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Nazism, or National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus, the first part pronounced as "Nazi"), is the ideology of the Nazi Party in Germany and related movements elsewhere.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] Both the Nazi Party and the Nazi-led state were organized under the Führer principle ("leader principle"), a pyramidal structure with the Führer - Adolf Hitler - at the top, who appointed subordinate leaders for all branches of the party and the state and whose orders had the force of law.^[6]

Etymology

The full name of Adolf Hitler's party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party). The shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word "national" (IPA: [na-tsi̯-oˈ-naːl]).^[7]

Position in the political spectrum

A majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of far-right politics.^[8] Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements.^[9] Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but syncretic.^[10]^[11] Hitler in Mein Kampf directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying:

Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors [...] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms.^[12]

Hitler, when asked whether he supported the "bourgeois right-wing", claimed that Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps", stating: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism".^[13]

Origins

Völkisch nationalism

During his youth in Austria, Hitler was politically influenced by Austrian pan-Germanist proponent Georg Ritter von Schönerer, who advocated radical German nationalism, antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Slavism and anti-Habsburg views.^[14] From von Schönerer and his followers, Hitler adopted for the Nazi movement the Heil greeting, the Führer title, and the model of absolute party leadership.^[14] Hitler was also impressed with the populist antisemitism and anti-liberal bourgeois agitation of Karl Lueger, who as the mayor of Vienna during Hitler's time in the city used a rabble-rousing oratory style that appealed to the wider masses.^[15] Unlike von Schönerer, however, Lueger was not a German nationalist, but a pro-Catholic Habsburg supporter.^[15]

Racial theories and antisemitism

Ideology

Nationalism and racialism

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0918-0201-001, KZ Treblinka, Lageplan (Zeichnung) II.jpg

Sketch plan of Treblinka extermination camp. Between the years 1942 and 1943, more than 850,000 Jews were murdered there and only 54 survived.

Hitler declared that racial conflict against Jews was necessary to save Germany from suffering under them and dismissed concerns about such conflict being inhumane or an injustice:

We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice, but if we rescue Germany then we have removed the greatest injustice in the world. We may be immoral, but if our people is rescued we have opened the way for morality.^[16]

Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels frequently employed antisemitic rhetoric to underline this view: "The Jew is the enemy and destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our race ... As socialists, we are opponents of the Jews, because we see, in the Hebrews, the incarnation of capitalism, of the misuse of the nation's goods."^[17]

In Germany, the idea of creating a master-race resulted in efforts to "purify' the Deutsche Volk through eugenics; its culmination was compulsory sterilization or involuntary euthanasia of physically or mentally disabled people. The ideological justification was Adolf Hitler's view of Sparta (11th century – 195 BC) as the original Völkisch state; he praised their dispassionate destruction of congenitally deformed infants in maintaining racial purity:^[18]^[19] The number of Germans of African descent was low; however, some of them were enlisted into Nazi organisations like the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht.^[20]

Social class

Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of internationalist class struggle, but supported "class struggle between nations", and sought to resolve internal class struggle in the nation while it identified Germany as a proletarian nation fighting against plutocratic nations.^[21]

In 1922, Adolf Hitler discredited other nationalist and racialist political parties as disconnected from the mass populace, especially lower and working-class young people:

The racialists were not capable of drawing the practical conclusions from correct theoretical judgements, especially in the Jewish Question. In this way, the German racialist movement developed a similar pattern to that of the 1880s and 1890s. As in those days, its leadership gradually fell into the hands of highly honourable, but fantastically naïve men of learning, professors, district counsellors, schoolmasters, and lawyers — in short a bourgeois, idealistic, and refined class. It lacked the warm breath of the nation's youthful vigour.^[22]

Despite many working-class supporters and members, the appeal of the Nazi Party was arguably more effective with the middle class. Moreover, the financial collapse of the white collar middle-class of the 1920s figures much in their strong support of Nazism, thus the great percentage of declared middle-class support for the Nazis.^[23] In the poor country that was the Weimar Republic of the early 1930s, the Nazi Party realised their socialist policies with food and shelter for the unemployed and the homeless — later recruited to the Brownshirt Sturmabteilung (SA — Storm Detachment).^[23]

Sex and gender

Nazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (Children, Kitchen, Church).^{[citation needed]}

Opposition to homosexuality

After the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler promoted Himmler and the SS, who then zealously suppressed homosexuality, saying: "We must exterminate these people root and branch ... the homosexual must be eliminated."^[24] In 1936, Himmler established the "Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung" ("Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion").^[25] The Nazi régime incarcerated some 100,000 homosexuals during the 1930s.^[26] As concentration camp prisoners, homosexual men were forced to wear pink triangle badges.^[27]^[28]

Religion

Hitler with Cesare Orsenigo, the Catholic Church's nuncio to Germany, in 1935

The Nazi Party Programme of 1920 guaranteed freedom for all religious denominations not hostile to the State and endorsed Positive Christianity to combat “the Jewish-materialist spirit”.^[29]

Economics

Hitler had little interest in money or economics in general. After he became Reichskanzler on 30 January 1933 he never touched his salary from the state.^[30] At the national level, Hitler left the subject to others. In the early days of the Nazi government Alfred Hugenberg, the party leader of the conservative German-National party, DNVP, was the Minister of Finance - the Reichswirtschaftsminister. He continued to serve in this position for a short time even after all parties except the NSDAP were prohibited in March 1933. In June Hugenberg was replaced by Kurt Schmitt, a man that had joined the Nazi Party in late spring of 1933. Schmitt's time in office was also short and in 1934 the president of the national German bank Hjalmar Schacht become the third man responsible for the economy of Nazi Germany. He lasted until 1938 when the first real Nazi, Walther Funk was appointed to the position. Afterwards, Schacht remained minister without portfolio until he was put in a concentration camp in 1944. Schacht survived and was later put on trial in Nürmberg where he was found "not guilty" on all counts. During Walther Funk's era as Minister of Finance, he had to follow a four year plan created by Herman Göring. Although this was not possible due to the war and the incompetence of Göring, the fall of the Third Reich had little to do with economics.^[31]

Hitler believed that private ownership was useful in that it encouraged creative competition and technical innovation, but insisted that it had to conform to national interests and be "productive" rather than "parasitical".^[32] Private property rights were conditional upon the economic mode of use; if it did not advance Nazi economic goals then the state could nationalize it.^[33] Although the Nazis privatised public properties and public services, they also increased economic state control.^[34] Under Nazi economics, free competition and self-regulating markets diminished; nevertheless, Hitler's social Darwinist beliefs made him reluctant to entirely disregard business competition and private property as economic engines.^[35]^[36]

To tie farmers to their land, selling agricultural land was prohibited.^[37] Farm ownership was nominally private, but discretion over operations and residual income were proscribed.^{[citation needed]} That was achieved by granting business monopoly rights to marketing boards to control production and prices with a quota system.^[38]

The Nazis sought to gain support of workers by declaring May Day, a day celebrated by organized labour, to be a paid holiday and held celebrations on 1 May 1933 to honour German workers.^[39] The Nazis stressed that Germany must honour its workers.^[40] The regime believed that the only way to avoid a repeat of the disaster of 1918 was to secure workers' support for the German government.^[39] The Nazis wanted all Germans take part in the May Day celebrations in the hope that this would help break down class hostility between workers and burghers.^[40] Songs in praise of labour and workers were played by state radio throughout May Day as well as an airshow in Berlin and fireworks.^[40] Hitler spoke of workers as patriots who had built Germany's industrial strength and had honourably served in the war and claimed that they had been oppressed under economic liberalism.^[41] Berliner Morgenpost that had been strongly associated with the political left in the past praised the regime's May Day celebrations.^[41]

Bonfires were made of school children's differently colored caps as symbolic of the abolition of class differences.^[42]

The Nazis continued social welfare policies initiated by the governments of the Weimar Republic and mobilized volunteers to assist those impoverished, "racially-worthy" Germans through the National Socialist People's Welfare organization.^[43] This organization oversaw charitable activities, and became the largest civic organization in Nazi Germany.^[43] Successful efforts were made to get middle-class women involved in social work assisting large families.^[42] The Winter Relief campaigns acted as a ritual to generate public feeling.^[44]

Anti-communism

Historians Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest argue that in post-World War I Germany, the Nazis were one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's anti-communist movement. The Nazis claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to dissolve private property, its support of class conflict, its aggression against the middle class, its hostility towards small businessmen, and its atheism.^[45] Nazism rejected class conflict-based socialism and economic egalitarianism, favouring instead a stratified economy with social classes based on merit and talent, retaining private property, and the creation of national solidarity that transcends class distinction.^[46]

During the 1920s, Hitler urged disparate Nazi factions to unite in opposition to "Jewish Marxism."^[47] Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish Marxism" were democracy, pacifism and internationalism.^[48]

In 1930, Hitler said: "Our adopted term ‘Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not."^[49] In 1942, Hitler privately said: "I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative".^[50]

During the late 1930s and the 1940s, anti-communist regimes and groups that supported Nazism included the Falange in Spain; the Vichy regime and the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) in France; and in Britain the Cliveden Set, Lord Halifax, the British Union of Fascists under Sir Oswald Mosley, and associates of Neville Chamberlain.^[51]

Anti-capitalism

File:Der Stürmer Christmas 1929.jpg

Antisemitic and anti-capitalist Nazi cartoon telling Germans not to buy from Jewish shops

Hitler said in 1927, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions."^[52]

