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| '''Nazism''' was the ] held by the ] (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'', commonly called NSDAP or the Nazi Party), which was led by its ] (leader), ]. The word ''Nazism'' is most often used in connection with the ] of ] from ] to ] (the "]"), and it |
'''Nazism''' was the ] held by the ] (''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'', commonly called NSDAP or the Nazi Party), which was led by its ] (leader), ]. The word ''Nazism'' is most often used in connection with the ] of ] from ] to ] (the "]"), and it tfttttttyrtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttis derived from the term '''National Socialism''' (]: '''''Na'''tionalso'''zi'''alismus'', often abbreviated ''NS''). Adherents of the Nazi ideology held that the ] was superior to other races, and they promoted ] racial supremacy and a strong, centrally governed state. Nazism has been outlawed in modern Germany (including all types of its propaganda), yet small remnants and revivalists, known as "]", continue to operate in Germany and abroad. | ||
| Originally, ''Nazi'' was invented by analogy to ''Sozi'' (a common and slightly derogatory term for the Nazis' main opponents, the ]s in Germany). The Nazis from the era of the ] rarely referred to themselves as "Nazis", preferring the official term "National Socialists" instead. ''Nazi'' was most commonly used as a pejorative term; however, its use became so widespread that, currently, some ] also use it to describe themselves. | Originally, ''Nazi'' was invented by analogy to ''Sozi'' (a common and slightly derogatory term for the Nazis' main opponents, the ]s in Germany). The Nazis from the era of the ] rarely referred to themselves as "Nazis", preferring the official term "National Socialists" instead. ''Nazi'' was most commonly used as a pejorative term; however, its use became so widespread that, currently, some ] also use it to describe themselves. | ||
Revision as of 09:49, 10 May 2006
- The term "National Socialism" has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation).
Nazism was the ideology held by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, commonly called NSDAP or the Nazi Party), which was led by its Führer (leader), Adolf Hitler. The word Nazism is most often used in connection with the government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 (the "Third Reich"), and it tfttttttyrtttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttis derived from the term National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus, often abbreviated NS). Adherents of the Nazi ideology held that the Aryan race was superior to other races, and they promoted Germanic racial supremacy and a strong, centrally governed state. Nazism has been outlawed in modern Germany (including all types of its propaganda), yet small remnants and revivalists, known as "Neo-Nazis", continue to operate in Germany and abroad.
Originally, Nazi was invented by analogy to Sozi (a common and slightly derogatory term for the Nazis' main opponents, the socialists in Germany). The Nazis from the era of the Third Reich rarely referred to themselves as "Nazis", preferring the official term "National Socialists" instead. Nazi was most commonly used as a pejorative term; however, its use became so widespread that, currently, some Neo-Nazis also use it to describe themselves.
Since World War II, in which Nazi Germany was allied with Fascist Italy, there has been a widely held view among historians and the general population that Nazism and Fascism are closely related. The term Fascism is often used in a very broad sense, to refer to a variety of authoritarian nationalist political movements that exist or existed in many countries. As such, Nazism is usually classified as a particular version of Fascism.
However, if one restricts the definition of Fascism to those movements and governments that called themselves Fascist (e.g. Benito Mussolini's regime in Italy and the British Union of Fascists), a number of differences between Nazism and Fascism can be observed. Fascists tended to believe that all elements in society should be unified through Corporatism to form an "Organic State"; this meant that Fascists often had no strong opinion on the question of race, as it was only the State and nation that mattered. Nazism, on the other hand, emphasized the Aryan race or "Volk" over state to the point where the state simply became a means through which the Aryan race could realize its true destiny. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany came close to war against each other in 1934, when the Austrofascist Chancellor of Austria Englebert Dolfuss was assassinated on Hitler's orders.
