Die Grenzen des »Volkskörpers«: Interrelationen zwischen »Rasse«, Raum und Geschlecht in NS-Geopolitik und Kunst

Abstract

The geopolitical discourse of the 1930s did not only negotiate the territorial demarcations of a future »Grosseuropa« which was to be identif ied with Germany. Racial and gender related difference constructions also played a part. Historically, these functioned as the legitimization and naturalization of territorial claims. Ultimately, symbolic demarcations not only substantially add to the rigor of territorial borders, they are integral to their continuance and their working. The second part of this article analyzes the visual representations of the Greek myth of Europe (among others by Werner Peiner) from the same perspective. After all, the close allegorical relation constructed between the body of the community and the (female) human body forms one of the central intersections between geographico-territorial demarcation processes and other symbolic difference constructions. Particularly, the comparison between two fields of discourse that appear to be disparate at first sight allows one to draw conclusions concerning the prevalence and virulence of intersectional patterns that legitimized the NS demarcation processes. Thus, this contribution shows that not only territorial demarcations but also gender related and racial differences formed part of the development of the (external) borders of the National Socialist »GROSSEUROPA« in geopolitical texts as well as artistic visualizations of Europe – precisely because they followed similar intersectional logic.