References

Notes

^ Walter John Raymond. Dictionary of Politics, 1992. p. 327.
^ Fritzsche, Peter. Germans into Nazis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.
^ Kele, Max H. Nazis and Workers: National Socialist Appeals to German Labor, 1919–1933. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1972.
^ Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914–45. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
^ Stanley G. Payne. A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. P. 601. (Page shows list of various "National Socialist" parties outside of Germany).
^ Kuntz, Dieter (2011), "Hitler and the functioning of the Third Reich", The Routledge History of the Holocaust, Routledge, p. 75
^ Lepage, Jean-Denis (2009), Hitler Youth, 1922-1945: An Illustrated History, McFarland, p. 9
^ Fritzsche, Peter. Germans into Nazis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998; Eatwell, Roger, Fascism, A History, Viking-Penguin, 1996. pp. xvii-xxiv, 21, 26–31, 114–140, 352. Griffin, Roger, "Revolution from the Right: Fascism," in David Parker, ed., Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West 1560-1991, London: Routledge, 2000
^ Oliver H. Woshinsky. Explaining Politics: Culture, Institutions, and Political Behavior. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2008. p. 156.
^ Hitler, Adolf in Domarus, Max and Patrick Romane, eds. The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary, Waulconda, Illinois: Bolchazi-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2007, p. 170.
^ Koshar, Rudy. Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935, University of North Carolina Press, 1986. p. 190.
^ Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 2010. p. 287.
^ Adolf Hitler, Max Domarus. The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary. pp. 171, 172-173.
^ ^a ^b David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. pp. 236-237.
^ ^a ^b David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. pp. 159-160.
^ Richard A. Koenigsberg. Nations have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust, and War. New York, New York, USA: Library of Social Science, 2009. p. 2.
^ Goebbels, Joseph; Mjölnir (1932). Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken. Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger. English translation: Those Damned Nazis.
^ Hitler, Adolf (1961). Hitler's Secret Book. New York: Grove Press. pp. 8–9, 17–18. ISBN 0-394-62003-8. OCLC 9830111. Sparta must be regarded as the first Völkisch State. The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject.
^ Mike Hawkins (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860–1945: nature as model and nature as threat. Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-521-57434-X. OCLC 34705047.
^ Clarence Lusane. Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era. Routledge, 2002. pp. 112, 113, 189.
^ David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: a biographical companion. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. P. 245.
^ Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History, New York, USA: Hill and Wang, 2000. pp. 76-77.
^ ^a ^b Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History, New York, USA: Hill and Wang, 2000. p. 77.
^ Plant, 1986. p. 99.
^ Pretzel, Andreas (2005). "Vom Staatsfeind zum Volksfeind. Zur Radikalisierung der Homosexuellenverfolgung im Zusammenwirken von Polizei und Justiz". In Zur Nieden, Susanne (ed.). Homosexualität und Staatsräson. Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900-1945. Frankfurt/M.: Campus Verlag. p. 236. ISBN 978-3-593-37749-0.
^ Bennetto, Jason (1997-11-01). "Holocaust: Gay activists press for German apology". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-12-26. ^{[dead link]}
^ The Holocaust Chronicle, Publications International Ltd. p. 108.
^ Plant, Richard, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, Owl Books, 1988. ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.
^ J Noakes and G Pridham, Documents on Nazism, 1919-1945, London 1974
^ William S. Shirer, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
^ about Alfred Hugenberg, Kurt Schmitt, Hjalmar Schacht and Walther Funk - see the individual articles in the German Wikipedia
^ Overy, R.J., The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004. p. 403.
^ Peter Temin (November 1991>). Economic History Review, New Series. 44 (4): 573–593. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
^ Guillebaud, Claude W. 1939. The Economic Recovery of Germany 1933-1938. London: MacMillan and Co. Limited.
^ Barkai, Avaraham 1990. Nazi Economics: Ideology, Theory and Policy. Oxford Berg Publisher.
^ Hayes, Peter. 1987 Industry and Ideology IG Farben in the Nazi Era. Cambridge University Press.
^ Germany, 1871-1945: A Concise History By Raffael Scheck page 167 ISBN 978-1845208172 First Edition
^ Berman, Sheri. The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century. p. 146. ISBN 978-0521521109.
^ ^a ^b Fritzsche, p.45.
^ ^a ^b ^c Fritzsche, p. 46.
^ ^a ^b Fritzsche, p. 47.
^ ^a ^b Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 46, ISBN 003-076435-1
^ ^a ^b Fritzsche, p. 51.
^ Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 79, ISBN 003-076435-1
^ Bendersky, Joseph W. A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945. 2nd ed. Burnham Publishers, 2000. p. 72.
^ Bendersky, Joseph W. A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945. 2nd ed. Burnham Publishers, 2000. p. 40.
^ "They must unite, [Hitler] said, to defeat the common enemy, Jewish Marxism." A New Beginning, Adolf Hitler, Völkischer Beobachter. February 1925. Cited in: Toland, John (1992). Adolf Hitler. Anchor Books. p. 207. ISBN 0-385-03724-4.
^ Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution. Yale University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-300-12427-9.
^ Carsten, Francis Ludwig The Rise of Fascism, 2nd ed. University of California Press, 1982. p. 137. Quoting: Hitler, A., Sunday Express, September 28, 1930.
^ Hitler, A. (2000). "March 24, 1942". Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944: His Private Conversations. Enigma Books. pp. 162–163. ISBN 1-929631-05-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
^ Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966. p. 619.
^ Toland, John (1976). Adolf Hitler. Doubleday. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0385037242.

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Peukert, Detlev (1989). Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, Opposition, and Racism in Everyday Life. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-04480-5.
Redles, David (2005). Hitler's Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation. New York: University Press. ISBN 0-8147-7524-1.
Steigmann-Gall, Richard (2003). The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Steinweis, Alan. Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany. Harvard University Press, 2008

External links

Hitler's National Socialist Party platform
NS-Archiv, a large collection of scanned original Nazi documents.
WWII: Nazi Thugs and Thinkers - slideshow by Life magazine
Exhibit on Hitler and the Germans - slideshow by The New York Times
Jonathan Meades (1994): Jerry Building - Unholy Relics of Nazi Germany (in 4 parts)

Template:Link GA

[dictionary-1] Walter John Raymond. Dictionary of Politics, 1992. p. 327.

[university-2] Fritzsche, Peter. Germans into Nazis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.

[university1-3] Kele, Max H. Nazis and Workers: National Socialist Appeals to German Labor, 1919–1933. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1972.

[payne1995a-4] Payne, Stanley G. A History of Fascism, 1914–45. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.

[5] Stanley G. Payne. A History of Fascism, 1914–1945. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. P. 601. (Page shows list of various "National Socialist" parties outside of Germany).

[6] Kuntz, Dieter (2011), "Hitler and the functioning of the Third Reich", The Routledge History of the Holocaust, Routledge, p. 75

[7] Lepage, Jean-Denis (2009), Hitler Youth, 1922-1945: An Illustrated History, McFarland, p. 9

[Fritzsche,_Peter_1998-8] Fritzsche, Peter. Germans into Nazis, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998; Eatwell, Roger, Fascism, A History, Viking-Penguin, 1996. pp. xvii-xxiv, 21, 26–31, 114–140, 352. Griffin, Roger, "Revolution from the Right: Fascism," in David Parker, ed., Revolutions and the Revolutionary Tradition in the West 1560-1991, London: Routledge, 2000

[Oliver_H._Woshinsky_2008._p._156-9] Oliver H. Woshinsky. Explaining Politics: Culture, Institutions, and Political Behavior. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2008. p. 156.

[Adolf_Hitler_p._170-10] Hitler, Adolf in Domarus, Max and Patrick Romane, eds. The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary, Waulconda, Illinois: Bolchazi-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2007, p. 170.

[Rudy_Koshar_1986._p._190-11] Koshar, Rudy. Social Life, Local Politics, and Nazism: Marburg, 1880-1935, University of North Carolina Press, 1986. p. 190.

[Adolf_Hitler_2010._p._287-12] Hitler, Adolf, Mein Kampf, Bottom of the Hill Publishing, 2010. p. 287.

[commentary-13] Adolf Hitler, Max Domarus. The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary. pp. 171, 172-173.

[nicholls236237-14] David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. pp. 236-237.

[nicholls159160-15] David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. pp. 159-160.

[koenigsberg-16] Richard A. Koenigsberg. Nations have the Right to Kill: Hitler, the Holocaust, and War. New York, New York, USA: Library of Social Science, 2009. p. 2.

[thosedamnednazis-17] Goebbels, Joseph; Mjölnir (1932). Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken. Munich: Franz Eher Nachfolger. English translation: Those Damned Nazis.

[pathological-18] Hitler, Adolf (1961). Hitler's Secret Book. New York: Grove Press. pp. 8–9, 17–18. ISBN 0-394-62003-8. OCLC 9830111. Sparta must be regarded as the first Völkisch State. The exposure of the sick, weak, deformed children, in short, their destruction, was more decent and in truth a thousand times more humane than the wretched insanity of our day which preserves the most pathological subject.

[Social_Darwinism_in_European_and_American_Thought,_1860–1945:_nature_as_model_and_nature_as_threat-19] Mike Hawkins (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought, 1860–1945: nature as model and nature as threat. Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0-521-57434-X. OCLC 34705047.

[experiences-20] Clarence Lusane. Hitler's Black Victims: The Historical Experiences of Afro-Germans, European Blacks, Africans, and African Americans in the Nazi Era. Routledge, 2002. pp. 112, 113, 189.

[21] David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: a biographical companion. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2000. P. 245.

[burleigh-22] Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History, New York, USA: Hill and Wang, 2000. pp. 76-77.

