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Nazism

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"National Socialism" redirects here. For other uses, see National Socialism (disambiguation).

Nazism is the ideology that was held by the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, commonly called the NSDAP or Nazi Party). The word Nazism is most often used in connection with the government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, also known as the "Third Reich." In terms of ideology, Nazism combines racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism and anti-communism. The Nazis believed in the superiority of an Aryan master race, advocated individual leadership in a strong, centralized government, and claimed to be defending Germany and the entire Western world against communism and Jewish subversion. Currently, Nazism is outlawed as a political ideology in Germany, as are forms of iconography and propaganda from the Nazi era. Still, remnants and revivalists, known as "Neo-Nazis," continue to operate in Germany and abroad.

Originally, the term Nazi was coined as a quick way of referring to the Party or ideology that would later be - and, to this day, remains - in close association with Adolf Hitler (the phrase is derived from the first four letters in the first word of the official name, Nationalsozialistische, German for "National Socialist," and often abbreviated with NS). Nazi was also meant to mirror the term Sozi (a common and slightly derogatory term for the Nazis' main opponents, the socialists in Germany). However, the Nazis from the era of the Third Reich rarely referred to themselves as "Nazis," preferring instead the official term, "National Socialists." Nazi was most commonly used as a pejorative term, but its use became so widespread that, currently, some Neo-Nazis also use it to describe themselves.

Hitler played a major role in the development of the Nazi Party from its early stages and rose to become the movement's undisputable ideographic figurehead. Consequently, much of what is thought to be "Nazism" is in line with Hitler's own political beliefs, and the ideology and the man continue to remain largely interchangeable in the public eye. This strong influence of one man's views on the entire movement is one of the reasons why scholars often disagree on whether Nazism can be considered a coherent ideology. The problem is furthered by the inability of various modern Nazi groups to decide what their ideologies are.

In both popular thought and academic scholarship, Nazism is generally considered a form of fascism - with "fascism" defined so as to include any of the authoritarian, nationalist, totalitarian, and right-wing movements that developed in Europe around the same time. However, fascists tended to believe that all elements in society should be unified through corporatism to form an "Organic State"; this meant that Fascists often had no strong opinion on the question of race, as it was only the State and nation that mattered. Nazism, on the other hand, emphasized the Aryan race or "Volk" principle to the point where the state simply seemed a means through which the Aryan race could realize its "true destiny." The Nazis themselves, however, claimed to be "German" above all, and less inspired by other ideologies or cultures.

Following World War II and the Holocaust, the term "Nazi" and most other words and symbols associated with Nazism (such as the swastika) acquired extremely negative connotations in Europe and North America. Calling someone a "Nazi" or even suggesting that one has something in common with Nazism is considered an insult. People of all political persuasions at times attempt to draw parallels between their opponents and the Nazis in order to put their opponents in a negative light. This is a fallacy called reductio ad Hitlerum. See also Godwin's law and fascist (epithet).

Nazi theory

Adolf Hitler claimed in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) that he first began to develop his views through observations he made while living in Austria. He concluded that there was a racial, religious, and cultural hierarchy, and he placed "Aryans" at the top as the superior race while Jews and "Gypsies" (the Roma) were people at the bottom. He closely examined and questioned the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where as a citizen by birth, Hitler lived during the Empire's last throes of life. He believed that its ethnic and linguistic diversity had weakened the Empire and helped to create dissention. Further, he saw democracy as a destabilizing force because it placed power in the hands of ethnic minorities who, he claimed, "weakened and destabilized" the Empire by dividing it against itself.

Nazi thought, an extension of various philosophies, came together at a critical time for Germany; The nation had just lost World War I and was in the midst of a period of great economic depression and instability. The Dolchstosslegende, or "stab in the back" legend, held that the war effort was sabotaged internally, suggesting that supposed "lack of patriotism" had led to Germany's defeat. In the realm of politics, these charges were directed towards the Social Democrats and the Weimar government, as the latter had been accused of "selling out" the country. Additionally, the Dolchstosslegende encouraged many to look at "non-German" Germans critically, especially those with potential "extra-national loyalties", such as the Jews. Such an appeal capitalized on anti-Semitic sentiments.

