The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 11 | Issue 48 | Number 3 | Dec 01, 2013

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The Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim’s NaziWorldview and 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 Nazisreaders were promised a second part focusingprimarily on Suzuki’s relationship with one ofwartime Japan’s most influential Nazis, CountKarlfried Dürckheim (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.That is to say, I recognized the importance,actually the necessity, of introducingDürckheim’s earlier history in Germany and theevents that led to his arrival in Japan, not oncebut twice.

At this point that I had the truly good fortune tocome in contact with Professor Karl Baier ofthe University of Vienna, a specialist in thehistory of modern Asian-influenced spiritualityin Europe and the United States. Prof. Baiergraciously agreed to collaborate with me inpresenting a picture of Dürckheim within awartime German political, cultural, and, mostimportantly, religious context. Although nowdeceased, Dürckheim continues to command aloyal following among both his disciples andmany others whose lives were touched by hisvoluminous postwar writings. In this respect,his legacy parallels that of D.T. Suzuki.

The final result is that what was originallyplanned as a two-part article has now become athree-part series. Part II of this series, writtenby Prof. Baier, focuses on Dürckheim inGermany, including his writings about Japanand Zen. An added bonus is that the reader willalso be introduced to an important dimensionof Nazi “spirituality.” Part Three will continuethe story at the point Dürckheim arrives inJapan for the first time in mid-1938. It featuresDürckheim’s relationship with D.T. Suzuki butexamines his relationship with other Zen-related figures like Yasutani Haku’un andEugen Herrigel as well.

Note that the purpose of this series is not todismiss or denigrate either the postwaractivities or writings of any of the Zen-relatedfigures. Nevertheless, at a time whenhagiographies of all of these men abound, theauthors believe readers deserve to have anaccurate picture of their wartime activities andthought based on what is now known. I amdeeply grateful to Prof. Baier for having joinedme in this effort. BDV

Introduction

Japan, the “yellow fist”, as he called the nationin “Mein Kampf”, caused Adolf Hitler 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 military

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power when he observed Japan beat the Slavicempire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5.He also admired Japan for never having beeninfiltrated by the Jews. In “Mein Kampf” hisambiguous 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 estateSteingaden as seen today

As the brotherhood in arms with Englandturned out to be a pipe-dream, Hitler had tomake a pact with the Far Eastern country. Thisallowed a group of japanophile Nazis to raisetheir voices and disseminate a more detailedand positive view of Japan. They wereinterested in Japanese religion and especiallysympathized with Zen Buddhism.

The following article can be seen as a casestudy. Taking the intellectual and religiousbiography of Count Dürckheim as an example,the author investigates the question of howdedicated Nazis could connect their worldviewto a kind of mystical spirituality and develop apositive attitude 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 atthe family’s country estate in the Bavarianvillage of Steingaden, at the Basenheim Castlenear Koblenz and in Weimar, where his familyowned a villa built by the famous architectHenry van de Velde.

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 frontlinesfor around 47 months as officer, companycommander and adjutant.2 He never forgot theenthusiastic community spirit that filled hisheart and the hearts of his fellow Germans atthe beginning 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 atthe beginning of the war.”3 Later he would saythat during this period the meaning of his lifehad been the “unquestionable, ready-to-die-commitment to the fatherland.”4

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

There exists a ‘pleasure’ ofdeliberately thrusting oneself intodeadly danger. This I experiencedwhen embarking upon a nightlyassault 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 possiblea n d i n a d v a n c e a c c e p t e ddestruction one would feel theindestructible. In all of theseexperiences another dimensionemerges while one transcends thelimits of ordinary life – not as adoctr ine, but as l iberat ingexperience. 5

This k ind of “warr ior myst ic ism” – 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 imension” far beyond thetransitoriness of ordinary life – informed hisattitude towards life and was conducive to hislater appreciation of militaristic Bushidō-Zenand his admiration of the kamikaze pilots whichhe expressed 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. He

also published nationalistic brochures andpamphlets as well as articles that warnedagainst the 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,his partner and later spouse, befriended theAustrian psychologist and philosopherFerdinand Weinhandl (1896-1973), who at thetime was working at the Psychological Instituteat the University of Munich, and his wife, theteacher and writer Margarete Weinhandl(1880-1975). The four, who called themselves“The Square,” were not just two couples onfriendly terms. Their joint activities were aimedat a religious transformation of their own livesand the lives of others.

Dürckheim shared not only philosophical,psychological and religious interests with theWeinhandls but also the experience of WorldWar I as well as the ensuing nationalisticattitude nourished by it. Ferdinand, likeDürckheim, had voluntarily joined the army andbecame a frontline lieutenant, but a seriousinjury soon made him unfit for battle.Margarete had supported soldiers from theprovince of Styria in southeast Austria withsimple verses and poems written in Styriandialect, that were published in Heimatgrüße.Kriegsflugblätter des Vereins für Heimatschutzin Steiermark (“Greetings from Home. Warpamphlets of the Association for HomelandSecurity in Styria”), a journal that wasdistributed free among Styrian soldiers.8

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Fig. 4: Thrusting oneself into deadlydanger in World War I

The Weinhandls dominated the Square bothintellectually and religiously. They were prolificwriters well versed in the history and theologyof Christian mysticism. Moreover, Ferdinandwas interested in comparative religion. Hereferred to Friedrich Heiler’s comparativestudies on prayer and on Pali-based, Buddhistmed i ta t ion , and pra i sed h i s subt leunderstanding of the inner relations betweenvarious religions.9 Interpreting the similaritiesbetween religious practices within differentreligious 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 publishedand interpreted the mystical writings ofGerman medieval nuns.11 Ferdinand completedhis habilitation thesis in 1922 at the Universityof Kiel and later got a professorship forphilosophy there.12 He translated and editedthe Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyolaand published a small book on MeisterEckhart.13 In fact, it was he who introducedEckhart to Dürckheim.14 “Every evening we

would read Meister Eckhart,” Margarete notedin her diary.15 Dürckheim remembered: “Irecognized in Master Eckhart my master, themaster.”16 Meister Eckhart had great appeal forthe German Youth Movement and the culticmilieu of the interwar-period in general. As a“German mystic” he also blended very well intothe völkisch understanding of religion that wasen vogue in Dürckheim’s circles.17 Like so manyothers Ferdinand Weinhandl saw in Eckhart anearly manifestation of the deepest essence ofthe German spirit, its dynamism and “Faustian”activism.18

Fig. 5 Ferdinand Weinhandl

During the Nazi era the völkisch interpretationof Eckhart continued. In his Myth of the 20thCentury the NSDAP ideologist AlfredRosenberg extensively cited Eckhart as thepioneer of Germanic faith. In 1936 EugenHerrigel drew parallels between Eckhart andZen in his article on The Knightly Art of

