Alfred Rosenberg

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[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0723-500, Alfred Rosenberg headcrop.jpg|right|thumb|165px|Calling this guy garbage is an insult to garbage.]]
{{Nazism|1}}
{{cquote|It was Rosenberg, the intellectual high priest of the "master race," who provided the [[antisemitism|doctrine of hatred]] which gave the impetus for [[holocaust|the annihilation of Jewry]], and who put his [[infidel]] theories into practice against the Eastern Occupied Territories. His woolly philosophy also added boredom to the long list of Nazi atrocities.|||[[US Supreme Court]] Justice {{wpl|Robert H. Jackson}}<ref>Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Volume 19, 187<sup>th</sup> day, Friday, 26 July 1946 Morning Session</ref>}}
{{cquote|He's not a thinker. He's an ideologue.|||Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies director Jurgen Matthaus, upon releasing Rosenberg's diary to the public<ref name=ruane/>}}

'''Alfred Ernst Rosenberg''' {{lived|1893<ref group=note>Due to his birthplace, his birthday is also cited to be December 31, 1892 per Old Style/Julian calendar. ''See: {{wpl|Old Style and New Style dates}}''</ref>|1946}} was a [[politician]] and leading "ideologist" of the [[NSDAP]] during both [[Weimar Republic]] and [[Nazi Germany]] era. And apocryphally, this hate-filled man was the origin of some of the [[alt-right glossary]]. Rosenberg was convicted of both [[war crimes]] and [[crimes against humanity]].

Born '''Alfred Woldemarowitsch Rosenberg''', his father was a Baltic German and his mother was [[Estonia]]n, and he grew up in the Baltic Governorates<ref name=ruane>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/long-lost-diary-of-nazi-alfred-rosenberg-turned-over-to-holocaust-museum/2013/12/17/b422b260-6738-11e3-8b5b-a77187b716a3_story.html Long-lost diary of Nazi Alfred Rosenberg turned over to Holocaust Museum] by Michael E. Ruane (December 17, 2013 at 11:57 a.m. EST) ''The Washington Post''.</ref> of the [[Russian]] Empire when the [[February Revolution|1917 revolution]] hit Moscow. Under the influence of [[Russian]] emigrants, they managed to somehow convince Rosenberg into thinking the whole revolution was concocted by an [[Jewish]]-[[Masonic]] [[conspiracy]]. This puny idea would blossom and serve as key in shaping the whole Nazi [[ideology]].

Most people born with a Rosenberg surname are Jewish, which caused suspicion that he was Jewish. Hungarian-Jewish [[journalist]] Franz Szell claimed in 1936 that Rosenberg did not have any German ancestry but did have Jewish ancestry.<ref name=Wiener>[https://wiener.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/recordview/index/70836 Franz Szell: correspondence re Alfred Rosenberg] (1936) ''The Wiener Holocaust Library''. Collection Reference: 936.</ref><ref>[https://www.jta.org/archive/lithuania-deports-writer-who-called-nazi-chief-non-aryan Lithuania Deports Writer Who Called Nazi Chief “non-aryan”]  (September 16, 1936) ''Jewish Telegraph Agency''.</ref> Since the war, academic sources have regarded his ancestry as German and Estonian.<ref name=Wiener/>

From 1920 onwards, Rosenberg contributed significantly to the intensification of [[antisemitism]] (and other [[racialist]] [[demonization]]) in Germany with numerous racial ideological writings. His 1930 book {{wpl|The Myth of the Twentieth Century|''The Myth of the Twentieth Century''}} is on par with [[Hitler]]'s ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' in terms of importance in [[Nazism]]'s development.<ref>Michael, R. (2008). ''A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church''. Springer. p. 128.</ref><ref>Ernst Piper: Alfred Rosenberg. ''Hitler's Chefideologe'' (2005) Blessing, ISBN 3-89667-148-0, S. 200.</ref>{{rp|200}}

Following the Nazis' power-grab in 1933, Rosenberg was assigned a ''Reichsleiter'' (''Reich'' leader, the second highest political rank), and very much acted as the Nazi Party's chief racial theorist. Indeed, not only did Rosenberg formalize the whole goddamn [[Aryan]] and [[White supremacy|master race]] ideology, he also promoted the [[Alt-right glossary#Untermensch|''Untermensch'']]<ref name=LosudoOnUnter>{{cite journal| author = Losurdo, Domenico| year = 2004| title = Toward a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism| journal = ''Historical Materialism''| publisher = [[Brill Publishers|Brill]]| volume = 12| issue = 2| pages = 25–55, here p. 50| issn = 1465-4466| doi = 10.1163/1569206041551663| url = http://www.pssp.org/bbs/data/document/1/Losurdo___Critique_of_Totalitarianism_%282004%29.pdf}}</ref> and [[degenerate]]s<ref>Adam, Peter (1992). Art of the Third Reich. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-1912-5, page 33</ref> concept as well.

