Counter-Currents
Remembering Dominique Venner
(April 16, 1935 – May 21, 2013)
Greg Johnson
537 words
The French soldier, historian, and European patriot Dominique Venner was born on this day in 1935. He famously ended his life with a bullet on the altar of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris on May 21, 2013 to protest the demographic replacement of Europeans. Through both his life’s work and his death, Venner wished to draw attention to the demographic decline of European man and to indicate what we must be prepared to give to save our people: everything. But his death will be in vain unless it is remembered. So take this day to remember Dominique Venner: his life, his work, and his sacrifice.
Venner’s Last Words:
- “The Reasons for a Voluntary Death” (Translations: Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish)
- “The May 26 Protests and Heidegger” (French original; translations: Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Spanish)
Tributes to Venner:
- Jean-Yves Camus, “Dominique Venner & Death“
- Alain de Benoist, “Tribute to Dominique Venner” (Translations: Czech, Greek)
- Guillaume Faye, Interview on Dominique Venner (Spanish translation here)
- Guillaume Faye, “Tribute to Dominique Venner” (Translations: Czech, Greek, Spanish)
- Greg Johnson, “Suicide in the Cathedral: The Death of Dominique Venner“
- Juan Pablo Vitali, “To Dominique Venner“
Venner’s Writings at Counter-Currents:
- “L’Action française 2000 Interviews Dominique Venner“
- “Are Marriage and Children Consumer Goods?“
- “Can History Address the Problems of the Future?“
- “Céline: Literary Giant & Racial Nationalist“
- “Christmas: Beauty in Life” (Spanish translation here)
- Christopher Gérard Interviews Dominique Venner
- “Does Identity Depend on Sovereignty?“
- “The Épuration: An Intellectual & Political Purge“
- “Europe and Europeanness” (translations: Finnish, Greek, German, Portuguese)
- “Europe in Dormition“
- “For a Positive Critique,” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
- “The Franco-French & European Civil Wars“
- “The Franco-German Rivalry: A Recent Conflict“
- “François Mitterrand and the French Mystery“
- “Franco’s Failure“
- “Hitler’s Failure“
- “Homer: The European Bible,” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (German translation here)
- “The Homeric Triad” (German translation here, Portuguese translation here)
- “How are Revolutions Born?” (German translation here)
- “Implications of the Fall of Communism in Europe: A Visionary Reflection“
- “‘Indigenous’? How Dare You?” (Translations: Czech, Ukrainian)
- “An Internal Clash of Civilizations“
- “King Otto’s Trial“
- “Letter to My Friends on Identity and Sovereignty“
- “Living in Accordance with Our Traditions“
- “Love Nature, Love Life” (Greek translation here)
- “Machiavelli and the Conservative Revolution“
- “Machiavelli the European” (Ukrainian translation here)
- “The Metaphysics of Memory” (Czech translation here)
- “Nationalism & Europeanism” (Spanish translation here)
- “The National Revolution of 1940“
- “Pétain & De Gaulle: Two Figures of a Tragic Destiny“
- “A Posthumous Revenge“
- “The Punishment of the German People“
- “The Rebel: An Interview with Dominique Venner” (Translations: Czech, Portuguese)
- “Secret Aristocracies” (Translations: Czech, Russian)
- “The De-Judaization of France“
- “‘They’re All Rotten’“
- “Totalitarianism: A Specious Concept“
- “Toward a New Aristocracy” (Translations: Czech, Portuguese)
- “The Unforeseen, The Chinese, and the Favorable Moment“
- “Violence and ‘Soft Commerce,'” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- “The Warrior and the City” (Translations: Portuguese, Spanish)
- “The Yogi and the Commissar“
- “Zen, the Samurai Ethos, & Death“
More About Venner:
- Patrick Le Brun, “2013: A Dark Year Before the Dawn“
- John Morgan, “Which Traditional Britain?“
- Michael O’Meara, “Another European Destiny: Dominique Venner’s Ernst Jünger: Un autre destin européen“
- Michael O’Meara, “Arms and Being“
- Michael O’Meara, “A Breviary for the Unvanquished“
- Michael O’Meara, “From Nihilism to Tradition: Dominique Venner’s Histoire et tradition des européennes” (Czech translation here)
- Michael O’Meara, “Foundations of the Twenty-First Century: Dominique Venner’s Le Siècle de 1914” (French version here)
- Michael O’Meara, “The Shock of History“
See also articles tagged Dominique Venner.
