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The Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim's Nazi Worldview And Volume 11 | Issue 48 | Number 3 | Article ID 4041 | Dec 01, 2013 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus The Formation and Principles of Count Dürckheim’s Nazi Worldview and his interpretation of Japanese Spirit and Zen デュ ルクハイム伯爵のナチス的世界観および日本的精神と禅の解釈 その 形成と理念 Karl Baier The final result is that what was originally planned as a two-part article has now become a Preface by Brian Victoria three-part series. Part II of this series, written by Prof. Baier, focuses on Dürckheim in In Part I of this series on D.T. Suzuki’s Germany, including his writings about Japan relationship with the Nazis, (Brian Daizen and Zen. An added bonus is that the reader will Victoria, D.T. Suzuki, Zen and the Nazis also be introduced to an important dimension readers were promised a second part focusing of Nazi “spirituality.” Part Three will continue primarily on Suzuki’s relationship with one of the story at the point Dürckheim arrives in wartime Japan’s most influential Nazis, Count Japan for the first time in mid-1938. It features Karlfried Dürckheim (1896 –1988). Dürckheim’s relationship with D.T. Suzuki but examines his relationship with other Zen- However, in the course of writing Part II, I related figures like Yasutani Haku’un and quickly realized that the reader would benefit Eugen Herrigel as well. greatly were it possible to present more than simply Dürckheim’s story in wartime Japan. Note that the purpose of this series is not to That is to say, I recognized the importance, dismiss or denigrate either the postwar actually the necessity, of introducingactivities or writings of any of the Zen-related Dürckheim’s earlier history in Germany and the figures. Nevertheless, at a time when events that led to his arrival in Japan, not once hagiographies of all of these men abound, the but twice. authors believe readers deserve to have an accurate picture of their wartime activities and At this point that I had the truly good fortune to thought based on what is now known. I am come in contact with Professor Karl Baier of deeply grateful to Prof. Baier for having joined the University of Vienna, a specialist in the me in this effort. BDV history of modern Asian-influenced spirituality in Europe and the United States. Prof. Baier Introduction graciously agreed to collaborate with me in presenting a picture of Dürckheim within a Japan, the “yellow fist”, as he called the nation wartime German political, cultural, and, most in “Mein Kampf”, caused Adolf Hitler a importantly, religious context. Although now considerable headache. In his racist foreign deceased, Dürckheim continues to command a policy he distrusted the Asians in general and loyal following among both his disciples and would have preferred to increase European many others whose lives were touched by his world supremacy by collaborating with the voluminous postwar writings. In this respect, English Nordic race. On the other hand, he had his legacy parallels that of D.T. Suzuki. been impressed as a youth by Japan's military 1 11 | 48 | 3 APJ | JF power when he observed Japan beat the Slavic Karl Friedrich Alfred Heinrich Ferdinand Maria empire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. Graf Eckbrecht von Dürckheim-Montmartin He also admired Japan for never having been (1896-1988), today widely known as Karlfried infiltrated by the Jews. In “Mein Kampf” his Graf (Count) Dürckheim, was born in Munich, ambiguous attitude let him place Japan as a Bavaria as the eldest son of an old aristocratic culture-supporting nation somewhere halfway family. Baptized Catholic, he was religiously between the culture-creating Aryans and the educated by his Protestant mother, grew up at culture-destroying Jews.1 He hoped that in the the family’s country estate in the Bavarian near future Japan and the whole of East Asia village of Steingaden, at the Basenheim Castle would be aryanised by Western culture and near Koblenz and in Weimar, where his family science and sooner or later the political owned a villa built by the famous architect domination of the Aryans in Asia would follow. Henry van de Velde. Fig. 1 Dürckheim country estate Steingaden as seen today Fig. 2 Villa Dürckheim in Weimar As the brotherhood in arms with England In 1914, immediately after receiving his high turned out to be a pipe-dream, Hitler had to school diploma, the 18-year-old Karlfried make a pact with the Far Eastern country. This volunteered in the Royal Bavarian Infantry allowed a group of japanophile Nazis to raise Lifeguard Regiment to serve on the frontlines their voices and disseminate a more detailed for around 47 months as officer, company 2 and positive view of Japan. They werecommander and adjutant. He never forgot the interested in Japanese religion and especially enthusiastic community spirit that filled his sympathized with Zen Buddhism. heart and the hearts of his