Nazi theory
According to Mein Kampf (My Struggle), first published in 1925, Hitler developed his political theories during a short stay in prison. Hitler outlined his views based on a racial, religious, and cultural hierarchy, placing "Aryans" at the top as the superior race, and Jews, "Gypsies" or the Roma, and Slavic people at the bottom. His political policies emerged after closely examining and questioning the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Hitler was born as a citizen of the Empire, and experienced the weakening through ethnic and linguistic diversity. Further, he saw democracy as a destabilizing force because it placed power in the hands of ethnic minorities who, he claimed, "weakened and destabilized" the Empire by dividing it against itself. These ideologies emerged at a critical time for Germany, having just lost the first World War and then entering a period of great economic depression.
The Nazi rationale was heavily invested in the militarist belief that great nations grow from military power, which in turn grows "naturally" from "rational, civilized cultures". Hitler's calls appealed to disgruntled German nationalists, eager to save face resulting from Germany's defeat in World War I and to salvage the militaristic nationalist mindset of that previous era. After Austria's and Germany's defeat in World War I, many Germans still had heartfelt ties to the goal of creating a greater Germany and thought that the use of military force was necessary to achieve it.
Many placed the blame for Germany's misfortunes on those, such as Jews and communists, whom they perceived, in one way or another, to have sabotaged the goal of national victory by obtaining a stranglehold on the national economy and using the nation's own resources to control and corrupt it.
Alfred Rosenberg's racial philosophy wholly embraced the Aryan Invasion Theory, which traced Aryan peoples in ancient Iran invading the Indus Valley Civilization of India, and carrying with them great knowledge and science that had been preserved from the antediluvian world. This "antediluvian world" referred to Thule, the speculative pre-Flood/Ice Age origin of the Aryan race, and is often tied to ideas of Atlantis. Most of the leadership and the founders of the Nazi Party were made up of members of the "Thule Gesellschaft" (the Thule Society), which romanticized the Aryan race through theology and ritual.
Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations) were the creation of homogeneous populations of great races, working together. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits". The weakest nations, Hitler said, were those of impure or mongrel races, because they had divided, quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and so called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben (Life-unworthy life) owing to their perceived deficiency and inferiority, as well as their wandering, nationless invasions ("the International Jew"). The persecution of homosexuals as part of the Holocaust has seen increasing scholarly attention since the 1990s.
According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage multilingualism and multiculturalism within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races he thought of as less worthy to exist than "master races". In particular, if a master race should require room to live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior indigenous races.
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In the "The Unpublished Sequel to Mein Kampf", Hitler drew parallels between Lebensraum and the American ethnic cleansing and relocation policies towards the Native Americans, which he saw as key to the success of the U.S. Hitler had always admired the Americans for their treatment of the Native Americans, and considered America to be a shining example of what Germany's ambitions should be. Hitler often compared his Lebensraum policies to the Manifest Destiny policy of the United States, in which the ultimate destiny of the American people was to expand west and defeat the Indians.
"Races without homelands", Hitler proclaimed, were "parasitic races", and the richer the members of a "parasitic race" were, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race" could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazis' later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, the homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories in the Holocaust. Hitler and his living space doctrine found immense popularity among the German population. The Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS and other German soldiers as well as civilian paramilitary groups in occupied territories were responsible for the deaths of an estimated eleven million men, women, and children in concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, and death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka.
Hitler extended his rationalizations into religious doctrine, claiming that those who agreed with and taught his "truths", were "true" or "master" religions, because they would "create mastery" by avoiding comforting lies. Those who preached love and tolerance, "in contravention to the facts", were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognized these "truths", Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader", and those who denied it were said to be "natural slaves". "Slaves" – especially intelligent ones, he claimed – were always attempting to hinder their masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines.
The ideological roots which became German "National Socialism" were based on numerous sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th Century idealism, and from a biological reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the goal of an Übermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden (Germanic Order) or the Thule society. He also adopted many populist ideas such as limiting profits, abolishing rents and generously increasing social benefits - but only for Germans.