During the [[Second World War]], he and his ''Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg '' (ERR; ''Einsatzstab'' = taskforce) undertook raids throughout Europe, particularly to rob cultural assets.<ref name="Ramsey2018">{{cite book |last1=  Ramsey  |first1= Winston |last2=  Ramsey |first2= Gail|date= 2018 |title=The Axis Occupation of Europe: Then and Now |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Axis_Occupation_of_Europe/6BVfEAAAQBAJ |quote=  In 1941  the Nazi party established the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or ERR, an organisation dedicated to appropriating cultural property from the occupied countries. Led by Rosenberg from within NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs... |publisher=Pen and Sword Books |Chapter= Baltic States |isbn= ISBN: 9781399076098}}</ref><ref>National-Socialist Archaeology in Europe and Its Legacies. (2023). Page 149. Springer International Publishing. ISBN: 9783031280245</ref> As Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMfdbO; ''Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete''), he pursued the project of Germanizing the occupied eastern territories while systematically exterminating the Jews as part of his Eastern policy, [[ethnic cleansing]] and [[genocide]].<ref>Kitchen, M. (2014). The Third Reich: Charisma and Community. Page 318. Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 9781317866367</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Crowe|first= David M.  |date=2018 |title=The Holocaust: Roots, History, and Aftermath|publisher=Taylor & Francis |chapter= 6. The Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Path to the "Final Solution" |isbn=9780429964985}}</ref>

Ultimately, the Nazis bungled up their own war, and Allied Troops caught him. Being a major war criminal, Rosenberg was charged in the [[Nuremberg trials]] and found guilty on all four counts. He was sentenced to [[death]] and [[Capital punishment|executed]].

==Little bit more detailed backstory==
===Early life===
[[File:Härjapea jõgi, 1889.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Reval (modern day Tallinn), Härjapea River circa 1889]]
Rosenberg was born on January 12, 1893 (per New Style dating system), to a Baltic Germans/Estonian family in Reva, Governorate of Estonia under the Russian Empire.<ref>Cecil, R. (1976). Hitler's Decision to Invade Russia, 1941. Davis-Poynter. Page 31.</ref><ref>Reitlinger, G. (1960). The House Built on Sand: The Conflicts of German Policy in Russia, 1939-1945. Viking Press. Page 129. ISBN: 9780670380114</ref>

The [[First World War]] broke out when he was a young man, and events during it shaped him into the person he would become. Particularly during this time, he developed a hatred towards the indigenous peoples of Estonia, which is likely why he began to examine his own German heritage, and subsequent interest in studying the roots of the entire Germanic people.

In 1911 he graduated from the Petri-Realschule in Reval and enrolled at the Polytechnic Institute in Riga. During the years of the First World War, the headquarters of the Polytechnic was temporarily transferred to Imperial Technical School in Moscow ({{wpl|Bauman Moscow State Technical University}}). There, he studied [[engineering]] and architecture. Also around that time, he a became protégé of {{wpl|Dmitri Merezhkovsky}} (who had also mentored {{wpl|Moeller van den Bruck}}), whose [[crank|looney]] takes on [[Christianity]] had effect on Rosenberg.<ref>Stern, Fritz R. ''The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology''. University of California Press, 1974. Page 190, ISBN: 9780520026261</ref>

During his academic year in Moscow, Rosenberg found himself involved in the [[October Revolution|Russian Revolution]] and the following year, 1918, after graduating and reuniting with his family. Then in late November of 1918, the {{wpl|Estonian War of Independence}} broke out. The exodus of the Baltic Germans after seven centuries of domination over the region and this invasion by the [[Bolshevik]] Russia, forced Rosenberg to leave Reval indefinitely, alongside German troops evacuating Estonia after their brief occupation of the territory in 1917.

===Weimar Republic===
Fleeing Estonia, he first found refuge in Paris for a while, then staying in Berlin for few weeks before settling to Munich in early 1919. The city had become a rallying point for the exiled German minorities from Russia. He survived there thanks to the soup kitchen and the Baltic German relief societies. He would also come in contact with some counter-revolutionaries circles that had fled from Bolshevik Russia.

