Paganism is a peoples religion. For the most part, it is not a
religion that has an ornate hierarchical organization. Paganism
characterizes people that are not primarily literate, or do not
emphasize literacy. Instead, the followers of paganism place high
priority upon the natural phenomenon that surround them: The sun,
moon, seasons, wind, water, rivers, lakes, animals such as snakes
and bees, plants, and phenomena such as fire, ice, rain storms,
lightening, aurora borealis, sexuality (as a phenomena of fertility).
1
Thus youth (babies), old age, etc. are respected. Paganism is
universal, found throughout the world. Insofar as has been
discussed, who cannot respect paganism? We are all poets of nature.
When, towards the end of World War I, the Germans were fighting in
the East, a colonial state was in the process of being created:
Ober OST, Ostfront, the OSTmark or the marches (boundaries) of the OST. The
creation of this colonial state was led at the top by General Erich
Ludendorff. The lower level troops encountered the peasants of
Lithuania. These peasants were pagans. What the Germans encountered
was a people they could not really understand, and what typically
happens when people viewing themselves as "advanced" (deserving of
privilege) encounter people they neither understand nor respect, their
views were negatively biased. The Germans saw these Lithuanians as
disordered, with a lack of cleanliness, incapable, even criminal.
2 The
view was that these Lithuanian peasants did not make proper use of the
land, an unordered, inefficient use of the land, thus deserved no proper
claim upon the land (based upon the views of John Locke, Hugo Grotius,
and Samuel Freiherr von Puffendorf). 3
Views that were later to be emphasized in the OST during World War II
in the Warthaland OST colony, directed against Poles, Slaves, Jews, etc.
As Hitler said, like "Indians" in the Americas: marked to be destroyed.
Like Freidrich the Great said: Like the Iroquois, destined to be destroyed.
What were some of the things that the Germans observed in Ober OST
that formed a basis for their negative opinions of the native peoples
they encountered? Many things that the Germans did not respect were
based upon their negative views of paganism. Some of these things
included:
Use of the Zocha (Hake plough, a primitive plough), as opposed
to a more modern German iron swing plough
click to see6
Baum kuchen (not understanding its meaning)
click to see7
1
The Fire Rite was performed every Sunday at 5pm on Gediminas grave
hill, in Vilnius, Lithuania.
2
"War Land on the Eastern Front: Culture, National Identity and German
Occupation in World War I", Vejas Gabriel Liulevicius, p. 105
3
ibid., p. 97
4
ibid., p. 38
5
ibid., p. 69
6
ibid., p. 70
Žemyna (derived from žeme – earth) is the
goddess of the earth in Lithuanian paganism. Žemyna's image and
functions became influenced by the Christian Virgin Mary. Thus it
was prohibited to plough or sow before the first thunder as the
earth would be barren.
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