ABSTRACT
In German imaginations, Europe had been among other things a promise of socialism, a liberal democratic project, a process of spiritual renewal, a racial community, a German-led economic union, a war-economic necessity, and the supposedly doomed origin of most cultural achievements. Alternative ways of speaking about and imagining the future of Europe mushroomed in the wake of the interpretive repertoire of the war effort gaining weight. The German New Order discourse during the Second World War was a struggle for interpretational sovereignty over German war aims and the future of Europe. The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 indeed marks a turning point in the National Socialist New Order discourse. Germany would have stood on top of this order, the reorganisation of Europe would have benefited Germany the most, and German attempts at harmonisation modelled Europe on the German system.
