The Most German of Towns: Creating an Ideal Nazi Community in Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Abstract

During the Nazi period, Rothenburg ob der Tauber served to exemplify Nazi ideas of landscape and nation. This article focuses on the manner and circumstances under which Rothenburg was manipulated to advance what Nazi ideology held to be the fundamental characteristics of the German nation and its history. The first section of this article examines attempts to politicize and reorganize tourism in Rothenburg led by Kraft durch Freude (KdF). The KdF aimed to promote a sense of national belonging, demonstrate the regime's commitment to improving the material, physical, and spiritual well-being of the German nation, and project a positive image of the regime in Germany and abroad. The second section moves beyond KdF to explore efforts to transform the town into a type of Nazi utopia through more stringent preservationist and commercial policies designed to eliminate non-German elements from the town's built environment, while reinforcing the themes of cleanliness, health, and traditional ways of life and consumption. Finally, anti-Semitism emerged as an important factor within this broader campaign to restructure the town in accordance with Nazi ideology. The aim is to see Rothenburg not merely as a symbolic representation of Nazi beliefs, but also to see local residents and the town itself as an active force in reshaping and framing these beliefs into a form that could be seen, experienced, and consumed.

Everyday nationhood

“…And nationally marked and decorated spaces and places -public squares, national landmarks and entire regions (Löfgren, 1989;Molnár, 2005) -can similarly be seen, appreciated and therefore consumed in ways that highlight and privilege national attachments. Joshua Hagen (2004) has shown how the medieval German town of Rothenburg was transformed and contrived as the epitome of Germanness in the 1930s. Local residents became actively engaged in the production -and consumption -of their own exalted values of Teutonic cleanliness, order and beauty (Hagen, 2004: 214-18).…”

White Supremacy and the Future of Liberal Democracy–the Case of the Nordic Resistance Movement

“…In more recent times, we see former U.S. President Donald Trump communicate similar ideas when he uses rhetoric such as "make America great again" (Huber, 2016). With the suggested return to an idealized past, NRM's communication relates to right-wing populism, but also to fascist intellectual ideas (Galston, 2018;Hagen, 2004;Traverso, 2019). Combined, these findings show that NRM is using extreme forms of fascist rhetoric in both 2010 and 2018.…”

Antisemitismus, Großstadtfeindlichkeit und reaktionäre Kapitalismuskritik in der deutschsprachigen Geographie vor 1945

“…Auch der langsam sich durchsetzende Begriff der Stadtgeographie bezog sich in empirischen Arbeiten in der weit überwiegenden Zahl auf Klein-und Mittelstädte. Ideal einer Deutschen Stadt im Nationalsozialismus war der Geographie also weniger Speers Entwurf von Germania, als die zur "Nazi utopia" gewandelte "deutscheste aller Städte" Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Hagen, 2004). Der heute so dominante bias der geographischen Stadtforschung zugunsten von Großstädten ist abwesend.…”