Researching Marienbad and the Savoy led me to Erika Mann and all the gossip, scandal, politics, and drama of her family. I wanted to read her account of life in pre-war Germany The Lights Go Down in part of my preparation for the 1940 Club and here.
I couldn’t track down a copy so I read School for Barbarians: Education under the Nazis (1938) instead. And reading that had me curious and wanting to know more beyond the gossip gleaned from Sybille Bedford.
Fortunately, I found In the Shadow of the Magic Mountain The Erika and Klaus Mann Story by Andrea Weiss. 2008,
And what an amazing story it is. Recommended.
But back to Barbarians.
It’s Erika Mann’s account of how the Nazi party hijacked education and gained its stranglehold on all aspects of children’s lives at home and school. It draws on Nazi documents, interviews with refugees, textbooks, and news articles to show the systematic brainwashing of children.
The Nazis prepared their youth for the future by insinuating their propaganda into every aspect of their lives and alienating them from their parents who were effectively gagged from voicing opposition.
They established a chilling and pervasive control with a cult of personality centered on loyal obedience to Hitler, German superiority, and preparation for war. Mann knows Mein Kampf and how it played out in policy and practice.
To read an example of how this worked read The Birthday Party.
No Debate
There really was no escaping its grip. To resist – or raise questions or mock – meant certain denunciation and probable arrest with a one-way ticket to a concentration camp.
Suddenly – or so a seems – a new orthodoxy takes hold and it is dangerous to question it. If you do, you may be shunned, excluded, and your career sidelined. What some schools are teaching children about ‘gender’ certainly comes to mind. That’s America and the UK today. In the case of Germany in the 1930s – questioning was met with literal violence and frequently death. Wrongthink big time.
The Nazi influence took over every aspect of the curriculum. Example: Mathematics
Occidental Mathematics and The Nordic Fighting Spirit
“Occidental mathematics, as it has developed in the past three hundred years, is Aryan spiritual property; it is an expression of the Nordic fighting spirit, of Nordic struggle for the supremacy of the world beyond its boundaries. – Dr. Erwin Geck, in The National Socialist Essence of Education
It sounds like a vast joke against learning — “an expression of the Nordic fighting spirit!”” But we have been warned. At least, now, the problems in arithmetic cannot surprise us.
They all have to do with airplanes, bombs, cannon, and guns.
And Mann provides problem examples. Listen up children, and solve these problems: See the sidebar left.
Transing the Past
Last week this post plopped into my world with all the welcome of the splat of a rotten apricot.
Gluck was a British painter, who from early adulthood rejected social convention, acknowledging their gender fluidity. They dressed exclusively in ‘male’ clothes and abandoned their birth name, in favour of Gluck, with no prefix, suffix or quotes.#LGBTplusHM #LGBTQIAplusHistory pic.twitter.com/T8QxJuOnCR
— MCR Art Gallery (@mcrartgallery) February 12, 2023
Wait a minute. What? Gluck was a gender-fluid they/them? You mean the Gluck who lived with and loved women her whole adult life? The same Gluck who defied her family’s expectations and lived life on her own terms?
Just who had decided on that little erasure of history? My mind immediately conjured up a most uncharitable stereotype of some newly minted graduate comms person with a degree in Gender Woo and Art History adorned with tattoos, blue hair, and various face studs who thinks erasing gays and lesbians from past and present is on the right side of history. Dreadful cliched thinking on my part and probably off the mark. Unfortunately, such homophobic thinking is embedded in too many of our cultural organizations and institutions, including schools.
Needless to say, there was an immediate fierce eruption in response to the post.
Manchester Art Gallery was reminded that there are only two sexes – male and female – and that we are all one of the other and no one changes sex. It was reminded that we are all heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual and that the artist who wanted to be known as Gluck was a woman, a female, and a lesbian. And that we should not impose our ideology on the dead. Retro-transing is not good history.
Here’a small edited sampling of the hundreds of comments:
Stop stealing our herstory!
Oh FFS. You are simply projecting today’s ludicrous identity politics onto an historical figure – in her time there was NO gender ideology. She did NOT use “They”. You are claiming she, as a lesbian, must have denied her sex! It was her sex that allowed her to be a lesbian – by definition this means same-sex attracted. You are part of a vicious women-hating homophobic movement that erases the category of woman. Her wearing clothes that didn’t conform to female sex stereotypes doesn’t make her “gender fluid” (!!) it just means she’s a woman who expressed herself without reproducing the oppressive stereotypes of her age
Those responsible for this post are a disgrace. Are there no adults at Manchester Art Gallery who can help them understand how sexist, misogynist, homophobic, and regressive they are? Come on grown-ups – you can do social media too. Stop outsourcing it to ideologues who have no clue about history and reality.
Quite apart from the obvious misogyny and homophobia it’s the total wrecking of history that grinds my gears.
She was an adult, human female, a lesbian. Wearing men’s clothes does not mean a woman is no longer a woman and a lesbian. Being unconventional does not make a woman a man.
She was a woman. Why are you imposing your gender nonsense on her?