Nazi rationale also invested heavily in the militarist belief that great nations grow from military power and maintained order, which in turn grow "naturally" from "rational, civilized cultures". The Nazi Party appealed to German nationalists and national pride, capitalizing on irredentist and revanchist sentiments as well as aversions to various aspects of modernist thinking. Many ethnic Germans still had heartfelt ties to the goal of creating a greater Germany and some felt that the use of military force was necessary to achieve it.

Alfred Rosenberg's racial philosophy wholly embraced the Aryan Invasion Theory, which traced Aryan peoples in ancient Iran invading the Indus Valley Civilization, and carrying with them great knowledge and science that had been preserved from the antediluvian world. This "antediluvian world" referred to Thule, the speculative pre-Flood/Ice Age origin of the Aryan race, and is often tied to ideas of Atlantis. Most of the leadership and the founders of the Nazi Party were made up of members of the "Thule Gesellschaft" (the Thule Society), which romanticized the Aryan race through theology and ritual.

Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations) were the creation of homogeneous populations of great races, working together. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits". The weakest nations, Hitler said, were those of impure or mongrel races, because they had divided, quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and so called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben ("Life-unworthy life") owing to their perceived deficiency and inferiority, as well as their wandering, nationless invasions ("the International Jew"). The persecution of homosexuals as part of the Holocaust has seen increasing scholarly attention since the 1990s.

According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage multiculturalism within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races he thought of as less worthy to exist than "leader races". In particular, if a master race should require room to live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior indigenous races.

"Races without homelands", Hitler proclaimed, were "parasitic races", and the richer the members of a "parasitic race" were, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race" could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazis' later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories that were part of the Holocaust. Hitler and his living space doctrine found immense popularity among the largely condensed German population of over sixty million. The Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS and other German soldiers as well as civilian paramilitary groups in occupied territories were responsible for the deaths of an estimated eleven million men, women, and children in concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, and death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Hitler extended his rationalizations into a religious doctrine, underpinned by his criticism of traditional Catholicism. In particular, and closely related to Positive Christianity, Hitler objected to Catholicism's ungrounded and international character - that is, it did not pertain to an exclusive race and national culture. At the same time, and somewhat contradictorily, the Nazis combined elements of Germany's Lutheran community tradition with its Northern European, organic pagan past. Elements of militarism found their way into Hitler's own theology, as he preached that his was a "true" or "master" religion, because it would "create mastery" and avoid comforting lies. Those who preached love and tolerance, "in contravention to the facts", were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognized these "truths", Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader", and those who denied it were said to be "natural slaves". "Slaves" – especially intelligent ones, he claimed – were always attempting to hinder their masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines.

The ideological roots that became German "National Socialism" were based on numerous sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th Century idealism, and from a biological reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the goal of an Übermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden (Germanic Order) or the Thule society. He also adopted many populist ideas such as limiting profits, abolishing rents and generously increasing social benefits - but only for Germans.

Hitler's theories were not only attractive to Germans: people in positions of wealth and power in other nations are said to have seen them as beneficial. Examples are Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oréal. Nevertheless, the support for these theories was highest among the general population of Germany.

It must be noted that Nazism, as a doctrine is far from being homogeneous and can indeed be divided into various sub-ideologies. During the 20s and 30s, there were two dominant NSDAP factions. There were the followers of Otto Strasser, the so-called Strasserites and the followers of Adolf Hitler or what could be termed Hitlerites.

The Strasserite faction eventually fell afoul of Hitler, when Otto Strasser was expelled from the party in 1930, and his attempt to create an oppositional 'left-block' in the form of the Black Front failed. The remainder of the faction, which was to be found mainly in the ranks of the SA, was purged in the Night of the Long Knives, which also saw the murder of Gregor Strasser, Otto's brother. After this point, the Hitlerite faction became dominant.

In the post war era, Strasserism has enjoyed something of a revival with many neo-Nazi groups openly proclaiming themselves to be 'Strasserite'. Whether they genuinely eschrew Hitlerism in favour of Strasserism, or whether they simply think that by distancing Nazism from Hitler they can somehow make the ideology more acceptable is a matter of intense debate however.

