The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present

by Gavriel D. Rosenfeld

Ever since the collapse of the Third Reich, anxieties have persisted about Nazism's revival in the form of a Fourth Reich. Gavriel Rosenfeld reveals, for the first time, these postwar nightmares of a future that never happened and explains what they tell us about western political, intellectual, and cultural life. He shows how postwar German history might have been very different without the fear of the Fourth Reich as a mobilizing idea to combat the right-wing forces that genuinely threatened the country's democratic order. He then explores the universalization of the Fourth Reich by left-wing radicals in the 1960s, its transformation into a source of pop culture entertainment in the 1970s, and its embrace by authoritarian populists and neo-Nazis seeking to attack the European Union since the year 2000. This is a timely analysis of a concept that is increasingly relevant in an era of surging rightwing politics.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, Germany, World War II

408 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Gavriel David Rosenfeld is President of the Center for Jewish History in New York City and Professor of History at Fairfield University. His areas of academic specialization include the history of Nazi Germany, memory studies, and counterfactual history. He is an editor of The Journal of Holocaust Research and edits the blog, The Counterfactual History Review, which features news, analysis, and commentary from the world of counterfactual and alternate history.

Reviews

[Tim Pendry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rosenfeld's book is an unusual contribution to the vast historiography of national socialism but it is worthwhile. He explores one phrase (in effect) which cannot even be dignified with the idea of being a concept - that phrase, which actually preceded the Nazi era, is 'the Fourth Reich'.

As a result, the book presents itself not as a continuous narrative (although it deals with the phrase chronologically) so much as a series of mini-monographic chapters providing footnotes to German and international cultural history that help us understand both a little better.

As a result, it is hard to find any overarching themes or grand history here although two stand out on reflection. The first is the tainting of the word Reich by national socialism in strictly German contexts and the second is the way something almost real (conceptually) is degraded by the market.

Woven into this exploration of a term, Rosenfeld indulges himself a little with some counterfactual history (a current if controversial fashion in contemporary history) which is not always fully persuasive but which helps to make one think a little more about the myth of 'inevitability'.

Personally I tend to find counter-factualism to be mostly a distracting intellectual game but I recognise and support its purpose in ensuring we are not fools enough to belief that history is deterministic and that where we are now was always inevitable from where we were then.

Perhaps most interesting is the way the concept of the Fourth Reich has been weaponised or used as a tool in many different competitive contexts to the extent that the only real weakness in the book is a failure to investigate the full nature of the underlying power struggles at each stage.

Rosenfeld writes in our current climate as a solid Jewish liberal but he also writes well with the detachment of the good historian. Just because some of the best historians of national socialism are of the ethnicity that the ideology tried to exterminate does not mean unprofessionalism.

On the contrary, serious Jewish historians work extremely hard at trying to maintain historiographical detachment (Cesarani springs to mind), sometimes achieving this more effectively than many ritualistically horrified gentiles. Rosenfeld is one of these historians.

Nevertheless, three quarters of a century after the collapse of national socialism, it remains hard to find many who can get under the skin of the decision by many ordinary people to adopt particular ideas. I suspect this may be because the process, once started, may start to unravel all ideas.

The study of concepts expressed as phrases in this respect is a useful one because it should lead us into seeing how all language is constantly reinvented for use in a weaponisation process that is directed at winning some form of power game and ensuring history is written in a certain way.

From that perspective, this book is a useful step along the way to using history as tool for understanding this cultural appropriation and weaponisation process but it does not go to the next stage of going beyond description to exploration of the underlying processes.

Whether we agree on the particular assessments or not that are made by Rosenfeld, each one of these assessments is fertile and well argued. Each chapter might trigger another book that goes deeper into the issues I would like to see raised by others. I will pick just two.

Rosenfeld critiques, for example, the generally accepted view that national socialism ceased to be a political threat after Hitler died in the bunker and this latter view would be plausible to anyone who has read Kershaw's account of the last year of the regime - it was bankrupt to itself by the end.

However, Rosenfeld helps us drop our deterministic assumption about the fate of Germany - that liberal democracy was its inevitable new path, pointing out the ways national socialism was embedded as an ideology and the many passing opportunities for its revival.

I think he over-eggs this somewhat but it is still a cake worth tasting. There are conditions under which Germany might well have slipped back into a variant of national socialism under certain counterfactual conditions and these conditions were far from impossible.

The other example is his analysis of how the notion of the 'Fourth Reich' as threat became disconnected from Germany and became appropriated to deal with the fears and emotions (and market opportunities) of the West in a series of waves of popular cultural memetics.

