View source for Alfred Rosenberg

{{short description|Nazi theorist and war criminal (1893–1946)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Alfred Rosenberg
| birthname           = Alfred Ernst Rosenberg
| image               = Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1969-067-10, Alfred Rosenberg.jpg
| image_size          = 
| caption             = Rosenberg in 1939
| order1              = [[NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs|Leader of the Foreign Policy Office of the NSDAP]]
| term_start1         = 1 April 1933
| term_end1           = 8 May 1945
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = ''Position abolished''
| order2              = ''[[Reichsleiter]]''
| term_start2         = 2 June 1933
| term_end2           = 8 May 1945
| order3              = [[Amt Rosenberg|Führer's Representative for the Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP<br>("Rosenberg Office")]]
| term_start3         = 27 January 1934
| term_end3           = 8 May 1945
| predecessor3        = ''Position established''
| successor3          = ''Position abolished''
| order4              = [[Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories|Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories]]
| term_start4         = 17 July 1941
| term_end4           = 30 April 1945
| 3blankname4         = ''[[Führer]]''
| 3namedata4          = [[Adolf Hitler]]
| predecessor4        = ''Position established''
| successor4          = ''Position abolished''
| title5              = Additional positions
| suboffice5          = Member of the [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Greater German Reichstag]]
| subterm5            = 1933–1945
| suboffice6          = Member of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]
| subterm6            = 1930–1933
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1893|1|12|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Tallinn|Reval]], Russian Empire
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1946|10|16|1893|1|12|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Nuremberg]], Germany
| death_cause         = [[Execution by hanging]]
| constituency        = 
| nationality         = [[Baltic German]]
| party               = [[Nazi Party]]
| spouse              = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Hilda Leesmann<br />|1915|1923|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Hedwig Kramer<br />|1925}}
}}
| children            = 2
| parents             = 
| education           = [[Engineering education|Engineering]]
| profession          = Architect, politician, writer
| alma_mater          = [[Riga Polytechnical Institute]]<br />[[Bauman Moscow State Technical University|Moscow Highest Technical School]]
| known_for           = Authoring ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]''
| cabinet             = [[Hitler cabinet]]
| signature           = Alfred Rosenberg signature.svg
| footnotes           = 
| module              =  {{Infobox criminal
  |child      = yes
  |conviction = [[Crimes of aggression|Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace]]<br>[[Crimes of aggression]]<br>[[War crimes]]<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]
| trial       = Nuremberg trials
| conviction_penalty = [[Capital punishment|Death]]
| conviction_status = [[Executed]]
}}
}}
'''Alfred Ernst Rosenberg''' ({{OldStyleDate|12 January|1893|31 December 1892}}&nbsp;– 16 October 1946) was a [[Baltic German]]<ref>Sources which refer to Rosenberg as a "Baltic German" or equivalent include:
*[[Alan Bullock|Bullock, Alan]] (1964) ''[[Hitler: A Study in Tyranny]]''. New York: Harper p.79
*[[Richard J. Evans|Evans, Richard J.]] (2003) ''[[The Coming of the Third Reich]]'' New York: Penguin. p.178 {{isbn|0-14-303469-3}}
*[[Joachim C. Fest|Fest, Joachim C.]] (1974) ''Hitler'' Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. New York:Vintage. p.116
*[[Ian Kershaw|Kershaw, Ian]] (1999) ''Hitler: 1889-1936: Hubris'' New York: Norton. p.158 {{isbn|0-393-04671-0}}
*[[William L. Shirer|Shirer, William L.]] (1960) ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich|The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany]]'' New York: Simon & Schuster. p.48
*[[Thomas Weber (historian)|Weber, Thomas]] (2017) ''Becoming Hitler: The Making of a Nazi'' New York: Basic Books. p.220 {{isbn|978-0-465-03268-6}}</ref> [[Nazism|Nazi]] theorist, theologian, ideologue and [[Nuremberg trials|convicted war criminal]]. Rosenberg was first introduced to [[Adolf Hitler]] by [[Dietrich Eckart]], and he held several important posts in the [[Government of Nazi Germany|Nazi government]]. He was the head of the [[NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs]] during the entire rule of [[Nazi Germany]] (1933–1945), and led [[Amt Rosenberg]] ("Rosenberg's bureau"), an official Nazi body for [[cultural policy]] and [[surveillance]], between 1934 and 1945. During [[World War II]], Rosenberg was the head of the [[Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories]] (1941–1945). He helped direct the mass murder of the [[Slavs]]. After the war, he was convicted of [[crimes against peace]]; planning, initiating and waging [[wars of aggression]]; [[war crimes]]; and [[crimes against humanity]] at the [[Nuremberg trials]] in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging and [[Nuremberg executions|executed]] on 16 October 1946.

The author of a seminal work of [[Nazi ideology]], ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'' (1930), Rosenberg is considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including its [[Nazism and race|racial theory]] and its hatred of the Jewish people, the need for ''[[Lebensraum]]'', abrogation of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], and opposition to what was considered "[[degenerate art|degenerate]]" modern art. He was also known for his hatred and rejection of what he regarded as "negative" Christianity,<ref>[[Richard J. Evans|Evans, Richard J.]] (2005) ''[[The Third Reich in Power]]'' New York: [[Penguin Books]]. p.238-40. {{isbn|0-14-303790-0}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author = Hexham, Irving |year = 2007|title = Inventing 'Paganists': a Close Reading of Richard Steigmann-Gall's the Holy Reich|journal = [[Journal of Contemporary History]]|volume = 42|issue = 1 |pages = 59–78 |publisher = SAGE Publications|doi = 10.1177/0022009407071632|s2cid = 159571996|author-link = Irving Hexham }}</ref> however, he played an important role in the development of German nationalist [[Positive Christianity]], which rejected the Old Testament.

==Early life==

=== Family ===
Rosenberg was born on 12 January 1893 in [[Reval]] (now [[Tallinn]], Estonia), then in the [[Governorate of Estonia]] of the [[Russian Empire]]. His mother Elfriede (née Siré), who had [[French people|French]] and German ancestry, was the daughter of Louise Rosalie (née Fabricius), born near [[Lihula|Leal]] (modern [[Lihula]], Estonia) in 1842, and of the railway official Friedrich August Siré, born in [[Saint Petersburg]], Russia, in 1843.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=6}}{{Sfn|Hiio|2018|p=}} Born in the same city in 1868, Elfriede Siré received the Christian sacrament of [[Confirmation]] in Reval at 17 in 1885. She married Woldemar Wilhelm Rosenberg, a wealthy merchant from Reval, in the [[Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul]] (St-Petersburg) in 1886.{{Sfn|Hiio|2018|p=}} The young Rosenberg's mother died two months after his birth.{{Sfn|Piper|2015|p=21}}{{Sfn|Hiio|2018|p=}}

His paternal grandfather, Martin Rosenberg, was a master shoemaker and elder of his [[guild]]. Born in [[Riga]] in 1820, and probably partly of [[Latvians|Latvian]] descent, he had moved to Reval in the 1850s, where he met Julie Elisabeth Stramm, born in [[Juuru|Jörden]] (now Estonia) in 1835. The two married in the German St. Nicholas parish of Reval in 1856.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=6}}{{Sfn|Hiio|2018|p=}}

The [[Hungarian-Jewish]] journalist Franz Szell, who was apparently residing in [[Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast|Tilsit]], [[Prussia]], [[Weimar Republic|Germany]], spent a year researching in Latvian and Estonian archives before publishing an open letter in 1936, with copies to [[Hermann Göring]], [[Joseph Goebbels]], Foreign Minister [[Konstantin von Neurath]] and others, accusing Rosenberg of having "no drop of German blood" flowing in his veins. Szell wrote that among Rosenberg's ancestors were only "Latvians, Jews, Mongols, and French."<ref>Staff (March 2008) [http://www.aim25.com/cats/104/8539.htm "Szell, Franz (fl 1936-1937): correspondence regarding Alfred Rosenberg" (catalog entry)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316130144/https://aim25.com/cats/104/8539.htm |date=16 March 2022 }} Wiener Library Quote: "Franz Szell, an exiled Hungarian journalist apparently resident in Tilsit, Lithuania spent more than a year in the archives in Latvia and Estonia researching Alfred Rosenberg's family history with a view to publishing the open letter, 936/1."</ref> As a result of his open letter, Szell was deported by Lithuanian authorities on 15 September 1936.<ref>Staff (5 September 1936) [https://www.jta.org/1936/09/16/archive/lithuania-deports-writer-who-called-nazi-chief-non-aryan "Lithuania Deports Writer Who Called Nazi Chief 'non-aryan{{'"}}] ''[[Jewish Telegraph Agency]]''</ref> His claims were repeated in the 15 September 1937 issue of the [[Vatican City|Vatican]] newspaper ''[[L'Osservatore Romano]]''.<ref>Gugenberger, Edouard (2002) ''Boten der Apokalypse. Visionäre des Dritten Reichs''. Vienna. p.196 {{ISBN|3-8000-3840-4}}</ref>

=== Education and early career ===
The young Rosenberg graduated from the Petri-Realschule (currently [[Tallinn Secondary School of Science|Tallinna Reaalkool]]) and enrolled in architecture studies at the [[Riga Polytechnical Institute]] in the autumn of 1910. In 1915, as the German army was approaching Riga, the entire school evacuated to the [[Bauman Moscow State Technical University|Moscow Imperial Higher Technical School]]<ref name="zeno">{{cite web|url=http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Der+N%C3%BCrnberger+Proze%C3%9F/Hauptverhandlungen/Einhundertachter+Tag.+Montag,+15.+April+1946/Nachmittagssitzung |title=Der Nürnberger Prozeß, Hauptverhandlungen, Einhundertachter Tag. Montag, 15. April 1946, Nachmittagssitzung |publisher=zeno.org|access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Hasenfratz | first1 = H. P. | title = Die Religion Alfred Rosenbergs | journal = Numen | volume = 36 | issue = 1 | pages = 113–126 | doi = 10.2307/3269855 | year = 1989 | jstor = 3269855 }}</ref>  ({{langx |ru| Императорское Московское техническое училище (ИМТУ)}}), where he completed his PhD studies in 1917. During his stays at home in Reval, he attended the art studio of the famed painter [[Ants Laikmaa]]—though he showed promise, there are no records that he ever exhibited.

