Hannah Arendt, National Socialism and the Project of

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Summer 1991
HHaannnnaahh AArreennddtt,, NNaattiioonnaall SSoocciiaalliissmm aanndd tthhee PPrroojjeecctt ooff FFoouunnddaattiioonn
Robert Mayer
Loyola University Chicago, [email protected]
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Robert Mayer (1991). Hannah Arendt, National Socialism and the Project of Foundation. The Review of
Politics, 53, pp 469-487. doi:10.1017/S0034670500015254.
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Hannah Arendt, National Socialism and the Project of Foundation
Author(s): Robert Mayer
Source: The Review of Politics, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Summer, 1991), pp. 469-487
Published by: Cambridge University Press for the University of Notre Dame du lac on behalf of
Review of Politics
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Hannah Arendt, National Socialism
and the Project of Foundation
Robert Mayer
Foundationi s a crucialc oncepti n Hannah Arendt'sw ork.S he was especially
interesteidn moderna ttemptss,u ccessfualn d unsuccessfult,o foundn ewb odies
politic.A rendtm aintainedh, owevert, hatt otalitariamn ovementws ereh ostilet o
thep rojecto ff oundationF. ar froms eekingt o stabilizet hew orld,t otalitarianism
sett hew orldi n motiona nd triedt ok eepi tm oving.B utw henw e turnt oN ational
Socialisti deologyi tselfw e discovert hatf oundationw as vitalt o theN azi project;
Hitleru nderstoodh imselfas thef oundero fh is people. Arendt'so wn interpreta-
tiono f Nazism is mistakenb, ut I believet hath er generalt heoryo f foundation
can helpu s to makes enseo ft heN ationalS ocialiste xperienceT. his articlee xam-
ines thep rojecto f foundationin Hitler'sW eltanschauuanngd redeploysA rendt's
conceptst o explainh is unsuccessfualt temptt o createa new body politic.
AlthoughH annah Arendt describedG erman National So-
cialisma s "totalitarian,s"h e did not thinkt hata longingf ort otal
powero r monolithismpe r se weret hed ecisivet raitso ft his" novel
formo f government.R" ather,w hatd istinguishetdo talitarianism
froma ll othert ypeso f regimesw as thati t generateda nd thrived
on impermanenceT. raditionallyg overnmentasn d laws had been
"designedt o functionas stabilizingf actorsf ort he ever-changing
movementso f men,"b ut in the totalitarianp arty-stateA, rendt
claimed," thee ssenceo f governmenitt selfh as become motion."I
Totalitarianr egimesa re drivenb y a kind of "perpetual-motion
mania"a nd "canr emaini n powero nlys o longa s theyk eepm oving
and sete verythinagr oundt hemi n motion."T hey do nota ttempt
to construcat durablew orldt o protecti ndividualsf romt he flux
ofn aturea nd theu npredictabilitoyfa ctionb ut seeki nstead" tos et
intom otiona bodyp olitic"a nd "tok eept hem ovemenitn constant
motion."T2 heyu se terroran d coerciono n an unprecedentesdc ale
to demolisht hes tabilizingst ructureosf t hew orlda nd plungei ndi-
vidualsi ntoa n endlessh istorica"l process."
It was fort hisr easont hatA rendtd eniedt hatt heN ationalS o-
cialistr egimew as "authoritarianf,"o ra ccordingt o Arendtt hee s-
sentialf eatureo f authoritariang overnmenits permanencea nd
1. Hannah Arendt,T heO riginosf T otalitariani(sNme w York: HarcourtB race
Jovanovich,1 973), pp. 463, 466. Arendta lso said that" terroris the essenceo f
totalitariand omination("p . 464), but terrorw as used as a means to accelerate
the motiono n whicht otalitarianismth rived.