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Archery that became a major source forDürckheim.19 Herrigel looks at Eckhart and Zenfrom the typical perspective of the protagonistsof völkisch mysticism:

It is often said that mysticism andespecially Buddhism lead to apassive, escapist attitude, one thatis host i le to the world. […]Terrified one turns away from thispath to salvation through lazinessand in return praises one´s ownFaustian character. One does noteven remember that there was agreat mystic in German intellectualh i s t o r y , w h o a p a r t f r o mdetachment p reached theindispensable value of daily life:Meister Eckhart. And whoever hasthe impression this ‚doctrine’might be self-contradictory, shouldreflect on the Japanese Volk,whose spiritual culture and way oflife are significantly influenced byZen Buddhism and yet cannot beblamed for passivity and anirresponsible sluggish escapism.The Japanese are so astonishinglyactive not because they are bad,lukewarm Buddhists but becausethe vital Buddhism of their countryencourages their activity.20

During the war Dürckheim was to call Eckhart“the man whom the Germans notice as theirmost original proclaimer of God”21 and he, likeHerrigel, outlined the proximity betweenEckhart and Zen on the basis of völkischthought.

Fig. 6 Alfred Rosenberg and his “DerMythus des 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 thebeginning of the 19th century) began around1900 under the influence of the Theosophistsand the emergence of a neo-romantic “newmysticism.” It grew rapidly after the war withseveral translations of the Daodejing becomingavailable, the most widespread of which was byAlexander Ular.22 This book, together withtranslations of Laozi and Zhuangzi published byMartin Buber and Richard Wilhelm, unleasheda kind of Dao craze among intellectuals andartists of the Weimar Republic. Dürckheimdescribes his first contact with Laozi as a kindof ecstatic experience of enlightenment,prompted when his wife read the eleventhverse from Ular’s version out loud.23

Ferdinand not only undertook a theoreticalstudy of religious exercises, but also introducedtheir pract ice to The Square. 2 4 Theyexperimented with different forms ofmeditation (sitting silently without an object ormeditating on specific topics, probablyinfluenced by Ignatius of Loyola, Coué´sautosuggestion and New Thought forms of

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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 interestedin their spirituality. One could say that TheSquare was a kind of model for Dürckheim’swork after World War II , and furtherfoundations were laid here for his later interestin Japanese practices and the synthesis ofspirituality and psychotherapy. During thisperiod, Dürckheim also read a book onBuddhism by Georg Grimm that he held ingreat 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 beenformative for the young Dürckheim and also forthe Weinhandls, was not exceptional at thattime. They more or less shared popular views ofthe Weimarian rightist cultic milieu,27 whichconsisted of a large number of smal lorganizations, reading circles, paramilitarygroups and the so-called Bünde (leagues) withlinks to the German Youth Movement and themovement of life reform (Lebensreform). “TheBünde were uniquely German. What madethem so during the years between 1919 and1933 was the fact that neither the onlooker northe participant could decide what they were.Were they religious, philosophical, or political?The answer is: all three.”28 Although TheSquare strongly sympathized with the Bünde,they deliberately decided not to organizethemselves in that manner, but to continue tolive as a small community focusing on personaltransformation.29

The rightist cultic milieu was informed byseveral widespread ideas that also deeplyinfluenced Dürckheim and his Square. Hereonly the most important ones can bementioned.

Fig. 7 Ludwig Fahrenkrog: Die heiligeStunde (1918)

The New Man

Many expected the breakdown of traditionalEuropean culture through World War I, andespecially the post-war crisis of Germansociety, to lead to a transformation of mankind,the arrival of a “new man.”30 Dürckheimdescribed his post-war social environment:“[They were] all people in which, because ofthe breakdown of 1918, something new arosethat a lso wi th in me soon brought toconsciousness something that in the years afterthe war everyone was concerned with: thequestion 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 theirfriendship as “revolving around a magicalcentre.” It was “the question of transformation,that we examined again and again in ourthoughts and talks, in our efforts andaspirations.”32 What Weinhandl does not tell thereaders of the commemorative volume is thefact that in the 1920s the search for in-depthtrans format ion o f mank ind and themillenarianism of the new man had a socio-political dimension. Leftist socialists mergedthem with their vision of a future society, and

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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” hadbeen used as self-designation of an influentialGerman nationalistic and racist (anti-Semiticbut also anti-Slavic and anti-romantic) protestmovement , cons i s t ing o f d i f f e ren torganizations, groups and individuals inGermany and Austria. Building upon ideas thatemerged within German Romanticism, for theseindividuals and groups “völkisch” and “Volk”took on a special meaning significantlydifferent from “people” and “nation” – ameaning that made the word untranslatableinto English and other languages. Thereforethe original German terms are used.

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 nationstate and being capable of bridging the classdivisions within society. Furthermore, the Volkhad a certain spirit or soul (“Volksgeist,”“Volkseele”) which comprised special virtuesand certain ways of thinking and feeling. Thetraditional aristocratic way of legitimizingsocial and political rule through birth anddescent was transferred from the nobledynasties to all members of the German Volk orAryan race.33 The central aim of the völkischmovement was the purification of the Germanicrace from alien influences and the restoration

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of the native Volk and its noble spirit.

Politically, the members of the rightist culticmilieu 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. 3 4 The only alternative to thedegeneration of contemporary society andpolitics would be a völkisch reform of life, aspiritual, social and political renewal ofGermany which would transform the countryinto a class-free holistic community of the Volk(Volksgemeinschaft) rooted in the homeland(Heimat) as well as in ancestral kinship (Ahnen)and ruled by charismatic leaders (Führer).

At the beginning of the 1920s, FerdinandWeinhandl was still aiming at individual self-development and a mystical transformationfree of political and social intentions. Accordingto Tilitzki, 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 toreflect on the necessity of new leaders (Führer)to imbue the spirit of the Volk with highervalues. In a text from the middle of the 1920she conceived the leader as an exceptionalperson who alone is capable of uniting thewhole and thereby establishes true community:“So, our path leads us from the person to thepeople [Volk] and beyond that back to theperson, to the exemplary individual, to thehero, to the idea of leadership [Führertum].”36

His völkisch leanings initially did not assume aradical right-wing form, and he continuedteaching at social-democratic institutions and

cultivated good relationships with colleagueswho supported the republic.

