Chapter
Four
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THE MANKIND QUARTERLY is not a unique representative of European academic racism. It has a close German counterpart: Neue Anthropologie, published in Hamburg by The Society for Biological Anthropology, Eugenics and the Study of Behaviour (Gesellschaft für Biologische Anthropologie, Eugenik und Verhaltensforschung).
The two journals are connected. Neue Anthropologie regularly abstracts the major contents of The Mankind Quarterly. They have similar contributors and even on occasions the same articles.
For instance, the April/June 1977 edition of Neue Anthropologie contained an article by Professor Donald A. Swan entitled 'Sir Grafton Elliot Smith über die "Negerrasse".' Coincidentally, the April/June 1977 edition of The Mankind Quarterly contained an article by Swan: 'Sir Grafton Elliot Smith on "the Negro Race".'
Swan is a regular contributor to The Mankind Quarterly; for instance he published three major articles in Vol. 17 (1977-8). He is also on the editorial board of Neue Anthropologie. His other qualifications include being a contributor to the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs' journal and being general secretary of the International Association for the Advancement of Ethnology and Eugenics (IAAEE).(58) This imposing-sounding society operates from a postal box on Grand Central Station New York. It publishes reprints which "provide scholars, students and others with easy access to important articles on the race question". These reprints are offered by openly Nazi groups in the United States (for instance they are on the Sons of Liberty Booklist).(59)
Neue Anthropologie resembles The Mankind Quarterly in a number of respects. It will be shown that its chief editor has clear connections with fascist politics; so also do other members of its editorial board. The content of the journal is racist and it is preserving the racial philosophy of Nazi theorist Hans Günther. Like The Mankind Quarterly, Neue Anthropologie is recommended by the Northern League (see for instance The Northlander, February/April, 1974).
Again in common with The Mankind Quarterly, Neue Anthropologie combines older racial theories with modern psychology. Whereas The Mankind Quarterly has Eysenck as an Honorary Adviser, Neue Anthropologie has Jensen on its editorial Advisory Board.
JÜRGEN RIEGER
The editor of Neue Anthropologie is Jürgen Rieger, who belongs to the post-war generation of European fascists. One of Rieger's preoccupations is establishing unity within the 'Nordic race'. To this end, he is a member of the Northern League.
Rieger addressed the Northern League's annual meeting in Brighton, 1969. Quoting the work of Günther and Kuttner he declared: "Our goal is the consolidation of the European countries of the Germanic language and culture group. This 'Nordic Federation' will be the cultural and political centre, the support and refuge for those of the Nordic race outside Europe" (The Northlander, August/October, l969).
Rieger also attended the Northern League's meeting the following year, where he praised, amongst others, the views of Oswald Mosley and Hans Günther. His conclusions were much the same as they had been the previous year: "The Teutonic nations of Europe share a common heritage and are of the same racial extraction. It would be natural for them to strive for political union and unity of power. Our peoples have common enemies. Let us fight for a Teutonic confederation that must come!" (The Northlander, December, 1970, italics in original).
Rieger's views on the 'Teutonic race' are further elucidated in his book Rasse: ein
Problem auch für uns! (Race: also a problem for us). Rieger stresses the importance of racial purity and fulminates against "the disastrous effects of bastardising" races. His clarion call is that "We must awaken the powers of our race: 'The white giants are coming!'."
It should hardly come as a surprise that in West Germany Rasse: ein Problem auch für uns has been placed on the index of books dangerous for young people. Nor should it come as too much of a surprise that The Mankind Quarterly devoted an article in 1971 to praising the book (H. Kiesel: 'Race, the 'Nation of Europe' and ideology', pp.111-115). Even less surprising considering that The Mankind Quarterly features as one of the major sources which Rieger uses in his book.(60)
Rieger himself is also involved with contemporary German Nazi politics. For instance he was involved in organising a meeting in Munich 1977 entitled "Eternal penitence for Hitler?" (Ewig büssen für Hitler?). In addition to Rieger, the other main speakers were Dr. Gerhard Frey and Professor Arnold Butz.(61)
Frey is chairman of the extreme neo-Nazi Deutschen Volksunion. He is also the editor of the paper Deutschen Nationzeitung, an extremist paper which mixes far-Right nationalism with scarcely veiled anti-Semitism. The titles of articles in Deutschen Nationzeitung tell their own story: 'Gassing of Jews: refutation of the great Auschwitz lie'; 'How Hitler really was: exposing anti-German lies'; 'How Hitler really died: His last words, 'I have never wanted war'.'
Butz is a Professor of Engineering at Northwestern University, Illinois. He is the author of The hoax of the Twentieth Century, which is fast becoming a modern anti-Semitic classic, to be found on the booklists of all openly Nazi groups in Europe and the States.(62) Butz's thesis is simple; the Nazi extermination of the Jews never took place. According to Butz it is a "most pernicious hoax...a monstrous lie . . . The Jews of Europe were not exterminated and there was no German attempt to exterminate them". The 'lie', in Butz's view, was invented by Zionist propagandists.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Rieger is not the only figure associated with Neue Anthropologie who is involved in Nazi and fascist politics. In fact a number of the Board of Scientific Advisors (Wissenschaftlicher Beriat) are similarly involved.
Dr Rolf Kosiek, Professor of Nürtingen University, is on the Board and also contributes articles on race and genetics. Kosiek is also a leading member of the neo-Nazi party NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partie Deutschlands) in the Baden-Würtemburg area. His booklet Das Volk in seiner Wirklichkeit is highly recommended by the NPD, providing as it does a biological basis for the NPD's volkish-ideology. This same booklet was formerly given free to new subscribers of Neue Anthropologie.
