The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 11 | Issue 48 | Number 3 | Dec 2013

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The Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim’s Nazi Worldviewand his interpretation of Japanese Spirit and Zen デュルクハイム伯爵のナチス的世界観および日本的精神と禅の解釈　その形成と理念

Karl Baier

Preface by Brian Victoria

In Part I of this series on D.T. Suzuki’srelationship with the Nazis, (Brian DaizenVictoria, D.T. Suzuki, Zen and the Nazis readerswere promised a second part focusing primarilyon Suzuki’s relationship with one of wartimeJapan’s most influential Nazis, Count KarlfriedDürckheim (1896 –1988).

However, in the course of writing Part II, Iquickly realized that the reader would benefitgreatly were it possible to present more thansimply Dürckheim’s story in wartime Japan. Thatis to say, I recognized the importance, actuallythe necessity, of introducing Dürckheim’s earlierhistory in Germany and the events that led to hisarrival in Japan, not once but twice.

At this point that I had the truly good fortune tocome in contact with Professor Karl Baier of theUniversity of Vienna, a specialist in the history ofmodern Asian-influenced spirituality in Europeand the United States. Prof. Baier graciouslyagreed to collaborate with me in presenting apicture of Dürckheim within a wartime Germanpolitical, cultural, and, most importantly,religious context. Although now deceased,Dürckheim continues to command a loyalfollowing among both his disciples and manyothers whose lives were touched by hisvoluminous postwar writings. In this respect, hislegacy parallels that of D.T. Suzuki.

The final result is that what was originally

planned as a two-part article has now become athree-part series. Part II of this series, written byProf. Baier, focuses on Dürckheim in Germany,including his writings about Japan and Zen. Anadded bonus is that the reader will also beintroduced to an important dimension of Nazi“spirituality.” Part Three will continue the storyat the point Dürckheim arrives in Japan for thefirst time in mid-1938. It features Dürckheim’srelationship with D.T. Suzuki but examines hisrelationship with other Zen-related figures likeYasutani Haku’un and Eugen Herrigel as well.

Note that the purpose of this series is not todismiss or denigrate either the postwar activitiesor writings of any of the Zen-related figures.Nevertheless, at a time when hagiographies of allof these men abound, the authors believe readersdeserve to have an accurate picture of theirwartime activities and thought based on what isnow known. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Baierfor having joined me in this effort. BDV

Introduction

Japan, the “yellow fist”, as he called the nation in“Mein Kampf” , caused Adolf Hit ler aconsiderable headache. In his racist foreignpolicy he distrusted the Asians in general andwould have preferred to increase Europeanworld supremacy by collaborating with theEnglish Nordic race. On the other hand, he hadbeen impressed as a youth by Japan's militarypower when he observed Japan beat the Slavicempire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Healso admired Japan for never having beeninfiltrated by the Jews. In “Mein Kampf” his

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ambiguous attitude let him place Japan as aculture-supporting nation somewhere halfwaybetween the culture-creating Aryans and theculture-destroying Jews.1 He hoped that in thenear future Japan and the whole of East Asiawould be aryanised by Western culture andscience and sooner or later the politicaldomination of the Aryans in Asia would follow.

Fig. 1 Dürckheim country estate Steingadenas seen today

As the brotherhood in arms with England turnedout to be a pipe-dream, Hitler had to make a pactwith the Far Eastern country. This allowed agroup of japanophile Nazis to raise their voicesand disseminate a more detailed and positiveview of Japan. They were interested in Japanesereligion and especially sympathized with ZenBuddhism.

The following article can be seen as a case study.Taking the intellectual and religious biography ofCount Dürckheim as an example, the authorinvestigates the question of how dedicated Naziscould connect their worldview to a kind ofmystical spirituality and develop a positiveattitude towards Zen.

Karl Friedrich Alfred Heinrich Ferdinand MariaGraf Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin(1896-1988), today widely known as KarlfriedGraf (Count) Dürckheim, was born in Munich,Bavaria as the eldest son of an old aristocraticfamily. Baptized Catholic, he was religiouslyeducated by his Protestant mother, grew up at

the family’s country estate in the Bavarian villageof Steingaden, at the Basenheim Castle nearKoblenz and in Weimar, where his family owneda villa built by the famous architect Henry van deVelde.

Fig. 2 Villa Dürckheim in Weimar

In 1914, immediately after receiving his highschool diploma, the 18-year-old Karlfriedvolunteered in the Royal Bavarian InfantryLifeguard Regiment to serve on the frontlines foraround 47 months as off icer , companycommander and adjutant.2 He never forgot theenthusiastic community spirit that filled his heartand the hearts of his fellow Germans at thebeginning of the war. “I heard the Emperorsaying, ‘I do not know parties any more, I onlyknow Germans’. It remains in all our memories,these words of the Emperor, in those days at thebeginning of the war.”3 Later he would say thatduring this period the meaning of his life hadbeen the “unquestionable, ready-to-die-commitment to the fatherland.”4

Regularly exposed to deadly threats, the youngfrontline officer was intensively confronted withhis fear but also experienced moments oftranscendence.

There ex is t s a ‘p leasure ’ o fdeliberately thrusting oneself intodeadly danger. This I experiencedwhen embarking upon a nightly

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assault on a wooded hill, whenrunning through a barrage at thestorming of Mount Kemmel inFlanders, when jumping through adefile under machine gun fire. It isas if at the moment of the possibleand in advance accepted destructionone would feel the indestructible. Inall of these experiences anotherdimension emerges while onetranscends the limits of ordinary life– not as a doctrine, but as liberatingexperience.5

This k ind of “warr ior myst i c i sm” – acombination of military drill and blindobedience, fight to the very end, a devotion toand melding with the greater whole of thefatherland that culminate in the experience of“another d imens ion” far beyond thetransitoriness of ordinary life – informed hisattitude towards life and was conducive to hislater appreciation of militaristic Bushidō-Zen andhis admiration of the kamikaze pilots which heexpressed even after World War II.6

Fig. 3 Bavarian infantry (postcard 1915)

The Square

Immediately after World War I Dürckheimsupported one of the far-right nationalistic FreeCorps fighting against the Munich Republic. Healso published nationalistic brochures andpamphlets as well as articles that warned againstthe Bolshevist world revolution.7

In 1919 he left the army and began to studyphilosophy and psychology in search of a newmeaning of life. He and Enja von Hattingberg, hispartner and later spouse, befriended the Austrianpsychologist and philosopher FerdinandWeinhandl (1896-1973), who at the time wasworking at the Psychological Institute at theUniversity of Munich, and his wife, the teacher

and writer Margarete Weinhandl (1880-1975).The four, who called themselves “The Square,”were not just two couples on friendly terms.Their joint activities were aimed at a religioustransformation of their own lives and the lives ofothers.

Dürckheim shared not only philosophical,psychological and religious interests with theWeinhandls but also the experience of WorldWar I as well as the ensuing nationalistic attitudenourished by it. Ferdinand, like Dürckheim, hadvoluntarily joined the army and became afrontline lieutenant, but a serious injury soonmade him unfit for battle. Margarete hadsupported soldiers from the province of Styria insoutheast Austria with simple verses and poemswritten in Styrian dialect, that were published inHeimatgrüße. Kriegsflugblätter des Vereins fürHeimatschutz in Steiermark (“Greetings fromHome. War pamphlets of the Association forHomeland Security in Styria”), a journal that wasdistributed free among Styrian soldiers.8

Fig. 4: Thrusting oneself into deadly danger inWorld War I

The Weinhandls dominated the Square bothintellectually and religiously. They were prolificwriters well versed in the history and theology ofChristian mysticism. Moreover, Ferdinand wasinterested in comparative religion. He referred toFriedrich Heiler’s comparative studies on prayerand on Pali-based, Buddhist meditation, and

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praised his subtle understanding of the innerrelations between various religions.9 Interpretingthe similarities between religious practices withindifferent religious traditions outlined by Heiler,Ferdinand stated that the different stages ofHindu-Yoga, Buddhist meditation and Christianprayer are all based on the same psychologicalstructure.10

In 1921, The Square moved to Kiel where theylived as a sort of commune, sharing a flat until1924. During that time, Margarete published andinterpreted the mystical writings of Germanmedieval nuns.11 Ferdinand completed hishabilitation thesis in 1922 at the University ofKiel and later got a professorship for philosophythere.12 He translated and edited the SpiritualExercises of Ignatius of Loyola and published asmall book on Meister Eckhart.13 In fact, it was hewho introduced Eckhart to Dürckheim.14 “Everyevening we would read Meister Eckhart,”Margarete noted in her diary.15 Dürckheimremembered: “I recognized in Master Eckhart mymaster, the master.”16 Meister Eckhart had greatappeal for the German Youth Movement and thecultic milieu of the interwar-period in general. Asa “German mystic” he also blended very wellinto the völkisch understanding of religion thatwas en vogue in Dürckheim’s circles.17 Like somany others Ferdinand Weinhandl saw inEckhart an early manifestation of the deepestessence of the German spirit, its dynamism and“Faustian” activism.18

Fig. 5 Ferdinand Weinhandl

During the Nazi era the völkisch interpretation ofEckhart continued. In his Myth of the 20thCentury the NSDAP ideologist Alfred Rosenbergextensively cited Eckhart as the pioneer ofGermanic faith. In 1936 Eugen Herrigel drewparallels between Eckhart and Zen in his articleon The Knightly Art of Archery that became amajor source for Dürckheim.19 Herrigel looks atEckhart and Zen from the typical perspective ofthe protagonists of völkisch mysticism:

It is often said that mysticism andespecially Buddhism lead to apassive, escapist attitude, one that ishostile to the world. […] Terrifiedone turns away from this path tosalvation through laziness and inreturn praises one´s own Faustiancharacter. One does not evenremember that there was a greatmystic in German intellectualhistory, who apart from detachmentpreached the indispensable value of

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daily life: Meister Eckhart. Andwhoever has the impression this‚ d o c t r i n e ’ m i g h t b e s e l f -contradictory, should reflect on theJapanese Volk, whose spiritualc u l t u r e a n d w a y o f l i f e a r esignificantly influenced by ZenBuddhism and yet cannot be blamedfor passivity and an irresponsiblesluggish escapism. The Japanese areso astonishingly active not becausethey are bad, lukewarm Buddhistsbut because the vital Buddhism oftheir country encourages theiractivity.20

During the war Dürckheim was to call Eckhart“the man whom the Germans notice as their mostoriginal proclaimer of God”21 and he, likeHerrigel, outlined the proximity between Eckhartand Zen on the basis of völkisch thought.