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 establishedto enable 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 wonderthen that detailed biographical studies “show[…] that the völkisch phenomenon and theBünde phase were the place of transition toNational Socialism.”38 After 1933 “völkisch”and “nationalsozialistisch” soon becamesynonymous whereas before then the Naziswere only one völkisch 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 Leaguef o r G e r m a n C u l t u r e ) a n d t h e N SKulturgemeinde (NS Cultural Community).40

Margarete headed a department for worldvieweducation (“weltanschauliche Schulung”)within the NS Frauenschaft, the women´sorganisation of the NSDAP, and became amember of the NSDAP office for racialpolitics.41

Völkisch Religiosity

The religious concepts of the völkisch milieuhave been researched intensively over the lastdecades.42 The multitude of mostly small

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communities and movements, which rarelyexisted for more than a few years, can bedivided into two basic types: neo-pagan andvölkisch Christian.4 3 Both were highlysyncretistic in their anti-Semitic attempts todevelop a racially specific, Aryan religion. Theneo-pagan groups, a small minority, rejectedChristian faith and either tried to revitaliseancient Nordic religions or searched for newforms of a Germanic faith. The völkischChristians tried to extract the Aryan elementsin the teachings of Jesus and constructed ahistory of German Christian faith from theGerman medieval mystics up to the presentday.

Fig. 9 Pamphlet to promote the DeutscheGlaubensgemeinschaft (German Faith

Community) (1921)

Within Dürckheim´s Square we find thevölkisch Christian attitude most clearlyarticulated by Margarete Weinhandl.Ferdinand´s interpretation of Eckhart points inthe same direction. The available sourcescontain no information about Dürckheim’s earlyunderstanding of Christianity. His commitmentto the Christian faith seems to have beenweaker 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 degeneratedand this is the reason why they rejected themessiah. Through Luther’s translation, theBible had become part of the German spirit andGerman religiosity. The treasures of the OldTestament and the message of Jesus had thusbeen preserved through the power of theGerman Volk, its poets and spiritual masterslike Meister Eckhart, Jakob Böhme etc.44

Additionally Dürckheim and his friends adopteda perennialist approach to religion assumingthat the 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 ofthem?”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’ bylocating and reconnecting to a primordialtradition (Urtradition). René Guénon and Julius

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Evola may correspond best to what the circle offriends intended […].”47 Whereas Dürckheimknew Guénon only through his writings, heactually met Julius Evola, the Italian extremeright-wing philosopher and esotericist whoharboured sympathies for the SS and theRomanian Iron Guard, whom he highlyesteemed, 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, it is calledmysticism.”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 truereligion in an extraordinarily pure form, a formthat matched the superior national character ofthe Germans.

Holism

The Weimarian cultic milieu´s leanings towardstotalitarianism were based on popular forms ofholistic and organicistic thought. Wholeness(Ganzheit) was a widely used metaphor forwhat – according to völkisch worldview – hadbeen lost in modern society and science andwas to be regained by the “new man.” Theradical conservative counterculture of theWeimar Republic was a holistic milieu thattried to rediscover the original wholeness ofindividuals by reintegrating them on differentlevels into larger “organic” wholes. Accordingto common holistic ideology, individuals as wellas social entities do not follow the laws ofmechanics but an order whose prototype is theliving organism. This kind of “organic thinking”was given a nationalistic connotation by thenotion that the realization of “organic wholes”is something specifically German, whereasother Western countries (France, England,USA) are the homelands of “mechanicalthinking.”50

Already in the Nazi era, Dürckheim wouldpraise organic thought as being a protest“against the world of unleashed instrumentalrationality, the proliferation of economics,technique and transport, against the tendencyto reduce every process to its simplestmechanic formula, against the dissolution ofthe human being into a bundle of impersonalfunctions, the opposition of longstandingorganic communities of blood and faith againstspecial-purpose associations etc.”51 Theappreciation of meditative practices and theinvocations of mystical oneness with “thewhole” that were so common in the Weimariancultic milieu, should be understood in thecontext of this critical attitude towards theburdens of modern culture and the longing forpersonal, social and religious identity in aworld experienced as fragmented and rapidlychanging.

“Wholeness” and “organic thinking” were not

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j u s t buzzwords w i th in the r igh 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,” alsok 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 anassistant at the Institute of Psychology at theUniversity of Leipzig. He worked there until hishabilitation in 1929/30. It is quite obvious thatDürckheim obtained this position not onlybecause of his qualifications but also becauseof his participation in an academic right-wingnetwork. Hans Freyer, the radical conservativephilosopher and sociologist, who had been oneof his 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 hostilitieswithin the city council and even the Germangovernment.54 Krueger was a leading figurewithin the völkisch oriented Fichte-Gesellschaft(Fichte Society). As a busy lecturer, he playedan important role within a large nationalisticeducational network and thus had contacts

with many patriotic associations and völkischgroups. From 1930 onwards he also lectured int h e N S - s t u d e n t - a s s o c i a t i o n(Nationalsoz ia l is t ischer DeutscherStudentenbund) and in the NSLB. Although histhought was close to National Socialism, and hehad signed the recommendation to vote forHitler published by German academics inNovember 1933, he nevertheless did notbecome a member of the NSDAP.

Fig. 11 Felix Krueger

Krueger’s psychological theory had a“pronounced ideological accent” as it wasmeant to contribute to a renewal of thecommunity of the Volk (Volksgemeinschaft).55

Especially from the late 1920s onwards heextended the range of his psychology to sociallife. His concept of community falls in line withthe then very popular d ist inct ion of

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Gemeinschaft (community) as a traditionalorganic social unit and Gesellschaft (society) asa contractual association of individuals,predominating in modern times.

The ideological position of Krueger is clear tosee, if one looks at how he constructs therelationship between the community as a wholeand its members. He simply transferred hisearlier theory of the dominance of the whole tosocial structures.56 “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 asthe superimposition of the community over theindividual and the subordination of theindividual to the community.”57 It is thistotalitarian bias that accounts for the affinitybetween Krueger’s thought and Nazism.

Dürckheim’s NS Thought and VölkischReligion

Like many other members of the völkischmilieu, Dürckheim believed that Adolf Hitlerand the Nazi movement would bring about thearrival of the new man. “Through Adolf Hitlerthe Gods have given to the German People […]the power to awaken fellow Germans in aninfectious movement and transform themtowards this new man.”58 It was Krueger’ssocial holism in particular that helped him toshape his Nazi philosophy in the years after1933. As Geuter has pointed out, Kruegerhimself only made programmatic statements oncommunity. It was Dürckheim who elaborated asystematic holistic psychology of communitylife based on the theories of the Leipzig Schoolin his articles Gemeinschaft (Community,1934); Dürckheim´s contribution to theFestschrift in celebration of Kruegers 60th

birthday; and the openly national-socialistZweck und Wert im Sinngefüge des Handelns(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”59

characterized by certain value-systems thathave absolute validity for all members. FromKrueger he also borrowed the principle that thetrue relationship between the whole and itsparts is the total subordination of the parts.“The being of the whole is the imperative of itsparts; whatever is useful for the whole is a lawfor the individuals.”60 One of the dangers thatthreaten their health and that members ofcommunities have to fight back against is “theinf i l trat ion of foreign bodies (racialquestion!).”61 The natural values of theindividuals reflect their racial origin and theblood- and fate-based membership in theorganic wholes of homeland, family and Volk.

