Herbert Böhme (7 October 1907 – 23 October 1971) was a German poet who wrote poems and battle hymns for the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

. In 1930 he became one of the newly formed ''Junge Mannschaft'', a group of semi-official Nazi poets that also included Heinrich Anacker, Gerhard Schumann and

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

leader Baldur von Schirach. Böhme joined the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933 and its original paramilitary wing, the

Brownshirts The (; SA; literally "Storm Detachment") was the original paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s. Its primary purposes were providing protection for Nazi ralli ...

, on 1 September 1933. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

he became involved with

neo-fascism Neo-fascism is a post-World War II far-right ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia, and anti-immigration s ...

National Socialist poetry

Along with his contemporaries, Böhme and his works are largely dismissed as propaganda with little real artistic merit. In praise of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

, he wrote "you walk among the people as their saviour". His best-known work in the Third Reich was ''Cantata for 9 November'', a eulogy to the Nazi 'martyrs' of the

Feldherrnhalle The Feldherrnhalle (Field Marshals' Hall) is a monumental loggia on the Odeonsplatz in Munich, Germany. Modelled after the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, it was commissioned in 1841 by King Ludwig I of Bavaria to honour the tradition of the ...

which praised Hitler in Messianic terms. Other poems, including ''Wir hissen die Fahne'' and ''Langemarck'', also became Nazi standards.

Post-war activism

After the war he became an associate of Gerhard Krüger, and along with him led a short-lived political party that was quickly absorbed by the

Deutsche Reichspartei The Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP, ''German Reich Party'', ''German Imperial Party'' or ''German Empire Party'') was a nationalist, far-right and later Neo-Nazi political party in West Germany. It was founded in 1950 from the German Right Party (ger ...

in 1949. The two would later move to the more extremist

Socialist Reich Party The Socialist Reich Party (german: Sozialistische Reichspartei Deutschlands) was a West German political party founded in the aftermath of World War II in 1949 as an openly neo-Nazi-oriented splinter from the national conservative German Right ...

. Böhme was also close to

Arthur Ehrhardt Arthur Ehrhardt (21 March 1896 – 16 May 1971) was a Waffen-SS commander who served as a Nazi security warfare expert during World War II. After the war, he became a leading figure in the neo-Nazi movement. Early years Ehrhardt was born Mengers ...

and in 1951 the pair established the pan-European nationalist journal ''

Nation Europa ''Nation Europa'' (also called ''Nation und Europa'') was a far-right monthly magazine, published in Germany. It was founded in 1951 and was based in Coburg until its closure in 2009. It is also the name of the publishing house that developed th ...

'', which was to become important to the neo-fascist network across Europe. In 1965 Böhme joined the

National Democratic Party of Germany The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Part ...

(NPD). Böhme established the ''Deutsches Kulturwerk Europäischen Geistes'' in 1950, an

extreme right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

organisation that had the stated mission of promoting German culture. Thus group was active until 1996. He also set up his own youth group, the ''Deutsches Kulturwerk Europäischen Geistes'' in 1952, an organisation that later merged with the extremist

Wiking-Jugend The "Wiking-Jugend" (WJ, "Viking youth") was a German Neo-Nazi organization modeled on the Hitlerjugend. The Sozialistische Reichspartei (SRP) was outlawed in 1952, together with its youth organization "". The Neo-Nazis went underground in n ...

.Helmut Blazek, ''Männerbünde'', Aufbau Verlag, Berlin 2001, p. 204

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boehme, Herbert 1907 births 1971 deaths German nationalists People from Frankfurt (Oder) People from the Province of Brandenburg German Unitarians Nazi Party members National Democratic Party of Germany politicians German male poets 20th-century German poets Nazi propagandists Sturmabteilung personnel 20th-century German male writers German magazine founders