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11 comments
It is very praiseworthy that Counter-Currents continues to remember Dominique Venner.
This noble, wise, and good man poured himself out for us like fine wine, begrudging nothing. Dominique Venner deserves to be remembered with admiration and gratitude, and sustaining his memory will only do us good.
Dear Greg Johnson,
I am glad that you continue to celebrate birthday of important people who support white nationalism and nationalism for all races.
You seem to have forgotten some birthdays that haven’t been celebrated at CCP for awhile. Here are some of them: Adolf Hitler, William Luther Pierce, George Lincoln Rockwell, Lothrop Stoddard, Madison Grant, Percy Reginald Stephensen, Henry Williamson, Richard Strauss, John Philippe Rushton, and Raymond Cattell.
Here are some birthdays you should consider adding to your list: Alfred Rosenberg, Albert Speer, Arno Breker, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess, Wernher von Braun, Walter and Reimar Horten and Arthur Jensen.
This was a powerful comment to the post containing Venner’s last words:
TeiwazMay 22, 2013 at 6:05 am
The significance of Venner’s action is not to so much to be measured by its impact on the general public, as by its significance for those who are called to lead it. They are the ones who most of all should feel “addressed” by his gesture.
Throughout his life, Venner set an example of leadership. In this last act, he set an example of total commitment. He showed that there are values higher than the safety, the well-being, and even the life itself of the individual, and that to speak of such values is not merely an intellectual pose or sterile rhetoric. All of his writings will henceforth be read in the light of this last action. The way in which he died will forever serve as a proof and unquestionable guarantee of the authenticity of his work and his struggle.
In this sense, he is now one of the figures through which our conscience speaks to us. All of our acts of compromise must now be seen alongside the standard set by his total commitment. He is a figure of truth and authenticity in an age of lies.
Thank you for that. Inspiring, courageous and beautiful words indeed.
While I respect Venner, and intend to peruse more of the excellent archive of his works contained here at CC, I find myself among those who believe he could have chosen a better way to go. A suicidal man is a powerful man. What if he had executed a very well known French race replacer-advocate, a politician or magazine editor, for treason, and then calmly surrendered to the police? He would have had a trial, right? It would likely have been extensively covered in the French media, both print and television. Imagine the impact a man of his character, erudition and commitment could have made on the stand! How many Frenchmen (and others) might have been awakened and inspired, as compared to the tiny number who have understood the deeper significance of this seemingly useless gesture by a partisan of a doomed cause?
Of course, maybe Venner simply didn’t want to be a burden to his family by bringing public disapproval upon them. Or didn’t want to spend his final years in prison. It’s hard to know how to evaluate his last act. I think he should have eschewed the dramatic, and simply soldiered on as before. But I am just a probably hopelessly parochial American.
Japan didn’t wake up with Mishima’s suicide, and France didn’t wake up with Venner’s. It’s not an effective tactic. To most people it just looks like you’re mad.
Yes, these tests show that this tactic does not work.
What was reasonable for Dominique Venner to try, after having written his fifty books, after having run out of other useful things to do to help the White race and France, and without knowing the result, would not be reasonable for a young man who has not written his books and taken care of his family, who has potentially other ideas to try, and who does know that this was a tactic that others paid the price to test and find ineffective.
Venner killed himself in the middle of the “gay marriage” movement in France, to which he was ferociously opposed. This was the last topic he addressed on his blog before his suicide. To leave out this part of his stated motivations seems strange.
Venner made it clear that this was not his motive. Strange that you should leave that out.
I wish more of Venner’s history books were translated. “The Shock of History” is very profound and inspiring.
Let us remember Venner, but let us not imitate him. However someone might interpret his act, outwardly it looked like an act of desperation, and it emboldens our enemies. I understand that Venner was old, but the message he had sent was not the one that we are stiff and ready to fight back.
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