J. W. Mohnhaupt's 2020 German book Tiere im Nationalsozialismus is now available to larger audiences through John R. J. Eyck's English translation. Apart from Boria Sax’ 2000 book Animals in the Third Reich, there are still very few comprehensive discussions of the subject. Mohnhaupt seeks to contribute to this still-underrepresented research area by examining the ways in which the animal is interwoven with everyday life and Nazi ideology in the early twentieth century. His goal is to “provide a frequently different, mostly new, but never trivializing perspective on life in the Nazi era” (9), and he does so by drawing on fragments from literature, science, history, dairies, and at times historically informed imaginative speculation presented in an anecdotal style.
Mohnhaupt dedicates six chapters to specific animal species. These comprise the dog and wolf; the pig; insects; the cat; the stag as it relates to hunting; and the horse. Frequently, Mohnhaupt chooses a human protagonist to introduce the reader to a new animal. For instance, we begin by following the story of a twenty-three-year-old German lance corporal adopting a stray dog in the trenches in spring 1915. Only three pages later will that lance corporal be revealed to be Adolf Hitler himself. The chapter on pigs opens by introducing the reader to Mohnhaupt's own great-grandmother in the Austro-Hungarian province of Carinthia, speculating on her thoughts as she was – unsuccessfully – trying to fatten up the family's pig using kitchen scraps. Eva and Victor Klemperer anchor the chapter on cats by referencing Muschel, the family pet they were forced to put down due to Nazi policies. The chapter on insects, specifically silkworms and potato beetles, follows an imaginary twelve-year-old schoolboy named Hans and his indoctrination through the National Socialist school curriculum.
This stylistic choice to introduce animal chapters through a specific human being may help some readers to see how human and animal lives are inextricably linked with each other. It also serves Mohnhaupt's explicitly stated intention to avoid the danger of trivializing the human victims of the National Socialist regime. However, this decision can also lead to woodcut-like simplification, especially in the case of the fictional Hans, who corresponds more to a stereotype of Nazi youth than to a real person – or even Mohnhaupt's great-grandmother who remains a vague shadow, unconnected to the story of animals in National Socialism.
The anecdotal stories about individual animals – or humans interacting with a specific animal species – are accompanied by various excursions to pre- and post-National Socialist Germany. The chapter titled “Digestive Affinities,” for example, contains a mini history of pig domestication – albeit in rough strokes, as the chapter is only 18 pages long. The intersections of economics and animal legislation and processing, which are most visible in the chapters on the pig and insects, are well explained and shed light on the utilitarian mindset the National Socialists were following when passing animal legislation. The statistics offered in this narrative, such as how many silkworm cocoons were needed to create a single German parachute, make Nazi policies surrounding animals and their treatment extremely tangible for the reader.
At its best, the overall anecdotal character of the book allows Mohnhaupt to effectively play different anecdotes about the same animal species off against each other, for instance in the cat-centric chapter entitled “Morituri.” In these instances, he can persuasively show the contradictory nature of National Socialist attitudes towards animal welfare and protection. This shows also that trying to understand Nazi attitudes towards animals in a simple “predator and prey” framework, as has been tried in the past, does not suffice to capture the complexities surrounding animal ideology and legislation during National Socialism. Part of this are also the well-placed comments about Hitler's vegetarianism despite the importance of the pig for human consumption.
At times, the additive nature of the anecdotes can lead to a loss of focus, both for the history of National Socialism and the specific animal species each chapter investigates. For example, the chapter dedicated to the silkworm and the potato beetle eventually ends up commenting on some of the most infamous antisemitic children's books, like Der Giftpilz, without properly tying them back to the two central animal species discussed. This chapter also jumps from specific insects to metaphorization of “pests” in general without reconciling the fact that some “pests” were not insects within Nazi ideology. An engagement with contemporary thinkers who studied insects, such as Ernst Jünger, might have enabled the author to provide more focused nuance. Furthermore, the meandering style of the chapters frequently does not amount to an original argument. Especially for animals about which more substantial research has already been conducted, for instance the horse, wolf, or dog, the gain in knowledge is minimal.
Overall, Mohnhaupt's book is rich in anecdotes which are well-written, full of surprising detail, and often captivating. The drawback for specialist audiences such as researchers familiar with National Socialism and/or animals in the Third Reich is that they may find little that is truly new: This is not a book written for an expert audience seeking new research insights. However, in an undergraduate course on National Socialism, or for a reader relatively new to National Socialism seeking an unexpected angle on it, this is a rich read and can lead to many discoveries that require us to rethink a static image of the Nazis.
