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Biography
Childhood
Houston Stewart Chamberlain
was born September 9, 1855 in Southsea, England. His mother died before
he was one year old, and he was raised by his grandmother in France. His
father, rear admiral William Charles Chamberlain, had planned a career
as a military man for his son, and at 11 years old he was sent to a boarding
school for coming army and navy officers. The young H. S. Chamberlain however
was more interested in music, astronomy and literature, and the prospect
of serving as an officer somewhere in India or another british colony didn't
attract him at all.
Health resorts
At 14 years he was
in a bad state of health. The consulted doctors suspected, wrongly, a disease
of the respiratory organs. He left England to visit one health resort after
the other, like Bad Ems, Montreux and Cannes. He was accompanied by his
aunt and his private teacher, Otto Kuntze. This Kuntze taught him the german
language, and interested his studious pupil for german history, literature
and philosophy. When in 1874 his father came over to Switzerland, to persuade
him to return to England and finish his study, Chamberlain refused. Because
of his french background and his negative experiences in England he was
already too far alienated from his fatherland.
Study
He relocated to Florence
to study botany at the university. That came to no good, the city had so
many high-artistic impressions to offer that he spent 7 months in a state
of cultural intoxication. He was caught in a comparable situation when
he came in touch witch the works of Shakespeare, and, later, with Richard
Wagner's music. In 1879 he enlisted at the faculty of natural sciences
of the university of Geneva. He obtained the degree of bachelor, and moved
to Dresden. When he was working on his dissertation (concerning the ascending
of plant saps), his illness manifested itself again. Neurasthenia
was the doctor's diagnosis this time, a popular disease back then. In his
by this nervous disease obtruded idle time he studied history, philosophy,
literature and music, and he wrote his first essay in german.
The writing demon
In 1889 he relocated
to Vienna, to apply himself to his research into plant physiology. In the
morning of January 19th, 1892, he was captivated by something Chamberlain
called the �writing demon�. This demon, of which Chamberlain says it cannot
be ignored, puts him up to writing, where after he often doesn't recognize
his work as writings of his own hand. This kind of statements made occultists
assume that he was a clair-voyant and possessed by demons. H. S. Chamberlain
himself however is quite clear about the nature of this demon: it is a
kind of alter ego, comparable with Socrates' demon. (note1)
(Through all centuries people have fantasized about the nature of this
daimoon,
but it's doubtful Socrates meant an entity from another world...). Whatever
the case may be, from that moment on Chamberlain was determined to become
a writer.
The foundations of the
19th century
His most important
work is 
Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (The Foundations of
the 19th century), 1899. The central idea in this book is that the
moral, cultural, scientific and technological superiority of the West-European
civilizations is mainly a result of the positive influence the germanic
race (Slavs and Celts included) had through the ages on the progress of
history, where other races, like the Jews, acted mainly as a jamming factor.
For this reason the book is considered to be anti-Semitic, but it is more
than that: Chamberlain opposes against any cultural, religious or political
system with, in his opinion, globalistic intentions, like the Jesuit order,
capitalism, the catholic church and socialism. (note
12) The book became a best-seller in Germany, was translated
into English and French and had an important influence on the mind of his
contemporaries. In his review of The Foundations George Bernard
Shaw wrote:
-
�It is a masterpiece of really scientific
history. It does not make confusion, it clears it away. He is a great generalizer
of thought, as distinguished from the crowd of our mere specialists. It
is certain to stir up thought. Whoever has not read it will be rather out
of it in political and sociological discussions for some time to come.�
(note
2)
and President Theodore Roosevelt wrote about
this work:
-
�... a man who can write such a really beautiful
and solemn appreciation of true Christianity, of true acceptance of Christ's
teachings and personality, as Mr. Chamberlain has done, (...) represents
an influence to be reckoned with and seriously to be taken into account.�
(note
3)
Count Gobineau
Chamberlain's race theories were influenced by Joseph Arthur, comte de
Gobineau (1816-1882), who argued the superiority of the nordic races in
his work Essai sur l�inégalité des races humaines
(1853), but also predicted their decline due to unavoidable commixture
with other races. As a scientist H. S. Chamberlain knew better and disagreed
with the latter, (note 4) although
he agrees with Charles Darwin's words concerning uncontrolled racial mingling:
�Free crossing obliterates characters.� (note
5). Count Gobineau was a friend of Richard Wagner.
The Aryan Jesus
One of the recurrent
themes in Chamberlain's work is that of the non-Jewish Jesus (note
17). He admits he doesn't have hard proof, but he brings along
circumstantial evidence to make his theory plausible. A few items from
his long list:
-
Galilee was sold by king Solomon to the
king of Tyrus (3 Kings 9:11). He did so, according to Chamberlain,
because the region lacked Jews.
-
Jesus wasn't born in jewish Judaea, but
in foreign Galilee, and Gelil haggoyim means �district of heathens�.
-
Jesus himself isn't very positive about
Jews: Matthew 8:12: �...but the children of the kingdom [i. e. the
Jews] shall be cast out into outer darkness...�, John 8:47: �He
that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because
ye are not of God. Then answered the Jews, [...] Say we not well that thou
art a Samaritan...�, Matthew 23:33 �Ye serpents, ye generation of
vipers...�
According to Chamberlain
the christian religion developed into a murderous totalitarian system due
to the negative influence of the racial chaos the catholic church emerged
from after the fall of the roman empire, and, secondly, due to the laws
of the old testament, and thus to jewish influence. After centuries of
roman catholic terror the germanic forces, embodied by Francis of Assisi,
Martin Luther and others, turned christianity into the religion Jesus must
have meant. Emperor Wilhelm II, convinced of these theories, went one step
further: the old testament should be expelled from the bible, to cut loose
the last strings between christianity and judaism (note
18).
