'For a genuine and noble nakedness'? German naturism in the third Reich

German History

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 62-84

  Jefferies, Matthew ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 34047243945     PISSN: 02663554     EISSN: 1477089X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1191/0266355406gh363oa     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Stephen Spender, World within World (Berkeley, 1966), p. 107.
2. Maurice Parmalee, Nudity in Modern Life. The New Gymnosophy (London, 1929), p. 5.
3. C.E. Norwood, Nudism in England (London, 1933), p. 7.
4. Gymnosophy - from the Greek Gymnos (naked) - was one of many terms used by early advocates of a clothes-free lifestyle; others included Lichtfreunde ('friends of the light') or Sonnenkinder ('children of the sun'). The two most common terms today, 'nudism' and 'naturism', are used synonymously throughout this essay, even though some authors have attempted to identify a difference between the two. Arnd Krüger, for instance, has suggested that for nudists 'being in the nude was the most important issue', whereas for naturists it was just one goal amongst many. This distinction is not, I think, very helpful. See Krüger, 'There Goes This Art of Manliness: Naturism and Racial Hygiene in Germany', Journal of Sport History, 18, 1 (1991), p. 150.
5. See Iseult Richardson, No Shadows Fall: Born into Naturism. The Story of Spielplatz (Scarborough, 1994).
6. Krüger, 'There Goes This Art of Manliness', p. 136.
7. Frances and Mason Merrill, Among the Nudists (London, 1931).
8. Spender, World within World, pp. 108-109.
9. Karl Toepfer, Empire of Ecstasy. Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture 1910-1935 (Berkeley, 1997);
10. Michael Hau, The Cult of Health and Beauty in Germany: A Social History, 1890-1930 (Chicago and London, 2003);
11. Chad Ross, Naked Germany: Health, Race and the Nation (Oxford, 2004). Unfortunately the latter was published too late to be discussed in this essay.
12. For an overview see Matthew Jefferies, Imperial Culture in Germany 1871-1918 (Basingstoke, 2003), Ch. 5.
13. Also Wolfgang Krabbe, Gesellschaftsveränderung durch Lebensreform (Göttingen, 1974);
14. Eva Barlösius, Naturgemäße Lebensführung. Zur Geschichte der Lebensreform um die Jahrhundertwende (Frankfurt/Main and New York, 1997);
15. Kevin Repp, Reformers, Critics and the Paths of German Modernity (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).
16. George Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality: Respectability and Abnormal Sexuality in Modern Europe (New York, 1985), p. 171.
17. Mosse quoted by Dagmar Herzog, 'Hubris and Hypocrisy, Incitement and Disavowal: Sexuality and German Fascism', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, 1/2 (2002), p. 6.
18. Herzog, 'Hubris and Hypocrisy', pp. 3-4.
19. Udo Pini, Leibeskult und Liebeskitsch. Erotik im Dritten Reich (Munich, 1992).
20. Stefan Maiwald and Gerd Mischler, Sexualität unter dem Hakenkreuz. Manipulation und Vernichtung der Intimsphäre im NS-Staat (Munich, 2002).
21. Elizabeth Heinemann, 'Sexuality and Nazism: The Doubly Unspeakable?', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, 1/2 (2002), pp. 23 and 31.
22. See Maren Lorenz, Leibhaftige Vergangenheit. Einführung in die Körpergeschichte (Tübingen, 2000);
23. or Clemens Wischermann and Stefan Haas (eds), Körper mit Geschichte (Stuttgart, 2000).
24. Maren Möhring, Marmorleiber. Köperbildung in der deutschen Nacktkultur, 1890-1930 (Cologne, 2004).
25. Dietger Pforte, 'Zur Freikörperkultur-Bewegung im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland', in M. Andritzky and T. Rautenberg (eds), 'Wir sind nackt und nennen uns Du'. Von Lichtfreunden und Sonnenkämpfern. Eine Geschichte der Freikörperkultur (Giessen, 1989), pp. 136-45.
26. Oliver König, 'Nationalsozialismus und Nachkriegszeit', Ch. 4 in his Nacktheit. Soziale Normierung und Moral (Opladen, 1990).
27. Ulrich Linse, 'Sonnenmenschen unter der Swastika. Die FKK-Bewegung im Dritten Reich', in M. Grisko (ed.), Freikörperkultur und Lebenswelt (Kassel, 1999), pp. 239-96.