The significance of homosexuals in the Nazi Party is considered minor by most historians. However, some tiny groups like the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, and authors Scott Lively and Kevin E. Abrams in The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, argue that many homosexuals were involved in the inner circles of the Nazi party: Ernst Röhm of the SA (whose execution was thinly rationalized as being based on his homosexuality), Horst Wessel, Max Bielas, and others. This perspective is denounced as hateful propaganda by most human rights associations and groups, stirring heated debates and accusations of censorship and "hate-speech" from both sides. Most historians and scholars of fascism do not take the work of Lively and Abrams seriously, and dismiss it as part of a Christian Right campaign against gay rights. Conversely, some Nazi supporters argue that such claims are simply more attempts to discredit Nazi ideology.

Since World War II, in which Nazi Germany was allied with Fascist Italy, there has been a widely held view among historians and the general population that Nazism and Fascism are closely related. The term Fascism is often used in a very broad sense, to refer to a variety of authoritarian nationalist political movements that exist or existed in many countries. As such, Nazism is usually classified as a particular version of Fascism.

However, if one restricts the definition of Fascism to those movements and governments that called themselves Fascist (e.g. Benito Mussolini's regime in Italy and the British Union of Fascists), a number of differences between Nazism and Fascism can be observed. Fascists tended to believe that all elements in society should be unified through Corporatism to form an "Organic State"; this meant that Fascists often had no strong opinion on the question of race, as it was only the State and nation that mattered. Nazism, on the other hand, emphasized the Aryan race or "Volk" over state to the point where the state simply became a means through which the Aryan race could realize its true destiny. Although they would later collaborate, tensions rose between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany over the increasing possibility of an Austria-Germany merger, which would create a more powerful Greater Germany. In 1934, the Austrofascist Chancellor of Austria, Englebert Dolfuss, was assassinated by Austrian Nazis, who acted on behalf of Hitler and the Party.

Key elements of the Nazi ideology

Nazism and romanticism

According to Bertrand Russell, Nazism comes from a different tradition than that of either Liberalism or Marxism. Thus, to understand values of Nazism, it is necessary to explore this connection, without trivializing the movement as it was in its peak years in the 1930s and dismissing it as little more than racism.

Some historians say that the anti-Semitic element, which did not exist in the sister fascism movements in Italy and Spain, was adopted by Hitler to gain popularity for the movement. [citation needed]Personal accounts by August Kubizek, Hitler's childhood friend, have varied, offering ambiguous claims that anti-Semitism did and did not date back to Hitler's youth.[1]Ironically, Germany had been a haven for many Jews over the years, including influencial families such as the Rothschilds, although World War I and the Dolchstosslegende helped to end that legacy. Likewise, although it had always existed, anti-Semitism was rife in the former German Empire. Historians universally accept that Nazism's mass acceptance depended upon nationalistic and anti-immigrantion appeals (which also could include xenophobia and anti-Semitism) and a patriotic flattery toward the wounded collective pride of defeated World War I veterans. Early support for the Nazis, displayed in various parades, came from the old conservative order that was the military. Others have focused on anti-Semitism (rather than general anti-immigration) claiming it to have been central to Hitler's Weltanschauung, or world view.

Many see strong connections to the values of Nazism and the irrationalist tradition of the romantic movement of the early 19th century. Strength, passion, frank declarations of feelings, and deep devotion to family and community were valued by the Nazis though first expressed by many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers. German romanticism in particular expressed these values. For instance, Hitler identified closely with the music of Richard Wagner, who harbored anti-Semitic views as the author of Das Judenthum in der Musik. Some claim that he was one of Hitler's role models, a comment of Kubizek's that is also disputed. Nevertheless, Wagner's most important operas, the Ring cycle, express Aryanist ideals, and contain what some people interpret as anti-Semitic caricatures. [citation needed] The Bayreuth Festival was also promoted by Hitler.

The idealization of tradition, folklore, classical thought, leadership (as exemplified by Frederick the Great), their rejection of the liberalism of the Weimar Republic and the decision to call the German state the Third Reich (which traces back to the medieval First Reich and the pre-Weimar Second Reich) has led many to regard the Nazis as reactionary.

