出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』「2016/01/20 19:32:35」(JST)
国民社会主義ドイツ労働者党 Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei |
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党章
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総統 | アドルフ・ヒトラー |
成立年月日 | 1920年2月24日(前身の政党は1919年1月) |
解散年月日 | 1945年9月10日 |
解散理由 | 連合国軍による禁止命令 |
本部所在地 | ミュンヘン |
党員・党友数 |
850万人(1945年)
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政治的思想・立場 | 国家社会主義(ナチズム) 汎ゲルマン主義 |
機関紙 | フェルキッシャー・ベオバハター |
シンボル | 党歌:旗を高く掲げよ |
テンプレートを表示 |
ナチズム |
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党組織
国家社会主義ドイツ労働者党
指導者 |
歴史
ナチス・ドイツ
ミュンヘン一揆 |
用語
国家社会主義
25カ条綱領 |
書籍・新聞
我が闘争
二十世紀の神話 |
関連項目
ファシズム
ムッソリーニ |
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ファシズム |
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主義
ナショナリズム · 権威主義 · 一党制 · 独裁政治 · 社会進化論 · 社会的干渉主義 · 教化 · プロパガンダ · 反知性主義 · 優生学 · ヒロイズム · 軍国主義 · 経済干渉主義 · 反共主義
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テーマ
ファシズムの定義 · ファシズムの経済 · ファシズムとイデオロギー · 世界のファシズム · 記号体系
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思想
ナショナリズム · 国家主義 · 国家サンディカリスム · コーポラティズム · 階級協調 · 国家資本主義 · 国家社会主義 · 超資本主義 · 英雄資本主義 · 黄色社会主義 · 未来派 · ポピュリズム · 閉鎖経済 · 全体主義
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活動
国家ファシスト党 · イタリア・ファシズム · 矢十字党 · オーストロファシズム · ブラジル統合主義運動 · ファランヘ党 · 鉄衛団 · 天皇制ファシズム · ナチズム · レクシズム · ウスタシャ
パラファシスト: |
人物
ジョルジュ・ソレル
ガブリエーレ・ダンヌンツィオ |
著作物
ファシスト・マニフェスト · ザ・ドクトリン・オブ・ファシズム · 我が闘争 · 二十世紀の神話 · Zaveshchanie russkogo fashista
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組織
枢軸国 · 黒い旅団 · 黒シャツ隊 · 青シャツ隊 · 藍衣社 · 赤シャツ隊 · ファシスト・インターナショナル · ファシズム大評議会 · 緑シャツ隊 · イタリア国家主義協会 · ナチス親衛隊 · 突撃隊
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歴史
ファッショ · ローマ進軍 · ミュンヘン一揆 · アチェルボ法 · アヴェンティン分離 · イタリアファシスト · ナチス・ドイツ · アディスアベバ攻略 · ヴェローナ議会 · イタリア社会共和国
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一覧
反ファシスト · イギリスのファシスト · 各国のファシズム · ナチスのイデオロギー
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関連項目
反ファシズム · 教権的ファシズム · クリプトファシズム(en) · ヨーロピアンファシズム(en) · ファシスト(蔑称)(en) · 左翼ファシズム(en) · ファシスト四天王 · 社会ファシズム論 · 再生超国家主義(en) · ローマ式敬礼 · ナチス式敬礼 · ネオ・ファシズム
· イスラムファシズム · |
政治ポータル |
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国家社会主義ドイツ労働者党(こっかしゃかいしゅぎドイツろうどうしゃとう、独: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei 、略称: NSDAP)は、かつて存在したドイツの政党。一般にナチス、ナチ党などと呼ばれる(詳細は#名称を参照)。1919年1月に前身のドイツ労働者党が設立され、1920年に国民社会主義ドイツ労働者党に改称した。指導者原理に基づく指導者(ドイツ語: Führer)アドルフ・ヒトラーが極めて強い権限を持ち、カリスマ的支配が行われた。1933年の政権獲得後、ドイツに独裁体制を敷いたものの(ナチス・ドイツ)、1945年のドイツ敗戦により事実上消滅し、連合国によって禁止された。
前身の党は「ドイツ労働者党」である。1920年、党の実力者となったヒトラーが改名を主張し、ルドルフ・ユングがオーストリアの「ドイツ国民社会主義労働者党」(Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei)の命名パターンに従うことを要求した。討議の結果、 「Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei 」、ナツィオナールゾツィアリスティシェ・ドイチェ・アルバイターパルタイ)の党名が採用された。正式に党名が変更されたのは1920年2月末であるが、2月22日付のビラでドレクスラーがこの党名を用いている。一方で党書記がこの党名を使用し始めたのは4月18日になってからであった[1]。
正式党名の和訳は「National」の解釈の違いにより「国家社会主義ドイツ労働党[2]」、「国民社会主義ドイツ労働者党[3]」、「国民社会主義的ドイツ労働者党」[4]、「民族社会主義ドイツ労働者党」[5]などと訳される。
「国家社会主義」はフェルディナント・ラッサールなどの社会主義思想である state socialism としても用いられる[6]。略して呼ぶ場合は後述の「ナチス」の他、同時代には「国粋社会党[7]」「国民社会党[8]」の表記も使われた。
また、高校世界史教科書では「国民社会主義ドイツ労働者党」と記されており、それを正式名称として教えている。(2016年度)
各国語では下記の通り翻訳されている。
通称の「ナチ(独: Nazi (ナーツィ))」 Nationalsozialist の初め2音節を同音異字につづり変えた物で、「ナチス(Nazis)」はNaziの複数形である。元来は当時の対抗勢力がナチ党員および国家社会主義者に付けた蔑称である。ドイツ社会民主党員および社会主義者も同様に Sozialist を短縮して「ゾチ(Sozi (ゾーツィ))」と蔑称されていた。
したがって、映画などの創作でナチ党員が「ナチス」と言うのは本来は誤りであり、自分たちにナチおよびナチスという呼称を用いる事は無かった。党員自身は党名のイニシャルを略して「NSDAP (エンエスデーアーペー)」、「NS (エンエス)」或いは「Partei (パルタイ)」と呼び、党員同士は「PG (ペーゲー)」(Parteigenosse 、党同志の略)、「Kamerad (カメラート)」などと呼び合った。
しかし、ナチスという呼称は広まっており、ドイツ以外の全世界では通称となっている[4]。日本でもナチおよびナチスの呼称が当時から使用されている[9]。
現在は他の非ドイツ語圏でも Nazi Party や Nazi Germany のようにドイツ語の Nazi がそのまま使用されている。ドイツ語にも同様の Nazi-Deutschland などの言い方はあるが、分断時代の西ドイツにおいても、「NASDAP」などの呼び方が一般的であり、ナチスの名称はほとんど用いられなかった[4]。また、Nationalsozialismus (英: National Socialism)の略号である NS (エンエス) を接頭語にして、例えば NS-Deutschland (エンエス・ドイチュラント) のように造語される。
この節の加筆が望まれています。 |
党の思想として一貫して存在しているのは「アーリア人至上主義」、「反ユダヤ主義」、「反共」、「指導者による独裁」等であり、ヒトラーの著書「我が闘争」が党に聖典視された。しかし党の実際の行動においてはこれらの思想と矛盾する事態もしばしば起こった。しかし指導者に対する忠誠と服従が優先され(指導者原理)、党員は疑問をさしはさむことは許されなかった。