Hitler's theories were not only attractive to Germans: people in positions of wealth and power in other nations are said to have seen them as beneficial. Examples are Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oréal. Nevertheless, the support for these theories was highest among the general population of Germany.
It must be noted that Nazism, as a doctrine is far from being homogeneous and can indeed be divided into various sub-ideologies. During the 20s and 30s, there were two dominant NSDAP factions. There were the followers of Otto Strasser, the so-called Strasserites and the followers of Adolf Hitler or what could be termed Hitlerites.
The Strasserite faction eventually fell afoul of Hitler, when Otto Strasser was expelled from the party in 1930, and his attempt to create an oppositional 'left-block' in the form of the Black Front failed. The remainder of the faction, which was to be found mainly in the ranks of the SA was purged in the Night of the long knives, which also saw the murder of Gregor Strasser Otto's brother. After this point, the Hitlerite faction became dominant.
In the post war era, Strasserism has enjoyed something of a revival with many neo-Nazi groups openly proclaiming themselves to be 'Strasserite'. Whether they genuinely eschrew Hitlerism in favour of Strasserism, or whether they simply think that by distancing Nazism from Hitler they can somehow make the ideology more acceptable is a matter of intense debate however.
The role of homosexuals in the Nazi Party and is considered anecdotal by most historians. Some tiny groups, like the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, and authors Scott Lively and Kevin E. Abrams in The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, (ISBN 0964760932), argue that many homosexuals were involved in the inner circle of the Nazi party: Ernst Röhm of the SA (whose execution was thinly rationalized as being based on his homosexuality), Horst Wessel, Max Bielas, and others. This perspective is denounced as hateful propaganda by most human rights associations and groups, stirring heated debates and accusations of censorship and "hate-speech" from both sides. Most historians and scholars of fascism do not take the work of Lively and Abrams seriously, and dismiss it as part of a Christian Right campaign against gay rights. Conversely, some Nazi supporters argue that such claims are simply more attempts to discredit Nazi ideology.
Key elements of the Nazi ideology
- National Socialist Program
- Racism
- Especially anti-Semitism, which eventually culminated in the Holocaust.
- The creation of a Herrenrasse (or Herrenvolk) (Master Race = by the Lebensborn (Fountain of Life; A department in the Third Reich))
- Anti-Slavism
- Belief in the superiority of the White, Germanic, Aryan or Nordic races.
- Anti-Marxism, Anti-Communism, Anti-Bolshevism
- Homophobia
- The rejection of democracy, with as a consequence the ending the existence of political parties, labour unions, and free press.
- Führerprinzip (Leader Principle) Belief in the leader (Responsibility up the ranks, and authority down the ranks.)
- Strong show of local culture.
- Social Darwinism
- Eugenics; sometimes included sterilization and euthanasia
- Limited Religious freedom (Point #24 in the 25 point plan)
- Environmental protection
- Rejection of the modern art movement and an embrace of classical art.
- Defense of Blood and Soil (German: "Blut und Boden" - represented by the red and black colors in the Nazi flag)
- "Lebensraumpolitik", "Lebensraum im Osten" (The creation of more living space for Germans in the east)
- Related to Fascism
Nazism and romanticism
According to Bertrand Russell, Nazism comes from a different tradition than that of either Liberalism or Marxism. Thus, to understand values of Nazism, it is necessary to explore this connection, without trivializing the movement as it was in its peak years in the 1930s and dismissing it as little more than racism.
Many historians say that the anti-Semitic element, which did not exist in the sister fascism movements in Italy and Spain, was adopted by Hitler to gain popularity for the movement, as anti-Semitic prejudice was very common among the masses in the German Empire at that time. Likewise, anti-Semitism fit very well with the Dolchstosslegende (betrayal myth) which blamed "non-German" Germans for the loss of WW I. Historians universally accept that Nazism's mass acceptance depended upon nationalistic and anti-immigrant (i.e. anti-Semitic) appeals, and a patriotic flattery toward the wounded collective pride of defeated WW I veterans. Others have focused on anti-Semitism (rather than the general anti-immigration) claiming it to have been central to Hitler's Weltanschauung, or world view.
