. The Youth in Sparta and in the Third Reich learned to honour and respect their parents, to follow the traditions, to be modest and never speak lightly, to be proud and honourable and above all to love their Fatherland, without this we are unimportant objects without origins, purpose and destination.
Who can doubt that the Iles and the Agelae of the youth in Ancient Sparta were not the inspiration for the NSDAP to form the Hitler Youth?
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Thermopylae, July 1941[/caption]The Military Character of both States
“War is the Father of All” Heracletos
The appearances of Hitler without his characteristic field gray military uniform were seldom and private. The Ideal of the National Socialist Germany was above all a military Ideal. In the same way, the State of Sparta was nothing more but a military camp. Both states, deeply permeated by the Physical reality that life is a constant hard struggle, looked like a vast military camp, preparing their citizens for war, because they were aware that a Folk not ready for war couldn’t have any demands from History.
War, as the supreme Ideal, as the highest process of natural selection, was a basic element for the structure of both states. The defiance of material goods in order to defend the Honour and the Right of the Fatherland from the side of National Socialism is clear in the mid-war slogan “More guns and less butter”.
The rank of the SOLDIER in both States was the highest. We only have to mention that in the Bayreut Festival with the works of Wagner, during the war was open only through invitations for those wounded on the front. In Ancient Sparta, the right for a named burial (that is, a grave with the name written on it) was kept only for two categories of citizens: for the men, to those who fell in battle, for the women, to those who died giving birth to a child.
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Lycurgus of Sparta, Merry Joseph Blondel[/caption]Society and Economy
“For that reason, fighting shame and envy and crime and effeminacy and those two weaknesses of the state, the oldest and most important ones, richness and poorness, he convinced all the citizens to put everything in common and distribute them in order for everyone to live equal with equal riches, striving to be the first in virtue, as there was no inequality and difference among them but the only that dictated by the downfall of the bad and the praise of the good citizen.” Plutarch – Life of Lycurgus
“They say that Lycourgos, many years after the distribution of the land, returned from a journey and saw that the fields were harvested, and looking at the equal stacks, he smiled and said to his company that the entire Spartan land looked like a country that belonged to brothers who have just divided their property.” Plutarch – Life of Lycurgus
Lycurgus and the Ancient Sparta were the first who realized what was to become later the scourge of mankind, the monetary slavery! Once those of power had the material goods under their control, today things are reversed; those who control the material goods are at the same time those with power. Lycurgus tried to prevent this reversion, this rape of nature, by minimizing the social injustice, establishing a condition of economical equality among the citizens and proceeding in a practical measure for achieving this purpose. Plutarchos wrote that with the abolition of golden and silver coins and by replacing them with heavy iron coins, many kinds of injustices disappeared from Lacedaemona. Thus Lycurgus and the Ancient Sparta were the first who abolished gold as a basis of its economy.
On the same grounds National Socialist Germany abolished gold as the basis of its economy and replaced it with work. They also abolished the slavery of usury, the money trade conducted by the robbing banking system.
The social right of both states was the opposite of that existing today and they considered as the highest and chosen members of society not those who gained money through deception but those who were distinct for their Virtue and their offerings to the Fatherland.
Closing this effort to parallel those two States, definitely an effort that is not complete, according their political identity, their social structure, their Values and Ideals, I would like to add something irrelevant towards rational comparisons:
THE SWASTIKA OF NATIONAL SOCIALIST GERMANY WAS ONE OF THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF ANCIENT SPARTA!
Epilogue
One morning of the April of 1945 in Berlin, the few defenders left saw posters on the walls of the city. It was the poem of Kavafis “The Barbarians”. In the Hellenic manner and ethos, Germans, French, Belgians, Spanish, European Warriors the of National Socialist Ideal gave their last battle, as their duty demanded, as if their mothers were from Lacedaimona, and when they set for the campaign they pointed to their shields and said : ”Ή ταν ή επί τας” (with it or upon it). And as loyal Spartans they kept their oath and remained unshaken and unyielding to their positions. Today, on the place where the final battle of the 20th century Sparta took place there are skyscrapers built with the jewish capital and factories built on bolshevist forms. There is no place of remembrance for those brave warriors, the last defenders of Europe. Not a single plaque nor Simonides to send with his epigram the ultimate hail to the Fatherland: “Oh Stranger, tell them in Sparta…”
Today we are marching fast towards the Dark Age of the computers and there were once Ancient Sparta stood only ruins left. Eurotas has dried and among the reeds and the rocks you will not meet young Spartans engaged on the Krypteia, nor the Purple cape, symbol of Doric Militarism, waves in the winds of the Laconic earth. The souls of the dead young Spartans who died under the whip of the elders, without a cry of pain or fear coming out of their lips, are wandering in the Temple of Orthia Artemis, those who died full of love and pride for the State, those who died with no complaints in order to prove they are worthy of Sparta because of their strength, their hardness and their pride. This place is haunted by their Blood spilt on the earth, and every time the storms and the thunderbolts are howling down from Parnon and Taygetus towards the Temple, from the bowels of the haunted earth comes a great voice: “Even though we have fallen many will rise”.
Ancient Sparta and National Socialist Germany: two States-symbols of the struggle for the right and the truth, in the fight for the downfall of the social plague of democracy and bolshevism. Even though Berlin has fallen, even though the Medes passed through the Thermopylae, even though our kin, our brothers, our compatriots cannot help us, even though those who were supposed to stand by our side mocks us, they cannot shake our decision. The New Thermopylae have not fallen yet, the New Thermopylae will be Triumphant, the New Thermopylae are our Souls!
EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE FALLEN MANY WILL RISE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaUeCsuvoHA
Translated by Hjarulv Henker from an old GOLDEN DAWN magazine.
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