He soon started to gravitate towards the ''[[Völkisch movement]]'' politics and {{wpl|Dietrich Eckart|Dietrich Eckart's}} speeches. Rosenberg then either joined or began to frequent the {{wpl|Thule Society||,}} a shady [[Occult|occulist]]-cum-[[nationalist]] group that carried notoriety for its strong [[antisemitism]] and association with the ''Völkisch movement''.<ref>Jean-Paul Demoule, Mais où sont passés les Indo-Européens? : le mythe d'origine de l'Occident, Paris, Seuil, coll. « La bibrairie du XXIe siècle », 2015, 742 p. (ISBN 978-2-02-029691-5)</ref> It was there when he met with the young [[Adolf Hitler]], who had joined the same society a short time before Rosenberg. That said, Rosenberg, already at the time of his hypothetical entry into the Thule Society, had achieved considerable notoriety among antisemitic circles thanks to some of his publications, in particular with his two antisemitic treatises, "The Path of the Jews Through the Centuries" (''Die Spur des Juden im Wandel der Zeiten'') and "Immorality in the Talmud" (''Unmoral in Talmud''), both published in 1919.<ref name = "Cecil1972">Cecil, R. (1972). The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology. Dodd, Mead. ISBN: 9780396065777</ref>{{rp|74}}<ref>Nazi Ideology Before 1933: A Documentation. (1978). University of Texas Press. ISBN: 9781477304457. Page 12</ref>

From his association with the Thule Society, he began his rapid rise to the top of Hitler's new [[National Socialist Party]], which would have taken its trademark [[swastika]] symbol from the Thule Society. Rosenberg, thanks to his intense activity in antisemitic ideology, was immediately placed by Hitler at the head of the new Nazi newspaper, {{wpl|Völkischer Beobachter||.}}

Although Rosenberg was mainly educated as an architect, he proved a deft hand in [[fake news|pushing horseshit for this paper]]. In 1921, partly thanks to the likes of [[Oswald Spengler]] opening the floodgates for [[national mysticism]]-laced [[pseudohistory]] [[woo]]<ref>{{cite book|last= Lukács|first=György |date= 1981|orig-date= 1953|title= The Destruction of Reason |publisher=Humanities Press |isbn=9780391022478|url= http://archive.org/details/the-destruction-of-reason-by-gyorgy-lukacs|quote=…the Baeumler-Krieck-Rosenberg philosophy would not have been possible without Spengler, and that Spengler's would not have been possible without Dilthey and Simmel. Hitler himself was far too uneducated and cynically lacking in convictions to see in any philosophy something more than an instantly effective means of agitation.|page=537}}</ref>, Rosenberg began to insidiously circulate this certain (falsified) document known as ''[[The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion]]'', which was one of the first major cases of [[International Jewish conspiracy]] insanity and escalation of antisemitism in Weimar Republic. In 1922 he published "Plague in Russia! Bolshevism, its Leaders, Executors and Victims," a work which, by contributing the wrongdoing to "[[Cultural Marxism|Jewish Bolshevism]]," really impressed Hitler.<ref>{{cite book |last= Kellogg |first=Michael |date= 2005|title=The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Russian_Roots_of_Nazism/GeOR5LbOQwsC|publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=231 |isbn=9781139442992}}</ref>

In 1923 he took part in the failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]], which lead to Hitler's arrest by German authorities, the party was dissolved and the newspaper ceased publication. 

Hitler, imprisoned, designated Rosenberg to temporarily replace him at the head of the party, aware that Rosenberg, given the lack of charisma and personality, would never have been able to undermine his authority. Rosenberg visited him in prison and influenced him in the implementation of Nazi doctrine in parts of ''[[Mein Kampf]]''. When Rosenberg led the Nazi Party, he played a significant role in defining the theoretical corpus of the Nazi party as well as in spreading the thesis of Jewish influence in the Bolshevik revolution among the first members of the party.

Still while Hitler was imprisoned, having become the ideologue of the National Socialist Party, he kept spreading antisemitic junk to the masses. During this period, he carried out the functions that Hitler could not take on, due to his conviction, and he played an important role in the marginalization of the [[left wing]] of the party, grouped around Gottfried Feder. He did not discuss the points formulated by the latter and his close associates, particularly around employee profit sharing and the place of public limited companies in the NSDAP program.<ref>Schoenbaum, David. ''Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939''. Doubleday, 1966.</ref> After Hitler's release and given back control, Rosenberg resumed being the intellectual of the party.

===Gaining political power as a Nazi bigwig===
In 1930, he was elected for the first time as a member of the German Parliament. From this date until the end of the war, Rosenberg always maintained a very important role of within the party, as Hitler entrusted various important jobs to him.