Nazi mysticism

File:Thule-gesellschaft emblem.jpg
Thule Society emblem

Nazi mysticism is a term used to describe a philosophical undercurrent of Nazism that denotes the combination of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal. The esoteric Thule Society and Germanenorden were secret societies that, while only a small part of the Völkisch movement, led into the Nazi party.[1]

Dietrich Eckart, a member of Thule, actually coached Hitler on his public speaking skills, and while Hitler has not been shown to have been a member of Thule, he received support from the group. Hitler later dedicated Mein Kampf to Eckart.

Heinrich Himmler showed a strong interest in such matters, although as Steigmann–Gall points out, Hitler and many of his key associates attended Christian services.

Nazi mysticism, however, plays a major role in some forms of contemporary Nazism, with a mythology including such ideas as interdimensional vril-powered UFOs and hyperborean supermen along with the more widely known myth of Hitler having escaped to the Antarctic.

Ideological competition

Nazism and Communism emerged as two serious contenders for power in Germany after the First World War, particularly as the Weimar Republic became increasingly unstable.

What became the Nazi movement arose out of resistance to the Bolshevik-inspired insurgencies that occurred in Germany in the aftermath of the First World War. The Russian Revolution of 1917 caused a great deal of excitement and interest in the Leninist version of Marxism and caused many socialists to adopt revolutionary principles. The 1918-1919 Munich Soviet and the 1919 Spartacist uprising in Berlin were both manifestations of this. The Freikorps, a loosely organized paramilitary group (essentially a militia of former World War I soldiers) was used to crush both these uprisings and many leaders of the Freikorps, including Ernst Röhm, later became leaders in the Nazi party.

Capitalists and conservatives in Germany feared that a takeover by the Communists was inevitable and did not trust the democratic parties of the Weimar Republic to be able to resist a communist revolution. Increasing numbers of capitalists began looking to the nationalist movements as a bulwark against Bolshevism. After Mussolini's fascists took power in Italy in 1922, fascism presented itself as a realistic option for opposing "Communism", particularly given Mussolini's success in crushing the Communist and anarchist movements that had destabilized Italy with a wave of strikes and factory occupations after the First World War. Fascist parties formed in numerous European countries.

Many historians, such as Ian Kershaw and Joachim Fest, argue that Hitler's Nazis were one of numerous nationalist and increasingly fascistic groups that existed in Germany and contended for leadership of the anti-Communist movement and, eventually, of the German state. Further, they assert that fascism and its German variant, National Socialism, became the successful challengers to Communism because they were able to both appeal to the establishment as a bulwark against Bolshevism and appeal to the working class base, particularly the growing underclass of unemployed and unemployable and growingly impoverished middle class elements who were becoming declassed (the lumpenproletariat). The Nazis' use of pro-labor rhetoric appealed to those disaffected with capitalism by promoting the limiting of profits, the abolishing of rents and the increasing of social benefits (only for Germans) while simultaneously presenting a political and economic model that divested "Soviet socialism" of elements that were dangerous to capitalism, such as the concept of class struggle, "the dictatorship of the proletariat" or worker control of the means of production. Thus, Nazism's populist anti-Communism and anti-capitalism helped it become more powerful and popular than traditional conservative parties, like the DNVP. The simplicity of Nazi rhetoric, campaigns, and ideology also made its conservative allies underestimate its strength, and its ability to govern or even to last as a political party.

Support of anti-Communists for Fascism and Nazism

Various right-wing politicians and political parties in Europe welcomed the rise of fascism and the Nazis out of an intense aversion towards Communism. According to them, Hitler was the savior of Western civilization and of capitalism against Bolshevism. During the later 1930s and 1940s, the Nazis were supported by the Falange movement in Spain, and by political and military figures who would form the government of Vichy France. A Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism (LVF) and other anti-Soviet fighting formations were formed.

