The birth of Nordic fascism

What was the status of Nordic fascism before it became established in the late 1800s and early 1900s? What were the most important organizations and who were the key individuals? What forms did their networks take and how did they collaborate? These are some of the questions to be addressed by the researchers in this project.

“I want to live and die in the northern lands” is an unusual phrase to find in a national anthem. Why do we sing it? Scandinavianism? Nordiska rikspartiet (“the Nordic Reich Party”) – why was this name chosen for a Swedish post-World War II Nazi party? It was hardly because of Scandinavianism; it was the result of other, albeit related, views of Nordic race and cultural ideals. These ideas were central to both German national socialism and Nordic fascism. This remains true today, as exemplified by Nordiska motståndsrörelsen (“the Nordic Resistance Movement”).

The idea of an affinity between the German and the Nordic, that Nordic qualities form the core of German ones, is much older than fascism, as are other idea-complexes central to fascism, such as anti-Semitism, anti-materialism (which rejects both socialism and capitalism, but in practice mostly the former), voluntarism and anti-rationalism, anti-particularism (manifested in antipathy toward democracy and parliamentarianism, since they are considered to divide the nation – the entity to which conservatives and fascists attach most importance).

Hence, fascism is rooted in the reaction to modernity, rejecting the ideals of the enlightenment, as well as the purportedly soulless, materialistic society, against industrial society and its class conflicts, and against emerging democracy: it condemns Gesellschaft (business) and is in favor of Gemeinschaft (community) – but only for some.

All this we know. What we do not know is the form that fascism took in the Nordic region during the late 1800s and early 1900s before fascism as a movement became established. In what environments did it emerge? What were the most important organizations and who were the key individuals? What form did their networks and alliances take in the Nordic region and between that region and the rest of Europe and the U.S? What do developments in the Nordic region and those on the European continent have in common? How did they differ? Which sources and tributaries are common to the Nordic countries and which are specific to individual nations?

These are some of the questions that the researchers want to address. Just like the Swedish national anthem, the project may appear contradictory – a study of the emergence of ultranationalistic movements as a transnational phenomenon. But paradoxes sometimes reveal a deeper truth, as in the present case.

Fascism emerged as a reaction to the same phenomenon – modernity – but the reactions were shaped by specific national and regional experiences and ideas, not least about the meaning of “Nordic”. It is Those reactions – fascism before fascism – that the researchers want to explore, and they want to study them as shared, united, entangled, crossed and transnational. It is a matter of emphasizing influences and impact, not comparing objects that are independent of one another.

Virtually all earlier research on fascism in the Nordic region has been confined to individual countries, focusing on fascism once it has become established. The researchers want to do the opposite, and study ideas and perceptions before they became manifested in organizations, and from a Nordic viewpoint. This has not been done before.