During the [[German occupation of Estonia during World War I|German occupation of Estonia]] in 1918, Rosenberg served as a drawing teacher at the [[Gustav Adolf Gymnasium]] and [[Tallinn Second Secondary School of Science|Tallinna II Reaalkool]] (current [[Tallinn Polytechnic School]]<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tptlive.ee/majutus/opetajad-labi-kahe-sajandi-2#opetajad_labi_kahe_sajandi | title=Õpetajad läbi kahe sajandi | work=Tallinna Polütehnikum | date=29 April 2022 | last1=Ee | first1=Trinidad-Wiseman Oü www. twn }}</ref>). He gave his first speech on "[[Jewish Bolshevism|Jewish Marxism]]" on 30 November, at the [[House of the Blackheads (Tallinn)|House of the Blackheads]], after the 28 November 1918 outbreak of the [[Estonian War of Independence]].<ref name="Kapo">Pekka Erelt [http://ekspress.delfi.ee/kuum/kapo-luuras-natsijuhi-alfred-rosenbergi-jarele?id=64991850 Kapo luuras natsijuhi Alfred Rosenbergi järele] [[Eesti Ekspress]]</ref> He emigrated to Germany with the retreating [[Imperial German army]], along with [[Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter|Max Scheubner-Richter]], who served as something of a mentor to Rosenberg and to his ideology. Arriving in [[Munich]], he contributed to [[Dietrich Eckart]]'s publication, the ''[[Völkischer Beobachter]]'' (''Ethnic/Nationalist Observer''). By this time, he was both an [[antisemite]] – influenced by [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]'s book ''[[The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]]'', one of the key proto-Nazi books of [[racial theory]] &ndash; and an [[Anti-communism|anti-Bolshevik]].<ref name="Evans 2004 178–179">{{cite book | last = Evans | first = Richard J | author-link = Richard J. Evans | title = The Coming of the Third Reich | publisher = Penguin Books | year   =2004 | location = London | pages = 178–179 | isbn = 0-14-100975-6 | title-link = The Third Reich Trilogy }}</ref> Rosenberg became one of the earliest members of the [[German Workers' Party]] &ndash; later renamed the [[Nazi Party|National Socialist German Workers' Party]], better known as the Nazi Party &ndash; joining in January 1919, eight months before [[Adolf Hitler]] joined in September. According to some historians, Rosenberg had also been a member of the [[Thule Society]], along with Eckart,<ref>[[Ian Kershaw|Kershaw, Ian]] (2000) [https://books.google.com/books?id=nV-N10gyoFwC&dq ''Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris''], W. W. Norton & Company. pp.138-139. {{ISBN|9780393320350}}</ref> although [[Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke]] contends that they were only guests.<ref>{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|1985|pp=149, 221}}</ref><ref name="Goodrick-Clarke 2003 114">{{harvnb|Goodrick-Clarke|2003|p=114}}</ref> The ''[[Völkischer Beobachter]]'' became the Nazi party newspaper in December 1920. Eckart was its first editor and after his bout with alcoholism, Rosenberg became its editor in 1923.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=34}} Rosenberg was a leading member of [[Aufbau Vereinigung]], Reconstruction Organisation, a conspiratorial organisation of White Russian émigrés which had a critical influence on early Nazi policy.<ref>Kellogg 227–228</ref>

Rosenberg sympathized and identified with [[Talaat Pasha]] and the [[Committee of Union and Progress]] that carried out the [[Armenian genocide]], also claiming that there was "a deliberately Jewish policy which had always protected the Armenians" and that "during the world war, the Armenians have led the espionage against the Turks, similar to the Jews against Germany".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kieser |first1=Hans-Lukas |author1-link=Hans-Lukas Kieser |title=[[Talaat Pasha: Father of Modern Turkey, Architect of Genocide]] |date=2018 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-8963-1 |pages=410–411}}
*{{lay source |template=cite encyclopedia |last1=Kieser |first1=Hans-Lukas |entry=Pasha, Talat |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/pasha_talat |encyclopedia=1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hofmann |first1=Tessa |title=Mass Media and the Genocide of the Armenians: One Hundred Years of Uncertain Representation |date=2016 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-1-137-56402-3 |pages=85–109 |language=en |chapter=From Silence to Re-remembrance: The Response of German Media to Massacres and Genocide against the Ottoman Armenians}}</ref>

==Pre-war years==
In November 1923, after the failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]], Hitler, who had been imprisoned for [[treason]], appointed Rosenberg as the leader of the Nazi movement. Hitler remarked privately in later years that his choice of Rosenberg, whom he regarded as weak and lazy, was strategic; Hitler did not want the temporary leader of the Nazis to become too popular or hungry for power, because a person with either of those two qualities might not want to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release. However, at the time of the appointment Hitler had no reason to believe that he would soon be released, and Rosenberg had not appeared weak, so this may have been Hitler reading back into history his dissatisfaction with Rosenberg for the job he did.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|pp=42–43}}

On 1 January 1924, Rosenberg founded the [[Greater German People's Community]], a Nazi [[front organization]]. Headquartered in [[Munich]], it was largely limited to [[Bavaria]], the birthplace of National Socialism, had no substantial presence outside that State and became a haven for Nazi Party members from that area. Prominent members included [[Max Amann]], [[Phillip Bouhler]], [[Hermann Esser]], [[Franz Xaver Schwarz]] and [[Julius Streicher]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orlow |first1=Dietrich |title=The history of the Nazi Party |date=1969 |location=Pittsburgh |isbn=0-8229-3183-4}}</ref>{{rp|49}} Rosenberg, one of the least charismatic of the Nazi leaders and lacking in leadership qualities, was soon pushed aside by Streicher, a far more ruthless and abrasive personality, who was elected Chairman on 9 July 1924 with Esser, also a coarse, bullying sort, as his Deputy Chairman.<ref>Michael D. Miller & Andreas Schulz: Gauleiter: The Regional Leaders of the Nazi Party and Their Deputies, 1925-1945, Volume 3 (Fritz Sauckel – Hans Zimmermann), Fonthill Media, 2021, p. 351, {{ISBN|978-1-781-55826-3}}.</ref>

[[File:Refoundation.jpg|thumb|right|Adolf Hitler (standing) delivers a speech on the occasion of the refoundation of the NSDAP in February of 1925. Next to him from the perspective of the onlooker: On the right: [[Gregor Strasser]] and [[Heinrich Himmler]]. On the left: [[Franz Xaver Schwarz]], [[Walter Buch]] and Alfred Rosenberg. Behind Hitler the Blutfahne (blood-flag), a central relique within the propaganda of the National-Socialists, can be seen attached to the wall.]]
Rosenberg was on the rostrum at the refoundation of the [[NSDAP]] in February 1925.