The British Conservative party and the right-wing parties in France appeased the Nazi regime in the mid- and late-1930s, even though they had begun to criticise its totalitarianism and in Britain especially, Nazi Germany's policies towards the Jews. However, Britain under both Conservative and Labour had appeased pre-Nazi Germany. Left-wing contemporary commentators suggested that these parties did in fact support the Nazis. Important reasons behind this appeasement included, first, the erroneous assumption that Hitler had no desire to precipitate another world war, and second, when the rebirth of the German military could no longer be ignored, a well-founded concern that neither Britain nor France was yet ready to fight an all-out war against Germany. In addition, some have argued that Nazi Germany was assisted in its development to create a front to counter early Bolshevik ambitions.

In 1936, Nazi Germany and Japan entered into the Anti-Comintern Pact, aimed directly at countering Soviet foreign policy. This later became the basis for the Tripartite Pact with Italy, the foundation of the Axis Powers. The three nations were united in their rabid opposition to Communism, as well as their militaristic, racist regimes, but they failed to coordinate their military efforts effectively.

In his early years Hitler also greatly admired the United States of America. In Mein Kampf, he praised the United States for its race-based anti-immigration laws and for the subordination of the "inferior" black population. According to Hitler, America was a successful nation because it kept itself "pure" of "lesser races". However, his view of the United States became more negative as time passed. In his later estimations, the United States was becoming a mongrel nation, calling it "half Judaised, half Negrified".[citation needed]

Economic practice

See also: Economics of fascism

File:Nazi Swastika.svg
The Nazi Party utilized a right-facing swastika as their symbol, using the colors red and black to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). Black, white, and red were in fact the colors of the old North German Confederation flag, based on the Prussian colors black and white, combined with the red and white of the medieval Hanse cities. In 1871, with the foundation of the German Reich, the flag of the North German Confederation became the German Reichsflagge (Reich's flag). Black, white, and red subsequently became the colors of German nationalism (e.g. during World War I and the Weimar Republic and arguably, even today).

Nazi economic practice concerned itself with immediate domestic issues and separately with ideological conceptions of international economics.

Domestic economic policy was narrowly concerned with three major goals:

  • Elimination of unemployment.
  • Elimination of hyperinflation.
  • Expansion of production of consumer goods to improve middle and lower-class living standards.

All of these policy goals were intended to address the perceived shortcomings of the Weimar Republic and to solidify domestic support for the party. In this, the party was very successful. Between 1933 and 1936 the German GNP increased by an average annual rate of 9.5 percent, and the rate for industry alone rose by 17.2 percent.

This expansion propelled the German economy out of a deep depression and into full employment in less than four years. Public consumption during the same period increased by 18.7%, while private consumption increased by 3.6% annually. However, as this production was primarily consumptive rather than productive (make-work projects, expansion of the war-fighting machine, initiation of conscription to remove working age males from the labor force and thus lower unemployment), inflationary pressures began to rear their head again, although not to the highs of the Weimar Republic. These economic pressures, combined with the war-fighting machine created in the expansion (and concomitant pressures for its use), has led some to conclude that a European war was inevitable. (See Causes of war).

Some economists [citation needed] argue that the expansion of the German economy between 1933 and 1936 was not the result of measures adopted by the Nazi Party, but rather the consequence of economic policies of the prior Weimar Republic, which had begun to have an effect on factors such as hyperinflation. However, it was the policies of Nazi Germany that restored national confidence, arguably the key ingrediant to any successful economic policy.

Kurt Schmitt (born 7 October 1886 in Heidelberg; died 2 November 1950 in Heidelberg) was a Board member of Allianz AG Germanys largest insurance company and was a German economic leader and the Reich Economy Minister from June 1933 until January 1935.

Internationally, the Nazi Party believed that an international banking cabal was behind the global depression of the 1930s. Control of this cabal, which had grown to a position where it controlled both Europe and the United States, was identified with an elite and powerful group of Jews. However, a number of people believed that this was part of an ongoing plot by the Jewish people, as a whole, to achieve global domination. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which began its circulation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, were said to have confirmed this, already showing "evidence" that the Bolshevik takeover in Russia was in accordance with one of the protocols. Broadly speaking, the existence of large international banking or merchant banking organizations was well known at this time. Many of these banking organizations were able to exert influence upon nation states by extension or withholding of credit. This influence is not limited to the small states that preceded the creation of the German Empire as a nation state in the 1870s, but is noted in most major histories of all European powers from the 16th century onward. Nevertheless, after the Great Depression, this libelous and unverified manuscript took on an important role in Nazi Germany, thus providing another link in the Nazis ideological motivation for the destruction of that group in the Holocaust.

