M HKA Ensembles

Book, 16.2 x 22.9 x 16 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp.

Hans F. K. Günther, The Racial Elements of European History,1926
Published by J. F. Lehmanns Verlag
First edition 
Collection M HKA, Antwerp

Hans Friedrich Karl Günther (1891-1968) was a linguist by training. Although he did not have any background in anthropology or eugenics, publisher J.F. Lehmann commissioned him in the 1920s to write popular science books on the theme of race. His books were intended for the general public, yet dismissed as unscientific by several scientists. Nevertheless, they had an important influence on Adolf Hitler's racist theories. In the early 1930s, Günther was appointed professor of anthropology at the University of Jena by the local Nazi administration, and both Hitler and Hermann Göring attended his inaugural address. He was the only racial theorist to join the party before the Nazis came to power in 1933, and was nicknamed 'Rassen-Günther' and 'Rassenpapst' (race pope) in those circles. Driven by the idea that “a race shows itself in a human group which is marked off from every other human group through its own proper combination of bodily and mental characteristics, and in turn produces only its like”, Günther provides an overview of five different European races, describes their physical and mental characteristics, and emphasises a crucial role played by the Nordic subgroup. He comes up with a conclusion that North Western Europe is the original cradle of the Nordic race. Extensive visual material highlights racial types and historical events. After World War II, Günther was imprisoned for three years. He was released without charge and even continued to publish on eugenics and race. The Racial Elements of European History was suppressed after the War, but has become available again today, listed as Ethnological study.