The value-oriented life of the soul depends onits inborn and racially conditioned nature. Theorder of its perennial values is based in certainfundamental life units with which the soul isconnected by fate, an order that is defined bythe claims 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 been

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alienated 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-upcall that reunited the German Volk andrenewed the basic values of its life.65

For Dürckheim, the reawakening of the Volka m o n g t h e G e r m a n s h a d p r a c t i c a lconsequences. Hitler also “steeled their will todominate reality.”66 He explicitly defends thebrutality of the Regime against individualsunwilling to subordinate themselves to therealization of what the Nazis defined as theinterests of the larger whole. The NS manpossesses “the power to be radical that doesnot recognize sentimental care about painfulconcomitant effects that everywhere affectindividuals wherever the realization of a largerwhole is at stake. The accusation of harshness,which is time and again levelled againstNational Socialism, is a typical statement of asort of mankind that cares about individualsand has lost sight of the superior whole.”67

The “image of the fighter driven by fanaticfaith” is in Dürckheim‘s view the role model forthe type of human being that NationalSocialism aims to produce.6 8 “Germansoldiership could well be the starting point of acomprehensive realisation of the Germanmind.”69

Fig. 13 Training of the Waffen-SS

For him it was through National Socialism thatthe “German wor ldv iew” (deutscheWeltanschauung) became a political force forthe first time. This worldview clearly shows thecharacteristics of a religion as well, andtherefore Dürckheim also calls it “Germanfaith.” The source of German faith was the“unshakable belief in the German Volk” thatAdolf Hitler implanted in his fellow Germans,and this belief implied the commitment ofGermans to Germany as something that theyaccepted to be holy.70 Dürckheim describes thisfaith as based on the individual experience of ahigher reality, contrasting this with the mere“subjugation to a dogma.” He thus connects thetopos “mysticism versus dogmatic religion” andthe anti-church sentiment that had been quitewidespread within the “new mysticism” of the

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Weimarian cultic milieu with his NS-worldview:

As the centre of this faith we findthe breakthrough of the greatsubject Germany [das großeSubjekt Deutschland] within theindividual. Therefore faith in theN S - s e n s e d o e s n o t m e a nsubjugation to a dogma, but theinspiring force coming from thejoyful 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 andfamily

The motive of (heroically) abandoning one’sown will and surrendering to the greater wholefunctions as a link between Dürckheim’smilitarism and political totalitarianism on theone hand and his preference for mysticism onthe other. He constructs the Volk as a trans-temporal divine essence (“eternal Germany,”and later, “eternal divine Japan”) that everyindividual should incarnate by giving upselfishness and surrender to the egolessfunctioning within the whole. Service to thecommunity of the Volk and obedience towardsits leaders who represent the will of the wholeserve as a paramount connection to theultimate divine reality. As the Volk is theprimary revelation of the divine, the mainreligious task of its members is to contribute toi t s deve lopment and most power fu lmanifestation. 7 2

One would think that such a theology of theVolk is hardly compatible with racism. But thisis not the case. For Dürckheim certain racialconditions are part of the eternal essence of theVolk. Every Volk has the task of manifesting theD iv ine accord ing t o i t s own rac i a lcharacteristics. It is thus a holy duty “tomaintain the racial substance and protect itagainst any danger.”73

Introduction to Dürckheim’s WartimeWritings

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 JapanesePower) as a summary of his previous study ofJapanese cul ture and a basis for theexplorations of his second stay.74 The journalsthat published these articles were all deeplyconnected to the regime. These included: 1)Das XX. Jahrhundert (The Twentieth Century),financed by the German Foreign Office; 2)Berlin – Rom – Tokyo, a “monthly journal forthe deepening of the cultural relationships

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between peoples of the global politicaltr iangle,” also f inanced by the pressdepartment of the Foreign Office and meant toprovide publicity for the Tripartite Pact andestablish a sense of communality between theGermans, Italians and Japanese; and 3)Zeitschrift für deutsche Kulturphilosophie(Journal of German Philosophy of Culture). Thethird publication was the NSDAP-conformistsuccessor of Logos. Internationale Zeitschriftfür Kulturphilosophie (Logos. InternationalJournal of Philosophy of Culture) that wasforced to cease publication in 1933. Itpropagated a völkisch philosophy of culture inline with the cultural 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 otherdifficult situations). Besides the politicalsituation, Dürckheim may have had somepersonal reasons for writing it given the factthat at the end of 1939 both his first wife Enjaand his father died.7 5 According to thededication, he finished it in January 1940, themonth of his second departure to Japan. Thequestion as to whether this book wasinfluenced 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 Japanhad become more and more difficult as the warproceeded. His most voluminous German workpublished during the Nazi era was onlyavailable in Japan: Neues Deutschland.Deutscher Geist (New Germany. German Spirit,1942).76 Dürckheim tells us in his preface to thefirst edition of this book that its chapters wereoriginally articles written for different Japanesejournals that had been translated into Japanese

by Hashimoto Fumio. Subsequently, theGerman original texts were published in twocollections: Volkstum und Weltanschauung(Völkisch Tradition and Worldview, 1st ed.1940; 3rd ed. 1941) and Leben und Kultur (Lifeand Culture, 1st ed. 1941). According toDürckheim, Neues Deutschland. DeutscherGeist contains the largely unaltered originalGerman versions of the articles of both smallercollections. I will quote from the second“improved“ edition of this book, published, likethe first one, in 1942.77 In that same year aJapanese version of Neues Deutschland.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 bythe German Foreign Ministry.78

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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-M o n t m a r t i n a t t h e L a n d e s a r c h i vSpeyer/Germany whose Karlfried-Graf-Dürkheim section is now unfortunatelyinaccessible for non-members of the family.Gerhard Wehr – probably the last person whowas allowed to work in the archives – mentionsthe existence of the German manuscript ofMaisuteru Ekkuharuto with the title “MeisterEckhart” (85 pages) and a manuscript “DerGeist der europäischen Kultur – Ein Beitrag zurGeophilosophie” (The Spirit of EuropeanCulture – A Contribution to Geo-Philosophy)from 1943, which, at least according to its title,seems to be the German version of YoroppaBunka no Shinzui (The Essence of EuropeanCulture).79 Wehr also confirms the existence ofseveral other German manuscripts from thatperiod in the archive without going into detail.

