Artamanen-Gesellschaft (Artaman League) was a German agrarian and völkisch movement dedicated to a 'Blood and Soil' inspired ruralism.

Active during the inter-war period, the League became closely linked to, and eventually absorbed by, the NSDAP

The term Artamanen had been coined before the First World War by Dr. Willibald Hentschel, a believer in racial purity, who had founded his own group, the 'Mittgart Society', in 1906.

The society itself was not formed until 1923, even though Willibald's ideas were somewhat older.

The Artamans were part of the German Youth Movement, representing its more right-wing back-to-the-land elements.

Under the leadership of Georg Kenstler they advocated blood and soil policies with a strong undercurrent of Anti-Slavism.

This völkisch movement believed that the decline of the Aryan race could only be halted by encouraging people to abandon city life in favour of settling in the rural areas in the east.

Whilst members wished to perform agricultural labour as an alternative to military service they also saw it as part of their duty to violently oppose Slavs and to drive them out of Germany.

As such the League sent German youth to work on the land in Saxony and East Prussia, in an attempt to prevent these areas being settled by Poles.

To this end 2000 settlers were sent to Saxony in 1924, to both work on farms and serve as an anti-Slav militia.

They also gave classes on importance of racial purity and the Nordic race, and the corrupting influence of city living and Jews.

Like many similar right-wing youth movements in Germany the Artaman League lost impetus as the NSDAP grew. By 1927, 80% of its membership had become National Socialists.

As such the League had disappeared by the early 1930s with most of its membership having switched to the NSDAP.

In the late 1920s, some of the Artamans were drawn deeper into politics, and engaged in a holy war against their enemies: liberals, democrats, Free-Masons and Jews.