The word völkisch makes everyone native to english, or any non-german language, scratch their head. With a good reason to do so. The word itself originates from the late 1800s when the ideology, or rather the creed was starting to take form. The roots of the völkisch ideology are somewhat murky, but could be said to be a mix of German folklore, racial ideas, nudism, vegetarianism, occultism and antisemitism.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Austrian antisemitic thinkers Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Lebenfels were both, separately, working in a direction of the völkisch ideals, inventing their own school of ariosophy, Lanz von Lebenfels called his ideology theozoology. These disciplines of mystical philosophy was largely based on the obsession with the aryan race. The ideas concretized by both List and Lanz could by all means be said to be the cornerstone of the völkisch ideology. However, as stated earlier, they were not alone as both Germany and Austria was a hotbed for similar ideas during this time.…
