A Nazi illustration of the perceived Nordic master race. The caption reads roughly, "German bearing, German achievements prove the Nordic racial heritage!"

Nordic theory (or Nordicism) is a theory of racial supremacy that was prevalent mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The theory was influential in Western Europe and North America during the early 20th century, and was a major influence on Nazism. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (534x773, 76 KB) Nazi poster extolling the virtues of the Nordic racial ideal This image is of a historical political poster, button, flier or banner, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the creator of the poster... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (534x773, 76 KB) Nazi poster extolling the virtues of the Nordic racial ideal This image is of a historical political poster, button, flier or banner, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the creator of the poster... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into racism. ... A current understanding of Western Europe. ... North America North America is a continent [1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal         Nazism or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), refers primarily to the ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers Party, German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) under Adolf Hitler. ...

The theory claims that Northern European peoples, especially Scandinavians and Germans, constitute a master race because of a supposedly innate capacity for leadership.^[1] The theory drew on the dominant anthropological model of racial categories prevalent in the early 20th century. According to that model, Europeans were divided into three main sub-categories of the Caucasian race: Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean. The Nordic race was thought to be prevalent in northern Europe, especially (but not exclusively) among speakers of the Germanic languages. The theory stated that Nordic people were typified by: tall stature, wide shoulders, long head and facial form, straight and fine blond, red, or light to medium brown hair, and blue,grey, or green eyes. While the concept of Nordic race became intertwined with a northern European cultural identity, the Alpine race was thought to predominate in central/Eastern Europe, and was said to be characterized by short stature, dark hair, dark eyes, narrower shoulders and comparatively round head. The Mediterranean race was thought to be prevalent in southern/eastern Europe, Middle East and North Africa as well as parts of the British Isles such as Wales and the far south west of England and was said to be characterised by dark hair, dark eyes, slender frame in Latins, swarthy complexion, moderate-to-short stature, and moderate of skull. Northern Europe is a name for the northern part of the European continent. ... For other uses, see Scandinavia (disambiguation). ... The master race (German: die Herrenrasse,  ) is a concept in Nazi ideology, which holds that the Germanic and Nordic people represent an ideal and pure race. It derives from nineteenth century racial theory, which posited a hierarchy of races placing African Bushmen and Indigenous Australians at the bottom of the... Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ... For other uses, see Race (disambiguation). ... The European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. ... For the peoples actually from the Caucasus, see Peoples of the Caucasus. ... Nordic theory (or Nordicism) was a theory of race prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. ... Nordic supremacy theory (or Nordicism) was a theory of race prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. ... Languages French Occitan Greek Italian Portuguese Spanish Catalan Religions Predominantly Roman Catholic Protestant Orthodox The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the publication of William Z. Ripleys... The Germanic languages are a group of related languages constituting a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. ... One of the worlds most famous blondes Marilyn Monroe, who was in fact a natural brunette Blond (feminine, blonde) is a hair colour found in certain mammals characterised by low levels of the dark pigment eumelanin and higher levels of the pale pigment phæomelanin, in common with red... Woman with red hair Man with red hair Red hair (also referred to as auburn, ginger, ranga or titian) varies from a deep orange-red through burnt orange to bright copper. ... Brunette redirects here. ... Brown eyes redirects here. ... Complexion describes ones physical appearance. ...

Attitudes in ancient Europe

These categories expanded more ancient commentaries on the differences between northern and southern Europeans. Most ancient writers were from the southern European civilizations, and generally took the view that northerners were barbarians. Pale skin and light hair were described as signs of barbarism by Polemon in his book Physiognomica.^[2] Aristotle (or more probably another writer using his name."^[3]) noted differences between Greeks and the people of the north, believing that Greek superiority was visible in their medium skin tone, as opposed to pale northerners and dark Africans. Aristotle claimed that blue eyes were a sign of a cowardly nature, and that they indicated poor eyesight.^[4] Polemon is the name of several eminent ancient Greeks: Polemon of Athens, a 2nd century BC Platonic philosopher, also referred to as Polemon of Ilium Polemon (general), a Macedonian officer of Alexander the Great Polemon (Cilicia), the name of a king of Cilicia in Anatolia. ... For other uses, see Aristotle (disambiguation). ...

