Blood and soil facts for kids

Arno Brekker, The Party

Blood and soil is an idea that started in the 19th century. It looks at a person's blood, to see where they come from, and who their ancestors were. It also looks at the soil a person is working on, to make a claim that they should indeed work and occupy that land. In the nineteenth century, the idea was linked to racism and to nationalism. One of the first to use Blut und Boden, or blood and soil was Oswald Spengler in his book Der Untergang des Abendlandes. In the book, Spengler talks about the struggle of blood and soil about the inner form of a relocated species of animal and man. Walther Darré took the phrase and established the link. In his book "Neuadel aus Blut und Boden" (New nobility from blood and soil) he tries to show the relation between economic and agrarian policies, as well as racial ones.

Another idea of the blood and soil ideology comes from Lamarckism: The ethnic characteristics of a population are linked to the geographical regions it inhabits; only in this region will it be able to fully live up to its potential.

There is also a literary genre called blood and soil. In it, it shows an agrarian society living up to this ideals. People writing in this style were Gerhard Schumann and Herbert Böhme.

The ideas are also sometimes shown in artworks. Artists included Adolf Ziegler, Arthur Kampf, Arno Breker and Josef Thorak. Very often, such artworks were seen as degenerate art when the Nazi party came to power. Artists had to flee, many died in exile.