Volk (German word)

In German, the word Volk may mean folk (simple people), people in the ethnic sense, and nation.

Volk is commonly used as the first, determining part (head) of compound nouns such as Volksentscheid (plebiscite, literally "decision of/by the people") or Völkerbund (League of Nations), or the car manufacturer Volkswagen (literally, "people's car").

A number of völkisch movements existed prior to World War I but more recently they are mainly connected to Nazi German ,. Combining interest in folklore, racism, ecology, occultism and romanticism with ethnic nationalism, their ideologies were a strong influence on the Nazi party, which itself was inspired by Adolf Hitler's membership of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers' Party), even though Hitler in Mein Kampf himself denounced usage of the word völkisch as he considered it too vague as to carry any recognizable meaning due to former over-use, although he used it often, especially in connection with racial Germans or Volksdeutsche who we would today call "ethnic Germans" . Today, the term völkisch continues to be used in a non-racial context or else it is largely restricted to historical contexts describing a racist view held in the 19th century and early 20th century after Hitler's seizure of power in 1933, especially during the years of the Third Reich

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