BULWARK AGAINST RACISM? HUMBOLDT'S INFLUENCE ON THE RACIAL NOTIONS OF GERMAN WRITERS IN MEXICO (1920s–1940s)

Abstract

Alexander von Humboldt was regarded as an anti-fascist symbol among German-speaking exiles who, fleeing persecution from the Nazi regime, found refuge in Mexico. Humboldt's legacy was read as being an endorsement of the country's struggle for political and cultural emancipation, while his famously anti-racist stance proved helpful in framing the exiles’ unprecedented encounter with Mexico's indigenous peoples. Moreover, as I argue, Humboldt's approach to creating knowledge indicated a willingness to treat non-Europeans as intellectual peers, paving the way for a more egalitarian relationship between Germans and Mexicans. Yet the legacy of Humboldt, as will be seen with reference to several German writers between the 1920s and 1940s, was far from being an unfailing antidote to both racist attitudes or the tendency to exoticise. These tensions will be exemplified through works by Alfons Goldschmidt, B. Traven, Egon Erwin Kisch, Ludwig Renn and Gustav Regler, using novel sources and calling into question some of the established truths in the literature about German exiles in Mexico. In particular, I will show why Goldschmidt was considered by fellow exiles to be Humboldt's successor, insofar as both gave a political and ethical dimension to scientific practice.