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Heathenism is a religious form which includes all aspects of human life, but it is not a political institution. A minority within the Christian church, as successors to the Inquisition, continue to try to associate Heathenism with National Socialism (Nazism). The Germanic Faith-Community rejects every form of political extremism and racism.
In fact, the National Socialists had totalitarian ideas which were derived from the hierarchy of the monotheistic religion, which lead to the Nazi slogan of 'One Folk, One Reich, One Fuehrer'. The Christian idea of the kingdom of heaven [ruled by an all-powerful God] was turned into the idea of the German Reich [ruled by an all-powerful Fuehrer]. Heathenism had not a Reich, but many Germanic tribes, and not a totalitarian ruler, but various forms of democratic rule. Hitler was at no point in his life a member of a Heathen religion, but was born and died a member of the Christian church. The Germanic Faith-Community suffered many restrictions in the Third Reich, and some prominent Heathens such as GGG-member Ernst Wachler or Weishaar-Paehlke ended up in concentration camps.
The rights of political expression are in Germany limited to giving, every four years, a vote for one political party or another. The parties produce politicians who act independently from the will of the voters. This undemocratic system is derived from the Roman/Christian authoritarian state: the people are stupid and must be ruled from above. As Christian mythology knows of the existence of only one God, who has absolute power in heaven, so one creates on Earth absolute rule in the form of Fuehrer regimes and Kaiser-empires (Kaiser=Caesar, a Roman, rather than Germanic, ruler title). Heathenism requires a direct democracy, not totalitarianism, or even our modern representative democracy. Even though we have today many parties and politicians, the idea of rule from above remains the same. Our Heathen ancestors had the Thing-system. The Thing was the people's assembly, where laws were discussed and voted on, or trials held. The great tribal Thing was the highest level, then there were smaller regional Things down to the level of the village Thing, where village business would be discussed, without politicians as representatives. Even today in the Swiss cantons there are Thing-assemblies. [Translator's note: the New England town meeting is also a similar institution.] If there is the right [of the common citizen] to speak [in government assemblies], there would be no 'rule-by-judges', but by a sworn 'jury' that takes deliberates and decides by vote. Where there is belief in many Gods, one creates a form of government that is structured democratically. Pagan Greece is seen worldwide as a symbol of democracy, and Iceland's Allthing is known as the oldest Parliament in the world.
For this reason the Germanic Faith-Community supports the drive for more democracy in all matters and distances itself from all dictatorial systems. The individual should take part in all decision-making. The individual's freedom end only when the freedom of other beings, whether plant, animal or human, is being restricted.
The Germanic Faith-Community also supports any groups or individuals who are working for the
preservation of the natural environment, regardless their political affiliation.
From the Introductory Booklet of the Germanic Glaubens-Gemeinschaft (Germanic
Faith-Community), an Asatru group founded Germany in the year 1907. Written by: Geza
von Nemenyi. Translation from the German by: Nissa Annakindt
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