Engineering the European Volksgemeinschaft: Social Engineering, Pedagogy and Fascism in the case of the Swiss Alfred Zander

Abstract

This article examines transnational social engineering through a biographical study of Alfred Zander, a Swiss member of a humanist and internationalist pedagogical movement known as New Education and later a founding member of Swiss fascism and a volunteer to the German Waffen-SS during the Second World War. The bridging concept that allowed Zander's seemingly contradictory transformation was his belief in the necessity of a return in the classroom, as in politics, to a previously existing ‘organic’ state: a Volksgemeinschaft. Zander's case suggests a broader view of social engineering as his stated goal and methods relied little on data and science. Moreover his case illustrates a unique directionality among transnational actors, that from a transnational methodology and rationale toward a transnational goal.