Fig. 6 Alfred Rosenberg and his “Der Mythusdes 20. Jahrhunderts”

Before his first encounter with Eckhart,Dürckheim had already been deeply impressedby Laozi. The new popularity of Asian religionsin Germany (after the Romantics at the beginningof the 19th century) began around 1900 under theinfluence of the Theosophists and the emergenceof a neo-romantic “new mysticism.” It grewrapidly after the war with several translations of

the Daodejing becoming available, the mostwidespread of which was by Alexander Ular.22

This book, together with translations of Laoziand Zhuangzi published by Martin Buber andRichard Wilhelm, unleashed a kind of Dao crazeamong intellectuals and artists of the WeimarRepublic. Dürckheim describes his first contactwith Laozi as a kind of ecstatic experience ofenlightenment, prompted when his wife read theeleventh verse from Ular’s version out loud.23

Ferdinand not only undertook a theoretical studyof religious exercises, but also introduced theirpractice to The Square.24 They experimented withdifferent forms of meditation (sitting silentlywithout an object or meditating on specifictopics, probably influenced by Ignatius of Loyola,Coué´s autosuggestion and New Thought formsof meditation); spent certain days in silence andpractised the daily examination of conscience.25

Outwardly they offered counselling sessions topeople who contacted them, after having heardabout the group because they were interested intheir spirituality. One could say that The Squarewas a kind of model for Dürckheim’s work afterWorld War II, and further foundations were laidhere for his later interest in Japanese practicesand the synthes is o f sp i r i tua l i ty andpsychotherapy. During this period, Dürckheimalso read a book on Buddhism by Georg Grimmthat he held in great esteem.26

The Worldview of the Rightist Cultic Milieu

As strange as it may seem nowadays, thecombination of new religiosity, interest in Asianreligions, nationalist thought and an oftenantidemocratic attitude that had been formativefor the young Dürckheim and also for theWeinhandls, was not exceptional at that time.They more or less shared popular views of theWeimarian rightist cultic milieu,27 whichcons i s ted o f a l a rge number o f smal lorganizations, reading circles, paramilitarygroups and the so-called Bünde (leagues) withlinks to the German Youth Movement and the

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movement of life reform (Lebensreform). “TheBünde were uniquely German. What made themso during the years between 1919 and 1933 wasthe fact that neither the onlooker nor theparticipant could decide what they were. Werethey religious, philosophical, or political? Theanswer is: all three.”28 Although The Squarestrongly sympathized with the Bünde, theydeliberately decided not to organize themselvesin that manner, but to continue to live as a smallc o m m u n i t y f o c u s i n g o n p e r s o n a ltransformation. 2 9

The rightist cultic milieu was informed by severalwidespread ideas that also deeply influencedDürckheim and his Square. Here only the mostimportant ones can be mentioned.

Fig. 7 Ludwig Fahrenkrog: Die heilige Stunde(1918)

The New Man

Many expected the breakdown of traditionalEuropean culture through World War I, andespecially the post-war crisis of German society,to lead to a transformation of mankind, thearrival of a “new man.”30 Dürckheim describedhis post-war social environment: “[They were] allpeople in which, because of the breakdown of1918, something new arose that also within mesoon brought to consciousness something that inthe years after the war everyone was concernedwith: the question of the new man.”31

In a letter published in the commemorativevolume on the occasion of Dürckheim’s 70th

birthday, Ferdinand Weinhandl remembers thetalks they had at the beginning of their friendshipas “revolving around a magical centre.” It was“the question of transformation, that weexamined again and again in our thoughts andtalks, in our efforts and aspirations.”32 WhatWeinhandl does not tell the readers of thecommemorative volume is the fact that in the1920s the search for in-depth transformation ofmankind and the millenarianism of the new manhad a socio-political dimension. Leftist socialistsmerged them with their vision of a future society,and the right-wing counterculture we are talkingabout usually combined the dawn of the newman with the epiphany of the Volk and thelonging for new leaders.

Socio-political Völkisch Thought

The adjective “völkisch“ (cognate with theEnglish “folk”) means “related to the Volk,belonging to the Volk.“ In keeping with itsmeaning in present-day German, “Volk” isfrequently translated into English as “people” or“nation.” Since the 1890s, “völkisch” had beenused as self-designation of an influential Germannationalistic and racist (anti-Semitic but also anti-Slavic and anti-romantic) protest movement,consisting of different organizations, groups andindividuals in Germany and Austria. Buildingupon ideas that emerged within GermanRomanticism, for these individuals and groups“völkisch” and “Volk” took on a special meaningsignificantly different from “people” and“nation” – a meaning that made the worduntranslatable into English and other languages.Therefore the original German terms are used.

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Fig. 8 Cover of a journal of the völkischBewegung

The völkisch movement imagined the Volk as amythical social unity based on blood and soil aswell as on divine will, underlying the nation stateand being capable of bridging the class divisionswithin society. Furthermore, the Volk had acertain spirit or soul (“Volksgeist,” “Volkseele”)which comprised special virtues and certainways of thinking and feeling. The traditionalaristocratic way of legitimizing social andpolitical rule through birth and descent wastransferred from the noble dynasties to allmembers of the German Volk or Aryan race.33

The central aim of the völkisch movement wasthe purification of the Germanic race from alieninfluences and the restoration of the native Volkand its noble spirit.

Politically, the members of the rightist cultic

milieu saw the Weimar democracy as adysfunctional political system imposed byGermany’s enemies after the shameful defeat inWorld War I. They could see no sense in thediscussions and quarrels between the politicalparties that for them only manifested theegocentrism of modern man. Additionally, theywere afraid of Bolshevism and of socialdisintegration caused by class struggles. Apolitically crucial dimension of the hope for thecoming of the “new man” was the chiliasticpolitical vision of a Third Reich that would beable to overcome the inner turmoil of modernsociety.34 The only alternative to the degenerationof contemporary society and politics would be avölkisch reform of life, a spiritual, social andpolitical renewal of Germany which wouldtransform the country into a class-free holisticcommunity of the Volk (Volksgemeinschaft)rooted in the homeland (Heimat) as well as inancestral kinship (Ahnen) and ruled bycharismatic leaders (Führer).

At the beginning of the 1920s, FerdinandWeinhandl was still aiming at individual self-development and a mystical transformation freeof political and social intentions. According toTilitzki, Dürckheim and Wilhelm Ahlmannbrought him into closer contact with HansFreyer. This probably gave his concept of life-reform a völkisch twist.35 He also started to reflecton the necessity of new leaders (Führer) to imbuethe spirit of the Volk with higher values. In a textfrom the middle of the 1920s he conceived theleader as an exceptional person who alone iscapable of uniting the whole and therebyestablishes true community: “So, our path leadsus from the person to the people [Volk] andbeyond that back to the person, to the exemplaryindividual, to the hero, to the idea of leadership[Führertum].”36 His völkisch leanings initially didnot assume a radical right-wing form, and hecontinued teaching at social-democraticinstitutions and cultivated good relationshipswith colleagues who supported the republic.

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For many members of the völkisch movement itwas only a small step to become Nazis becauseNational Socialism absorbed many elements oftheir worldview and presented itself as thepolitical successful fulfilment of völkischthought. In his Mein Kampf Hitler claimed thathis party, the NSDAP (NationalsozialistischeDeutsche Arbeiterpartei, National SocialistGerman Workers Party) had been established toenable the völkisch ideas to prevail. The NSmovement would therefore have the right andthe duty to see itself “as the pioneer andrepresentative of these ideas.”37 No wonder thenthat detailed biographical studies “show […] thatthe völkisch phenomenon and the Bünde phasewere the place of transition to NationalSocialism.” 3 8 After 1933 “völkisch” and“nationalsozialistisch” soon became synonymouswhereas before then the Nazis were only onevölkisch group among many.39

Like Dürckheim, Weinhandl and his wife joinedthe NSDAP in 1933. Dürckheim also became amember of the SA (Sturmabteilung, in Englishoften called Stormtroopers or Brownshirts, aparamilitary group of the NSDAP) andF e r d i n a n d j o i n e d t h e N S L B(Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund, NationalSocialist Teachers Association), the KfdK(Kampfbund für deutsche Kultur, Battle Leaguefor German Culture) and the NS Kulturgemeinde(NS Cultural Community).40 Margarete headed adepartment for worldview educat ion(“weltanschauliche Schulung”) within the NSFrauenschaft, the women´s organisation of theNSDAP, and became a member of the NSDAPoffice for racial politics.41

Völkisch Religiosity

The religious concepts of the völkisch milieuhave been researched intensively over the lastdecades.4 2 The multitude of mostly smallcommunities and movements, which rarelyexisted for more than a few years, can be dividedinto two basic types: neo-pagan and völkisch

Christian.43 Both were highly syncretistic in theiranti-Semitic attempts to develop a raciallyspecific, Aryan religion. The neo-pagan groups, asmall minority, rejected Christian faith and eithertried to revitalise ancient Nordic religions orsearched for new forms of a Germanic faith. Thevölkisch Christians tried to extract the Aryanelements in the teachings of Jesus andconstructed a history of German Christian faithfrom the German medieval mystics up to thepresent day.

