HUMILIATION, HONOR, HEROES MEMORY. THE WRITER PAUL COELESTIN ETTIGHOFFER BETWEEN SOLDIER NATIONALISM AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM

Abstract

The article examines on four different levels, how, when and why a First World War veteran and novelist, who felt committed to the code of honour of the old empire, could be involved by the Nazis in their mental preparation for Second World War. The thesis is that he had no specific ideological affinity for National Socialism, but that the veteran cult of the Nazis served an emotional need that had been neglected by the official memorial policy of the Weimar Republic.