There was a short immediate post-war wave reacting to the fear that the Nazis had been defeated but not destroyed exemplified by Orson Welles' 'The Stranger' (1946). This mirrors the same fear amongst German liberals and Allied occupiers in the immediate aftermath of war.

There is then a long wave from the late 1950s that degrades itself eventually in the popular novels and films that the market was creating to feed the need for adventure tales that could appeal to men who had fought in their 20s in the 1940s and were now living dull business lives in their 40s.

This wave used the idea of the 'Fourth Reich' to imply an ongoing threat by demonically evil opponents of their own age or over who needed to be defeated to justify the sacrifice and retrospective heroism of their own generation in an age of confusion and decline.

This wave followed the 'Count Duckula Trajectory' - that is the slow degradation of a terrible and real idea (Dracula/Nosferatu) into an idea for mass entertainment thrills (Hammer) and thence into comedy and children's literature (the Addams Family and Count Duckula).

This is the mental map of national socialism disconnected from its complex reality and forced into the cardboard cutout villains of Indiana Jones which, in turn, creates its own reaction in a later generation from people exposed to the complexity and asking awkward questions as a result.

A third wave is the appropriation of a now totally degenerate concept of the Fourth Reich (compared to its original often progressive pre-Nazi german origins) for use by alienated elements in American society in particular in a way that eventually morphs into the alt.right.

Rosenfeld moves seamlessly from the Holy Roman Empire into the contemporary era (about which he thankfully resists the temptation to make moral comments about the present) where the Fourth Reich has morphed yet again into a dissident description of a German-led EU.

There is also useful historical material on post-war national socialist resistance to the Allies and on the emergence of neo-national socialism (with a global aspect, operating beyond just one nation) in the younger generations after '68. This information alone makes the book useful.

The book is really only for those who already have a reasonably solid understanding of German and of wider contemporary history but it is clearly written and adds so much thoughtful theory and comment to an understanding of that history that is well worth the effort.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book feels very well researched and unbiased - and it contains a lot of information.

What is a "reich"? what was the first, second, and third "reiches"? - there is around 50 pages just discussing these questions. It is pretty detailed in its coverage of the subject which suggests the focus is more towards an academic review of the Fourth Reich and why it never occured rather than a popular history review. Something to consider if this book is right for you.

I like how the author takes opposing views to events and discusses possible outcomes. There is a lot of interesting history captured here, from political parties trying to restore a modern Nazi-type party back in power, to how the media from various countries interpreted the Third and Fourth Reich, and how that interpretation changed over the years depending on other world events.

The final chapter covers the European Union and Germany's perceived (or actual) domination of it through the 2008 financial crisis and how countries such as Greece and Italy responded.

It is a good read, I learned a lot, but my preference is more towards popular history rather than academic history as it can be a dry and verbose read at times. Rating: 3.5

[Matt Mitrovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging history of how the term "Fourth Reich" has evolved from its relatively benign origins, to its association with a revived Nazi state and finally to its present use by people who want to say the other side is "bad". Granted those looking for a breezy read may be disappointed as it is a dense tome of information (including future books to add to my to-read list), but it is still a fascinating look at how history has defined and changed this phrase that still manages to warn of the Nazi threat.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fourth Reich: The Specter of Nazism from World War II to the Present is an incredibly detailed history of the concept of the Fourth Reich. The fear of the Nazi return to Germany was real after World War II. The war did not end suddenly, and resistance continued even after the German surrender. The partition of German was also a result of the fear that any German government would lead to a return of the Nazis and war.

The Fourth Reich became boogeyman in post-war history, and its meanings were varied. A German Jew, Georg Bernhard, helped draft the constitution for the Fourth Reich. His Germany was committed to peace and equality. Reich in its most basic sense means realm, and it had no adverse connotation before WWII. When West Germany was allowed self-government in 1949, it chose "Federal Republic of Germany" instead of Reich. Naming itself a republic, however, did not stop the elements on the right from wanting to reestablish a Nazi-like regime.

The idea of a new German Reich rose and fell in public view. By the 1970s, West Germany was seen safe enough that American entertainment took hold of the Nazi return. The Boys from Brazil and The Odessa File became hit books. Who could forget the German dentist in Marathon Man? There were real and fictionalized stories of Nazi hunters. There was also a rise in Neo-Nazism in the US during the 1970s making national news with the Stokie Supreme Court case.  Today, the threat seems more serious as right-wing parties are gaining strength in Europe.  In the US, the far right wing and the far left clashed in the streets of Charlotte and other cities.  Internet publications like The Daily Stormer and Breitbart spread the word to a worldwide audience. 