Fig. 9 Pamphlet to promote the DeutscheGlaubensgemeinschaft (German FaithCommunity) (1921)

Within Dürckheim´s Square we find the völkischChristian attitude most clearly articulated byMargarete Weinhandl. Ferdinand´s interpretationof Eckhart points in the same direction. Theavailable sources contain no information about

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Dürckheim’s early understanding of Christianity.His commitment to the Christian faith seems tohave been weaker than that of the Weinhandls.

Margarete thought of the Jews as a race totallyalien to the German Volk. They had their heroicheyday documented in the writings of the OldTestament, but afterwards they degenerated andthis is the reason why they rejected the messiah.Through Luther’s translation, the Bible hadbecome part of the German spirit and Germanreligiosity. The treasures of the Old Testamentand the message of Jesus had thus beenpreserved through the power of the GermanVolk, its poets and spiritual masters like MeisterEckhart, Jakob Böhme etc.44

Additionally Dürckheim and his friends adopteda perennialist approach to religion assuming thatthe main religious traditions share a singleuniversal truth. Later Dürckheim remembered:“As early as in those days the question arosewithin me: Wasn’t this great experience thatcompletely permeated Eckhart, Laozi, andBuddha essentially the same in each of them?”45

Similar to the Traditionalist School, theyconceptualized the coming of the New Man as areturn to the primitive man of pre-modernculture connected with the rediscovery of anancient wisdom tradition that underlies allreligions.46 Maria Hippius, Dürckheim’s secondwife, stressed the affinity between The Squareand the Traditionalists: “In these years otherconcurrent efforts existed that aimed at a‘restoration of the human archetype’ by locatingand reconnecting to a primordial tradition(Urtradition). René Guénon and Julius Evola maycorrespond best to what the circle of friendsintended […].”47 Whereas Dürckheim knewGuénon only through his writings, he actuallymet Julius Evola, the Italian extreme right-wingphilosopher and esotericist who harbouredsympathies for the SS and the Romanian IronGuard, whom he highly esteemed, in the 1960s.48

Fig. 10 Julius Evola

The rediscovery of the ancient wisdom wassupposed to bring about a renaissance of truereligiosity in the form of mysticism. “Whereverreligion is lived, it has the name mysticism,wherever wisdom is l ived, i t i s cal ledmysticism.”49 The Square understood mysticismas a way of life that is based on a radicaltransformation of the whole human being,brought about by the abandoning of one’s ownwill.

The völkisch approach to religion and theperennialistic concept of mysticism don’tnecessarily contradict one another. In alllikelihood the Square thought that Germanmysticism presented the core of all true religionin an extraordinarily pure form, a form thatmatched the superior national character of theGermans.

Holism

The Weimarian cultic milieu´s leanings towardstotalitarianism were based on popular forms ofholistic and organicistic thought. Wholeness(Ganzheit) was a widely used metaphor for what– according to völkisch worldview – had beenlost in modern society and science and was to beregained by the “new man.” The radicalconservative counterculture of the WeimarRepublic was a holistic milieu that tried torediscover the original wholeness of individuals

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by reintegrating them on different levels intolarger “organic” wholes. According to commonholistic ideology, individuals as well as socialentities do not follow the laws of mechanics butan order whose prototype is the living organism.This kind of “organic thinking” was given anationalistic connotation by the notion that therealization of “organic wholes” is somethingspecifically German, whereas other Westerncountries (France, England, USA) are thehomelands of “mechanical thinking.”50

Already in the Nazi era, Dürckheim would praiseorganic thought as being a protest “against theworld of unleashed instrumental rationality, theproliferation of economics, technique andtransport, against the tendency to reduce everyprocess to its simplest mechanic formula, againstthe dissolution of the human being into a bundleof impersonal functions, the opposition oflongstanding organic communities of blood andfaith against special-purpose associations etc.”51

The appreciation of meditative practices and theinvocations of mystical oneness with “the whole”that were so common in the Weimarian culticmilieu, should be understood in the context ofthis critical attitude towards the burdens ofmodern culture and the longing for personal,social and religious identity in a worldexperienced as fragmented and rapidly changing.

“Wholeness” and “organic thinking” were notj u s t b u z z w o r d s w i t h i n t h e r i g h t i s tcounterculture. “The desire for holistic thoughtwas widespread in both the scientific andpolitical reasoning of the Weimar Republic.”52

Many of the holistic academics participated inthe völkisch scene and gave the milieu´spreference for organic wholeness a scientificoutlook. It seems that in the late phase of theWeimar Republic, the majority of psychologistsfollowed this line of thought. One of them wasDürckheim’s teacher and employer FelixKrueger, the successor of the famous WilhelmWundt at the University of Leipzig and founderof the so- called “Second Leipzig School,” also

k n o w n a s H o l i s t i c P s y c h o l o g y(Ganzheitspsychologie) – probably the bestexample for the holistic orientation of Germanpsychology before 1933.

Felix Krueger’s Holistic Psychology

In 1925, Dürckheim, who had completed hisPh.D. in psychology in 1923, became an assistantat the Institute of Psychology at the University ofLeipzig. He worked there until his habilitation in1929/30. It is quite obvious that Dürckheimobtained this position not only because of hisqual i f icat ions but a lso because of hisparticipation in an academic right-wing network.Hans Freyer, the radical conservativephilosopher and sociologist, who had been one ofhis teachers in Kiel and had in the meantimeswitched to the University of Leipzig, played acrucial role in this appointment.53 It was he whorecommended Dürckheim to the director of theInstitute of Psychology, Felix Krueger.

Since the end of World War I, Krueger’sPsychological Institute was considered to be a“völkisch cell” with a strong nationalistic bias,whose political activities stirred hostilities withinthe c i ty counci l and even the Germangovernment.54 Krueger was a leading figurewithin the völkisch oriented Fichte-Gesellschaft(Fichte Society). As a busy lecturer, he played animportant role within a large nationalisticeducational network and thus had contacts withmany patriotic associations and völkisch groups.From 1930 onwards he also lectured in the NS-student-association (NationalsozialistischerDeutscher Studentenbund) and in the NSLB.Although his thought was close to NationalS o c i a l i s m , a n d h e h a d s i g n e d t h erecommendation to vote for Hitler published byGerman academics in November 1933, henevertheless did not become a member of theNSDAP.

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Fig. 11 Felix Krueger

Krueger’s psychological theory had a“pronounced ideological accent” as it was meantto contribute to a renewal of the community ofthe Volk (Volksgemeinschaft).55 Especially fromthe late 1920s onwards he extended the range ofhis psychology to social life. His concept ofcommunity falls in line with the then verypopular d is t inc t ion of Gemeinschaf t(community) as a traditional organic social unitand Gesellschaft (society) as a contractualassociation of individuals, predominating inmodern times.

The ideological position of Krueger is clear to see,if one looks at how he constructs the relationshipbetween the community as a whole and itsmembers. He simply transferred his earliertheory of the dominance of the whole to socialstructures.5 6 “Krueger´s theory does notrecognize the interaction between part andwhole, rather only the law of the dominance ofthe whole; in the area of society it appears as the

superimposition of the community over theindividual and the subordination of theindividual to the community.”5 7 It is thistotalitarian bias that accounts for the affinitybetween Krueger’s thought and Nazism.

Dürckheim’s NS Thought and Völkisch Religion

Like many other members of the völkisch milieu,Dürckheim believed that Adolf Hitler and theNazi movement would bring about the arrival ofthe new man. “Through Adolf Hitler the Godshave given to the German People […] the powerto awaken fellow Germans in an infectiousmovement and transform them towards this newman.”5 8 It was Krueger’s social holism inparticular that helped him to shape his Naziphilosophy in the years after 1933. As Geuter haspointed out, Krueger himself only madeprogrammatic statements on community. It wasDürckheim who elaborated a systematic holisticpsychology of community life based on thetheories of the Leipzig School in his articlesGemeinschaft (Community, 1934); Dürckheim´scontribution to the Festschrift in celebration ofKruegers 60th birthday; and the openly national-socialist Zweck und Wert im Sinngefüge desHandelns (Purpose and Value as Constituents ofMeaningful Action, 1934/35).

Fig. 12 Being one with the greater Whole:May Day Celebrations Berlin 1937

Like Krueger, Dürckheim conceives ofcommunity (Gemeinschaft) as the basic socialunit. Communities are “closed wholes”5 9

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characterized by certain value-systems that haveabsolute validity for all members. From Kruegerhe also borrowed the principle that the truerelationship between the whole and its parts isthe total subordination of the parts. “The being ofthe whole is the imperative of its parts; whateveris useful for the whole is a law for theindividuals.”60 One of the dangers that threatentheir health and that members of communitieshave to fight back against is “the infiltration offoreign bodies (racial question!).”61 The naturalvalues of the individuals reflect their racial originand the blood- and fate-based membership in theorganic wholes of homeland, family and Volk.