1918年初頭に「ドイツ労働者の平和に関する自由委員会 (Freier Ausschuss für einen deutschen Arbeiterfrieden)」がブレーメンで結成された。錠前師で自称詩人でもあったアントン・ドレクスラーは同党の支部を1918年3月7日にミュンヘンで結成した。10月2日にはカール・ハラーとドレクスラーは「政治的労働者サークル」を結成し、ドイツ労働者党の結成準備を行った。1919年1月5日、ハラーを第一議長とするドイツ労働者党 (DAP)」が成立した。当時の党綱領はドレクスラーの手によるものであり、民族主義と中産階級の成立が強調されていた[10]。
創設当初の党はわずか40人ほどの小さな政治的サークルに過ぎなかった。しかし党は右派組織全ドイツ連盟(ドイツ語版)やゴットフリート・フェーダー、ディートリヒ・エッカートを会員とするトゥーレ協会といった右派組織の支援を受けており、エルンスト・レームのような軍とドイツ義勇軍の関係者も党員であった。第一議長ハラーやその背後にいた全ドイツ連盟の指導者は「フリーメーソンやユダヤ資本らの陰謀」を防ぐため、閉鎖的なサークルの状態から政治運動に間接的な影響を与えることが望ましいと考えていた[11]。党の集会は盛況であり、毎週300人ほどの聴衆を集めていた[12]。
当時アドルフ・ヒトラーは、ドイツ国軍が非合法に行っていた政治情勢を調査する仕事をしており、元々ナチスに接近したのは、上官であるカール・マイヤー大尉にスパイを命ぜられたためであった。同党が1919年9月12日に開いた集会に参加し[13]、数日後に入党した。ヒトラーは自分が7番目の党創設メンバーであると主張していたが、彼の党員番号は(党員を多く見せかけるため、501番から始まる)555番であり、この番号も1920年にアルファベット順で作成された名簿に基づくものであった。ヒトラーが7番目の幹部であったという説もあるが、名簿作成以前の正式な記録が無いため明確にはなっていない[13]。
ヒトラーはドレクスラーに見込まれ、たちまち党に不可欠な巧みな演説者となった。ヒトラーは軍の仕事から離れ、党務に専念するようになった。1919年12月、ドレクスラーとヒトラーは党規則を改定することで議長(党首)であったハラーを追放し、ドレクスラーが新議長となった。1920年1月5日、ヒトラーはドレクスラーと共に党綱領の整備に取り組み、反ブルジョワ・反ユダヤ・国粋主義、企業の国有化、利子制度打破などを訴える25カ条綱領を作成した。綱領は2月24日ミュンヘンのビアホール「ホフブロイハウス」で開かれた集会で正式採択された。2月末には党名が正式に変更され、6月にハーケンクロイツの党章を採用、12月には売りに出されていた週刊紙『フェルキッシャー・ベオバハター』を買い取り、党の機関紙とした。
ヒトラーは軍とのパイプを持つエルンスト・レーム大尉やエッカートらの支持もあって党内で勢力を拡大した。ヒトラーは党内一番の人気弁士であり、数千人の聴衆を集めることが出来た。党財政においてもヒトラーは欠かせない存在になっていた。1921年7月、ヒトラー色を薄めようとする党内の動きに対して自らを唯一絶対の指導者とする独裁権(指導者原理)を要求するに至る。党内には反発もあったが、離党をちらつかせたヒトラーに屈し、7月29日に開かれた幹部会議で認められた。ドレクスラーは名誉議長に棚上げされ、ヒトラーが議長となった。このころからヒトラーはエッカートやヘスといった支持者から指導者を意味する「Führer」(フューラー)と呼ばれるようになり[13]、党内に定着した。この「Führer」はヒトラーの終生の肩書きとなった(総統を参照)。
同年8月には党内組織「体育スポーツ局 (Sportabteilung)」がレームによって設立された。同組織は10月に「突撃隊」と改称し、他党の同種団体との市街戦の主力となった。突撃隊の幹部は禁止されたドイツ義勇軍(フライコール)エアハルト海兵旅団から派遣されており、やがて一定の独立性を持った突撃隊を形成していくことになる。
またこの頃から党勢の拡大を見た実業家からの寄付も相次ぎ、党勢はさらに拡大した。1921年に3千人だった党員が1922年1月には党員6千人となった。この年の3月8日にヒトラー・ユーゲントの前身となるナチ党青年同盟が設立された。8月16日にはハーケンクロイツの党旗が公の場ではじめて用いられた。10月にはユリウス・シュトライヒャー率いるニュルンベルクのドイツ社会党が合流し、ますます党勢が拡大した。しかし11月18日にはプロイセン州においてナチ党が禁止され、ザクセン州、テューリンゲン州等でも禁止されたため、ナチ党の発展はバイエルン州に限られることになった。しかしドイツの不景気とインフレはナチ党を含む右派への支持をさらに高めた。
1923年には党員数3万5千人を数え、バイエルン州でも有数の政党になっていた。2月には国防軍が主導する極右派政党・義勇軍の連合「祖国的闘争同盟共働団」に参加し、有力な構成団体となった。このころから突撃隊の軍隊化が進められ始めた。
1923年1月にヴェルサイユ条約の賠償金の支払い遅延を理由にフランス軍がドイツの工業地帯であるルール地方を占領した(ルール問題)。ヴィルヘルム・クーノ首相の政府はサボタージュによる抵抗を呼びかけ、工業の停止と、占領によって生じた損害への補償のためインフレーションがさらに激化した(英語版記事)。ナチ党は消極的な抵抗しか行えない政府を批判するとともに、突撃隊を拡充してフランス占領軍に対抗しようとした。2月に第一次世界大戦の英雄ヘルマン・ゲーリングが突撃隊司令官となったのはその流れの一つで、3月からは本格的な軍事訓練が行われた。
5月26日には党員の一人アルベルト・レオ・シュラゲター(ドイツ語版)がフランス軍に捕らえられ、軍法会議にかけられた上で処刑された。このシュラゲターの死をナチスが喧伝したことにより、ドイツ国内はもとより世界でも英雄視された[14]。これらのことが有利に働き、集団入党や献金が相次ぎ、ナチ党は更に勢力を拡大した。
しかし5月3日にはレームが参謀将校から左遷され、軍のドイツ義勇軍援助はエーリヒ・ルーデンドルフ将軍の影響下にある、ヘルマン・クリーベル大尉の指揮下に置かれることになった。このため元軍人が多い突撃隊へのヒトラーの影響力は弱まった。9月には突撃隊と共働団参加団体が連合し、「ドイツ闘争連盟」が組織された。クリーベルが議長であり、ヒトラーも指導者の一人になった。
不穏な空気は9月26日のフリードリヒ・エーベルト大統領による非常事態宣言によって表面化し、反ベルリンであったバイエルン州政府と中央政府の対立の構図が生まれた。しかしバイエルン州の実権を握ったグスタフ・フォン・カール主導のベルリン進軍は、ヒトラーにとって受け入れがたいものであった。ドイツ闘争連盟は州政府を掌握し、その上でベルリンに進軍するという中央政権打倒計画を立案した。11月8日、ビアホールビュルガーブロイケラーにおいてヒトラー自らカールらを軟禁し、州政府の建物を占拠した。ヒトラーはルーデンドルフにカールらの説得を依頼し、一時は進軍への協力を承諾させた。しかしカールらは逃亡し、ドイツ闘争連盟の鎮圧に乗りだした。11月9日、ドイツ闘争連盟は市の中心部にあるオデオン広場に向けてデモを行い、2000-3000人がこれに従ったが、同広場の入口で警察隊に銃撃されて、デモは壊滅した。
首謀者ヒトラーを初め、党員らは逮捕され、国内に残った幹部はアルフレート・ローゼンベルクなどわずかなものになった。ナチ党と突撃隊は非合法化され、一時解散することになった。しかしその後の裁判はヒトラーの独演会と化し、かえってヒトラーと党の知名度は高まることとなった。ヒトラーはランツベルク刑務所で城塞禁固刑を受けることになるが、彼のもとには差し入れが相次いだ。その後も反ワイマール共和国の気運の高まりは衰えることはなく、ナチス党のいくつかのダミー団体が活動を続けた。
ヒトラーが指名した運動の指導者はローゼンベルクであったが、彼の政治力は乏しく、分派争いがひどくなった。党内左派の中心人物であるグレゴール・シュトラッサーはヒトラー無き党内で勢力を拡大した。ルーデンドルフを担ぐ「ドイツ民族自由党」と共同して「国家社会主義自由運動」を結成し、1924年5月の選挙で32議席を獲得した。シュトラッサーは共産主義に対抗するためには統制経済が必要と考えており、合法的な政権交代に路線転換し、既存勢力(産業界・軍部・貴族階級)との融和を考えたヒトラーとの間に溝を深めることになる。ヨーゼフ・ゲッベルスはこの頃にシュトラッサーの秘書として党活動を始め、シュトラッサーの有力な腹心となった。同年12月の選挙では国家社会主義自由運動の議席は14議席に低下し、これまでナチ党と密接な関係を持っていたルーデンドルフとの関係も悪化した。
また突撃隊も禁止されたが、レームがドイツ闘争連盟の隊員を結集してフロントリング (Frontring) という組織を結成した。1924年8月28日に同組織はフロントバン(ドイツ語版)と改称された。
