Arthur Moeller van den Bruck (April 23, 1876 – May 30, 1925) was a German cultural historian and writer. April 23 is the 113th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (114th in leap years). ... 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Biography

Arthur Moeller van den Bruck (also Moeller-Bruck) was born in Solingen in 1876, the son of Ottomar Moeller, a government building official, and Elisabeth van den Bruck, the daughter of a building official. From 1898 to 1910 he studied at a gymnasium (a type of German secondary school) and afterwards continued his studies on his own in Berlin, Paris, and Italy. His eight-volume cultural history Die Deutschen, unsere Menschengeschichte ("The Germans, our people's history") appeared in 1905. In 1907 he returned to Germany and in 1914 enlisted in the army at the start of World War I. Soon thereafter he joined the press office of the Foreign Ministry and was attached to the foreign affairs section of the German Supreme Army Command. His essay "Der Preußische Stil" ("The Prussian Style"), in which he celebrated the essence of Prussia as "the will to the state", appeared in 1916, marking his embrace of nationalism. It showed him as an opponent of parliamentary democracy and liberalism, and exerted a strong influence on the Jungkonservativen ("young conservative movement"). After a nervous breakdown he committed suicide in Berlin on May 30, 1925. Solingen is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. ... A gymnasium (pronounced with or, in Swedish, as opposed to ) is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English Grammar Schools and U.S. High Schools. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... “The Great War” redirects here. ... The Oberste Heeresleitung or OHL (Supreme Army Command) was the highest echelon of command of the German army in World War I, while the Navy was led by the Seekriegsleitung or SKL, (Naval Warfare Command). ... Eugène Delacroixs Liberty Leading the People, symbolising French nationalism during the July Revolution. ... A parliamentary system, or parliamentarism, is distinguished by the executive branch of government being dependent on the direct or indirect support of the parliament, often expressed through a vote of confidence. ... Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that Suicide method be merged into this article or section. ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... May 30 is the 150th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (151st in leap years). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Moeller van den Bruck was the joint founder of the "June Club" (Juniklub), which sought to influence young conservatives in the fight against the Treaty of Versailles. Later it was named "Deutscher Herrenklub" (German Masters Club) and became very powerful, helping Franz von Papen become "Reichskanzler" (Imperial Chancellor) in 1932. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. ... Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen (29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German nobleman Catholic politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ...

Influence on Nazism

In his book Das Recht der jungen Völker ("The Right Of Young Nations"), in which he presents the interests of Germany, Russia, and the United States and develops an expressly anti-Western and anti-imperialist philosophy of the state (Staatstheorie), Moeller van den Bruck attempts primarily to bridge the gap between nationalism and concepts of social justice. He had a major influence on the Jungkonservativen in their opposition to the Treaty of Versailles. He may have also supplied the Nazis with some of the concepts underpinning their movement, though upon meeting Hitler in 1922 he rejected him for his "proletarian primitiveness". The Nazis nevertheless made use of his ideas where they could, including appropriating the title of his 1923 book Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich") as a political slogan. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ...

Source

• Stan Lauryssens, The Man Who Invented the Third Reich: The Life and Times of Arthur Moeller Van Den Bruck. Sutton Publishing, NY, 2003. ISBN 0-7509-3054-3.
• Fritz Stern, The Politics of Cultural Despair: a study in the Rise of Germanic Ideology, UCP, Berkeley, 1974. ISBN 0-520-02626-8.