Reprinted from The War for Christendom ~ Center for Legitimist Documentation
Hermann Platz
By Matthew Scarince
In this day and age, when the alarms of war are once again sounding their mournful message of death—when the postwar vision of a peaceful and united Europe seems as distant as the utopian hopes surrounding the first League of Nations—it might seem strange to write about an obscure German professor of Romance Languages who never held a significant public office until the last few weeks before his death. Hermann Platz was a humble man of grand ideas, yet he never lived to see even the first inklings of his plans unfold, as he died after a botched throat operation. His name has been consigned to the most obscure corner of academic history, forgotten by most of the people whose lives were shaped by his vision. Yet his message of unity and peace founded on man’s supernatural calling endures even today.
Platz’s search for a vision for European unity began early in 1912, as he discussed various political theories with members of the Katholische Akademikerverband (Catholic Association of Academics) in Düsseldorf. Among the frequent attendees of these meetings, which later came to be known as the Carolingian International, were the Thomist philosopher Alois Dempf and the Alsatian politician Robert Schuman. The outbreak of the First World War disrupted the Akademikerverband, and between 1917 and 1918 Platz served as a lieutenant and translator on the Russian Front, where he was awarded the Iron Cross Second Class. His experience of the horrors of war forever shaped his vision for the future. 1923 was a pivotal year for this philologist turned political philosopher, when he attended the Third International Peace Conference at Freiburg, organized by the French politician and writer Marc Sangnier. There his friend Dempf suggested that they start a journal together, which would become an outlet for Catholic and European thought. Within two years the first issue of Abendland: A Monthly Journal for European Culture, Politics, and Economy was printed in Cologne, coinciding with the signing of the Locarno Treaties, a momentous diplomatic coup which reestablished friendship between war-torn France and Germany. Continue reading
