Steffen Werther | Akateeminen Kirjakauppa

This dissertation examines the implementation of the SS's Greater Germanic idea in the Danish borderregion of South Jutland. Its focus is on how Danish and ethnic German (volksdeutsche) national socialists, organised in their respective Nazi parties, dealt with the SS's crusade on behalf of a supranational racial vision. The study traces why the two groups reacted so negatively to the SS's ideology - despite the SS's power, despite the Greater Germanic promise of high racial prestige, and despite shared service in "Germanic" units of the Waffen-SS. The study makes it clear that the fate of the Greater Germanic idea cannot be understood simply in terms of Realpolitik. Rather, the conflicts between the SS and its collaboration partners must also be understood as a clash between racial and völkisch concepts of community.