The names of the four European races.
The four races found in Europe and Germany have not always been named the same by the various researchers who have described them. Naming is a major challenge in such studies. Above all, names that are reminiscent of ethnic names or that contain geographical references that cause confusion must be avoided. Some new names have been chosen in this book. I hesitated for a long time before deciding to do so. I would certainly have retained old names if there had already been a real tradition in the naming of the European races. However, since there is still no uniform naming convention, I have finally taken the trouble to create new names for this book in two cases. I have retained the terms Nordic race and Dinaric race. Both have been introduced fairly consistently and are also descriptive in that they indicate the main habitation areas of the races in question. The terms "Eastern race" and "Western race" have been newly chosen. Among the terms for non-European races, I have always chosen those that have seemed most pervasive to me.
The Nordic race: tall, long-headed, narrow-faced with a pronounced chin; narrow nose with a high nasal bridge; soft, light hair; set-back, light eyes; rosy-white skin color; Deniker calls it "race nordique" and Ripley "teutonic race." It is Linnaeus's homo europaeus and is still often scientifically cited as homo europaeus. It is the row-grave type of the older German researchers (Ecker), the Welsh type of Broca, the Hohberg type of His and Rütimeyer. It has been called "Frankish" (Virchow), also "Germanic" (von Hölder), and "Germanic type" (A. Retzius).
The Western race—short, long-headed, narrow-faced, with a less pronounced chin; narrow nose with a high nasal bridge; soft brown or black hair; set-back, dark eyes, brownish skin—is called by Deniker, who intends to identify two subdivisions: ibero = insular and littorale ou atlanto = méditerranéenne; in German works it has also been called the Mediterranean race, but mostly the Mediterranean race; in scientific racial classification it is often referred to as homo mediterraneus. I chose the name Western race because it better indicates the present and prehistoric distribution area of the race than the term Mediterranean race. The term Mediterranean race always distracts from the fact that people of this race also live in southwest Norway (?), Iceland, and southern England. My choice of the term "Western race" was reinforced by C. Schuchhardt's book "Alteuropa" (Old Europe) (1919), which uses archaeological finds to illustrate the spread of a Western European culture along the Mediterranean Sea, originating on present-day English-Spanish-French soil.
The Eastern race—short-statured, short-headed, broad-faced, with an undefined chin; short, blunt nose with a flat nasal bridge; hard, brown or black hair; forward-set, brown eyes; yellowish-brown skin—is called by Deniker the race occidentale or cévénole, by Ripley the alpine race (alpine type); it is the type celtique of the French racial researcher Broca; it is called Turanian by von Hölder, Avernian by Beddoe; it is the Disentis type by His-Rütimeyer, the South German Brachycepthales by Virchow, and the orthognathic Brachycepthales by Retzius; it is often called Mongoloid and Turanian today, and in Latin often homo alpinus; Retzius also called it Slavic-Rhaetian, and Wilser called it the round-headed race.
I chose the term "Eastern" for the designated race because, while it does contain a hint of an Asian connection, it is only a hint and not yet a statement like the term "Mongoloid." In my experience, the term "Alpine" repeatedly leads to misunderstandings: time and again, people look for Eastern racial people only in the Alps, which, moreover, are largely a mixed Dinaric-Eastern region, and ultimately even suspect environmental influences that created the race; the appearance of "Alpine" people in Holland, Denmark, and Norway repeatedly confuses the observer. Furthermore, even in scientific circles, Homo alpinus is often understood to simply refer to the entire population of the Alpine countries, where several races interbreed. The term "Mongoloid"—it should be noted—is therefore used in this book only for the Eastern European-Asiatic Mongoloid-blooded human species.
The Dinaric race—tall, short-headed, narrow-faced, with a steep occiput and a prominent nose, with brown or black hair, brown eyes, and brownish skin—is called the Adriatique or Dinarique race by Deniker, and the Rhetosarmatians or Sarmatian type by von Hölder, and is often cited as the Defregger type. Ripley and the works that followed him do not recognize this race and want to see it as a special form of the Eastern race. The term "Adriatic" is inappropriate because "Adriatic" could refer to the entire Adriatic coastal region, thus to Italy as well as to northern Greece. The term "Dinaric" is not misleading and is also recommended for its brevity.
As racial designations, ethnic names such as Teutonic, Frankish, or Germanic for the Nordic race, or Celtic, and even South German for the Eastern race, should be completely rejected. Sarmatian, Rheto-Sarmatian, and Turanian can also be misleading. Even after it has been established that the Germanic peoples, including the Franks, like the Teutons, were Nordic racial peoples, even after this conclusion,
Ethnic names such as Teutonic, Frankish, or Germanic for the Nordic race, or Celtic, and perhaps even South German for the Eastern race, should be completely rejected as racial designations. Sarmatian, Rheto-Sarmatian, and Turanian can also be misleading. Even after it has been established that the Germanic peoples, including the Franks, like the Teutons, were northern racial peoples, even after this determination, the use of such a name is prohibited; otherwise, the supposed racial antagonisms would immediately arise again: Germanic = Romance, Germanic = Slavic, etc.; otherwise, a northern racial Finn, who therefore speaks a Mongolian (Ural-Altaic) language, would immediately cause the greatest confusion among many observers.
If the name conveys as little as possible, it serves the best purpose.
It may contain a general indication of where one should look, it may attempt to include a glimpse of origins or at least not prohibit them, it may be short, useful—such considerations have led to the choice of the names presented in this book.
If this book now considers the races of the entire earth in a broader racial context, it must add the epithet "European" to the chosen name, such that it speaks of the European Northern Race, the European Eastern Race, etc. Within this book, the epithet can be omitted. Thus, we have: Northern Race, Nordic or Northern Racial; Eastern Race, Eastern or Eastern Racial; Western Race, Western, or Western Racial; and finally, Dinaric. Confusion with the cardinal directions: west, east, north, is thereby excluded. The only confusion that could still arise from the word "Nordic," by mistaking, for example, for the Nordic, i.e., Scandinavian peoples and languages, causes little or no harm, since Scandinavian is, in most contexts, synonymous with Northern Racial.
The appendix section on the Jews must retain the term "Jewish," even though this term leads to confusion with the Jewish creed. Therefore, the Jewish creed should always be called "Mosaic" after its main document; the term "Jewish" then remains free to designate the ethnicity, the blood, the special racial mixture of Judaism alone.
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