1924年12月20日、ヒトラーが監獄から釈放され、投獄を免れた幹部も恩赦を受け帰国していた。1925年1月4日にはバイエルン州首相ハインリヒ・ヘルトとヒトラーの会見が行われ、2月16日には再結成が許可された。ヘルトはヒトラーの恭順姿勢に「この野獣は飼いならされた。もう鎖を解いてやっても心配ないだろう」と感じた[15]。フロントバンの大半もナチ党に合流し、再結成後のナチ党は合法活動による政権獲得を主軸として行うこととなる。しかし2月27日に行われた再結成党集会には四千人が集まるなど影響力は強いことが明らかとなり、州政府から一年間の演説禁止措置を受けた。4月、レームがフロントバンの指揮権を確認する手紙をヒトラーに送ったが、ヒトラーは指揮権が自分にあることを表明した。レームは失脚し、政界から引退した。
7月18日にはヒトラーの初の著書「我が闘争」が発売された。高い値段設定にもかかわらず1万部を売るなど順調な売り上げであった。すでにヒトラーとナチ党はドイツ全体に知られた存在であり、バイエルン州以外でも支持が広がりつつあった。しかしレンテンマルクの導入によるインフレの沈静化と、ドーズ案受け入れによる好景気は極右勢力全体への支持を減少させていった。一方で北部を管轄していたシュトラッサーは労働者に対して呼びかけることで党員を増やし、勢力を拡大していった。8月21日にはシュトラッサーらが「国民社会主義通信」という独自の新聞の発刊を行い、独自活動を始めていた。9月21日、再結成された突撃隊の下部組織として「親衛隊」が設立された。当初はヒトラーのボディーガードであったが、次第に党内警察としての立場を固めていくことになる。
1926年、シュトラッサーは当時問題となっていた旧ドイツ帝国諸邦王室の財産没収を支持し、企業の国営化を進める、領土回復のためのソ連との連携など、左派色の強い綱領改定案を呈示した。しかし、富裕層からの政治献金が無視できない額となっており、またソ連と組む案はヒトラーにとって受け入れられる案ではなかった。ヒトラーは2月14日にバンベルクで招集されたバンベルク会議において、25ヶ条綱領を不変の綱領とし、「指導者原理」による指導者への絶対服従を認めさせた。シュトラッサーは屈服したが、全国組織指導者に任じられ、独自の出版社運営を認める懐柔も行われた。しかしシュトラッサーの右腕であったゲッベルスがヒトラーに懐柔され、シュトラッサーの勢力は縮小した。7月3日にはヴァイマールで党大会が開かれた。この大会でヒトラー・ユーゲントの成立と、各種等団体の成立、そして突撃隊の再結成が行われた。この年の暮れには党員が5万名に達していたとされるが、フランツ・クサーヴァー・シュヴァルツが党員番号を通し番号にして脱退者数をわからなくしたために、実際の党員がどの程度であったかはわかっていない[16]。
1927年も好景気の影響でナチ党の活動は停滞し、資金難で党大会や集会が中止される事もあった。1928年5月20日、ナチス党として初めての国政選挙に挑んだが、12人の当選に留まった。しかしその後のドイツ経済の悪化と、ヴェルサイユ条約の賠償金支払い方法としてヤング案が合意されるとドイツ国民の反発を呼び、極右と極左、特にナチス党は支持を集めていく事になる。1930年、ナチス党の伸長を恐れたブリューニング内閣は政治団体構成員が公の場で制服を着用することを禁じた。これは事実上の突撃隊禁止命令であったが、同年9月の選挙では107議席を獲得し、第二党に躍進した。政府側からはナチ党の取り込みを図る動きもあったが、ヒトラーの首相就任を求めるナチ党は協力しなかった。この後ナチ党は中央党、ドイツ国家人民党とともにハルツブルク戦線(英語版)という連合を組み、ブリューニング内閣への攻撃を強めた。
しかし躍進はしても末端の突撃隊員には恩恵が及ばず、1931年3月には東部ベルリン突撃隊指導者ヴァルター・シュテンネス(ドイツ語版)大尉が公然と党中央を批判し、突撃隊と親衛隊の間で衝突が起こるようになった。ヒトラーは南米からレームを召還して突撃隊の鎮撫に当たらせたが、突撃隊の独自傾向は強まるばかりであった。
1932年4月には大統領選挙が行われ、ヒトラーが大統領候補として出馬した。現大統領のパウル・フォン・ヒンデンブルクが圧倒的な票を集めて勝利したものの、ヒトラーも30%以上の票を集めた。ブリューニング内閣は倒れ、大統領の側近であったシュライヒャー中将の策謀によりパーペン内閣が成立した。7月の選挙でナチ党は全584議席中230議席[17]を獲得し、ついに第一党の座を占めた。パーペンはナチス党と協力して議会運営を行おうとするが、首相の座にこだわるヒトラーは拒絶した。しかもヒトラーは首相の座に加え、全権委任を要求した(のちに全権委任法として現実の物となる)。ヒトラーの要求はヒンデンブルクやパーペンにとって、とうてい呑める要求ではなかった。さらにナチ党提出による内閣不信任案が可決され、進退窮まったパーペン首相は11月に再度選挙を行った。選挙の結果、ナチ党は34議席を失ったが、引き続き第一党の座を占め続けた。
投票年月日 | 得票数 | 得票率 | 当選数 |
---|---|---|---|
1928年5月20日 | 810,000 | 2.6% | 12人 |
1930年9月14日 | 6,410,000 | 18.3% | 107人 |
1932年7月31日 | 13,750,000 | 37.3% | 230人 |
1932年11月6日 | 11,740,000 | 33.1% | 196人 |
1933年3月5日 | 17,280,000 | 43.9% | 288人 |
1933年11月12日 | 39,655,288 | 92.2% | 661人 |
1936年3月29日 | 44,462,458 | 98.8% | 741人 |
1938年4月10日 | 44,451,092 | 99.5% | 813人 |
ドイツ国会選挙の当選者数(1920 - 1938) | |||||||||||
国会の政党 | 1920年6月6日 | 1924年5月4日 | 1924年12月7日 | 1928年5月20日 | 1930年9月14日 | 1932年7月31日 | 1932年11月6日 | 1933年3月5日 | 1933年11月12日 | 1936年3月29日 | 1938年4月10日 |
共産党 (KPD) | 4 | 62 | 45 | 54 | 77 | 89 | 100 | 81 (*2) | 禁止(*4) | - | - |
ドイツ社会民主党 (SPD) | 102 | 100 | 131 | 153 | 143 | 133 | 121 | 120 | 禁止(*4) | - | - |
カトリック中央党 (*1) | 65 | 81 | 88 | 78 | 87 | 97 | 90 | 93 | 解散(*4) | - | - |
ドイツ国家人民党 (DNVP) | 71 | 95 | 103 | 73 | 41 | 37 | 52 | 52(*3) | 解散(*4) | - | - |
国家社会主義ドイツ労働者党 (NSDAP) | - | - | - | 12 | 107 | 230 | 196 | 288(*3) | 661 | 741 | 813 |
その他の政党 | 98 | 92 | 73 | 121 | 122 | 22 | 35 | 23 | - (*4) | - | - |
|
11月の選挙の結果をうけてパーペン内閣は倒れた。しかしナチ党も絶対多数を確保出来ず、指名権を持つヒンデンブルク大統領がヒトラーを個人的に嫌っていたため、ヒトラー組閣は困難であった。その政治的空白を縫って、シュライヒャーが新首相となった。シュライヒャー首相は入閣を餌に組織局長シュトラッサーの切り崩しを図ったが失敗し、ヒンデンブルク大統領の信任も失った。
この間に、ヒトラーはヒンデンブルクの息子オスカーと大統領官房長オットー・マイスナーを味方に引き入れた。彼らの説得を受けてヒンデンブルクはついにヒトラーを首相に任命し、1933年1月30日にヒトラー内閣が発足した。発足当時、入閣したナチス党員はヒトラーを含めて3名であり、副首相パーペンを代表とする保守派はヒトラーを制御出来ると考えていた。しかしプロイセン州内相に就任したゲーリングが国土の過半数以上を占めるプロイセン州の警察権力を握り、突撃隊や親衛隊が警察権力に浸透していった。
組閣後まもなく議会は解散され、選挙運動が始まった。しかし2月に国会議事堂放火事件が起こり、これを共産党の陰謀と見なして緊急大統領令を布告、共産党幹部を逮捕した。当時の法律では国会議員の逮捕は禁じられていたが、緊急大統領令がこれを許した。
選挙の結果、ナチス党が勝利したことが明らかになると、「党がドイツ民族を指導する体制が承認された」として、党による独裁を強化した。プロイセン州国家代理官のゲーリングを始めとする各地方の党員は鉤十字の党旗を地方官公庁の建物に掲揚させた。さらにヒトラーは3月23日に全権委任法を国会承認させ、立法権を国会からヒトラー政権に委譲させた。この法律はどんな法律も議会の審議を経ないで政府が制定できることを意味していた。既存の政党は次々と解散し、7月には政党禁止法によりナチ党以外の政党は禁止された。また、これに前後してヴァイマル憲法に定められた基本的人権や労働者の権利のほとんどは停止された。11月には国会選挙が行われ、国会議員はナチス党員のみとなった。12月には国家と党の不可分な一体化が定められたが、1942年にこの条文は削除されている[18]。
