The Concept of the »Nordic Race« inGerman and Nordic Racial-Theoretical Research in the 1920s

Abstract

The concept of the »Nordic race« has become especially prominent through its appearance in racial theory and practice in Nazi Germany. However, the concept of the »Nordic race« as an identity-establishing category has a much longer history. This article discusses the conceptualization of the »Nordic« in the context of racialtheoretical research in Germany and the Nordic countries in the 1920s. It argues that, although the research about race started from common grounds, the aspect of »Nordicness« constituted as the element which divided research traditions and made the »Nordic race« a component of identity making within different national contexts and political developments in Nordic countries and Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s.