Many see strong connections to the values of Nazism and the irrationalist tradition of the romantic movement of the early 19th century. Strength, passion, frank declarations of feelings, and deep devotion to family and community were valued by the Nazis though first expressed by many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers. German romanticism in particular expressed these values. For instance, Hitler identified closely with the music of Richard Wagner (a noted anti-Semite, author of Das Judenthum in der Musik, and idol to the young Hitler). Wagner's most important operas, the Ring cycle, express Aryanist ideals, contain what some people interpret as anti-Semitic caricatures.
The idealisation of tradition, folklore, classical thought, the leadership of Frederick the Great, their rejection of the liberalism of the Weimar Republic and the decision to call the German state the Third Reich (which traces back to the medieval First Reich and the pre-Weimar Second Reich) has led many to regard the Nazis as reactionary.
Nazi mysticism
Nazi mysticism is a term used to describe a philosophical undercurrent of Nazism which denotes the combination of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal. The esoteric Thule Society and Germanenorden were secret societies which while only a small part of the Völkisch movement, led into the Nazi party.
Dietrich Eckart, a member of Thule, actually coached Hitler on his public speaking skills, and while Hitler has not been shown to have been a member of Thule, he received support from the group. Hitler later dedicated Mein Kampf to Eckart.
Heinrich Himmler showed a strong interest in such matters, although as Steigmann–Gall points out, Hitler and many of his key associates attended Christian services.
Nazi mysticism, however, plays a major role in some forms of contemporary Nazism, with a mythology including such ideas as interdimensional vril-powered UFO's, hyperborean supermen, and a nazi moon base, along with the more widely known myth of Hitler having escaped to the Antarctic.
Ideological competition
Nazism and Communism emerged as two serious contenders for power in Germany after the First World War, particularly as the Weimar Republic became increasingly unstable.
What became the Nazi movement arose out of resistance to the Bolshevik-inspired insurgencies that occurred in Germany in the aftermath of the First World War. The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused a great deal of excitement and interest in the Leninist version of Marxism and caused many socialists to adopt revolutionary principles. The 1918-1919 Munich Soviet and the 1919 Spartacist uprising in Berlin were both manifestations of this. The Freikorps, a loosely organised paramilitary group (essentially a militia of former World War I soldiers) was used to crush both these uprisings and many leaders of the Freikorps, including Ernst Röhm, later became leaders in the Nazi party.
Capitalists and conservatives in Germany feared that a takeover by the Communists was inevitable and did not trust the democratic parties of the Weimar Republic to be able to resist a communist revolution. Increasing numbers of capitalists began looking to the nationalist movements as a bulwark against Bolshevism. After Mussolini's fascists took power in Italy in 1922, fascism presented itself as a realistic option for opposing "Communism", particularly given Mussolini's success in crushing the Communist and anarchist movements which had destabilised Italy with a wave of strikes and factory occupations after the First World War. Fascist parties formed in numerous European countries.
Many historians, such as Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest, argue that Hitler's Nazis were one of numerous nationalist and increasingly fascistic groups that existed in Germany and contended for leadership of the anti-Communist movement and, eventually, of the German state. Further, they assert that fascism and its German variant, National Socialism, became the successful challengers to Communism because they were able to both appeal to the establishment as a bulwark against Bolshevism and appeal to the working class base, particularly the growing underclass of unemployed and unemployable and growingly impoverished middle class elements who were becoming declassed (the lumpenproletariat). The Nazis' use of pro-labor rhetoric appealed to those disaffected with capitalism by promoting the limiting of profits, the abolishing of rents and the increasing of social benefits (only for Germans) while simultaneously presenting a political and economic model that divested "Soviet socialism" of elements which were dangerous to capitalism, such as the concept of class struggle, "the dictatorship of the proletariat" or worker control of the means of production.