1934年6月30日、第二革命を主張する突撃隊参謀長レームや党内左派など党内外のヒトラー反対派を一斉に粛清(長いナイフの夜事件)し、独裁権力は確実なものとなった。ヴァイマル共和国軍や資本家とも連携し、国内の反対派は息を潜めた。8月にはヒンデンブルク大統領死亡にともなって発効した国家元首法により、首相のヒトラーに大統領権限が委譲され、ヒトラーは国家元首となった。1938年11月9日夜から10日未明にかけてナチス党員・突撃隊がドイツ全土のユダヤ人住宅・商店・シナゴーグなどを襲撃・放火している(水晶の夜)。
1933年4月7日、州政府にナチ党幹部が国家代理官として送り込み、民主主義的な地方自治を停止させた。
党の組織上の単位である大管区、管区、支部、細胞、班 はそのまま国民支配の行政単位になった。党の組織は生活の大部分に浸透し、労働組合に代わる「ドイツ労働戦線」や、下部組織の「歓喜力行団」などによって、労働・教育・余暇など私生活の隅々まで党によって支配されていた。また青少年はヒトラー・ユーゲントへの加入が義務づけられた。これらの組織は第二次世界大戦では防空や治安維持なども担当し、大戦末期には本土防衛のために老人・子供から成る非正規軍の「国民突撃隊」の母体にもなっている。
1945年4月30日にヒトラーが総統地下壕で自殺した後、遺言によってマルティン・ボルマンが「党担当大臣」に任命された。しかし遺書は広く知られなかった上に、まもなくボルマンは消息を絶った。ヒトラー亡きナチ党は統制能力を失い、事実上解散状態となった。この間にヒムラーら一部の幹部は逃亡を図っている。1945年5月8日にドイツ国防軍が連合国軍に降伏し、軍政下に置かれた9月10日には党の存在自体が軍政当局によって禁止された。1946年9月30日、ロンドン憲章に基づく「ニュルンベルク裁判」により、党指導部・親衛隊・ゲシュタポが「犯罪的な組織」と認定された。ニュルンベルク裁判や継続裁判など占領地域で行われたその後の非ナチ化法廷により15万人もの党員が逮捕されたが、実際に裁判を受けたのは3万人である。また占領下やその後の新ドイツにおいては、ナチ党の影響を減少させる「非ナチ化」の施策が行われた。
党の組織は階層化されており、それぞれの階層の指導者がその階層以下を支配するという指導者原理に基づく運営が行われていた。党首にあたる指導者(総統)アドルフ・ヒトラーは、党のすべてにわたる独裁権を握っていた。
全国指導部 (Reichsleitung) は、職能別に党務を分担して指導者ヒトラーを補佐する17-20人の全国指導者から構成された(1934年時点の党組織図では18名が挙げられている)。全国指導者には、1933年の政権奪取後のヒトラー内閣で国務大臣を兼務する者が多く含まれていた。
指導者代理幕僚部は1941年までのナチ党の支配機構。指導者代理のルドルフ・ヘスは党のあらゆる事項について、指導者ヒトラーの名によって決定する権限を持っていた。ただし、実務能力に疎いヘスはこの巨大な権力を使いこなすことができず、実権は「指導者代理幕僚長」兼「指導者代理秘書」のマルティン・ボルマンに移っていった。
1941年5月に指導者代理ルドルフ・ヘスがイギリスに飛行したことによって失脚し、ヘスに附設していた指導者代理幕僚部は廃止された。その後継機関として指導者ヒトラーが直接に党を支配するための機構である党官房が設置された。政権末期のナチ党の実務は官房長マルティン・ボルマンが差配しており、事実上、彼が党の実権を握るにいたった。
宣伝を重視したヒトラーは、初期には宣伝全国指導者を自ら兼任していた。後、この職は「プロパガンダの天才」と呼ばれたヨーゼフ・ゲッベルスの就任するところとなり、ナチ党の政権奪取とその後の世論誘導に決定的な役割を果たすことになる。
都市を基盤にしていたナチスにとって、農業政策に関する部局が置かれたのは比較的遅かった。後に農民局に名称変更されている。
第二次世界大戦の勃発後に東方占領地を獲得すると、植民政策局に改められた。
ナチス党が選挙に出馬して以降、国会議員の数も増加した。しかしヒトラーが独裁権力を握ると、ほとんど名誉職に過ぎなくなった。
ナチ党の初期には、組織局はナチ党の最も重要な組織であり、その長である組織全国指導者は名実共にナチ党のNo.2であった。しかし、グレゴール・シュトラッサーが党から追放されるとともに、組織局の重要性は薄れていった。
当時のドイツの政党は、ドイツ社会民主党の「国旗団」、ドイツ国家人民党の友好団体「鉄兜団」、ドイツ共産党の「赤色戦線戦士同盟」といった、統一された制服を着、旗を掲げて街頭を行進する集団を抱えていた。エルンスト・レームの設立した党内組織の「体育スポーツ局」が改称されて生まれた突撃隊はそのような性格の組織であり、街頭行進や他党の活動妨害を行った。突撃隊はナチス党の知名度を上げるのに役立ったが、後に粗暴なならず者の集団であるという評判が立った。この事が後の長いナイフの夜事件による突撃隊幹部粛清の一因となった。しかしその後も国内最大の組織として存続した。
地方組織は規模ごとに大管区、管区、地区、細胞、街区、班と分けられており、それぞれに指導者がいた。大管区の範囲は州レベルであり、最小単位の班の構成は40-50世帯である。また、政権獲得後にドイツの占領区域が増加すると帝国大管区が設置されている。
大管区はナチ党の地方組織としての最大の単位で、そこには大管区指導者(1935年には33人)が置かれた。ベルリン=ブランデンブルク大管区指導者は宣伝全国指導者(宣伝大臣兼務)のゲッベルスであり、彼は全国指導者と大管区指導者を兼任していた唯一の人物であった。また、南ハノーファー・ブラウンシュヴァイク大管区指導者ベルンハルト・ルストは1934年以降、国の文部大臣でもあった。また、国外大管区(ドイツ語版)は外国のナチ党員を統括する大管区という扱いであった。
下位の指導者の人数は1935年時点でそれぞれ管区指導者 (Kreisleiter) は827人、地区指導者 (Ortsgruppenleiter) は20,724人、細胞指導者 (Zellenleiter) は976人、街区指導者 (Blockleiter) は204,359人となっている。
1925年、ヒトラー警護のために突撃隊の下部組織として「親衛隊」が結成される。ハインリヒ・ヒムラーが親衛隊全国指導者となって以降で親衛隊は拡大を続け、党内最重要組織の一つとなった。
1935年には国防軍にも警察にも所属しない軍事組織「親衛隊特務部隊」が設けられた。ここに志願すれば、国防軍と同様義務兵役年限に算入された。1940年には武装親衛隊と改名されて、陸軍・海軍・空軍と並ぶ第四の軍隊と認知された。
政権獲得後、18歳以下の青少年は青少年全国指導者が支配する組織への入隊を義務付けられた。
1933年、ナチ党は失業対策に「国家社会主義義勇労働奉仕団」(Erziehung im Nationalsozialismus) を設置し、失業者を雇用した。1935年には他の類似組織と合流し、国家機関である国家労働奉仕団となった。
パートタイム的に招集される一般党員のほか、下記の組織に入ることも出来た。
ナチ党の一般的な党員は主として田舎や都市部の中流階級から構成されていた。7%は上流階級に属し、7%は農民であった。35%は産業労働者であり、51%は中流階級に所属した。最大の単一職業集団は小学校教師であった。党が結成された1920年には党員数は約2000人に過ぎなかった。その後フランツ・クサーヴァー・シュヴァルツの提案で党員番号を通し番号にする改革が行われたため、正確な党員数は不明となり、党員番号による推定が行われている。1930年代以降は党員数が飛躍的に上昇し、1932年には最大の党員番号が120万であったが、政権奪取の後はさらに入党希望者が続出し、年末には党員番号が390万を超えるまでに膨れあがっていた。このため1933年4月には新規入党を制限する措置が執られ、それ以降の党員数の伸びはほとんど無くなった(ナチ党入党制限(ドイツ語版))。しかし1939年5月以降新規入党制限が撤廃され、1945年の段階で党員番号は850万を超えていた。
年月日 | 推定党員数 |
---|---|
1919年末 | 64 |
1920年末 | 3,000 |
1921年末 | 6,000 |
1923年11月23日 | 55,787 |
1925年末 | 27,117 |
1926年末 | 49,523 |
1927年末 | 72,590 |
1928年末 | 108,717 |
1929年末 | 176,426 |
1930年末 | 389,000 |
1931年末 | 806,294 |
1932年4月 | 1,000,000 |
1932年末 | 1,200,000 |
1933年末 | 3,900,000 |
党員の階級は30以上に分けられていた。1938年当時のものを党員服の階級章で示す。
ヴァイマル共和国軍においては1921年の防衛法により、将兵が政党の党員となることは禁じられていた[22]。しかしナチ党員が軍において勢力を拡大しようとする動きはあり、ウルム国軍訴訟(ドイツ語版)ではこの動きが裁かれている。
政権獲得後はヴァルター・フォン・ライヒェナウなど入党する将官も現れ、高位の将兵には親衛隊名誉指導者などの名誉党員としての待遇を受けるものも現れた。 1934年7月3日に国防大臣ヴェルナー・フォン・ブロンベルクが公布した命令により、国防省の官吏及び雇員は突撃隊、親衛隊、ヒトラーユーゲントに加入することが禁じられた。また1935年5月21日の改正防衛法により、兵役期間中にはナチ党員としての資格が停止されることとなり[23]、9月10日の政令により、党の役職につくことも禁じられた。ただし党員であること自体はその数週間後のヒトラーとブロンベルクとの協定により認められるようになった。