The value-oriented life of the soul depends on itsinborn and racially conditioned nature. The orderof its perennial values is based in certainfundamental life units with which the soul isconnected by fate, an order that is defined by theclaims made by these units to sustenance,realization and perfection.62

According to Dürckheim, the Volk had lost itsdomination over its parts in the WeimarRepublic. The leaders of the country had beenalienated from the higher whole, and, evenworse, non-Germans, especially Jews, hadexercised significant influence.63 “It must bestressed again and again that the NS revolutionwas the revolution of the whole against itsdisloyal parts.”64 It was only Hitler’s wake-up callthat reunited the German Volk and renewed thebasic values of its life.65

For Dürckheim, the reawakening of the Volkamong the Germans had practical consequences.Hitler also “steeled their will to dominatereality.”66 He explicitly defends the brutality ofthe Regime against individuals unwilling tosubordinate themselves to the realization of whatthe Nazis defined as the interests of the largerwhole. The NS man possesses “the power to beradical that does not recognize sentimental careabout painful concomitant effects thateverywhere affect individuals wherever the

realization of a larger whole is at stake. Theaccusation of harshness, which is time and againlevelled against National Socialism, is a typicalstatement of a sort of mankind that cares aboutindividuals and has lost sight of the superiorwhole.”67

The “image of the fighter driven by fanatic faith”is in Dürckheim‘s view the role model for thetype of human being that National Socialismaims to produce.68 “German soldiership couldwell be the starting point of a comprehensiverealisation of the German mind.”69

Fig. 13 Training of the Waffen-SS

For him it was through National Socialism thatt h e “ G e r m a n w o r l d v i e w ” ( d e u t s c h eWeltanschauung) became a political force for thefirst time. This worldview clearly shows thecharacteristics of a religion as well, and thereforeDürckheim also calls it “German faith.” Thesource of German faith was the “unshakable

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belief in the German Volk” that Adolf Hitlerimplanted in his fellow Germans, and this beliefimplied the commitment of Germans to Germanyas something that they accepted to be holy.70

Dürckheim describes this faith as based on theindividual experience of a higher reality,contrasting this with the mere “subjugation to adogma.” He thus connects the topos “mysticismversus dogmatic religion” and the anti-churchsentiment that had been quite widespread withinthe “new mysticism” of the Weimarian culticmilieu with his NS-worldview:

As the centre of this faith we findthe breakthrough of the greatsubject Germany [das große SubjektDeutschland] within the individual.Therefore faith in the NS-sense doesnot mean subjugation to a dogma,but the inspiring force coming fromthe joyful experience of a higherwhole, that resides within you andwants to become reality throughyou – and this with such a powerthat one cannot help but to servethis higher will and sacrificeeverything that is only personal.71

Fig. 14 NS Christmas Cult: Goebbels and family

The motive of (heroically) abandoning one’s ownwill and surrendering to the greater wholefunctions as a link between Dürckheim’smilitarism and political totalitarianism on the onehand and his preference for mysticism on theother. He constructs the Volk as a trans-temporaldivine essence (“eternal Germany,” and later,“eternal divine Japan”) that every individualshould incarnate by giving up selfishness andsurrender to the egoless functioning within thewhole. Service to the community of the Volk andobedience towards its leaders who represent thewill of the whole serve as a paramountconnection to the ultimate divine reality. As theVolk is the primary revelation of the divine, themain religious task of its members is tocontribute to its development and most powerfulmanifestation.72

One would think that such a theology of the Volkis hardly compatible with racism. But this is notthe case. For Dürckheim certain racial conditionsare part of the eternal essence of the Volk. EveryVolk has the task of manifesting the Divineaccording to its own racial characteristics. It isthus a holy duty “to maintain the racial substanceand protect it against any danger.”73

Introduction to Dürckheim’s Wartime Writings

In 1939 and 1940 – obviously as an outcome ofhis first stay in Japan (1938-1939) – Dürckheimpublished four articles related to Japan inGermany with the 1940 Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft (The Secret of Japanese Power)as a summary of his previous study of Japaneseculture and a basis for the explorations of hissecond stay.74 The journals that published thesearticles were all deeply connected to the regime.These included: 1) Das XX. Jahrhundert (TheTwentieth Century), financed by the GermanForeign Office; 2) Berlin – Rom – Tokyo, a“monthly journal for the deepening of thecultural relationships between peoples of theglobal political triangle,” also financed by thepress department of the Foreign Office and

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meant to provide publicity for the Tripartite Pactand establish a sense of communality betweenthe Germans, Italians and Japanese; and 3)Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturphilosophie(Journal of German Philosophy of Culture). Thethird publication was the NSDAP-conformistsuccessor of Logos. Internationale Zeitschrift fürKulturphilosophie (Logos. International Journalof Philosophy of Culture) that was forced tocease publication in 1933. It propagated avölkisch philosophy of culture in line with thecultural politics of the Nazis.

His booklet Vom rechten Mann. Ein Trutzwortfür die schwere Zeit (On the Righteous Man. AWord of Defiance for Difficult Times), publishedin 1940, was a kind of devotional book writtenfor German men (in wartimes and other difficultsituations). Besides the political situation,Dürckheim may have had some personal reasonsfor writing it given the fact that at the end of 1939both his first wife Enja and his father died.75

According to the dedication, he finished it inJanuary 1940, the month of his second departureto Japan. The question as to whether this bookwas influenced by Japanese thought will bediscussed below.

During his second stay in Japan (1940-1947)Dürckheim did not publish anything inGermany. There are two reasons for this: 1) Forpropaganda reasons he tried to launch as manyNS-related articles as possible in Japan, and 2)communication between Germany and Japan hadbecome more and more difficult as the warproceeded. His most voluminous German workpublished during the Nazi era was only availablein Japan: Neues Deutschland. Deutscher Geist(New Germany. German Spirit, 1942) . 7 6

Dürckheim tells us in his preface to the firstedition of this book that its chapters wereoriginally articles written for different Japanesejournals that had been translated into Japaneseby Hashimoto Fumio. Subsequently, the Germanoriginal texts were published in two collections:Volkstum und Weltanschauung (Völkisch

Tradition and Worldview, 1st ed. 1940; 3rd ed.1941) and Leben und Kultur (Life and Culture,1st ed. 1941). According to Dürckheim, NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist contains thelargely unaltered original German versions of thearticles of both smaller collections. I will quotefrom the second “improved“ edition of this book,published, like the first one, in 1942.77 In thatsame year a Japanese version of NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist was released.

Fig. 15 Dürckheim’s article on Shujo-Dan

In 1942 Dürckheim also published an articleentitled ‘Europe’? in The XXth Century, theEnglish counterpart of Das XX. Jahrhundert, apropaganda journal for East Asia financed by theGerman Foreign Ministry.78

Several other texts written between 1940 and1944 were only published in Japanese. At leastsome of the original German manuscripts ofthese publications are archived at the familyarchives of the Counts of Dürckheim-Montmartinat the Landesarchiv Speyer/Germany whose

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Karlfried-Graf-Dürkheim section is nowunfortunately inaccessible for non-members ofthe family. Gerhard Wehr – probably the lastperson who was allowed to work in the archives– mentions the existence of the Germanmanuscript of Maisuteru Ekkuharuto with thetitle “Meister Eckhart” (85 pages) and amanuscript “Der Geist der europäischen Kultur –Ein Beitrag zur Geophilosophie” (The Spirit ofEuropean Culture – A Contribution to Geo-Philosophy) from 1943, which, at least accordingto its title, seems to be the German version ofYoroppa Bunka no Shinzui (The Essence ofEuropean Culture).79 Wehr also confirms theexistence of several other German manuscriptsfrom that period in the archive without goinginto detail.

Religion in Japan from a Völkisch Perspective

As one might expect from what has been statedabove, Dürckheim´s thought does not so muchaddress religion in Japan per se, but more theJapanese as a Volk and the sources of itsastonishing military power, the success of itsdictatorial regime and its impressive völkischunity. For him the Volk had absolute priorityover all other issues and so he did not show anyinterest in interreligious matters but wanted tocontribute to an inter-völkisch understanding,zwischenvölkisches Verstehen, as he literally putit. In this regard he considered world religions tobe an obstacle:

Fig. 16 Graf Dürckheim (1940)

C h r i s t i a n s , B u d d h i s t s a n dhumanists of all nations [allerVölker] may coincide with regard tocertain human basic requirements,and they may feel the obligation tounderstand, to help and to love eachother on a personal level. But all thishas nothing to do with a mutualu n d e r s t a n d i n g o f v ö l k i s c hmentalities and their necessities. Onthe contrary, till today the worldre l ig ions by v i r tue o f the i rtransnational mission [aus ihrerübervölkischen Mission] avoidedthe unconditional acceptance ofvölkisch values and necessities oflife. Actually, most of the time theyfought against the passionatecommitment to one’s Volk and –hereby inhibiting all understanding– fought against it as pride of raceand chauvinism that contradict theirbasic requirements.80

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Shinto and Japanese Buddhism are considered tothe extent they fit the divine völkisch nature ofJapan and help to strengthen the historicalmanifestation of the eternal Japanese spirit. Evenwhen he compares Meister Eckhart and Zen thisis not meant as a comparison between a form ofBuddhism and a certain kind of Christiantheology and spirituality but as a reflection of therelationship between Japanese völkisch religion(inspired by Buddhism) and German völkischreligion (inspired by Christianity). Buddhismwas a creative challenge to the Japanese thatultimately helped them to discover their truevölkisch nature and its innate religiosity. By thesame token, the influence of Christianity in thelong run helped to c lari fy the Germanworldview:

Just as Buddhism made its way toJapan, Chris t iani ty came toGermany from the outside. […]Christianity is not the Germanworldview, nor is Buddhism theJapanese. The confrontation withthese world religions that claimvalidity for the whole of mankindand relate to the redemption of theindividual brought to Japan andGermany compulsory clarity inrespect to the (self-)awareness of theessence and the living wholeness ofthe ‘Volk’ and thus to the völkischworldview.81

This of course is meant as “gaining strengththrough strong adversaries” but, as we will seebelow, it also comprises the positive reception ofcertain elements from world religions. Forvölkisch religions they play a similar role to whatDürckheim calls the “international worldcivilisation” (basically consisting of modernscience and technology) for völkisch cultures.Both are dangerous for the völkisch spirit but to acertain extent also useful and inspiring.

