Seltsame Schauspiele: Torsten Fogelqvists Deutschlandreise 1934

In 1934 Torsten Fogelqvist, a prominent member of the Swedish Academy and a well-known journalist and intellectual, visits Nazi Germany. He writes about his visit to the Third Reich in 17 articles published in the Stockholm daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The author, highly critical of the Hitler regime, scrutinizes several aspects of the nazified German society such as the attempts to re-educate the German citizen in accordance with the ideology of the new regime, the hero cult in the Nazi movement, and the relationship between the German state and the churches. In order to further an understanding of political and social developments in Germany Fogelqvist uses a specific strategy. He “translates” them into an imaginary Swedish context. This paper compares his views with those of other Swedish visitors.