党のシンボルであるハーケンクロイツ(鉤十字)は1920年に採用された。歯科医フリードリヒ・クローンが募集に応じてデザインしたもので、義勇軍「エアハルト旅団」(de)(「コンスル」の前身)が使用していた鉤十字を下地にデザインしたものに修正を加えたものである。党旗の赤と黒は「血と大地」を表すとされる。
赤・黒・白の組み合わせは旧ドイツ帝国旗に使用されたもので、現在の国旗に無い白はプロイセンの旗を表している。ヒトラーは、赤は社会的理念、白は国家主義的理念、ハーケンクロイツ(鉤十字)は古代ヒンズーの印を増幅したものであり、これはアーリア民族の勝利のために戦う使命を表しているとした。またナチ党は円や背景のないハーケンクロイツも使用した。また円で囲ったハーケンクロイツの上に、ローマ帝国や神聖ローマ帝国、オーストリア帝国、プロイセンなどでシンボルとされた鷲を配した紋章も使われた。
ナチ党は複数の党歌を採用したが、その中で最もよく知られているのが『旗を高く掲げよ』(ホルスト・ヴェッセル・リート)である。1930年に共産党員により命を落とした突撃隊員ホルスト・ヴェッセルが作詞したもので、当時流行していた歌謡曲(原曲はオペラの曲)がつけられ、党員の間で大流行した。やがては対立政党が揶揄するために替え歌を作るなど、ナチ党の象徴として扱われた。ヒトラーが政権の座に就くと第二の国歌的に扱われた。また、イギリスファシスト連合やファランヘ党等海外のファシスト政党の間でも歌詞を変えて歌われている。
党の発祥の地であるミュンヘンには通称「褐色館」と呼ばれる本部が置かれた。隣接してミュンヘンの総統官邸も置かれた。戦後、党本部は破壊されたが、総統官邸はミュンヘン音楽・演劇大学の校舎として残っている。
党大会が開かれる場所であったニュルンベルクのツェッペリン広場(英語版)には党大会用の施設が建設され、現在も競技場として使用されている。
また創設当時の党が大会を開き、ミュンヘン一揆の舞台となったビアホールビュルガーブロイケラーは党の聖地視され、毎年ミュンヘン一揆の記念日にはヒトラーが古参党員を前に演説した。ビュルガーブロイケラーは1979年まで存在していたが、現在は案内板が残るのみとなっている。
ベルヒテスガーデン近郊オーバーザルツベルクにはヒトラーの別荘ベルクホーフが存在し、後にはオーバーザルツベルク一帯が党の所有となった。ヒトラーはベルクホーフでの生活を好み、長い期間をそこで過ごした。オーバーザルツベルクには党幹部達の別荘も置かれたが、大半が終戦間際の空襲と親衛隊員による破壊で焼失した。しかしヒトラーのもう一つの別荘であったケールシュタインハウスは現存している。
党は多くの機関紙や雑誌を発刊し、選挙戦術や国内統制に利用した。また、党幹部やグループもそれぞれの新聞や雑誌を発売し、その総数は調査によってもはっきりしなかった[24]。中心となったのはヒトラーが自ら買収交渉に参加したこともあるフェルキッシャー・ベオバハターであり、1926年から1930年にかけては他の新聞や雑誌は十分に機能していたとは言えなかった[25]。
1930年の躍進以前は各新聞の状況は苦しく、発行費や配達費を捻出するため苦労したり、相互で争うこともあった[26]。幹部の一人ユリウス・シュトライヒャーは、自ら発行する新聞シュテュルマーを発刊するため、同じく幹部のゴットフリート・フェーダーの新聞への妨害を行い、廃刊に追い込んでいる[27]。また幹部同士の争いが各新聞紙上で行われることもあった[28]。
1930年の選挙による大躍進以降は発行部数、種類ともに大幅に増加している[25]。同時代には1932年3月時点で120のナチス系定期刊行物が挙げられているが、戦後にペーター・シュタインが行った調査では、同時期のものとして159の新聞が挙げられている[24]。
ナチス党のプロパガンディストとして最も知られているのがヨーゼフ・ゲッベルスである。ゲッベルス「ボリシェヴィキどもからは、とくにそのプロパガンダにおいて、多くを学ぶことができる。」と日記に記しており、政敵の共産党の手法を利用し、かつそれを凌駕する規模で行った。
戸別訪問[29]、党専属の楽団、膨大な量のビラ・ポスターの配布や、対立する政治家に対する猛烈なネガティブ・キャンペーン、ラジオを利用した政見放送、航空機を利用した遊説旅行、町の壁を埋め尽くすポスター等は他党のそれを上まわる強烈なインパクトを与えた。また娯楽の中にさりげなく党の宣伝を織り交ぜる手法で宣伝効果を浸透させる手法を用いている。
宣伝全国指導者であったゲッベルスは1927年に首都ベルリンで新聞『デア・アングリフ』紙を発刊した。この新聞は『フェルキッシャー・ベオバハター』と同じく、プロパガンダとして成功した珍しい例である[30]。新聞は他の新聞や他の政党を大きな活字で口汚く罵るもので、攻撃された新聞が反論の記事を書けば書くほど、ナチスの宣伝になってしまう効果もあったため、わざと讒言で他紙を「釣る」ことすらあった。また、時にはテロに訴えることもあった。1930年2月23日、党員ホルスト・ヴェッセルが共産党員アルブレヒト・ヘーラー(de:Albrecht Höhler)に暗殺されるが、ゲッベルスはヴェッセルを殉教者に祭り上げ、盛大な葬儀を行って共産党に対する憎悪を煽り立てた。ヴェッセルが作詞した「旗を高く掲げよ」は、最も著名なナチ党党歌として知られる。
1932年にはナチス系新聞は78万部を発行していた[31]。
さらにナチ党は政府の権力を用いた言論統制や、退廃芸術等に見られるような価値観統一政策、「強制的同一化」に乗りだしている。1933年3月には国民啓蒙・宣伝省が設置され、ゲッベルスが国民啓蒙・宣伝大臣に任命された。政権獲得後の1933年にはナチス系新聞の発行部数は319万部にのぼり[32]、さらに他の新聞や雑誌も次々とナチスの支配下に置かれた。ただし幹部同士が新聞紙上で争うことは続いており[30]、ゲッベルスも対応を行うことを検討している[33]。
ドイツ本国だけでなく、国外にもナチズムに近い思想を持った政党が存在した。第二次世界大戦時、これらの政党はナチス・ドイツによる傀儡政権の支持政党としても活動したりした。オーストリア・ナチスとズデーテン・ドイツ人党は後にナチス党に合流している。
ドイツ国内では刑法第86条でナチズムのプロパガンダ及びそれに類する行為が、民衆扇動罪で特定民族に対し憎悪を煽る行為が禁じられており、ドイツ社会主義帝国党など後継政党と見なされた党は即座に禁止されている。また、オーストリア、ハンガリー、ポーランド、チェコ、フランス、ブラジル等でも同様にナチス関連のプロパガンダを禁じる法律が存在している。
日本では一時期「ドイツではナチス犯罪に時効はない」という報道が行われた事があったが、実際にはドイツ刑法はナチスとは関わりなく「謀殺罪(計画的殺人)」の時効が無いということである。その罪に該当しないナチス時代の犯罪は全て時効が成立している。また、ドイツのEU加盟後は同様の法律をEU圏内に広めることについての論議も行われている。
また、イスラエルはホロコーストに関するナチス党戦犯を国家として訴追しており、現在でもナチ・ハンターによる戦犯捜索が続けられている。
ナチス党が崩壊した後も、世界各地にはナチズムを受け継ぐと称した団体が多く存在している。また、ホロコースト否定など、ナチス・ドイツにおける犯罪を否定する動きも根強く残っている。
アメリカにおいては1953年に海軍大佐ジョージ・リンカーン・ロックウェルが「アメリカ・ナチ党」を結成した。これは1960年代にその党勢が最高潮に達し、多くの法的機関が党の危険性を警告したが、言論の自由を重視する世論によって、党の解散を免れその存在の継続が認められた。しかし、ロックウェルが暗殺されると国家社会主義白人党と改称し、その会員の大部分と財源の多くを失った。また分派としてアメリカ国家社会党などが存在した。
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National Socialism (German: Nationalsozialismus), more commonly known as Nazism (/ˈnɑːtsɪzəm, ˈnæ-/[1]) or Naziism (/ˈnɑːtsi.ɪzəm/), is the ideology and practice associated with the 20th-century German Nazi Party and Nazi state as well as other far-right groups. Usually characterized as a form of fascism that incorporates scientific racism and anti-Semitism, Nazism developed out of the influences of Pan-Germanism, the Völkisch German nationalist movement, and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged during the Weimar Republic after German defeat in World War I.