Effects

These theories were used to justify a totalitarian political agenda of racialism, which grew to include the racist persecution of Jews while suppressing dissent.

Like other fascist regimes, the Nazi regime emphasized anti-communism, opposition to corporate interests not aligned with the state, uniting all workers to work for the common good, and the leader principle (Führerprinzip), a key element of fascist ideology in which the ruler is deemed to embody the political movement and the nation. Unlike some other fascist ideologies, Nazism was virulently racist. Some of the manifestations of Nazi race:

Anti-clericalism can also be interpreted as part of Nazi ideology, simply because the new Nazi hierarchy was not about to let itself be overode by the power that the Church traditionally held. In Austria, clerics had a powerful role in politics and ultimately responded to the Vatican. Although a few exceptions exist, Christian persecution was primarily limited to those who refused to accommodate the new regime and yield to its power. The Nazis often used the church to justify their stance and included many Christian symbols in the Third Reich (Steigmann–Gall). A particularly poignant exemplar is the seen in the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Backlash and Societal Effects

Perhaps the primary intellectual effect has been that Nazi doctrines discredited the attempt to use biology to explain or influence social issues, for at least two generations after Nazi Germany's brief existence.

The Nazi descendants have been mute in the post-war democracies, with some exceptions, when interviewed by psychologists and historians. In Norway, a group of descendants have taken the official stigmatizing appellation "War children" in order to break the silence and to protest against the continuous demonization of their families. Some historical revisionists disseminate propaganda that minimizes the Holocaust and other Nazi acts in order to remove the stigma attached to National Socialism. Often, attempts are also made to put a spin on the policies of the Nazi regime and the events that occurred under it. These revisionists are often, however, involved in political matters and aligned with, or in the employ of, neo-Nazis. This fact itself often casts suspicion on their beliefs.

People and history

File:Hitler walking out of Brown House after 1930 elections.jpg
Adolf Hitler walking out of the Brown House after the 1930 elections.

The most prominent Nazi was Adolf Hitler, who ruled Nazi Germany from January 30, 1933, until his suicide on April 30, 1945, and led the German Reich into World War II. After the war, many prominent Nazis were convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials, where 21 were executed.

A few scattered people, mostly not from Germany, converted to Nazism during or after World War II and contributed to further development of the ideology, especially in a spiritual or esoteric direction: Seán Russell of Ireland, Savitri Devi of France, Julius Evola of Italy, Miguel Serrano of Chile and Francis Parker Yockey, as well as George Lincoln Rockwell, within the United States.

The role of the nation

File:CWswastika.png
A Nazi symbol, the right-facing swastika or gamma cross.

The Nazi state was founded upon a racially defined "German Volk". This is a central concept of Mein Kampf, symbolized by the motto Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Führer (one people, one empire, one leader). The Nazi relationship between the Volk and the state was called the Volksgemeinschaft ("people's community"), a neologism that defined a communal duty of citizens in service to the Reich. The term "National Socialism", arguably derives from this citizen-nation relationship, whereby the term socialism is invoked (despite the fact that socialism is traditionally defined as "worker's ownership over the means of production") and is meant to be realized through the common duty of the Volk to the Reich or German nation; all actions are to be in service of the Reich. This notion of the Reich, in turn, was a virulently nationalist ideology, a tendency that decisively defined its organizational thrust and overall immediate and long-term aims. In practice, the Nazis argued, their goal was to bring forth a nation-state as the locus and embodiment of the people's collective will, bound by the Volksgemeinschaft as both an ideal and an operating instrument, geared to serve the interests of the German people.

In comparison, many socialist ideologies oppose the idea of nations, which they see as artificial divisions that support the status quo and oppression. They argue that one crucial consequence of national divisions is that they lead to wars of aggression, waged for the interest of the ruling class. The contested relationship between socialism and collectivism on the one hand, and the Nazi and Fascist movements on the other, is discussed at Fascism and ideology.

