The French aristocrat Arthur de Gobineau developed a set of ideas that were influential during his life and some of them that impacted later social thinkers, such politicians, anthropologists, and sociologists. While still alive, he was a major influence on "Gobinism", also known as Gobineauism, an academic, political and social movement formed in 19th-century Germany.[1] An ethnically pro-Germanic, anti-national and particularly anti-French ideology,[2] the movement influenced German nationalists and intellectuals such as Richard Wagner, Friedrich Nietzsche[3] and the precursor of Zionism, Moses Hess.[4]
Chamberlain's writings and the political movement of Gobineauism had a direct bearing on Nazi ideology.
The consistent antinational trend of Gobinism served to equip the enemies of French democracy and, later, of the Third Republic, with real or fictitious allies beyond the frontiers of their country
Gobineau was undoubtedly the most influential academic racist of the nineteenth century. His writings strongly affected such intellectuals as Wanger and Nietzsche and inspired a social movement known as Gobinism.