[Burleigh,_2000._p._77-23] Burleigh, Michael. The Third Reich: A New History, New York, USA: Hill and Wang, 2000. p. 77.

[plant-24] Plant, 1986. p. 99.

[Homosexualität_und_Staatsräson._Männlichkeit,_Homophobie_und_Politik_in_Deutschland_1900-1945-25] Pretzel, Andreas (2005). "Vom Staatsfeind zum Volksfeind. Zur Radikalisierung der Homosexuellenverfolgung im Zusammenwirken von Polizei und Justiz". In Zur Nieden, Susanne (ed.). Homosexualität und Staatsräson. Männlichkeit, Homophobie und Politik in Deutschland 1900-1945. Frankfurt/M.: Campus Verlag. p. 236. ISBN 978-3-593-37749-0.

[Holocaust:_Gay_activists_press_for_German_apology-26] Bennetto, Jason (1997-11-01). "Holocaust: Gay activists press for German apology". The Independent. Retrieved 2008-12-26. ^{[dead link]}

[international-27] The Holocaust Chronicle, Publications International Ltd. p. 108.

[homosexuals-28] Plant, Richard, The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, Owl Books, 1988. ISBN 0-8050-0600-1.

[documents-29] J Noakes and G Pridham, Documents on Nazism, 1919-1945, London 1974

[30] William S. Shirer, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"

[31] ut Alfred Hugenberg, Kurt Schmitt, Hjalmar Schacht and Walther Funk - see the individual articles in the German Wikipedia

[R.J._Overy_2004._p._403-32] Overy, R.J., The Dictators: Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004. p. 403.

[economic573-33] Peter Temin (November 1991>). Economic History Review, New Series. 44 (4): 573–593. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)

[guillebaud-34] Guillebaud, Claude W. 1939. The Economic Recovery of Germany 1933-1938. London: MacMillan and Co. Limited.

[economics-35] Barkai, Avaraham 1990. Nazi Economics: Ideology, Theory and Policy. Oxford Berg Publisher.

[university28-36] Hayes, Peter. 1987 Industry and Ideology IG Farben in the Nazi Era. Cambridge University Press.

[37] Germany, 1871-1945: A Concise History By Raffael Scheck page 167 ISBN 978-1845208172 First Edition

[38] Berman, Sheri. The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century. p. 146. ISBN 978-0521521109.

[FR45-39] Fritzsche, p.45.

[FR46-40] Fritzsche, p. 46.

[FR47-41] Fritzsche, p. 47.

[Grunberger46-42] Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 46, ISBN 003-076435-1

[FR51-43] Fritzsche, p. 51.

[Richard_Grunberger_p_79-44] Richard Grunberger, The 12-Year Reich, p 79, ISBN 003-076435-1

[autogenerated20-45] Bendersky, Joseph W. A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945. 2nd ed. Burnham Publishers, 2000. p. 72.

[autogenerated11-46] Bendersky, Joseph W. A History of Nazi Germany: 1919-1945. 2nd ed. Burnham Publishers, 2000. p. 40.

[Adolf_Hitler-47] "They must unite, [Hitler] said, to defeat the common enemy, Jewish Marxism." A New Beginning, Adolf Hitler, Völkischer Beobachter. February 1925. Cited in: Toland, John (1992). Adolf Hitler. Anchor Books. p. 207. ISBN 0-385-03724-4.

[Hitler,_the_Germans,_and_the_Final_Solution-48] Kershaw, Ian (2008). Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution. Yale University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-300-12427-9.

[university29-49] Carsten, Francis Ludwig The Rise of Fascism, 2nd ed. University of California Press, 1982. p. 137. Quoting: Hitler, A., Sunday Express, September 28, 1930.

[Hitler's_Table_Talk,_1941–1944:_His_Private_Conversations-50] Hitler, A. (2000). "March 24, 1942". Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944: His Private Conversations. Enigma Books. pp. 162–163. ISBN 1-929631-05-7. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

[carroll-51] Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope, 1966. p. 619.

[52] Toland, John (1976). Adolf Hitler. Doubleday. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0385037242.

