Jan Coenraad Nachenius

Jan Coenraad Nachenius (12 August 1890 – 10 March 1987) was a Dutch painter, etcher, master draughtsman, philosopher of art and racial theorist.

Biography

Jan Coenraad Nachenius was born in Amsterdam. He was taught by G. W. Dijsselhof, G. C. Haverkamp, J. Voerman Sr. and Jan Hendriks, among others. His subjects were mainly in the landscape of Gelderland. He was a handsome etcher, with a graphic oeuvre of 297 pieces.

Early on, Nachenius became familiar with Houston Stewart Chamberlain's theories. He followed developments in German politics even before Hitler's rise to power. Since 1929, he became a close student of the National Socialist doctrines. Immediately after the founding of Anton Mussert's National Socialist Movement (NSB), he became a member. In 1936, he was appointed a member of the Council for Folk Culture within the NSB. He belonged to the group of Der Vaderen Erfdeel (The Ancestral Heritage), a religious group of the NSB, which published the magazine De Wolfsangel.

Together with Nico de Haas of the SS weekly Storm, he formed the editorial board of Hamer magazine in October 1940. At the request of Henk Feldmeijer, he became training leader of the Nederlandsche SS in September 1940. In this position, Nachenius developed as the theoretician of the SS in the Netherlands.

In this capacity, he was also a member of the Labour Community for Art. The first official meeting of this Labour Community took place on 18 June 1943 at Hotel Krasnapolsky in Amsterdam. The meeting was attended by Nachenius, Reinier van Houten, Jan van der Made, Sybren Modderman, Hendrik Lindt, Johan Polet, Nico de Haas, Henri Bruning, Gerard Wijdeveld, Rudolf Steinmetz, Ben Moritz, Steven Barends, Johan Theunisz, H. W. van Etten, erda Schaap, Max Wolters, Jan Teunissen and Eduard Rijff.

Among other things, the Labour Community for Art was responsible for publishing the literary magazine Groot Nederland. With effect from 1 August 1943, Nachenius was appointed by Mussert as head of the theoretical formation department of the main formation section of the NSB. Nachenius edited the Dutch SS journal Vormingsbladen until the end of the war. In the Vormingsbladen, he advocated the application of Heinrich Himmler's Verlobungs- und Heiratsbefehl (Engagement and Marriage Order). There, he also paid much attention to issues such as the Germanic race and Germanic calendar festivals. From January to April 1945, he worked at the European Division of the SS Main Office in Kulmbach, Bavaria.

All his publications on the racial aspects of National Socialism were based on the same principles: first, racial awareness had to be raised among the Dutch population, and then the population had to be convinced of the need for active racial hygiene. Nachenius was also a member of the Dutch Culture Council (NKR) from 1942 to 1944.

After spending some time interned in the former concentration camp Westerbork, Nachenius was sentenced to eight years in prison. His son Herman (1925–1945) had served in the German army and perished in Poland on 15 February 1945.

In the early 1980s, the Drents Museum planned to hold an exhibition of Nachenius' graphic work. When this became known, a storm of protest erupted, causing the exhibition to be cancelled.

Works

• Geschiedenis van het noordras (1938; under the pen name Herman Laagland; 1944)
• Noordras en religie (1938; 1944)
• Wat is ras? (1939)
• Het verband tusschen ras en kultuur (1939)
• Ons voorgeslacht (1940)
• Oud-Germaansch leven (1940)
• Een en ander over ras (1941; lecture at the first summer camp for journalists, Kasteel Cannenburgh Vaassen, on 18 June 1941)
• De erfgezondheidsleer (1941)
• Het rasvraagstuk (1941)
• De verhouding van man en vrouw in den nieuwen tijd (1942)
• Stamhoudertje (1943)
• De Rijksgedachte: groeiend Germaansch bewustzijn in de Nederlanden 1940-1943 (1944; editor)

References

• Groeneveld, Gerard (2001). Zwaard van de geest, het bruine boek in Nederland (1921-1945). Nijmegen: Uitgeverij Vantilt.