The author of this volume examines the historical development and popularization of the ideological concept of the Volksgemeinschaft. This is a process of scientification, which the author describes using the examples of sociology, history, economics, demography, psychology, and geography. Its result is an ideologically based construct of knowledge determined by völkisch questions: the Volksgemeinschaft.

The Content

• Ideology and science


• Updating/modernization of the völkisch ideology


• Hans Freyer's sociology of the völkisch society


• "German folk and cultural soil" - cultural space research


• Völkische race research - dismissible or undeniable (people and/or race)


• Völkische sciences


• Volk/Volksgemeinschaft - political catchword for an ideologically based knowledge construct

The Target groups

Lecturers, students and practitioners from the fields of

• Sociology


• Political science


• History


• Cultural studies


• Psychology, human medicine, population science


• Cultural studies


• Law


• Economics


• Journalism

The Author

Dr. Dieter Gessner is a journalist and historian.