Ludwig F. Clauss: Racial Style, Racial Character

By Tom Sunic

Ludwig F. Clauss (1892-1974)

The liberal-communist propaganda against Fascism and National-Socialism has produced results contrary to those originally anticipated. It has created the conceptual model of a value system that often defies the objective reality of the bygone Fascist and National-Socialist epochs. It has given birth to dangerous and subconscious infatuation with hyperreal would-be Fascism, best to be seen in modern mimicry of Hollywood Nazism, especially among troubled young White people. The decades-long antifascist propaganda has produced a peculiar type of infra-political narcissism among a number of estranged White nationalists who often conceive of Fascism as a life style or a vicarious Internet escapade. The deadly offshoots of such liberal propaganda are deranged Whites such as Anders Breivik who recently killed scores of innocent people in Norway.

After World War II, National-Socialism and Fascism were officially and normatively designated by the liberal system as the symbols of absolute evil. Consequently, if Fascism stands today for absolute evil, all other systems of beliefs, all other political regimes, or other political values—however aberrant they may be or will be in the future—must  be viewed as lesser evils. The history of Communist mass killings and the ongoing economic corruption and mendacity of the liberal system, however inhumane they are, or may be in the future, must willy-nilly be tolerated.

As was noted on several occasions in TOO articles (e.g., here), nowhere has the communist-liberal propaganda been as destructive as in higher education and in the media. Thousands of titles in the field of psychology, sociology and genetics, published in Europe and the USA in the 20s, 30s and 40s of the twentieth century, had to disappear from social science curriculum. Any dispassionate, unbiased and objective talk—for instance about race, especially if a researcher refers to scholarly titles from the Fascist and Nationalist-Socialist epoch—is met with suspicion, ostracism, smear campaigns and the occasional judiciary inquisition. The problem is further aggravated by the insufficient scope of analysis exhibited by many contemporary well-meaning racialist scholars, particularly in America, who oftentimes neglect other approaches in the study of race. Thus when the word ‘race’ is mentioned one is led to think about the structure of a person’s body, forgetting that the study of race can be addressed from a psychological and spiritual point of view as well.

There is also a considerable divide between American and European researchers regarding the race issue. American racialist scholars tend to use an empirically-based, quantitative approach; hence their penchant for Darwinism and the evolutionary theory and the inescapable measurement of IQ. In Europe, especially in the first part of the 20^th century, the subject of race had a large following among scholars from different and often mutually conflicting disciplines, ranging from the field of biology to the field of religious mysticism. Among many others, mention should be made of the philosopher Julius Evola, whose study of race combines both the natural science and the social science approach.

Evola was hostile to Darwinism and in his books he argues that higher species (e.g., the White man), could not possibly evolve from other races (Blacks) or from lower animal species, such as African primates. If we concede that the White man evolved from lesser species, why panic today at the sight of interbreeding we are witnessing in modern multicultural society? Accordingly, sooner or later all of mankind (based on the liberal-communist dogma of progress) will end up being beautiful and the same and sport very high IQs. Evola argues, based on the legacy of Indo-European sagas and myths (all being replete with stories on demigods, magical, transcendental and invisible forces), that our predecessors, the antediluvian Hyperboreans represented our only true race. What we are witnessing today is involution resulting in racial chaos.

Clauss was a highly influential  academic in National- Socialist Germany, a reputation which did not diminish after WWII. His later works on the psychology of Arabs are quite sympathetic to Islamic culture are widely quoted. Although a member of the National Socialist party, he helped his Jewish aideMargaret Landé, thus earning himself in Israel, after his death, the title of “righteous among the nations.”  What follows is my translation of his chapter and some excerpts from his books Rasse und Seele (Race and Soul) and Rasse und Character (Race and Character). The chapter was published in the third edition of Clauss’ Rasse und Seele, in 1943, a highly influential work in Germany back then, which, when perused today, does not sound “Nazi” (?) at all. Clauss’ books tells us that the enigma of race and racial psychology needs to be looked at over and over again — in a dispassionate, across-the-board, and interdisciplinary fashion.

“The question of value”

“When something new enters history it does not need to wait long in order to encounter fierce resistance. Whatever the German research on racial psychology encountered in Germany, a similar fate befell the entire German research on racial psychology from the rest of the world. Outrageous allegations were thrown all around, which in most cases were so clumsy and stupid, that with the passage of time they died of their own accord. Gradually, however, the fight against us became more refined. In most cases at the center of the argument, which had us as targets, surfaced the question of value: we were accused of viewing the Nordic race as the only valuable race while considering other races inferior. Wherever this “evidence” found credibility, it worked against us, all the more as the word ‘Nordic’, which among ignorant people is easily misinterpreted, causes all sorts of nonsense.