Despite this, Aphrodite was often depicted with blond hair, as were deities associated with the sun.^[5] Likewise, the Roman historian Tacitus idealized the Germanic tribes (which he considered autochthonous to their land) for qualities such as superior warlike ardor and chastity, in contrast to the Romans of his day—though his portrait is not unmixed, as he also portrays them as incurably lazy and addicted to gambling.^[6][7]Many Romans believed that fair features were beautiful, at least for women. Wealthy Roman women paid for blond and red wigs made out of the hair of captured Germanic, Celtic or Slavic women.^[8] The Birth of Venus, (detail) by Sandro Botticelli, 1485 For other uses, see Aphrodite (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Tacitus (disambiguation). ... The term indigenous people has no universal, standard or fixed definition, but can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the geographic region with which they have the earliest historical connection. ...

Origins of Nordicism

During the Renaissance blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin were regularly portrayed in literature as signs of beauty, and were associated with noble moral qualities.^[9] This imagery was largely aesthetic. It was not typically theorised in terms of racial difference, drawing instead on traditional symbolism of light as opposed to darkness. From the 17th century on, as Northern European countries became more powerful, Northern peoples began to adapt such aesthetic traditions into arguments for their own superiority. Benjamin Franklin proposed a clear distinction between "white" Europeans and "swarthy" Europeans, stating that immigration to the newly-born United States should favor the "white" Saxons and Englishmen rather than the "swarthy" Germans (except for the German Saxons), Italians, French, Russians, Spaniards and Swedes.^[10] Franklin believed the white Europeans to be more "lovely", at least to his taste. This article is about the European Renaissance of the 14th-17th centuries. ... Benjamin Franklin (January 17 [O.S. January 6] 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most well known Founding Fathers of the United States. ...

By the early nineteenth century these ideas were attached to emerging theories of racial hierarchy. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer attributed civilizational primacy to the "white races" who gained their sensitivity and intelligence by refinement in the rigorous North: Arthur Schopenhauer (February 22, 1788 – September 21, 1860) was a German philosopher who believed that the will to live is the fundamental reality and that this will, being a constant striving, is insatiable and ultimately yields only suffering. ...

The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians, are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples, the ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmans, the Incas, and the rulers of the South Sea Islands. All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers and invent and perfect all the arts in their struggle with need, want and misery, which in their many forms were brought about by the climate. This they had to do in order to make up for the parsimony of nature and out of it all came their high civilization.^[11]

Influence of Aryanism

Such arguments became especially significant when they were allied to the theory of Aryanism in the mid-19th century. This theory held that speakers of the Indo-European languages ("Aryans") are an innately superior branch of humanity, responsible for most of its greatest achievements. Its principal proponent was Arthur de Gobineau in his Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855). Though Gobineau did not equate Nordic peoples with Aryans, he did argue that Germanic people were the best modern representatives of the Aryan race. Adapting the comments of Tacitus and other Roman writers, he argued that the "pure" Northerners had regenerated Europe after the Roman empire had declined due to the racial "dilution" of its leadership. The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... Arthur de Gobineau. ...

By the 1880s a number of linguists and anthropologists argued that the Aryans themselves had originated somewhere in northern Europe. Theodor Poesche proposed that the Aryans originated in the north, but it was Karl Penka who popularized the idea that the Aryans had emerged in Scandinavia, and could be identified by the distinctive Nordic characteristics of blond hair and blue eyes. The distinguished biologist Thomas Henry Huxley agreed with him, coining the term "Xanthochroi" to refer to fair-skinned Europeans (as opposed to darker Mediterranean peoples, who Huxley called "Melanochroi"). ^[12][13] This distinction was repeated by Charles Morris in his book The Aryan Race (1888), which argued that the original Aryans could be identified by their blond hair and other Nordic features, such as dolichocephaly (long skull). The argument was given extra impetus by the French anthropologist Vacher de Lapouge in his book L’Aryen, in which he argued that the "dolichocephalic-blond" peoples were natural leaders, destined to rule over more brachiocephalic (short-skulled) peoples.^[14] Thomas Henry Huxley PC, FRS (4 May 1825 Ealing – 29 June 1895 Eastbourne, Sussex) was an English biologist, known as Darwins Bulldog for his advocacy of Charles Darwins theory of evolution. ... The anthropologist Thomas Huxley in On the Methods and Results of Ethnology (1865) defined the Xanthochroi race to be the indigenous peoples Rhine (Germany) to the Yenisei (Central Russia) latitudinally, and from the Ural mountains (Eastern Europe) to the Hindu Kush (nations directly north of India ) longitudinally. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Charles Morris may refer to: Charles Morris (naval officer) (1784 - 1856) Charles Morris (boxer) Olympic medallist 1908 Charles Morris (photographer) Charles Morris (politician) former MP for Manchester, Openshaw Charles W. Morris (1901-1979) semioticist This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise... Cephalic index is the ratio of the maximum width of the head to its maximum length (i. ... Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936) was a French anthropologist and a theoretician of eugenics and pseudo-scientific racism. ...

