Heinrich Härtle

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Heinrich Härtle (24 February 1909 – 11 January 1986) was a German publicist and National Socialist scientific functionary.

Biography

Härtle was born in Sachrang, the son of a dairy tenant. In 1926, he joined the paramilitary organization Freikorps Bund Oberland. In 1927, he became a member of the NSDAP (membership number 60,398). From 1928, he additionally belonged to the SA, in which he was promoted to Sturmbannführer in 1942.

In 1936, Härtle became the head of department in the NSDAP's main education office. In 1937, he published the book Nietzsche und der Nationalsozialismus ("Nietzsche and National Socialism"). In this work about the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche he interpreted his writings in the sense of National Socialism. In other writings, he polemicized especially against political Catholicism and Catholic Social Teaching.

In 1939, Härtle succeeded Alfred Baeumler as head of the Humanities Department at the Rosenberg Office and was responsible for the "Hauptstelle Philosophie." During World War II, Härtle belonged to a propaganda company until 1940, but was exempted from military service in December of that year. Härtle was also a member of the Philosophy Department at the Rosenberg Office.

In 1944, Alfred Rosenberg, as head of the Sonderstab Wissenschaft (Special Science Staff) in the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce, entrusted him with the leadership of the "Working Group for the Study of the Bolshevik World Danger."

In the post-war period Härtle was interned until 1948. Meanwhile, in the Soviet occupation zone, his writings Berufsständische Vereine als Machtinstrument des politischen Katholizismus (1937), Der deutsche Arbeiter und die päpstliche Sozialpolitik (1937), Die nationalsozialistischen Grundlagen der Arbeitspolitik (1937), Nietzsche und der Nationalsozialismus (1939), Die weltanschaulichen Grundlagen der Arbeitspolitik (1939), Vom Ständestaat zur Priesterherrschaft (1940), Weltanschauung und Arbeit (1940), and Die ideologischen Grundlagen des Bolschewismus (1944) were placed on the list of literature to be censored and discarded.

Subsequently, he was the main editor of the journals Reichsruf, Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung, and Klüter-Blätter. In addition, he published books in which he tried to clear Germany of guilt for war and genocide. Most of his books are published by the right-wing publishing company Berg. He was awarded the Ulrich von Hutten Medal by the Society for Free Journalism and, in 1975, the Schiller Prize of the German Cultural Association of European Spirit.

Works

  • Nietzsche und der Nationalsozialismus (1937)
  • Die ideologischen Grundlagen des Bolschewismus. Marxismus, Leninismus, Stalinismus (1944; under the Pseudonym "Helmut Steinberg")
  • Freispruch für Deutschland (1965)
  • Amerikas Krieg gegen Deutschland (1968)
  • Großdeutschland. Traum und Tragödie. Rosenbergs Kritik am Hitlerismus (1969)
  • Die Kriegsschuld der Sieger (1971)
  • Die falschen Propheten. Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse-tung (1973)
  • Von Kopernikus bis Nietzsche. Deutsche Befreier europäischen Geistes (1975)
  • Deutsche und Juden. Studien zu einem Weltproblem (1977)

External links