28. See for example Giselher Spitzer, 'Die "Adolf-Koch-Bewegung". Genese und Praxis einer proletarischen Seltbsthilfe-Organisation zwischen den Weltkriegen', in Hans Joachim Teichler (ed.), Arbeiterkultur und Arbeitersport (Clausthal-Zellerfeld, 1985).
29. or Spitzer's 'Gymnastik und Parademarsch? Die Rolle Hans Suréns für die Einführung der Leibesübungen in der Frühzeit des nationalsozialistischen Arbeitsdienstes', in G. Spitzer and D. Schmidt (eds), Sport zwischen Eigenständigkeit und Fremdbestimmung (Bonn, 1986).
30. Curiously, two of the exceptions focus on the same town: Stephanie Sell, 'Aspekte der Freikörperkultur in den zwanziger und dreißiger Jahren in Göttingen', in H. Langenfeld and S. Nielsen (eds), Beiträge zur Sportgeschichte Niedersachsens, vol. 2 (Hoya, 1998).
31. and an unpublished Göttingen University dissertation by Fabian Krüger, 'Die Lebensreform-Bewegung und Naturismus in Göttingen. Die wechselvolle Entwicklung der organisierten Freikörperkultur in der Weimarer Zeit und im Nationalsozialismus' (1999).
32. See Franz Walter, Viola Denecke and Cornelia Regin, Sozialistische Gesundheits- und Lebensreformverbände, vol. 2 (Bonn, 1991).
33. Although Lebensreform and naturism in particular are often considered to be typically bürgerlich, in the 1920s approximately two-thirds of Germany's organized naturists belonged to socialist associations. The figure of 60,000 is given by Merrill, Among the Nudists, p. 184.
34. Giselher Spitzer in Der Deutsche Naturismus. Idee und Entwicklung einer volkserzieherischen Bewegung im Schnittfeld von Lebensreform, Sport und Politik (Ahrensburg, 1983), p. 139, and others.
35. Wilfried van der Will, 'The Body and the Body Politic as Symptom and Metaphor in the Transition of German Culture to National Socialism', in B. Taylor and W. van der Will (eds), The Nazification of Art (Winchester, 1990), p. 21.
36. The leading socialist naturist, Adolf Koch, made the same claim. See Toepfer, Empire of Ecstasy, p. 36.
37. Quoted by Hans Peter Duerr, Nacktheit und Scham. Der Mythos vom Zivilisationsprozeß (Frankfurt/Main, 1994), p. 106.
38. also Spitzer, 'Nackt und Frei. Die proletarische Freikö rperkulturbewegung', in H. J. Teichler and G. Hauk (eds), Illustrierte Geschichte des Arbeitersports (Bonn, 1987), pp. 175-82.
39. Quoted in Hermann Wilke, 'Aufstand des Leibes. Eine Geschichte der Freikörperkultur', unpublished manuscript from 1965, IFB 1141.
40. RFK statement of 8 March 1933, quoted by Pforte, 'Zur Freikörperkultur-Bewegung', p. 136.
41. Interestingly, Sträßer's short published memoir, Nacktkultur im alten Berlin. Die Anfänge der FKK-Bewegung (Kassel, 1981)
42. makes no mention of this episode. Another to have portrayed events in this way was 'Arno Vossen' (actually Hermann Wilke) in Sonnenmenschen. Sechs Jahrzehnte Freikörperkultur in Deutschland (Hamburg-Großflottbek, 1956), p. 56.
43. Wilke, 'Aufstand des Leibes', IFB 1141.
44. Deutsche Freikörperkultur, 1, 6 (1933), p. 88.
45. Vossen, Sonnenmenschen.
46. Georg Pfitzner, Der Naturismus in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (Hamburg-Altona, 1964).
47. Karl Dreßen, Geschichte des Naturismus. Von der Nacktheit über die Nacktkultur zum Naturismus (Berchem, Belgium, 1995).
48. Spitzer, Der Deutsche Naturismus, p. 115.
49. Spitzer suggests, however, that the Aachen group had already distanced itself from socialism by 1932, when it was listed as a member of the bourgeois RFK rather than the socialist Verband Volksgesundheit. See Spitzer, 'Die "Adolf-Koch-Bewegung"', p. 97.
50. Adolf Koch, 'Krumme Buckel - Runde Rücken - Oder?', Adolf-Koch-Blätter, 1 (1934), pp. 2-3. Koch continued his operations for a time under the name Institut für Eubiotik und Lebensregelung, before that too was closed down in 1936.