Nazism subscribed to theories of racial hierarchy and Social Darwinism. Germanic peoples (called the Nordic Race) were depicted as the purest of the Aryan race, and were therefore the master race. Opposed to both capitalism and communism, it aimed to overcome social divisions, with all parts of a homogeneous society seeking national unity and traditionalism. Nazism also vigorously pursued what it viewed as historically German territory under the doctrine of Pan-Germanism (or Heim ins Reich), as well as additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum.
The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism", as an alternative to both internationalist Marxist socialism and free market capitalism. The Nazis sought to achieve this by a "people's community" (Volksgemeinschaft) with the aim of uniting all Germans as national comrades, whilst excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or "foreign peoples" (Fremdvölkische). It rejected the Marxist concept of class struggle, opposed ideas of class equality and international solidarity, and sought to defend private property and privately owned businesses.
The Nazi Party was founded as the Pan-German nationalist and antisemitic German Workers' Party on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organization and renamed it the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP) to broaden its appeal. The National Socialist Program, adopted in 1920, called for a united Greater Germany that would deny citizenship to Jews or those of Jewish descent, while also supporting land reform and the nationalization of some industries. In Mein Kampf, written in 1924, Hitler outlined the antisemitism and anti-communism at the heart of his political philosophy, as well as his disdain for parliamentary democracy and his belief in Germany’s right to territorial expansion.
In 1933, with the support of the elites, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis gradually established a one-party state, under which Jews, political opponents and other "undesirables" elements were marginalized, with several millions eventually imprisoned and killed. Hitler purged the party’s more socially and economically radical factions in the mid-1934 Night of the Long Knives and, after the death of President Hindenburg, political power was concentrated in his hands, as Führer or "leader". Following the Holocaust and German defeat in World War II, only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, still describe themselves as following National Socialism.
The full name of Adolf Hitler's party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party; NSDAP). The shorthand Nazi was formed from the first two syllables of the German pronunciation of the word "national" (IPA: [na-tsi̯-o-ˈnaːl]).[2]
The term was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards peasant, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. It derived from Ignaz, being a shortened version of Ignatius,[3][4] a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the first word of the party's name, Nationalsozialistische, to the dismissive "Nazi".[4][5][6][7]
The NSDAP briefly adopted the Nazi designation, attempting to reappropriate the term, but soon gave up this effort and generally avoided it while in power.[5][6] The use of "Nazi Germany", "Nazi regime", and so on was popularized by German exiles abroad. From them, the term spread into other languages and was eventually brought back to Germany after World War II.[5]
The 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]
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 condemnation of the Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 that later led to their signing of the Treaty of Versailles.[14] A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I.[14] Initially, the post-World War I German far right was dominated by 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.[15] 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).[15]
The Nazis, the far-right monarchist, 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.[16] 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.[16] 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".[17] 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.[18]
Kaiser 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 Eitel Friedrich and Prince Oskar, became members of the Nazi Party, in hopes that in exchange for their support, the Nazis would permit the restoration of the monarchy.[19]
There were factions in the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical.[20] The conservative Nazi Hermann Göring urged Hitler to conciliate with capitalists and reactionaries.[20] Other prominent conservative Nazis included Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.[21]
The radical Nazi Joseph Goebbels hated capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core, and he stressed the need for the party to emphasise both a 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.[20] 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's gaining power in 1933.[22] Many of the million members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) were committed to the party's official socialist program.[22] 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.[22]
Prior to becoming an antisemite and a Nazi, Hitler had lived a Bohemian lifestyle as a wandering watercolour artist in Austria and southern Germany, though he maintained elements of it later in life.[23] 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, Hitler 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,[24] which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified.[24] 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.[25]
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.[25] As a Nazi, Hitler had expressed opposition to capitalism, having regarded capitalism as having Jewish origins. He accused capitalism of holding nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class.[26]
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 so 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.[20] Upon the Nazis achieving power, Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction, without Hitler's authorisation.[27] Hitler considered Röhm's independent actions to be violating and threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and the conservative-oriented German Army.[28] 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.[28]
Although he opposed communist ideology, Hitler on numerous occasions publicly praised the Soviet Union's leader Joseph Stalin and Stalinism.[29] 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.[30] 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.[29]
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.[31] In Speeches to the German Nation (1808), written amid Napoleonic 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.[32] 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.[32] 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).[32]
Another important figure in pre-Nazi völkisch thinking was Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl, whose work—Land und Leute (Land and People, written between 1857–1863)—collectively tied the organic German Volk to its native landscape and nature, a pairing which stood in stark opposition to the mechanical and materialistic civilization developing as a result of industrialization.[33] Geographers Friedrich Ratzel and Karl Haushofer borrowed from Riehl’s work as did Nazi ideologues Alfred Rosenberg and Paul Schultze-Naumburg; both of whom employed some of Riehl’s philosophy in arguing that "each nation-state was an organism that required a particular living space to survive".[34] Riehl’s influence is overtly discernible in the Blut und Boden (Blood and Soil) philosophy introduced by Oswald Spengler, which the Nazi agriculturalist Walther Darré and other prominent Nazis adopted.[35][36]
Völkisch nationalism denounced soulless materialism, individualism, and secularized urban industrial society, while advocating a "superior" society based on ethnic German "folk" culture and German "blood".[37] It denounced foreigners and foreign ideas, and declared that Jews, Freemasons, and others were "traitors to the nation" and unworthy of inclusion.[38] Völkisch nationalism saw the world in terms of natural law and romanticism; it 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.[39]
During the era of Imperial Germany, Völkisch nationalism was overshadowed by both Prussian patriotism and the federalist tradition of various states therein.[40] The events of World War I, including the end of the Prussian monarchy in Germany, resulted in a surge of revolutionary Völkisch nationalism.[41] The Nazis supported such revolutionary Völkisch nationalist policies[40] and claimed that their ideology was influenced by the leadership and policies of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the founder of the German Empire.[42] 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.[43] While Hitler was supportive of Bismarck's creation of the German Empire, he was critical of Bismarck's moderate domestic policies.[44] On the issue of Bismarck's support of a Kleindeutschland ("Lesser Germany", excluding Austria) versus the Pan-German 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".[45] In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler presented himself as a "second Bismarck".[45]
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.[46] 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.[46] 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.[47] Unlike von Schönerer, however, Lueger was not a German nationalist, but a pro-Catholic Habsburg supporter.[47]
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.[48] Proponents of this theory based their assertion on the similarity of European words and their meaning to those of Indo-Iranian languages.[48] 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.[48] 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.[48]
Notions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority combined in the 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining that certain groups of white people were members of an Aryan "master race" that is superior to other races, and particularly superior to the Semitic race, which they associated with "cultural sterility".[48] 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, a term which he reserved only for Germanic people.[49][50] Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany,[49] emphasised the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan (Germanic) and Jewish cultures.[48]
Aryan mysticism claimed that Christianity originated in Aryan religious tradition and that Jews had usurped the legend from Aryans.[48] Houston Stewart Chamberlain, an English proponent of racial theory, supported notions of Germanic supremacy and antisemitism in Germany.[49] Chamberlain's work, The 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.[49] Chamberlain used his thesis to promote monarchical conservatism while denouncing democracy, liberalism, and socialism.[49] The book became popular, especially in Germany.[49] 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.[49] In 1923, Chamberlain met Hitler, whom he admired as a leader of the rebirth of the free spirit.[51] Madison Grant's work The Passing of the Great Race (1916) advocated Nordicism and proposed using a eugenic program to preserve the Nordic race. After reading the book, Hitler called it "my Bible".[52]
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.[53] Empirical evidence demonstrates that from 1871 to the early 20th century, German Jews were overrepresented in Germany's upper and middle classes while they were underrepresented in Germany's lower class, particularly in the fields of work of agricultural and industrial labour.[54] 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 were Jewish, and the Rothschilds were the second wealthiest German family.[55] 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.[53] This overrepresentation of Jews in these areas created resentment by non-Jewish Germans during periods of economic crisis.[54] The 1873 stock market crash and ensuing depression resulted in a spate of attacks on alleged Jewish economic dominance in Germany and increased antisemitism.[54]
At this time period in the 1870s, German Völkisch nationalism began to adopt antisemitic and racist themes and was adopted by a number of radical right political movements.[56]
