Houston Stewart Chamberlain
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Houston Stewart Chamberlain |
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (
September 9,
1855 -
January 9,
1927) was a
British author noted for his works concerning the
Aryan race.
Houston Stewart Chamberlain was born on September 9th, 1855, in Southsea, England. His mother, Eliza Jane Hall, died before he was a year old. He was raised by his grandmother in
France. Chamberlain's father, Rear-Admiral
William Charles Chamberlain, had planned a military career for his son and at 11 he was sent to a
public school for future army and navy officers. But the young Chamberlain was more interested in studying music, literature and astronomy, and the prospect of serving as an officer in
India or elsewhere in the
British Empire held no attraction for him. Health concerns put a convenient end to Chamberlain's military prospects.
Beginning at age 14 he suffered from seriously poor health and travelled to various
spas around
Europe, accompanied by a
Prussian tutor who taught him
German and interested him in
German culture and
history. He then moved to
Germany, becoming an important member of the "
Bayreuth Circle" of German
nationalist intellectuals influenced by the ideas of
Richard Wagner, which included
anti-semitic sentiments. He married
Eva Wagner, the daughter of the composer.
In
1899 he wrote his most important work,
Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (
The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century). The work focuses on the controversial notion that
Western civilization is deeply marked by the influence of the Germanic peoples. Chamberlain grouped all European peoples—Celts, Germans, Slavs, Greeks, and Latins—into the "
Aryan race", a race built on the ancient
Proto-Indo-European culture. At the helm of the Aryan race was the Nordic or Germanic breed. Chamberlain's goal was to create a movement that would revive the recognition of Germanic blood. To do this, he incorporated not just the Teutonic peoples but all tribes with northern origins into a Germanic race. This included the Celts, Germans, and Slavs, all of whom Chamberlain considered to be of Germanic stock.
Chamberlain's works focused on the claim that the Germanic peoples were the heirs to the empires of Greece and Rome. He argued that when the Germanic tribes destroyed the Roman Empire, Jews and other non-Europeans already dominated it. The Germans, therefore, saved
Western civilization from
Semitic domination. Chamberlain's thoughts were influenced by the writings of
Gobineau, who had argued for the superiority of the Aryan race, a term that was increasingly being used to describe white peoples, excluding Jews (whose language implied origins other than the
Proto-Indo-Europeans). For Chamberlain the concept of an "Aryan" race was not simply defined by
ethno-linguistic origins. It was also an abstract ideal of a racial elite. The Aryan, or "noble" race was always in the process of creation as superior peoples supplanted inferior ones in evolutionary struggles for survival.
Interestingly, Chamberlain used a now discredited notion of the ethnic make up of
Galilee to argue that, while
Jesus may have been Jewish by religion, he was not
Jewish by race. During the Nazi period certain pro-Nazi theologians developed these ideas as part of the manufacture of an Aryan Jesus.
He was also an early supporter of
Hanns Hörbiger's
Welteislehre, the theory that most bodies in our solar system are covered with ice.
During his lifetime, Chamberlain's works became widely popular around
Europe, especially in
Germany. He was invited to stay at the court of
Kaiser Wilhelm II. His works would later have a marked effect upon German nationalist movements, such as
Adolf Hitler's
National Socialism.
Chamberlain became so fluent in German, that he wrote his books in the German language originally. During
World War I, he published several
propaganda texts against his country of originâ€
"Kriegsaufsätze (Wartime Essays)â€", and became a
citizen of Germany in
1916.
Adolf Hitler was a student of his works, and praised him as "The Prophet of the
Third Reich".
*
Basil Hall Chamberlain - elder brother of Houston.
*
Houston Stewart Chamberlain - a website devoted to him