The philosopher Frederich Nietzsche also referred in his writings to "blond beasts": amoral adventurers who were supposed to be the progenitors of creative cultures. ^[15] In On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), he wrote, "In Latin malus ... could indicate the vulgar man as the dark one, especially as the black-haired one, as the pre-Aryan dweller of the Italian soil which distinguished itself most clearly through his colour from the blonds who became their masters, namely the Aryan conquering race."^[16] By 1902 the German archaeologist Gustaf Kossinna claimed to have identified the original Aryans (Proto-Indo-Europeans) with the north German Corded Ware culture, an argument that gained in currency over the following two decades. He placed the Indo-European urheimat in Schleswig-Holstein, arguing that they had expanded across Europe from there.^[17] Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ... On the Genealogy of Morals (German: Zur Genealogie der Moral), subtitled A Polemic (Eine Streitschrift), is a work by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed and first published in 1887. ... Portrait of Kossinna with an example of excavated pottery Gustaf Kossinna (28 September 1858 in Tilsit - 20 December 1931 in Berlin) was a linguist and professor of German archaeology at the University of Berlin. ... The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age. ... Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with adjacent 3rd millennium cultures (after EIEC). ... Urheimat (German: ur- original, ancient; Heimat home, homeland) is a linguistic term denoting the original homeland of the speakers of a proto-language. ... Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost of the 16 Bundesländer in Germany. ...

By the early 20th century this theory was well established, though far from universally accepted. Sociologists were soon using the concept of a "blond race" to model the migrations of the supposedly more entrepreneurial and innovative components of European populations. As late as 1939 Carleton Coon wrote that "The Poles who came to the United States during the nineteenth century, and the early decades of the twentieth, did not represent a cross-section of the Polish population, but a taller, blonder, longer-headed group than the Poles as a whole."^[18] The "high brow"/"low brow" distinction, derived from such theories, also became enshrined in language. Carleton Stevens Coon, (23 June 1904 — 6 June 1981) was an eminent American anthropologist. ...

The concept of a Nordic race

"Expansion of the Pre-Teutonic Nordics" — From Madison Grant's The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History (1916); Grant's conception of Nordic influence spreading over Europe in ancient times.

Grant's map charting the "present distribution" of the "European races", with the Nordic race shown in bright red. Green indicates the Alpine race; yellow, the Mediterranean race.

The term "Nordic" itself was initially proposed as a racial group by the French anthropologist Joseph Deniker. Deniker's use of Nordique was meant to simply translate as "Northern", and his idea of what it stood for was more akin to an "ethnic group" (another term which he coined) than a biological "race". It was the work of sociologist/economist William Z. Ripley which popularized the idea of three biological European races, and he borrowed Deniker's terminology (he had previously used the term "Teuton") in his 1899 canonical work, The Races of Europe, where he divided the races of Europe up by a variety of anthropometric measurements, but focused especially on their cephalic index and stature.^[19] Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (2474 × 1619 pixel, file size: 3. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 524 pixelsFull resolution (2474 × 1619 pixel, file size: 3. ... Madison Grant in the early 1920s. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1613, 3244 KB) Present Distribution of the European Races, map from American eugenicist Madison Grants 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (2272x1613, 3244 KB) Present Distribution of the European Races, map from American eugenicist Madison Grants 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. ... Joseph Deniker (March 6, 1852–March 18, 1918) was a French naturalist and anthropologist, known primarily for his attempts to develop highly-detailed maps of race in Europe. ... William Z. Ripley was an economist who trained at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at Columbia University. ... The term Germanic peoples may refer to: the Germanic tribes that in the first millennium were seen as a barbarian threat by the Roman Empire and its successors; the Germanic Christianity that in the second millennium came to dominate much of Northern Europe, politically organized in the Holy Roman Empire... Illustration from The Speaking Portrait (Pearsons Magazine, Vol XI, January to June 1901) demonstrating the principles of Bertillons anthropometry. ... Stature is a fictional character, a superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. ...