Religion in Japan from a VölkischPerspective

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 literallyput it. In this regard he considered worldreligions to be an obstacle:

Fig. 16 Graf Dürckheim (1940)

Chris t ians , Buddhis ts andhumanists of all nations [allerVölker] may coincide with regardt o c e r t a i n h u m a n b a s i crequirements, and they may feelthe obligation to understand, tohelp and to love each other on apersonal level. But all this hasnothing to do with a mutualunderstanding o f völk ischmentalities and their necessities.On the contrary, till today theworld religions by virtue of theirtransnational 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 race

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and chauvinism that contradicttheir basic requirements.80

Shinto and Japanese Buddhism are consideredto the extent they fit the divine völkisch natureof Japan and help to strengthen the historicalmanifestation of the eternal Japanese spirit.Even when he compares Meister Eckhart andZen this is not meant as a comparison betweena form of Buddhism and a certain kind ofChristian theology and spirituality but as areflection of the relationship between Japanesevölkisch religion (inspired by Buddhism) andGerman völkisch religion (inspired byChristianity). Buddhism was a creativechallenge to the Japanese that ultimatelyhelped them to discover their true völkischnature and its innate religiosity. By the sametoken, the influence of Christianity in the longrun helped to clarify the German worldview:

Just as Buddhism made its way toJapan, Christianity 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 ofthe essence and the l i v ingwholeness of the ‘Volk’ and thus tothe völkisch worldview.81

This of course is meant as “gaining strengththrough strong adversaries” but, as we will seebelow, it also comprises the positive receptionof certain elements from world religions. Forvölkisch religions they play a similar role towhat Dürckheim calls the “international worldcivilisation” (basically consisting of modernscience and technology) for völkisch cultures.

Both are dangerous for the völkisch spirit butto a certain 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,m o d e r n d e v e l o p m e n t s , s u c h a sindustrialization, rationalization, the influenceof the Western – especially the American –attitude of individualism and profiteering,threatened the realisation of the eternalessence of both peoples.82 “It is the spirit thatconnects us with Japan, this spirit, which, bornout of the völkisch substance and the nation’swill to survive, in Japan as well as here inGermany fights against the alien and brings tobear its particular nature.”83 Similar toGermany, the dangers of modernity as well asthe threat of war stimulated Japan’s völkischpower and the implementation of politicalstructures in keeping with the Japanese 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 ofvölkisch life and a binding force forspecific classes to the political self-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 wasto be 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 that

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unites the whole nation and functions as a basisof 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 andits will to live as connecting Germany andJapan. “In spite of all differences regarding thecontents of faith and the forms this faithcreates, through its iron will to self-realisationthis spirit is related to ours.”86 Moreover, theGerman Volk is even able to understand Japanbetter than any other Volk. In this regardDürckheim refers to Hermann Bohner’s“masterful introduction and commentary” to histranslation of the Jinnō shōtōki (Chronicles ofthe Authentic Lineages of the DivineEmperors).87 Indeed, Bohner wanted todemonstrate the inner affinity betweenGermany’s Third Reich and the Japanesetradition in order to bring the Jinnō shōtōkicloser to his German audience.

I n d o i n g s o , h e l i k e n e dKitabatake´s work to Moeller vanden Bruck´s Das dritte Reich,maintaining both were connectedwith the same ultimate question of‘who we are.’ Bohner furthermoreclaimed that both texts were‘conversations with God,’ ‘self-dialogues,’ and ‘conversations withthe eminent Us.’ He portrays theirapparently similar contents as wellas both author’s experiences inhighly emotive terms: ‘As thoughby a gigantic, transcendentep iphany , a Daemonion , apersonality, that like every Ego isreal and yet non-tangible, eachauthor is faced by the personalityof his own nation.’88

Bohner’s paraphrases of Moeller van den Bruckand 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 Chinawas (for Japan), before India was, before Kong[Confucius] and Buddha had come across thesea, there was Japan. It was what it is and whatit will be: from the Deity it was, the divine seedwas in it.”90 It is interesting to note that inDürckheim’s Nazi articles written prior to hisfirst stay in Japan, he had already mentionedreligious feelings towards the Volk, albeit in asomewhat cursory manner. Japanese influencesmay have strengthened this dimension of histhought.

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

In any case, for him the confluence betweenthe traditional völkisch spirit and modernity

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was more advanced in Japan than in Germany,and he implicitly suggests that Japan sets agood example for the Third Reich in severalways. For him, Japan’s superiority lay in thefact that on the East Asian island the process ofindustrialisation is carried out by people whohad not been infected by materialism and whohad not given up their traditional way of life.The cult of the Emperor-God (J. Tennō) –unfortunately lacking in Germany – helpedkeep the old Japanese identity and worldviewalive and visible throughout the ages.91 Sodespite their modernization, the Japanese stillhave strong ties to family and dynasty.92

Individuals consider themselves “withexemplary naturalness to be only a serving partof the higher life-units.”93

In the Germany of his time, by contrast,individualism as well as the materialistic spiritof both 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 certain social circles andindividualism is a beacon to aworld that didn’t know thisphenomenon before, neveridealized or philosophicallylegitimised it, and now fightsagainst it to the bitter end.94

Dürckheim underlines the affinities betweenboth cultures to such an extent that onesometimes gets the impression he thinks theJapanese would be the better Nazis. He was butone among many (academics as well as

journalists) in the German-Japan discourse whopraised Japan as one if not the exemplary Volk.This tendency was seen in the August 1942Situation Report of the SS’s Security Service asa problem. The report states that the manycomparisons between the successful non-Christian religious worldview attitude towardslife, politics and warfare in Japan and thereligious worldview situation in Germany havecaused certain developments that make itnecessary to gradually correct the image ofJapan:

The former view, that the Germansoldier is the best in the world hasbeen confused by descriptions ofthe Japanese swimmers whoremoved mines la id beforeHongkong, or the Japanese pilotswho, with contempt for death,pounce with their bombs on enemyships. This has partially causedsomething like an inferioritycomplex. The Japanese look like akind of ‘Super-Teuton’ [Germaneim Quadrat].95

Dürckheim, however, is deeply convinced that amutual enrichment between Germany andJapan could and should take place. With twodifferent theoretical models he explains howthis inter-völkisch encounter could work. Thefirst model rejects direct borrowings betweendifferent völkisch cultures. “Just as it isimpossible to shift Mt. Fuji to Europe and theRhine to Japan, it is impossible to mutuallytransfer the essentially Japanese and theessentially German.”96 Nevertheless, the studyof a non-transferable alien culture is able tostimulate deep cultural growth because itsharpens insight into the principles of one’sown culture, and it is able to inspire therediscovery of some of its elements that werelong lost.97

The second model of inter-völkisch relationship

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concedes the possibility of direct imports froman alien Volk and takes the reception of ZenBuddhism in Japan as an example of this.