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1912) was an antisemitic forgery created by the secret service of the Russian Empire. Many antisemites believed it was real and the Protocol became widely popular after World War I.[57] The Protocols claimed that there was a secret international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world.[58] 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 Bolsheviks were one and the same, and that Marxism was a Jewish ideology.[59] Hitler believed that The Protocols were authentic.[60]
Radical Antisemitism was promoted by prominent advocates of Völkisch nationalism, including Eugen Diederichs, Paul de Lagarde, and Julius Langbehn.[39] 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.[62] 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.[62] One antisemitic ideologue of the period, Friedrich Lange, even used the term "national socialism" to describe his own anti-capitalist take on the Völkisch nationalist template.[63]
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.[32] 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.[64] 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".[64]
Prior to the Nazi ascension to power, Hitler often blamed moral degradation on Rassenschande (racial defilement), a way to assure his followers of his continuing antisemitism, which had been toned down for popular consumption.[65] Prior to the induction of the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 by the Nazis, many German nationalists such as Roland Freisler strongly supported laws to ban Rassenschande between Aryans and Jews as racial treason.[65] Even before the laws were officially passed, the Nazis banned sexual relations and marriages between party members and Jews.[66] Party members found guilty of Rassenschande were heavily punished; some members were even sentenced to death.[67]
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.[42] Using the stab-in-the-back myth, the Nazis accused Jews—and other populaces it considered non-German—of possessing extra-national loyalties, thereby exacerbating German antisemitism about the Judenfrage (the Jewish Question), the far-right political canard popular when the ethnic Völkisch movement and their politics of Romantic nationalism for establishing a Großdeutschland were strong.[68][69]
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.[70] 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.[71] Unlike Darwinian theory, Lamarckian theory officially ranked races in a hierarchy of evolution from apes while Darwinian theory did not grade races in a hierarchy of higher or lower evolution from apes, simply categorising humans as a whole of all as having progressed in evolution from apes.[70] 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.[72] Haeckel utilised Lamarckian theory to describe the existence of interracial struggle and put races on a hierarchy of evolution, ranging from being wholly human to subhuman.[70]
Mendelian inheritance, or Mendelism, was supported by the Nazis, as well as by mainstream eugenics proponents at the time. The Mendelian theory of inheritance declared that genetic traits and attributes were passed from one generation to another.[73] 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 utilised 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.[74]
During World War I, German sociologist Johann Plenge spoke of the rise of a "National Socialism" in Germany within what he termed the "ideas of 1914" that were a declaration of war against the "ideas of 1789" (the French Revolution).[75] 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.[75] 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.[75] He believed that the "Spirit of 1914" manifested itself in the concept of the "People's League of National Socialism".[76] 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.[76] 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.[76] Plenge advocated an authoritarian, rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical technocratic state.[77] Plenge's ideas formed the basis of Nazism.[75]
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 criticising Adolf Hitler.[78] Spengler's conception of national socialism and a number of his political views were shared by the Nazis and the Conservative Revolutionary movement.[79] Spengler's views were also popular amongst Italian Fascists, including Benito Mussolini.[80]
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 civilisation, which he claimed was caused by atomising and irreligious individualization and cosmopolitanism.[78] Spengler's major thesis was that a law of historical development of cultures existed involving a cycle of birth, maturity, ageing, and death when it reaches its final form of civilisation.[78] Upon reaching the point of civilisation, a culture will lose its creative capacity and succumb to decadence until the emergence of "barbarians" creates a new epoch.[78] Spengler considered the Western world as having succumbed to decadence of intellect, money, cosmopolitan urban life, irreligious life, atomised individualization, and was at the end of its biological and "spiritual" fertility.[78] He believed that the "young" German nation as an imperial power would inherit the legacy of Ancient Rome, lead a restoration of value in "blood" and instinct, while the ideals of rationalism would be revealed as absurd.[78]
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.[79] 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."[79] 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 corporatist organisation.[78] Spengler claimed that socialistic Prussian characteristics existed across Germany, including creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity, and self-sacrifice.[81] 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."[82]
Spengler's definition of socialism did not advocate a change to property relations.[79] 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.[84] He claimed that "Marxism is the capitalism of the working class" and not true socialism.[84] True socialism, according to Spengler, would be in the form of corporatism, stating that: "local corporate bodies organised 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 organised parties, no professional politicians, no periodic elections".[85]
Wilhelm Stapel, an antisemitic German intellectual, utilized Spengler's thesis on the cultural confrontation between Jews as whom Spengler described as a Magian people versus Europeans as a Faustian people.[86] Stapel described Jews as a landless nomadic people in pursuit of an international culture whereby they can integrate into Western civilisation.[86] 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.[86]
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck was initially the dominant figure of the Conservative Revolutionaries influenced Nazism.[87] He rejected reactionary conservatism, while proposing a new state, that he coined the "Third Reich", which would unite all classes under authoritarian rule.[88] Van den Bruck advocated a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism of the left.[89]
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.[90] Hitler presented the Nazis as a form of German fascism.[91][92]
In November 1923, the Nazis attempted a "March on Berlin", modelled after the March on Rome, which resulted in the failed Beer Hall Putsch in Munich.[93] Other Nazis—especially those at the time associated with the party's more radical wing such as Gregor Strasser, Joseph Goebbels, and Heinrich Himmler—rejected Italian Fascism, accusing it of being too conservative or capitalist.[94] Alfred Rosenberg condemned Italian Fascism for being racially confused and having influences from philosemitism.[95] Strasser criticised the policy of Führerprinzip as being created by Mussolini, and considered its presence in Nazism as a foreign imported idea.[96] 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.[96]
German Nazism emphasised 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 superior to all other races. The Nazis emphasised 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. The Nazis also categorized Slavs as Untermensch.[97]
The German Nazi Party supported German irredentist claims to Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, the region now known as the Czech Republic, and the territory known since 1919 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.[98] Since the 1920s, the Nazi Party publicly promoted the expansion of Germany into territories held by the Soviet Union.[99]
In his early years as the Nazi leader, Hitler 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.[99] Hitler in 1921 had commended the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as opening the possibility for restoration of relations between Germany and Russia, saying:
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[99]
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.[99] Hitler's attitudes changed by the end of 1922, in which he then supported an alliance of Germany with Britain to destroy Russia.[99] Later Hitler declared how far he intended to expand Germany into Russia:
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[100]
Policy for Lebensraum planned mass expansion of Germany eastwards to the Ural Mountains.[100][101] Hitler planned for the "surplus" Russian population living west of the Urals to be deported to the east of the Urals.[102]
In its racial categorisation, 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 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. In order to preserve the perceived racial purity of the Aryan race, a set of race laws were introduced in 1935 which came to be known as the Nuremberg Laws. At first these laws only prevented sexual relations and marriages between Germans and Jews, but were later extended to the "Gypsies, Negroes, and their bastard offspring", who were described by the Nazis as people of "alien blood".[103][104] Such relations between Aryans (cf. Aryan certificate) and non-Aryans were now punishable under the race laws as Rassenschande or "race defilement".[103] After the war began, the race defilement law was extended to include all foreigners (non-Germans).[105] At the bottom of the racial scale of non-Aryans were Jews, Romani, and blacks.[106] To maintain the "purity and strength" of the Aryan race, the Nazis eventually sought to exterminate Jews, Romani, and the physically and mentally disabled.[107] Other groups deemed "degenerate" and "asocial" who were not targeted for extermination, but received exclusionary treatment by the Nazi state, included homosexuals, blacks, Jehovah's Witnesses, and political opponents.[107] One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all Slavs from central and eastern Europe in order to make living space for German settlers.[108]
In Nazi 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 name given after World War II for the euthanasia programme is Action T4.[109] 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.[110][111] Some non-Aryans enlisted in Nazi organisations like the Hitler Youth and the Wehrmacht, including Germans of African descent[112] and Jewish descent.[113] The Nazis began to implement "racial hygiene" policies as soon as they came to power. The July 1933 "Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring" prescribed compulsory sterilisation for people with a range of conditions thought to be hereditary, such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, Huntington's chorea, and "imbecility". Sterilisation was also mandated for chronic alcoholism and other forms of social deviance.[114] An estimated 360,000 people were sterilised under this law between 1933 and 1939. Although some Nazis suggested that the programme should be extended to people with physical disabilities, such ideas had to be expressed carefully, given that some Nazis had physical disabilities, one example being one of the most powerful figures of the regime, Joseph Goebbels, who had a deformed right leg.[115]
Nazi racial theorist Hans F. K. Günther identified the Aryan race in Europe as having five subtype races: Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric, Alpine, and East Baltic.[116] Günther applied a Nordicist conception that Nordics were the highest in the racial hierarchy amongst these five Aryan subtype races.[116] In his book Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes (1922) ("Racial Science of the German People"), Günther recognised Germans as being composed of all five Aryan subtypes, but emphasised the strong Nordic heritage amongst Germans.[117] Hitler read Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes, which influenced his racial policy.[118]
The Nazis described Jews as being racially-mixed group of primarily Near Eastern and Oriental racial types.[119] 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.[119] 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.[119]