By the early 20th century, Ripley's tripartite Nordic/Alpine/Mediterranean model was well established. However there was considerable dispute about the relative importance of these races. The fact that Mediterranean peoples had been responsible for the greatest of ancient civilizations was an obvious problem for Nordicist theory. Nordicists dealt with this problem by the speculative claim that Nordics had formed upper tiers of ancient civilizations, which had declined once this dominant race has been assimilated..^[20] Some Nordicists did argue that the Mediterranean race had many positive characteristics, some even admitting that the Mediterranean was superior to the Nordic in terms of artistic and intellectual ability. The Nordic race, however, was still regarded as superior on the basis that, although Mediterranean peoples were culturally sophisticated, it was the Nordics who were alleged to be the innovators and conquerors, having an adventurous spirit that no other race could match. The Alpine race was usually regarded as inferior to both the Nordic and Mediterranean races, making up the traditional peasant class of Europe while Nordics occupied the aristocracy and led the world in technology, and Mediterraneans were more imaginative.^[21] Languages French Occitan Greek Italian Portuguese Spanish Catalan Religions Predominantly Roman Catholic Protestant Orthodox The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the publication of William Z. Ripleys...

Opponents of Nordicism rejected these arguments. The anti-Nordicist writer Giuseppe Sergi argued in his influential book The Mediterranean Race (1901) that there was no evidence that the upper tiers of ancient societies were Nordic, insisting that historical and anthropological evidence contradicted such claims. Sergi argued that Mediterraneans constituted "the greatest race in the world", with a creative edge absent in the Nordic race. They were the creators of all the major ancient civilizations, from Mesopotamia to Rome. This argument was later repeated by C. G. Seligman, who wrote that "it must, I think, be recognized that the Mediterranean race has actually more achievement to its credit than any other"..^[22] Even Carleton Coon insisted that among Greeks "the Nordic element is weak, as it probably has been since the days of Homer...It is my personal reaction to the living Greeks that their continuity with their ancestors of the ancient world is remarkable, rather than the opposite."^[23] Giuseppè Sergi (1841, Messina – 1936, Rome) was an influential Italian anthropologist of the early twentieth century, notable for his opposition to Nordicism in his books on the racial identity of ancient Mediterranean peoples. ... Languages French Occitan Greek Italian Portuguese Spanish Catalan Religions Predominantly Roman Catholic Protestant Orthodox The Mediterranean race was one of the three sub-categories into which the people of Europe were divided by anthropologists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, following the publication of William Z. Ripleys... Mesopotamia was a cradle of civilization geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq. ... For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation). ...

The notion of a distinct northern European race was also rejected by several anthropologists on craniometric grounds. Rudolf Virchow attacked the claim following a study of craniometry, which gave surprising results according to contemporary scientific racist theories on the "Aryan race." During the 1885 Anthropology Congress in Karlsruhe, Virchow denounced the "Nordic mysticism," while Josef Kollmann, a collaborator of Virchow, stated that the people of Europe, be they German, Italian, English or French, belonged to a "mixture of various races," furthermore declaring that the "results of craniology" led to "struggle against any theory concerning the superiority of this or that European race".^[24]. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Dr. R.L.K. Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (October 13, 1821, Schivelbein (Pomerania) - September 5, 1902, Berlin) was a German doctor, anthropologist, public health activist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist and politician. ... Scientific racism is a term that describes either obsolete scientific theories of the 19th century or historical and contemporary racist propaganda disguised as scientific research. ... The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... Karlsruhe (population 285,812 in 2006) is a city in the south west of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border. ...

Nevertheless, by the early twentieth century the concept of a "masterly" Nordic race had become so familiar that the British psychologist William McDougall, writing in 1920, could say with confidence: Psychological science redirects here. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Among all the disputes and uncertainties of the ethnographers about the races of Europe, one fact stands out clearly — namely, that we can distinguish a race of northerly distribution and origin, characterized physically by fair color of hair and skin and eyes, by tall stature and dolichocephaly (i.e. long shape of head), and mentally by great independence of character, individual initiative, and tenacity of will. Many names have been used to denote this type, ... . It is also called the Nordic type.^[25]

Nordicism in the USA

President Coolidge signs the 1924 immigration act, restricting non Northern European immigration. John J. Pershing is on the President's right.