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@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 {{Pp-semi-indef}}{{pp-move-indef}}
 {{Nazism sidebar}}
-'''Nazism''', or '''National Socialism''' ({{lang-de|Nationalsozialismus}}, the first part pronounced as "Nazi"), is the [[ideology]] of the [[Nazi Party]] in [[Germany]] and related movements elsewhere.<ref name="dictionary"/><ref name="university"/><ref name="university1"/><ref name="payne1995a"/><ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–1945''. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. P. 601. (Page shows list of various "National Socialist" parties outside of Germany).</ref> It is a variety of [[fascism]] that incorporates [[Scientific racism|biological racism]] and [[antisemitism]].<ref name="minneapolis"/> Nazism developed from the influences of [[pan-Germanism]], the [[Far-right politics|far-right]] ''[[Völkisch movement|Völkisch]]'' [[German nationalism|German nationalist]] movement and the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] ''[[Freikorps#Post-World War I|Freikorps]]'' [[paramilitary]] culture which fought against the [[Communism|communists]] in post-[[World War I]] Germany.<ref name="stormtroopers"/> It was designed to draw workers away from communism and into ''völkisch'' nationalism.<ref name="stormtroopers2"/> Major elements of Nazism have been described as [[Far-right politics|far-right]], such as allowing domination of society by people deemed racially superior, while purging society of people declared inferior, who were said to be a threat to national survival.<ref name="Oliver H. Woshinsky 2008. p. 156"/>{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=11}} Both the Nazi Party and the Nazi-led state were organized  under the [[Führerprinzip|''Führer'' principle]] ("leader principle"), a pyramidal structure with the ''[[Führer]]'' - [[Adolf Hitler]] - at the top, who appointed subordinate leaders for all branches of the party and the state and whose orders had the force of law.<ref>{{Citation |first=Dieter |last=Kuntz |title=Hitler and the functioning of the Third Reich |work=The Routledge History of the Holocaust |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |page=75}}</ref>
+'''Nazism''', or '''National Socialism''' ({{lang-de|Nationalsozialismus}}, the first part pronounced as "Nazi"), is the [[ideology]] of the [[Nazi Party]] in [[Germany]] and related movements elsewhere.<ref name="dictionary"/><ref name="university"/><ref name="university1"/><ref name="payne1995a"/><ref>Stanley G. Payne. ''A History of Fascism, 1914–1945''. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. P. 601. (Page shows list of various "National Socialist" parties outside of Germany).</ref> Both the Nazi Party and the Nazi-led state were organized  under the [[Führerprinzip|''Führer'' principle]] ("leader principle"), a pyramidal structure with the ''[[Führer]]'' - [[Adolf Hitler]] - at the top, who appointed subordinate leaders for all branches of the party and the state and whose orders had the force of law.<ref>{{Citation |first=Dieter |last=Kuntz |title=Hitler and the functioning of the Third Reich |work=The Routledge History of the Holocaust |publisher=Routledge |year=2011 |page=75}}</ref>
-Nazism claimed that an [[Aryan race|Aryan]] [[master race]] was superior to all other [[Race (classification of humans)|races]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> To maintain what it regarded as the purity and strength of the Aryan race, Nazis sought to [[Genocide|exterminate]] [[Jews]] and [[Romani people|Romani]], and the [[Physical disability|physically]] and [[Developmental disability|mentally disabled]].<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005. p. 14"/> Other groups deemed "[[Degeneration|degenerate]]" or "[[Asociality|asocial]]" received [[Social exclusion|exclusionary treatment]], including [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[Black people|blacks]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and political opponents.<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005. p. 14"/> The Nazis supported territorial [[expansionism]]. According to Nazi ideology, the gaining of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") is a [[Natural law|law of nature]] for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races — who, as they grow in population size and face [[overpopulation]] in their territory, expand their territory and displace peoples of inferior races.<ref name="Stephen J. Lee 1945. p. 237">Stephen J. Lee. Europe, 1890-1945. p. 237.</ref>
-Nazism rejected the Marxist concept of [[class conflict|class struggle]] and instead promoted the idea of ''[[Volksgemeinschaft]]'' ("people's community"). Nazis wanted to overcome social divisions which they considered artificial; instead, all parts of the racially homogenous society should cooperate for national unity.<ref>{{Citation |first=Pieter M. |last=Judson |title=Nationalism in the Era of the Nation State |work=The Oxford Handbook of Modern German History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |page=515}}</ref> Nazism denounced both [[capitalism]] and communism for being associated with Jewish [[materialism]].<ref>Cyprian P. Blamires. World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia, Volume 2. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2006. P. 130.</ref> Like other fascist movements, Nazism supported the outlawing of [[Strike action|strikes]] by [[employees]] and [[Lockout (industry)|lockouts]] by [[employers]], because these were regarded as a threat to national unity.<ref name="university3"/> Instead, the state controlled and approved wage and salary levels.<ref name="university3"/>
 ==Etymology==
@@ Line 22: / Line 18: @@
 Hitler, when asked whether he supported the "bourgeois right-wing", claimed that Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps", stating: "From the camp of bourgeois [[tradition]], it takes national resolve, and from the [[Dialectical materialism|materialism]] of the [[Marxism|Marxist]] dogma, living, creative Socialism".<ref name="commentary"/>
-The Nazis were strongly influenced by the post-[[World War I]] far-right in Germany, which held common beliefs such as anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism, and antisemitism, along with nationalism, contempt towards the Treaty of Versailles, and condemnnation of the Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 that later led to their signing of the Treaty of Versailles.<ref name="Peukert, Detlev 1993 pp. 73-74"/> A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist ''[[Freikorps#Post-World War I|Freikorps]]'', paramilitary organizations that engaged in political violence after World War I.<ref name="Peukert, Detlev 1993 pp. 73-74"/> Initially, the post-World War I German far right was dominated by [[Monarchism|monarchists]], but the younger generation, who were associated with ''Völkisch'' nationalism, were more radical and did not express any emphasis on the restoration of the German monarchy.<ref name="Peukert, Detlev 1993 p. 74"/> This younger generation desired to dismantle the Weimar Republic and create a new radical and strong state based upon a martial ruling ethic that could revive the "Spirit of 1914" that was associated with German national unity (''[[Volksgemeinschaft]]'').<ref name="Peukert, Detlev 1993 p. 74"/>
-The Nazis, the far-right monarchist and [[reactionary]] [[German National People's Party]] (DNVP), and others, such as monarchist officers of the German army and several prominent industrialists, formed an alliance in opposition to the Weimar Republic on 11 October 1931 in [[Bad Harzburg]]; officially known as the "National Front", but commonly referred to as the [[Harzburg Front]].<ref name="machtergreifung"/> The Nazis stated the alliance was purely tactical and there remained substantial differences with the DNVP. The Nazis described the DNVP as a bourgeois party and called themselves an anti-bourgeois party.<ref name="machtergreifung"/> After the elections in 1932, the alliance broke after the DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag. The Nazis denounced them as "an insignificant heap of reactionaries".<ref name="machtergreifung5"/> The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their socialism, their street violence, and the "economic experiments" that would take place if the Nazis rose to power.<ref name="machtergreifung6"/>
-[[Kaiser]] [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]], who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, initially supported the Nazi Party. His four sons, including Prince [[Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia|Eitel Friedrich]] and Prince [[Prince Oskar of Prussia|Oskar]], became members of the Nazi Party, in hopes that in exchange for their support, the Nazis would permit the restoration of the monarchy.<ref name="nicholas"/>
-There were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical.<ref name="Michael Mann 2004. p. 183"/> The conservative Nazi [[Hermann Göring]] urged Hitler to conciliate with [[Capitalism|capitalists]] and [[Reactionary|reactionaries]].<ref name="Michael Mann 2004. p. 183"/> Other prominent conservative Nazis included [[Heinrich Himmler]] and [[Reinhard Heydrich]].<ref name="foundations"/>
-The radical Nazi [[Joseph Goebbels]], hated capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core, and he stressed the need for the party to emphasize both a [[Proletariat|proletarian]] and national character. Those views were shared by [[Otto Strasser]], who later left the Nazi Party in the belief that Hitler had betrayed the party's socialist goals by allegedly endorsing capitalism.<ref name="Michael Mann 2004. p. 183"/> Large segments of the Nazi Party staunchly supported its official socialist, revolutionary, and anti-capitalist positions and expected both a social and economic revolution upon the party gaining power in 1933.<ref name="Joseph W. Bendersky 2007. p. 96"/> Many of the million members of the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA) were committed to the party's official socialist program.<ref name="Joseph W. Bendersky 2007. p. 96"/> The leader of the SA, [[Ernst Röhm]], pushed for a "second revolution" (the "first revolution" being the Nazis' seizure of power) that would entrench the party's official socialist program. Further, Röhm desired that the SA absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership.<ref name="Joseph W. Bendersky 2007. p. 96"/>
-Prior to becoming an antisemite and a Nazi, Hitler had lived a [[Bohemianism|Bohemian]] lifestyle as a wandering watercolour artist in [[Austria]] and southern Germany, though he maintained elements of it later in life.<ref name="publishers"/> Hitler served in World War I. After the war, his battalion was absorbed by the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] from 1918 to 1919, where he was elected Deputy Battalion Representative. According to the historian Thomas Weber, he attended the funeral of communist [[Kurt Eisner]] (a German Jew), wearing a black mourning armband on one arm and a red communist armband on the other,<ref name="Thomas Weber 2011. p. 251"/> which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified, and at that time supported the idea of a [[classless society]] and was an [[Anti-monarchism|anti-monarchist]].<ref name="Thomas Weber 2011. p. 251"/> In ''Mein Kampf'', Hitler never mentioned any service with the Bavarian Soviet Republic, and stated that he became an antisemite in 1913 in Vienna. This statement has been disputed with the contention he was not an antisemite at that time.<ref name="Jeffrey S. Gaab 2008. p. 61"/>
-Hitler altered his political views in response to the [[Treaty of Versailles]] of June 1919, and it was then that he became an antisemitic, German nationalist.<ref name="Jeffrey S. Gaab 2008. p. 61"/> As a Nazi, Hitler had expressed opposition to capitalism; he regarded capitalism as having Jewish origins, and accused capitalism of holding nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] [[rentier capitalism|rentier]] class.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. pp. 399-403"/>