Author, Gavriel D. Rosenfeld is Professor of History and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Judaic Studies at Fairfield University.  He received his Ph.D. in History from UCLA in 1996.  The Fourth Reich is a detailed history of a movement that has not materialized.  Over one-third of the book is reserved for documentation and source material.  An extremely well-done and well research history. 

[Sami Eerola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book about a very specific topic. This book managed to be more than just a list of times some one used the word "Fourth Reich". There is a actual analyses on why the concept of the Fourth Reich was used in some time period and by whom.

For me this book has some interesting little facts about Nazis and Neo-Nazis that i did not know.

[Adrianna A · Rating 5 out of 5]

It has so much information!!! I absolutely loved this book. It helped me with the prompt I had to write. The author does an incredible job at giving information you can’t find in most places. Definitely think this is so useful for students or people that just love history!!!

[Miki · Rating 4 out of 5]

A rather interesting book that examines the possibility of a fourth reich if the people of Germany didn't fear one following WW2. It's a bit of a heavy read but I found it to be an enjoyable one. It's a well researched and written book by Gavriel D Rosenfeld.

[Marissa Hermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read for grad school! was a pretty interesting & engaging read i enjoyed it.

[Lianne Burwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn't occur to me until I read this book that while I've seen lots of book about the Nazis before and during the Second World War, I've never really read anything about Germany in the years after the war.

The Fourth Reich, by Gavriel D Rosenfeld, covers that period, and especially the fear that Nazis would try again. It looks at the conditions after the war, and the efforts to establish a new Nazi party, and to ensure that there would never be another Nazi party. It also looks at how the fears were projected into writing (both fiction and non-fiction) and film. I came out of the book with a list of other books I want to track down to read.

My only real disappointment with the book was that the description of the book included "He shows how postwar German history might have been very different without the fear of the Fourth Reich as a mobilizing idea to combat the right-wing forces that genuinely threatened the country's democratic order". I was a little disappointed by the lack of any speculation into what could have been.

Still, it opened my eyes to something I'd never thought about before. In my mind, WWII ended, and the Nazi's were gone, at least until I became aware of the skinheads in the eighties. This book showed me the ways that the Nazi ideology continued to affect (or infect) post-war Germany, and how hard the German government (and the occupying countries like the US and UK) worked to make sure that fascism did not move back into power.

Here's hoping that the current political problems around the world doesn't mean that their efforts were in vain.


Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this

[HollyLovesBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched and chilling account of what life might be like had the Nazi's won WW-2 instead of losing. It brings up all kinds of timely topics that are shockingly in play today, not just in the USA but world-wide as the political climate is shifting towards a more nationalistic stance and countries becoming primed for fascist leadership. This is a deep and thought-provoking book that is ripe for many conversations, if people are willing to have them, in a time when it seems we are more divided than ever. Fantastic read.
Highly recommend to anyone interested in WW-2 or politics in general.

#TheFourthReich #NetGalley

[Susu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vom Dritten Reich bis zu den Reichsbürgern - Kontinuität von Altnazis und Neonazis und die Grundzüge ihrer ideologischen Leitplanken - sehr lesenswert

[Holly Senecal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The depths of hell in a persons soul are terrifying. Every time I read a book that touches on any speck of Nazism my head keeps shaking and I repeatedly as myself WHY? I think Gavriel Rosenfeld did a very good job tackling a subject that needs to keep being written about until everyone asks, "how did this happen?"

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explores the concept of a Fourth Reich and what it would have meant had it happened. We see things in everyday politics that make many afraid. Could this happen again? Yes, history does repeat itself sometimes. Will it happen again? The possibility of this is a frightening idea. As part of the baby boomer generation after WW2, a lot of the story of what was happening in Germany was told first hand from family who were there. This book is well written and the sources are included which is always a plus. I received this book from Net Galley and Cambridge University Press for a honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lively, well illustrated history of ideas around the Fourth Reich, this covers right from the rebuilding of Germany to the present day, both from the side of people who hoped (and still hope) that the Fourth Reich would mean a resurgence of Nazi ideas about racial purity and empire building, and those who saw it as the complete opposite, more of a utopia far beyond Nazi ideals. I liked that the author covered history, political thought and also how the idea was covered in popular culture, the depiction of Nazis as the enemy in films and the obsession with alternative history. I thought that it is a timely book considering the rise of populist politicians throughout Europe, and the author shows that if we forget the legacy of the far right, we are doomed to repeat the history. I thought that it was an accessible, interesting read and I liked the author's approach. He had obviously done a great deal of research and the book has extensive footnotes and an excellent bibliography.