Unfortunately, the Vatican, in this campaign against the findings of racial psychology, leveled attacks against us in L’Osservatore Romano, April 30, 1938 — an attack using its usual methods. Given that my books are also targets of the attacks, it seems to be my duty to add a few words and put things in the right perspective, insofar as they are of concern to me. It won’t hurt if the explanations in this book are anticipated in advance. There are three fallacies by means of which each attack attempts to drive a wedge between us and our neighbors.

Firstly, the impression has been created that German science of race accords to each race a certain grade — as does the teacher to his pupils, i.e., placing, so to speak, races into hierarchical slots, whereby the first place must be awarded to the Nordic race. It follows from this that the Mediterranean race must reconcile itself with the second position, or worse, settle for an even lower one.

This is patently false. Undoubtedly, in Germany and elsewhere, books and booklets have been published that support such views. The psychology or race, however, which, in the last analysis, is the only qualified field to make decisions about  racial-psychological values, has taught from the very beginning and with a distinct precision:

Each race in itself represents the highest value. Each race carries in itself its own system of values and its own standard of values and must not be measured by the standards of another race.

It is absurd and unscientific to analyze the Mediterranean race through the eyes of the Nordic race and to evaluate it according to the Nordic system of values. The reverse process is also scientific. In practical life such things happen over and over again and it seems to be unavoidable. In science, however, it is contrary to simple logic. To make decisions about the value of a human race in an “objective” manner could only be done by a human being who stands above all races. But there is no such human being because to be human means to be racially conditioned.

Maybe God knows the hierarchy of races, but we do not.

The goal of science is to find laws that determine the mental and physical shape of each race. Only after the laws of each race are discovered can its inner value system be agreed upon. These value systems can be compared with each other: for instance the inner value system of the Nordic race with the inner value system of the Mediterranean race. Such comparisons are instructive because each thing in the world shows, in a clear fashion, what it is — if one sets it apart from other things that are different. But such value systems cannot be evaluated from a superior standpoint because there is no such standpoint.

The Nordic man should be Nordic; the Mediterranean man Mediterranean.
Only then can every man be real, only then can every man be good — each in his own way. This is the conviction I hold of German racial psychology, and it is the position which has also been adopted by the racial policies of the German government. The Office of Racial Policy of the NSDAP(Das Rassenpolitische Amt der NSDAP)has printed pictures and plaques and has distributed them in German schools, where we read in large letters the following words:  Each race in itself represents the highest value.

The second fallacy that the L’Osservatore Romano would like to promote is the following: according to German science each race differs from others insofar as each one has characteristics that the others don’t. Thus, the Nordic race is characterized by the ability to compare, and by energy, responsibility, diligence, and a sense of heroism. Other races do not have such characteristics. It cannot be denied that in some older anthropological works, but also in the German ones, such un-psychological statements can be found. Nevertheless, it is advisable to listen to a shoemaker when one talks about footgear, to a sailor about seafaring, to a psychologist about the laws of psychology — and not to an anatomist.

Since 1921 German racial psychology has been teaching with clear cut precision: the racial-psychological factor does not lie in this or that characteristic. Characteristics are a matter of each individual human being; somebody has such-and-such characteristics, somebody else has a different set of characteristics. The sense of heroism, for instance, can undoubtedly be encountered among many Nordic men; yet it can also be encountered among people of different races. The same is true concerning energy (will power), the ability for discernment, etc. The racial-psychological factor does not lie in such-and-such a characteristic, but rather in the manner in which these characteristics express themselves with each individual. The Heroism of the Nordic man and that of the Mediterranean man can be equally “great,” yet each looks different, i.e. expresses itself in a different way and with a different gesture.

The childlike attempt to put together individual characteristics, which are to be found among representatives of a particular race, as  for instance among the Nordic race, and then to assume that the racial factor lies in the possession of such-and-such a characteristic, is no wiser than an attempt at depicting someone’s physical appearance—for instance, Nordic racial appearance. Nordics have noses, mouths, arms, and hands.  But other races also have noses, mouths, arms, and hands. Therefore the racial factor does not lie in the possession of these body parts.  Race determines the shape of the nose, the shape of the mouth, and the way it is held and moved. Nobody who has eyes can dispute the fact that a man of the Mediterranean race moves differently than a Nordic man, that he walks differently, dances differently, accompanies his speech with different gestures. Who can now ask the question as to which sort of a movement, or what sort of a gesture is of more value: the Mediterranean or the Nordic? This question is pointless.”

Continuing from Part 1 with a translation of parts of the third edition (1943) of Rasse und Seele, by Ludwig F. Clauss.

“To each according to his kind, to each according to his style”

The movement of the body is the expression of the movement of the soul. This can best be seen in the interplay of facial muscles and in the gestures of the arms and hands with which the speaker accompanies his speech. Why is he moving his hands in such a way and why not differently?  Because the special way of his spiritual alertness will also determine the way his hands move. The style of spiritual movement determines the style of the bodily movement.