Support of anti-Communists for Fascism and Nazism
Various right-wing politicians and political parties in Europe welcomed the rise of fascism and the Nazis out of an intense aversion towards Communism. According to them, Hitler was the savior of Western civilization and of capitalism against Bolshevism. During the later 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis were supported by the Falange movement in Spain, and by political and military figures who would form the government of Vichy France. A Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF) and other anti-Soviet fighting formations were formed.
The British Conservative party and the right-wing parties in France appeased the Nazi regime in the mid- and late-1930s, even though they had begun to criticise its totalitarianism. However Britain under both Conservative and Labour had appeased pre-Nazi Germany as well. Left-wing contemporary commentators suggested that these parties did in fact support the Nazis. Important reasons behind this appeasement included, first, the erroneous assumption that Hitler had no desire to precipitate another world war, and second, when the rebirth of the German military could no longer be ignored, a well-founded concern that neither Britain nor France was yet ready to fight an all-out war against Germany.
In 1936, Nazi Germany and Japan entered into the Anti-Comintern Pact, aimed directly at countering Soviet foreign policy. This later became the basis for the Tripartite Pact with Italy, the foundation of the Axis Powers. The three nations were united in their rabid opposition to Communism, as well as their militaristic, racist regimes, but they failed to coordinate their military efforts.
In his early years Hitler also greatly admired the United States of America. In Mein Kampf, he praised the United States for its race-based anti-immigration laws and for the subordination of the "inferior" black population. According to Hitler, America was a successful nation because it kept itself "pure" of "lesser races". However, as war approached, his view of the United States became more negative and he believed that Germany would have an easy victory over the United States precisely because the United States, in his later estimation, had become a mongrel nation, calling it "half Judaised, half Negrified".
Economic practice
Nazi economic practice concerned itself with immediate domestic issues and separately with ideological conceptions of international economics.
Domestic economic policy was narrowly concerned with three major goals:
- Elimination of unemployment
- Elimination of hyperinflation
- Expansion of production of consumer goods to improve middle- and lower-class living standards.
All of these policy goals were intended to address the perceived shortcomings of the Weimar Republic and to solidify domestic support for the party. In this, the party was very successful. Between 1933 and 1936 the German GNP increased by an average annual rate of 9.5 percent, and the rate for industry alone rose by 17.2 percent.
This expansion propelled the German economy out of a deep depression and into full employment in less than four years. Public consumption during the same period increased by 18.7%, while private consumption increased by 3.6% annually. However, as this production was primarily consumptive rather than productive (make-work projects, expansion of the war-fighting machine, initiation of conscription to remove working age males from the labor force and thus lower unemployment), inflationary pressures began to rear their head again, although not to the highs of the Weimar Republic. These economic pressures, combined with the war-fighting machine created in the expansion (and concomitant pressures for its use), has led some to conclude that a European war was inevitable. (See Causes of war.)
Some economists argue that the expansion of the German economy between 1933 and 1936 was not the result of the measures adopted by the Nazi Party, but rather the consequence of economic policies of the prior Weimar Republic which had begun to have an effect. In addition, it has been pointed out that while it is often popularly believed that the Nazis ended hyperinflation, the end of hyperinflation preceded the Nazis by several years.
Internationally, the Nazi Party believed that an international banking cabal was behind the global depression of the 1930s. The control of this cabal was identified with the ethnic group known as Jews, providing another link in their ideological motivation for the destruction of that group in the Holocaust. However, broadly speaking, the existence of large international banking or merchant banking organizations was well known at this time. Many of these banking organizations were able to exert influence upon nation states by extension or withholding of credit. This influence is not limited to the small states that preceded the creation of the German Empire as a nation state in the 1870s, but is noted in most major histories of all European powers from the 16th century onward.
Effects
These theories were used to justify a totalitarian political agenda of racial hatred and suppression using all the means of the state, and suppressing dissent.
