In the Face of Tragedy – Nanga Parbat and National Socialist Radio

During the 1930s, Nanga Parbat, like no other mountain, captured the imagination of German mountaineers, mountaineering officials, and the public alike. Referred to as the ‘mountain of destiny’ due to repeat disasters striking German expeditions in 1934 and 1937 and a resulting death toll of 26 mountaineers and porters, the mountain occupied a prominent position in the German public imagination of the period. By expanding on existing research on the representations of Nanga Parbat in print and film and tracing a third path of Nanga Parbat into the German imagination via radio, the coverage of 1930s Nanga Parbat expeditions in the German media shall be revealed as a closely coordinated campaign of German mountaineering and sports officials designed to connect the fate of German mountaineers on Nanga Parbat to the fate of the German nation and, in the process, propagate and disseminate some of the key concepts of National Socialist ideology.