I was wondering if the existence of the Soviet Union is what led to muggleborns being banned from Durmstrang. Of course it could be in canon that it was always this way, but I this idea that it could have happened in the 20s or 30s.

The KGB and its various predecessors such as the Cheka had their fingers everywhere. Maybe covering up and magically explaining away the disappearance of students may have been to odious a task to fulfil? Maybe the task required so many people they risked the Statute?

It may also have been a loyalty issue. The Soviet Union had propaganda and indoctrination down to a fine art. Maybe by school age the average Soviet raised muggleborns was too loyal to the Soviet government? The issue likely extended to the parents as well, maybe the parents kept trying to inform the authorities of "counter-revolutionaries"? Maybe students ran the risk of running afoul of the security services constantly?

Thoughts? Maybe it would make for an interesting story explaining how it happened.

 

Durmstrang us in Northern Scandinavia and Russia has its own school, Koldovstoretz.

It's anti-muggleborn stance is probably just JKR playing up the whole "Cold and Dark" feel the north brings as apposed to the warm and light feel of Beauxbatons.

It's easier to relate the harsh sounds of Nordic and Germanic names to evil.

I don't think the wizarding KGB would have anything to do with it really but then again, if you asked JKR it's exactly the sort of bullshit she'd go along with.

 

I might be wrong here, but the derivation of Durmstrang's name seems to be from the German Sturm und Drang. While I could understand it being in the Soviet Union, East Germany in particular, it would definitely have nothing to do with the Tsars. It would be cool if the school was Prussian and the military regimen and discipline of the Junkers was what caused it to be like that. The Prussians were conservative as fuck, or at least were before WWI, and their school would definitely be against getting in muggleborns and/or ingratiating themselves with the Soviets.

Pottermore simply says it's located in the far north of Europe, so maybe it means it's in Scandinavia?That would totally blow your KGB/Stasi theory, though, so I think a Prussian Durmstrang makes a lot more sense.

 

It's not so clear cut. The Prussians were also one of the first to instigate a compulsory education, so they were fairly democratic in that manner.

However, I'm against giving muggle rulers so much influence over magical affairs.

Funnily enough, a large chunk of villains in HP have French names (Voldemort, Malfoy, Lestrange, Rosier), while all founders aside from Slytherin had German names (Godric, Rowena, Helga).

 

Cool. This I didn't know.

 

Pretty sure instead of all this Russian stuff, JK wanted to show that not every school is as accepting of blood status as Hogwarts. By having a school that only caters to Pure Bloods and maybe half bloods shows this is a global issue, instead of just a couple of dickheads in Britain.

If every school was as accepting as Hogwarts and Beauxbatons then you would be asking where all the blood politics were coming from.

 

I'd also be wary of putting too much emphasis on what is ultimately recent politics. After all, it seems pretty clear that Wizard/Muggle relations have a very long history. I could just as easily buy that Durmstrang doesn't like Muggleborns because they had trouble with them due to all the religious wars in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Actually, that could make for a fun story idea. Have some Muggleborns end up backing the Catholic League and/or Evangelical Union, and proceeding to add to the already horrifying clusterfuck that was the Thirty Years War.

 

Yeah, I'd be pretty weary of putting too much emphasis on recent politics as well. But, I'd also be weary of attaching emphasis to older politics. It can be done, and done well, but there'd be a whole lot of background to cover as the Thirty year's war had a facade of religion covering the deeper division in French-Habsburg relations. Now, something could definitely be built on that, but it'd take a more thoroughly fleshing out to be viable than most authors are willing to put into fanfics.

That's a strange sentence.

 

By "democratic" I mean handling all classes (which translates to purebloods and muggleborns in this case) the same way, at least in terms of education.

 

Very true. I could see plenty of potential for fun worldbuilding when it comes to why anti-muggleborn policies exist, but unless the writer really digs into it, probably best to leave it be.

 

By very nature of wizards living long lives... rivalries and political enmity will last longer than in the muggle world.

 

No problem. I just found the juxtaposition of the two words funny.

 

Maybe egalitarian would describe that slightly better?

 

Considered it, but egalitarianism is more about seeing all people as equal, while democracy is about the law treating them as equal (among other things). However, I'm not a native English speaker and it's possible that the usage of "democratic" in this case in unique to my country.