51. See Eleanor Hancock, '"Only the Real, the True, the Masculine Held Its Value": Ernst Röhm, Masculinity, and Male Homosexuality', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 8, 4 (1998), p. 623.
52. Adolf Koch, 'Krumme Buckel - Runde Rücken - Oder?', p. 3.
53. See Spitzer, 'Die "Adolf-Koch-Bewegung"', p. 98;
54. König, Nacktheit, p. 191.
55. Carl Almenroeder, 'So geht das nicht!', Deutsche Freikörperkultur, 1, 6 (1933), p. 88.
56. See Uwe Schneider, 'Nacktkultur im Kaiserreich', in Uwe Puschner (ed.), Handbuch zur 'Völkischen Bewegung' 1871-1918 (Munich, 1996), pp. 411-35.
57. Quoted by Arno Klönne, 'Das "Ja zum Leibe" - mehrdeutig. Zur politischen Geschichte der FKK Bewegung', Vorgänge. Zeitschrift für Bürgerrechte und Gesellschaftspolitik, 33. 3 (1994), p. 28.
58. Quoted by Klönne, 'Das "Ja zum Leibe" - mehrdeutig', pp. 28-29.
59. According to Pforte, 'Zur Freikörperkultur-Bewegung', p. 137, the Reichssportführer gave permission on 25 October 1933 for the Bund to become part of 'Gruppe III' (Fachamt für Bergsteigen und Wandern), along with the Deutsche Wandervogel and the Deutsche Zeltlagerbewegung.
60. Linse, 'Sonnenmenschen unter der Swastika', p. 264, quotes Bückmann in 1935 bemoaning that 'not even 1%' of the membership had gained their sports badge.
61. Freikörperkultur, 2 (Nov. 1953), pp. 131-32.
62. For Surén see Dietger Pforte, 'Hans Surén - eine deutsche FKK-Karriere', in M. Andritzky and T. Rautenberg (eds), 'Wir sind nackt und nennen uns Du', pp. 130-35.
63. See Giselher Spitzer, 'Gymnastik und Parademarsch?'
64. Spitzer states that Surén succeeded in his demand that gymnastic exercises in the RAD should be carried out 'as far as possible in an undressed state' ('möglichst unbekleidetem Körper'). See Spitzer, 'Gymnastik und Parademarsch?', p. 202
65. For a first-hand account see Charly Sträßer's unpublished manuscript 'Mit Hans Surén im RAD. Höhenflug und Absturz', Nachlaß Sträßer, IFB L2065/X.
66. Quoted by Linse, 'Sonnenmenschen unter der Swastika', pp. 281-82, fn 13.
67. Quoted by Hans Peter Bleuel, Strength Through Joy. Sex and Society in Nazi Germany (London, 1972), pp. 32-33.
68. See Ian Kershaw, Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris (London, 1998), pp. 261-62, 343-45;
69. also Ernst G. Schenk, Patient Hitler. Eine medizinische Biographie (Düsseldorf, 1989).
70. For a 1930s viewpoint see E. Kaiser, 'Hitler als Lebensreformer', in Freikörperkultur und Lebensreform, 4/5 (April 1933), p. 65 and p. 84.
71. Quoted by Hans Peter Bleuel, Strength Through Joy, pp. 32-33.
72. See Linse, 'Sonnenmenschen unter der Swastika', pp. 243-44.
73. Cooper C. Graham, Leni Riefenstahl and Olympia (Metuchen, NJ and London, 1986), p. 139.
74. See Hancock, 'Only the Real, the True, the Masculine Held Its Value'.
75. also Mosse, Nationalism and Sexuality.
76. and Harry Oosterhuis, 'Medicine, Male Bonding, and Homosexuality in Nazi Germany', Journal of Contemporary History, 32, 2 (1997), pp. 187-205.
77. Sträßer, 'Mit Hans Surén im RAD. Höhenflug und Absturz', Nachlaß Sträßer, IFB L2065/X.
78. Letter of 17 Aug. 1935, quoted by Pforte, 'Hans Surén - eine deutsche FKK-Karriere', p. 139.
79. Gertrud Riphahn, 'Bilder aus meiner Kinder- und Jugendzeit im Lichtbund Wuppertal', unpublished manuscript dated 29 June 1974, IFB Wündr. IV Völkerball was a much-played game in nudist colonies, involving two teams seeking to remove the other side's players by hitting them with a ball.