2. Ibid., pp. 306, 467-68.
469
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470 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
continuity.A uthoritarianr egimes are tied back to a foundation,
whicht heys eek to preservea nd renew in changing circumstances.3
Totalitarian movements, on the other hand, reject the attemptt o
constructa nd preserve a durable foundation and seek instead to
cut societyl oose fromi ts traditionalm oorings so that it may flow
with the inexorable forceso f historyo r nature. In place of law as
"the stabilizing source of authorityf ort he actions of mortal men"
they substitutet he laws of nature or history,w hich are "laws of
movement." Thus the higher law no longer serves to anchor the
body politic but makes all permanence and stabilityi mpossible,
and therebyp repares the way for "the transformationo f human
nature itself'i n accordance witha n ideology.4T otalitarian regimes
feed upon and intensifyt he "rootlessness"a nd "homelessness"g en-
erated by the rise of what Arendt called "worlda lienation" in order
to fabricatea n entirelyn ew humanityd evoid of the potential for
action.
This interpretationo f totalitarianism,h owever, contradictst he
claims of the National Socialist movement itself. While Arendt
explored the concept of foundationa nd the politicso f stabilitya nd
motion more carefullyt han any other contemporaryt heorist,s he
failed to see that foundationw as central to the National Socialist
project and to Hitler's WeltanschauunNg.a tional Socialism arose in
opposition to the forceso fm ovementu nleashed in them odern age,
and it claimed to preservet he Volkf romd ecay by returningt o the
original foundationo f the German people. Indeed, Hitler under-
stood himselft o be a foundero r refounder,a nd he declared that
"our true object is to set up our rule fora ll time, and to anchor it
so firmlyt hat it will stand firmf ora thousand years."' The perver-
sityo fN ational Socialism, I believe, lay not in a rejectiono ff ounda-
tion and a desire for endless motion as such, but rather in the
peculiar charactero f its project of foundation. It was the National
Socialist attemptt o create stability,n ot to set the world in motion,
that led to the German catastrophe.
In this article I explore the curious project of foundation in
Hitler's Weltanschauunthgr oughA rendtianc ategories. My aim here
is not so much to refuteA rendtb ut to redeployh er conceptst o help
3. HannahA rendt", WhatI s Authority?in" BetweePna sta ndF utur(eN ew York:
Penguin,1 968), pp. 91-141.
4. Arendt,O riginsp,p . 463, 458-59.
5. Quoted in Hermann Rauschning, The Voiceo f Destructio(Nn ew York:
Putnam,1 940), p. 39.
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ARENDT AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM 471
make sense of the National Socialist experience.6 While Arendt's
own interpretationo f National Socialism is flawed, her analysis
of the project of foundation can help us to understand the Nazi
movement and its recourse to coercion and genocide. National
Socialism, I will argue, is the clearest instance of the tendency
Arendtn oted in the modern age to substitutef abricationf ora ction
when laying the foundationso f a body politic.
The articlei s divided intot hreep arts. The firste xplains Arendt's
concept of foundation; the second explores the National Socialist
project of foundation as expressed in Hitler's works; in the final
part I use Arendt's theory to analyze Hitler's founding and his
attemptt o stabilize a world in motion.
I
Hannah Arendt both praised and feared motion in political
affairs.S he praised it because action is movement. To act is "to
take an initiative,t o begin ... to set somethingi ntom otion."T hose
who act insertt hemselvesi nto the world and begin a new line of
direction. Rooted in natality, action is a kind of second birth,
"the spontaneous beginning of somethingn ew" throughw hich we
disclose ourselves and manifesto ur freedoma s undeterminedb e-
ings.7 Motion in the formo f action is thereforea vital part of the
human condition.
Yet Arendt also feared motion unchecked by a durable world.
Action by its very nature is boundless and unpredictable, and
it thereforen eeds "a frameworkt hat can reliably withstand the
onslaught with which each new generation must insert itself."
Boundaries, fences,a nd laws "are of such great importancet o the
stabilityo f human affairsp reciselyb ecause no such limitinga nd
protectingp rinciplesr ise out of the activitiesg oing on in the realm
of human affairsi tself."8A ction by itselfc an leave no trace or win
the immortalityit seeks; indeed, its tendencya s a "new beginning"
6. My aim is significantdlyif ferenftr omS tephenW hitfieldi'sn Intot heD ark:
HannahA rendatn d Totalitariani(sPmh iladelphia:T emple UniversityP ress,1 980).
WhileW hitfieledx aminesA rendt'se mpiricaacl counto ft otalitarianismin lighto f
recenth istoricaslt udies,I am onlyi nteresteidn thea dequacyo fh erp hilosophical
interpretatioonf National Socialism.
