Untermensch (German for under man, sub-man, sub-human; plural: Untermenschen) is a term from Nazi racial ideology used to describe "inferior people", especially "the masses from the East," that is Jews, Gypsies, Soviet Bolsheviks, homosexual men, and anyone else who was not an "Aryan" (i. e. Germanic/Nordic) according to the contemporary Nazi race terminology. 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. ... Manifestations Slavery Racial profiling Lynching Hate speech Hate crime Genocide (examples) Ethnocide Ethnic cleansing Pogrom Race war Religious persecution Blood libel Paternalism Police brutality Movements Policies Discriminatory Race / Religion / Sex segregation Apartheid Redlining Internment Ethnocracy Anti-discriminatory Emancipation Civil rights Desegregation Integration Equal opportunity Counter-discriminatory Affirmative action Racial quota... An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Languages Historical Jewish languages Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others Liturgical languages: Hebrew and Aramaic Predominant spoken languages: The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Arabs and other Semitic groups For the Jewish religion, see Judaism. ... Language(s) Romani, languages of native region Religion(s) Romanipen, combined with assimilations from local religions Related ethnic groups South Asians (Desi) This article is about the Indo-Aryan ethnic group. ... This article is about the Bolshevik faction in the RSDLP 1903-1912. ... The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... A Nazi illustration of the perceived Nordic master race. ...

The origins of the term "Untermensch"

Although usually considered to have been coined by the Nazis themselves, the term "under man" in the above mentioned sense was actually first used by American author Lothrop Stoddard in the title of his 1922 pamphlet The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man. It was later adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925).^[1] The German word "Untermensch" itself had been used earlier (not in a racial sense), e.g. in a 1899 novel by Theodor Fontane. Since most writers who employ the term do not address the question of when and how the word entered the German language (and therefore do not seem to be aware of Stoddard's original term "under man"), "Untermensch" is usually back-translated into English as "sub-human." A leading Nazi attributing the concept of the East-European "under man" to Stoddard is Alfred Rosenberg who, referring to Russian communists, wrote in his Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts (1930) that "this is the kind of human being that Lothrop Stoddard has called the 'under man.'" ["...den Lothrop Stoddard als 'Untermenschen' bezeichnete."]^[2] Quoting Stoddard: "The Under-Man -- the man who measures under the standards of capacity and adaptability imposed by the social order in which he lives. Lothrop Stoddard. ... Theodor Fontane (December 30, 1819 – September 20, 1898) was a 19th-century German novelist and poet. ... Statistical regions of Europe as delineated by the United Nations (UN definition of Eastern Europe marked red):  Northern Europe  Western Europe  Eastern Europe  Southern Europe Pre-1989 division between the West (grey) and Eastern Bloc (orange) superimposed on current borders: Russia (dark orange), other countries formerly part of the USSR... 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. ...

Execution of Russian civilians by a shot in the back of the head, carried out with a certain grim intensity, even relish. The Germans considered the Slavs as "sub-humans".

However, it is possible that Stoddard constructed his "under man" as an antipode to Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch (or superman) concept. Stoddard doesn't say so explicitly, but he refers critically to the "superman" idea at the end of his book (p.262). Wordplays with Nietzsche's term seem to have been used repeatedly as early as the 19th century and, due to the German linguistic trait of being able to combine prefixes and roots almost at will in order to create new words, this development was even somewhat logical. For instance, German author Theodor Fontane contrasts the Übermensch/Untermensch word pair in his novel Der Pharrt (1898, see Chapter 33). As a matter of fact, even Nietzsche himself used "Untermensch" at least once in contrast to "Übermensch" (Die fröhliche Wissenschaft [1882], 3rd book, Chapter 143) but this bears no resemblance to the Untermensch in later thought. Earlier examples of "Untermensch" include Romanticist Jean Paul using the term in his novel Hesperus (1795) in reference to an Orangutan (Chapter "8. Hundposttag"). The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ... Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 – August 25, 1900) (IPA: ) was a nineteenth-century German philologist and philosopher. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... In linguistics, a prefix is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. ... For other uses, see Root (disambiguation). ... Theodor Fontane (December 30, 1819 – September 20, 1898) was a 19th-century German novelist and poet. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Jean Paul Jean Paul (March 21, 1763 – November 14, 1825), born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, was a famous German humorist. ... This article is about the primate. ...