She was a woman, therefore she defined what a woman could be; wearing mens clothes and abandoning stereotypes did not make her a man or “non-binary”.
Stop erasing lesbians because they don’t fit in your narrow worldview of what a woman should be. Stop pretending there are no lesbians and homosexuals.
A woman is someone with a female body and any personality. Any other definition is sexism!
This ideology is so obviously sexist regressive nonsense! It is a first world male fantasy.
This is so infuriating because you know what a backlash “deadnaming” or “misgendering” a trans person causes,
This is abject homophobia. Just stop it.
She was a lesbian. Transing dead LGB icons is one of the most homophobic things I’ve ever seen.
Stop rewriting History. She was a woman. Just because she challenged restrictive gender stereotypes does not mean she was not a woman. Women can wear whatever they want. Clothes do not denote what sex someone is.
Are you going to tell us all we’re ‘gender fluid’? Because I know what all these women would like to call you…
Why are you doing this to women, especially lesbian women? Pandering to a sexist and homophobic regime will not age well. Your erasure of females and lesbians into “theydom” is duly noted.
Stop pandering to men who say they are women by erasing actual women.
And my favorite:
Reported for misgendering.
The Response
Well – that sorry, not sorry response got the reaction it deserved. The Gallery wants to be a safe space? But safe for whom? Safe from whom? And at whose expense? Who – exactly – is made unsafe by calling a woman a woman, a lesbian, a lesbian? And why does the museum privilege them over the safety of women and lesbians? Footling nonsense.
A Lesson from Glasgow
Here’s how it’s done Manchester. Glasgow Museums also stepped in shit. When they were called out, they apologised for their mistake:
In a recent tweet, we used the term ‘non-binary’ to describe artist Joan Eardley. She did not, to our knowledge, describe herself in this way as the term didn’t exist in her lifetime. However she did self-identify as lesbian. We apologise for any offence this may have caused.
— Glasgow Museums (@GlasgowMuseums) February 19, 2021
Footnotes
I have found no evidence that Erika Mann and Gluck ever met. If they had they probably would not have agreed on much politically. Mann was a political activist – thought by the FBI to have dangerous homosexual and communist leanings – and Gluck was a political conservative.
I was taken by this odd little connecting detail. Gluck derived her wealth from her family’s business – J Lyons & Co of tea shop, corner house, fruit pie, and ice cream fame. In 1938, unidentified sources smuggled Thomas Mann’s German Education – which also served as the introduction to Barbarians – into Germany hidden in packets of Lyon’s Red Label tea. The color of the packets matched the colors of the book jacket showing burning books.
And if you are now curious about Hannah Gluckstein – the artist now and formerly known as Gluck – then I recommend DianeSouhami’s excellent biography Gluck:Her Biography.
Read the book. It’s great!
Here are a couple of relevant extracts:
“‘e says she’s Miss Gluckstein”
“The paintings matter, not the sex of the Artist”
A very interesting read!
So much history many of us know nothing about.
There’s the history. And then there’s what is happening right in our own time and in front of of our own eyes – the erasure of women and lesbians. Gender ideology is perversion.
Why have so many otherwise sensible people accepted the ridiculous notion that people can be born in the wrong sex and that people can actually change sex? All human beings can be and ARE be non- conforming. It doesn’t mean they are in the wrong body or are the wrong sex!
Let freedom ring.
Let men be men.
Let women be women.
It has all the feel of a pandemic. An ideological virus is cooked up in the ivory towers of academia and then is loosed upon the world with some devastating impacts. Thanks for the comment, John.
And it’s all so interesting! Thanks for the comment, Roger.
Thank you for your excellent post – I have learned a lot!
Interesting post! The practice of trying to label past figures as trans when there is no evidence that they would have self-identified as trans is wild to me. You would think that museums would care more about maintaining a faithful account of history…
Yes, you would think that. But it’s not the case in too many once-serious organizations and institutions. So many examples come to mind. Here are a few that I am aware of that have drifted far from their original missions: the ACLU, Stonewall UK, Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign, NOW, and Amnesty. All captured by ideology. And currently all too often spouting nonsense.
Thanks for this post. The continuous and ongoing erasure of lesbians and gay men by trans ideologues will hopefully be brought to a halt, in time. For the moment, it is, depressingly, gaining the upper hand. Keep up the good fight.
Jeremy Butterfield´s last blog post ..National Backwards Day – Collins Dictionary Language Blog
Thanks Jeremy. From your mouth to the ears of the gods!
And of course as – or even more alarming – is the medicalization of children
Trans ideology is an absolute clusterf*ck.
It’s hydra-headed that is for sure.
Just so you know: For some reason, this is one of the few of many blogs I follow in which “Like” doesn’t ‘take’ on your posts, no matter what I do (and I’ve been clicking “Like” on every post for months). So please know that there is an invisible “Like” on this and all your recent posts, even though you can’t see them!
Thank you mistermuse and sorry you have having this problem.
The biological body is not the same at all as the socially constructed “definitions” of feminine, masculine, non binary etc that have been used for aeons e.g. in advertising, religion etc to control us. Otherwise account for what is “feminine”to wear, to do, to bind the feet of young girls, to sell high heels, make up, scents etc etc. I wonder if the massive explosion in social media has reduced the individuals capacity of individual thought and awareness.