Here is a little example from day to day life that illuminates this matter. Who is more gifted to drive a motor vehicle, the Nordic man or the Mediterranean man? This question is also meaningless. Neither “the” Nordic man is endowed with this or that, nor is “the” Mediterranean man. There are many individuals of both races who are gifted to drive a car. If that’s the case, then the Nordics do that in a Nordic way and it is precisely by this that they are recognizable as Nordics.

The same goes for the Mediterranean who does it in the Mediterranean way. And it is precisely by this that he can be recognized. And this is how these two styles differ. The Mediterranean driver is the master of the moment: he is always there, always in perfect instantaneity. He drives with an abrupt change at lightning speed and at a sharp curve he yields and slams on the brakes with instantaneous effect — the more dangerous the driving, the more impressive is his game. At this stage the Nordic man is not comparable—not because he is a bad driver, but because the laws of his mental and physical movement compel him to a different driving style.

The Nordic man does not live in the world as it is; he lives always in the world as it will be. He is not the master of the instant, but rather the master of the distance. He is not cutting suddenly into the curve; he bends the curve. For him turning is “nice” if it can be predicted and then, if possible, played down. The Mediterranean driver loves surprise: only in it he can prove to be the master of the moment. The Nordic driver anticipates always ahead of the coming event, even a possible coming event. In this way he provides for himself some preplanned traffic regulations for all possible cases, which would likely irritate the Mediterranean driver, perhaps more so than it would make the driving easier for him. For the driver of the Mediterranean type there is no relief if the thrill of surprise is missing.

The third fallacy of L’Osservatore Romano is the allegation that the German people are equated with the Nordic race, whereas the Italian people are equated with the Mediterranean race. Although this is not explicitly mentioned it is tacitly suggested. The German people are composed of several races, where, of course, the Nordic race predominates. But there is also different blood among the German people, as for example, the Mediterranean blood. Likewise, the Italian people are also a mixture of several races, of which — at least in the southern part of the peninsula — the Mediterranean race predominates. But there is also different blood among the Italian people, such as Nordic blood. It is by no means true that these two peoples are separated by sharp racial boundaries; they have a good deal more in common in their blood.

This blood relationship stretches into the earliest Roman times and has been renewed many times ever since. And in both cultures, in the Germanic, as well as in the Roman, the play and counter-play of the Nordic and the Mediterranean operate; except that each culture shows different results. The Roman is older, whereas the Germanic is younger. Which one is worth more, the older or the younger? This question also seems to be wrongly put.

The attempt, to sow distrust between friendly nations, by suspecting German racial policies, can no longer be valid. Every step in the field of international politics and colonial politics confirms the findings of the psychology of race and proves it with practical usefulness when dealing with other types of people.Thegoal (of race psychology) is not to separate peoples, but to connect peoples insofar as it establishes between one type and the other a scientifically based mutual understanding. [Emphasis in text.]

The Gestalt: Psycho-Racial Anthropology

Clauss introduced new concepts, often using words and compound nouns that up until then had been nonexistent in the study of race. When translated today, these words may lend themselves to dangerous conceptual manipulations, which in turn, liberal masters of discourse will quickly label as “racist.”

This is generally the case with the German language, a stupendously rich language known for its numerous inflections. Very often Clauss uses the term ‘Gestalt’ when providing racial typologies, a word which in English can be translated as ‘shape’ or ‘form’. However, in the German language and depending on the subject matter, ‘Gestalt’, when used from the nationalist and politically conservative point of view, may refer to aesthetic and cultural perfection in the description of high forms of Western civilization. The German term ‘Gestalt’ was very popular in Germany in the first half of the 20th century, not just in the realm of race but also in other fields, such as literature and philosophy. Clauss’s contemporaries, the German philosopher of history, Oswald Spengler, or the novelist and essayist  Ernst Jünger, two scions of the pre-WWII “revolutionary-conservative intellectual revolution,” often used the term ‘Gestalt’ as a normative reference to aesthetic and political magnificence and as a radical opposite to the dreaded liberal–communist formless system permeated by the process of uglification and decadence.

Clauss’s focus on racial style and form, which he calls ‘Gestalt’, must not be confused with the school of psychology, known as “Gestalt psychology” that developed among some liberal German psychologists in the mid- 20’s—a school, that downplayed the racial factor.

For Clauss and for many racialist scholars of his time, every racial type and every racial subtype represents objective reality differently. Hence, there is no absolute truth but only aspecific apprehension of the truth based on the individual’s own psycho-racial make-up.