Factors that promoted the success of Nazism

An important question about Nazism is the factors that promoted its success in Germany. These factors may have included:

  • Economic devastation all over Europe after World War I.
  • Humiliation of Germany at the Treaty of Versailles, and the widespread belief that the German military were not defeated on the battlefield but "stabbed in the back" by politicians and Jews.
  • A perception that there were a disproportionate number of rich Jewish bankers controlling Germany's finances.
  • Perceived Jewish involvement in war profiteering during WWI.
  • Appeal of nationalist rhetoric.
  • Rejection of Communism and the perception that Communism was a Jewish-inspired and Jewish-led movement; hence the Nazi use of the term Judeo-Bolshevik.
  • The split in the working class between Social Democrats (SPD) and Communists, exacerbated by the Communists' policy of treating the SPD as "Social Fascists"
  • The Great Depression.
  • Hitler's choice of taking power through legal political means rather than a violent coup after the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch.

The multiple atrocities and racist ideology that the Nazis followed have made them notorious in popular discourse as well as history. The term "Nazi" has become a genericised term of abuse. So have other Third Reich terms like "Führer" (often spelled "fuhrer" or less often, but more correctly, "fuehrer" in English-speaking countries), "Fascist", "Gestapo" (short for Geheime Staatspolizei, or Secret State Police in English) or "Hitler". The terms are used to describe any people or behaviours that are viewed as thuggish, overly authoritarian, or extremist.

The terms are also used to describe anyone or anything seen as strict or doctrinaire. Phrases like "grammar nazi", "Feminazi", and "Open Source Nazi" are examples of those in use in the USA. These uses are offensive to some, as the controversy in the popular press over the Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" episode indicates, but still the terms are used so frequently as to inspire "Godwin's Law".

More innocent terms, like "fashion police", also bear some resemblance to Nazi terminology (Gestapo, Secret State Police) as well as references to Police states in general.

Another similar effect can be observed in the usage of typefaces. Some people strongly associate the blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher) with Nazi propaganda (although the typeface is much older, and its usage, ironically, was banned by government order in 1941). A less strong association can be observed with the Futura typeface, which today is sometimes described as "germanic" and "muscular".

In popular culture such as films like the Indiana Jones series, Nazis are often considered to be ideal villains whom the heroes can battle without mercy.

Video game website IGN declared Nazis to be the most memorable video game villains ever [2].

Nazi sites

Nazism, both before and after World War II, was a quasi-religion to its followers, and like many world religions it had its own venerated locations or sites. Savitri Devi visited many of them during a tour of the sites in 1953.

Devi also visited some sites, not directly connected to Nazism, but perceived to be of spiritual or German-national significance:

Source: [3]

Notes

  1. ^ Peter Levenda, Unholy Alliance: A History of the Nazi Involvement With the Occult, 2002 2nd edition ISBN 0826414095
  1. ^ For an account of Hitler's apparent lack of early anti-Semitism, read August Kubizek, The Young Hitler I Knew, Greenhill Books, 2006 ed. ISBN 1853676942. Bear in mind, however, this post-war claim is rumored to be contradicted by the pre-war claim made in Kubizek's largely out of print, mid-war Reminiscences.

References

Richard Steigmann–Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

David Redles. 2005. Hitler's Millennial Reich: Apocalyptic Belief and the Search for Salvation. New York University Press. ISBN 0814775241

Further reading

  • List of Adolf Hitler books
  • Victor Klemperer, LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii (1947)
  • Robert O. Paxton (2005). The Anatomy of Fascism. London, Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0141014326.
  • Alfred Sohn-Rethel (1978). Economy and Class Structure of German Fascism. London, CSE Bks. ISBN 0906336007.
  • Fritzsche, Peter (1990). Rehearsals for Fascism: Populism and Political Mobilization in Weimar Germany. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195057805.
  • Allen, W.S (1965). The Nazi Seizure of Power: The Experience of a Single German Town 1922-1945. Penguin. ISBN 0140239685.

See also

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