George Sylvester Viereck: The Psychology of a German-American Militant

Abstract

George Viereck: The Psychology of a German-American Militant George Viereck -or Viereck, for he preferred the elfin and exotic Sylvester to the nondescript George-was a man of many talents and enormous energies which he spent diffusely in the course of a lifetime devoted to developing his own legend. He achieved remarkable success as a young and emancipated poet before World War I. During the war period, against a background of mounting conflict among German-Americans between their ancestral and their American ties, Viereck rose to prominence as a spokesman for militant pro-Germanism. After the war he made a new reputation for himself as a journalist and novelist. But his profound identification with Germany persisted, and, in the I930s, he became one of the major pro-Nazi propagandists in the country. In the annals of American history he has been consigned to the circle of hell reserved for the disreputables: those uncongenial figures who have given wide offense on personal and historical grounds. life history provides a rich source of insight into the development of a neurotic personality and its significant junctures with society and history. More specifically, it affords a concrete illustration of the psychological sources of national loyalty and revealing glimpses into the inner dynamic of German-American group life between the wars. Sylvester's father, Louis Viereck, was born out of wedlock in Berlin in I851. His birth, according to a younger cousin, furnished the conflict of his life.' The only child of Edwina Viereck, a beautiful and famous actress attached to the Prussian royal court, Louis was subsequently acknowledged by Louis von Prillwitz, an army officer and scion of Prince August of Prussia. repeatedly gave currency to the rumor that Louis' real father had been Emperor William I. Confronting Louis' denial, he disingenuously argued that he did not think the matter worth quibbling over since biologically the [Hohenzollern] strain is the same.z