George Kettmann
Encyclopedia
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
– 10 February 1970 in Roosendaal) was a Dutch poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and publisher who promoted Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in the Netherlands. With his wife, he founded the best known Dutch National Socialist publishing house, De Amsterdamsche Keurkamer. Until 1941 he was editor in chief of Volk en Vaderland (People and Fatherland), the weekly journal of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands
The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands was a Dutch fascist and later national socialist political party. As a parliamentary party participating in legislative elections, the NSB had some success during the 1930s...
(NSB), the movement of Anton Mussert
Anton Mussert
Anton Adriaan Mussert was one of the founders of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands and its de jure leader. As such, he was the most prominent national socialist in the Netherlands before and during the Second World War...
.
Life and career
Kettmann was the eldest son of a businessman and worked for his father until the company was ruined by the financial crisis of 1930Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, after which he worked as a journalist.He joined the NSB on 2 August 1932. On 12 October he married Margot Warnsinck; they had started the publishing house, De Amsterdamsche Keurkamer, only shortly before he joined the party, on 14 or 21 July, with the aim of promoting a new völkisch ideology, which soon became specifically National Socialist. In 1939 the company published the Dutch translation of Hitler's Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
.
In the years before World War II, in addition to running the company, he edited Volk en Vaderland, the national weekly of the NSB (until 1941) and wrote and published prose, poetry and essays, showing enormous energy. Over the years his relation with Anton Mussert deteriorated, as Kettmann accused Mussert of being unable to grasp the true, revolutionary nature of National Socialism. This led ultimately to his joining the Nederlandsche SS
Nederlandsche SS
The Nederlandsche SS was formed on September 11, 1940. On November 1, 1942 the name was changed to Germaansche SS in Nederland . The Nederlandsche SS in total counted circa 7,000 members and was primarily a political formation. In addition it served as a reservoir for the Waffen-SS...
on 7 March 1942. In September 1942 Mussert expelled him from the NSB; Kettmann was considered too radical a National Socialist. He went to the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
as a war correspondent.
After the war Kettmann fled to Belgium, where he was arrested in 1948. Back in the Netherlands, he was accused of:
- joining the German armed forces,
- aiding the enemy, National Socialism and antisemitism,
- having written and published articles and poems glorifying National Socialism and antisemitism.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. After his release in 1955 he refrained from any political activity. He published some volumes of poetry, in which he demonstrates not having lost his National Socialist ideology.
Ideologically he evolved from an Italian-style fascism (1931–1933) to a Dutch National Socialism (1933–1940), then to a German-oriented National Socialism (1940–1942) and finally to the most radical SS ideology, desiring one great Germanic empire in Europe (1942–1945). After the German defeat he returned to his ideas of the 1933-1940 period.
Selected works
- 1928 - De glanzende draad der goden. Novel.
- 1930 - De vlam der steden. Coauthor: Ru le Cavelier. Novel.
- 1931 - Maan op het dak. Novel.
- 1933 - De oceaanvlucht van een olie-man. Novel.
- 1935 - De jonge leeuw, verzen. Poetry.
- 1936 - Om wille van het leven, kunst en gemeenschap. Essay.
- 1938 - Het erf aan zee. Poetry.
- 1940 - Om de nieuwe cultuur. Essay.
- 1942 - Jong groen om den helm. Poetry.
- 1943 - Bloed in de sneeuw. Poetry.
- 1944 - De verdrevene. Novel.
- 1949 - Leven in tweespalt: nagelaten geschriften van een nationaal-socialist. Autobiography. Published Hilversum: Flanor, 1999, ed. Willem Huberts, introduction by Louis Ferron. Flanorreeks 37. ISBN 9789073202405.
- 1956 - De ballade van de dode Viking. Poetry.
- 1957 - Manuel. Published under the pseudonym Jan van de Wolk. Novel.
- 1962 - Zettericks van alle seizoenen. Published under the pseudonym Jan van de Wolk. Poetry.
- 1969 - Man vrouw kind. Poetry.
Sources
- Willem Huberts. Schrijver tussen daad en gedachte, leven en werken van George Kettmann Jr. (1898–1970), met een bibliografie. The Hague: Stichting Bibliographia Neerlandica, 1987. ISBN 90-71313-08-5.
- Frank van den Bogaard. "George Wilhelm Kettmann (1898–1970)". In: Een stoottroep in de letteren, 'Groot Nederland', de SS en de Nederlandse literatuur (1942–1944). The Hague: Stichting Bibliographia Neerlandica, 1987. ISBN 90-71313-07-7.
- Willem Huberts. "Kettmann". In: Biografisch woordenboek van Nederland, deel 3. Ed. J. Charité. The Hague: Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis, 1989. pp. 322–324. ISBN 90-5216-006-6.
- Gerard Groeneveld. "Kettmann in Karelië". In: Kriegsberichter, Nederlandse SS-oorlogsverslaggevers 1941-1945. Nijmegen: Vantilt, 2004. pp. 305–317. ISBN 90-77503-09-9.
- George Kettmann and Margot Warnsinck. Uitgeverij "De Amsterdamsche Keurkamer". Archive 1926–53. Amsterdam: NIOD: Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust- en Genocidestudies. OCLC 66595793.