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Nazism and fascism
The term Nazism is often used interchangeably with fascism, but this usage is controversial. Some use the word Fascism (spelled with a capital F), only to describe Italian Fascism, while generic fascism (spelled with a small f) may include many different movements, in many different countries.
Nazism and Italian Fascism both employed a similar style of propaganda, including military parades and uniforms, and the ancient Roman salute. The ideologies of both ostensibly included an extreme nationalism and a rebirth of their own nation to some former, past state of national greatness. Both movements, when in power, also put in place authoritarian governments that pursued wars of territorial expansion.
There were also many important differences between the two movements. For example, racism (in the form of the concept of Aryan supremacy) was central to Nazism but played at most a minor role in Italian Fascism. Fascist Italy did not adopt anti-semitic laws until it followed Hitler's example.
See Nazism and Fascism for more details.
Nazism and socialism
Nazism is an abbreviation for "National Socialist German Workers Party", and Nazi leaders described their ideology as socialist. Thus, a number of people believe that Nazism was a form of socialism, or that there are similarities between Nazism and socialism. This correlation has been rejected to by virtually all who consider themselves socialist in any sense other than "national socialism", then and now.
It has for example been argued that the Nazi war economy, large public works projects, demand for total employment, and state interventions such as the National Labour Law of January 20, 1934 are indicative of socialism.
Much depends on the definition that one chooses to give to the term "socialism". Definitions of socialism can range from the very restrictive to the very broad.
Under a philosophical definition of Socialism - for example one stating that only a system adhering to the principles of Marxism can qualify as socialist - there is a well-defined gap between Nazism and socialism. Nazi leaders were opposed to the Marxist idea of class conflict and opposed the idea that capitalism should be abolished and that workers should control the means of production. For those who consider class conflict and the abolition of capitalism as essential components of socialism, these factors alone are sufficient to categorize "National Socialism" as non-socialist.
For socialists who consider democracy a core tenet of socialism, Nazism is often seen as a polar opposite of their views. Primo Levi argued that there was an important distinction between the policies of Nazi Germany and those of the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China: while they were all arguably totalitarian, and all had their idea of what kind of parasitic classes or races society ought to be rid of, Levi saw the Nazis assigning a place given by birth (since one is born into a certain race), while the Soviets and Chinese determined their enemies according to their social position (which people may change within their life). There are many other philosophical differences betwen Nazism and Marxism.
There were however ideological shades of opinion within the Nazi Party, particularly before their seizure of power in 1933, but a central tenet of the party was always the leader principle or Führerprinzip. The Nazi Party did not have party congresses in which policy was deliberated upon and concessions made to different factions. What mattered most was what the leader, Adolf Hitler, thought and decreed. Those who held opinions which were at variance with Hitler's either learned to keep quiet or were purged, particularly after 1933. This is comparable to the behavior of certain Communist states such as that of Stalin in the Soviet Union or Mao Zedong in China.
Under an economic definition - for example one stating that socialism is any economic system based on extensive central planning of the economy and public ownership over the means of production - the distinction becomes less clear. Advocates of the view that Nazism was a typical instance of socialism often hold a broad definition of socialism; for example, they may argue that many forms of economic interventionism by the government necessarily constitute socialist policy.
Industries and trusts were not nationalised in Nazi Germany, with the exception of private rail lines (nationalised in the late 1930s to meet military contingencies). The only private holdings that were expropriated were those belonging to Jews. These holdings were then sold or awarded to businessmen who supported the Nazis and satisifed their ethnic and racial policies. Military production and even film production remained in the hands of private industries whilst serving the Nazi government, and many private companies flourished during the Nazi period. The Nazis never interfered with the profits made by such large German firms as Krupp, Siemens AG, and IG Farben.
Nevertheless, efforts were made to coordinate business's actions with the needs of the state, particularly with regard to rearmament, and the Nazis established some state-owned concerns such as Volkswagen. The Nazis also engaged in an extensive public works program including the construction of the Autobahn system. Independent trade unions were outlawed, as were strikes, much like the labour practices of State Communism.
Since the fall of the Nazi regime, many theorists have argued that there are similarities between the government of Nazi Germany and that of Stalin's Soviet Union. In most cases this has taken the form of arguing that both Nazism and Stalinism are forms of totalitarianism. This view was advanced most famously by Hannah Arendt in The Origins of Totalitarianism.
For more information see the articles on Totalitarianism and Fascism and ideology.
Nazism and religion
The relationship between Nazism and mysticism has provoked both curiosity and controversy over the years, as has the relationship between Nazism and Christianity.
Hitler and other Nazi leaders clearly made use of both Christian and Pagan symbolism and emotion in propagandizing the Germanic public, and it remains a matter of controversy whether Hitler believed himself a Christian, a heathen, or something else entirely. Some historians have typified Hitler as a Satanist or occultist, whereas other writers have referred to Nazism's occasional outward use of Christian doctrine, regardless of what its inner-party mythology may have been. The existence of a Ministry of Church Affairs, instituted in 1935 and headed by Hanns Kerrl, was hardly recognized by ideologists such as Alfred Rosenberg or by other political decision-makers.
The level of ties between Nazism and the Protestant churches has been a contentious issue for decades. One difficulty is that Protestantism includes a vast number of religious bodies many of whom had little relation to each other. Added to that, Protestantism tends to allow more variation among individual congregations than Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox Christianity, which makes statements about "official positions" of denominations problematic. Still, many Protestant organizations or denominations were solidly opposed to Nazism and many Protestants died fighting it. The forms or offshoots of Protestantism that advocated pacificism, anti-nationalism, or racial equality tended to oppose in the strongest terms. Prominent Protestant, or Protestant offshoot, groups known for their efforts against Nazism include the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Confessing Church. Many of their members died in the camps or struggled fiercely against the Nazis.