The Japanese People as an Exemplary Volk

Dürckheim describes Japan as a countryconfronted with the same problems as the Nazimovement was at that time. In his view, moderndevelopments, such as industrialization,rationalization, the influence of the Western –especia l ly the American – at t i tude ofindividualism and profiteering, threatened therealisation of the eternal essence of bothpeoples.82 “It is the spirit that connects us withJapan, this spirit, which, born out of the völkischsubstance and the nation’s will to survive, inJapan as well as here in Germany fights againstthe alien and brings to bear its particularnature.”83 Similar to Germany, the dangers ofmodernity as well as the threat of war stimulatedJapan’s völkisch power and the implementationof political structures in keeping with theJapanese spirit:

Japan today is just beginning tounfold its völkisch power. And thisis because Japan’s traditional faith,far away from being ‘replaced’ by amodern one, progresses from thestage of a religious basis of völkischlife and a binding force for specificc lasses to the pol i t ica l se l f -confidence of the whole Volk.84

This passage reveals the core of his view ofJapan’s “hidden force” and the specific functionof religion that interested him. For Dürckheimthe successful politics of the future world was tobe inseparably linked to the awakening ofvölkisch identities based on a religious attitudethat unconditionally supports the world’sleading totalitarian states. Accordingly, theprimal source of Japan’s power was thepoliticizing of its original faith. He recognizedthe rise of a völkisch religion consisting of apoliticized mixture of Shinto and Buddhism thatunites the whole nation and functions as a basis

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of legitimation for the Japanese state and itspolicies. In August 1941 he noted in his diary:“My research work continues and recently inparticular has turned towards the religiousfoundations of Japanese power, that is to Shintoand Buddhism.”85

Dürckheim sees the divine völkisch spirit and itswill to live as connecting Germany and Japan.“In spite of all differences regarding the contentsof faith and the forms this faith creates, throughits iron will to self-realisation this spirit is relatedto ours.”86 Moreover, the German Volk is evenable to understand Japan better than any otherVolk. In this regard Dürckheim refers toHermann Bohner’s “masterful introduction andcommentary” to his translation of the Jinnōshōtōki (Chronicles of the Authentic Lineages ofthe Divine Emperors).87 Indeed, Bohner wantedto demonstrate the inner affinity betweenGermany’s Third Reich and the Japanesetradition in order to bring the Jinnō shōtōki closerto his German audience.

In doing so, he likened Kitabatake´swork to Moeller van den Bruck´sDas dritte Reich, maintaining bothwere connected with the sameultimate question of ‘who we are.’Bohner furthermore claimed thatboth texts were ‘conversations withGod, ’ ‘ se l f -d ia logues , ’ and‘conversations with the eminent Us.’He portrays their apparently similarcontents as well as both author’sexperiences in highly emotive terms:‘ A s t h o u g h b y a g i g a n t i c ,t r a n s c e n d e n t e p i p h a n y , aDaemonion, a personality, that likeevery Ego is real and yet non-tangible, each author is faced by thepersonality of his own nation.’88

Bohner’s paraphrases of Moeller van den Bruck

and Kitabatake come very close to Dürckheim’sdeification of the Volk.89 He must have readBohner’s summary of the beginning of the JinnōShōtōki with great sympathy: “Before China was(for Japan), before India was, before Kong[Confucius] and Buddha had come across the sea,there was Japan. It was what it is and what it willbe: from the Deity it was, the divine seed was init.”90 It is interesting to note that in Dürckheim’sNazi articles written prior to his first stay inJapan, he had already mentioned religiousfeelings towards the Volk, albeit in a somewhatcursory manner. Japanese influences may havestrengthened this dimension of his thought.

Fig. 17 Albrecht von Urach: Das Geheimnisjapanischer Kraft (1942)

In any case, for him the confluence between thetraditional völkisch spirit and modernity wasmore advanced in Japan than in Germany, andhe implicitly suggests that Japan sets a goodexample for the Third Reich in several ways. Forhim, Japan’s superiority lay in the fact that on theEast Asian island the process of industrialisation

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is carried out by people who had not beeninfected by materialism and who had not givenup their traditional way of life. The cult of theEmperor-God (J. Tennō) – unfortunately lackingin Germany – helped keep the old Japaneseidentity and worldview alive and visiblethroughout the ages. 9 1 So despite theirmodernization, the Japanese still have strong tiesto family and dynasty.92 Individuals considerthemselves “with exemplary naturalness to beonly a serving part of the higher life-units.”93

In the Germany of his time, by contrast,individualism as well as the materialistic spirit ofboth capitalists and proletarians were muchstronger. Dürkheim complains that discussionson the individualistic understanding of freedomhad not yet come to an end. The Germans, hesays, are just about to reacquire the knowledgethat liberty primarily means being free fromoneself and therefore being free to performcommunity service. Dürckheim admits thatcontemporary Japan also has to face the“problem of freedom in a Western sense”:

But after all “individualists” stilloccur quite rarely. They are limitedto certa in socia l c i rc les andindividualism is a beacon to a worldthat didn’t know this phenomenonb e f o r e , n e v e r i d e a l i z e d o rphilosophically legitimised it, andnow fights against it to the bitterend.94

Dürckheim underlines the affinities between bothcultures to such an extent that one sometimesgets the impression he thinks the Japanese wouldbe the better Nazis. He was but one among many(academics as well as journalists) in the German-Japan discourse who praised Japan as one if notthe exemplary Volk. This tendency was seen inthe August 1942 Situation Report of the SS’sSecurity Service as a problem. The report states

that the many comparisons between thesuccessful non-Christian religious worldviewattitude towards life, politics and warfare inJapan and the religious worldview situation inGermany have caused certain developments thatmake it necessary to gradually correct the imageof Japan:

The former view, that the Germansoldier is the best in the world hasbeen confused by descriptions of theJapanese swimmers who removedmines laid before Hongkong, or theJapanese pilots who, with contemptfor death, pounce with their bombson enemy ships. This has partiallycaused something like an inferioritycomplex. The Japanese look like akind of ‘Super-Teuton’ [Germane imQuadrat].95

Dürckheim, however, is deeply convinced that amutual enrichment between Germany and Japancould and should take place. With two differenttheoretical models he explains how this inter-völkisch encounter could work. The first modelrejects direct borrowings between differentvölkisch cultures. “Just as it is impossible to shiftMt. Fuji to Europe and the Rhine to Japan, it isimpossible to mutually transfer the essentiallyJapanese and the essentially German.” 9 6

Nevertheless, the study of a non-transferablealien culture is able to stimulate deep culturalgrowth because it sharpens insight into theprinciples of one’s own culture, and it is able toinspire the rediscovery of some of its elementsthat were long lost.97

The second model of inter-völkisch relationshipconcedes the possibility of direct imports from analien Volk and takes the reception of ZenBuddhism in Japan as an example of this.

The Integration of Foreign Elements into avölkisch Weltanschauung: Zen’s Contribution to

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Yamato-damashii

Whereas Dürckheim, as noted above, usuallyemphasized that the Volk is a “closed whole,” hisreflections on Japan outline that it is not acompletely closed entity like a concrete block, butpossesses a limited openness that in some wayresembles the relation between an amoeba and itssurroundings. He distinguishes three kinds of“healthy” reactions to the foreign withinJapanese history:98

Alien elements that fit have been merged1.with the original völkisch substance (e.g.,Buddhism and Chinese culture).Alien elements that did not fit have been2.withdrawn or at least suppressed (e.g.,Christianity).Alien elements that did not fit, but proved3.to be necessary for the self-preservation ofJapan were integrated without damagingthe inner essence of the Volk in the longrun (European Spi r i t , t echnica lachievements).

For Dürckheim, Japan’s relationship with theoutside world is a paradigm of how a healthyVolk with a strong “racial instinct” behaves.Japanese contacts with other nations and culturesdeepened its self-knowledge and strengthened itspower. His differentiation between several waysa Volk can relate to foreign Völker is importantbecause it allows for intercultural contacts andinfluences to be affirmed on the basis of völkischthought. As we will see, his goal seems to havebeen to integrate Japanese elements into theTeutonic way of life. But let us first considerwhat he thought to be the contribution of Zen tothe Japanese völkisch culture.

For him the Japanese racial instinct, faith orworldview is a mighty “current of life” thatcarries the Japanese nation along and guides itbeneath all conscious activities. The Japaneseword for it, he tells his readers, is Yamato-damashii (usually translated as the “Heart of

Yamato,” or “Japanese Spirit”).99 According to hismost elaborate analysis in Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft (The Secret of Japanese Power)Yamato-damashii had four foundations:100

1. Tennō: the center of the Empire,personification of the Volk, its unityand its divine origin.

2. Bushidō: the way of the knight,the samurai.

3. Loyalty and piety towards one’sancestors, parents and superiors.

4. Freedom as detachment from lifeand death.

Since Zen Buddhism comes into play in 2) and 4),the author will focus on these points in thefollowing.

The only source concerning Zen that Dürckheimrefers to in Das Geheimnis der japanischen Kraftis Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and its influence onJapanese Culture (1938).101 The author is notaware of any other Zen-related literature thatDürckheim referred to in his published wartimewritings. It is certain that he also knew ofHerrigel’s article on The Knightly Art of Archery.Furthermore, as detailed in Part III, he was laterintroduced to Zen-related literature and textswritten by Yasutani Haku’un and translated forhim by Hashimoto Fumio.

