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

2004; American Association of Geographers; Volume: 94; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1467-8306.2004.09401011.x

1467-8306

Joshua Hagen,

Central European national history

Abstract 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. Key Words: anti-Semitismconsumer culturehistorical preservationKraft durch FreudelandscapenationalismNazi Germanytourism Acknowledgments I would like to thank Shelley Baranowski, Robert Kaiser, Rudy Koshar, Kris Olds, Robert Ostergren, Noah Rost, Robert Sack, Kristin Semmens, Hasso Spode, Karen Till, Yi-Fu Tuan, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions on this project. I also owe a deep debt of gratitude to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation's Federal Chancellor's Fellowship Program for funding the majority of this research. Notes 1. Conservative social theorist Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl was one of the first tourists to "discover" Rothenburg. In his travel journal, published in an Augsburg newspaper in 1865, Riehl Riehl, W. H. 1967 [1865]. Ein Gang durchs Taubertal, Heidelberg: Europäische Kulturstätten. [Google Scholar] enthusiastically described Rothenburg as "the most purely medieval, of all the old German cities I know.… It is as if the town were petrified, turned to stone" (1967, 18). 2. An examination of Rothenburg's attempts to adopt and adapt Nazi policies also provides a unique opportunity to compare earlier electoral success with the later administration of the town. Rothenburgers strongly supported the Nazi party before 1933. In one of the last free elections during the Weimar period, the Nazi party received 37.2 percent of the vote nationally, but received 60 percent in Rothenburg itself and 82 percent in Rothenburg county, the highest percentages the party ever achieved in a fair election (FA Aug. 3, 1932; Hambrecht 1976 Hambrecht, R. 1976. Der Aufstieg der NSDAP in Mittel- und Oberfranken (1925–1933), Nuremberg: Stadtarchiv Nürnberg. [Google Scholar], 344). After the Nazis gained power, many locals actively, and often proactively, strove to conform to the broad outlines of Nazi ideology. One can conclude that the Nazi party relied perhaps more on consent and cooptation than intimidation or violence to exercise power in Rothenburg. Although the literature on the Nazi electorate is too extensive to explore here, Rothenburg fits well with many established voting patterns. Rothenburg was largely Protestant, rather rural, and relatively poor. In general, the Nazi party had its best results, often-absolute majorities, in areas with these characteristics. Little information about the class composition of Nazi support in Rothenburg is available. Those most actively involved with the party in Rothenburg tended to be middle-class professionals and civil servants, but with 60 percent of the vote, the Nazis clearly had appeal beyond this narrow group. 3. Official KdF statistics, like all information released by Nazi organizations, likely exaggerate but can be used with caution. 4. Franconia comprises roughly the northern half of the state of Bavaria. Its major cities include Nuremberg, Würzburg, Bamberg, and Bayreuth. The Fränkischer Anzeiger (FA) is the leading local newspaper in Rothenburg. 5. Many other top Nazi officials also found time to stop by Rothenburg, including Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, Julius Streicher, Rudolf Hess, Wilhelm Frick, Konstantin Hierl, Franz Xaver Schwarz, and Ludwig Siebert. 6. Julius Streicher was perhaps the most rabid anti-Semite among the Nazi leadership. The choice of Nuremberg to host the annual party rallies and the so-called Nuremberg laws of 1935 partially reflected his influence in the party. Although disliked by nearly the entire Nazi party leadership, Streicher ran the Franconian regional party apparatus from Nuremberg from 1922 until 1940, and he was executed there for crimes against humanity in 1946. During his tenure, he made frequent visits to Rothenburg and was active in local affairs. 7. The town had already renamed a street as "Siebert Street" in 1920 to honor his mayoral tenure in Rothenburg, but the name was changed in 1945 because of Siebert's prominent role in the Nazi party. Yet, in gratitude for his preservation efforts, the town re-renamed the same street Ludwig Siebert Street in 1955. This name has remained to this day. 8. The outbreak of war also prevented the construction of a new Autobahn that was planned in part to improve access to the town and ensure "motorists would get a very good view" of Rothenburg while passing by (FA Sept. 1, 1938; April 27, 1939; see also, Rollins 1995 Rollins, W. H. 1995. Whose landscape? Technology, fascism, and environmentalism on the National Socialist Autobahn. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85: 494–520. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Schütz 1997 Schütz, E. 1997. "Eine glückliche Zeitlosigkeit: Zeitreise zu den Strassen des Führers". In Reisekultur in Deutschland: Von der Weimarer Republik zum Dritten Reich, Edited by: Brenner, P. J. 99–Tübingen. Tübingen: Niemeyer. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Lekan 1999 Lekan, T. 1999. Regionalism and the politics of landscape preservation in the Third Reich. Environmental History, 4: 384–404. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 9. Nazi propaganda cast Jews in seemingly contradictory roles. Jews were simultaneously identified as proponents of liberal capitalism and the main forces behind bolshevism and communism. Although capitalism and communism were ideological opposites, both represented international systems, which meant they were incompatible with the Nazi's nationalist orientation. 10. Although the focus here must remain on Rothenburg, this is not to suggest that it or other historical towns were the only places favored in Nazi ideology. Although medievalism received significant support in Nazi Germany (Koshar 1991 Koshar, R. 1991. Altar, stage and city: Historic preservation and urban meaning in Nazi Germany. History & Memory, 3: 30–59. [Google Scholar],;1998a Koshar, R. 1998a. Germany's transient past: Preservation and national memory in the twentieth century, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar]; Koerner 1994 Koshar, R. 1998a. Germany's transient past: Preservation and national memory in the twentieth century, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Google Scholar]; Scheck 1995 Koerner, L. 1994. 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[Google Scholar]; Taylor 1974 Taylor, R. 1974. The word in stone: The role of architecture in the National Socialist ideology, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). These alternative visions were even present in Rothenburg, albeit in subdued forms, and led to some tension between their more modernist aesthetics and Rothenburg's historical image (FA Dec. 12, 1934; Hofmannsberg 1937 Hofmannsberg, D. J. H. 1937. Die neueste Bau-Entwicklung in Rothenburg ob der Tauber als eine Gefahr für die architektonische Reinerhaltung der Stadt. Fränkische Hefte, 2: 1–24. [Google Scholar]). It would be difficult to argue that swastika flags, as seen in Figure 1 for example, enhanced the town's medieval character.