Race and soil: Geography, ethnology, and Nazism

Abstract

For decades, Franz Termer (1894–1968) was professor of ethnology at the University of Hamburg. His area of research was Central America. Between 1935 and 1962 he was also the director of the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg. His academic career coincided with one of the most decisive periods in German history: National Socialism. He was a founding member of the famous journal Zeitschrift fu?r Geopolitik and admired Friedrich Ratzel and his «political geography». The concept of «blood and soil» as a historical determinant could be found in Termer’s work ten years before the Nazis used it as their state’s official ideology. After the fall of Nazism, he declared himself an «adversary» and «victim» of that policy. However, a careful reading of his texts reveals that he had supported National Socialism, colonialism, anti-Semitism, and racism for five decades.