Because everything that happens here — the way somebody looks at us, the way he behaves, or the way how he acts, that is to say, all living things altogether — have their racial traits.  A treasure trove of such fruitful examples is provided by history. One, of these motives in Germanic life, repeatedly mentioned by Tacitus, is “loyalty”, which is in contrast to the no less effective violation of Germanic loyalty: treason. ( Rasse und Seele, pp. 38–39)

Race is by no means only a physical expression relegated to a given spot on Earth, such as for instance the assumption that only the geographic areas of Scandinavia must house Nordic peoples. Clauss rejects the idea that racial anthropology must always match racial psychology. There are many individuals who can have Nordic physical traits (phenotype) but whose behavior is un- Nordic:

Some people understand this word as if the race (Nordic) can only be found in northern Germany. Both of it is not the meaning of the description “the Nordic race.” The Nordic race is also a creator and a carrier of the German spirit in southern parts of the German national territory, whereas in other parts of northern Germany – similar to the Scandinavian lands (except for Nordic blood), live also non-Nordic races. A definition, which could be useful in psychology, will acquire the denomination “Nordic” only when we manage to demonstrate the connection between the Nordic landscape and the lifestyle of that race. A psychologist should denominate races only according to the pattern which the process of his research brings under his eyes. To investigate into the psychology of races means first and foremost to discern the meaning of its bodily form (Gestalt). This meaning, however, can only be understood from its psychological form (Gestalt). (Rasse und Charakter, 1942, p. 43; emphasis in text).

This proves once again that the idea of national identity and nationality at large cannot be automatically equated with the extent to which one embodies a racial archetype. The following four photos illustrate three different German types and a Jewish type:

1. German woman from Schleswig. Predominately Nordic. Eye expression shows inborn sense of the tragic.

2. German woman from Westphalia. The “acquired” smile is typically “Germanic,” yet facial features and the shape of her nose show a sharp “Alpine” (“ostisch”) streak.

3. German born Jewish woman. Mixture of Sephardic and Ashkenazi facial traits. Her smile shows “acquired” ( mimicked ) restraint.

4. A very tall German woman from the German speaking region of South Tyrol (northern Italy) (Mediterranean and Alpine streak). The lips alignment and the eyebrows configuration are common for the Dinaric race.

Clauss’s books have therefore a twofold purpose. He demolishes the liberal propagandistic lie that racial awareness means White man’s exclusion of non-Whites, carried through by an alleged blond German beast. Instead, his books teach us that it is precisely when admitting our racial and sub-racial differences, both in style and in character, that interracial hatred can be avoided. Moreover, his works are important insofar as they can be a good lesson for many troubled White nationalists who assume that their well-proportioned body must give them a certificate for bizarre, illicit, or criminal behavior. Who among us have not encountered self-congratulatory White conmen or White lowlifes whose behavior does more harm to the research on race than the palaver of all leftists and antiracists combined? Similar to his colleague Julius Evola, Clauss is aware that some White man may have a perfect race of the body, but whose race of the spirit may be mongrelized to monstrous proportion.

’Artrecht’ (“Being of his own kind”; of his in- group) is not a synonym for being “racially pure” in the original sense of the word.  Here we can see the difference between the “raciality” (‘Rassigkeit’) of man and the “raciality” of animal.  If somebody is racially pure, he is not automatically a man of his kind (‘artrecht’). To be Nordic, for example, does not have to mean to be a good man or a noble man. Not every Nordic man embodies Nordic values.  A man of the Nordic style can also be a crook or a criminal. A Nordic miscreant differs from a Mediterranean, Alpine, or a Middle Eastern miscreant as clearly as a righteous Nordic man differs in this sense from righteous people of these races. Both of them, the righteous man and his negative mirror-image, the miscreant, are bound by the same ethical laws respectively. With one exception: the one abides by it, the other breaks it. Pure heroes and pure crooks are rare; among all of us simmers a temptation to commit, at least once, an outrage against things that we consider right. Not that the race changes in us when we follow this temptation; only our racial system of value is disturbed. Race is race; in good and in bad. And the law remains the law even when it is infringed. (Rasse und Charakter, p. 78).

Clauss’s books are important because they delve into the hidden corners of human behavior as determined by race. His field of research may be labeled “psycho-racial anthropology,” a field which has been rejected for over a half a century by Freudian-Marxian scholars.  As long as the mystique of egalitarianism runs full steam in Western society — be it under the guise of Christian “love thy neighbor,” or under the label of the more secular liberal avatars like the “multicultural consensual society” — any serious effort to combat the danger of the multiracial experiment will be futile. Only when the current dominant ideas are successfully intellectually challenged, will the whole fraud of multicultural promiscuity fall apart overnight.

Tom Sunic (Web sites: [1], [2]) is an author ([1], [2]), translator, former US professor of political science, and former Croat diplomat. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the American Third Position and aVoR radio host. Email him.

http://reasonradionetwork.com/20110917/ludwig-f-clauss-racial-style-racial-character-part-2