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Anti-Fascist Race Biology : Gunnar Dahlberg and the Long Farewell to the Nordic 'Master Race'

Ericsson, Martin LU (2019) In Routledge studies in fascism and the far right p.145-159
Abstract
On the evening of 6 December 1933, members of the National Socialist Party of Sweden (SNSP, Sveriges Nationalsocialistiska Parti), at this time the most aggressive Nazi organisation in the country, violently attacked a lecture at Stockholm University. This gave rise to an extensive press debate; newspapers from left to right condemned the attack, which ended up being a propaganda fiasco for SNSP. So what made the SNSP so incensed by this lecture? It had been organised by the Socialist student organisation Clarté and the lecturer was Gunnar Dahlberg (1893−1956), a researcher in the scientific discipline of ‘race biology’ at the nearby Uppsala University. A couple of years later, he was to become Director of the Swedish State Institute for... (More)
On the evening of 6 December 1933, members of the National Socialist Party of Sweden (SNSP, Sveriges Nationalsocialistiska Parti), at this time the most aggressive Nazi organisation in the country, violently attacked a lecture at Stockholm University. This gave rise to an extensive press debate; newspapers from left to right condemned the attack, which ended up being a propaganda fiasco for SNSP. So what made the SNSP so incensed by this lecture? It had been organised by the Socialist student organisation Clarté and the lecturer was Gunnar Dahlberg (1893−1956), a researcher in the scientific discipline of ‘race biology’ at the nearby Uppsala University. A couple of years later, he was to become Director of the Swedish State Institute for Race Biology. In 1933, Dahlberg published an article in the magazine Ord och bild titled ‘The Nordic Race from a Socio-Anthropological Perspective’, in which he criticised the Nazi use of the concept of ‘race’ and in particular the notion that there was a superior ‘Nordic race’ (Dahlberg, 1933). In his lecture, he was to repeat this critique – not something that the explicitly racist SNSP was minded to tolerate. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Anti-Fascism in the Nordic Countries : New Perspectives, Comparisons and Transnational Connections - New Perspectives, Comparisons and Transnational Connections
series title
Routledge studies in fascism and the far right
editor
Braskén, Kasper ; Copsey, Nigel and Lundin, Johan A
pages
145 - 159
publisher
Routledge
external identifiers
  • scopus:85061735827
ISBN
978-1-138-04694-8
9781315171210
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
55b4c288-3b47-41d1-9b2a-b7177072573b
date added to LUP
2019-02-06 14:15:46
date last changed
2024-04-15 22:22:48
@inbook{55b4c288-3b47-41d1-9b2a-b7177072573b,
  abstract     = {{On the evening of 6 December 1933, members of the National Socialist Party of Sweden (SNSP, Sveriges Nationalsocialistiska Parti), at this time the most aggressive Nazi organisation in the country, violently attacked a lecture at Stockholm University. This gave rise to an extensive press debate; newspapers from left to right condemned the attack, which ended up being a propaganda fiasco for SNSP. So what made the SNSP so incensed by this lecture? It had been organised by the Socialist student organisation Clarté and the lecturer was Gunnar Dahlberg (1893−1956), a researcher in the scientific discipline of ‘race biology’ at the nearby Uppsala University. A couple of years later, he was to become Director of the Swedish State Institute for Race Biology. In 1933, Dahlberg published an article in the magazine Ord och bild titled ‘The Nordic Race from a Socio-Anthropological Perspective’, in which he criticised the Nazi use of the concept of ‘race’ and in particular the notion that there was a superior ‘Nordic race’ (Dahlberg, 1933). In his lecture, he was to repeat this critique – not something that the explicitly racist SNSP was minded to tolerate.}},
  author       = {{Ericsson, Martin}},
  booktitle    = {{Anti-Fascism in the Nordic Countries : New Perspectives, Comparisons and Transnational Connections}},
  editor       = {{Braskén, Kasper and Copsey, Nigel and Lundin, Johan A}},
  isbn         = {{978-1-138-04694-8}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  pages        = {{145--159}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Routledge studies in fascism and the far right}},
  title        = {{Anti-Fascist Race Biology : Gunnar Dahlberg and the Long Farewell to the Nordic 'Master Race'}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}