CHAMBERLAIN, HOUSTON STEWART

CHAMBERLAIN, HOUSTON STEWART (1855–1927), racial theorist; his concept of Aryan supremacy was embodied in Nazi mythology. Born to an English admiral in a village near Portsmouth, he was sent to Versailles in 1856 (upon his mother's early death) for tutoring with a grandmother and an aunt. The sojourn had a lasting impact, for when he later studied in England, he felt awkward and foreign. Handicapped by a nervous disorder, he abandoned both England and formal study and, in their place, embarked upon nine years of European travel. After mastering German through friendship with the theologian Otto Kuntze, he completed a baccalaureate in 1881 in the natural sciences; however, graduate work in botany induced a nervous breakdown. During 1884– 1889, while residing in Dresden, he formed an enthusiasm for German literature and art. A move to Vienna in 1889 to reembark on formal studies only revived his nervous disorder; after a year he abandoned the effort. In 1892 he finally turned to writing. In addition to articles and essays on Richard Wagner, he occupied himself with science, religion, history, and political issues. Relocating to Bayreuth in 1909, he became part of the intimate circle centered on Cosima Wagner. In 1916 he took German citizenship. Already a Germanophile at twenty-one, Chamberlain wrote: ‘‘My belief that the whole future of Europe—i.e., the civilization of the world—rests in the hands of Germany, has now grown to a firm conviction'' (Field). But his security in the conviction was fragile. In Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899), the work that established his reputation, he presented the theory (not unique to him) that history is a struggle between races. Although the study was dismissed by scholars as the musings of a pseudointellectual, it aroused the interest of an insecure generation. Riddled with Wagnerian themes of Teutonic supremacy, Foundations became a favorite of the Kaiser; in later exile Wilhelm characterized Chamberlain as a personality he could understand. Chamberlain called World War I a moral crime against Germany for which England was accountable. Weimar democracy was, he claimed, a hopeless experiment in romanticism. Among a group of self-appointed prophets that included Julius Langbehn, Eugen Du¨hring, and Paul de Lagarde, his ideas helped lay the foundation upon which Nazism was constructed. He is reputed to have proclaimed himself ‘‘enraptured with Hitler*'' when the latter visited him in 1923 during his final illness.