From Suzuki and Herrigel, Dürckheim learnedthat Zen is a Buddhist sect that – like every formof Buddhism – searches for enlightenmentthrough meditation, but differs from otherBuddhist schools for three reasons which makeZen especially interesting for Dürckheim:102 1) itsdenial of every dogma,103 2) its aspiration for adirect relationship to the absolute,104 and 3) itsemphasis on the practice of this relationship indaily life, work and service.105

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For Dürckheim, Zen is the best example showingthat Japan does not fit the characterization ofAsian mentality as dominated by passivecontemplation. Instead, Zen helped to create thetypical Japanese synthesis of a “passiveexperience of God” with “willpower anddetermined action.” He emphasised that Zenmonks had been among the great teachers of thesamurai spirit, which had evolved during thefirst military rule of Japan in the 13th century.106

Then he continued:

It is good to know that todayperhaps 50% of the Japanese officercorps have a more or less closerelationship to Zen Buddhism, andthis means knowledge of the powerof the motionless mind, the stillheart. It also means a personalrelationship to the demands of Zen-Buddhist culture, a culture whichrecognizes the fulfilment of life inthe validation of perfect harmony –symbolically expressed in the teaceremony, but ult imately ineverything, especially in humanrelations.107

Note that harmony in accordance withDürckheim’s holistic thought means the wholehaving perfect control over i ts parts .Accordingly, Zen in Dürckheim’s view is apractice that unites the different classes of theJapanese Volk. Not only military officers, but alsoJapanese businessmen, industrial workers andpeasants are open to the Zen-influencedmeditative experience and therefore know “thesecret of ‘the inner space’.”108 He illustrates thiswith an observation from Japanese daily life:

Every Westerner notices howsilently the Japanese often sit orkneel. It is as if they have a secretspace to live in, into which they can

withdraw at any time, and in whichthey experience something thatnoisy reality is never able to give.They somehow know about thesilent and unmoved heart thatreveals the true independence ofh u m a n b e i n g s f r o m t h i n g sexternal. 1 0 9

The experience of an inner space enables theJapanese to be content with whatever socialconditions they live in, to be happy even if theysuffer from poverty and hard work as workersand peasants, and to stay calm even when riskingtheir lives for their country as soldiers. Themetaphor of the “secret inner space” is notablebecause it does not seem to belong to Zenvocabulary. The author found only one passagein Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and Its Influence onJapanese Culture that resembles this metaphorand might have influenced Dürckheim. Suzukireflects upon the significance of the tea cult forthe Japanese warriors “in those days of strife andunrest when they were most strenuouslyengaged in warlike business” and needed arespite from fighting and time to relax:

The tea cult must have given themexactly what they needed. Theyretreated for a while into a quietcorner of their Unconscioussymbolised by the tearoom no widerthan ten feet square. And when theycame out of it, they felt not onlyrefreshed in mind and body, butmost likely had their memoryrenewed of things which were ofmore permanent value than merefighting.110

The “inner space” whose cultivation is fosteredby Zen practice is connected with the fourthcharacteristic of Yamato-damashii: freedom frompassions like fear and sorrow as well as from

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mental unrest – a state that is attained by lettinggo of all forms of clinging to the world:

Regarding this, the Japanese possessa religious source of power in theform of their Buddhist faith […]Expressed in our categories onecannot but call this source a specialrelationship to the absolute and anindependence from life and deaththat results from closeness to theabsolute.111

This independence is, according to Dürckheim, aBuddhist virtue and at the same time the mostbasic source of the transpersonal loyalty that theJapanese time and again prove in their service toboth family and Volk. Herrigel already hadexpressed exactly the same view in his 1936article on the knightly art of archery:

For the Japanese it not only goeswithout saying that they integratethemselves smoothly into theorganic orders of their völkischexistence – they even sacrifice theirlives for them in a detached andmodest way. And here only the fruitof Buddhist influence and thereforethe subconscious educational valueof the Zen-based arts becomeevident: from this innermost lightdeath and even suicide for the sakeof the fatherland get their sublimec o n s e c r a t i o n a n d i n a m o s tfundamental way lose all horror.112

The results of Dürckheim’s article on the mysteryof Japanese power are in accordance withSuzuki’s theory of the fundamental significanceof Zen for all of Japanese culture and Herrigel’shigh evaluation of the educational value of Zen-based arts. Dürckheim tried to show that the

practice of Yamato-damashii is deeply rooted inZen insights and attitudes, and therefore Zenultimately appears to be the most significantexpression of the Japanese völkisch spirit and anessential resource of Japanese power. Similar toSuzuki, and perhaps even stronger than him, heunderlined the connection of the samurai to Zen.The positive contribution Zen made to themilitary and economic strength of Japan and tothe inner unity of the nation were of crucialimportance for Dürckheim’s positive evaluationof this form of Buddhism.

Possible Japanese Influence on Dürckheim´s Vomrechten Mann

As mentioned above, in 1940, just as he wasabout to travel to Japan again, Dürckheimpublished a small booklet meant to be a kind ofhandbook for German men in difficult times(especially in wartime). There the ideal righteousm a n i s d e s c r i b e d a s a m a n o f h o n o r(Ehrenmann), a man of God (Gottesmann) and aman of the Volk (Volksmann). Describing thevirtues of the righteous man in relation tohimself, to God and to his Volk, Dürckheimreveals the ethical and spiritual principles of hisvölkisch world view. The booklet consists ofmany small chapters whose style is reminiscentof the German translations of the Daodejing.

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Fig. 18 Karl Eckprecht (pseud.): Vom rechtenMann

There are other “orientalizations” thatdistinguish this text. For example, there is thestriking importance of the metaphor of thesword. Dürckheim wrote:

The righteous man does not revoltout of selfishness. But if his honor isconcerned, if his nation is in dangeror God’s concern is violated withinhimself or within the World, thent h i s c a l l s h i m t o f i g h t a n dtransforms him into a sword. […]then a kind of willpower arises thatdoes not take care of itself butknocks down everything that standsin his way.113

This sequence probably resonates with Suzuki’sphilosophy of swordsmanship and his use of“the sword” as a symbol for the life of the

samurai, for his loyalty and self-sacrifice. ForSuzuki the sword fulfils a double function. First,it destroys anything that is opposed to itsowner’s will in the spirit of patriotism andmilitarism. Second, it is the annihilation ofeverything that stands in the way of peace,progress and humanity. The sword symbolizes“the spiritual welfare of the world at large.”114

Being a gift of God the sword (as a weapon aswell as by virtue of its symbolic meaning ofunconditional determination and vigour)represents something holy for Dürckheim. “Thestrongest will, the purest fire and the sharpestsword – out of God do they come to therighteous man.”115 And of course Dürckheim’ssword, like Suzuki’s, destroys for the benefit ofmankind. “His sword is shiny, hard andmerciless. It’s all for a good cause and thisrequires that one not slacken in the fight.”116 InNeues Deutschland. Deutscher Geist Dürckheim,very similar to Suzuki, was to call the sword“Hüter des Heiligen” (guardian of the holy).117

The metaphor of the sword was certainly notnew to Dürckheim when he came across it in hisencounters with Japanese culture. It is wellknown in German culture too, especially inNazism. In Neues Deutschland. Deutscher GeistDürckheim says that “the connection of lyre andsword” is something typically German.118

Moreover, in Das Geheimnis der japanischenKraft he sets forth the proposition that the unityof lyre and sword, poetry and military spirit,could well be the deepest common ground of thevölkisch spirit of both Germany and Japan.119

“Leier und Schwert” (Lyre and Sword) is thename of a volume of poems written by the 19th

century poet Theodor Körner, who was held inhigh esteem by the Nazis. In Hitler’s MeinKampf, a book that Dürckheim thought veryhighly of, the word “sword” is used 27 times as asynonym for “weapon” or “military force.” Hitlercontrasts the virtuous “nobility of the sword”(Schwertadel) with the corrupt Jewish “nobilityof finance” (Finanzadel).120 But it seems that

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Suzuki’s Zen-empowered samurai and otherJapanese sources inspired Dürckheim toelaborate on its symbolism.

Most of the religious parts of the book use wordsand phrases taken from the language of Christianpiety albeit without reference to Christ, MotherMary, the Trinity and other theological featuresi.e., in the sense of a völkisch religiosityinfluenced by Christianity. The term “die GroßeKraft” (the Great Force) that he uses four times,three of which with quotation marks, does not fitinto this vocabulary.121 To give but one example:“The righteous man has a cheerful heart and amind which is always free in the depth of thesoul. . . . There he is carried by the Great Forceand from there he carries and overcomeseverything.”122 Where did this expression comefrom?

In 1964 Dürckheim published a collection of textsas Wunderbare Katze und andere Zen-Texte(Marvelous Cat and Other Zen texts). The textfrom which the collection derived its nameMarvelous Cat is a training manual used by afencing school whose author according toDürckheim was an early seventeenth century Zenmaster named Ito Tenzaa Chuya. Dürckheimwrites that the manual had been given to him by“my Zen teacher” Admiral Teramoto Takeharu.Admiral Teramoto was a professor at the NavalAcademy in Tokyo and also a Japanese fencing(kendō) adept. The text is about “das Wirken, dasaus der großen Kraft kommt” (the kind of actionthat comes from the Great Power). “Große Kraft”here functions as translation of the Japanese ki nosho.123 Dürckheim probably got his hands on thistext during his first stay in Japan and took thephrase from there when he wrote Vom rechtenMann.

The expression “inner space” with whichDürckheim characterized Zen experience alsoreappears in Vom rechten Mann. He used it todescribe a form of meditation already resemblingthe centering of the body in the hara that was to

become so important in Dürckheim’s post-warwriting. It also partly sounds like a paraphrase ofSuzuki’s recreation of the warriors’ “in a quietcorner of their Unconscious”:

When things become really bad andunrest threatens even his heart, thenhe turns inward and locks himselfup in the innermost space of hissoul. This space is his secret. Therehe recollects himself in his deepestcentre. Totally silent he settleshimself, lifts his heart and lets hismind and senses calm down againin God. Even in the middle of thegreatest turmoil he always finds themoment to let go of everything, tolower the shoulders and breathdeeply. And he does not stop thisuntil he experiences the power ofthe great centre again.124

The different points that in Dürckheim’s viewdistinguish Zen from other schools of Buddhismwere also essential to his German völkischreligiosity which was supposed to support theFührerstaat and its policies. His concept of inter-völkisch contacts allowed him to affirm theintegration of elements from foreign religionsand cultures into the German völkischworldview. He thus proceeded to introduce ideasfrom what he perceived to be the Japanesevölkisch worldview and to transform them insuch a way that they would fit and enrich theNazi-German worldview. On the one hand,transnational religions like Buddhism were onlyof minor importance to him compared withvölkisch religious worldviews. On the otherhand, he followed Suzuki and Herrigel’s analysisof Zen’s influence on Japanese culture, arguingthat as a völkisch transformed Buddhism it wasof essential importance to Yamato-damashii.