In 1933, after the Nazi Party won the elections and Hitler became the new Chancellor, he appointed Rosenberg as ''Reichsleiter'' and head of the foreign office (''Auslandsorganisation'') of the NSDAP. This allowed Rosenberg to establish closer relationships with almost all the [[fascist]] parties around the world, a role that gave him considerable visibility. Rosenberg held this role until the end of the war and his capture in 1945.

The same year, he was also assigned as the head of the "Führer's Delegate for the Intellectual and Philosophical Education and Formation of the National Socialist Party." This more or less cemented Rosenberg as undisputed leader in terms of pushing the Nazi doctrine, second only to Hitler himself. 

He was also granted control of his own ''Amt Rosenberg'' (ARo, Rosenberg Office), which was the was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party. As head of research within the NSDAP, he developed Nazi research towards [[archaeology]] and ethnography. Rosenberg's ARo had major part in attacking and destroying art that was deemed "[[degenerate]]" by the Nazis.<ref name="Petropoulos2000">Petropoulos, Jonathan. The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany., Oxford University Press, USA, 2000. Chapter 3: Art Journalists. ISBN: 9780199880942</ref>

With the support of Hans Reinerth, he began the "Federation of German Prehistory of the Reich" (''Reichsbund für deutsche Vorgeschichte'') under the command of ARo, and he entrusted it to Reinerth. Until 1937, this federation enjoyed undeniable success under Rosenberg's leadership; however, Rosenberg and his protégé had to reckon with the growing influence of the ''Ahnenerbe'' (''Ancestral Heritage") organization of the [[SS]] from that moment on, and had to give way to this SS institution, especially after 1940.

In 1937, Rosenberg received the {{wpl|German National Prize for Art and Science||,}} the Nazi replacement for the [[Nobel Prize]].

In 1939, again because of Rosenberg's thorough knowledge of the [[Jewish question]], Hitler ordered him to establish the "Institute for Studies on the Jewish Question" (''Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage''), which was essentially tasked with the goal of emptying all European Jewish archives, museums and art galleries for "scientific research purposes."

===World War II===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1994-090-05, Drechsler, Lohse, Rosenberg, v. Medem.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Alfred Rosenberg (front row, second from right) caught mid-blink]]

With the outbreak of [[World War II]], Rosenberg founded his own operational staff, called ''Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg'' (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce), which was mainly (if not exclusively) responsible for stealing works of art from all occupied territories in Europe, particularly from [[France]]. This was to be transported to the Reich, then sold or given to the Germans in the Reich. On April 16, 1943, he sent Hitler a report summarizing all of the 20,000 works of art seized in the West by his subordinates.

After defeat of France, the first collection he targeted was that of the [[Rothschilds]]. With an estimated value of over two billion francs, it was hidden in the Château Lafite and Château Mouton Rothschild estates. An informer named "Jurschewitz" reported it and received a reward of 65,000 francs.<ref>Henri Amouroux, ''La Vie des Français sous l'occupation'', Paris, Fayard, 1961, page 393</ref> In March 1941, a convoy of twenty-eight wagons, containing nearly four thousand works of art seized in France, arrived at Neuschwanstein Castle.

In 1939, Rosenberg had meetings with Norwegian fascist [[Vidkun Quisling]] (whom he had already met with in 1933) and sponsored his state visit in December 1939. Having brought Quisling into contact with Hitler, the Nazis succeeded in securing their [[Puppet state|puppet leader]] for [[Norway]].<ref>Lunde, Henrik O. ''Hitler's Pre-emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940'', Casemate Publishers (Ignition), pages 51-56, 2009. ISBN: 9781612000459</ref>

After Germany launched the invasion of the [[Soviet Union]] in 1941, and being Baltic German, Rosenberg was appointed by Hitler as 'Minister of the East' (the German occupied areas in Eastern Europe). This was the last of his many political appointments, and because of this, he gained the power to personally implement and carry out [[Holocaust|mass extermination of the Jewish population]]. As head of Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, he decided to implement a project called {{wpl|Heuaktion}} ("hay harvest" or "hay operation"), whose purpose was to abduct [[Polish]] and [[Ukrainian]] children to use them as [[Slavery#In Nazi Germany|slave labor in Germany]].<ref>Roman Hrabar (1960), ''Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich (1939-1945)'', page 99.</ref><ref> Lynn H. Nicholas, ''Cruel World: The Children of Europe in the Nazi Web'', p. 351, ISBN 0-679-77663-X</ref>

However in the East European theater, he tended to butt heads with [[Heinrich Himmler]], to whom Hitler entrusted to carry out operations more so than Rosenberg. The dispute really escalated in 1943 when Hans Lammers and {{wpl|Martin Bormann}} got involved. After a back and forth, Rosenberg resigned on October 12, 1944, testifying to the non-existence of his political influence at this stage of the conflict.

