Ludwig F. Clauss on Race

[The following is a series of translated quotes from various books and essays by the racial

psychologist Ludwig Ferdinand Clauss, which may be helpful to English speakers due to the fact

that thus far none of Clauss's works have been translated into English from their original

German. The source of each quote follows in parentheses.]

"From the beginning, the psychology of race clearly teaches us that each race finds

ultimate value in itself... In the final analysis it is the only factor that determines

racial-spiritual values. Every race bears within itself its own value system and standard of

excellence; and no race can be evaluated by the standards of any other race..." (Rasse und

Seele)

"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..." (Rasse und Seele)

"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)

"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)

"One does not recognize the race of a human being based on the possession of specific

characteristics, but rather in the style in which these characteristics are expressed." (Rasse

und Charakter)

"It is true that Nordic men are capable of making judgments. No one denies that. No one

denies, for that matter, that Nordic men occasionally eat, drink and sleep - it only seems

doubtful that these characteristics would distinguish them from men of other races."

(Rasse und Seele)

"One can be a dissipated or criminal person in a Nordic way - we can say without

qualms: one can also be a real swine in a Nordic way." (Rasse und Seele)

"We have chosen to call a stylistic law that holds sway over the manner in which a given

soul experiences things and thereby lends it a specific form [Gestalt], the racial law

[Artgesetz] of this soul." (Rasse und Seele)

"It is the meaning of the body to be the manifestation of the soul" (Rasse und Seele)

"The racially authentic [artrechte] human being is not something that falls from the sky,

nor does it grow out of the soil: whatever falls or grows is merely the stuff that must be

fashioned by exerting one's 'own' will. Whether a racially authentic human being emerges

in all its purity from this naturally-given, indigenous ground is a function of whether its

'own' will is directed at racially authentic values." (Rasse und Charakter)

"A one-sided somatological treatment of the doctrine of race would be more harmful than

productive; for it could all too easily nourish the weeds of a bleak cognitive materialism

and a fatalistic attitude." ("Rassenkunde im Unterricht an Mittelschulen")

"The individual human being is not simply determined by racial type; rather, he or she is

also shaped by other types. He or she is, for example, also a typcial farmer, at typical man

or typical woman, a typical female artist, et cetera. But all of these types, such as social

role, are ultimately permeated by the typology of race." ("Der germanische Mensch")

"The concept of race as formulated by the natural sciences is no longer sufficient today

for grasping the field in its entirety; it proves itself insufficient as soon as we attempt to

apply it in the domains of the human sciences. The treatment of the 'racial issue' in the

public life suffers greatly from this evil: People recognize vaguely and instinctually that

'race' must also have some meaning in the sphere of intellectual production, but to attain a

clearer view they have no other instrument at hand than the concept of race as defined by

physical anthropology and biology - that is, as defined by the natural sciences. This

concept is just as useless in the realm of the human sciences ... as is a telescope, a

microscope, or any other instrument employed in natural-scientific research."

("Rassenkunde im Unterricht an Mittelschulen")

"The style of the psyche expresses itself in its arena, the animate body. But in order for

this to be possible, this arena itself must be governed by a style, which in turn must stand

in a structured relationship to the style of the psyche: all the features of the somatic

structure are, as it were, pathways for the expression of the psyche. The racially

constituted (that is, stylistically determined) psyche thus acquires a racially constituted

animate body [Lieb] in order to express the racially constituted style of its experience in a

consummate and pure manner. The psyche's expressive style is inhibited if the style of its

body does not conform perfectly with it." (Rasse und Seele)

"To say that the psyche 'lives' is to say that it lives in a specific set of surroundings, and

these surroundings are part of the psyche just as the psyche is part of these surroundings.

The meaning of all sur-roundings [Um-Welt] is precisely to be a world that 'surrounds' a

psyche. Psyche and surroundings form an essential unity: the psyche is shaped and

trained by the style of its surroundings, and the psyche, in turn, shapes and places the

stamp of its racial style on its surroundings. It thus should be clear that the surroundings

of a particular psyche are also structured according to a particular style: We call a set of

stylistically structured psychic surroundings a landscape." (Rasse und Seele)

"It is not possible to discern who is Nordic by examining their hair, but only by studying

the attitude of their soul. Anyone who can step outside himself, freely look himself in the

face and accomplish something with himself as though this self were an object - such an

individual is Nordic in this one decisive trait. Based on this attitude he can shape and

conquer himself. Re-Nordification does not begin with people trying to change things in

others, rather it begins as the solitary achievement of the individual shaping himself.

Only by following the path of solititude can one arrive at Nordic community.

Re-Nordification means that every individual must reenact upon himself the act of Nordic

conquest through which the German Volk first emerged on German soil." ("Der

germanische Mensch")