Brahmanism
Another recurring
theme in Chamberlain's work is the similarity between germanic thinking
and Indian brahmanism: the Indo-Aryan philosophy. Chamberlain often cites
the Upanishads, the Vedas and other sacred Hindu texts to
justify this point of view, and his book Arische Weltanschauung
(
Aryan World View) is entirely devoted to this subject.
Richard Wagner
H. S. Chamberlain
was fascinated by the composer Richard Wagner. He attended the première
(and the following 5 performances) of the Parsifal in Bayreuth,
July 1882. Wagner died the next year and they never met. Chamberlain wrote
several essays regarding Wagner's work, and in 1895 his major Wagner book
hit the streets. One of his essays, Künstlerische Dankbarkeit
(a comparison between Wagner and Franz Liszt), was read by Liszt's daughter,
Cosima Wagner, and she invited the writer for a meeting, June 12, 1888.
This was the beginning of a lasting friendship, and they carried on an
extensive
correspondence with each other until 1908. In that year he married
his second wife Eva, daughter of Richard and Cosima Wagner.
Emperor Wilhelm II
H. S. Chamberlain
was invited by Wilhelm II at the palace at Potsdam. The emperor was highly
pleased with the englishman who praised the germanic race into infinity,
and in a letter to Chamberlain he wrote �It was God who sent the german
people your book and you personally to me.� (note
6). H. S. Chamberlain became a friend and an advisor of Wilhelm
II. In one of his letters to the emperor Chamberlain wrote:
-
Germany [...] can achieve complete control
of the world, (partly by direct political means, partly by speech, culture,
methods), when only it succeeds in taking the new direction in time, meaning,
the final rupture with Anglo-American governmental ideals. The freedom
Germany needs, is the [...] unlimited freedom of thought, of religion,
of science � not the freedom, to reign itself badly (note
19).
The first world war
When in world war
I (1914-1918) England joined the side of the Entente forces, the
disappointed H. S. Chamberlain accused his fatherland of treason to the
germanic race. During the war he wrote a series of Kriegsaufsätze,
propaganda for the german cause. In 1915 he received the iron cross for
his services to the german empire. As a consequence of his loyalty, he
naturalized in 1916 and became a german citizen. Germany lost the battle
and the treaty of Versailles was signed. This treaty was meant to ruin
Germany economically, to secure it could never start a war again, but there
was also a financial interest:
-
�The occupation of German territory by the
allied troops should be accompanied by the destruction of all the large
industries within the sphere of occupation. It is held that if it were
known and felt here and in France that such a scheme of organised destruction
was to be carried out on German territory, capital would be at once stimulated
in steady streams in aid of the home industries, which would profit enormously
by the course taken.� (note 7).
This ill-fated plan was
indeed carried out. The resulting hyperinflation and chaos in Germany formed
an excellent playground for extremist political groupings. When the allied
mitigated their measures it was already too late: Adolf Hitler won the
elections for the Reichstag on March 5, 1933.
Adolf Hitler
Hitler was an admirer
of Houston Stewart Chamberlain. He met the old writer at September 30,
1923 during a �German day� in Bayreuth. On occasion of this meeting H.
S. Chamberlain wrote to Hitler: �In no way you resemble the descriptions
depicting you as a fanatic. I even believe that you are the absolute opposite
of a fanatic. He tries to persuade people � you want to convince them.�
(note
8)
H. S. Chamberlain
died 4 years later, 71 years old, after a long nervous disease in Bayreuth,
January 9, 1927.
The influence of The
foundations of the 19th century
The racial ideas
of Adolf Hitler were probably influenced by the anti-Semitic passages in
Die
Grundlagen, (note16) like
the sinister and often cited �Their existence is
sin, their existence is a crime against the holy laws of life...�)
(note
9). To nazi politician Alfred Rosenberg (note
10), the man who introduced the (in)famous work
The protocols of the learned elders of Zion to the western world,
the
Grundlagen
wasn't anti-Semitic enough. He was annoyed by passages
like: �...yet I think that we are inclined to under-estimate
our own powers [...] and to exaggerate the importance of the Jewish influence.
Hand in hand with this goes the perfectly ridiculous and revolting tendency
to make the Jews the general scapegoat for all the vices of our time...�
(note
11).
It's irrational to
explain 20th century anti-Semitism and racial delusion only by referring
to the works of Richard Wagner, Houston Stewart Chamberlain and others,
human nature is far too complicated for such simplifications. However,
the tone of voice at that time in the articles in the newspaper, the books
on the drawing-room table, the discussions in the waiting room, the address
of a charismatic politician in a munich beer hall, all together formed
the
Zeitgeist, and to this Zeitgeist an important contribution
was made by Houston Stewart Chamberlain. |
Chamberlain's race theories were influenced by Joseph Arthur, comte de
Gobineau (1816-1882), who argued the superiority of the nordic races in
his work Essai sur l�inégalité des races humaines
(1853), but also predicted their decline due to unavoidable commixture
with other races. As a scientist H. S. Chamberlain knew better and disagreed
with the latter, (note 4) although
he agrees with Charles Darwin's words concerning uncontrolled racial mingling:
�Free crossing obliterates characters.� (note
5). Count Gobineau was a friend of Richard Wagner.