===End of the line===
After the death of Adolf Hitler, Rosenberg was excluded from government by {{wpl|Karl Dönitz||,}} the new President of the Reich. A few days after the German capitulation in May 1945, Rosenberg was found and arrested in a military hospital in Flensburg-Mürwik (where he was recovering from a fall) by SAS operatives from Belgium.<ref>Ernst Piper, ''Alfred Rosenberg, Hitlers Chefideologe''. 2005, p. 621.</ref>

While imprisoned in Nuremberg, awaiting the trial, Rosenberg wrote a series of autobiographical notes that were intended to belittle his role within the party, presumably in a last-ditch attempt at defense against the likely death penalty. He instead tried to specifically pin the blame on [[Joseph Goebbels]], [[Himmler]], and Bormann for the [[Holocaust]], with Rosenberg trying to exonerate himself by emphasizing that he was only involved in culture and research, tending to spend his days "isolated in libraries reading while the other hierarchs were busy weaving dense networks of relationships and extending their influence."{{cn}}

At the [[Nuremberg Trials]], Rosenberg sat in the front row. He was indicted for his political rather than his intellectual role. He was charged with conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, crimes of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. 

During the trial he isolated himself from the rest of the defendants, with whom he had never been on good terms. Rosenberg tried to show that many crimes in the East were committed without his knowledge and that he had no authority over the SS, which had perpetrated the worst havoc on the population of the occupied territories. He never expressed regret or remorse for his actions, instead continuing to uphold his faith in Nazism until the end, maintaining that the crimes were due to an erroneous interpretation of the National Socialist philosophy. From the testimonies of the other Nazi bigwigs, it also emerged that none of them had read but a few pages of Rosenberg's ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century''.

The court found Rosenberg guilty on all charges and on October 1, 1946; he was sentenced to death by Soviet judge Iona Nikitchenko. On October 16, 1946, he was hanged, being the fourth Nazi leader to be sent to the gallows. When asked if he had any last words, Rosenberg responded "no," being only Nazi chief to do so. His execution was slow, with it taking an= minute and a half for Rosenberg to die. His body was subsequently cremated in the East Cemetery in Munich, and his ashes, along with the ashes of 10 other defendants, were scattered in the Wenzbach, a tributary of the Isar River in Munich.<ref>Overy, Richard J. (2001). ''The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality''. Page 205. New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-02008-3.</ref>

==So what did this dickhead contribute?==
[[File:Mythus.JPG|thumb|right|215px|The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century (Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts), is Rosenberg's best known work.]]
{{cquote|National Socialism is the noblest idea to which a German could devote all the strength he has been given.|||Alfred Rosenberg}} 
Rosenberg strongly supported the theory of the Judeo-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy (favoring the spread of the [[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]), [[anti-communism]] (with particular emphasis against [[Bolshevism]]), the rejection of the so-called "[[degenerate|degenerate art]]," [[racist]] and [[Social Darwinism]] theories, and the [[Messiah|messianic]] vision of [[Hitler]]. He was also strongly opposed to [[women's rights]].<ref>Lorenz, Dagmar C. G. ''Nazi Characters in German Propaganda and Literature'', Brill, 2018. Page 37. ISBN: 9789004365261</ref> Rosenberg's racial theories were inspired by both [[European]] sources ([[Arthur de Gobineau]]<ref name="Gender2020">''Gender and the Radical and Extreme Right: Mechanisms of Transmission and the Role of Educational Interventions''. (2020): Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 9780429812699</ref><ref name="RePoId1">Reassessing Political Ideologies: The Durability of Dissent. Taylor & Francis, 2004. Page 145. ISBN: 9781134521463</ref> and [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]<ref>Gershoni, Israel, and Jankowski, James. ''Confronting Fascism in Egypt: Dictatorship Versus Democracy in the 1930s'', Stanford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780804772556</ref><ref name="RePoId1"/>) and [[American]] sources ([[Madison Grant]]<ref name="FritzNova1986">Nova, Fritz. ''Alfred Rosenberg: Nazi theorist of the Holocaust''. New York, Hippocrene Books, 1986. ISBN: 9780870522222</ref><ref>Spiro, Jonathan. ''Defending the Master Race: Conservation, Eugenics, and the Legacy of Madison Grant''. Libanon, University Press of New England, 2009. Page 357. ISBN: 9781584658108</ref> and {{wpl|Lothrop Stoddard}}<ref>Richards, Graham. ''Race, Racism and Psychology: Towards a Reflexive History''. Taylor & Francis, 2003. Page 242. ISBN: 9781134853762</ref><ref>''Antisemitism on the Rise: The 1930s and Today''. (2021). University of Nebraska. ISBN: 9781496228475</ref><ref name="FritzNova1986"/>). He is also known for his rejection of [[Christianity]] (referring it to as Negative Christianity), which played a major role in the development of the Nazi-led "[[Positive Christianity]]," which Rosenberg intended to serve as a transition to a new Nazi faith, as the official religion of the [[Third Reich]].<ref> Evans, Richard J. (2005) ''The Third Reich in Power''. Penguin Books. p.238-40. ISBN 0-14-303790-0.</ref>

