An Aryan paragraph (german: Arierparagraph) was a clause in the statutes of an organization, corporation, or real estate deed that reserved membership and/or right of residence solely for members of the "

Aryan race The Aryan race is an obsolete historical race concept that emerged in the late-19th century to describe people of Proto-Indo-European heritage as a racial grouping. The terminology derives from the historical usage of Aryan, used by modern I ...

" and excluded from such rights any non-Aryans, particularly those of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and Slavic descent. They were an omnipresent aspect of public life in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

from 1885 to 1945. One of the first documented examples of such a paragraph was written by the Austrian nationalist leader and anti-Semite Georg von Schönerer in his nationalistic

Linz Program of 1882 The Linz Program of 1882 was a political platform that called for the complete Germanization of the Austrian state. It was created in response to the rising social, economic and political position of the Slavic peoples within the Austria-Hungary Du ...

, and countless German national sports-clubs, song societies, school clubs, harvest circles and fraternities followed suit.

In Nazi Germany

The best-known Aryan paragraphs are in the

legislation Legislation is the process or result of enrolling, enacting, or promulgating laws by a legislature, parliament, or analogous governing body. Before an item of legislation becomes law it may be known as a bill, and may be broadly referred to ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. They served to exclude Jews from organizations, federations, political parties, and, ultimately, all public life. Besides Jews, people not considered Aryans included

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 '' Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

, and other Slavs. Based on the bylaws and programs of antisemitic organizations and parties of the late 19th century (such as the German Social Party in 1889), the Aryan Paragraph first appeared in the Third Reich in the formulation of the '' Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service'', which was passed on 7 April 1933. It stipulated that only those of Aryan descent, i.e. without Jewish parents or grandparents, could be employed in the civil service. The Aryan Paragraph was extended to education on 25 April 1933, in the ''Law against the Overcrowding of German Schools and Universities''. On June 30 of the same year, it was broadened to entail that even marriage to a "non-Aryan" sufficed for exclusion from a civil service career. In keeping with Nazi synchronization ('' Gleichschaltung''), Nazi Party pressure led many federations and organizations to adopt the Aryan Paragraph. Thus, Jews were barred from the public health system, honorary public offices, editorial offices (Editor Law) and theaters (''

Reichskulturkammer The Reich Chamber of Culture (''Reichskulturkammer'') was a government agency in Nazi Germany. It was established by law on 22 September 1933 in the course of the ''Gleichschaltung'' process at the instigation of Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels as ...

''), and agriculture ('' Reichserbhofgesetz''), a progression culminating in the

Nuremberg Laws The Nuremberg Laws (german: link=no, Nürnberger Gesetze, ) were antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting of the Reichstag convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of ...

"for the final separation of Jewry from the German ''

Volk The German noun ''Volk'' () translates to people, both uncountable in the sense of ''people'' as in a crowd, and countable (plural ''Völker'') in the sense of '' a people'' as in an ethnic group or nation (compare the English term '' folk ...

''". Prior to this, there were exceptions, such as combat veterans, service in the National Rising 'Erhebung'' honorary Aryans, and so on, but now Jews and "Jewish mixed-breeds" ( Mischlinge) were confronted with a ban in nearly all professions. The Aryan Paragraph was accepted largely without protest, except within the Evangelical Church, when it provoked the splitting off of the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (german: link=no, Bekennende Kirche, ) was a movement within German Protestantism during Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German ...

References

Sources

* * * The information about Germany and Austria was translated from the German Wikipedia article on this subject. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aryan Paragraph Aryanism Nazi terminology Holocaust racial laws Real estate in Austria Real estate in Germany Repealed German legislation Antisemitism in Austria Antisemitism in Germany Anti-Slavic sentiment

In Nazi Germany

See also

References

Sources