In 1929 Rosenberg founded the [[Militant League for German Culture]]. He later formed the "[[Institute for Research on the Jewish Question]]", the first branch of a projected [[Advanced School of the NSDAP]],<ref name="Grimsted">Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy (2005). "Roads to Ratibor: Library and archival plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg." ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies'', vol. 19, no. 3. pp. 390-458; here: p. 406.</ref><ref name="JMB">"[http://www.jmberlin.de/raub-und-restitution/en/glossar_i.php Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage (IEJ)]" In: ''Glossary''. [[Jewish Museum, Berlin|Jüdisches Museum Berlin (Jewish Museum Berlin)]]. Retrieved 2015-01-18.</ref> dedicated to identifying and attacking supposed Jewish influence in German culture and to recording the history of Judaism from a radical nationalist perspective. In 1930, he published his book on [[Master race|racial theory]] ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'' (''Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts'') which deals with key issues in the Nazi ideology, such as the "Jewish question". He condemned [[Islam]] in the book as well which he described as being against European races and as anti-Christian. Rosenberg intended his book as a sequel to [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]'s above-cited book. {{Anchor|Pseudointellectualism_and_pseudoreligion}} Despite selling more than a million copies by 1945, its influence within Nazism remains doubtful. It is often said to have been a book that was officially venerated within Nazism, but one that few had actually read beyond the first chapter or even found comprehensible.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goldensohn |first=Leon | author-link = Leon Goldensohn |editor-last=Gellately |editor-first=Robert |editor-link=Robert Gellately |title=The Nuremberg Interviews |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |year=2004 |location=New York |pages=xvii, 73–75, 108–109, 200, 284 |isbn=0-375-41469-X}}</ref> According to [[Albert Speer]], Hitler called it "stuff nobody can understand"<ref>{{cite book  |last=Speer |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Speer |title=Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs by Albert Speer |translator=[[Richard Winston]] |translator2=[[Clara Winston]] |url=https://archive.org/details/insidethirdreich00spee |url-access=registration |publisher=Macmillan |year=1970 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/insidethirdreich00spee/page/115 115]}}
</ref> and disapproved of its pseudo-religious tone.<ref name="Evans 2004 178–179"/> Contradicting this, other authors noted that Hitler considered it the most important book of party ideology. Rosenberg also played a key role in developing Hitler’s belief in Jewish conspiracies by introducing him to [[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=FitzGerald |first1=Michael |title=The Nazis and the Supernatural: The Occult Secrets of Hitler's Evil Empire |date=9 October 2020 |publisher=Arcturus Publishing |isbn=978-1-3988-0553-8 |pages=25–35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0gAEAAAQBAJ |access-date=19 April 2025 |language=en}}</ref>

Rosenberg was elected as a ''[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]'' deputy at the [[1930 German federal election|September 1930 parliamentary election]] as a representative of the Nazi Party [[electoral list]]. He would continue to serve in this capacity until the end of the Nazi regime, representing electoral constituency 33, [[Hesse-Darmstadt (electoral district)|Hesse-Darmstadt]], from [[July 1932 German federal election|July 1932]].<ref>[https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/selectmaske.html?pnd=118602691&recherche=ja Alfred Rosenberg entry] in the [https://www.reichstag-abgeordnetendatenbank.de/ ''Reichstag'' Members Database]</ref>

Rosenberg helped convince Hitler, whose early speeches focused on revenge against France and Britain,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Clu5vSF3IIYC&q=ian+kershaw+hitler+beerhall+agitator&pg=PR10-IA25|title=Hitler|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|date=2013-03-07|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=978-0-14-190959-2|language=en}}</ref> that communism was a serious threat to Germany. "[[Jewish-Bolshevism]]" became an ideological target for Nazism during the early 1920s.<ref name="Evans 2004 178–179"/>

In Rome during November 1932 Rosenberg participated in the [[Volta Conference]] about Europe. British historian [[Sir Charles Petrie]] met him there and regarded him with great distaste; Petrie was a Catholic and strongly objected to Rosenberg's anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic sentiments.<ref>Sir Charles Petrie, ''A Historian Looks at His World'' (London, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972), p. 136.</ref>

The following year, following the [[Nazi seizure of power]], Rosenberg was named leader of the [[NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs|Nazi Party's Foreign Policy Office]] in April, and on 2 June 1933 he was named a ''[[Reichsleiter]]'', the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.{{sfn|Orlow|1969|p=74}} In May 1933 Rosenberg visited Britain, to give the impression that the Nazis would not be a threat and to encourage links between the new regime and the [[British Empire]]. It was a notable failure. When Rosenberg laid a wreath bearing a [[swastika]] at [[The Cenotaph, Whitehall|the Cenotaph]], [[James Edmond Sears]], a [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] candidate, slashed it, later threw it in the [[Thames]] and was fined 40 shillings for willful damage at Bow Street magistrate's court.<ref>"Dr. Rosenberg's Wreath." Times [London, England] 12 May 1933: 11. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 6 February 2014. "There was a further charge against [Sears] of wilfully damaging the wreath which was laid on the Cenotaph on Wednesday by Dr Rosenberg on behalf of Herr Hitler".</ref><ref name="wordpress">{{cite web|url=http://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/hitlers-wreath-at-the-cenotaph/|title=Hitler's wreath at the Cenotaph |website=Great War London |date=11 November 2012 |access-date=10 October 2014}}</ref>

In October 1933, Rosenberg was named as a member of [[Hans Frank]]'s [[Academy for German Law]].<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/NT_Nazi-conspiracy.html Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. VI, pp. 214-215, Document 3530-PS]</ref>

On 27 January 1934, Hitler made Rosenberg the "Führer's Representative for the Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP."<ref name=wlsp240/><ref name=ncwc42/> This was the origin of the [[Amt Rosenberg]], or Rosenberg Office, which was an official body for cultural policy and surveillance within the Nazi party. It was also known as the Reich surveillance office.<ref name=db1>[https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/sfz108145.html#ndbcontent Alfred Rosenberg entry] in [https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/ German Biography]</ref>

==Wartime activities==
[[File:The funeral of Gauleiter Karl Roever.jpg|thumb|right|Reich Minister Alfred Rosenberg speaks during the 1942 funeral ceremony of [[Gauleiter]] [[Karl Roever]].]]
[[File:Statsakt in Berlin. (8619189793).jpg|thumb|right|Rosenberg hosted in an official capacity such individuals as [[Vidkun Quisling]].]]
In 1940 Rosenberg was made head of the ''[[Hohe Schule der NSDAP|Hohe Schule]]'' (literally "high school", but the German phrase refers to a college), the Centre of National Socialist Ideological and Educational Research, out of which the ''[[Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce|Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg]]'' (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce) developed for the purpose of [[Nazi plunder|looting art and cultural goods]]. The ERR were especially active in Paris in looting art stolen from famous Jewish families such as the [[Rothschild family|Rothschilds]] and that of [[Paul Rosenberg (art dealer)|Paul Rosenberg]]. [[Hermann Göring]] used the ERR to collect art for his own personal gratification.<ref>Löhr, Hanns Christian (2018): '' Kunst als Waffe – Der Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Ideologie und Kunstraub im "Dritten Reich"'', Gebr. Mann, p. 38 ff. {{ISBN|978-3-7861-2806-9}}</ref>
He created a "Special Task Force for Music" (''Sonderstab Musik'') to collect the best [[musical instrument]]s and scores for use in a university to be built in Hitler's home town of [[Linz]], [[Austria]]. The orders given to the ''Sonderstab Musik'' were to loot all forms of Jewish property in Germany and of those found in any country taken over by the German army, and any musical instruments or scores were to be immediately shipped to [[Berlin]].<ref>Vries, Willem de (2000): Kunstraub im Westen, Alfred Rosenberg und der ''Sonderstab Musik'', S.Fischer Verlag. {{ISBN|3-596-14768-9}}</ref>

===Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1985-0723-500, Alfred Rosenberg headcrop.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Alfred Rosenberg as Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories]]
[[File:Alfred Rosenberg's office from 1942.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Former Nazi Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, Berlin (2014)]]
Following [[Operation Barbarossa|the invasion]] of the [[Soviet Union|USSR]], Rosenberg was appointed head of the [[Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories]] (''Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete'') on 17 July 1941. [[Alfred Meyer]] served as his deputy and represented him at the [[Wannsee Conference]]. Another official of the Ministry, [[Georg Leibbrandt]], also attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request.

Rosenberg had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of the conquered Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts, to replace the previously [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-controlled territories with new [[Reichskommissar]]iats. These would be:

* ''[[Reichskommissariat Ostland|Ostland]]'' ([[Baltic countries]] and [[Belarus]]),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Ukraine|Ukraine]]'' ([[Ukraine]] and nearest territories),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Kaukasien|Kaukasien]]'' ([[Caucasus]] area),
* ''[[Reichskommissariat Moskowien|Moskowien]]'' (Moscow metropolitan area and the rest of nearest Russian European areas)

Although Rosenberg believed that all of the peoples of the Soviet Union were subhumans because of their [[Communism|communist]] beliefs,<ref>[[David Irving|Irving, David]] (1996) ''Goebbels: Mastermind of the Third Reich'', London: Focal Point. p. 769. {{ISBN|1872197132}}</ref> such suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian forms of nationalism and promote German interests for the benefit of future [[Aryan race|Aryan]] generations, in accord with geopolitical "[[Lebensraum]] im Osten" plans. They would provide a buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of Communism and [[Bolshevism]] by decisive pre-emptive military action.

Following these plans, when [[Wehrmacht]] forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats of [[Ostland]] and [[Ukraine]], under the leadership of [[Hinrich Lohse]] and [[Erich Koch]], respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to conflict between Rosenberg and the [[SS]] over the treatment of [[Slavs]] under German occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples.<ref name = "kev">Kevin P. Spicer, ''Antisemitism, Christian ambivalence, and the Holocaust'', Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Indiana University Press, 2007, p. 308</ref> He proposed the creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica, Ukraine, and Caucasus.<ref name="Russian Liberation Movement page 30"/>

During an 18 November 1941 [[press conference]], he made the following statements about the [[Jewish question]]:
{{blockquote|Some six million Jews still live in the East, and this question can only be solved by a biological extermination of the whole of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Question will only be solved for Germany when the last Jew has left German territory, and it will only be solved for Europe when not a single Jew stands on the European continent as far as the Urals... And to this end, it is necessary to force them beyond the Urals or otherwise bring about their eradication.<ref>Peter Longerich, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, p.289</ref>}}

At the [[Nuremberg trials]] he said he was ignorant of the [[Holocaust]], despite the fact that Leibbrandt and Meyer were present at the [[Wannsee conference]].