That he began to blend his own völkisch

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religiosity with Zen concepts can also be seenfrom an undated letter to a Japanese friendquoted by Wehr. Dürckheim wrote:

If I reflect upon the ruling classes ofthe future, well, I think, they willperhaps revolve around somethinglike a political, i.e., völkisch satori,which is at the same time a super-völkisch satori, that is to say, arounda spiritual breakthrough towardsu l t i m a t e r e a l i t y – b u t ab r e a k t h r o u g h i n w h i c h t h esearching sub jec t i s not theindividual but a greater self whichattains consciousness within theindividual.”125

Wehr interprets this passage as evidence ofDürckheim having overcome Nazi ideologyduring his stay in Japan (actually the only one hecould find). According to his interpretation the“greater self” mentioned in this text correspondsto C. G. Jung’s concept of the “self” as a goal ofthe process of individuation. But the text fitsperfectly with all we know about Dürckheim’sNazi worldview, if one sees the “greater self” asreferring to the Volk, as the whole passagesuggests. Once again the awakening to ultimatereality and the awakening of the Volk within theindividual are identified with each other in avölkisch-super-völkisch enlightenment.

Conclusion

One could say that Dürckheim, like the Japaneseprotagonists of the Zen-Bushidō ideology,instrumentalized religion in the service ofpolitical totalitarianism. He did do so not as asecularized non-believer but as someone forwhom the German and Japanese Volk hadreligious significance because he understoodt h e m a n d t h e i r p o l i t i c a l s y s t e m s a smanifestations of the Divine. Dürckheimmaintained that their völkisch worldviews as a

reflection of the reality of the Volk should beendowed with a genuine religious dimension.

Dürckheim obviously did not intend a kind ofnew institutionalized church-like nationalreligion for Nazi Germany, be it neo-pagan orvölkisch Christian. When the state represents theVolk and the Volk is the highest revelation ofultimate reality then religious organisationsbecome superfluous. Political rituals and stateholidays take the place of religious rituals andfeasts. Out of this came Dürckheim’s sympathiesfor state-supported Shintō, the Japanese state’sideology and cult. He probably envisionedadding spiritual exercises based on the model ofJapanese Zen arts to these quasi-religious formsof expression of the holy Volksgeist – at least forthe German elites.

Dürckheim’s Nazi thought is a good example ofthe enormous aggressive potential of such apoliticised religiosity. A religiosity that wouldstop short of nothing should the display of anation’s power and its rulers be at stake.

Karl Baier is a professor in the Department forthe Study of Religions, University of Vienna. Heholds a Ph.D. in philosophy and an M.A. inCatholic Theology. Major Writings include “Yogaa u f d e m W e g n a c h W e s t e n(http://www.amazon.de/dp/3826014146/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)” (1998), a book on the historyof Yoga in the West, and his habilitation thesis“ M e d i t a t i o n u n d M o d e r n e(http://www.amazon.de/dp/382604021X/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20)” (Meditation and Modernity)that was published in two volumes in 2009. KarlBaier is a member of the European Network ofBuddhist Christian Studies.

Recommended citation: Karl Baier, TheFormation and Principles of Count Dürckheim’sNazi Worldview and his interpretation ofJapanese Spirit and Zen,The Asia-Pacific Journal,Vol. 11, Issue 48, No. 3, December 2, 2013.

Related articles:

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• Brian Daizen Victoria, Zen as a Cult of Death inthe Wartime Writings of D.T. Suzuki (/-Brian-Victoria/3973)

• Vladimir Tikhonov, South Korea’s ChristianMilitary Chaplaincy in the Korean War - religionas ideology? (/-Vladimir-Tikhonov/3935)

• Brian Victoria, Buddhism and Disasters: FromWorld War I I to Fukushima (/-Br ian-Victoria/3717)

• Brian Victoria, Karma, War and Inequality inTwentieth Century Japan (/-Brian-Victoria/2421)

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Notes

1 See, Hitler, Mein Kampf, pp. 318-319.

2 See Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 15.

3 Dürckheim, Der Weg ist das Ziel, p. 26.

4 Ibd., pp. 26-27.

5 Dürckheim, Erlebnis und Wandlung, p. 29.

6 See Dürckheim, The Japanese Cult ofTranquility, p. 44 and Section II of this article.

7 See Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, pp. 26-31.

8 E.g. Heimatgrüße 4 (26 March 1915), p. 10: “Feilusti bleib´n / Die Russen vatreib´n / Die Serbenvaprügeln, / Die sakrischen Rigeln.” (“Certainlycontinue to be merry, / Chasing the Russians, /Beating the Serbs, / those terrible hulks.”) AllGerman texts have been translated by the author.

9 See Weinhandl, “Zur religionsphilosophischenund psychologischen Würdigung des religiösenErlebens.” p. 63.

10 See ibid., p. 26.

11 See Deutsches Nonnenleben.

1 2 Habil i tation is the highest academicqualification one can obtain at a Germanuniversity. It is similar to the attainment of aresearch doctorate, but on a higher level ofscholarship. The candidate has to write anddefend a thesis that is reviewed by an academiccommittee.

13 Ignatius von Loyola, Die geistlichen Übungen;Ferdinand Weinhandl, Meister Eckehart imQuellpunkt seiner Lehre.

14 See Dürckheim, Mein Weg zur Mitte, p. 13.

15 Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 46.

16 Dürckheim, Mein Weg zu Mitte, p. 13.

1 7 Völkisch thought as a kind of ethnicnationalism interprets religion and culture ingeneral as expressions of the Volk (lit. “people,nation”) as the most basic “organic” unit ofhuman life. The meaning of “völkisch” and“Volk” will be explained in more detail below.

18 Weinhandl, Person, Weltbild und Deutung, p.44, p. 99. The Teutonic Faustian lifestyle (derivedfrom Goethe´s famous drama ‘Faust’) usuallywas depicted as involving both a search for thedeepest meaning of life and an active shaping ofthe world in contrast to pessimistic worldviewsand passive world-negating mysticism.

1 9 Herrigel , “Die r i t ter l iche Kunst desBogenschiessens.”

20 Ibid., p. 209. Cf. Deeg, “Aryan NationalReligion(s) and the Criticism of Ascetism”.

21 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 39.

22 Ular, Die Bahn und der rechte Weg. Theastonishing popularity of Ular´s translation isshown by Grasmück, Geschichte und Aktualitätder Daoismusrezeption im deutschsprachigenRaum, p. 65. The way in which Ular uses theterms “Volk” and “Gemeinschaft” (community)in his translation of Laozi may have supportedhis popularity within the völkisch cultic milieu.

23 Cf. Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, 37. Laozi,Daodejing, chapter 11: “Thirty spokes unite inone nave and on that which is non-existent on thehole in the nave depends the wheel's utility. Clayis molded into a vessel and on that which is non-existent on its hollowness depends the vessel'sutility. By cutting out doors and windows webuild a house and on that which is non-existenton the empty space within depends the house'sutility.Therefore, existence renders actual butnon-existence renders useful." (translated byDaisetz Suzuki and Paul Carus in 1913)

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24 Cf. ibid., p. 43.

2 5 F e r d i n a n d W e i n h a n d l , W e g e d e rSelbstgestaltung (Methods of Self-Development)reflects the diversity of practices the Square knewand might have experimented with.

26 See Dürckheim, Mein Weg zur Mitte, p. 15.Georg Grimm (1868-1945) was a pioneer ofBuddhism in Germany and cofounder of theTheravada-oriented “AltbudddhistischeGemeinde” (Old-Buddhist Community).Unfortunately, Dürckheim does not reveal whichof Grimm´s books he actually studied.

27 Campbell, “The Cult, the Cultic Milieu andSecularisation”. Campbell defined the culticmilieu as a social setting in which a society´sdeviant belief systems and practices areproduced and handed down in varying cultmovements with a relatively low level ofinstitutionalization.

28 Poewe, New Religions and the Nazis, p. 39.

29 For this see Hippius, “Am Faden von Zeit undEwigkeit,” p. 13.

30 The millenarianism of the “new man” was notonly important for the right-wing counterculture.It was at the same time widespread amongsocialists.

31 Dürckheim, Erlebnis und Wandlung, p. 35.

32 Weinhandl, “Über Verwandlung. Ein Brief,” p.179.

3 3 S e e J u n g i n g e r , “ D i e D e u t s c h eGlaubensbewegung als ideologisches Zentrumder völkisch-religiösen Bewegung,” pp. 68-70;Gerstner, Neuer Adel.

3 4 The old idea of a “Third Reich“ waspopularized in the 1920s by the widely readmanifesto of Moeller van den Bruck, Das DritteReich that significantly influenced the early

NSDAP.

35 Tilitzki, Die deutsche Universitätsphilosophiein der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich,p. 175.

36 Weinhandl, Person, Weltbild und Deutung, p.55.

37 Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 514.

38 Poewe, New Religions and the Nazis, p. 37.

39 Cf. Junginger, “Deutsche Glaubensbewegung,”p. 200 fn. 5.

4 0 C f . T i l i t z i k i , D i e d e u t s c h eUniversitätsphilosophie, p. 178. Within the ThirdReich, Weinhandl acted as a dedicated followerof the Regime, who supported it not onlythrough his philosophy but also with hisparticipation in the burning of books at thecentral square in Kiel in 1933 and by his work inseveral compliant academic organisations. In1938 he became the scientific director of theScientific Academy of the NSD Dozentenbund.Shortly before the end of the Regime, it is quitelikely that tensions between him and the NSDAParose, perhaps because of his religiouscommitment and interest in spiritual renewal.However, he did not join the party when he cameback to Austria in 1944 and therefore was treatedas “less involved” after the war. See Rollett,“Ferdinand Weinhandl,” p. 413.