He wrote a lot of stuff, with his more notable ones being:
* '''The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century''': Rosenberg's best known work, written in 1930. Together with Adolf Hitler's [[Mein Kampf]], it is considered the manifesto of National Socialism. It explores various concepts that would lay the groundwork for Nazism, based on the theory of Pan-Germanism and especially on the racist ideology propagated by [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]].<ref group=note>The title itself is a tribute to H.S. Chamberlain's {{wpl|The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century}}.</ref> The three main chapters are called "The Struggle of Values," "The Essence of Germanic Art" and "The Coming Reich." In the text, Rosenberg examines, among other things, the so-called [[Positive Christianity]]. The "myth" that is referred in the title is [[National Socialism]], described by the author as "the myth of blood, which under the aegis of the swastika unleashes the world revolution of the race." The book was the only text of the National Socialist ideology to be placed on the Index by the [[Catholic Church]], which fully condemned its theses.
* '''Blood and Honor''' (''Blut und Ehre''): consists of sixteen writings by Rosenberg from 1919 to 1933, twenty writings from 1922 to 1933, seventeen of his writings from 1920 to 1933 and finally eleven writings by Rosenberg from 1925 to 1933.
* '''Memoirs''' (''Portrait eines Menschheitsverbrechers''): written by Rosenberg while he was in prison in Nuremberg.

===Race (Aryans and ''Untermensch'')===
According to Rosenberg, world history is shaped by the eternally raging struggle between the Nordic-Atlantic and the Jewish-Semitic peoples. At the top of his "hierarchy of races," in accordance with the National Socialist racial ideology, was the [[Aryan]]s (Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine and Eastern Baltic), the descendants of ancient Indo-European populations. He claimed that the Aryans as the founders of all the great civilizations of the past, from the [[Persian]] and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] to the Doric and [[Roman Empire|Roman]], and maintaining that the decay of these civilizations, to which he claimed the German race also belongs, was to be found in racial mixing. To him, "only the [[Aryan|Nordic people]] produce culture."{{cn}}

Starting from a brief and vague speculation regarding the mythical island kingdom of [[Atlantis]] mentioned by [[Plato]], he explained that the Nordic people first appeared via the Indians and Persians. Classical Greece was thus incorporated into "Nordic Hellas" and ancient Rome into "Nordic-Republican Latinism." According to him, the only legitimate descendant of this Nordic people is the German people.

Rosenberg saw Nordic people as a race, which was not a biological, but a [[national mysticism|spiritual phenomenon]]. In this rejection of "racial materialism" he agreed with his arch-rival [[Joseph Goebbels]], who, like him, wanted to shape the ideological course of the [[NSDAP]]. Rosenberg, in turn, stylized the race as an independent organism by assigning to it a [[soul]] common to all members&nbsp;— the "racial soul." This racial soul is the bearer and expression of the respective race. Thus, the actions of the individual member of the race are only an expression of the driving force inherent in the collective. 

In order to achieve the actual goal, it is necessary to suppress any form of individualization because this endangers [[herd mentality|the unity]] of the race itself. Expressions of this racial soul are expressed in culture, politics, the legal system, [[technology]] and [[art]]. In this way, the racial affiliation of the respective peoples can be determined from their cultural achievements over the course of world history. These achievements were not created by individuals, but were an expression of the collective soul of the respective race, which wanted to create the ideal inherent in it. To him, the cultural achievements of [[Immanuel Kant]], [[Richard Wagner]], {{wpl|Meister Eckhart}} and other creative figures served Rosenberg as irrefutable proof of the superiority of the Nordic race.