In the USA, the primary spokesman for Nordicism was the eugenicist Madison Grant. His 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race, or the Racial Basis of European History about Nordicism was highly influential among racial thinking and government policy making.^[26] Grant used the theory as a justification for anti-immigration policies of the 1920s, arguing that the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe represented a lesser type of European and their numbers in the United States should not be increased. Grant and others urged this as well as the complete restriction of non-Europeans, such as the Chinese and Japanese. Grant argued that the Nordic race had been responsible for most of humanity's great achievements, that "admixture" was "race suicide", and that unless various eugenic policies were enacted, the Nordic race would be supplanted by the inferior races. Future president Calvin Coolidge agreed, stating that "Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. The Nordics propagate themselves successfully. With other races, the outcome shows deterioration on both sides."^[27] Eugenicists supported the Immigration Act of 1924, which was passed during Coolidge's presidency with his support. This was designed to reduce the number of Eastern and Southern European immigrants, exclude Asian immigrants altogether, and favor immigration from Northern and Western European countries. Image File history File links CalvinCoolidgeimmigration3. ... Image File history File links CalvinCoolidgeimmigration3. ... John Joseph Black Jack Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was an officer in the United States Army. ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Eugenics Conference [7], 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... Madison Grant in the early 1920s. ... Present Distribution of the European Races — Grants vision of the status quo, with the Nordics in red, the Alpines in green, and the Mediterraneans in yellow. ... John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. ... It has been suggested that National Origins Quota of 1924 be merged into this article or section. ...

The spread of these ideas also affected popular culture. F. Scott Fitzgerald invokes Grant's ideas through a character in part of The Great Gatsby, and Hilaire Belloc jokingly rhapsodied the "Nordic man" in a poem and essay in which he satirised the stereotypes of Nordics, Alpines and Mediterraneans.^[28] Writers such as Jack London, Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft reflected Nordicist ideas in their fictions. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American Jazz Age author of novels and short stories. ... This article is about the novel. ... Photograph of Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (27 July 1870 – 16 July 1953) was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. ... For other persons named Jack London, see Jack London (disambiguation). ... Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936)[1] was a classic American pulp writer of fantasy, horror, historical adventure, boxing, western, and detective fiction. ... This article is about the author. ...

Nordicism in the inter-war years

By the 1930s, criticism of the Nordicist model was growing in Britain and America. The British historian Arnold J. Toynbee in A Study of History (1934) argued that the most dynamic civilisations have arisen from racially mixed cultures. In southern Europe the theory had always had less influence, for obvious reasons. Some Lombard nationalists took it up in Italy, but even after the establishment of Mussolini's fascist government racial theories were not prominent.^[29] Mussolini stated, "Nothing will ever make me believe that biologically pure races can be shown to exist".^[30] Arnold Joseph Toynbee (April 14, 1889 - October 22, 1975) was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934-1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline. ...

In Germany, however, the influence of Nordicism remained powerful. The German eugenicists Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz published their work Human Heredity, which insisted on the innate superiority of the Nordic race. Adapting the arguments of Schopenhauer and others to Darwinian theory, they argued that the qualities of initiative and will-power identified by earlier writers had arisen from natural selection, because of the tough landscape in which Nordic peoples evolved. This had ensured that weaker individuals had not survived. This argument was derived from earlier eugenicist and Social Darwinist ideas. According to the authors, the Nordic race arose in the ice age, from, Erwin Baur (1875 - 1933) was a German geneticist and botanist. ... Eugen Fischer, circa 1938. ... Fritz Lenz (9 March 1887 in Pflugrade, Pommern – 6 July 1976 in Goettingen ) was a German geneticist and influential specialist in racial hygiene during the Third Reich. ... For other uses, see Natural selection (disambiguation). ... Social Darwinism is the idea that Charles Darwins theory can be extended and applied to the social realm, i. ...

quite a small group which, under stress of rapidly changing conditions (climate, beasts of the chase) was exposed to exceptionally rigorous selection and was persistently inbred, thus acquiring the peculiar characteristics which persist today as the exclusive heritage of the Nordic race....Philological, archaeological and anthropological researches combine to indicate that the primal home of the Indo-Germanic [i.e Aryan] languages must have been in Northern Europe.