Yet Lutherans voted for Hitler more than Catholics. Different German states possessed regional social variations as to class densities and religious denomination (see Jackson J. Spielvogel, Hitler and Nazi Germany ISBN: 0131898779; books like Richard Steigmann-Gall The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945 ISBN:0521823714 allege a linkage between several Protestant churches and Nazism, the main aspect Hitler's citing anti-Semitic pamphlets by Martin Luther and accusations that the Lutheran establisment supported Hitler). The small Methodist population at times was deemed foreign, this stemmed from the fact that Methodism began in the England while in Germany it largely began in the nineteenth century with Christoph Gottlob Müller and Louis Jacoby. Because of this history they felt the urge to be "more German than the Germans" to avoid suspicion. Methodist Bishop John L. Nuelsen toured the U.S. on Hitler's behalf to protect his church, but in private letters indicated he feared or hated Nazism and so retired to Switzerland. Methodist Bishop F. H. Otto Melle took a far more collaborationist position that included apparently sincere support for Nazism. He felt that serving the Reich was both a patriotic duty and a means of advancement. To show his gratitude, Hitler made a gift of 10,000 marks in 1939 to a Methodist congregation to purchase an organ. Outside of Germany, Melle's views were overwhelmingly rejected by most Methodists. The leader of pro-Nazi segment of Baptists was Paul Schmidt. Hitler also led to the unification of Pro-Nazi Protestants in the Protestant Reich Church which was led by Ludwig Müller. The idea of such a "national church" was possible in the history of mainstream German Protestantism, but National Churches devoted primarily to the state were generally forbidden among the Anabaptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and in Catholicism.
The nature of the Nazi Party's relations with the Catholic Church is also complicated. Before Hitler rose to power, many Catholic priests and leaders vociferously opposed Nazism on the grounds of its incompatibility with Christian morals. Nazi Party membership was forbidden until the takeover and a policy reversal. At his trial Franz von Papen said that until 1936 the Catholic Church hoped for a Christian alignment to the beneficial aspects he said they saw in national socialism. (This statement came after Pope Pius XII ended Von Papen's appointment as Papal chamberlain and ambassador to the Holy See, but before his restoration under Pope John XXIII.) In 1937 Pope Pius XI issued the encyclical Mit brennender Sorge condemning Nazi ideology. The Catholic opposition to the euthanasia programs led them to be quietly ended in August 28, 1941, (according to Spielvogel pp. 257-258,) but the German Catholics never protested Nazi Anti-Semitism in any comparable way. In Nazi Germany, all known political dissenters were imprisoned, and many priests were sent to the concentration camps for their opposition, including the parson of the Berlin Cathedral Bernhard Lichtenberg. (Among the punished priests were Poles persecuted for their nationality.) However, Hitler was never excommunicated by the Catholic Church and several Catholic bishops in Germany or Austria are recorded as encouraging prayers of support for "The Führer." This despite the fact the original accord with the Holy See proscribed any political character to the priesthood.
Criticism also arises in that the Vatican pontificate headed by Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII remained circumspect about the national-scale race hatred before 1937. A statement by Pius XI on 8 Sept 1938 spoke of the "inadmissability" of anti-semitism, but Pius XII is criticised by people like John Cornwell for being unspecific. Pius XI may have underestimated the degree of Hitlerism's influence on the laity in light of hopes the Concordant would preserve Catholic influences amongst them. The evolution of the Vatican's understanding has faced criticism of weakness, slowness, or even culpability. On culpability this is perhaps clearest with regards to the German hierarchy as after the Concordant there was a radical reversal of the episcopal condemnation, according to Daniel Goldhagen and others. It is less certain in other cases. From the other extreme the hierarchy in the Netherlands officially condemned Nazism and so faced violence. Most nations hierarchy took a mixture of the two positions.
Tangential to the more extreme of collaborationist accusations is the characterisation that Nazism actively based itself on a similar pontifical structure and corps of functionaries. For example the special clothing, ghettoization, and badges demanded of Jews were once common or even began in the Papal States. Also that the Nazis saw themselves as an effective replacement of Catholicism that would co-opt its unity and respect for hierarchy. Hence attempts were made to unite other religions, as in the earlier example of the Protestant Reich Church.
As Nazism continued to rule Germany, for many people it became a kind of religion in and of itself, sometimes called Esoteric Hitlerism, and sometimes associated with Germanic Neopaganism.
For more recent developments, see Neo-Fascism and religion.
Nazism and race
Nazis claimed to scientifically measure a strict hierarchy among races; at the top was the Aryan race (minus the Slavs, who were seen as below Aryan), then lesser races. At the bottom of this hierarchy were "parasitic" races, or Untermenschen, which were perceived to be dangerous to society. Lowest of all in the Nazi racial policy were Africans, gypsies and Jews.
Nazi theory said that because the nation was the expression of the race, the greatness of a race could be evaluated according to a race's ability and desire to acquire a large homeland. German accomplishments in science, technology, philosophy and culture were interpreted as scientific evidence to support Nazi racist ideology.
See also
Reference
- R.D'O.Butler The Roots of National Socialism 1783-1933 ,Faber&Faber , London 1941
- Edmond Vermeil Germany's Three Reichs first published London 1944