-Hitler took a pragmatic position between the conservative and radical factions of the Nazi Party, in that he accepted private property and allowed capitalist private enterprises to exist as long as they adhered to the goals of the Nazi state. However, if a capitalist private enterprise resisted Nazi goals, he sought to destroy it.<ref name="Michael Mann 2004. p. 183"/> Upon the Nazis achieving power, Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction, without Hitler's authorization to do so.<ref name="Nyomarkay, Joseph 1967 p. 130"/> Hitler considered Röhm's independent actions to be violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardizing the regime by alienating the conservative President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and the conservative-oriented German Army.<ref name="Joseph Nyomarkay 1967. p. 133"/> This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA in what came to be known as the [[Night of the Long Knives]].<ref name="Joseph Nyomarkay 1967. p. 133"/>
-Although he opposed communist ideology, Hitler on numerous occasions publicly praised the [[Soviet Union]]'s leader [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Stalinism]].<ref name="François Furet 1999. pp. 191-192"/> Hitler commended Stalin for seeking to purify the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] of Jewish influences, noting Stalin's purging of Jewish communists such as [[Leon Trotsky]], [[Grigory Zinoviev]], [[Lev Kamenev]] and [[Karl Radek]].<ref name="communism"/> While Hitler always intended to bring Germany into conflict against the Soviet Union to gain ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space"), he supported a temporary strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to form a common anti-liberal front to crush liberal democracies, particularly [[France]].<ref name="François Furet 1999. pp. 191-192"/>
 ==Origins==
@@ Line 45: / Line 23: @@
 ===Völkisch nationalism===
-[[File:Johann Gottlieb Fichte.jpg|175px|thumb|[[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], considered one of the fathers of German nationalism]]
-One of the most significant ideological influences on the Nazis was the German nationalist [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], whose works had served as inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi members, including [[Dietrich Eckart]] and [[Arnold Fanck]].<ref name="timothy"/> In ''Speeches to the German Nation'' (1808), written amid [[Napoleon]]ic France's occupation of Berlin, Fichte called for a German national revolution against the French occupiers, making passionate public speeches, arming his students for battle against the French, and stressing the need for action by the German nation to free itself.<ref name="autogenerated18"/> Fichte's nationalism was populist and opposed to traditional elites, spoke of the need of a "People's War" (''Volkskrieg''), and put forth concepts similar to those the Nazis adopted.<ref name=autogenerated18 /> Fichte promoted German [[exceptionalism]] and stressed the need for the German nation to be purified (including purging the German language of French words, a policy that the Nazis undertook upon rising to power).<ref name=autogenerated18 />
-''Völkisch'' nationalism denounced soulless [[materialism]], [[individualism]], and [[secular]]ized [[Urban area|urban]] industrial society, while advocating a "superior" society based on ethnic German "folk" culture and German "blood".<ref name="encyclopedia7"/> It denounced foreigners, foreign ideas and declared that Jews, national minorities, [[Catholic Church|Catholics]], and [[Freemasonry|Freemasons]] were "traitors to the nation" and unworthy of inclusion.<ref name="constructing"/> ''Völkisch'' nationalism saw the world in terms of [[natural law]] and [[romanticism]], viewed societies as organic, extolling the virtues of [[rural]] life, condemning the neglect of tradition and decay of morals, denounced the destruction of the natural environment, and condemned "cosmopolitan" cultures such as Jews and Romani.<ref name="Jonathan Olsen 1999. p. 62"/>
-During the era of Imperial Germany, ''Völkisch'' nationalism was overshadowed by both Prussian patriotism and the federalist tradition of various states therein.<ref name="Nina Witoszek 2002. pp. 89-90"/> The events of World War I including the end of the Prussian monarchy in Germany, resulted in a surge of revolutionary ''Völkisch'' nationalism.<ref name="witoszek"/> The Nazis supported such revolutionary ''Völkisch'' nationalist policies.<ref name="Nina Witoszek 2002. pp. 89-90"/> The Nazis claimed that their ideology was influenced by the leadership and policies of [[Chancellor of Germany|German Chancellor]] [[Otto von Bismarck]], the founder of the [[German Empire]].<ref name="autogenerated14"/> The Nazis declared that they were dedicated to continuing the process of creating a unified German [[nation state]] that Bismarck had begun and desired to achieve.<ref name="chancellor"/> While Hitler was supportive of Bismarck's creation of the German Empire, he was critical of Bismarck's moderate domestic policies.<ref name="chancellor8"/> On the issue of Bismarck's support of a ''[[Kleindeutschland]]'' ("Lesser Germany", excluding Austria) versus the pan-German ''[[German question#Later influence|Großdeutschland]]'' ("Greater Germany") of the Nazis, Hitler stated that Bismarck's attainment of ''Kleindeutschland'' was the "highest achievement" Bismarck could have achieved "within the limits possible of that time".<ref name="autogenerated12"/> In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' (''My Struggle''), Hitler presented himself as a "second Bismarck".<ref name=autogenerated12 />
 [[File:VonSchoenerer.jpg|170px|thumb|[[Georg Ritter von Schönerer]]]]
@@ Line 57: / Line 29: @@
 ===Racial theories and antisemitism===
-The concept of the [[Aryan race]], which the Nazis promoted, stems from racial theories asserting that Europeans are the descendants of Indo-Iranian settlers, people of ancient India and ancient Persia.<ref name="autogenerated6"/> Proponents of this theory based their assertion on the similarity of European words and their meaning to those of Indo-Iranian languages.<ref name=autogenerated6 /> [[Johann Gottfried Herder]] argued that the Germanic peoples held close racial connections with the ancient Indians and ancient Persians, who he claimed were advanced peoples possessing a great capacity for wisdom, nobility, restraint, and science.<ref name=autogenerated6 /> Contemporaries of Herder used the concept of the Aryan race to draw a distinction between what they deemed "high and noble" Aryan culture versus that of "parasitic" Semitic culture.<ref name=autogenerated6 />
-Notions of [[white supremacy]] and Aryan racial superiority combined in the 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining that [[white people]] were members of an Aryan "master race" which is superior to other races, and particularly the Semitic race, which they associated with "cultural sterility".<ref name=autogenerated6 /> [[Arthur de Gobineau]], a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ''ancien régime'' in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing, which he argued destroyed the purity of the Aryan race.<ref name="autogenerated8"/> Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany,<ref name=autogenerated8 /> emphasized the existence of an irreconcilable [[polarity in international relations|polarity]] between Aryan and Jewish cultures.<ref name=autogenerated6 />
-[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1600-06, Houston Stewart Chamberlain.jpg|thumb|170px|right|[[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]]]]
-Aryan [[mysticism]] claimed that [[Christianity]] originated in Aryan religious tradition and that Jews had usurped the legend from Aryans.<ref name=autogenerated6 /> [[Houston Stewart Chamberlain]], an English proponent of racial theory, supported notions of Germanic supremacy and antisemitism in Germany.<ref name="autogenerated8"/> Chamberlain's work, ''[[Foundations of the Nineteenth Century]]'' (1899) praised Germanic peoples for their creativity and idealism while asserting that the Germanic spirit was threatened by a "Jewish" spirit of selfishness and [[materialism]].<ref name=autogenerated8 /> Chamberlain used his thesis to promote [[Monarchism|monarchical]] [[conservatism]] while denouncing [[democracy]], [[liberalism]], and [[socialism]].<ref name=autogenerated8 /> The book became popular, especially in Germany.<ref name=autogenerated8 /> Chamberlain stressed the need of a nation to maintain racial purity in order to prevent degeneration, and argued that racial intermingling with Jews should never be permitted.<ref name=autogenerated8 /> In 1923, Chamberlain met Hitler, whom he admired as a leader of the rebirth of the free spirit.<ref name="encyclopedia9"/>
-In Germany, the idea of Jews economically exploiting Germans became prominent upon the foundation of Germany, due to the ascendance of many wealthy Jews into prominent positions upon the unification of Germany in 1871.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 207.</ref> Empirical evidence demonstrates that from 1871 to the early 20th century, that German Jews were overrepresented in Germany's upper and middle classes, while they were underrepresented in Germany's lower class and particularly in the fields of work of agricultural and industrial labour.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 210.</ref> German Jewish financiers and bankers played a key role in fostering Germany's economic growth from the 1871 to 1913, and such Jewish financiers and bankers benefited enormously from this boom, in 1908 amongst the twenty-nine wealthiest German families with aggregate fortunes of up to 55 million marks at the time, five of which were Jewish, and the Rothschilds were the second wealthiest German family.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 207, 209.</ref> The predominance of Jews in Germany's banking, commerce, and industry sectors in this time period was very high with consideration to Jews being estimated to have accounted for 1 percent of the population of Germany.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 207.</ref> This overrepresentation of Jews in these areas created resentment by non-Jewish Germans during periods of economic crisis such as in response to the 1873 stock market crash that resulted in a severe depression.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 210.</ref> The 1873 stock market crash and ensuing depression resulted in a spate of attacks on alleged Jewish economic dominance in Germany, and antisemitism surged.<ref>William Brustein. ''Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust''. Cambridge University Press, 2003. P. 210.</ref>
-At this time period in the 1870s, German [[Völkisch movement|''Völkisch'' nationalism]] began to adopt antisemitic and racist themes and was adopted by a number of radical right political movements.<ref name="witoszek10"/>
-''[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]'' (1912) was an antisemitic forgery created by the police of the Russian Empire.  Antisemites believed it was real, and the Protocol became widely popular after World War I.<ref name="stackelberg"/> ''The Protocols'' claimed that there was a secret international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.<ref name="kershaw"/> Hitler had been introduced to ''The Protocols'' by [[Alfred Rosenberg]], and from 1920 onward, Hitler focused his attacks on claiming that Judaism and Marxism were directly connected; that Jews and [[Bolshevik]]s were one and the same, and that Marxism was a Jewish ideology.<ref name="dictator"/> Hitler believed that ''The Protocols'' were authentic.<ref name="dictator11"/>
-Radical antisemitism was promoted by prominent advocates of ''Völkisch'' nationalism, including [[Eugen Diederichs]], [[Paul de Lagarde]], and [[Julius Langbehn]].<ref name="Jonathan Olsen 1999. p. 62"/> De Lagarde called the Jews a "[[bacillus]], the carrier of decay...who pollute every national culture...and destroy all faith with their materialistic liberalism," and he called for the extermination of the Jews.<ref name="Jack Fischel 1998. p. 5"/> Langbehn called for a war of annihilation of the Jews; his genocidal policies were published by the Nazis and given to soldiers on the front during [[World War II]].<ref name="Jack Fischel 1998. p. 5"/>
-[[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]] accused [[Jews]] in Germany of having been, and inevitably continuing to be, a "state within a state" that threatened German national unity.<ref name=autogenerated18 /> Fichte promoted two options to address this: the first was the creation of a Jewish state in [[Palestine]] to impel the Jews to leave Europe.<ref name="timothy12"/> The other option was violence against Jews, saying that the goal would be "...to cut off all their heads in one night, and set new ones on their shoulders, which should not contain a single Jewish idea".<ref name="timothy12"/>