They went on to argue that "the original Indo-Germanic civilization" was carried by Nordic migrants as far as India, and that the physiognomy of upper-caste Indians "disclose a Nordic origin".^[31]

By this time, Germany was well-accustomed to theories of race and racial superiority due to the long presence of the Völkish movement, the philosophy that Germans constituted a unique people, or volk, linked by common blood. While Völkism was popular mainly among Germany's lower classes and was more a romanticized version of ethnic nationalism, Nordicism attracted German anthropologists and eugenicists. The most influential German in this field was Hans F. K. Günther, one of Fischer's students. His Short Ethnology of the German People (1929) was very widely circulated. Günther identified five principal European races instead of three, adding the East Baltic race and Dinaric race to Ripley's categories. He focused on their supposedly distinct mental attributes. Günther criticised the Völkish idea, stating that the Germans were not racially unified, but were actually one of the most racially diverse peoples in Europe. Despite this, many Völkists who merged Völkism and Nordicism embraced Günther's ideas, most notably the Nazis.^[32][33] The hard-to-translate word völkisch has connotations of folksy, folkloric, and populist. ... Hans Friedrich Karl Günther (born February 16, 1891 in Freiburg; died September 25, 1968 also in Freiburg) was a German race researcher and eugenicist in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. ... In physical anthropology, the East Baltic race is one of the subcategories of the Europid (White; Caucasian) race into which it was divided by anthropologists in the early 20th century. ... Meyers Blitz-Lexikon (Leipzig, 1932) shows a Tyrolian woman as an example of the Dinaric type. ...

Nazi Nordicism

Adolf Hitler read Human Heredity shortly before he wrote Mein Kampf, and called it scientific proof of the racial basis of civilization.^[34] Its arguments were also repeated by the Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, in his book The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930). Rosenberg argued that the Nordic race had evolved in a now-lost landmass off the coast of North Western Europe, and had migrated through Scandinavia and northern Europe, expanding further south, and as far as Iran and India where it founded the Aryan cultures of Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Like Grant and others, he argued that the entrepreneurial energy of the Nordics had "degenerated" when they mixed with "inferior" peoples. Hitler redirects here. ... Mein Kampf (English translation: My Struggle) is a book by the German-Austrian politician Adolf Hitler, which combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitlers National Socialist political ideology. ... Alfred Rosenberg around 1935   (January 12, 1893 Reval (today Tallinn) – October 16, 1946) was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi party, who later held several important posts in the Nazi government. ... The Myth of the Twentieth Century (Ger. ... Zoroastrianism is the religion and philosophy based on the teachings ascribed to the prophet Zoroaster (Zarathustra, Zartosht). ... Hinduism (known as in modern Indian languages)[1] is a religious tradition[2] that originated in the Indian subcontinent. ...

With the rise of Hitler, Nordic theory became the norm within German culture. In some cases the "Nordic" concept became an almost abstract ideal rather than a mere racial category. Hermann Gauch wrote in 1933 that the fact that "birds can be taught to talk better than other animals is explained by the fact that their mouths are Nordic in structure." He further claimed that in humans, "the shape of the Nordic gum allows a superior movement of the tongue, which is the reason why Nordic talking and singing are richer."^[35] Such views were extreme, but more mainstream Nordic theory was institutionalized. Hans F. K. Günther, who joined the Nazi Party in 1932, was praised as a pioneer in racial thinking, a shining light of Nordic theory. Most official Nazi comments on the Nordic Race were based on Günther's works, and Alfred Rosenberg presented Günther with a medal for his work in anthropology. Fischer and Lenz were also appointed to senior positions overseeing the policy of Racial Hygiene. Madison Grant's book was the first non-German book to be translated and published by the Nazi Reich press, and Grant proudly displayed to his friends a letter from Hitler claiming that the book was "his Bible."^[36][37] The Nazi state used such ideas about the differences between European races as part of their various discriminatory and coercive policies which culminated in the Holocaust. Ironically, in Grant's first edition of his popular book, he classified the Germans as being primarily Nordic, but in his second edition, published after the USA had entered WWI, he had re-classified the now enemy power as being dominated by "inferior" Alpines. Günther's work agreed with Grant's, and the German anthropologist frequently stated that the Germans are definitely not a fully Nordic people. Hitler himself was later to downplay the importance of Nordicism in public for this very reason. The standard tripartite model placed most of the population of Hitler's Germany in the Alpine category, especially after the Anschluss. Hermann Gauch was a Nazi race theorist noted for his dedication to Nordic theory. ... Racial hygiene (often labeled a form of scientific racism) is the selection, by a government, of the most physical, intellectual and moral persons to raise the next generation (selective breeding) and a close alignment of public health with eugenics. ... For other uses, see Holocaust (disambiguation) and Shoah (disambiguation). ... German troops march into Austria on 12 March 1938. ...