===Wartime propaganda efforts===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2005-0168, Alfred Rosenberg.jpg|thumb|150px|Photograph by [[Heinrich Hoffmann (photographer)|Heinrich Hoffmann]], 1941]]

Since the invasion of the [[Soviet Union]] intended to impose the [[New Order (political system)|New Order]], it was essentially a war of conquest. German propaganda efforts designed to win over Russian opinion were, at best, patchy and inconsistent. Alfred Rosenberg was one of the few in the Nazi hierarchy who advocated a policy designed to encourage [[anti-Communist]] opinion among the population of the occupied territories. His interest here was mainly in the non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Baltic States; however, supporters of the [[Russian Liberation Army]] were somewhat able to win him over.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-08-04 |title=Russian Volunteers in the German Wehrmacht in WWII |url=https://www.feldgrau.com/ww2-german-wehrmacht-russian-volunteers/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230429113933/https://www.feldgrau.com/WW2-German-Wehrmacht-Russian-Volunteers/ |archive-date=April 29, 2023 |access-date=2023-09-26 |website=Feldgrau |language=en |author1=Admin }}</ref>

Amongst other things, Rosenberg issued a series of posters announcing the end of the Soviet collective farms (''[[kolkhoz]]''). He also issued an Agrarian Law in February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming and restoring family farms for those willing to collaborate with the occupiers. But decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, and [[Hermann Göring]] demanded that the collective farms be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as "stupid".<ref>Leonid Grenkevich, ''The Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941–1945: A Critical Historiographical Analysis'', Routledge, New York, 1999, pp. 169–171.</ref>

There were numerous German armed forces (''[[Wehrmacht]]'') posters asking for assistance in the ''Bandenkrieg,'' the war against the [[Soviet partisans]], though, once again, German policy had the effect of adding to their problems. Posters for "volunteer" labour, with inscriptions such as "Come work with us to shorten the war", hid the appalling realities faced by [[OST-Arbeiter|Russian workers in Germany]].  Rosenberg noted that many joined the partisans when volunteers for work details declined and the Germans resorted to force to acquire workers from the East.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herbert |first=Ulrich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uifw3BgBDU4C&pg=PA175 |title=Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany Under the Third Reich |date=1997-03-13 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-47000-1 |language=en}}</ref>

==Capture, trial and execution==
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1    = Alfred Jodl, Hans Frank, Alfred Rosenberg.jpg
| width1    = 187
| caption1  = Rosenberg (right) at the Nuremberg trials, with [[Hans Frank]] (centre) and [[Alfred Jodl]]
| image2    = Defendants Nuremberg-War-Crimes-Tribunal 1945-11-27.jpg
| width2    = 255
| caption2  = 1946 Nuremberg courtroom: Rosenberg (front row, left)
}}
[[File:Dead alfredrosenberg.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Rosenberg after his hanging]]
Rosenberg was captured by [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] troops on 19 May 1945 in [[Flensburg]]-[[Mürwik]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article99007254 |title=Allies Capture Nazi Pagan Philosopher. |newspaper=[[The Northern Star|Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876–1954)]] |location=Lismore, NSW |date=22 May 1945 |access-date=30 September 2013 |page=4 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He was tried at [[Nuremberg Trials|Nuremberg]] and found guilty of all four counts: conspiracy to commit [[crimes against peace]]; planning, initiating and waging [[wars of aggression]]; [[war crimes]]; and [[crimes against humanity]]. The final judgment against him named him one of the principal planners of the [[Norwegian campaign|invasion of Norway]] and the invasion of the Soviet Union. It also held him directly responsible for the systematic plunder of the occupied countries of Europe, as well as the brutal conditions in Eastern Europe.<ref name="yale">{{cite web |title=The Avalon Project : Judgment : Rosenberg |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judrosen.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314173930/https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judrosen.asp |archive-date=March 14, 2023 |access-date=16 August 2015 |publisher=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref> During his trial he wrote his memoirs, which were published posthumously and with analytical commentary by [[Serge Lang (skiing)|Serge Lang]] and Ernst von Schenck.<ref name="Memoirs">{{cite book | others=Posselt, Eric, Lang, Serge and von Schenck, Ernst | title=Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg, with commentaries | publisher=Ziff-Davis Publishing Company | author=Rosenberg, Alfred | year=1949 | location=Chicago | pages=328| oclc=871198711 }}</ref>

He was sentenced to death and executed with other condemned co-defendants at Nuremberg Prison on the morning of [[Nuremberg executions|16 October 1946]].<ref name="ushmm">{{cite web |title=International Military Tribunal: The Defendants |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007070 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230731153819/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/international-military-tribunal-the-defendants |archive-date=July 31, 2023 |access-date=16 August 2015 |publisher=ushmm.org}}</ref> His body, like those of the other nine executed men and that of [[Hermann Göring]], was cremated at [[Ostfriedhof (Munich)]] and the ashes were scattered in the river [[Isar]].<ref>{{citation
  |title=Ein Glücksfall der Geschichte
  |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-39916258.html
  |author=Thomas Darnstädt
  |work=[[Der Spiegel]]
  |year=2005
  |issue=14
  |series=13 September
  |pages=128
  }}</ref>{{sfn|Manvell|2011|p=393}}{{sfn|Overy|2001|p=205}}

Throughout the trial, it was agreed that Rosenberg had a decisive role in shaping Nazi philosophy and ideology. Examples include: his book ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'', which was published in 1930, where he incited hatred against "[[Liberal Imperialists|Liberal Imperialism]]" and "Bolshevik [[Marxism]]"; furthering the influence of the "[[Lebensraum]]" idea in Germany during the war; facilitating the persecution of Christian churches and the Jews in particular; and opposition to the [[Treaty of Versailles|Versailles Treaty]].<ref name="uwe">{{cite web|url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Rosenberg.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000829090723/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/Rosenberg.htm |archive-date=29 August 2000 |url-status=dead |title=Alfred Rosenberg Nuremberg Charges |access-date=16 August 2015 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.tercer-reich.com/politicos/los-argumentos-de-la-defensa-de-alfred-rosenberg-y-fritz-sauckel-en-los-juicios-de-nuremberg/ Rosenberg case for the defense at Nuremberg trials] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110223104156/http://www.tercer-reich.com/politicos/los-argumentos-de-la-defensa-de-alfred-rosenberg-y-fritz-sauckel-en-los-juicios-de-nuremberg/ |date=23 February 2011 }} (Spanish)</ref>

According to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, who covered the executions for the [[International News Service]], Rosenberg was the only condemned man who, when asked at the gallows if he had any [[last words|last statement]] to make, replied with only one word: "No".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Kingsbury |title=The Execution of Nazi War Criminals |url=http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergNews10_16_46.html |access-date=17 November 2019 |agency=International News Service |date=16 October 1946 |location=Nuremberg Gaol, Germany}}</ref>

==Views and influence on Nazi policy==
Hitler was a leader oriented towards practical politics, whereas, for Rosenberg, religion and philosophy were key and he was the most culturally influential within the party.<ref name="Steigmann-Gall2003">{{cite book|author=Richard Steigmann-Gall|title=The Holy Reich: Nazi conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RreXLeUG_AIC&pg=PA91|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-82371-5|page=91}}</ref> Several accounts of the time before the Nazi ascension to power speak of Hitler as being a mouthpiece for Rosenberg's views, and he clearly exerted a great deal of intellectual influence.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=45}}

The question of Rosenberg's influence in the Nazi Party is controversial. He was perceived as lacking the charisma and political skills of the other Nazi leaders, and was somewhat isolated. In some of his speeches Hitler appeared to be close to Rosenberg's views, rejecting traditional Christianity as a religion based on Jewish culture, preferring an ethnically and culturally pure "Race" whose destiny was supposed to be assigned to the German people by "Providence". But Hitler rejected Rosenberg's spiritual views on race but instead based his views on biology.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Breuilly |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJ0QJhjUmoUC&pg=PA581 |title=The Oxford Handbook of the History of Nationalism |date=2013-03-07 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-164426-9 |language=en}}</ref>

After Hitler's assumption of power he moved to unify the churches into a national church which could be manipulated and controlled.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Kershaw |first1=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=62xSFkgjAdUC&pg=PA489 |title=Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris |last2=Kershaw |first2=Professor of Modern History Ian |date=1999 |publisher=W.W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-04671-7 |language=en}}</ref> He placed himself in the position of being the man to save Positive Christianity from utter destruction at the hands of the [[Religion in the Soviet Union|atheistic antitheist Communist]]s of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9SBndd4Jc0QC|title=The 'Hitler Myth': Image and Reality in the Third Reich|author=Kershaw, Ian|year= 2001|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|page= 109|isbn= 0-19-280206-2|oclc = 47063365
|quote = Hitler's evident ability to simulate, even to potentially critical Church leaders, an image of a leader keen to uphold and protect Christianity was crucial to the mediation of such an image to the church-going public by influential members of both major denominations. It was the reason why church-going Christians, so often encouraged by their 'opinion-leaders' in the Church hierarchies, were frequently able to exclude Hitler from their condemnation of the anti-Christian Party radicals, continuing to see in him the last hope of protecting Christianity from Bolshevism.
|author-link= Ian Kershaw}}</ref> This was especially true immediately before and after the elections of 1932; Hitler wanted to appear non-threatening to major Christian faiths and consolidate his power.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Martino |first=Maria Grazia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tuVhBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |title=The State as an Actor in Religion Policy: Policy Cycle and Governance Perspectives on Institutionalized Religion |date=2014-08-28 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-658-06945-2 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Weikart |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wnJIDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT111 |title=Hitler's Religion: The Twisted Beliefs that Drove the Third Reich |date=2016-11-22 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-1-62157-551-1 |language=en}}</ref>

