Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Houston Stewart Chamberlain | |
|---|---|
 Chamberlain in an undated photograph, likely 1910s-20s | |
| Born | 9 September 1855 Southsea, Hampshire, England |
| Died | 9 January 1927 (aged 71) |
| Citizenship |
|
| Education | Cheltenham College University of Geneva |
Political party | NSDAP (1923-1927) |
| Spouses | |
| Father | William Charles Chamberlain |
| Relatives | Basil Hall Chamberlain (brother) |
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (/ˈtʃeɪmbərlɪn/; 9 September 1855 – 9 January 1927) was a British-German-French philosopher. His writings on political philosophy and natural science influenced Adolf Hitler, among many others, attributing all world accomplishments to the Germanic race. Chamberlain promoted German ethnonationalism, antisemitism, scientific racism, and Nordicism; he has been described as a "racialist writer". His best-known book, the two-volume Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts (The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century), published in 1899, became highly influential in the pan-Germanic Völkisch movements of the early 20th century, and later influenced the antisemitism of Nazi racial policy. In the early 1920s, Chamberlain met and encouraged Hitler.
Born in Hampshire, he immigrated to Dresden in adulthood out of an adoration for composer Richard Wagner. He married Eva von Bülow, Wagner's biological daughter, in December 1908, twenty-five years after Wagner's death. As a long admirer of French culture, he settled in Paris in 1884. He was later naturalised as a French citizen in 1914. During World War I, Chamberlain sided with Germany against his country of birth. He took German citizenship in 1916.
Though they share the same surname, he is not related to contemporary British politician Neville Chamberlain.