J. Kaup led a movement opposed to Günther. Kaup took the view that a German nation, all of whose citizens belonged to a "German race" in a populationist sense, offered a more convenient sociotechnical tool than Günther's concept of an ideal Nordic type to which only a very few Germans could belong. Nazi legislation identifying the ethnic and "racial" affinities of the Jews reflects the populationist concept of race. Discrimination was not restricted to Jews who belonged to the "Oriental-Armenoid" race, but was directed against all members of the Jewish ethnic population.^[38]

By 1939 Hitler abandoned Nordicist rhetoric in favour of the idea that the German people as a whole were united by distinct "spiritual" qualities. Nevertheless, Nazi eugenics policies continued to favor Nordics over Alpines and other racial groups, particularly during the war when decisions were being made about the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Reich.."^[39][40][41] In 1942 Hitler stated in private,

I shall have no peace of mind until I have planted a seed of Nordic blood wherever the population stand in need of regeneration. If at the time of the migrations, while the great racial currents were exercising their influence, our people received so varied a share of attributes, these latter blossomed to their full value only because of the presence of the Nordic racial nucleus".^[42] Human migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another, rather than of individual wanderers. ...

Hitler and Himmler planned to use the SS as the basis for the racial "regeneration" of Europe following the final victory of Nazism. The SS was to be a racial elite chosen on the basis of "pure" Nordic qualitities.^[43][44][45] Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and the Nazi hierarchy. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop...

Addressing officers of the SS-Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" Himmler stated: The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (German for Adolf Hitlers Bodyguard Regiment) was a unit of the SS. It was a Waffen SS security and combat formation which saw action on both the Eastern and Western fronts during World War II. As its name suggested, the Leibstandarte started life in...

The ultimate aim for those 11 years during which I have been the Reichsfuehrer SS has been invariably the same: to create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany; which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced; to create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again, looking at it from the viewpoint of grand policy, Nordic blood, in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning, will fight against us.^[46]

Decline of Nordicism

Even before the rise of Nazism, Grant's concept of "race" lost favor in the USA in the polarizing political climate after World War I, including the Great Migration and the Great Depression. The influx of African-Americans into the Northern states resulted in a "flattening" of racial categories into what eugenicist Lothrop Stoddard named as "bi-racialism" — an absolutist black/white distinction maintained by declaring mixed-race people to be considered "black". This required the abandonment of Grant's gradations of "white" in favour of the "One-drop theory" — which was embraced by white supremacists and black nationalists alike. Among the latter were Marcus Garvey, and, in part, W.E.B. Du Bois, at least in his later thought.^[47] “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The states in blue had the ten largest net gains of African-Americans during the Great Migration, while the states in red had the ten largest net losses[1]. The Great Migration was the movement of over 1 million[1] African Americans out of the rural Southern United States from... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... Languages Predominantly American English Religions Protestantism (chiefly Baptist and Methodist); Roman Catholicism; Islam Related ethnic groups Sub-Saharan Africans and other African groups, some with Native American groups. ... Lothrop Stoddard. ... The one-drop theory (or one-drop rule) is a historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of sub-Saharan ancestry (however small or invisible) can not be considered white[1] and so unless said person has an alternative non-white ancestry... Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr. ... This article or section needs additional references or sources to facilitate its verification. ...

With the rise of Nazism many critics pointed to the flaws in the theory, repeating the arguments made by Sergi and others that the evidence of ancient Nordic achievement is thin when set against the civilizations of the Mediterranean and elsewhere. The equation of Nordic and Aryan identity was also widely criticised.^[48] In 1936 M.W. Fodor, writing in The Nation, claimed that racialised Germanic nationalism arose from an inferiority complex: This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

No race has suffered so much from an inferiority complex as has the German. National Socialism was a kind of Coué method of converting the inferiority complex, at least temporarily, into a feeling of superiority.^[49] The term National socialism has been used in self-description by a number of unrelated political movements. ... Émile Coué (February 26, 1857 – July 2, 1926) was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy, healing, and self-improvement based on optimistic autosuggestion. ...

