blood and soil

noun

A nationalist, often fascist, ideology that sees genetic heritage (blood) and geographic territory (soil) as the most important values of a nation, typically associated with the idealisation of racial “purity”, reproductive fertility, agriculture and belligerence; examples include Nazism (cf. the concept of Lebensraum) and white nationalism in the United States.

OriginGerman Blut und Boden →
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Meanings

nounblood and soil (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA nationalist, often fascist, ideology that sees genetic heritage (blood) and geographic territory (soil) as the most important values of a nation, typically associated with the idealisation of racial “purity”, reproductive fertility, agriculture and belligerence; examples include Nazism (cf. the concept of Lebensraum) and white nationalism in the United States.

    Representatives of this line of thought around the world are, in many cases, echoing eco-fascist ideas that themselves are rooted in an earlier age of blood-and-soil nationalism.

    2021 November 21, Oliver Milman, “Climate denial is waning on the right. What’s replacing it might be just as scary”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 29 Mar 2022
    2 more examples

    Originator of the Nazi blood-and-soil racial theory, Richard Walther Darre became Agriculture Minister in July, 1933, and announced that his chief aim was to make Germany independent of the world in respect to her food supplies.

    1953 September 6, “R.W. Darre Dead; Hitler Minister”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

    Mr. Ramaswamy assailed the idea as a “blood and soil” conception of citizenship, one that is “un-American at its core” and “about as loony as anything the woke left has actually put up.”

    2025 December 20, Richard Fausset, Ken Bensinger, quoting Vivek Ramaswamy, “Turning Point’s Annual Gathering Turns Into a Gripefest”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Dec 2025

Origin

  1. GermanBlut und Boden
  2. Englishblood and soil

Calque of German Blut und Boden, a slogan of the Völkisch movement (including the Nazi Party), chiefly since the 1920s.

More words from German

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 血與土 /血与土
  • 血與土 /血与土 (xuèyǔtǔ)nationalist mantra
German Blut und Boden
  • Blut und Bodennationalist mantra
Russian кровь и почва
  • кровь и почва (krovʹ i počva)nationalist mantra
Swedish blod och jord
  • blod och jordnationalist mantra
Cite this entry
APA

blood and soil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blood%20and%20soil

MLA

“blood and soil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blood%20and%20soil. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “blood and soil,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/blood%20and%20soil.

Source: blood and soil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.