Some Nazi leaders, such as [[Martin Bormann]], were [[anti-Christian]] and sympathetic to Rosenberg.<ref>Stiegmann-Gall, Richard, ''The Holy Reich'', CUP, pp. 243–5</ref> Once in power, Hitler and most Nazi leaders sought to unify the Christian denominations in favor of "positive Christianity". Hitler privately condemned mystical and pseudoreligious interests as "nonsense",{{Sfn|Speer|1971|pp=141,212}} and maintained that National Socialism was based on science and should avoid mystic and cultic practices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koop |first=Volker |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKsSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA119 |title=Martin Bormann: Hitler's Executioner |date=2020-08-27 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1-4738-8695-7 |language=en}}</ref>  However, he and [[Joseph Goebbels]] agreed that after the ''[[Endsieg]]'' (Final Victory) the [[Protestant Reich Church|Reich Church]] should be pressed into evolving into a German [[social evolutionism|social evolutionist]] organisation proclaiming the cult of race, blood and battle, instead of [[Redemption (religious)|Redemption]] and the [[Ten Commandments]] of [[Moses]], which they deemed outdated and Jewish.<ref>Hürten, H. "'Endlösung' für den Katholizismus? Das nationalsozialistische Regime und seine Zukunftspläne gegenüber der Kirche," in: ''[[Stimmen der Zeit]]'', 203 (1985) pp. 534–546</ref>

[[Heinrich Himmler]]'s views were among the closest to Rosenberg's, and their estrangement was perhaps created by Himmler's abilities to put into action what Rosenberg had only written. Also, while Rosenberg thought Christianity should be allowed to die out, Himmler actively set out to create countering pagan rituals.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=119}}

Lieutenant Colonel William Harold Dunn (1898–1955) wrote a medical and psychiatric report on him in prison to evaluate him as a suicide risk: <blockquote>He gave the impression of clinging to his own theories in a fanatical and unyielding fashion and to have been little influenced by the unfolding during the trial of the cruelty and crimes of the party.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=219}}</blockquote>

Summarizing the unresolved conflict between the personal views of Rosenberg and the pragmatism of the Nazi elite:
<blockquote>
The ruthless pursuit of Nazi aims turned out to mean not, as Rosenberg had hoped, the permeation of German life with the new ideology; it meant concentration of the combined resources of party and state on [[total war]].{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=160}}</blockquote>

===Racial theories===
{{Nazism sidebar}}
As the Nazi Party's chief [[Nazi racial theories|racial theorist]], Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that [[Justification (epistemology)|justified]] [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Hitler's racial and ethnic policies]]. Rosenberg built on the works of [[Arthur de Gobineau]], [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], [[Madison Grant]] and the [[Klansman]] [[Lothrop Stoddard]] as well as on the beliefs of Hitler. Rosenberg placed [[Black people|Blacks]] and [[Jews]] at the very bottom of the ladder, while at the very top stood the "[[Aryan race|Aryan" race]]. Rosenberg promoted the [[Nordicism|Nordic theory]] which considered the [[Nordic race]] the "[[master race]]",<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "No people of Europe is racially homogeneous, also Germany is not. According to the latest research, we accept five races all of which reveal perceptibly different types. But it is beyond question that the true culture bearer for Europe has been in the first place the Nordic race. Great heroes, artists and founders of states have grown from this blood." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p.576</ref><ref>Though Rosenberg does not use the word "master race". He uses the word "Herrenvolk" (i.e. ruling people) twice in his book ''The Myth'', first referring to the [[Amorite]]s (saying that [[Archibald Sayce|Sayce]] described them as fair skinned and blue eyed) and secondly quoting [[Victor Wallace Germains]]' description of the English in "The Truth about Kitchener". ("The Myth of the Twentieth Century") - Pages 26, 660 - 1930</ref> superior to all others, including to other Aryans (Indo-Europeans). He was also influenced by the [[Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory]] promoted by the Catholic [[counter-revolutionary]] tradition, such as the book ''Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens'' (1869) by [[Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux]], which he translated into German under the title ''The Eternal Jew''.<ref name="Michael">{{cite book |last1=Michael |first1=R. |title=A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |page=128}}</ref>

Rosenberg got the racial term ''[[Untermensch]]'' from the title of Stoddard's 1922 book ''The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-men'', which had been adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version ''Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen'' (1925).<ref>
{{cite journal
| author = Losurdo, Domenico
| author-link = Domenico Losurdo
| others = Translated by Marella & Jon Morris
| year = 2004
| title = Toward a Critique of the Category of Totalitarianism
| journal = [[Historical Materialism (journal)|Historical Materialism]]
| publisher = [[Brill Publishers|Brill]]
| volume = 12
| issue = 2
| pages = 25–55, here p. 50
| issn = 1465-4466
| doi = 10.1163/1569206041551663
| url = http://www.pssp.org/bbs/data/document/1/Losurdo___Critique_of_Totalitarianism_%282004%29.pdf
}}</ref>

Rosenberg reshaped the [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|Nazi racial policy]] over the years, but it always consisted of [[Aryanism|Aryan supremacy]], extreme [[German nationalism]] and rabid [[antisemitism]]. Rosenberg also outspokenly opposed [[homosexuality]] – notably in his [[pamphlet]] "Der Sumpf" ("The Swamp", 1927). He viewed homosexuality as a hindrance to the expansion of the "racially pure" Nordic population.

Rosenberg's attitude towards [[Slavs]] was flexible because it depended on the particular nation which he referred to.<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "The Czechs, for their part, were stratified by race into a Nordic-Slavic nobility, and lower orders of an Alpine Dinaric stamp, thus displaying that type which the modern Czech so plainly embodies." Page 108, "The one eyed maniacal Ziska of Trocnow, whose head in the Prague National Museum shows him to have been an eastern hither Asiatic type, was the first expression of this totally destructive Taborite movement, which the [[Czechs]] must thank for the extermination of the last remaining Germanic powers active within them, as well as the repression of all that was truly Slavic." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p.109</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "The entire east is diversified throughout; one will need to speak here of the Russian character, of the Germanised peoples of [[Finland]], [[Estonia]] and [[Lithuania]], whereat also [[Poland]] has developed its clearly outlined individuality." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p.643</ref> As a result of the ideology of "[[Drang nach Osten]]" ("Drive to the East"), Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the Slavic East.<ref>''Oświęcim, 1940–1945: przewodnik po muzeum'', Kazimierz Smoleń, Państwowe Muzeum w Oświęcimiu, 1978, page 12</ref><ref>Metapolitics: from Wagner and the German Romantics to Hitler, page 221, Peter Viereck, Transaction Publishers 2003</ref> In ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'', Rosenberg describes Russian Slavs as being overwhelmed by Bolshevism.<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "In the year 1917, Russian Man finally disintegrated. He fell into two parts. The Nordic Russian blood gave up the struggle, the eastern Mongolian, powerfully stirred up, summoned Chinese and desert peoples to its aid, Jews and Armenians pushed forward to leadership, and the Kalmuch Tartar [[Lenin]] became master. The demonry of this blood directed itself instinctively against everything which outwardly still had some honest effect, looked manly and Nordic, like a living reproach against a type of man whom Lothrop Stoddard described as 'subhuman'." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p.214</ref> Regarding [[Ukrainians]], he favoured setting up a [[buffer state]] to ease the pressure on the German eastern frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia could be exploited for the benefit of Germany.<ref name="Russian Liberation Movement page 30">Andreyev, Caterine (1990)
''Vlasov and the Russian Liberation Movement: Soviet Reality and Émigré Theories'' London: Cambridge University Press. p.30. {{ISBN|0521389607}}</ref> During the war, Rosenberg was in favour of collaboration with the [[East Slavs]] against Bolshevism and offering them national independence unlike other Nazis such as Hitler and Himmler who dismissed such ideas.<ref>Herbert, Ulrich (1997) ''Hitler's Foreign Workers: Enforced Foreign Labor in Germany Under the Third Reich'' London: Cambridge University Press. pp.260–261 {{ISBN|0521470005}}</ref><ref>Hertstein, Robert Edwin (1979) ''The war that Hitler won: Goebbels and the Nazi media campaign'', UK: Hamish Hamilton. p.364 {{ISBN|0241100917}}</ref>

