National mysticism

National mysticism (German: Nationalmystik) or mystical nationalism is a form of nationalism that elevates the nation to the status of numen or divinity. Its best-known instance is Germanic mysticism, which gave rise to occultism under the Third Reich. The idea of the nation as a divine entity was presented by Johann Gottlieb Fichte.^[1] National mysticism is closely related to Romantic nationalism,^{[citation needed]} but goes beyond the expounding of romantic sentiment, to a mystical veneration of the nation as a transcendent truth. It often intersects with ethnic nationalism by pseudohistorical assertions about the origins of a given ethnicity.^[2]

National mysticism is encountered in many forms of nationalism other than Germanic or Nazi mysticism and expresses itself in the use of occult, pseudoscientific, or pseudohistorical beliefs to support nationalistic claims, often involving unrealistic notions of the antiquity of a nation (antiquity frenzy) or any national myth defended as "true" by pseudo-scholarly means.^[3]^[4]

^ Asmuth, Christoph (April 2024). "Revolution and Nation: Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Late Philosophy of Religion". Religions. 15 (4): 426. doi:10.3390/rel15040426. ISSN 2077-1444.
^ Stone, Dan (2017), Pendas, Devin O.; Roseman, Mark; Wetzell, Richard F. (eds.), "Race Science, Race Mysticism, and the Racial State", Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany, Publications of the German Historical Institute, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176–196, ISBN 978-1-107-16545-8, retrieved 2024-10-20
^ Stone, Dan (2017), Pendas, Devin O.; Roseman, Mark; Wetzell, Richard F. (eds.), "Race Science, Race Mysticism, and the Racial State", Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany, Publications of the German Historical Institute, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176–196, ISBN 978-1-107-16545-8, retrieved 2024-10-20
^ Mosse, G. L. (1961). "The Mystical Origins of National Socialism". Journal of the History of Ideas. 22 (1): 81–96. doi:10.2307/2707875. ISSN 0022-5037. JSTOR 2707875.

[1] Asmuth, Christoph (April 2024). "Revolution and Nation: Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Late Philosophy of Religion". Religions. 15 (4): 426. doi:10.3390/rel15040426. ISSN 2077-1444.

[2] Stone, Dan (2017), Pendas, Devin O.; Roseman, Mark; Wetzell, Richard F. (eds.), "Race Science, Race Mysticism, and the Racial State", Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany, Publications of the German Historical Institute, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176–196, ISBN 978-1-107-16545-8, retrieved 2024-10-20

[3] Stone, Dan (2017), Pendas, Devin O.; Roseman, Mark; Wetzell, Richard F. (eds.), "Race Science, Race Mysticism, and the Racial State", Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany, Publications of the German Historical Institute, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 176–196, ISBN 978-1-107-16545-8, retrieved 2024-10-20

[4] Mosse, G. L. (1961). "The Mystical Origins of National Socialism". Journal of the History of Ideas. 22 (1): 81–96. doi:10.2307/2707875. ISSN 0022-5037. JSTOR 2707875.

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