80. Deutsche Freikörperkultur, 1, 3 (1933), p. 35.
81. Krüger, 'Die Lebensreform-Bewegung und Naturismus in Göttingen', pp. 79-113. In April 1933 the colony was used by 'some 25 people, including some 10 families'; the membership then fell to 15 in 1935 and 11 in 1939. In that year the local police noted that the members were 'older people' of 'mature morality' (p. 113).
82. It is worth remembering that the 'natural' look celebrated in these photographs was itself contrived: all naturist groups staged regular tanning sessions with sun-lamps, while women's magazines continued to advertise moisturizers and depilatory creams. See Irene Guenther, Nazi Chic. Fashioning Women in the Third Reich (Oxford, 2004), p. 99.
83. Terri J. Gordon, 'Fascism and the Female Form: Performance Art in the Third Reich', Journal of the History of Sexuality, 11, 1/2 (2002), p. 165.
84. Jungmöhl, a Lebensreform colony, was open to naturist guests throughout the 1930s, except for a short period the between summer and winter 1935. See Jungmöhl. Ein Bündel Berichte und Bekenntnisse (Lauf, 1937), p. 6.
85. Previous summer camps had been less successful: in 1935 a Bückmann-led camp on the Baltic coast was broken up by the police (see 'Ein Ostseelager mit Hindernissen', in Gesetz und Freiheit, 2, 9 (1935), pp. 226-30. Winter camps were also held throughout the 1930s, with a focus on naked skiing.
86. Hermann Wilke suggests this is likely to have been the Pomeranian author and World War I veteran Ulrich Sander (born 1892), whose novels such as Sturm in der Düne and Ola - die Schwedin, had the search for a natural lifestyle as their theme. Sander wrote volume 5, Sinn der Nacktheit, in Wilm Burghardt's 'Geist und Schönheit' series of 1939-40 and was a close friend of Wilke, who penned his biography (Ulrich Sander. Mensch und Werk) in 1942.
87. Guenther, Nazi Chic, p. 103.
88. See Mario Zeck, Das schwarze Korps. Geschichte und Gestalt des Organs der Reichsführung SS (Tübingen, 2002);
89. and William Combs, The Voice of the SS: A History of the SS Journal 'Das Schwarze Korps' (New York, 1986).
90. Das Schwarze Korps, 24 April 1935, quoted by Hans Peter Bleuel, Strength Through Joy, p. 58.
91. Das Schwarze Korps, 17 Sept. 1936. Quoted by Wilke, Dein "Ja" zum Leibe!, p. 118.
92. Letter from Himmler's office to Bückmann, 28 April 1936, published in Spitzer, 'Gymnastik und Parademarsch?', p. 208.
93. Letter of 6 May 1939, quoted by Pforte, 'Zur Freikörperkultur- Bewegung', p. 141.
94. The original phrase was 'sonnensüchtiger, kräutersuchender Chandis'. It is quoted in the article 'SA und Deutsche Leibeszucht', Deutsche Leibeszucht, 7 (1939), p. 355.
95. Quoted in Wilke, Dein "Ja" zum Leibe!, pp. 190-91.
96. Kurt Reichert, with a foreword by Karl Bückmann, Von Leibeszucht und Leibesschönheit. Bilder aus dem Leben des Bundes für Leibeszucht (Berlin, 1940).
97. See Schulze's unpublished Curriculum Vitae in Nachlaß Sträßer, IFB L2065/Y and the documentation 'Nacktbadeprozessen in der Weimarer- und Hitlerzeit', IFB 1389.
98. The phrase is taken from Das Schwarze Korps, 24 April 1935, quoted by Herzog, 'Hubris and Hypocrisy', pp. 11-12.
99. See van der Will, 'The Body and the Body Politic as Symptom and Metaphor', p. 22.
100. Gordon, 'Fascism and the Female Form', p. 164.
101. Fritz Brennecke, The Nazi Primer: Official Handbook for Schooling the Hitler Youth (New York, 1972), p. 59.
102. Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, Nackt unter Nackten. Utopien der Nacktkultur 1906-42. Fotografien aus der Sammlung Scheidt (Berlin, 1992), p. 15.
103. Deutsche Leibeszucht, 10 (1942), p. 114.
104. See Dieter Wildt, Sonnenkult. Von der vornehmen Blässe zum nahtlosen Braun (Düsseldorf, 1987), pp. 138-40.