Hands off Herder: The New Right’s Appropriation of an Eighteenth-Century Cultural Theorist

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the New Right’s reception of Johann Gottfried Herder. In recent years, members of the far-right German media have enlisted the name of Herder in support of their attacks on multiculturalism and globalization. This article probes the historical accuracy of their claims. Although select passages from Herder’s works do indeed lend support to the New Right’s doctrines, a comprehensive examination of the historical and biographical contexts renders the New Right’s appropriation of Herderian thought one-sided and superficial. Herder’s works are characterized by a sustained tension between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, which must be taken into account in any effort (liberal or conservative) to make his thought fruitful for a contemporary context.