fellow Germans at the beginning of the war. “I heard the Emperor The following article can be seen as a case saying, ‘I do not know parties any more, I only study. Taking the intellectual and religious know Germans’. It remains in all our memories, biography of Count Dürckheim as an example, these words of the Emperor, in those days at the author investigates the question of how the beginning of the war.”3 Later he would say dedicated Nazis could connect their worldview that during this period the meaning of his life to a kind of mystical spirituality and develop a had been the “unquestionable, ready-to-die- positive attitude towards Zen. commitment to the fatherland.”4 2 11 | 48 | 3 APJ | JF Regularly exposed to deadly threats, the young also published nationalistic brochures and frontline officer was intensively confronted pamphlets as well as articles that warned with his fear but also experienced moments of against the Bolshevist world revolution.7 transcendence. In 1919 he left the army and began to study philosophy and psychology in search of a new There exists a ‘pleasure’ of meaning of life. He and Enja von Hattingberg, deliberately thrusting oneself into his partner and later spouse, befriended the deadly danger. This I experienced Austrian psychologist and philosopher when embarking upon a nightly Ferdinand Weinhandl (1896-1973), who at the assault on a wooded hill, when time was working at the Psychological Institute running through a barrage at the at the University of Munich, and his wife, the storming of Mount Kemmel in teacher and writer Margarete Weinhandl Flanders, when jumping through a (1880-1975). The four, who called themselves defile under machine gun fire. It is “The Square,” were not just two couples on as if at the moment of the possible friendly terms. Their joint activities were aimed and in advance accepted at a religious transformation of their own lives destruction one would feel the and the lives of others. indestructible. In all of these experiences another dimension Dürckheim shared not only philosophical, emerges while one transcends the psychological and religious interests with the limits of ordinary life – not as a Weinhandls but also the experience of World doctrine, but as liberating War I as well as the ensuing nationalistic experience.5 attitude nourished by it. Ferdinand, like Dürckheim, had voluntarily joined the army and became a frontline lieutenant, but a serious This kind of “warrior mysticism” – ainjury soon made him unfit for battle. combination of military drill and blindMargarete had supported soldiers from the obedience, fight to the very end, a devotion to province of Styria in southeast Austria with and melding with the greater whole of the simple verses and poems written in Styrian fatherland that culminate in the experience of dialect, that were published inHeimatgrüße. “another dimension” far beyond theKriegsflugblätter des Vereins für Heimatschutz transitoriness of ordinary life – informed his in Steiermark (“Greetings from Home. War attitude towards life and was conducive to his pamphlets of the Association for Homeland later appreciation of militaristicBushidō -Zen Security in Styria”), a journal that was and his admiration of the kamikaze pilots which distributed free among Styrian soldiers.8 he expressed even after World War II.6 Fig. 3 Bavarian infantry (postcard 1915) The Square Immediately after World War I Dürckheim supported one of the far-right nationalistic Free Corps fighting against the Munich Republic. He 3 11 | 48 | 3 APJ | JF would read Meister Eckhart,” Margarete noted in her diary.15 Dürckheim remembered: “I recognized in Master Eckhart my master, the master.”16 Meister Eckhart had great appeal for the German Youth Movement and the cultic milieu of the interwar-period in general. As a “German mystic” he also blended very well into the völkisch understanding of religion that was en vogue in Dürckheim’s circles.17 Like so many others Ferdinand Weinhandl saw in Eckhart an early manifestation of the deepest essence of the German spirit, its dynamism and “Faustian” activism.18 Fig. 4: Thrusting oneself into deadly danger in World War I The Weinhandls dominated the Square both intellectually and religiously. They were prolific writers well versed in the history and theology of Christian mysticism. Moreover, Ferdinand was interested in comparative religion. He referred to Friedrich Heiler’s comparative studies on prayer and on Pali-based, Buddhist meditation, and praised his subtle understanding of the inner relations between various religions.9 Interpreting the similarities between religious practices within different religious traditions outlined by Heiler, Ferdinand stated that the different stages of Hindu-Yoga, Buddhist meditation and Christian prayer are all based on the same psychological structure.10 In 1921, The Square moved to Kiel where they lived as a sort of commune, sharing a flat until 1924.
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