7. Hannah Arendt,T heH umanC onditio(nC hicago: Universityo f Chicago
Press, 1958), pp. 177, 234.
8. Ibid., p. 191.
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472 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
is to wipea wayt hem emoryo fp astd eeds. Withoutt he" stabilizing
protection"o f "thew alls of thep olis and the boundaries of the law,"
the public space in which individuals show themselves" could not
endure, could not survivet he momento f action and speech itself.
The human condition would dissolve into the eternal and anony-
mous cycle of birth and death that characterizes mere nature
without a secure and enclosed space in which to act.
But "ift hew orld is to contain a public space, it cannot be erected
for one generation and planned for the living only; it must tran-
scend the life-span of mortal men.""0T his is the task of founda-
tion - to establish a frameworko f laws and institutionst hat will
serve as a bulwark against the forceso f motion inherenti n nature
and in action and create a stable space of appearance. The founda-
tion constitutest heb ody politic,a nd fort hisr eason Arendtw arned
that it should not be thought of as a product of the will of its
members,f ort he" willo fa multitude.. . is ever-changingb y definition
... and a structureb uilt on it as its foundationi s built on quick-
sand."" The will is "the springo f action,"b ut "the' lawless' freedom
the will seems to enjoy" would undercut the permanence of any
boundaries it established.12 A constitutionw hich is merelya n ex-
pression of the popular will may be changed at will and could not
therefores erve as the foundationf ora n enduring structure.T hus,
the constitutionm ust be viewed as a higherl aw or absolute which
standsa bove thew illo ft hep eople, bindingt hec ommunityt o a fixed
point and anchoring it against the forceso f change and motion.
Arendt described two distinctm odels of foundation,o ne associ-
ated witht he Greeks and the otherw itht he Romans. In the Greek
poleist he foundationw as considered a product of fabricationa nd
not of political action itself. The founder or lawgiver was a
"craftsmano r architect,"" theb uilder oft he cityw all, someone who
had to do and finishh is workb eforep oliticala ctivityc ould begin."'"
The advantage of this model was that action and the popular will
9. Ibid.,p . 198. Fora gooda ccounto fm otiona nd stabilityin A rendt'ts hought
see LeroyC ooper, "Hannah Arendt'sP oliticalP hilosophyA: n Interpretation,"
Reviewo fP olitic3s 8 (1976): 161-71.
10. Arendt,H umanC onditionp,. 55.
11. HannahA rendtO, nR evolutio(Nne w York:P enguin,1 977),p . 163.A rendt
attributetdh ec alamitieso ft heF renchR evolutiont ot hef ailuret of inda n absolute
above thep opularw ill.
12. Hannah Arendt,T heL ifeo ft heM ind,2 vols. (New York: HarcourtB race
Jovanovich,1 978), 2: 6, 27.
13. Arendt,H umanC onditionp,p . 194-195.
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ARENDT AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM 473
were disconnectedf romc onstitution-makingan d made dependent
on it. Action went on inside the structurel aid by the founderb ut
did not concern itselfw ith the building as such.
In the Roman republic, on the otherh and, foundationw as not
viewed as fabricationb ut as action itself,t he beginning of a new
story. The new beginning, however, escaped the boundlessness
and mutabilityi nherenti n action by becoming authoritativet o all
succeeding generations. The Romans treated this firsta ction of
constitutingt he city as "the central, decisive, unrepeatable begin-
ning of their whole history,a unique event."'4
At theh earto f Roman politics,f romt he beginningo f ther epublic
untilv irtuallyth e end of the imperiale ra, standst he convictiono f
the sacrednesso f foundationi,n the senset hato nce somethingh as
been foundedi t remainsb indingf ora ll futureg enerationsT. o be
engagedi n politicsm eantf irsatn d foremostto preservet hef ounding
of the cityo f Rome."5
The firsta ction of foundingt he cityw as considered constitutive
of all later action so that each new generation was bound to the
initial project and had to act withint he parameters established by
the founders.T he beginningb ecame the source of authorityo r the
absolute fors ucceeding generations,w hich remained tied back to
the constitutiono f the ancestors despite changing circumstances.