Rosenberg criticised those who did not subscribe to his racial theories. For example, he attacked [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] for what he perceived as its incorrect and improper stance on race and Jewishness.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bernhard |first1=Patrick |date=7 February 2019 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1354571X.2019.1550701?journalCode=rmis20 |title=The Great Divide? Notions of Racism in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: New Answers to an Old Problem |journal=[[Journal of Modern Italian Studies]] |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=97–114 |doi=10.1080/1354571X.2019.1550701 |s2cid=150519628 |access-date=28 August 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Religious theories===
{{further|Religion in Nazi Germany}}
Rosenberg was raised as a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]], but he rejected what he called "negative" [[Christianity]] later in life.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gerecke |first=Henry F. |date=25 November 2018 |title=I Walked to the Gallows with the Nazi Chiefs |url=https://thechaplainkit.com/history/chaplains-at-war/world-war-2/i-walked-to-the-gallows-with-the-nazi-chiefs/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530071550/https://thechaplainkit.com/history/chaplains-at-war/world-war-2/i-walked-to-the-gallows-with-the-nazi-chiefs/ |archive-date=May 30, 2023}}</ref> Instead, Rosenberg argued for a new "religion of the blood", which was based on the supposed innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its noble character against racial and cultural degeneration.<ref>Cecil, 1972, s. 85</ref>

In his 1920 book ''Immorality in the [[Talmud]]'', Rosenberg identified Jews with the [[antichrist]].<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "The hate of Jesus combined with an unfathomable lack of understanding for Jesus that is showing in the works of today's Jewry almost without disguise and culminates in the systematic Jewish Bolshevik persecution of Christianity in Russia goes back almost 2000 years. The personality of [[Jesus|Christ]] was the strongest storm against Jewish nature, which the Jew has always felt and known and only Christian over-tolerance could deem it possible to build a bridge. There can be no peace between Christ and the antichrist; there can only be a winner."

Original in German: "Der Haß, verbunden mit abgrundtiefer Verständnislosigkeit der Person Jesu gegenüber, der in den Erzeugnissen der heutigen Juden kaum mehr verhüllt zum Ausdruck kommt und in den planmäßigen Christenverfolgungen seitens der jüdischen bolschewistischen Machthaber in Rußland seinen Höhepunkt erreicht hat, dieser Haß dauert jetzt bald 2000 Jahre unverändert fort. Die Persönlichkeit Christi ist der stärkste Ansturm gegen jüdisches Wesen; das hat der Jude von jeher gefühlt und gewußt, einzig christliche Übertoleranz könnte glauben, hier eine Brücke schlagen zu können. Frieden kann es zwischen Christ und Antichrist nicht geben; es siegt entweder der eine oder der andere."

Rosenberg, Alfred (1943) [1920] ''Unmoral im Talmud''. Franz Eher Verlag, p.19</ref> He rejected negative Christianity because of its universality, for its doctrine of [[original sin]] (as he believed that all ethnic Germans were born noble), and for its teachings on the [[immortality of the soul]],{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|pp=84–85}} saying, "indeed, absorbing Christianity enfeebled our people."{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=92}} Publicly, Rosenberg affected to deplore Christianity's degeneration owing to its Jewish influence.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=85}}  He took inspiration from [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]'s ideas and condemned what he called "Negative Christianity" (which was conventional Christianity preached by [[Protestantism]] and [[Catholicism]]), instead Rosenberg was arguing for a so-called [[positive Christianity|"Positive" Christianity]]<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "From the description of Jesus one can select very different features. His personality often makes its appearance as soft and pitying, then, again, bluff and rough. But it is always supported by inward fire. It was in the interest of the Roman church, with its lust for power, to represent subservient humility as the essence of Christ in order to create as many servants as possible for this motivated 'ideal'. To correct this representation is a further ineradicable requirement of the German movement for renewal. Jesus appears to us today as self-confident lord in the best and highest sense of the word." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 604</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "For this reason Jesus, in spite of all Christian churches, signifies a pivotal point in our history. He became the god of the Europeans, yet, not seldom did he appear in a repellent distortion.<p>"If the concentrated feeling of personality which built Gothic cathedrals and inspired a [[w:Rembrandt|Rembrandt]] portrait penetrated more clearly into the consciousness of the general public, a new wave of culture would begin. But the prerequisite for this is the overcoming of the former statutory values of the 'Christian' churches." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 391</p></ref> which was based on the argument that Jesus was not a Jew but a member of an Indo-European enclave which was resident in ancient [[Galilee]] who fought against [[Judaism]].<ref group=notes>Rosenberg quotes Dr. Emil Jung referring to statements by the Syrian Christian preacher [[Ephrem the Syrian|Ephraem]] (4th century): "Jesus' mother was a Danaite woman (that is, someone who was born in Dan), and he had a Latin as his father. Ephraem sees this to be not unhonorable and adds: 'Jesus thus derived his ancestry from two of the greatest and most famous nations, namely, from the [[Syria]]ns on the maternal side and from the [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] on the paternal.{{'"}} ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century"'' (1930), p. 76</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "Herder once demanded that the religion dedicated to Jesus should become a religion of Jesus. This was what Chamberlain strove for. A completely free man who disposed inwardly over the entire culture of our times, he has shown the deepest sensitivity for the superhuman simplicity of Christ. He represented Jesus as what he had once appeared to be: a mediator between man and god." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century"'' (1930), p. 623</ref> Significantly, in his work explicating the Nazi intellectual belief system, ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'', Rosenberg cryptically applauds the early Christian heretic [[Marcionism|Marcion]] (who rejected the Old Testament as well as the notion of Christ as the Jewish Messiah) and the Manichaean-inspired, "Aryo-Iranian" [[Cathari]], as being the more authentic interpreters of Christianity versus historically dominant Judaeo-Christianity;<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "It is characteristic of Roman Christianity that where possible it eliminates the personality of its founder, in order to put in its place the church structure of a rulership by priests." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 160</ref> moreover these ancient, externally Christian metaphysical forms were more "organically compatible with the Nordic sense of the spiritual and the Nordic 'blood-soul'." For Rosenberg, the anti-intellectual, religious [[doctrine]] was inseparable<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "The ancient Germanic idea of god is likewise inconceivable without spiritual freedom. Jesus also spoke of the kingdom of heaven within us. The strength of the spiritual search already shows itself in the world wanderer, [[Odin]], and it can be seen in the seeker and believer, [[Meister Eckhart|Eckehart]], and we see it in all great men from [[Martin Luther|Luther]] to [[Paul de Lagarde|Lagarde]]. This soul also lived within the venerable [[Thomas Aquinas|Thomas of Aquinas]]<!--[sic]--> and in the majority of the [[Church Fathers|occidental fathers of the church]]." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 247</ref> from serving the interests of the Nordic race, connecting the individual to his racial nature.<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote:"A keen observer has correctly remarked that the Jesus child of the [[Sistine Madonna]] is "frankly heroic" in gaze and posture (Wölfflin). That is aptly expressed except that the fundamental ground is lacking as to why the allegedly Jewish family had a heroic look to it. Here, only composition and color distribution, not "inwardness" and "dedication", are determining. These are the prerequisites to the success of a formative will, once again, the racial ideal of beauty. To see in place of the light-brown haired, light skinned Jesus child a blue black, woolly haired, brown skinned Jew boy would be an impossibility. Equally, we cannot think of a Jewish Mother of God next to the holy, even if the latter had the "noble face" of an Offenbach or Disraeli." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 297</ref> Rosenberg stated that "The general ideas of the [[Roman Catholicism|Roman]] and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our (German) soul."<ref>{{cite magazine | title=Churchmen to Hitler | date=10 August 1936 | magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | url= http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762289,00.html?promoid=googlep | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071029224532/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,762289,00.html?promoid=googlep | url-status= dead | archive-date= 29 October 2007 |access-date= 14 August 2008}}</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "The Jewish idea of the "slave of god", one who receives mercy from an arbitrary, absolutist god, has thus passed over to Rome and Wittenberg, and can be attributed to Paul as the actual creator of this doctrine, which is to say that our churches are not Christian but Pauline. Jesus unquestionably praised the One-Being with god. This was his redemption, his goal. He did not preach a condescending granting of mercy from an almighty being in the face of which even the greatest human soul represented a pure nothingness. This doctrine of mercy is naturally very welcome to every church. With such misinterpretation the church and its leaders appear as the "representatives of god". Consequently, they could acquire power by granting mercy through their magic hands." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 237</ref> His support for Luther as a great German figure was always ambivalent.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|pp=87–88}}<ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "Now we may certainly also say that the love of Jesus Christ has been the love of one who is conscious of his aristocracy of soul and of his strong personality. Jesus sacrificed himself as a master, not as a servant ... And also Martin Luther knew only too well, what he said, when shortly before his death he wrote 'These three words, free – Christian – German, are to the pope and the Roman court nothing but mere poison, death, devil and hell. They can neither suffer, see nor hear them. Nothing else will come of it, that is certain.{{'"}} (''Against the papacy donated by the devil in Rome'', 1645) ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 622</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "In all seriousness, the Cosmic God was said to be identical with the dubious spiritual assertions of the Old Testament! Hebrew polytheism was elevated to a model of monotheism, and no deeper knowledge had come to Lutheran theology from the original magnificent Aryan-Persian idea of the world and the cosmic comprehension of God. In addition there appeared the revering of Paul, an original sin of protestantism, against which [[Paul de Lagarde|Lagarde]], as is known, attacked by the entire official theology of his day, fought in vain." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 11</ref><ref group=notes>Rosenberg wrote: "However richly talented, however powerful and surpassing in forms it was, until the present, we have still not created a religious form worthy of us: neither [[Francis of Assisi]], [[Martin Luther|Luther]], [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] nor [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Dostoyevsky]] are founders of a religion for us." ''The Myth of the Twentieth Century'' (1930) p. 441</ref>