4 1 C f . T i l i t z k i , D i e d e u t s c h eUniversitätsphilosophie , p. 627.

42 Cf. Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots ofNazism; Cancik, Antisemitismus, Paganismus,völkische Religion; Schnurbein, VölkischeReligion und Krisen der Moderne; Puschner, Dievölkische Bewegung im wilhelminischenKaiserreich; Gailus / Nolzen (ed.), Zerstrittene‚Volksgemeinschaft’; Puschner / Vollnhals (ed.),Die vö lk isch-re l ig iöse Bewegung imNationalsozialismus .

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43 Puschner / Vollnhals (ed.), “Die völkisch-religiöse Bewegung im Nationalsozialismus.Forschungs- und problemgeschichtlichePerspektiven,” p. 15.

44 Cf. Weinhandl, Der innere Tag, pp. 149-151; pp.174-176.

45 Dürckheim, Mein Weg zur Mitte, p. 15.

46The importance of the motive of transformationtowards the “new man” in Dürckheim’s earlydays is mentioned in Wehr, Karlfried GrafDürckheim, p. 37.

47 Hippius, “Am Faden von Zeit und Ewigkeit,”p. 14, note 1. For the Traditionalist School seeSedgwick, Against the Modern World.

48 Dürckheim had been inspired by an article ofEvola published in 1965 to call his kind ofpsychotherapy “Initiatic Therapy.” Thismotivated him to visit Evola in Rome. Cf. Wehr,Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, pp. 179-181. Therelationship between Dürkheim and Evola isanalyzed further by Hansen, “Julius Evola undKarlfried Graf Dürckheim.”

49 Weinhandl, “Zur religionsphilosophischen undpsychologischen Würdigung,” p. 38. (Italics,Weinhandl).

50 See Scherer, “Organische Weltanschauung undGanzheitspsychologie,” pp. 15-16.

51 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Zweck und Wert imSinngefüge des Handelns,” pp. 230-31.

52 Geuter, “The Whole and the Community:Scientific and Political Reasoning in the HolisticPsychology of Felix Krueger,” p. 202. Cf.Harrington: Reenchanted Science.

53 In 1929 Freyer’s positive assessment was crucialfor Dürkheim’s habilitation. Like other radicalconservatives and völkisch intellectuals, Freyerset high hopes in the dawn of the Third Reich,

but was soon disillusioned. See Muller: TheOther God That Failed.

54 Tilitzki, Die deutsche Universitätsphilosophie,p. 527.

55 See Geuter, “The Whole and the Community,”p. 204.

56 Ibid., p. 205.

57 Ibid., p, 206.

58 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 141.

59 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Gemeinschaft,” p.206 (Italics, Dürckheim).

60 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Zweck und Wert imSinngefüge des Handelns,” p. 234. Nevertheless,Dürckheim sometimes emphasizes theimportance of individuality and individualresponsibility. But from his holistic perspectivethe creativity and responsibility of individualsare only legitimate insofar they enhance thefulfilment of the requirements of the greaterwhole. See e.g. Dürckheim-Montmartin, NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist, pp. 10-11.

61 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Gemeinschaft,” p.207. Brackets and the words in brackets are partof the original text. In Nazi German the termRassenfrage, racial question, referred to all theproblems that arise as a result of the cohabitationof the Aryan race with alien races, and especiallythe Jews. Dürckheim here legitimates the racialpolicy of the Third Reich with his theory of theorganic community as a closed whole.

62 Dürckheim, “Zweck und Wert im Sinngefügedes Handelns,” p. 231.

6 3 See Dürckheim-Montmart in : NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist , p. 146.

64 Ibd., p. 142.

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65 Cf. Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Zweck und Wertim Sinngefüge des Handelns,” pp. 233-34, NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist, p. 146.

66 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Zweck und Wert imSinngefüge des Handelns,” p. 233.

67 Dürckheim-Montmartin: Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 151.

68 Ibid., p. 147.

69 Ibid., p. 49.

70 See ibid., p. 146 and p. 7. In Mein Kampf and inhis speeches Hitler often invokes his belief andfaith in the German Volk.

71 Ibid., p. 147.

72 Cf. the definition of what it means to bereligious that Dürckheim gives in Der Geist dereuropäischen Kultur (1943), quoted in Wehr,Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 118. According tothis text to be religious means to direct one’s lifeto the realization of the Divine within theconcrete forms of earthly life. “Whenever wesuccessfully develop this orientation thenprimarily our own Volk presents itself to us as amanifestation of the divine ground of the world,a manifestation whose unfolding is ourresponsibility.”

73 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 8.

74 “Shujo-Dan”; “Tradition und Gegenwart inJapan”; “Japan’s Kampf um Japan”; “DasGeheimnis der japanischen Kraft.”

75 Eckprecht (pseudonym): Vom rechten Mann.C h r i s t i a n T i l i t z k i , D i e D e u t s c h eUniversitätsphilosophie, Teil 2, p. 130 was thefirst to point out that Dürckheim is the author ofthis book.

7 6 I would like to thank Brian Victoria for

providing me with a copy of Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist.

77 I took the content of the preface to the firstedition from Kimura: Der ostwestliche Goethe, p.340.

78 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “‘Europe’?”.

79 Cf. Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 117.According to Wehr the archive numbers of themanuscripts are C59/1017 and C59/1013. TheJapanese publications: Maisuteru Ekkuharuto.Doitsuteki Shinko no Honshitsu (MeisterEckhart. The Essence of Germanic Faith) Tokyo:Risosha, 1943; Yoroppa Bunka no Shinzui.Chikyutetsugakuteki Kosatsu (The Essence ofEuropean Culture. Global PhilosophicalConsiderations). Tokyo: Rokumeikan, 1944.

80 Dürckheim, Neues Deutschland. DeutscherGeist, p. 175.

81 Dürckheim, Neues Deutschland. DeutscherGeist, p. 3. (Italics, Dürckheim)

82 See Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Tradition undGegenwart in Japan,” p. 196.

83 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Shujo-Dan,” p. 23.

84 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Tradition undGegenwart in Japan,” p. 197.

85 Cited from Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p.114.

86 Shujo-Dan, p. 23.

87 Jinnō Shōtōki referred to by Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnis der japanischenKraft”, p. 69 fn. 1.

88Wachutka, “‘A Living Past as the Nation’sPersonality’,” p. 140.

89 Bohner, who had lived in Japan since 1921, and

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Dürckheim almost certainly knew each otherpersonally as Dürckheim was busy contactingGerman scholars in Japan and especiallysympathizers of the Nazis. In 1943 Bohnerdedicated his translation of Akaji Sōtei’sChashitsu-kakemono Zengo-Tsūkai “Zen-Worteim Tee-Raume“ (Zen words within the tea-room)to Dürckheim.

90 Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 3-4.

9 1 Cf . Dürckheim-Montmart in , NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist , p. 2.

92 See Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Tradition undGegenwart in Japan,” pp. 197-98.

93 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnisjapanischer Kraft”, p. 78.

94 Ibid.

9 5 Quoted from Worm, “Japanologie imNationalsozialismus”, p. 184.

96 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 32.

97 Ibid., pp. 32-33.

98 Cf. Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnisder japanischen Kraft,” p. 70.

99 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft,” p. 69. More about Yamato-damashii in Section II of this article.

100 In his earlier article, “Tradition und Gegenwartin Japan,” p. 201, Dürckheim in a slightlydifferent way discriminates three pillars of theJapanese worldview: 1) Tennō (emperor), 2) faithin divine heroes, and 3) ancestors and family asbasic forms of human life.

101 See Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnisder japanischen Kraft,” p. 75, ref. 1.

102 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft,” p. 75.

103 Cf. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and Its Influence onJapanese Culture, p. 36: “Zen has no specialdoctrine or philosophy with a set of intellectualformulas, except that it tries to release from thebondage of birth and death and this by means ofcertain intuitive modes of understandingpeculiar to itself.”

104 Cf. ibid., p. 4: “Zen wants us to see directlyinto the spirit of Buddha.”

105 Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and Its Influence onJapanese Culture does not focus on this aspect ofZen. I t i s a central point of Herrigel ’sinterpretation of Zen supposed in his article onarchery.

1 0 6 Dürckheim here follows Suzuki, ZenBuddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture,pp. 35-40.

107 Ibid., p. 76.

108 See ibid.

109 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Tradition undGegenwart in Japan,” p. 201.

110 Suzuki: Zen Buddhism and Its Influence onJapanese Culture, pp. 143-44.

111 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft, p. 79. (Italics, Dürckheim)

1 1 2 Herrigel , „Die ritterl iche Kunst desBogenschiessens“, p. 211.

113 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 49.

114 Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and its Influence onJapanese Culture, p. 67.

115 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 44.

116 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 45.

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1 1 7 Cf . Dürckheim-Montmartin, NeuesDeutschland. Deutscher Geist , p. 50.

118 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist, p. 50. (Italics, Dürckheim)

119 Dürckheim-Montmartin, Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft, p. 75.

120 Cf. Hitler, Mein Kampf, p. 256. On his researchtrip through South Africa in 1934 where onbehalf of the Ministry of Education Dürckheiminvestigated the cultural and educationalsituation of Germans in relation to the newregime, he wrote in his diary: “At 7:30 I sit at my

desk and first read for at least half an hour inMein Kampf; this gives me the right frame ofmind for the day. . .” (cit. from Wehr: KarlfriedGraf Dürckheim, p. 78).

121 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 9 (quotationmarks), p. 20, p. 39 (quotation marks), p. 55(quotation marks).

122 Ibid., p. 20.

123 Dürckheim, Wunderbare Katze, p. 64.

124 Eckbrecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 47.

125 Wehr, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 120.