Stoddard's book-long diatribe dealt with the recent takeover of power by the Bolsheviks in Russia, arguing that that country was now ruled by the most degenerate people on the Earth. He thought that the combination of the alleged inherent racial inferiority of Russian Slavs, the idiocy of a political creed that appealed to the vilest human instincts (e.g. jealousy towards the more gifted and the more affluent) and the supposed fact that the Communist Party's rank and file consisted of "born criminals" in the most conventional sense of the word necessitated a completely new term to describe this phenomenon: "the under man." In this sense, for Stoddard, the October Revolution was the battle cry for an upcoming, unavoidable clash of the civilized nations with the "masses of the east." If the white race was intent upon winning that confrontation with the "under man," so the message went, it had to turn away from ill-conceived liberal ideas and adopt drastic changes of policy instead, e.g. by introducing far-ranging eugenics programmes.^[3] Bolshevik Party Meeting. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ... In modern usage, the term communist party is generally used to identify any political party which has adopted communist ideology. ... Rank-and-file is a term that means any of several things: The rank-and-file of an organisation comprises its ordinary members, as opposed to officers or managers. ... For other uses, see October Revolution (disambiguation). ... 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. ...

The available literature on Nazi Germany would not support the claim that Stoddard's writings were more to the Nazis than a neat summary of racial, social, and political theories that already were or would soon become part and parcel of the Nazis' ideology.

The "Untermensch" in Nazi propaganda and policy

Nazis believed that Jews, Slavic people, Gypsies or Africans, and asocial element, as well as people with a mental or physical disability, homosexuals, criminals, prostitutes, beggars, tramps, political dissidents, and so-called moral degenerates were subhuman. Languages Historical Jewish languages Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, others Liturgical languages: Hebrew and Aramaic Predominant spoken languages: The vernacular language of the home nation in the Diaspora, significantly including English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian Religions Judaism Related ethnic groups Arabs and other Semitic groups For the Jewish religion, see Judaism. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ... Language(s) Romani, languages of native region Religion(s) Romanipen, combined with assimilations from local religions Related ethnic groups South Asians (Desi) This article is about the Indo-Aryan ethnic group. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Look up disability in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ... Whore redirects here. ... Beggars in Samarkand, 1905 Begging includes the various methods used by persons to obtain money, food, shelter, or other necessities from people they encounter during the course of their travels. ... Look up itinerant in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For the Pearl Jam song, see Dissident (song). ...

The term "Untermensch" was utilized repeatedly in writings and speeches directed against the Jews, the most notorious example being a 1935 SS publication with the title "Der Untermensch" which contains an antisemitic tirade sometimes considered to be an extract from a speech held by Heinrich Himmler. In the pamphlet The SS as an Anti-bolshevist Fighting Organization, Himmler wrote in 1936: We shall take care that never again in Germany, the heart of Europe, will the Jewish-Bolshevistic revolution of subhumans be able to be kindled either from within or through emissaries from without.[1] The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... A tirade is a long monologue. ... Himmler redirects here. ... Year 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

A member of Einsatzgruppe D murders a Jew who is kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. The back of the photo is inscribed "The last Jew in Vinnitsa".

