Rohkrämer, Thomas (2009) Politische Religion, Civic Religion oder ein neuer Glaube - Walther Rathenaus Vision einer anderen Moderne. In: Walther Rathenau : Der Phänotyp der Moderne. Aisthesis, Bielefeld, pp. 195-214. ISBN 9783895287169
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This chapter uses Walther Rathenau to discuss the limitations of the popular, but controversial concepts 'political religion' and 'civic religion'. Rathenau promoted a vaguely religious dimension to politics, but his vision cannot be described with either of these terms. He was neither an unreserved supporter of parliamentary democracy, pluralism and a capitalist market economy nor did he tend towards totalitarianism. He was opposed to the Right, but his concept of a communal economy (Gemeinwirtschaft) strongly influenced the idea of a community of the people (Volksgemeinschaft) so central for Nazism. Rathenau is part of a wider tradition that sought to give the German nation a new communal faith. He was not a Nazi, but the desire he expressed came to play a crucial role in the fatal attraction of National Socialism. The concept of a single communal faith can show the connection between this long tradition and the rise of Nazism.