The importance of being Horst: popular support and given names in Nazi Germany. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Casquete, Jesús
• Is Part Of: European journal of cultural and political sociology. Volume 3:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 97
• Page End: 118
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Sociology of memory -- sociology of taste -- cultural indicators -- totalitarianism -- National Socialism -- onomastics; Political sociology -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals; 306.2
• DOI: 10.1080/23254823.2016.1177794
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2325-4823

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In a country such as Nazi Germany, coercively devoid of all liberal pre-requisites such as free speech and freedom of association, with no free or practising parliament, with no possibility of citizens expressing themselves through the ballot box, without even rudimentary opinion polls, how can we retrospectively interpret citizen support for the regime? Cultural indicators such as the names given to newborn boys offer a door to study the degree of support for totalitarian regimes, but also to go some way towards reconstructing the ambience in which names were invested with meaning. With the Nazis in power, the political opportunity structure of taste underwent a substantial change, as the regime formally and informally fostered the repository of male Germanic names. This trend was related to modernisation and its accompanying secularisation process, but the Nazis also encouraged traditional Germanic names. One such name, Horst, become very popular during the Third Reich.