Rosenberg, as he explained in his publications, considered [[African]]s an inferior race on a par with [[Jews]] and other Semitic populations, expressing contempt also for Slavs. Influenced by the writings of [[American]] [[KKK]]-associated [[racialist]] writer {{wpl|Lothrop Stoddard||,}} particularly his 1922 book ''The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man'', Rosenberg proposed that all inferior races were to be called [[Alt-right glossary#Untermensch|''Untermensch'']].<ref name=LosudoOnUnter/>

===Antisemitism (and Jewish Bolshevism)===
Even as a teenager, Rosenberg was fascinated by [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]'s ''Foundations of the Nineteenth Century'', which taught him the importance of the "Jewish question." In 1928, a year after Chamberlain's death, Rosenberg published a book entitled ''Houston Stewart Chamberlain als Verkünder und Begründer einer deutschen Zukunft''.<ref group=note>"Houston Stewart Chamberlain as Herald and Founder of a German Future."</ref> In December 1938, he wrote that the Jews were preparing to "destroy Europe in a blood frenzy."

In "The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century," he contrasted Judaism with the "Nordic racial soul" and polarized both levels with unsubstantiated enemy images. The Jewish religion was described as devilish, while the Nordic racial soul carried a new kind of divinity within itself.<ref>''World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia''. Taylor & Francis. 2015. Page 122</ref>

Hitler worked with the same technique of making claims; for example, the Aryans were "children of God" and a Jew was the "personification of the devil" or even "adversary of all humanity." [[Jesus Christ]], on the other hand, was not a Jew, but an embodiment of the Nordic racial soul. This supposed fact was first misrepresented by Judaism itself, later by Paul and then also by the Roman Catholic Church in order to harm the Nordic racial soul ("Roman-Syrian principle"). 

These and several other passages of ''The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century''&nbsp;— such as the claim that it was the Rothschild famil, which supposedly held power in [[France]] around 1914, that started the First World War&nbsp;— show the basis of Rosenberg's thinking. Even if he tried to disguise it with his intellectual and historical-philosophical speculations, Rosenberg at his core, was a [[racist]] [[conspiracy theorist]].

In "The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century," Rosenberg demanded that [[sexual intercourse]] between Germans and Jews (consensual or [[rape]]) to be punished with confiscation of property, expulsion, imprisonment and death, depending on the severity of the case.<ref name="Gender2020"/> This proposal led to a legislative proposal by the National Socialists in the Reichstag as early as March 1930.<ref>''German Reich 1933–1937'', Volume 1, De Gruyter, 2019. Page 264. ISBN 9783110435191.</ref>

===Nazi ethics and will===
{{see also|Vitalism}}
The pivotal point of Rosenberg's theory was his belief in a ''will'', that's inherent in the "racial soul." He defined the will, which was not further derived, as a formative force, "And to all doubts and questions, the new man of the coming First German Reich knows only one answer: 'I want'."{{cn}} This formative force will first impose a desired design on nature and later on foreign peoples. Rosenberg also calls this characteristic "dynamic-willful" or "spiritual-architectural." The "noblest form" of National Socialist ethics, in turn, would be expressed in precisely this mere will, which sets itself a goal. 

Rosenberg then built a theory of art on this, the core statement of which was that a work of art would be all the more aesthetically pleasing the more a strong will was evident in it. This in turn is reminiscent of Hitler's statement regarding the architecture of the Reich Party Congress in Nuremberg, that it was a "stone worldview.. "Will" as art was also reflected in Leni Riefenstahl's [[propaganda]] film ''Triumph of The Will'', in which Rosenberg and other Nazi leaders appeared.

According to Rosenberg, the will itself was not subordinate to any [[morality]]. Rosenberg's [[metaphysics]] of the will ultimately legitimized almost all actions&nbsp;— as long as they were desired and ordered by a strong leader, "That is the task of our century: to create a new type of human being from a new life myth." This paved the way for the subjugation of foreign peoples, for human breeding in life-bearing cages, forcible sterilization of genetically ill peoples, and for the "annihilation of life unworthy of life."