Kosiek's booklet was favourably reviewed by Rieger in Neue Anthropologie (January/March, 1976, pp.24-5). Rieger seemed to be particularly impressed by Kosiek's final chapter which emphasises "the great German talents" of the "German Folk", which are being curbed by traitors to the nation.
Another of the Neue Anthropologie Board active in neo-Nazi politics is Dr H.G. Amsel. He is a member of a small, anti-Semitic organisation called Gesamtdeutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft, which carries on the traditions of Hitler's old hero, Erich Ludendorff. Amsel contributes to the paper Mensch und Mass which perpetuates Lundendorff's anti-Semitic theories of a world Jewish conspiracy.
Amsel's conspiracy theories are elaborated in his book Kehrseite des Geldes ('The hidden side of money'). Neue Anthropologie reviewed this work in April/June 1977 (p.45). Kosiek, the reviewer, concluded his very favourable notice by asserting that "it is very much to be hoped that this book will be noticed by leading businessmen and financiers".
Dr H.-W. Hammerbucher is likewise on Neue Anthropologie's editorial Board. He is a publisher who frequently writes for the weekly Nazi paper Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung. This paper is strongly linked to the NPD. In fact, in 1973 it merged with Deutsche Nachrichten which was the official NPD paper. Its publisher is Waldemar Schutz, who is ex-Waffen SS and is a member of NPD's national committee.
Dr F.J. Irsigler, a German brain specialist now resident in South Africa, is, as well as being on Neue Anthropologie's Board, a regular contributor to the neo Nazi Deutsche Hochschullehrer Zeitung. His contributions combine quasi-biological racism with anti-Semitism. He also contributes to The Mankind Quarterly. One of his articles for The Mankind Quarterly, ostensibly on the subject of the evolution of the human brain, details Irsigler's beliefs in a world conspiracy which has "the aim of establishing a world superstate represented by a handful of dictators ruling over a mass of mongrelised brains" (1976, p.105). Irsigler recommends in this article that those interested in "disguised world dictatorship" should read certain publications of the John Birch Society.(63)
In elaborating their racial theories, Rieger, Kosiek et al all make use of the modern psychological research into IQ differences between races. In particular, they cite the works of Eysenck and Jensen to support their basic assumption of fundamental genetic differences between races.
However, it is not just a matter of citing the 'respectable' psychologists, or of twisting their words to fit an extremist position. The words of Jensen and Eysenck stand unmodified in the pages of Neue Anthropologie.
Jensen, as well as being a member of the journal's Board, is also one of its most frequent contributors. In 1973, in the first year of Neue Anthropologie's publication Jensen published Bildungsfähigkeit, Erblichkeit und Bevolkerungsunterschiede (Educability, heredity and population differences). The following year Neue Anthropologie published Zur stammesgeschtlichen und individuellen Entwicklung der Intelligenz (On the phylogenetic and individual development of intelligence); in 1976 Jensen again appears in Neue Anthropologie with an article entitled Eine Zweifaktorentheore des familiären Schwachsinns (A two-factor theory of familial feeble-mindedness). In 1977 he was leaping to the defence of Sir Cyril Burt in his article Die falschen Anschuldigungen gegen Sir Cyril Burt (The false accusations against Sir Cyril Burt).
To date Eysenck has not contributed an actual article to Neue Anthropologie; however the journal in January/March 1976 published an exclusive interview with him.(64) In this Eysenck spells out his belief that 75 per cent of intelligence is a product of heredity and only 25 per cent due to environmental factors. Eysenck goes on to complain about the threats to his work from Left-wing students. Ironically, given his audience in Neue Anthropologie, he complains that these "militant Left-fascists" are in no way different from Hitler's "Right-fascists".(65)
If anything the preservation of pre-war German racial theories is even more overt in Neue Anthropologie. It is not difficult to find evidence that the works of Günther are still being championed.
For example, Rieger in a long article entitled Der Rassenbegriff (The concept of race) in January/March 1976, shows that it is not only at closed meetings of the Northern League that he praises Günther. At the end of his piece, which argues for the importance of studying racial differences, Rieger includes a section on 'Ideology and the definition of race'. Regretting that the study of race has become enmeshed in ideological questions relating to National Socialism, Rieger gives an example of a satisfactory approach towards, and definition of, 'race'. His example is significant: it is not just that he quotes Günther, but he specifically quotes Günther's characterisation of the Jews (p.9). Thus, although Rieger is claiming to be outlining a "new direction" for research into race, he is quite consciously looking backwards to well-trodden paths.
As if to make the point more explicit, following the end of Rieger's article, there are two advertisements (p.11). One is advertising copies of Bauernglaube by Hans Günther ('Hurry while stocks last!'). The other advertisement is for the pro-Nazi magazine Nation Europa (see below).
But even more blatant and more official is the notice in Neue Anthropologie (October/December 1977, p.96) on behalf of its publishers, the Society for Biological Anthropology, Eugenics and the Study of Behaviour: "Within the framework of the existing Society it ought to be possible to establish a Günther-Circle in order to assemble a complete collection of his books and articles". The notice goes on to state that the Society's archives lack certain articles and asks if members could fill the gaps. It specifically calls for Günther's contributions to Neues Volk, which was an official publication of the German Nazi party, and Odal (the monthly magazine edited by the Nazi leader Walter Darré, specialising in Blut und Boden).
This notice concludes with the hope that there would be sufficient interest within the Society to republish some of Günther's works.