Alfred Rosenberg - Racial Theories

Racial Theories

As the Nazi Party's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's genocidal policies. Rosenberg built on the works of Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and Madison Grant, as well as the beliefs of Hitler. He placed blacks and Jews at the very bottom of the ladder, while at the very top stood the white or "Aryan" race. Rosenberg promoted the Nordic theory which regarded Germans as the "master race", superior to all others, including to other Aryans (Indo-Europeans).

Rosenberg reshaped Nazi racial policy over the years, but it always consisted of Aryan supremacy, extreme German nationalism and rabid antisemitism. Rosenberg also outspokenly opposed homosexuality - notably in his pamphlet "Der Sumpf" ("The Swamp") - having viewed homosexuality (particularly lesbianism) as a hindrance to the expansion of the Nordic population.

Rosenberg's attitude towards the Slavs was politically motivated and depended on the particular nation involved. He despised Czechs and Poles, and wrote "no considerations can be taken for Poles, Czechs etc., who are as impotent as they are valueless and overbearing. They must be driven back to the east, so that the soil may become free to be tilled by the horny hands of Teutonic peasants". As a result of the ideology of "Drang nach Osten" Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the Slavic East. In Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts Rosenberg describes Slavs, in particular Poles, as racial "subhumans". Regarding Ukrainians he favoured setting up a buffer state to ease pressure on the German eastern frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia should be exploited for the benefit of Germany