Like other fascist regimes, the Nazi regime emphasized anti-communism, opposition to corporate interests not aligned with the state, uniting all workers to work for the common good, and the leader principle (Führerprinzip), a key element of fascist ideology in which the ruler is deemed to embody the political movement and the nation. Unlike some other fascist ideologies, Nazism was virulently racist. Some of the manifestations of Nazi racism were:
- Anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust
- Ethnic nationalism, including the notion of Germanic people's status as the Herrenvolk ("master race") and Übermensch
- A belief in the need to purify the German race through eugenics - this culminated in the involuntary euthanasia of disabled people and the compulsory sterilization of people with mental deficiencies or illnesses perceived as hereditary
Anti-clericalism was also part of Nazi ideology, although it was never acted on as the Nazis often used the church to justify their stance and included many Christian symbols in the Third Reich.
Backlash effects
Perhaps the primary intellectual effect has been that Nazi doctrines discredited the attempt to use biology to explain or influence social issues, for at least two generations after Nazi Germany's brief existence.
The Nazi descendants have been mute in the post-war democracies, with some exceptions, when interviewed by psychologists and historians. In Norway, a group of descendants have taken the official stigmatizing appellation "Nazi children" in order to break the silence and to protest against the continuous demonization of their families. Some historical revisionists disseminate propaganda which minimizes the Holocaust and other Nazi acts, and attempts to put a positive spin on the policies of the Nazi regime and the events which occurred under it. These revisionists are often, however, either aligned with, or in the employ of, neo-Nazis, and this fact itself often casts suspicion on their beliefs.
People and history
The most prominent Nazi was Adolf Hitler, who ruled Nazi Germany from January 30, 1933, until his suicide on April 30, 1945, and led the German Reich into World War II. Under Hitler, ethnic nationalism and racism were joined together through an ideology of militarism to serve his goals. After the war, many prominent Nazis were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials, where 21 were executed.
A few scattered people, mostly not from Germany, converted to Nazism during or after World War II and contributed to further development of the ideology, especially in a spiritual or esoteric direction: Seán Russell of Ireland, Savitri Devi of India, Miguel Serrano of Chile, George Lincoln Rockwell of the United States.
The role of the nation
The Nazi symbol is the right-facing swastika.
The Nazi state was founded upon a racially defined "German Volk". This is a central concept of Mein Kampf, symbolized by the motto Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer (one people, one empire, one leader). The Nazi relationship between the Volk and the state was called the Volksgemeinschaft—a concept that defined a communal duty of citizens in service to the Reich. The term "National Socialism", arguably derives from this citizen-nation relationship, whereby the term socialism is invoked (despite the fact that socialism is traditionally defined as "worker's ownership over the means of production") and is meant to be realized through the common duty of the Volk to the Reich or German nation; all actions are to be in service of the Reich. This notion of the Reich, in turn, was a virulently nationalist ideology, a tendency which decisively defined its organizational thrust and overall immediate and long-term aims. In practice, the Nazis argued, their goal was to bring forth a nation-state as the locus and embodiment of the people's collective will, bound by the Volksgemeinschaft as both an ideal and an operating instrument, geared to serve the interests of the German people.
In comparison, many socialist ideologies oppose the idea of nations, which they see as artificial divisions that support the status quo and oppression. They argue that one crucial consequence of national divisions is that they lead to wars of aggression, waged for the interest of the ruling class.
Factors which promoted the success of Nazism
An important question about Nazism is that of which factors promoted its success in Germany. These factors may have included:
- Economic devastation all over Europe after World War I.
- Humiliation of Germany at the Treaty of Versailles, and the widespread belief that the German military were not defeated on the battlefield but "stabbed in the back" by politicians, Jews and socialists.
- A perception that there were a disproportionate number of rich Jewish bankers controlling Germany's finances.
- Perceived Jewish involvement in war profiteering during WWI.
- Appeal of nationalist rhetoric.