-The Nazis claimed that Bismarck was unable to complete German national unification because of Jewish infiltration of the German parliament, and that their abolition of parliament ended the obstacle to unification.<ref name=autogenerated14 /> Using the "stab in the back" legend, the Nazis accused Jews, and other populaces it considered non-German, of possessing extra-national loyalties, thereby exacerbating German [[antisemitism]] about the ''[[Jewish question|Judenfrage]]'' (the Jewish Question), the perennial [[far right]] political canard popular when the ethnic [[Völkisch movement]] and their politics of [[Romantic nationalism]] for establishing a ''[[German question#Later influence|Großdeutschland]]'' were strong.<ref name="PostWWIAntisemitism"/><ref name="JFrage"/>
-Nazism's racial policy positions may have developed from the views of important biologists of the 19th century, including French [[biologist]] [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck]], through [[Ernst Haeckel]]'s idealist version of [[Lamarckism]] and the father of [[genetics]], German [[botanist]] [[Gregor Mendel]].<ref name="Peter J. Bowler 1989. pp. 304-305"/> However Haeckel's works were later condemned and banned from bookshops and libraries by the Nazis as inappropriate for “National-Socialist formation and education in the Third Reich.” This may have been because of his "monist" atheistic, materialist philosophy which the Nazis disliked.<ref name="Robert J. Richards 2008. pp. 7-8"/> Unlike Darwinian theory, Lamarckian theory officially ranked races in a hierarchy of evolution from [[ape]]s while Darwinian theory did not grade races in a hierarchy of higher or lower evolution from apes, simply categorizing humans as a whole of all as having progressed in evolution from apes.<ref name="Peter J. Bowler 1989. pp. 304-305"/> Many Lamarckians viewed "lower" races as having been exposed to debilitating conditions for too long for any significant "improvement" of their condition in the near future.<ref name="evolution"/> Haeckel utilized Lamarckian theory to describe the existence of interracial struggle and put races on a hierarchy of evolution, ranging from being wholly human to [[Untermensch|subhuman]].<ref name="Peter J. Bowler 1989. pp. 304-305"/>
-[[Mendelian inheritance|Mendelian inheritance or Mendelism]] was supported by the Nazis and also mainstream eugenics proponents at the time. The Mendelian theory of inheritance declared that genetic traits and attributes were passed from one generation to another.<ref name="university14"/> Proponents of eugenics used Mendelian inheritance theory to demonstrate the transfer of biological illness and impairments from parents to children, including mental disability; others also utilized Mendelian theory to demonstrate the inheritance of social traits, with racialists claiming a racial nature of certain general traits such as inventiveness or criminal behaviour.<ref name="friedlander"/>
-===Response to World War I and fascism===
-During World War I, German sociologist [[Johann Plenge]] spoke of the rise of a "National Socialism" in Germany within what he termed the "[[Spirit of 1914|ideas of 1914]]" that were a declaration of war against the "ideas of 1789" (the [[French Revolution]]).<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006. p. 205"/> According to Plenge, the "ideas of 1789" that included rights of man, democracy, individualism and liberalism were being rejected in favour of "the ideas of 1914" that included "German values" of duty, discipline, law, and order.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006. p. 205"/> Plenge believed that ethnic solidarity (''[[Volksgemeinschaft]]'') would replace class division and that "racial comrades" would unite to create a socialist society in the struggle of "proletarian" Germany against "capitalist" Britain.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006. p. 205"/> He believed that the "Spirit of 1914" manifested itself in the concept of the "People's League of National Socialism".<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997. p. 92"/> This National Socialism was a form of state socialism that rejected the "idea of boundless freedom" and promoted an economy that would serve the whole of Germany under the leadership of the state.<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997. p. 92"/> This National Socialism was opposed to capitalism due to the components that were against "the national interest" of Germany, but insisted that National Socialism would strive for greater efficiency in the economy.<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997. p. 92"/> Plenge advocated an authoritarian rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical [[Technocracy|technocratic]] state.<ref name="Thomas Rohkrämer 2007. p. 130"/> Plenge's ideas formed the basis of Nazism.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006. p. 205"/>
-[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R06610, Oswald Spengler.jpg|thumb|right|170px|[[Oswald Spengler]]]]
-[[Oswald Spengler]], a German cultural philosopher, was a major influence on Nazism; although after 1933 Spengler became alienated from Nazism and was later condemned by the Nazis for criticizing Adolf Hitler.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler's conception of national socialism along with a number of his political views were shared by the Nazis and the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement]].<ref name=autogenerated7 /> Spengler's views were also popular amongst [[Italian fascism|Italian Fascists]], including [[Benito Mussolini]].<ref name="encyclopedia15"/>
-Spengler's book ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' (1918) written during the final months of [[World War I]], addressed the claim of [[decadence]] of modern European civilization, whicht he claimed was caused by atomizing and irreligious individualization and [[cosmopolitanism]].<ref name=autogenerated16 /> Spengler's major thesis was that a law of historical development of cultures existed involving a cycle of birth, maturity, aging, and death when it reaches its final form of civilization.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Upon reaching the point of civilization, a culture will lose its creative capacity and succumb to [[decadence]] until the emergence of "[[barbarian]]s" create a new epoch.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler considered the [[Western world]] as having succumbed to decadence of intellect, money, [[cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] urban life, irreligious life, [[wiktionary:Atomization|atomized]] [[individualism|individualization]], and the end of biological fertility as well as "spiritual" fertility.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> He believed that the "young" German nation as an imperial power would inherit the legacy of [[Ancient Rome]], lead a restoration of value in "[[Bloodline|blood]]" and instinct, while the ideals of rationalism would be revealed as absurd.<ref name="autogenerated16"/>
-Spengler's notions of "Prussian socialism" as described in his book ''[[Preussentum und Sozialismus]]'' ("Prussiandom and Socialism", 1919), influenced Nazism and the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement]].<ref name=autogenerated7/> Spengler wrote: "The meaning of socialism is that life is controlled not by the opposition between rich and poor, but by the rank that achievement and talent bestow. That is ''our'' freedom, freedom from the economic despotism of the individual."<ref name="autogenerated7"/> Spengler adopted the anti-English ideas addressed by Plenge and Sombart during World War I that condemned English liberalism and English parliamentarianism while advocating a national socialism that was free from [[Marxism]] and that would connect the individual to the state through [[Corporatism|corporatist]] organization.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler claimed that socialistic Prussian characteristics existed across Germany, including creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity and self-sacrifice.<ref name="university17"/> He prescribed war as a necessity, saying "War is the eternal form of higher human existence and states exist for war: they are the expression of the will to war."<ref name="university18"/>
-[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-091-20, Kapp-Putsch, Marine-Brigade Erhardt.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The [[Marinebrigade Erhardt]] during the [[Kapp Putsch]] in Berlin, 1920.<ref>German Federal Archive image description</ref> The Marinebrigade Erhardt used the [[swastika]] as its symbol, as seen on their helmets and on the truck; it inspired the Nazi Party to adopt it as the movement's symbol.]]
-[[File:Dasdrittereich.jpg|130px|thumb|The book ''[[Das Dritte Reich]]'' (1923), translated as "The Third Reich", by [[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]]]]
-Spengler's definition of socialism did not advocate a change to property relations.<ref name=autogenerated7 /> He denounced [[Marxism]] for seeking to train the proletariat to "expropriate the expropriator", the capitalist, and then to let them live a life of leisure on this expropriation.<ref name="H. Stuart Hughes 1992. p. 108"/> He claimed that "Marxism is the capitalism of the working class" and not true socialism.<ref name="H. Stuart Hughes 1992. p. 108"/> True socialism, according to Spengler, would be in the form of corporatism, stating that "local corporate bodies organized according to the importance of each occupation to the people as a whole; higher representation in stages up to a supreme council of the state; mandates revocable at any time; no organized parties, no professional politicians, no periodic elections."<ref name="transaction"/>
-[[Wilhelm Stapel]], an antisemitic German intellectual utilized Spengler's thesis on the cultural confrontation between Jews as whom Spengler described as a [[Magi]]an people versus [[Europeans]] as a [[Faust]]ian people.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan">{{cite book | first=Mordecai M. | last=Kaplan | title=Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life | page=73}}</ref> Stapel described Jews as a landless nomadic people in pursuit of an international culture whereby they can integrate into Western civilization.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan" /> As such, Stapel claims that Jews have been attracted to "international" versions of socialism, pacifism, or capitalism, because as a landless people the Jews have transgressed various national cultural boundaries.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan" />
-[[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]] who initially was the dominant figure of the Conservative Revolutionaries influenced Nazism.<ref name="university19"/> He rejected [[reactionary]] conservatism, while proposing a new state, that he coined the "Third Reich", which would unite all classes under [[authoritarian]] rule.<ref name="macmillan"/> Van den Bruck advocated a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism of the left.<ref name="millennial"/>
-[[Fascism]] was a major influence on Nazism. The seizure of power by Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the [[March on Rome]] in 1922 drew admiration by Hitler who less than a month later had begun to model himself and the [[Nazi Party]] upon Mussolini and the Fascists.<ref name="kershaw20"/> Hitler presented the Nazis as a German fascism.<ref name="Fulda, Bernhard 2009. p. 65"/><ref name="Carlsten, F. L. 1982. p. 80"/>
-[[File:March on Rome.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Benito Mussolini]] (centre in suit with fists against body) along with other Fascist leader figures and [[Blackshirts]] during the [[March on Rome]]]]
-In November 1923, the Nazis attempted a "March on Berlin" modelled upon the March on Rome that resulted in the failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in [[Munich]].<ref name="dissolution"/> Other Nazis — especially more radical ones such as [[Gregor Strasser]], Joseph Goebbels and [[Heinrich Himmler]] — rejected Italian Fascism, accusing it of being too conservative or capitalist.<ref name="university21"/> [[Alfred Rosenberg]] condemned Italian Fascism for being racially confused and having influences from philo-Semitism.<ref name="stanley"/> Strasser criticized the policy of ''[[Führerprinzip]]'' as being created by Mussolini, and considered its presence in Nazism as a foreign imported idea.<ref name="Stanley G. Payne 1995. p. 464"/> Throughout the relationship between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a number of lower-ranking Nazis scornfully viewed fascism as a conservative movement that lacked a full revolutionary potential.<ref name="Stanley G. Payne 1995. p. 464"/>