The Integration of Foreign Elements into avölkisch Weltanschauung : Zen’sContribution to Yamato-damashii

Whereas Dürckheim, as noted above, usuallyemphasized that the Volk is a “closed whole,”his reflections on Japan outline that it is not acompletely closed entity like a concrete block,but possesses a limited openness that in someway resembles the relation between an amoebaand its surroundings. He distinguishes threekinds of “healthy” reactions to the foreignwithin Japanese 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, but3.proved to be necessary for the self-preservation of Japan were integratedwithout damaging the inner essence ofthe Volk in the long run (European Spirit,technical achievements).

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 andcultures deepened its self-knowledge andstrengthened its power. His differentiationbetween several ways a Volk can relate toforeign Völker is important because it allowsfor intercultural contacts and influences to beaffirmed on the basis of völkisch thought. As wewill see, his goal seems to have been tointegrate Japanese elements into the Teutonicway of life. But let us first consider what hethought to be the contribution of Zen to theJapanese völkisch culture.

For him the Japanese racial instinct, faith or

worldview 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 ofYamato,” or “Japanese Spirit”).99 According tohis most elaborate analysis in Das Geheimnisder japanischen Kraft (The Secret of JapaneseP o w e r ) Y a m a t o - d a m a s h i i h a d f o u rfoundations: 1 0 0

1. Tennō: the center of the Empire,personification of the Volk, itsunity and 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 fromlife and death.

Since Zen Buddhism comes into play in 2) and4), the author will focus on these points in thefollowing.

The only source concerning Zen thatDürckheim refers to in Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft is Suzuki’s Zen Buddhismand its influence on Japanese Culture (1938).101

The author is not aware of any other Zen-related literature that Dürckheim referred to inhis published wartime writings. It is certainthat he also knew of Herrigel’s article on TheKnightly Art of Archery. Furthermore, asdetailed in Part III, he was later introduced toZen-related literature and texts written byYasutani Haku’un and translated for him byHashimoto Fumio.

From Suzuki and Herrigel, Dürckheim learnedthat Zen is a Buddhist sect that – like everyform of Buddhism – searches for enlightenmentthrough meditation, but differs from other

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Buddhist schools for three reasons which makeZen especially interesting for Dürckheim:102 1)its denial of every dogma,103 2) its aspiration fora direct relationship to the absolute,104 and 3)its emphasis on the practice of this relationshipin daily life, work and service.105

For Dürckheim, Zen is the best exampleshowing that Japan does not f i t thecharacterization of Asian mentality asdominated by passive contemplation. Instead,Zen helped to create the typical Japanesesynthesis of a “passive experience of God” with“willpower and determined action.” Heemphasised that Zen monks had been amongthe great teachers of the samurai spirit, whichhad evolved during the first military rule ofJapan in the 13th century.106 Then he continued:

It is good to know that todayperhaps 50% of the Japaneseofficer corps have a more or lessc l o se r e l a t i onsh ip t o ZenBuddhism, and th is meansknowledge of the power of themotionless mind, the still heart. Italso means a personal relationshipto the demands of Zen-Buddhistculture, a culture which recognizesthe ful f i lment of l i fe in thevalidation of perfect harmony –symbolically expressed in the teaceremony, but ultimately ineverything, especially in humanrelations.107

Note that harmony in accordance withDürckheim’s holistic thought means the wholehaving perfect control over its parts.Accordingly, Zen in Dürckheim’s view is apractice that unites the different classes of theJapanese Volk. Not only military officers, butalso Japanese businessmen, industrial workersand peasants are open to the Zen-influencedmeditative experience and therefore know “thesecret of ‘the inner space’.”108 He illustrates

this with an observation from Japanese dailylife:

Every Westerner notices howsilently the Japanese often sit orkneel. It is as if they have a secretspace to live in, into which theycan withdraw at any time, and inwhich they experience somethingthat noisy reality is never able togive. They somehow know aboutthe silent and unmoved heart thatreveals the true independence ofhuman be ings f rom th ingsexternal. 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 whenrisking their lives for their country as soldiers.The metaphor of the “secret inner space” isnotable because it does not seem to belong toZen vocabulary. The author found only onepassage in Suzuki’s Zen Buddhism and ItsInfluence on Japanese Culture that resemblesthis metaphor and might have influencedDürckheim. Suzuki ref lects upon thesignificance of the tea cult for the Japanesewarriors “in those days of strife and unrestwhen they were most strenuously engaged inwarlike business” and needed a respite fromfighting 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 nowider than ten feet square. Andwhen they came out of it, they feltnot only refreshed in mind andbody, but most likely had theirmemory renewed of things which

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were of more permanent valuethan mere fighting.110

The “inner space” whose cultivation is fosteredby Zen practice is connected with the fourthcharacteristic of Yamato-damashii: freedomfrom passions like fear and sorrow as well asfrom mental unrest – a state that is attained byletting go of all forms of clinging to the world:

Regarding this, the Japanesepossess a religious source of powerin the form of their Buddhist faith[…] Expressed in our categoriesone cannot but call this source aspecial relationship to the absoluteand an independence from life anddeath that results from closenessto the absolute.111

This independence is, according to Dürckheim,a Buddhist virtue and at the same time themost basic source of the transpersonal loyaltythat the Japanese time and again prove in theirservice to both family and Volk. Herrigelalready had expressed exactly the same view inhis 1936 article 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 sacrificetheir lives for them in a detachedand modest way. And here only thefruit of Buddhist influence andtherefore the subconsciouseducational value of the Zen-basedarts become evident: from thisinnermost light death and evensu ic ide for the sake o f thefatherland get their sublimeconsecrat ion and in a mostfundamental way lose all horror.112

The results of Dürckheim’s article on themystery of Japanese power are in accordancewith Suzuki’s theory of the fundamentalsignificance of Zen for all of Japanese cultureand Herrigel’s high evaluation of theeducational value of Zen- based arts.Dürckheim tried to show that the practice ofYamato-damashii is deeply rooted in Zeninsights and attitudes, and therefore Zenultimately appears to be the most significantexpression of the Japanese völkisch spirit andan essential resource of Japanese power.Similar to Suzuki, and perhaps even strongerthan him, he underlined the connection of thesamurai to Zen. The positive contribution Zenmade to the military and economic strength ofJapan and to the inner unity of the nation wereof crucial importance for Dürckheim’s positiveevaluation of this form of Buddhism.

