Triumph of the Spirit: Masculinity in Artur Dinter’s &quot;The Sin Against the Blood&quot; and the Search for a Modern German Identity

Artur Dinter’s The Sin Against the Blood (1918) was among the most popular antisemitic documents of the Weimar Republic. The novel portrays Jews as race defilers and the embod-iment of materialism, which the protagonist, Hermann Kämpfer, must overcome to achieve transcendence. Through the narration of a dualistic struggle, Dinter constructs both a collec-tive and individual modern German identity, with masculinity at its core. This struggle con-stitutes a dynamic dialectical movement and can be considered a response to the tensions faced by the male subject in modernity, evident in Dinter’s writings, his biography and con-temporary right-wing agitation. While Dinter remained committed to a spiritual revolution, a new generation of Nazis resolved the tensions of modern masculinity by transforming Din-ter’s heroic idealism into a heroic realism and integrating the alienated individual into the collective of the Männerbund. Understanding the gendered dimension of this subjectification...Show moreArtur Dinter’s The Sin Against the Blood (1918) was among the most popular antisemitic documents of the Weimar Republic. The novel portrays Jews as race defilers and the embod-iment of materialism, which the protagonist, Hermann Kämpfer, must overcome to achieve transcendence. Through the narration of a dualistic struggle, Dinter constructs both a collec-tive and individual modern German identity, with masculinity at its core. This struggle con-stitutes a dynamic dialectical movement and can be considered a response to the tensions faced by the male subject in modernity, evident in Dinter’s writings, his biography and con-temporary right-wing agitation. While Dinter remained committed to a spiritual revolution, a new generation of Nazis resolved the tensions of modern masculinity by transforming Din-ter’s heroic idealism into a heroic realism and integrating the alienated individual into the collective of the Männerbund. Understanding the gendered dimension of this subjectification process is crucial, as masculinity structures not only historical Nazism but also present-day political discourse.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

Triumph of the Spirit: Masculinity in Artur Dinter’s "The Sin Against the Blood" and the Search for a Modern German Identity