Svett och blod
modernitet, kroppskultur och ras i Gymniska Förbundets tidskrift Gymn, 1928-1932
Ling-gymnasticsRacial biologyBlut und bodenNational socialismAgricultural romanticismGymniska FörbundetGymnSwedish Nationalism1930s
This study aims to investigate and describe the direction of the ideological development of the Swedish gymnastics association Gymniska Förbundet. Between 1928 and 1932, this organization transformed from a purely gymnastic and cultural association into an influential platform for the production of Swedish nationalist ideology. Based on theories of National Socialism?s formation within modern society, the analysis focus on the conditions regulating Gymniska Förbundets relation to modernity. Thus the study examines the association?s ideas in relationship to the concept of modernity. The analysis shows that the ideological fusion between ideas regarding gymnastics and culture on one hand, and of Swedish racial biologyon the other, provided the conditions needed for an alternative vision of modernity, similar to that which international research has characterized as the blut und boden-ideology. By presenting how and in what ways the Swedish blut und boden-ideology emerged and took shape, the study contributes to the research on the party-politically independent National Socialist ideology in Sweden. Furthermore, the analysis reveals networking strategies and idea transfer within the ideological movement based on wider applications of ideas concerning racial biology.