Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt in the historical memory of Nazi Germany

Abstract

The article examines the perception of biographies and heritage of the brothers Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt in National Socialist Germany. In the historical memory of modern Germany, their images have become one of the bases of German national identity, and the Humboldt-Forum – a platform for the connection of science and culture. In collective memory of the Third Reich, the brothers held unequal positions. The 100^th anniversary of the death of W. von Humboldt caused a surge of interest in him, but his image was reformatted and inscribed in the racial parameters of Nazism: his interest in the issues of the German nation was emphasized, his commitment to liberal ideas was explained by criticism of absolutism, attempts were made to attract his image to Nazi anti-Semitic paradigm. However, there were some researchers of his heritage who retained scientific objectivity. Alexander von Humboldt was paid much less attention: the ideologists of the Third Reich hated his cosmopolitanism. But as he was the brother of W. von Humboldt and a world-famous scientist, it was impossible to forget about his merits. The collective memory kept an image of a traveler naturalist whose greatness the Third Reich did not deny. Commemoration is closely associated to the identity formation. For the construction of national identity in National Socialist Germany their images were practically not required.