Collective Memory, Arminius of the Cherusci, and Asatru

Arminius was a Germanic tribal chieftain of the Cherusci tribe. Arminius achieved renown for leading a unified Germanic force to victory against an army of Roman soldiers at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 ce. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest halted Roman imperial expansion into Germania, which allowed for the long-term development of various distinctive Germanic cultures and identities beyond the reach of lasting Roman influence and rule. Twentieth-century Nazis employed Arminius’s memory as a propaganda tool for Germanunification. Today, the politicization of Arminius’s memory is not dead. Asatru Folk Assembly (AFA) leadership employ the history and memory of Arminius as a unification symbol and tool for White community building and formation. By imparting characteristics like loyalty and self-sacrifice, AFA leadership encourages members to prioritize AFA organizational needs and goals above individual needs and goals, including the continuation of good connections to family, and particularly with regard to job acquisition and retention in the face of the potential stigma that comes with membership in a racist organization. The AFA’s employment of history and memory for White community building is a form of identity politics. The fact that the AFA has conceptualized a White AFA community by employing the term “Asafolk nation” indicates AFA’s use of Arminius’s memory and history as a tool for realizing nationalistic AFA aspirations, which further demonstrates that the AFA is a political organization.