 ==Ideology==
@@ Line 104: / Line 34: @@
 ===Nationalism and racialism===
 {{further2|[[Nazism and race]]|[[Racial policy of Nazi Germany]]}}
-German Nazism emphasized German nationalism, including both irredentism and expansionism. Nazism held racial theories based upon the belief of the existence of an Aryan master race that was believed to be superior to all other races. The Nazis emphasized the existence of racial conflict between the Aryan race and others, particularly [[Jews]] whom the Nazis viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated multiple societies, and was responsible for exploitation and repression of the Aryan race.
-====Irredentism and expansionism====
-[[File:Bundesarchiv R 49 Bild-0131, Aussiedlung von Polen im Wartheland.jpg|thumb|Beginning of ''Lebensraum'', the [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|Nazi German expulsion of Poles]] from [[Reichsgau Wartheland|central Poland]], 1939]]
-The German Nazi Party supported German irredentist claims to [[Austria]], [[Alsace-Lorraine]], the region now known as the [[Czech Republic]], and the territory since 1919 known as the [[Polish Corridor]]. A major policy of the German Nazi Party was ''[[lebensraum]]'' ("living space") for the German nation based on claims that Germany after World War I was facing an overpopulation crisis and that expansion was needed to end the country's overpopulation within existing confined territory, and provide resources necessary to its people's well-being.<ref name="Stephen J. Lee 1945. P. 237">Stephen J. Lee. Europe, 1890-1945. P. 237.</ref> Since the 1920s, the Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31">Peter D. Stachura. The Shaping of the Nazi State. P. 31.</ref>
-Hitler in his early years as Nazi leader had claimed that he would be willing to accept friendly relations with Russia on the tactical condition that Russia agree to return to the borders established by the German-Russian peace agreement of the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]] signed by [[Vladimir Lenin]] of the [[Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic]] in 1918 which gave large territories held by Russia to German control in exchange for peace.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31">Peter D. Stachura. The Shaping of the Nazi State. P. 31.</ref> Hitler in 1921 had commended the Treaty of Brest Litovsk as opening the possibility for restoration of relations between Germany and Russia, saying:
-{{quote|''Through the peace with Russia the sustenance of Germany as well as the provision of work were to have been secured by the acquisition of land and soil, by access to raw materials, and by friendly relations between the two lands.''|Adolf Hitler, 1921<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/>}}
-[[File:Europe topography map.png|thumb|right|Topographical map of Europe with present-day borders. The Nazi Party declared support for [[Drang nach Osten|expansion of Germany east to the Ural Mountains]], that is shown on the upper right side of the map as a brown diagonal line.]]
-Hitler from 1921 to 1922 evoked rhetoric of both the achievement of lebensraum involving the acceptance of a territorially reduced Russia as well as supporting Russian nationals in overthrowing the Bolshevik government and establishing a new Russian government.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/> However Hitler's attitudes changed by the end of 1922, in which he then supported an alliance of Germany with Britain to destroy Russia.<ref name="Peter D. Stachura P. 31"/> Later Hitler declared how far into Russia he intended to expand Germany to:
-{{quote|''Asia, what a disquieting reservoir of men! The safety of Europe will not be assured until we have driven Asia back behind the Urals. No organized Russian state must be allowed to exist west of that line.''|Adolf Hitler.<ref name="André Mineau 2004. P. 36">André Mineau. Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethics Against Human Dignity. Rodopi, 2004. P. 36</ref>}}
-Policy for ''[[lebensraum]]'' planned mass expansion of Germany eastwards to the [[Ural Mountains]].<ref name="André Mineau 2004. P. 36"/><ref>Rolf Dieter Müller, Gerd R. Ueberschär. ''Hitler's War in the East, 1941–1945: A Critical Assessment''. Berghahn Books, 2009. P. 89.</ref> Hitler planned for the "surplus" Russian population living west of the Urals were to be deported to the east of the Urals.<ref>Bradl Lightbody. ''The Second World War: Ambitions to Nemesis''. London, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2004. P. 97.</ref>
-====Racial theories====
-[[File:NordischNordic.JPG|thumb|150px|left|The ''Meyers Blitz-Lexikon'' ([[Weimar Republic|Leipzig, 1932]]) depicts German war hero [[Karl von Müller]] as an example of the Nordic racial type. The Nazis considered the Nordic type to be the highest in racial hierarchy within the Aryan race.]]
-In its racial categorization, Nazism viewed what it called the Aryan race as the [[master race]] of the world - a race that was superior to all other races. It viewed Aryans as being in racial conflict with a a mixed race people, the Jews, whom Nazis identified as a dangerous enemy of the Aryans. It also viewed a number of other peoples as dangerous to the well-being of the Aryan race, particularly Slavs and Romani. To maintain the "purity and strength" of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to [[Genocide|exterminate]] Jews, Romani, and the [[Physical disability|physically]] and [[Developmental disability|mentally disabled]].<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005. p. 14"/> Other groups deemed "[[Degeneration|degenerate]]" and "[[Asociality|asocial]]" who were not targeted for extermination, but received [[Social exclusion|exclusionary treatment]] by the Nazi state, included [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[Black people in Nazi Germany|blacks]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and political opponents.<ref name="Simone Gigliotti 2005. p. 14"/> One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to [[Generalplan Ost|exterminate]], expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from central and eastern Europe so as to make [[Lebensraum|living space]] for German settlers.<ref name="google"/>
-Nazi racial theorist [[Hans F. K. Günther]] identified the Aryan race in Europe as having five subtype races: [[Nordic race|Nordic]], [[Mediterranean race|Mediterranean]], [[Dinaric race|Dinaric]], [[Alpine race|Alpine]], and [[East Baltic race|East Baltic]].<ref name="Bruce David Baum 2006. P. 156">Bruce David Baum. ''The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race: A Political History of Racial Identity''. New York, New York, USA; London, England, UK: New York University Press, 2006. P. 156.</ref> Günther applied a [[Nordicism|Nordicist]] conception that Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy amongst these five Aryan subtype races.<ref name="Bruce David Baum 2006. P. 156"/> In his book ''[[Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes]]'' (1922) ("Racial Science of the German People"), Günther recognized Germans as being composed of all five Aryan subtypes, but emphasized the strong Nordic heritage amongst Germans.<ref name=Maxwell150 >Anne Maxwell. Picture Imperfect: Photography and Eugenics, 1870-1940. Eastbourne, England: UK; Portland, Oregon, USA: SUSSEX ACADEMIC PRESS, 2008, 2010. P. 150.</ref> Hitler read ''Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes'' that influenced his racial policy.<ref>John Cornwell. Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact. Penguin, Sep 28, 2004. [http://books.google.ca/books?id=5bA2vTgvobAC&pg=PT68&dq=hitler+gunther+aryan&hl=en&sa=X&ei=q2IYUfKYIoyayQHBmoG4Dg&ved=0CGMQ6AEwCQ]</ref>
-The Nazis described Jews as being racially-mixed group of primarily [[Armenoid race|Near Eastern]] and [[Arabid race|Oriental]] racial types.<ref>Max Weinreich. Hitler's professors: the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. Yale University Press, 1999. P. 111.</ref> As such racial groups were concentrated outside of Europe, the Nazis claimed that Jews were "racially alien" to all European peoples and did not have deep racial roots in Europe.<ref>Max Weinreich. Hitler's professors: the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. Yale University Press, 1999. P. 111.</ref> Furthermore the Nazis' assertion of Near Eastern and Oriental racial mixture as well as other mixtures such as elements of the Mediterranean race made Jews a hybrid race with strong non-European heritage, and the Nazis believed that such a population in Europe had to be kept as low as possible.<ref>Max Weinreich. Hitler's professors: the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. Yale University Press, 1999. P. 111.</ref>
-Günther empashized Jews' Near Eastern racial heritage.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 28">Steinweis, p.28.</ref> Günther claimed the Near Eastern type were commercially spirited and artful traders, that the type held strong psychological manipulation skills that aided them in trade.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 28"/> He claimed that the Near Eastern race had been "bred not so much for the conquest and exploitation of nature as it was for the conquest and exploitation of people".<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 28"/> Günther described that European peoples had a racially-motivated aversion to peoples of Near Eastern racial origin and their traits, and showed as evidence of this multiple examples of depictions of satanic figures with Near Eastern physiognomies in European art.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 29">Steinweis, p.29</ref> Günther cited the origins of the Jews as being  the result of two migrations of the [[Hebrews]] - a people who were of Oriental racial heritage.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 29"/> The first migration was that of the Hebrews arriving into Egypt where he claimed the Hebrews had intermixed with peoples of [[Negroid]] and [[Hamitic race|Hamitic]] racial heritage.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31">Steinweis, p.31.</ref> The second migration brought the Hebrews/Israelites into [[Canaan]] where they intermixed with the Canaanites who were largely of Near Eastern racial heritage but also had some Nordic heritage.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31"/> He identified further intermixing between Israelites and the Near Eastern type as occuring after Babylonia exiled the Israelites.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31"/>  He asserted that in the 6th century B.C. the standardization of [[Judaism]] began the creation of the Jewish people, and practice of exogamy between Jews and non-Jews solidified this identity.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31"/> Günther identified the most major alteration of racial composition of Jews after the 6th century B.C., was the mass conversion of the [[Khazars]] to Judaism in the 8th century.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31"/> The Khazars were deemed primarily of Near Eastern racial origin.<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31"/> Günther identified this mass conversion of the Khazars to Judaism as creating the two major branches of the Jewish people, those of primarily Near Eastern racial heritage became the [[Ashkenazi]] Jews (that he called Eastern Jews) while those of primarily Oriental racial heritage became the [[Sephardic]] Jews (that he called Southern Jews).<ref name="Alan E Steinweis 2008. P. 31-32">Steinweis, p.31-32</ref>
-During [[World War II]], the Nazis emphasized that Jews were a "race mixture" of the Near Eastern and Oriental races, but did not say that the Near Eastern and Oriental races on their own were a problem in their view; and said that while Nazism was anti-Jewish that term "antisemitic" was not wholly accurate, as Nazism did not have antipathy to non-Jewish Semitic peoples, but towards Jews as a racially mixed Near Eastern-Oriental-Mediterranean people.<ref>Max Weinreich. Hitler's professors: the part of scholarship in Germany's crimes against the Jewish people. Yale University Press, 1999. P. 111.</ref>