Poss ib le Japanese In f luence onDürckheim´s Vom rechten 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 idealrighteous man is described as a man of honor(Ehrenmann), a man of God (Gottesmann) anda man 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 ofhis völkisch 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.): Vomrechten Mann

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 honoris concerned, if his nation is indanger or God’s concern is violatedwithin himself or within the World,then this calls him to fight andtransforms him into a sword. […]then a kind of willpower arises thatdoes not take care of itself butknocks down everything thatstands in his way.113

This sequence probably resonates with Suzuki’s

philosophy of swordsmanship and his use of“the sword” as a symbol for the life of thesamurai, 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 GeistDürckheim, very similar to Suzuki, was to callthe sword “Hüter des Heiligen” (guardian ofthe holy).117

The metaphor of the sword was certainly notnew to Dürckheim when he came across it inhis encounters with Japanese culture. It is wellknown in German culture too, especially inNazism. In Neues Deutschland. DeutscherGeist Dürckheim says that “the connection oflyre and sword” is something typicallyGerman.118 Moreover, in Das Geheimnis derjapanischen Kraft he sets forth the propositionthat the unity of lyre and sword, poetry andmilitary spirit, could well be the deepestcommon ground of the völkisch spirit of bothGermany and Japan.119 “Leier und Schwert”(Lyre and Sword) is the name of a volume ofpoems written by the 19th century poet TheodorKörner, who was held in high esteem by theNazis. In Hitler’s Mein Kampf, a book thatDürckheim thought very highly of, the word“sword” is used 27 times as a synonym for“weapon” or “military force.” Hitler contrasts

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the v ir tuous “nobi l i ty of the sword”(Schwertadel) with the corrupt Jewish “nobilityof finance” (Finanzadel).120 But it seems thatSuzuki’s Zen-empowered samurai and otherJapanese sources inspired Dürckheim toelaborate on its symbolism.

Most of the religious parts of the book usewords and phrases taken from the language ofChristian piety albeit without reference toChrist, Mother Mary, the Trinity and othertheological features i.e., in the sense of avölkisch religiosity influenced by Christianity.The term “die Große Kraft” (the Great Force)that he uses four times, three of which withquotation marks, does not fit into thisvocabulary.121 To give but one example: “Therighteous man has a cheerful heart and a mindwhich is always free in the depth of the soul. . .. There he is carried by the Great Force andfrom there he carries and overcomeseverything.”122 Where did this expression comefrom?

In 1964 Dürckheim published a collection oftexts as Wunderbare Katze und andere Zen-Texte (Marvelous Cat and Other Zen texts). Thetext from which the collection derived its nameMarvelous Cat is a training manual used by afencing school whose author according toDürckheim was an early seventeenth centuryZen master named Ito Tenzaa Chuya.Dürckheim writes that the manual had beengiven to him by “my Zen teacher” AdmiralTeramoto Takeharu. Admiral Teramoto was aprofessor at the Naval Academy in Tokyo andalso a Japanese fencing (kendō) adept. The textis about “das Wirken, das aus der großen Kraftkommt” (the kind of action that comes from theGreat Power). “Große Kraft” here functions astranslation of the Japanese ki no sho.123

Dürckheim probably got his hands on this textduring his first stay in Japan and took thephrase from there when he wrote Vom rechtenMann.

The expression “inner space” with which

Dürckheim characterized Zen experience alsoreappears in Vom rechten Mann. He used it todescribe a form of meditation alreadyresembling the centering of the body in thehara that was to become so important inDürckheim’s post-war writing. It also partlysounds like a paraphrase of Suzuki’s recreationof the warriors’ “in a quiet corner of theirUnconscious”:

When things become really badand unrest threatens even hisheart, then he turns inward andlocks himself up in the innermostspace of his soul. This space is hissecret. There he recollects himselfin his deepest centre. Totally silenthe settles himself, lifts his heartand lets his mind and senses calmdown again in God. Even in themiddle of the greatest turmoil healways finds the moment to let goof everything, to lower theshoulders and breath deeply. Andhe does not stop this until heexperiences the power of the greatcentre 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 ofinter-völkisch contacts allowed him to affirmthe integration of elements from foreignreligions and cultures into the German völkischworldview. He thus proceeded to introduceideas from what he perceived to be theJapanese völkisch worldview and to transformthem in such a way that they would fit andenrich the Nazi-German worldview. On the onehand, transnational religions like Buddhismwere only of minor importance to himcompared with völkisch religious worldviews.On the other hand, he followed Suzuki andHerrigel’s analysis of Zen’s influence on

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Japanese culture, arguing that as a völkischtransformed Buddhism it was of essentialimportance to Yamato-damashii.

That he began to blend his own völkischreligiosity with Zen concepts can also be seenfrom an undated letter to a Japanese friendquoted by Wehr. Dürckheim wrote:

If I reflect upon the ruling classesof the 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,around a spiritual breakthroughtowards ultimate reality – but abreakthrough in which thesearching subject is 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 onehe could find). According to his interpretationthe “greater self” mentioned in this textcorresponds to C. G. Jung’s concept of the“self” as a goal of the process of individuation.But the text fits perfectly with all we knowabout Dürckheim’s Nazi worldview, if one seesthe “greater self” as referring to the Volk, asthe whole passage suggests. Once again theawakening to ultimate reality and theawakening of the Volk within the individual areidentified with each other in a völkisch-super-völkisch enlightenment.

Conclusion

One could say that Dürckheim, like theJapanese protagonists of the Zen-Bushidōideology, instrumentalized religion in theservice of political totalitarianism. He did do sonot as a secularized non-believer but as

someone for whom the German and JapaneseVolk had religious significance because heunderstood them and their political systems asmanifestations of the Divine. Dürckheimmaintained that their völkisch worldviews as areflection 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 representsthe Volk and the Volk is the highest revelationof ultimate reality then religious organisationsbecome superfluous. Political rituals and stateholidays take the place of religious rituals andfeasts. Out of this came Dürckheim’ssympathies for state-supported Shintō, theJapanese state’s ideology and cult. He probablyenvisioned adding spiritual exercises based onthe model of Japanese Zen arts to these quasi-religious forms of expression of the holyVolksgeist – at least for the 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“ Y o g a a 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.Karl Baier is a member of the EuropeanNetwork of Buddhist Christian Studies.

Recommended citation: Karl Baier, TheFormation and Principles of Count Dürckheim’sNazi Worldview and his interpretation of

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Japanese Spirit and Zen,The Asia-PacificJournal, Vol. 11, Issue 48, No. 3, December 2,2013.