Their task was to renew the foundingi n each generationa nd pass
it on uncorrupted to the newcomers who would enter the world
aftert hem.
Arendt favoredt he Roman model of foundationb ecause it cre-
ated a sturdiers tructuret o withstandt he forceso f motion without
however abolishing the space for action. The Greek model was
serviceable enough, but it lacked the principleo f authorityf unda-
mental to the stabilityo f the Roman foundation and it "did not
command the same loyaltyw e know fromt he Roman typeo fp atri-
otism."'6A worko ff abricationc an be altered or discarded ifi t loses
its utility,b ut the action or beginningw hich has given one lifew ill
always be reverenced. What is more, Arendt believed that the
image off oundinga s fabricationh eld a greatd anger, forf abrication
can become a substitutef or action itselfa nd abolish the public
14. Arendt," WhatI s Authority?p". 121, and in generalp p. 120-28.
15. Ibid., p. 120.
16. Arendt,H umanC onditionp,. 195.
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474 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
space it ought to create. Plato, fori nstance, because he feared the
unpredictable character of democratic action, tried "to substitute
making for acting in order to bestow upon the realm of human
affairst he solidityi nherenti n worka nd fabrication."" It is as though
[he] had said that if men only renounce theirc apacity fora ction,
with its futilityb, oundlessness and uncertainty,t here could be a
remedy fort he frailtyo f human affairs.""S tabilityh ere is won at
the expense of action, and such an effortis all too likelyt o devolve
into despotism as the violence inherent in fabrication is turned
against the members themselves in order to prevent them from
acting or moving spontaneously. The foundera s fabricatori s apt
to use individuals as means to an end and to treat them as stones
to be hewn and fittedi nto an immovable structuret hat leaves no
space for action.
Totalitarianism differsf rom despotism, however, because it
does not seek to stabilize the world but to set it into motion, and it
thereforeis opposed to the attemptt o lay foundations.T otalitarian
governmentr ejects the notion that any laws, constitutionso r au-
thoritativep rinciples can restricti ts power or that it is tied back
to a foundingi n the past.'8 Its goal is to abolish all action and even
human spontaneityi tselfb y eliminatingt he stabilitya nd solidity
of a world. Totalitarianism only developed "against a background
of a more or less general, more or less dramatic breakdown of all
traditionala uthorities,"a nd itm erelys oughtt o intensifyth e" world
alienation" which preceded it and made it possible."9
True enough, National Socialism claimed to obey and defend
certain laws - the higher laws of nature- but Arendt argued that
for the Nazis "the term 'law' itselfc hanged its meaning: frome x-
pressing the frameworko f stabilityw ithin which human actions
and motions can take place, it became the expression of motion
itself."T he National Socialists tried to realize "Darwin's idea of
man as the producto f a natural developmentw hichd oes not neces-
sarily stop with the present species of human beings." By acceler-
ating the laws of natural selectiona nd allowing them" to race freely
throughm ankind" the Nazi regime cast uprooted masses into the
evolutionary flow of nature without the protection of a durable
world.20T hey consciously destroyed all fixed points so that the
17. Ibid., pp. 225, 195. See also Arendt," WhatI s Authority?p"p . 104-20.
18. Arendt," WhatI s Authority?p"p . 96-97.
19. Ibid., pp. 91-92.
20. Arendt,O riginsp, p. 463-65.
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ARENDT AND NATIONAL SOCIALISM 475
movement inherenti n nature could lead to the evolution of a new
and higherm an and the exterminationo f all lower races destined
to perishi n the eternal strugglef ors urvival. The danger which the
Nazis posed was "not thatt heym ighte stablisha permanentw orld"
but that they would "ravage the world as we know it . . . before
a new beginning . . . had time to assert itself."21
II
It is true that in the Darwinian schema nature is in constant
evolutionarym otion. Species are "doomed to an infinitep rogress
withoute ver reachinga ny inherentt eloso r approaching any preor-
dained idea.""2W2 ith changes in the environmentc ertainc haracter-
istics in a species will be favored over others in the strugglef or
reproductives uccess and will come to predominate. Since environ-
mental change is continual species are in a constants tate of evolu-
tion and are never complete; as a part of nature they are always
in flux.