-Hitler's conception of the Aryan race explicitly excluded the vast majority of [[Slavs]] from central and eastern Europe (i.e., [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|Poles]], Russians, Ukrainians, etc.) from being part of the master race, regarding Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic influences.<ref>André Mineau. ''Operation Barbarossa: Ideology and Ethics Against Human Dignity''. Rodopi, 2004. Pp. 34-36.</ref> The Nazis because of this declared Slavs to be ''[[untermenschen]]'' (subhumans).<ref>Steve Thorne. ''The Language of War''. London, England, UK: Routledge, 2006. P. 38.</ref> Exceptions were made for certain Slavs who were deemed to have sufficient Aryan characteristics.<ref>Wendy Lower. ''Nazi Empire-building And The Holocaust In Ukraine''. The University of North Carolina Press, 2005. P. 27.</ref> Hitler described Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".<ref>Marvin Perry. Western Civilization: A Brief History. Cengage Learning, 2012. P. 468.</ref> The Nazi notion of Slavs being inferior served as legitimizing their goal for creating ''lebensraum'' for Germans and other Germanic people in eastern Europe, where millions of Germans and other Germanic settlers would be moved into conquered territories of Eastern Europe, while the original Slavic inhabitants were to be [[Generalplan Ost|annihilated, removed, or enslaved]].<ref>Joseph W. Bendersky. A concise history of Nazi Germany, Plymouth, England, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 2007. p. 161-2.</ref> Nazi Germany's policy changed towards Slavs in response to military manpower shortages, in which it accepted Slavs to serve in its armed forces within occupied territories, in spite of them being considered subhuman.<ref>Norman Davies. Europe at War 1939-1945: No Simple Victory. Pan Macmillan, 2008. Pp. 167, 209.</ref>
 [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0918-0201-001, KZ Treblinka, Lageplan (Zeichnung) II.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Sketch plan of [[Treblinka extermination camp]]. Between the years 1942 and 1943, more than 850,000 Jews were murdered there and only 54 survived.]]
@@ Line 173: / Line 71: @@
 [[File:Orsen.jpg|thumb|Hitler with [[Cesare Orsenigo]], the [[Catholic Church]]'s [[nuncio to Germany]], in 1935]]
-The [[National Socialist Program|Nazi Party Programme]] of 1920 guaranteed freedom for all religious denominations not hostile to the State and endorsed [[Positive Christianity]] to combat “the Jewish-materialist spirit”.<ref name="documents"/> Nazism claimed that [[Jesus]] was Aryan and that Christianity was an Aryan faith that had been usurped by Jews.<ref>Susannah Heschel. The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. P. 37.</ref> It rejected the [[Old Testament]] of conventional Christianity, viewing [[Paul the Apostle]] as having usurped Christianity and attached it to Jewish religious heritage.<ref>Peter Viereck. Metapolitics: From Wagner and the German Romantics to Hitler. Transaction Publishers, 2004. P. 285.</ref>
+The [[National Socialist Program|Nazi Party Programme]] of 1920 guaranteed freedom for all religious denominations not hostile to the State and endorsed [[Positive Christianity]] to combat “the Jewish-materialist spirit”.<ref name="documents"/>
-It is believed that Hitler's connection of Christianity to antisemitism derived from the Jew-hating sermons of [[John Chrysostom]], [[Ambrose]], and [[Martin Luther]], as well as influence from [[Tomás de Torquemada]] who emphasized the need for blood purity involving absence of Jewish blood.<ref>James Carroll. Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews - A History.</ref> Hitler denounced the Old Testament as "Satan's Bible", and utilizing components of the New Testament attempted to demonstrate that Jesus was Aryan and antisemitic, such as in John 8:44 where Hitler noted that Jesus is yelling at "the Jews", as well as Jesus saying to the Jews that "your father is the devil", and describing Jesus' whipping of the "Children of the Devil".<ref>David Redles. ''Hitler's Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation''. New York, New York, USA; London, England, UK: New York University Press, 2005. P. 60.</ref> Hitler claimed that the New Testament included distortions by Paul the Apostle, whom Hitler described as a "mass-murderer turned saint".<ref>David Redles. ''Hitler's Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation''. New York, New York, USA; London, England, UK: New York University Press, 2005. P. 60.</ref>
-The Nazis examined a variety of theories as to what they regarded as the origins of Christianity.<ref>Susannah Heschel. The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. P. 37.</ref> In the late 19th century, depictions of Jesus in Germany by those who ascribed to theories of Jesus being non-Jewish varied from depictions of Jesus as being Nordic and similar to the attributes of the ancient Norse god [[Baldr]], to Jesus having traits similar to those of Oriental Muslim peoples.<ref>Susannah Heschel. The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. P. 37.</ref> However the most widespread of the theories in literature was that Jesus was most similar to [[Buddha]], a figure of Indo-Aryan heritage.<ref>Susannah Heschel. The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. P. 37.</ref> Such literature found that Christianity had both strong Buddhist and [[Zoroastrianism|Zoroastrian]] traits that were Aryan.<ref>Susannah Heschel. The Aryan Jesus: christian theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. P. 39-40.</ref>
-The Nazis utilized Protestant [[Martin Luther]] in their propaganda. Nazis publicly displayed an original of Luther's ''On the Jews and their Lies'' during the annual Nuremberg rallies.<ref name="understandably"/><ref name="baylor"/> The Nazis endorsed the pro-Nazi Protestant [[German Christians]] organization.
-The Nazis were initially highly hostile to Catholics because most Catholics supported the [[German Centre Party]]. Catholics opposed the Nazis' promotion of sterilization of those deemed inferior, and the Catholic Church forbade its members to vote for the Nazis. In 1933, extensive Nazi violence occurred against Catholics due to the their association with the Centre Party and their opposition to the Nazi regime's sterilization laws.<ref name="international27"/> The Nazis demanded that Catholics declare their loyalty to the German state.<ref name="Robert Anthony Krieg 2004. p. 4"/> In propaganda, the Nazis used elements of Germany's Catholic history, in particular the German Catholic [[Teutonic Knights]] and their campaigns in Eastern Europe. The Nazis identified them as "sentinels" in the East against "Slavic chaos", though beyond that symbolism the influence of the Teutonic Knights on Nazism was limited.<ref name="interaction"/> Hitler also admitted that the Nazis' night rallies were inspired by the Catholic rituals he witnessed during his Catholic upbringing.<ref name="Roger Griffin 2005. p. 85"/> The Nazis did seek official reconciliation with the Catholic Church and endorsed the creation of the pro-Nazi Catholic ''[[Kreuz und Adler]]'' organization that supported a [[national Catholicism]].<ref name="Robert Anthony Krieg 2004. p. 4"/> On 20 July 1933, a successful concordat (''[[Reichskonkordat]]'') was signed between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church which demanded loyalty of German Catholics to the German state in exchange for acceptance of the Catholic Church in Germany. The Catholic Church then ended its ban on members supporting the Nazi Party.<ref name="Robert Anthony Krieg 2004. p. 4"/>
-Historian [[Michael Burleigh]] claims that Nazism used Christianity for political purposes, but such use required that "fundamental tenets were stripped out, but the remaining diffuse religious emotionality had its uses".<ref name="Roger Griffin 2005. p. 85"/> Burleigh claims that Nazism's conception of spirituality was "self-consciously pagan and primitive".<ref name="Roger Griffin 2005. p. 85"/> However, historian [[Roger Griffin]] rejects the claim that Nazism was primarily pagan, noting that although there were some influential neo-paganists in the Nazi Party, such as [[Heinrich Himmler]] and [[Alfred Rosenberg]], they represented a minority and their views did not influence Nazi ideology beyond its use for symbolism; it's noted that Hitler denounced Germanic paganism in ''Mein Kampf'' and condemned Rosenberg's and Himmler's paganism as "nonsense".<ref name="totalitarianism"/>
 ===Economics===
@@ Line 213: / Line 101: @@
 ====Anti-capitalism====
 [[File:Der Stürmer Christmas 1929.jpg|thumb|[[antisemitism|Antisemitic]] and [[anti-capitalism|anti-capitalist]] Nazi cartoon telling Germans not to buy from [[Jew]]ish shops]]
+Hitler said in 1927, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions."<ref>{{Cite book | author=Toland, John | title=Adolf Hitler | pages=224–225 | publisher=Doubleday | year=1976 | isbn=978-0385037242 }}</ref>
-The Nazis argued that [[capitalism]] damages nations due to [[international finance]], the economic dominance of [[big business]], and Jewish influences.<ref name="autogenerated20"/> Nazi propaganda posters in [[working class]] districts emphasized anti-capitalism, such as one that said: "The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism."<ref name="publishers30"/>
-[[Adolf Hitler]], both in public and in private, expressed disdain for capitalism, arguing that it holds nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] [[rentier capitalism|rentier]] class.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 399"/> He opposed [[free market]] capitalism's profit-seeking impulses and desired an economy in which community interests would be upheld.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 403"/>
-Hitler distrusted capitalism for being unreliable due to its [[egotism]], and he preferred a state-directed economy that is subordinated to the interests of the [[Volk]].<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 399"/> Hitler said in 1927, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions."<ref>{{Cite book | author=Toland, John | title=Adolf Hitler | pages=224–225 | publisher=Doubleday | year=1976 | isbn=978-0385037242 }}</ref>
-Hitler told a party leader in 1934, "The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews."<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 399" /> Hitler said to [[Benito Mussolini]] that "Capitalism had run its course".<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 399"/> Hitler also said that the business [[bourgeoisie]] "know nothing except their profit. 'Fatherland' is only a word for them."<ref name="dictators"/> Hitler was personally disgusted with the ruling bourgeois elites of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic that he obscenely referred to as "cowardly shits".<ref>Kritika: explorations in Russian and Eurasian history, Volume 7, Issue 4. Slavica Publishers, 2006. Pp. 922.</ref>
-In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', Hitler effectively supported [[mercantilism]], in the belief that economic resources from their respective territories should be seized by force; he believed that the policy of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' would provide Germany with such economically valuable territories.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 402"/> He argued that the only means to maintain economic security was to have direct control over resources rather than being forced to rely on world trade.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 402"/> He claimed that war to gain such resources was the only means to surpass the failing capitalist economic system.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004. p. 402"/>
-A number of other Nazis held strong revolutionary socialist and anti-capitalist beliefs, most prominently [[Ernst Röhm]], the leader of the [[Sturmabteilung]] (SA).<ref name="factionalism"/> Röhm claimed that the Nazis' rise to power constituted a national revolution, but insisted that a socialist "second revolution" was required for Nazi ideology to be fulfilled.<ref name="Nyomarkay, Joseph 1967 p. 130"/> Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction.<ref name="Nyomarkay, Joseph 1967 p. 130"/> Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardizing the regime by alienating the conservative President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and the conservative-oriented German Army.<ref name="Joseph Nyomarkay 1967. p. 133"/> This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA.<ref name="Joseph Nyomarkay 1967. p. 133"/>
-Another radical Nazi, Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] adamantly stressed the socialist character of Nazism, and claimed in his diary that if he were to pick between [[Bolshevism]] and capitalism, he said "in final analysis", "it would be better for us to go down with Bolshevism than live in eternal slavery under capitalism."<ref name="disciples"/>
 ==See also==