Another example for using the term "Untermensch," this time in connection with anti-Soviet propaganda, is another brochure, again titled "Der Untermensch" and edited by Himmler. Published in 1942 after the start of Operation Barbarossa, it is around fifty pages long and consists for the most part of photos casting an extremely negative light on the enemy (see link below for the title page). Historian Robert Jan van Pelt writes that for the Nazis, "it was only a small step to a rhetoric pitting the European Mensch against the Soviet Untermensch, which had come to mean a Russian in the clutches of Judeo-Bolshevism."^[4] Image File history File links Size of this preview: 406 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (998 × 1474 pixel, file size: 730 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Description obtained from [USHMM] German soldiers of the Waffen-SS and the Reich Labor Service look on as a member of Einsatzgruppe D murders a Jewish... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 406 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (998 × 1474 pixel, file size: 730 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)Description obtained from [USHMM] German soldiers of the Waffen-SS and the Reich Labor Service look on as a member of Einsatzgruppe D murders a Jewish... A member of Einsatzgruppe D executes a Jew kneeling before a filled mass grave in Vinnitsa, Ukraine, in 1942. ... Vinnytsia, or Vinnytsya (Ukrainian Вінниця, Polish: Winnica) is a city in central Ukraine, located on the banks of Pivdennyi Buh River in 270 km far from the capital Kyiv. ... Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Garibaldi, ARMIR Iosef Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Kuznetsov... The following is a list of pejorative political epithets; meaning, words or phrases used to mock or insult certain political views and their supporters. ...

The Race and Settlement Head Office in 1942 distributed a pamphlet "The Sub-Human" to those responsible for that selection of which 3,860,995 copies were printed in German language. It was also translated into Greek, French, Dutch, Danish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Czech and seven other languages. The pamphlet states the following:

The sub-human, that biologically seemingly complete similar creation of nature with hands, feet and a kind of brain, with eyes and a mouth, is nevertheless a completely different, dreadful creature. He is only a rough copy of a human being, with human-like facial traits but nonetheless morally and mentally lower than any animal. Within this creature there is a fearful chaos of wild, uninhibited passions, nameless destructiveness, the most primitive desires, the nakedest vulgarity. Sub-human, otherwise nothing. For all that bear a human face are not equal. Woe to him who forgets it.

This concept by RuSHA included Jews, Gypsies, and some of the Slavic peoples.[2] The Nazis acknowledged that some of sub-humans have had ancestors of Aryan-Nordic descent-such people were to be exterminated to eliminate the leadership class among "inferior races", and children if suitable racially were to be kidnapped for Germanisation.

The concept of the Slavic people being "Untermensch" in particular served the Nazis as justification for their genocidal policies and especially their aggression against Poland and the Soviet Union in order to conquer Lebensraum. Early plans of the German Reich (summarized as Generalplan Ost) envisaged the displacement, enslavement, and elimination of no less than 50 million people who were not considered fit for Germanization from territories it wanted to conquer in Eastern Europe.[3] See also Genocides in Nazi Germany and occupied Europe. For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Nazism in history Nazi ideology Nazism and race Outside Germany Related subjects Lists Politics Portal           (German for habitat or literally living space) was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Germanization (also spelled Germanisation) is either the spread of the German language and culture either by force or assimilation, or the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanization of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet. ... Genocide is the mass killing of a group of people, as defined by Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or...

References

• Lothrop Stoddard, The Revolt against Civilization: The Menace of the Under Man, http://users.mo-net.com/mlindste/revltciv.html

See also

• Übermensch
• Nuremberg Laws
• Racial hygiene
• Eugenics

The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were denaturalization laws passed in Nazi Germany. ... 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. ... 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. ...

External links

• Der Untermensch propaganda poster published by the SS. The collection of the Simon Wiesenthal Center says that the caption runs "A Soviet enemy of Asiatic, inferior descent" and that it was used as the cover page for the Heinrich Himmler's Der Untermensch brochure.
• Hitlers plans for Eastern Europe
• [4] This is an example of the term "Untermensch" being used in the context of the Nazi eugenics programme. The table suggests that "inferior" people (unmarried and married criminals, parents whose children have learning disabilities) have more children than "superior" people (ordinary Germans, academics). Note that the heading (including the awkward German) is the subtitle of the German version of Lothrop Stoddard's book!