Ludwig Fahrenkrog
Encyclopedia
Ludwig Fahrenkrog was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 writer, playwright and artist. He was born in Rendsburg
Rendsburg
Rendsburg is a town on the River Eider and the Kiel Canal in the northeastern part of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is the capital of the Kreis of Rendsburg-Eckernförde. As of 2006, it had a population of 28,476.-History:...

, Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

, in 1867. He started his career as an artist in his youth, and attended the Berlin Royal Art Academy before being appointed a professor in 1913. He taught at the School of Arts and Crafts in Bremen from 1898 to 1931. He was also involved in the founding of a series of folkish
Völkisch movement
The volkisch movement is the German interpretation of the populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the "organic"...

 religious groups in the early 20th century, as part of a movement to create what its adherents referred to as a "Germanic religious community".

Artistic influences

Fahrenkrog was trained in the classical tradition, and had a successful artistic career. He became a professor of art in 1913, and was later appointed a guest professorship at Dakota University in 1925. In 1928 he received first prize at the Grand Palace exhibition in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

. His style, however, is more dependent on Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...

 and Symbolist influences than on the classical tradition. In an article on Fahrenkrog's work, Marcus Wolff points to "his insistence on the religious nature and mission of art." The "religious mission" in question is the revival of the pre-Christian Germanic faith and the rejection of Christianity, which is hinted at in paintings such as Lucifer's Lossage von Gott (Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...

's Renunciation of God, 1898).

While Fahrenkrog's work can be seen in the context of contemporary art movements, it was also strongly influenced by his participation in the religious movement taking place at the same time.

Fahrenkrog and the Germanic Faith Community

The first group started by Fahrenkrog was the Deutscher Bund für Persönlichkeitskultur (German League for the Culture of the Personality), which also supported a publication called Mehr Licht! ("More Light!", the famous last words of Goethe). He was also involved with the Deutsche Religionsgemeinschaft (German Religious Community [DRG]), which would later change its name several times, first in 1912 to Germanische-Deutsche Religionsgemeinschaft (Germanic-German Religious Community [GDRG]), then in 1915, following a split in the membership, to the Deutschgläubige Gemeinschaft (Association of the German Faithful [DGG]).

Fahrenkrog remained with the GDRG after several members left following disagreements over the place of the old Germanic gods and the inclusion of a partly Jewish member, and shortly thereafter the group changed its name to the Germanische Glaubens Gemeinschaft (Germanic Faith-Community [GGG]), its final form. In 1916, the group set out ten points of common belief which they later published in Das Deutsche Buch (The German Book).

In 1923, the GGG's sixth year of existence, Fahrenkrog gave a speech that emphasized the non-political nature of the group, and stated the goal of "ascent and united will of all Germanic people." At that point, the group had a large membership spread across several neighboring countries, and plans for further growth included the building of a Germanic temple designed by Fahrenkrog's stepson.

However, the temple's construction was obstructed by protests from local Christian groups and disagreement among GGG members, and it was never finished. In 1925, Fahrenkrog and Adolf Kroll, another early member, argued over the role that the Edda
Edda
The term Edda applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age...

should play in the group's mythology. Fahrenkrog believed that the GGG should evolve a new mythos incorporating but not dependent upon the Edda, Kroll apparently seeing this as disloyalty to the old Germanic myths.

The GGG under the Third Reich

When the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 came to power in 1933, they outlawed almost all other groups not affiliated with the party. The GGG, however, was not forced to disband, partly, says Wolff, "because of Fahrenkrog's international status as an artist." Nevertheless, some of its activities were limited. They could no longer hold public meetings, and after 1938 could no longer use the swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

, which the GGG had been using as its symbol since 1908.

Fahrenkrog himself was reluctant to use the greeting "Heil Hitler!" in letters, and as a result never gained any recognition within the party. In 1934, an exhibit of his paintings was prohibited by the ministry of propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

.

See also

  • Germanic Faith-Community
  • Germanic paganism
    Germanic paganism
    Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of north-western Europe from the Iron Age until their Christianization during the Medieval period...

  • Germanic neopaganism
    Germanic neopaganism
    Germanic neopaganism is the contemporary revival of historical Germanic paganism. Precursor movements appeared in the early 20th century in Germany and Austria. A second wave of revival began in the early 1970s...

  • TYR
    Tyr (journal)
    Tyr: Myth—Culture—Tradition is the name of an American Radical Traditionalist journal, edited by Joshua Buckley, Michael Moynihan, and Collin Cleary....

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