“Investigaciones alemanas del dominio del americanismo”. Un análisis de la ideología política de Robert Lehmann-Nitsche

Abstract

This article aims to reconstruct Robert Lehmann-Nitsche's political ideology and links with the German-speaking community, in the light of a series of considerations on German anthropology and the contextualisation of the actions of German scholars between the end of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. To this end, I will rely on the analysis and cross-referencing of a number of written sources, which contribute both to the elucidation of Lehmann-Nitsche's case and to a fuller understanding of early twentieth-century anthropological practices. Among these sources, the most important is "German Investigations of the Domain of Americanism", published by Lehmann-Nitsche in 1933 as part of a special edition of the journal Zeitschrift für Politik, entitled Ibero-America and Germany. A collective work on friendly relations, disarmament and equal rights. It is argued that Lehmann-Nitsche's characterisation as a Nazi and/or National Socialist Party collaborator is not supported by documentary evidence and that current interpretations so far inadequately equate "Nazi ideology" with orthodoxy, monarchist-anti-republican fervour and anti-Semitism.

Keywords

• anthropology
• Lehmann-Nitsche
• Nazism
• political ideology
• americanismo