In January 1934, Hitler appointed Rosenberg cultural and educational leader of the Reich.<ref name=wlsp240>[[William L. Shirer|Shirer, William L.]] (1960) ''[[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich]]'' London: Secker & Warburg; London. p. 240</ref><ref name=ncwc42>''The Nazi War Against the Catholic Church''; National Catholic Welfare Conference; Washington D.C.; 1942</ref> The ''[[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|Sanctum Officium]]'' in Rome recommended that Rosenberg's ''Myth of the Twentieth Century'' be put on the ''[[Index Librorum Prohibitorum]]'' (list of books forbidden by the Catholic Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, and the very fundamentals of the Christian religion".<ref name=bonney09>
{{cite book
| last1            = Bonney
| first1           = Richard
| author-link1     = Richard Bonney
| title            = Confronting the Nazi War on Christianity: The Kulturkampf Newsletters, 1936–1939
| url              = https://books.google.com/books?id=KuiPXOje7EkC
| series           = Studies in the history of religious and political pluralism
| volume           = 4
| location         = Bern
| publisher        = Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers
| publication-date = 2009
| page             = 122
| isbn             = 9783039119042
| year             = 2009
}}
</ref>

Rosenberg has been described as an [[Atheism|atheist]] by some people, including [[Henry F. Gerecke]], the Lutheran chaplain who communed with some of the Nuremberg prisoners with Lutheran backgrounds, like [[Joachim von Ribbentrop]] and [[Wilhelm Keitel]].<ref>"Within the NSDAP (as in the German ''völkisch'' movement in general) there existed from the outset a group of old Hitler partisans who in contrast to the 'atheists' Alfred Rosenberg, Martin Bormann and others, believed in a union of National Socialism and Protestant Christianity." [[Martin Broszat|Broszat, Martin]] (1981) ''The Hitler State: The Foundation and Development of the Internal Structure of the Tjird Reich''. London: Longman. p.223 {{isbn|9780582489974}}</ref><ref>Callahan, Daniel ed. (1967) ''The Secular City Debate''. New York: Macmillan.  p.152</ref><ref>Goldensohn, Leon (2005) ''The Nuremberg Interviews: An American Psychiatrist's Conversations with the Defendants and Witnesses''. New York: Vintage.  p.75. {{isbn|9781400030439}}</ref><ref>"Apart from [Rosenberg] giving his name and replying 'No' to a question as to whether he had anything to say, this atheist did not utter a word. Despite his disbelief in God he was accompanied by a Protestant chaplain, who followed him to the gallows and stood beside him praying." ''Hitler's Third Reich: A Documentary History'', p. 613</ref> [[Gustave Mark Gilbert]], Rosenberg's prison psychologist during his trial, reports that Rosenberg described himself having "always been anti-Catholic" and criticised the Church's power.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gilbert |first1=Gustave Mark |title=Nuremburg Diary |date=1961 |publisher=[[Signet Books]] |page=110}}</ref> Due to his criticism of traditional Christianity, some polemical texts have called him a [[Modern Paganism|neo-pagan]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cairns|first1=John C.|last2=Shirer|first2=William L.|date=1961|title=The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40198487|journal=International Journal|volume=16|issue=2|pages=188|doi=10.2307/40198487|jstor=40198487|issn=0020-7020|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=National Catholic Welfare Conference |publication-place=[[Washington, D.C.]], United States of America |publisher=[[National Catholic Welfare Council|National Catholic Welfare Conference]] |oclc=19585105 |language=English |format=PDF |pages=20–21 |chapter=The Concordat, 1933-1934 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/TheNaziWarAgainstTheCatholicChurch/page/n55/mode/2up 
|date=1 January 1943 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheNaziWarAgainstTheCatholicChurch |via=[[Internet Archive]] |title=The Nazi war against the Catholic Church }}</ref>

===Published works===
* ''Unmoral im Talmud'', 1920, [[Ernst Boepple]]'s Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Immorality in the Talmud")
* ''Das Verbrechen der Freimaurerei: Judentum, Jesuitismus, Deutsches Christentum'', 1921 ("The Crime of Freemasonry: Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity")
* ''Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei'', 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Being, principles, and goals of the National Socialist German Worker's Party")
* ''Pest in Russland. Der Bolschewismus, seine Häupter, Handlanger und Opfer'', 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("The Plague in Russia. Bolshevism, its heads, henchmen, and victims")
* ''Bolschewismus, Hunger, Tod'', 1922, Ernst Boepple's Deutscher Volksverlag, Munich ("Bolshevism, hunger, death")
* ''Der staatsfeindliche Zionismus.'' ("Zionism, the Enemy of the State"), 1922.
* ''Die Protokolle der Weisen von Zion und die jüdische Weltpolitik'', 1923 ("The [[Protocols of the Elders of Zion]] and the Jewish World Politics")
* ''The Jewish Bolshevism'', Britons Pub. Society, 1923, together with [[Ernst Boepple]]
* ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century|Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts]]'', 1930 ("The Myth of the 20th Century")
* ''[[Dietrich Eckart]]. Ein Vermächtnis'', 1935 ("Dietrich Eckart: A Legacy")
* ''An die Dunkelmänner unserer Zeit. Eine Antwort auf die Angriffe gegen den "Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts"'', 1937 ("The Obscurantists of Our Time: A Response to the Attacks Against 'The Myth of the 20th Century{{'"}})
* ''[[Protestantische Rompilger]]. Der Verrat an Luther und der "Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts"'', 1937 ("Protestant Rome Pilgrims: The Betrayal of Luther and the 'Myth of the 20th Century{{'"}})
* ''Portrait eines Menschheitsverbrechers'', 1949, with analytical commentary by Serge Lang and Ernst von Schenck ("[https://archive.org/details/AlfredRosenbergMemoirsAndNurembergTrial/page/n1/mode/2up Memoirs of Alfred Rosenberg]: With Commentaries")<ref name="Memoirs" />
* ''Die Macht der Form'', Unknown ("The Power of Form")

===Diary===
During the [[Nuremberg trials]], Rosenberg's handwritten diary was translated by [[Harry Fiss]], Chief of Documentation for the American prosecution.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.countytimes.com/news/morris-resident-was-translator-during-nuremberg-war-trials/article_da2d658c-6b30-5c99-b726-3805aded2468.html |title=Morris Resident Was Translator During Nuremberg War Trials |last=Tragakiss |first=Tamara |date=23 November 2005 |newspaper=Ct Insider |publisher=Hearst Media Services Connecticut |access-date=31 December 2018 |archive-date=21 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200221170702/http://www.countytimes.com/news/morris-resident-was-translator-during-nuremberg-war-trials/article_da2d658c-6b30-5c99-b726-3805aded2468.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> After its use in evidence during the Nuremberg trials, the diary went missing, along with other material which had been given to the prosecutor [[Robert Kempner]] (1899–1993).<ref name="natgeo">{{cite news | first = Charles | last = Fenyvesi | title = Mysteries of the Lost (and Found) Nazi Diaries | date = 14 June 2012 | work = National Geographic }}</ref> Kempner had taken the diary, along with several other documents pertaining to the Nazi prosecutions back to his home.<ref name="Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation">{{cite web |title=Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation |url=http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |website=wwe.ICE.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530024125/http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |archive-date=30 May 2014 }}</ref> This was considered to be against standard government procedure, and illegal.<ref name="Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation">{{cite web |title=Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation |url=http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |website=wwe.ICE.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530024125/http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |archive-date=30 May 2014 }}</ref> It was recovered in Lewiston, N.Y., on 13 June 2013 after a lengthy investigation by the [[United States Department of Homeland Security]].<ref name="Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation">{{cite web |title=Long-lost Nazi diary recovered after HSI investigation |url=http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |website=wwe.ICE.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140530024125/http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |archive-date=30 May 2014 }}</ref><ref>[http://www.wkbw.com/news/Federal-Officials-Reveal-Diary-of-High-Level-Nazi-Leader-Found-in-WNY-211415701.html Federal Officials Reveal Diary of High-Level Nazi Leader Found in WNY]  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141015151512/http://www.wkbw.com/news/Federal-Officials-Reveal-Diary-of-High-Level-Nazi-Leader-Found-in-WNY-211415701.html |date=15 October 2014 }}</ref> Written on 425 loose-leaf pages, with entries dating from 1936 through 1944, it is now the property of the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] (USHMM) in Washington.<ref name="natgeo"/> Henry Mayer, the museum's senior archivist, and the son of a Holocaust survivor, was able to access the material and while "not given enough time to read [the] diary entry from beginning to end," he "could see that Rosenberg focused on certain subjects, including brutality against Jews and other ethnic groups and forcing the civilian population of occupied Russia to serve Germany."<ref name="natgeo"/> Meyer also noted Rosenberg's "hostile comments about Nazi leaders," which he described as "unvarnished."<ref name="natgeo"/> While some parts of the manuscript had been previously published, the majority had been lost for decades. Former [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] agent [[Robert King Wittman]], who helped track down the diary, said, "there is no place in the diary where we have Rosenberg or Hitler saying the Jews should be exterminated, all it said was 'move them out of Europe{{'"}}.<ref name="NYT31mar16">{{cite web | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/books/tracking-an-elusive-diary-from-hitlers-inner-circle.html | title=Tracking an elusive diary from Hitler's inner circle | work=The New York Times| date=31 March 2016 | access-date=3 April 2016 | author=Kovaleski, Serge F. | pages=C1–2}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' said of the search for the missing manuscript that "the tangled journey of the diary could itself be the subject of a television mini-series."<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news|last=Cohen|first=Patricia|title=Diary of a Hitler Aide Resurfaces After a Hunt That Lasted Years|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/14/world/europe/diary-of-a-hitler-aide-resurfaces-after-a-hunt-that-lasted-years.html?_r=0|access-date=15 June 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=13 June 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = Encontrado el diario de un confidente de Hitler |url=http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20130610/54375860192/encontrado-diario-confidente-hitler.html | agency = Reuters | location =Barcelona, Spain | date = 10 June 2013 | work= [[La Vanguardia]] | language = es |trans-title=Found the diary of a confidant of Hitler| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131014030133/http://www.lavanguardia.com/internacional/20130610/54375860192/encontrado-diario-confidente-hitler.html| archive-date = 14 October 2013 | url-status=live}}</ref>
Since the end of 2013, the USHMM has shown the 425-page document (photos and transcripts) on its homepage.<ref name="ushmm2">{{cite web|url=http://collections.ushmm.org/view/2001.62.14 |title=Alfred Rosenberg Diary - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |publisher=collections.ushmm.org|access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Rosenberg was married twice.  In 1915, he married {{ill|Hilda Leesmann|et}}, an ethnic [[Estonians|Estonian]]; they divorced in 1923. Two years later, in 1925 he married Hedwig Kramer,{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|p=52}} to whom he remained wed until his execution by the Allies. He and Kramer had two children: a son who died in [[infancy]] and a daughter, Irene, who was born in 1930.{{Sfn|Cecil|1972|pp=52–53}} His wife died in 1947.