Your analysis is correct (imo) and your thinking about how this has accelerated is on target.
Have you seen this? It’s worth watching and then sharing.
Go for it! Let history teach us. How to reflect, analyse, use simple but clear logic to prevent nsidious manipulation of our minds.
It gives me chills when I see so many parallels between our world and Nazi Germany. How easily it could all begin again. Who will be selected for the camps? Clearly anyone who is not “straight”, for a start. What are people so afraid of? How does sexual preference make someone a threat?
I’m going back to The Hearing Trumpet to cheer myself up. (Thank you, by the way for the reference!)
Timothy Snyder has been so clear about those parallels. After all – the Nazis only has 33% support and this enabled them to completely take over.
Glad you are enjoying “The Hearing Trumpet”. Here’s another one you might like. I’ve not finished it yet but am finding it quite exceptional. It’s “The corner they held” by Sylvia Townsend Warner about the life of a medieval convent. Surprisingly good. I have https://gertloveday.wordpress.com/ to thank for putting me on to it.
I have to admit that I’m tired of everyone needing “safe spaces”. Life is not safe. Death is safe–from life. Stop defining yourself by your fears.
Agreed. Such “safety” is an unhealthy, unrealistic, and narcissistic expectation. And when it is imposed on others it becomes oppressive control.
Fascinating post Josie. I do get fed up with people trying to paste current ideologies onto the past…
Thanks.
‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
This re-reading, re-labeling, and distortion of history through a modern ideological lens all seem very suspect to me.
A wonderful and fascinating post, Josie. It’s brave of you to venture into the gender politics debate, I must say, but you are absolutely right about Gluck. I don’t think she’d have wanted to be anyone else than the person she was.
Thanks Michael.
And from my reading about Gluck I think she would have launched an immediate lawsuit. (She was very protective of her “brand” and very litigious.)
I’ve just added a note about what happened when Glasgow Museums claimed Joan Eardley was “non-binary”.
How strange it is that expressing an opinion based on fact and logic should be considered “brave”.
But of course, I know what you mean. People have lost their jobs for merely stating their understanding that there are two sexes and no one has ever changed sex. A simple fact but somehow now rendered controversial.
Dear me, things go from bad to worse. Great post though, Josie. 👍
Thanks Paula.
I’ve just updated the post with how Glasgow Museums handled it when they stepped in it and called Joan Eardley “non-binary”.
They apologised. Enough with erasing women. And enough with erasing gays and lesbians.
Too true. I’ve spent my life fighting for recognition and I’m not about to be theyd and themd out of existence now. Anyhow, it’s good to see Glasgow Museums apologised for their faux pas.
As an aside, I know it isn’t uncommon for autistic girls to want to be boys. As it happens, I have first hand experience of this because I wanted to be a boy (and was quite vocal about my desire) between the ages of about eight and ten – possibly in part because I loved to play football and back in the ’70s this was much frowned upon by my school. I’m also, as you may know, HFA (diagnosed at the tender age of 50), so I’m eternally grateful I didn’t come of age in this terrifying era. Once I hit puberty, I realised I was a lesbian and absolutely wanted to be a girl. I’m quite sure others went (or are going) through similar experiences but nowadays it could be too late by the time realisation hits. I’m not sure how expressing this viewpoint makes me a TERF (I’m certainly not anti trans), but apparently it does. 🤔
Incidentally, I read and thoroughly enjoyed Diana Souhami’s biography. 😊
Paula Bardell-Hedley´s last blog post ..Winding Up the Week #320
“I’m eternally grateful I didn’t come of age in this terrifying era.” Amen
The stories about when went awry at the Tavisock Clinic and now the reviews of “Time to Think” by Hannah Barnes make me think how fortunate my generation was to have escaped this ideology.
For all the miseries of growing up and the pains of puberty – to be allowed to do so without being put on the trans train of medicalisation for life was a lucky break. The homophobia and sexism were bad enough but at least you can figure out how to manage that, and find your community. You had the chance to learn it’s OK to be different and that it came with advantages. You had the opportunity to grow up without being shoehorned into a nonsensical identity. And for a while, homophobia and sexism were in social retreat. Things did get better. Now they seem to be going backward again.
It is not transphobic to be concerned about the erosion of women’s sex-based rights. It is not transphobic to be concerned by what is currently being taught in schools And it is certainly not transphobic to be alarmed by what we now know about the medical mistreatment of children.
What I don’t understand is what seems to be the deliberate refusal – of so many otherwise reasonable and caring people – to look at the facts and ask serious questions about the ethics of all this. We now have information about just who these children in treatment are – disproportionate numbers of autistic, gay and lesbian children, and all the rest of it. We also know the ill- effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. We all know that children and teenagers are impressionable and volatile in their fads and fashions. Why isn’t everyone – including the #TQ ‘community” – saying: Whoa! Hold on. What are we doing here? We need to take a look at this. These kids need help. This one diagnosis (gender dysphoria) and its set of treatments is not the one size that fits all.