Related articles:

• Brian Daizen Victoria, Zen as a Cult of Deathin the Wartime Writings of D.T. Suzuki(https://apjjf.org/-Brian-Victoria/3973)

• Vladimir Tikhonov, South Korea’s ChristianMilitary Chaplaincy in the Korean War -r e l i g i o n a s i d e o l o g y ?(https://apjjf.org/-Vladimir-Tikhonov/3935)

• Brian Victoria, Buddhism and Disasters: FromW o r l d W a r I I t o F u k u s h i m a(https://apjjf .org/-Brian-Victoria/3717)

• Brian Victoria, Karma, War and Inequality inT w e n t i e t h C e n t u r y J a p a n(https://apjjf .org/-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:“Fei lusti bleib´n / Die Russen vatreib´n / DieSerben vaprügeln, / Die sakrischen Rigeln.”(“Certainly continue to be merry, / Chasing theRussians, / Beating the Serbs, / those terriblehulks.”) All German texts have been translatedby the author.

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

10 See ibid., p. 26.

11 See Deutsches Nonnenleben.

1 2 Habilitation 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.

1 3 Ignatius von Loyola, Die geistlichenÜbungen; Ferdinand Weinhandl, MeisterEckehart im Quellpunkt 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(derived from Goethe´s famous drama ‘Faust’)usually was depicted as involving both a searchfor the deepest meaning of life and an activeshaping of the world in contrast to pessimisticworldviews and passive world-negatingmysticism.

1 9 Herrigel, “Die ritterliche 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 spokesunite in one nave and on that which is non-existent on the hole in the nave depends thewheel's utility. Clay is molded into a vessel andon that which is non-existent on its hollownessdepends the vessel's utility. By cutting outdoors and windows we build a house and on

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that which is non-existent on the empty spacewithin depends the house's utility.Therefore,existence renders actual but non-existencerenders useful." (translated by Daisetz Suzukiand Paul Carus in 1913)

24 Cf. ibid., p. 43.

2 5 Ferd inand We inhand l , Wege derSelbstgesta l tung (Methods o f Se l f -Development) reflects the diversity of practicesthe Square knew and might have experimentedwith.

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 revealwhich of 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 noto n l y i m p o r t a n t f o r t h e r i g h t - w i n gcounterculture. It was at the same timewidespread among socialists.

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 earlyNSDAP.

35 Tilitzki, Die deutsche Universitätsphilosophiein der Weimarer Republik und im DrittenReich, 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.

3 9 C f . J u n g i n g e r , “ D e u t s c h eGlaubensbewegung,” 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 theThird Reich, Weinhandl acted as a dedicatedfollower of the Regime, who supported it notonly through his philosophy but also with hisparticipation in the burning of books at thecentral square in Kiel in 1933 and by his workin several 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 theNSDAP arose, perhaps because of his religiouscommitment and interest in spiritual renewal.However, he did not join the party when hecame back to Austria in 1944 and therefore wastreated as “less involved” after the war. SeeRollett, “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,

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Die völkische Bewegung im wilhelminischenKaiserreich; Gailus / Nolzen (ed.), Zerstrittene‚Volksgemeinschaft’; Puschner / Vollnhals (ed.),Die völk isch-rel ig iöse Bewegung imNationalsozialismus .

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.

4 6 T h e i m p o r t a n c e o f t h e m o t i v e o ftransformation towards the “new man” inDürckheim’s early days is mentioned in Wehr,Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, 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 religionsphilosophischenund psychologischen Würdigung,” p. 38.(Italics, Weinhandl).

50 See Scherer, “Organische Weltanschauungund Ganzheitspsychologie,” 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 theHolistic Psychology of Felix Krueger,” p. 202.Cf. Harrington: Reenchanted Science.

53 In 1929 Freyer’s positive assessment wascrucial for Dürkheim’s habilitation. Like otherradical conservatives and völkisch intellectuals,Freyer set high hopes in the dawn of the ThirdReich, but was soon disillusioned. See Muller:The Other 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 Hande lns , ” p . 234 .Nevertheless, Dürckheim sometimesemphasizes the importance of individuality andindividual responsibility. But from his holisticperspective the creativity and responsibility ofindividuals are only legitimate insofar theyenhance the fulfilment of the requirements ofthe greater whole. See e.g. Dürckheim-Montmartin, Neues Deutschland. DeutscherGeist, pp. 10-11.

61 Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Gemeinschaft,” p.207. Brackets and the words in brackets arepart of the original text. In Nazi German theterm Rassenfrage, racial question, referred toall the problems that arise as a result of thecohabitation of the Aryan race with alien races,and especially the Jews. Dürckheim herelegitimates the racial policy of the Third Reichwith his theory of the organic community as aclosed whole.

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

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

64 Ibd., p. 142.

65 Cf. Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Zweck und Wertim Sinngefüge des Handelns,” pp. 233-34,Neues Deutschland. 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 andin his speeches Hitler often invokes his beliefand faith 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’slife to 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 the

first to point out that Dürckheim is the authorof this book.

76 I would like to thank Brian Victoria forprov id ing me w i th a copy o f NeuesDeutschland. 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 noShinzui. Chikyutetsugakuteki Kosatsu (TheEssence of European Culture. GlobalPhilosophical Considerations). 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’s

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Personality’,” p. 140.

89 Bohner, who had lived in Japan since 1921,and Dürckheim almost certainly knew eachother personally as Dürckheim was busycontacting German scholars in Japan andespecially sympathizers of the Nazis. In 1943Bohner dedicated his translation of AkajiSōtei’s Chashitsu-kakemono Zengo-Tsūkai“Zen-Worte im Tee-Raume“ (Zen words withinthe tea-room) to Dürckheim.

90 Jinnō Shōtōki, pp. 3-4.

9 1 Cf . Dürckheim-Montmartin, 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 undGegenwart in Japan,” p. 201, Dürckheim in aslightly different way discriminates threepillars of the Japanese worldview: 1) Tennō(emperor), 2) faith in divine heroes, and 3)ancestors and family as basic forms of humanlife.

101 See Dürckheim-Montmartin, “Das Geheimnis

der japanischen Kraft,” p. 75, ref. 1.

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

103 Cf. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism and Its Influenceon Japanese Culture, p. 36: “Zen has no specialdoctrine or philosophy with a set of intellectualformulas, except that it tries to release fromthe bondage of birth and death and this bymeans o f certa in intu i t ive modes o funderstanding peculiar 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 aspectof Zen. It is a central point of Herrigel’sinterpretation of Zen supposed in his article onarchery.

106 Dürckheim here follows Suzuki, ZenBuddhism and Its Influence on JapaneseCulture, 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 ritterliche 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.

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116 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann, p. 45.

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 hisresearch trip through South Africa in 1934where on behalf of the Ministry of EducationDürckheim investigated the cultural andeducational situation of Germans in relation to

the new regime, he wrote in his diary: “At 7:30I sit at my desk and first read for at least halfan hour in Mein Kampf; this gives me the rightframe of mind for the day. . .” (cit. from Wehr:Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, p. 78).

1 2 1 Eckprecht, Vom rechten Mann , p. 9(quotation marks), p. 20, p. 39 (quotationmarks), 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.