To the "lazy warrior."
Hansen's excerpt from his book "Julius Evola et la Révolution
Conservatrice Allemande" in English:
The present letter is written in German, and we know that Evola, at
that time, practised this language well enough.
Moreover, at the same period, Evola and Rafaël Spann knew each other
already. We thus assume that the following letter was meant to R. Spann.
This assumption is supported above all by another letter by Rafaël
Spann to the "anonymous Italian", this time dating from February 12
1935, and always written in German. R. Spann writes about Costamagna:
"It should already have been arranged…"
In fact, Othmar Spann was supposed to publish an article in Lo Stato,
a magazine to which Evola had already been collaborating.
Keeping this information in mind, we could consider from a different
angle Evola's desire to affirm his own theory of race. It is also in
this respect that the later project of a magazine of racial studies
published in Italian and in German, Sangue e Spirit / Blut und Geist,
should be considered, a project which was banned, after it had
received a preliminary authorization, without any official reason, but
probably because of Evola's statements (mentioned above) on Italy and
the reprobation they raised.
Perhaps there did indeed exist something like a "conservative
revolutionary" front against the racial concepts of
national-socialism, concepts which raised indignation worldwide and
which had as an "intellectual representative" Alfred Rosenberg, the
author of "Myth of the 20th century", a book qualified within Spann's
circle, according to the secret report mentioned, as "idiotic." All of
this would also explain the very critical article by Evola (not
signed) on Rosenberg, which featured in the Lo Stato, in 1935 exactly.
The concerted actions against Othmar Spann did not take too long to
appear. In "Myth of the 20th century", Rosenberg had already attacked
the "new intellectualist scholasticism" and targeted the
"universalism" of Spann, accusing him of having given more importance
to religion than to the Volkstum ["the essence of the people"]. But it
wasn't until 1938 that a heavy campaign against Spann could be seen.
It consisted of the official daily newspaper of the NSDAP, the
Volkische Beobachter, as well as the weekly Das Schwarze Korps, an
official organ of the SS. Even specialized magazines on economy and
law were mobilized. Das Schwarze Korps, for instance, wrote about the
disciples of Spann: "They operate their decisions solely from the
spiritual perspective […] value but the Intellect […], avoid every
narrow contact with the people. […] Those speechifiers are dangerous,
because of the heavy thirst for cultural information of our people and
of its open-mindedness concerning issues dealing with Spirit and
worldviews."
Spann himself was named "warrior of the class of the Spirit". The
hostile atmosphere became very clear the day the German troops marched
on Vienna, where Othmar Spann and Walter Heinrich were arrested and
jailed. It is not the first time that we come across the name Walter
Heinrich here. He knew Evola maybe in 1934-1935 (perhaps even
earlier, in Rome), when the latter made a conference at the University
of Vienna, as has been indicated to us by a woman who belonged to
Spann's circle. This lady assisted personally to the conference, along
with other disciples of Spann. She also made it known to us that
Evola's German was, at that time, slightly vague, but that it improved
thereafter. She still remembers Evola's physical appearance,
particularly refined, and his wear of a monocle.
We may suppose that Evola and Heinrich exchanged a long
correspondence, especially if we keep into consideration the frequent
voyages of the latter to Italy.
It seems, unfortunately, that that correspondence has been lost.
(…)