Sigrtd Hunke (1913-1999) Europe's New Rellgion and its Old Stereotypes HoTstJUNGINGER 1. Introductlo! Sigrid .Hunke is a well-known literary figure in Germany. She has written seve_ralbooks dealing with the subject of European identity. Especially her publications about the relation between Europe and the Arab world -have achieved great success. In addition to her aciivities as an author. Hunke played, and stili plays, arr important role in the religious movement of the German Unitarians. Not to be confused with the British or North American Unitarians, the German Unitaianism of Hunke criticizes Christianity as to- tally alien to the European mind. The ,Judeo-Christian" world view is ac- cused- of having brouglt into the world an unnatural segregation of the Holy and the profane, leading to materialism and the debasement of all spiritual values. The only possibility for Europe to overcome this profanation ii to re- tum to its pagan tradition and to strip off the foreign rule which is seen as the result of Christianization. 2. Voelldsb Groundlag Born in 1913 in Kiel, the daughter of the publisher Heinrich Hunke, Sigrid Hunke studied psychologr, philosophy, and journa-lism at the universities of Kiel, Freiburg, and Berlin from 1934 on. She was a leading member of the National Socialrst German Student Union {NSDSIB) and worked for its. public relations office, first on a local level and then, until 1938. within the -Berlin ,Gaustudentenführung." Here she acquired contact with the press and the public, developing a quite fluency in her style of expression. These capabili- ties promoted her literar5r success a.fter the war too. On May 1, 1937 Hunke joined the NSDAP.l Hunke's main academic teachers had been Hermann Mandel (1882- 1946), a Protestant Theologian, and Ludwig Ferdinand Clauss {1892-1974). Besides Hans F. K. Günther, Clauss became one of the most inlluential race theorists in Nazi Germany. He wrote numerous books on racial topics, with a huge number of copies sold. Clauss, lecturing from 1936 on at the Berlin university, was a good-looking, wealthy and traveled young scholar who fre- quently impressed his female students. The German historian Helmut Heiber mentions an attempt of Hunke from December 1937 to meet Adolf Hitler personally in order to call the ,Führer's" attention to her inspiring teacher and, according to Heiber, she was hindered only by Hitler's adjutant Wilhelm Brückner in so doing.2 No. 5279618, membership applied on Octob€r 16, 1937 in Berlin. The quoted data are taken of Hunke's pe$onal files at the Federsl Archives Berlin (the former Berlin Document Center) and the Archives of the Berlin Humboldt-Univeßity. Infomation concerning her curriculum vitae is also to be found in Munzinge/s biogaphical cälendar, in the Küßchner-manual, and in the app€ndü to her dbsedation. Helmut Heiber, Universität unterm Hakenkreuz, Teil I (München, l99l), p. 482i