M HKA Ensembles

Other, 2.5 x 2.5 cm.

Collection: Collection MHKA, Antwerp.

Blut und Boden was a key slogan of Nazi ideology. This included the organisation of agriculture, referring to the nationalistic ideal of an intrinsic bond between the racially pure national body (blut) and settlement land (boden). The nationalist ideology was based on the imaginary idea of traditionally sedentary German peasantry in opposition to rootless Jewish nomadism. The programme was famous for its wide ideological and propaganda support. The government encouraged the return of youth in cities back to villages, because cities were primarily seen as places of decadent modernity and overall 'un-German' life. With the help of the Blut und Boden policy, German society was meant to be restructured into a farming society. It also provided ideological justification for the German military expansion into Central and Eastern European territory.