==See also==
* [[Antisemitism]]
* ''[[Myth of the Twentieth Century]]''
* [[Nordische Gesellschaft]]
* [[Racism]]
* [[Kirchenkampf]]

==References==
'''Informational notes'''
{{reflist|group=notes}}

'''Citations'''
{{Reflist}}

'''Bibliography'''
* {{Cite book |author= Bollmus, Reinhard|title= Das Amt Rosenberg und seine Gegner: Studien zum Machtkampf im Nationalsozialistichen Herrschaftssystem| publisher =Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt |year=1970}}
* {{Cite book|author=Cecil|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Cecil (British diplomat)|title=The Myth of the Master Race: Alfred Rosenberg and Nazi Ideology|publisher=Dodd Mead & Co.|year=1972|isbn=0-396-06577-5}}
* {{Cite book |author= Chandler, Albert R.|title= Rosenberg's Nazi Myth|publisher=Greenwood Press|year= 1945}}
* {{Cite book |author=Gilbert, G. M.|title=Nuremberg Diary |publisher=Da Capo Press|year=1995|isbn=0-306-80661-4|author-link=Gustave Gilbert|title-link=Nuremberg Diary }}
* {{Cite book |author= Goldensohn, Leon|title= Nuremberg Interviews|publisher=Knopf|year= 2004|isbn= 0-375-41469-X|author-link= Leon Goldensohn}}
* {{cite book |last=Goodrick-Clarke |first=Nicholas |year=1985 |title=The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology - The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935 |location=[[London]] |publisher=[[I.B. Tauris]] |isbn=0-8147-3054-X}}
* {{cite book| last=Goodrick-Clarke |first=Nicholas |title=Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity |year=2003 |publisher=New York University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8147-3155-0 }}
*{{Cite journal|last=Hiio|first=Toomas|date=2018|title=Noch einmal zu Alfred Rosenberg: Anmerkungen zu einer neuen Biografie|journal=Forschungen zur Baltischen Geschichte|volume=13|pages=161–170}}
* {{Cite book |author= Kellogg, Michael|title= The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism |location=Cambridge |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year= 2005|isbn= 978-0-521-07005-8 |url=https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/45247/1/43.Michael%20Kellogg.pdf|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20250401164203/https://ndl.ethernet.edu.et/bitstream/123456789/45247/1/43.Michael%20Kellogg.pdf |archive-date= 1 April 2025 }}
*{{Cite book|last=Koop|first=Volker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_8WDQAAQBAJ|title=Alfred Rosenberg: Der Wegbereiter des Holocaust. Eine Biographie|date=2016|publisher=Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar|isbn=978-3-412-50549-3|language=de}}
* {{cite book | last = Manvell | first = Roger | title = Goering | publisher = Skyhorse | year = 2011 | orig-date = 1962 | isbn = 978-1-61608-109-6 }}
* {{Cite book |author= Nova, Fritz|title= Alfred Rosenberg: Nazi Theorist of the Holocaust |publisher=Buccaneer Books|year= 1986|isbn= 0-87052-222-1}}
* {{cite book | last=Overy | first=Richard J. | author-link=Richard Overy | title=The Battle of Britain: The Myth and the Reality | location=New York | publisher=W.W. Norton | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-393-02008-3 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Piper|first=Ernst|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LhWPCgAAQBAJ|title=Alfred Rosenberg: Hitlers Chefideologe|date=2015|publisher=Allitera Verlag|isbn=978-3-86906-767-4|language=de}}
* {{cite book | last = Speer | first = Albert | author-link = Albert Speer | orig-date = 1969 | year = 1971 | title = Inside the Third Reich | publisher = Avon | location = New York | isbn = 978-0-380-00071-5 | title-link = Inside the Third Reich }}
* {{Cite book |author= Rosenberg, Alfred|title= Der Mythus des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts|year= 1930|title-link= Myth of the Twentieth Century}}
* {{Cite book |author= Rothfeder, Herbert P.|title= A Study of Alfred Rosenberg's Organization for National Socialist Ideology (Michigan, Phil. Diss. 1963)|publisher= University Microfilms, Ann Arbor|year= 1963}}
* {{Cite book |author= Rothfeder, Herbert P.|title= Amt Schrifttumspflege: A Study in Literary Control, in: German Studies Review. Vol. IV, Nr. 1, Febr. 1981, p. 63–78|year= 1981}}
* {{Cite book |last=Steigmann-Gall |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Steigmann-Gall |title= The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year= 2003|isbn= 0-521-82371-4}}
* {{Cite book |author= Whisker, James B.|title= The Philosophy of Alfred Rosenberg |publisher=Noontide Press|year= 1990|isbn= 0-939482-25-8}}
* {{Cite book |author1= Wittman, Robert K.|author2= David Kinney|title= The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich |publisher=William Collins|year= 2016|isbn= 978-0-00757-560-2}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Alfred Rosenberg}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Alfred Ernst Rosenberg}}
* Personal diary found by ICE 13 June 2013 [http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140919202142/http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1306/130613wilmington.htm |date=19 September 2014 }}
* [https://archive.org/details/AlfredRosenbergMemoirsAndNurembergTrial/ Alfred Rosenberg Memoirs] at Archive.org
*United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007123 Alfred Rosenberg]
* {{IMDb name|0742169|Alfred Rosenberg}}
* [http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/schul05.htm Rosenberg on Churchill] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102194424/http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/schul05.htm |date=2 January 2014 }}
* [https://ww2gravestone.com/people/rosenberg-alfred-ernst/ Alfred Rosenberg - photo]
* [http://kwidzynopedia.pl/index.php/Tytus_L_Rosenberg Great Grandchild  Tytus L Rosenberg]
* [http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/rpt27a.htm Rosenberg on Nuremberg Rally] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121007011329/http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/rpt27a.htm |date=7 October 2012 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120927235733/http://www.savageleft.com/poli/watw-five.html Chapter V, Faith and Thought in National Socialist Germany], [[The War Against the West]], [[Aurel Kolnai]]
* {{PM20|FID=pe/014971}}
* {{ReichstagDB|118602691}}

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[[Category:German political philosophers]]
[[Category:German political writers]]
[[Category:Kirchenkampf]]
[[Category:Pseudoarchaeologists]]
[[Category:Thule Society members]]
[[Category:Sturmabteilung officers]]
[[Category:Members of the Academy for German Law]]
[[Category:Riga Technical University alumni]]
[[Category:Bauman Moscow State Technical University alumni]]
[[Category:Nazis who participated in the Beer Hall Putsch]]
[[Category:Holocaust perpetrators]]
[[Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:German people convicted of the international crime of aggression]]
[[Category:Nazis convicted of war crimes]]
[[Category:People executed by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg]]
[[Category:People executed for crimes against humanity]]
[[Category:Executed German mass murderers]]
[[Category:Anti-Christian sentiment in Germany]]
[[Category:Armenian genocide and the Holocaust]]
[[Category:People from the Governorate of Estonia]]