AI Summary & Key Takeaways
AI InsightIn the latter case, God-like qualities were attributed to the founder of a specific group of Reich citizens.
📌 3 Key Takeaways
Abstract
This article examines using the Internet whether or not, the extent to which, and in what form Reich citizens use religious language in their texts. To this end, the article will first define religious language in more detail. On the basis of current constitutional protection reports in the Federal Republic of Germany and an evaluation of sources of known Reich citizens, the article has identified a total of 34 Internet domains that will serve as the basis for the investigation. The pilot investigation first examined four lexemes in terms of their distributions in the texts of these domains and showed the religious lexises in a third of the investigated domains to obviously be of no or only secondary importance. This group of domains was not reconsidered in the further investigation with regard to the use of religious language. Another third of the texts showed the religious lexises to be relevant, while the remaining third revealed the religious lexis to even be highly common. The in-depth analysis then proved the frequency of a broader spectrum of religious lexises. The article then exemplified the specific contexts of their uses. With regard to religious argumentation, the article lastly examined the three domains with high frequency religious lexises in more detail. This revealed very different concepts of how religious topics are used to legitimize the ideology of Reich citizens, namely as a justification for völkisch [ethnic] concepts, as higher knowledge, and even as part of Reich citizens’ identity. In the latter case, God-like qualities were attributed to the founder of a specific group of Reich citizens.