Volksgeist
Volksgeist or Nationalgeist refers to a "spirit" of an individual people (Volk) or ethnic/racial nation, its "national spirit" or "national character" of the Volksgemeinschaft.
Definition
“Geist” is a central concept in Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's 1807 The Phenomenology of Spirit (Phänomenologie des Geistes). Notable compounds, all associated with Hegel's view of world history of the late 18th century, include Weltgeist "world-spirit", Volksgeist "national spirit" and Zeitgeist "spirit of the age". Volksgeist was also used in Germany before Hegel.
Etymology and literal meaning
Volksgemeinschaft (structural and sociological):
- Volks- (people, folk) + -gemeinschaft (community, fellowship; cf. Tönnies’ Gemeinschaft und Gesellschaft, 1887).
- Translation: "People’s Community" or "National Community."
- Implies an organic, hierarchical, racially defined social organism.
Volksbewußtsein (psychological and ideological):
- Volks- + -bewußtsein (consciousness, awareness; from bewusst = conscious).
- Translation: "Folk Consciousness" or "National Consciousness."
- Refers to a collective mental state or shared identity.
See also
People
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Ludwig Jahn
- August von Schlegel
- Richard Wagner
- Paul de Lagarde
- Houston Stewart Chamberlain
- Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
- Edgar Julius Jung
- Alfred Rosenberg
- Knut Hamsun
- Walter Darre
- Carl Jung
- A.C. Cuza