- Rejection of Communism and the perception that Communism was a Jewish-inspired and Jewish-led movement; hence the Nazi use of the term Judeo-Bolshevik.
- The split in the working class between Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists, exacerbated by the Communists' policy of treating the SPD as "Social Fascists"
- The Great Depression.
- Hitler's choice of taking power through legal political means rather than a violent coup after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch.
Nazi / Third Reich terminology in popular culture
The multiple atrocities and racist ideology that the Nazis followed have made them notorious in popular discourse as well as history. The term "Nazi" has become a genericised term of abuse. So have other Third Reich terms like "Führer" (often spelled "fuhrer" or less often, but more correctly, "fuehrer" in English-speaking countries), "Fascist", "Gestapo" (short for Geheime Staatspolizei, or Secret State Police in English) or "Hitler". The terms are used to describe any people or behaviours that are viewed as thuggish, overly authoritarian, or extremist.
The terms are also used to describe anyone or anything seen as strict or doctrinaire. Phrases like "grammar nazi", "Feminazi", and "Open Source Nazi" are examples of those in use in the USA. These uses are offensive to some, as the controversy in the popular press over the Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" episode indicates, but still the terms are used so frequently as to inspire "Godwin's Law".
More innocent terms, like "fashion police", also bear some resemblance to Nazi terminology (Gestapo, Secret State Police) as well as references to Police states in general.
Another similar effect can be observed in the usage of typefaces. Some people strongly associate the blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher) with Nazi propaganda (although the typeface is much older, and its usage, ironically, was banned by government order in 1941). A less strong association can be observed with the Futura typeface, which today is sometimes described as "germanic" and "muscular".
In popular culture such as films like the Indiana Jones series, Nazis are often considered to be ideal villains whom the heroes can battle without mercy.
Video game website IGN declared Nazis to be the most memorable video game villains ever .
Nazi sites
Nazism, both before and after World War II, was a quasi-religion to its followers, and like many world religions it had its own venerated locations or sites. Savitri Devi visited many of them during a tour of the sites in 1953.
- Berchtesgaden, home of the Berghof.
- Braunau am Inn, birthplace of Adolf Hitler.
- Feldherrnhalle, site of, the end of, the failed Munich Putsch
- Leonding, where the parents of Adolf Hitler were buried.
- Linz, where Hitler went to school.
- Landsberg am Lech, where Hitler was imprisoned.
- Nuremberg, site of the enormous Nazi rallies.
- Wewelsburg, headquarters of the SS.
- Wunsiedel, burial site of Rudolf Hess.
Devi also visited some sites, not directly connected to Nazism, but perceived to be of spiritual or German-national significance:
- Externsteine, pre-christian formation
- Hermannsdenkmal, statue of Germany's national hero Arminius the Cheruscan
Notes
- Peter Levenda, Unholy Alliance: A History of the Nazi Involvement With the Occult, 2002 2nd edition ISBN 0826414095
References
Richard Steigmann–Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
David Redles. 2005. Hitler's Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation. New York University Press. ISBN 0814775241
Further reading
- List of Adolf Hitler books
- Socialism
- Alfred Sohn-Rethel (1978). Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism. London, CSE Bks. ISBN 0906336007.
- Fritzsche, Peter (1990). Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195057805.
- Allen, W.S (1965). The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945. Penguin. ISBN 0140239685.
- Friedrich Hayek (1944). The Road to Serfdom. University Of Chicago Press; 50th Anniversary edition. ISBN 0226320618.
External links
- Hitler's National Socialist Party platform
- Nazi Beliefs
- Blind Obedience: Fuhrerprinzip and Befehlnotstand
- German Propaganda Archive
- Lithuanian National Socialist Party
- Estonian SS men
- NS-Archiv - Large collection of original scanned Nazi documents
- AxisHistory - contains a lot of information on the Axis countries
- National Socialism - Modern day National Socialists
- Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian by George Reisman
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