The aim of the article is to examine the significance of “lesser known mountains”, namely Castle Mount, Queen Bona Mount and Mount Grabarka in the cultural consciousness of people living in eastern Poland at the turn of the 20th century (Podlasie and Volhynia). In folk tales the symbolism of the mountains was associated with the extraterrestrial world. Mountains aroused fear; they were regarded as the abodes of evil spirits and places where souls of sinners did their penance and wandered. With time the symbolism of the mountains among people living in eastern Poland began to change. At the turn of the century attempts were made to rationalise the perception of nature as well as to tame it and subordinate it to humans. Examples of such an approach include Zygmunt Gloger’s ethnographic descriptions of e.g. Castle Mount near Drohiczyn. Queen Bona Mount was to be found in Podlasie and Volhynia. A literary illustration by Halina Micińska-Kenar, entitled Pod górą królowej Bony [At the Foot of Queen Bona Mount], explores fear of the unknown — a mountain dominating the town — as well as the path of humans’ spiritual development through overcoming their weaknesses and ascending the peak. Often mountains were also associated with divine locations. An example is Mount Grabarka (Podlasie), from which flows a holy spring, symbolising a holy place and a place of remembrance. An analysis of the symbolism of the mountains in Poland’s eastern region shows what places were and are regarded as mountains as well as why and what significance was attributed to these “smaller mountains” in the cultural consciousness of people living in these regions at the turn of the 20th century.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the problem of the conceptualization of National Socialism as a quasi-religion, a political religion. The author outlines the process of creating the cult of the superhuman leader in the Nazi state of the Third Reich. It is commonly known that the cult of the leader existed in the Third Reich but particularly interesting is the question of how the Führer came to be perceived as a supra-natural being. An important issue which is not overlooked in the article concerns the policy of the Third Reich’s authorities who — through the mysticism of their ideology — tried to inculcate the German people with the Aryan ideal of human being who had to be strong, proud and heroic. The leader, glorified by the society, was a living embodiment of this ideal. He, by officiating over grandiloquent rituals and public ceremonies and performing the priest-like role, was transcending the boundary between the two worlds. All these efforts served to enslave the human mind. Thanks to this, the Nazis could achieve their objectives. The religion was one of the instruments used to propagate the National Socialist outlook. The author performs a comparative analysis of religion and these elements of the Nazi system which exhibited religious features in order to find an answer to the question of whether National Socialism was a quasi-religion or a political religion.
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