After World War II, the categorization of peoples into "superior" and "inferior" groups fell even further out of political and scientific favor, eventually leading to the characterization of such theories as scientific racism. The tripartite subdivision of "Caucasians" into Nordic, Alpine and Mediterranean groups persisted among some scientists into the 1960s, notably in Carleton Coon's book The Origin of Races (1962). Already race academics such as A. James Gregor were heavily criticizing Nordicism. In 1961 Gregor called it a "philosophy of despair", on the grounds that its obsession with purity doomed it to ultimate pessimism and isolationism.^[50] The development of the Kurgan theory of Indo-European origins weakened the Nordicist equation of Aryan and Nordic identity, since it placed the earliest Indo-European speakers in central Asia. The emergence of population genetics further undermined the categorisation of Europeans into clearly defined racial groups.^{[51][52][53][54]} Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Scientific racism is a term that describes either obsolete scientific theories of the 19th century or historical and contemporary racist propaganda disguised as scientific research. ... James Gregor lecturing at UC Berkeley in 2004 A. James Gregor is a Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley who is well known for his views on race as well as fascism and security issues. ... Map of Indo European migrations from ca. ... Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ...

More recent studies have also provided little support for Nordicist claims. Although most experts believe that IQ is environmentally influenced, the highest scores are to be found among East Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Koreans). The highest scores in Europe in 2006 were achieved for Germany in one study,^[55] but according to IQ and Global Inequality, a book published by Richard Lynn in 2006, and making an average of several studies, Italians have the highest IQ scores in Europe. These studies show little correlation to the "Nordic" model. Among some white supremacists Nordic theory is still maintained, as, for example in the writings of Roger Pearson and Richard McCulloch, who adopted the term Nordish race, as a somewhat more inclusive label.^[56] Calculated and estimated national average IQ. IQ and Global Inequality is a controversial 2006 book by Dr. Richard Lynn, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Dr. Tatu Vanhanen, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland. ... Richard Lynn (born 1930) is a British Professor Emeritus of Psychology who is known for his controversial views on racial and ethnic differences[1]. Lynn claims there exists race differences and sex differences in intelligence. ... Roger Pearson (born 1927) is a British eugenics advocate and editor of several scholarly journals published by the Institute for the Study of Man. ... Richard McCulloch (born 1949) is an author and advocate for racial preservationism. ... Nordish race is a term referring to one sub-category of the Caucasian race. ...

Notes

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 199th day of the year (200th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 208th day of the year (209th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A Lebensborn birth house Lebensborn (Fount of Life, in German) was a child welfare and relocation program initiated by Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler to aid the racial heredity of the Third Reich. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Bantam Press is an imprint of Transworld Publishers which is a British publishing division of Random House. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 201st day of the year (202nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 200th day of the year (201st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• Genetic history of Europe
• Scandinavism
• Apartheid
• Aryan
• Ethnocentrism
• Germanic peoples
• Know-Nothing movement
• Ku Klux Klan
• Madison Grant
• Martial races theory
• Nordic aliens
• Racial segregation
• White nationalism
• White supremacy
• White Anglo-Saxon Protestant
• Swastika

This article describes demographic and genetic flows into and around European populations, as a product of human migrations. ... Scandinavism and Nordism are political ideas that supports cooperation between the Scandinavian and/or Nordic countries. ... A segregated beach in South Africa, 1982. ... Aryan (/eÉ™rjÉ™n/ or /ɑːrjÉ™n/, Sanskrit: ) is a Sanskrit and Avestan word meaning noble/spiritual one. ... This box:      Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of ones own culture. ... Thor/Donar, Germanic thunder god. ... The Know-Nothing movement was a nativist American political movement of the 1850s. ... Members of the second Ku Klux Klan at a rally during the 1920s. ... Madison Grant in the early 1920s. ... Martial Race or Martial races theory is an ideology based on the assumption that certain ethnic races were more martially inclined as opposed to the general populace or other races. ... Nordic aliens is a name given to what are said to be a group of humanoid extraterrestrials. ... Racial segregation characterised by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. ... // White nationalism (WN) advocates a racial definition (or redefinition) of national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. ... White supremacy is a racist ideology which holds the belief that white people are superior to other races. ... White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, commonly abbreviated to the acronym WASP, is a term which originated in the United States. ... This article is about the symbol. ...

External links

• Examples of Nordics (plates 27-30 and 32-34) from Carleton Coon's The Races of Europe
• The Racial Basis of Civilization by Frank H. Hankins critique of the Nordic doctrine (full text)
• "Nordicism revisited, by A James Gregor