===Positive Christianity===
{{cquote|Today [[Jesus]] appears to us as a self-confident Lord [''Herr''], in the best and highest sense of the word. It is his life that acquires meaning for the Germanic people, not his tormented death, which is his image among the peoples of the Alps and the Mediterranean. The powerful avenger, enraged [''Zürnende''] in the temple, the man who dragged his followers, is the ideal that today springs resplendent from the [[Gospels]], not the sacrificial lamb of the Jewish prophets, not the [[Crucifiction|crucified]] one.|||Alfred Rosenberg<ref>Richard Steigmann-Gall, ''The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945'', 2003, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-82371-5.</ref>}} 

One of the concepts that pops out in his ''The Myth of the 20<sup>th</sup> Century'', is that of [[Positive Christianity]]. Rosenberg elevated Jesus to the superman, a symbol of the Aryan race. In particular, he exalted those aspects of his life in which, according to the Gospels, he had shown opposition to Jewish institutions. However, it should not be forgotten that, in Rosenberg's thought, Jesus was not the son of God, nor did he [[Resurrection|rise from the dead]] (Rosenberg calls them "legends"). In practice, the figure of Jesus is stripped of every [[divine]] and messianic attribute and is compared to the figures of great thinkers such as [[Confucius]] or Meister Eckhart. He credits Jesus for having overcome the "Syriac-Etruscan-Judaic" fracture between the human and the divine, thereby showing perfect harmony with the [[pantheism]] propagated by [[National Socialism]], hostile to the idea of ​​a personal God. Needless to say, the concept of "Providence" for Nazism is in fact completely different from that of Jewish, Christian and [[Islamic]] [[monotheism]].

===''Lebensraum''===
Together with [[Rudolf Hess]], Rosenberg is the major integrator of the concept of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' in the National Socialist doctrine, which was used as justification to start the invasion of Eastern Europe.<ref>''Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression''. (1946). U.S. Government Printing Office. Page 594-595</ref><ref>''Joining Hitler's Crusade: European Nations and the Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941''. (2018). Cambridge University Press. Page 358. ISBN: 9781316510346</ref>

===Degenerate===
Rosenberg is one of the earliest pushers of the word "[[degenerate]]" (''Entartete'') as a [[snarl word]]. It primarily caught from Rosenberg's and Hitler's use of the word regarding what was "unacceptable" art to them. Per Robert Cumming, "Nazi ideologues believed that any art that did not conform to a [[bourgeois]] ideal of well-crafted, figurative images portraying [[Jingoism|ideal heroism of comfortable day-to-day being]] was the product of degenerate human beings and perverted minds." Anything not fitting to Nazi's ideals of art wars labeled ''Entartete Kunst'' (degenerate art), and thusly any "degenerate" artist was not allowed to exhibit their work, penalized for trying make such, with their works were often confiscated and then destroyed.<ref>Cumming, Robert. Art., Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2008. Page 384, ISBN: 9781405340007</ref><ref name="Petropoulos2000"/> [[The Nazi Degenerate Art Exhibition]] in 1937, organized by Goebbels, was created to highlight the art.

==Reputation amongst Nazis==
{{cquote|[If Rosenberg was in power] … there would only be a [[cult]], something or other, myths and other kinds of fraud.|||[[Hermann Göring]]<ref>''Goebbels'' by Ralf Georg Reuth (1990) Piper; ISBN 3-492-03183-8, p. 304.</ref>}} 
Rosenberg was disliked the Nazi leaders for his bad temper and mismanagement as an administrator. Despite his relative proximity to Hitler, it did not prevent Rosenberg from experiencing many setbacks and disappointments, which marked his career within the Third Reich. While Rosenberg was unquestionably a powerful individual in the Nazi hierarchy, he also had many rivals as well, as evidenced in autumn of 1939 when a coalition of NSDAP and German state players formed against him.

Moreover, his writings were not read much by members of the NSDAP, with Hitler himself having confessed to {{wpl|Albert Speer}} that he never read them in their entirety. Regardless, his writings attracted the deep enmity from the very Christian members of the NSDAP.

The historian {{wpl|Joachim Fest}} wrote:<ref>Fest, Joachim C. ''The Face Of The Third Reich: Portraits Of The Nazi Leadership'', Hachette Books, 1999. ISBN: 9780306809156</ref>
{{quotebox|Rosenberg's powers were seriously limited from the beginning. Göring was given full authority to carry out the primary plan; Himmler, the special envoy to the operational sector of the army, simultaneously held the positions of police chief, Reichsführer SS, Reich Commissioner for population transfer and consolidation of the German ''Volksstum''; Sauckel was responsible for manpower issues and Keitel for the leadership of the Wehrmacht; all these bodies so thoroughly eroded Rosenberg's skills that he had little left but his title. […] In fact, the Reich Minister's task soon became reduced to writing texts that no one read, memoranda that never made it through the doors of his departments, protests that no one took any notice of: a forgotten comrade at the head of an equally forgotten department.}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note|2}}

==References==
* {{cite book |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= 2015|title= World War II in Europe: An Encyclopedia |publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781135812423}}
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosenberg, Alfred}}
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