Arendt claimed that the National Socialist regime obeyed these
Darwinian laws of motion and applied them to human communi-
ties. It merely tried to accelerate their action by exterminating
"races or individuals who are 'unfitt o live.'"'23T he Jews were said
to be a dying race, biologically unfita nd destined to perish in
the strugglef or survival, and the Nazis were thereforee xecuting
nature's sentence against them. The victoryo f the higher Aryan
race was said to be inevitable-just as Marx said that the victory
oft hep roletariatw as inevitable- and National Socialism therefore
freedt he evolutionaryl aws to race throught he human condition.
But just as Arendt failed to see the radical differenceb etween
Marx and Lenin on the politics of motion and the direction of
history,s he also failed to see the distinctionb etween Darwinism
and National Socialism." National Socialism was in no meaningful
sense applied Darwinism. Hitler did not believe thatn atural selec-
tion had already chosen the Aryans as the fittestr ace to rule the
21. Ibid., p. 478.
22. Arendt,H umanC onditionp,. 307.
23. Arendt,O riginsp, . 466.
24. RobertM ayer, "Hannah Arendt,L eninism,a nd the Disappearanceo f
Authority,P"o lity(f orthcoming).
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476 THE REVIEW OF POLITICS
planet."2H e never argued thatt het riumpho ft heA ryan was histor-
ically inevitable or that the Jew was destined to perish. Indeed,
Hitler fearedt he directionh istoryw as taking, forh e believed that
unless it could be stopped the tendencyo fh istoryw ould lead to the
degeneration and ultimate destructiono f the Aryan. For genera-
tions the Aryan race had been dissolvingi nto a "racial chaos," and
only the interventiono f National Socialism, it was hoped, "at the
eleventh hour would halt the chariot of doom" (MK 373).
Certainly Hitler believed that the Aryan was culturallsyu perior
to all otherr aces. The Aryan was the "culture-foundingr ace," the
one responsible for all great works of art in human history( MK
290). But this did not mean that the Aryan was biologically fitter
than other races or that the "culture-destroyingJ"e w was a dying
race. On the contrary,H itler feared that" some day the world will
... come into possession of the culturallyi nferiorb ut more active
men"(MK 135). TheJews, who had survivedl ongert han any other
people, were gaining power everywherea nd appeared destinedf or
victory:
When overl ong periodso fh umanh istoryI scrutinizedth ea ctivity
oft heJ ewishp eople,s uddenlyt herer oseu p in me thef earfuqlu estion
whetherin scrutablDe estiny. .. did notw ithe ternala nd immutable
resolve,d esiret he finalv ictoryo f thisl ittlen ation( MK 64).
The cultured Aryan had thus far been less ruthlesst han other
races and seemed to lack the will to preserve himself,a nd thus
"more brutal and more natural peoples" threatenedh im with de-
struction.W hat Hitler feared above all was the coming "domina-
tion of the inferiorb eing" (MK 135, 320).
National Socialism thereforee xterminatedt heJ ews not because
they were deemed a dying race, doomed by the law of evolution
to perish,b ut because theyw ere considered "a parasite in the body
of other peoples" (MK 304). The Jews were categorized as lebens-
25. Referencest o Hitler's Mein Kampf, trans. R. Manheim (Boston:
HoughtonM ifflin1,9 43),a rec itedi np arenthese(sM K followedb yp agen umber)
in the texto f the article.W hile National Socialisti deologyw as by no means
uniformI, concentratseo lelyo n Hitler'st houghbt ecauseh e was thef oundera nd
hiss elf-understandionfgt heN azi projectis crucial.F org enerals urveyos fH itler's
thoughtse e EberhardJ aeckel,H itler'Ws eltanschauutnrga,n s.H . Arnold( Middle-
town: WesleyanU niversityP ress, 1972); WernerM aser, HitlersM ein Kampf
(Munich: BechtleV erlag, 1966); JoachimF est, Hitler,t ransR . & C. Winston
(New York: HarcourtB raceJ ovanovich1, 974), pp. 199-220; Hans Staudinger,
TheI nnerN azi (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UniversityP ress, 1981).
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