Günther empathised Jews' Near Eastern racial heritage.[120] 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.[120] 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".[120] 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.[121] 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.[121] The first migration was that of the Hebrews arriving into Egypt where he claimed the Hebrews had intermixed with peoples of Negroid and Hamitic racial heritage.[122] 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.[122] He identified further intermixing between Israelites and the Near Eastern type as occurring after Babylonia exiled the Israelites.[122] He asserted that in the 6th century B.C. the standardisation of Judaism began the creation of the Jewish people, and practice of exogamy between Jews and non-Jews solidified this identity.[122] Günther stated that the most significant alteration of the racial composition of the Jews after the 6th century B.C. resulted from the mass conversion of the Khazars to Judaism in the 8th century.[122] The Khazars were deemed primarily of Near Eastern racial origin.[122] 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).[123]
During World War II, the Nazis emphasised 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; they said that, while Nazism was anti-Jewish, the 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.[119]
Hitler's conception of the Aryan Herrenvolk ("Aryan master race") excluded the vast majority of Slavs from central and eastern Europe (i.e., Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, etc.). They were regarded as a race of men not inclined to a higher form of civilization, which were under an instinctive force that reverted them back to nature. They also regarding the Slavs as having dangerous Jewish and Asiatic, that being Mongol, influences.[124] The Nazis because of this declared Slavs to be Untermenschen (subhumans).[125] Nazi anthropologists attempted to prove scientifically the historical admixture of the Slavs further East. Leading Nazi racial theorist, Hans Günther, regarded the Slavs as being primarily Nordic centuries ago but over time had mixed with non-Nordic types.[126] There were exceptions for a small percentage of Slavs who were seen to be descended from German settlers and therefore fit to be Germanised and be considered part of the Aryan master race.[127] Hitler described Slavs as "a mass of born slaves who feel the need of a master".[128] The Nazi notion of Slavs being inferior served as legitimising 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 annihilated, removed, or enslaved.[129] 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.[130]
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.[131]
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."[132]
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.[133]
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.[134]
The Nazi Party had many working-class supporters and members, and a strong appeal to the middle class. The financial collapse of the white collar middle-class of the 1920s figures much in their strong support of Nazism.[135] 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).[135]
Nazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of "Kinder, Küche, Kirche" (Children, Kitchen, Church).[136] Many women enthusiastically supported the regime but formed their own internal hierarchies.[137]
Hitler's own opinion on the matter of women in Nazi Germany was that while other eras of German history experienced the development and liberation of the female mind, the National Socialist goal was essentially singular in that they wished for them to produce a child.[138] Along this theme, Hitler once remarked of women, "with every child that she brings into the world, she fights her battle for the nation. The man stands up for the Volk, exactly as the woman stands up for the family."[139] Proto-natalist programs in Nazi Germany offered favourable loans and grants to encourage newlyweds with additional incentives for the birth of offspring.[140] Contraception was discouraged for racially valuable women in Nazi Germany and abortion was forbidden through strict legal mandates, including prison sentences for those seeking them and for doctors performing them; whereas abortion for racially "undesirable" persons was encouraged.[141][142]
While unmarried until the very end of the regime, Hitler often made excuses about his busy life hindering any chance for marriage.[143] Among National Socialist ideologues, marriage was valued not from moral considerations but because it provided an optimal breeding environment. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, reportedly told a confidant that when he established the Lebensborn program, an organization to dramatically increase the birth rate of "Aryan" children through extramarital relations between women classified as racially pure and their male equals, he had only the purest male "conception assistants" in mind.[144]
Since the Nazis at the beginning of the war extended the Rassenschande (race defilement) law to all foreigners,[105] pamphlets were issued to German women to avoid sexual relations with foreign workers brought to Germany and to view them as a danger to their blood.[145] Although the law was punishable to both genders, German women were targeted more for having sexual relations with foreign forced labourers in Germany.[146] The Nazis issued the Polish decrees on 8 March 1940 which set out regulations concerning the Polish forced labourers (Zivilarbeiter) brought to Germany during World War II. One of the regulations stated that any Pole "who has sexual relations with a German man or woman, or approaches them in any other improper manner, will be punished by death".[147]
After the decrees were enacted, Himmler stated:
Fellow Germans who engage in sexual relations with male or female civil workers of the Polish nationality, commit other immoral acts or engage in love affairs shall be arrested immediately.[148]
The Nazis later issued similar regulations against the Eastern Workers (Ost-Arbeiters), including the death penalty for sexual relations with a German person.[149] Heydrich issued a decree on 20 February 1942 that declared sexual intercourse between a German woman and a Russian worker or prisoner of war would result in the Russian man being punished by the death penalty.[150] A further decree issued by Himmler on 7 December 1942 stated any "unauthorized sexual intercourse" would result in the death penalty.[151] As the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour did not permit capital punishment for race defilement, special courts were convened to allow the death penalty for some cases.[152] German women accused of race defilement were marched through the streets with her head shaven and a placard around her neck detailing her crime,[153] those convicted were sent to a concentration camp.[145] When Himmler reportedly asked Hitler what the punishment should be for German girls and German women who have been found guilty of race defilement with prisoners of war (POWs) he ordered "every POW who has relations with a German girl or a German would be shot" and the German woman should be publicly humiliated by "having her hair shorn and being sent to a concentration camp".[154]
The League of German Girls was particularly regarded as instructing girls to avoid race defilement, which was treated with particular importance for young females.[155]
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."[156] In 1936, Himmler established the "Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung" ("Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion").[157] The Nazi régime incarcerated some 100,000 homosexuals during the 1930s.[158] As concentration camp prisoners, homosexual men were forced to wear pink triangle badges.[159][160] Nazi ideology still viewed German gay men as part of the Aryan master race but attempted to force them into sexual and social conformity. Gay men who would not change or feign a change in their sexual orientation were sent to concentration camps under the "Extermination Through Work" campaign.[161]
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”.[162] It was a modified version of Christianity which emphasised racial purity and nationalism.[163] The Nazis were aided by theologians, such as, Ernst Bergmann. Bergmann, in his work, Die 25 Thesen der Deutschreligion (Twenty-five Points of the German Religion), held that the Old Testament and portions of the New Testament of the Bible were inaccurate. He claimed that Jesus was not a Jew but of Aryan origin, and that Adolf Hitler was the new messiah.[163]
Hitler denounced the Old Testament as "Satan's Bible", and utilising 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".[164] Hitler claimed that the New Testament included distortions by Paul the Apostle, whom Hitler described as a "mass-murderer turned saint".[164]
The Nazis utilised Protestant Martin Luther in their propaganda. They publicly displayed an original of Luther's On the Jews and their Lies during the annual Nuremberg rallies.[165][166] The Nazis endorsed the pro-Nazi Protestant German Christians organisation.
The Nazis were initially highly hostile to Catholics because most Catholics supported the German Centre Party. Catholics opposed the Nazis' promotion of sterilisation 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 their association with the Centre Party and their opposition to the Nazi regime's sterilisation laws.[167] The Nazis demanded that Catholics declare their loyalty to the German state.[168] 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.[169] Hitler also admitted that the Nazis' night rallies were inspired by the Catholic rituals he witnessed during his Catholic upbringing.[170] The Nazis did seek official reconciliation with the Catholic Church and endorsed the creation of the pro-Nazi Catholic Kreuz und Adler organisation that supported a national Catholicism.[168] On 20 July 1933, a concordat (Reichskonkordat) was signed between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church; in exchange for acceptance of the Catholic Church in Germany, it required German Catholics to be loyal to the German state. The Catholic Church then ended its ban on members supporting the Nazi Party.[168]
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".[170] Burleigh claims that Nazism's conception of spirituality was "self-consciously pagan and primitive".[170] 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 is noted that Hitler denounced Germanic paganism in Mein Kampf and condemned Rosenberg's and Himmler's paganism as "nonsense".[171]
Generally speaking, Nazi theorists and politicians blamed Germany’s previous economic failures on political causes like the influence of Marxism on the workforce, the sinister and exploitative machinations of what they called international Jewry, and the vindictiveness of the western political leaders ‘war reparation’ demands. Instead of traditional economic incentives, the Nazis offered solutions of a political nature, such as the elimination of organized labour groups, rearmament (in contravention of the Versailles Treaty), and biological politics.[172] Various work programs designed to establish full-employment for the German population were instituted once the Nazis seized full national power. Hitler encouraged nationally supported projects like the construction of the Autobahn, the introduction of an affordable people’s car (Volkswagen) and later, the Nazis bolstered the economy through the business and employment generated by military rearmament.[173] Not only did the Nazis benefit early in the regime's existence from the first post-Depression economic upswing, their public works projects, job-procurement program, and subsidized home repair program reduced unemployment by as much as 40 percent in one year, a development which tempered the unfavourable psychological climate caused by the earlier economic crisis and encouraged Germans to march in step with the regime.[174]
To protect the German people and currency from volatile market forces, the Nazis also promised social policies like a national labour service, state-provided health care, guaranteed pensions, and an agrarian settlement program.[175] Agrarian policies were particularly important to the Nazis since they corresponded not just to the economy but to their geopolitical conception of Lebensraum as well. For Hitler, the acquisition of land and soil was requisite in moulding the German economy.[176] To tie farmers to their land, selling agricultural land was prohibited.[177] Farm ownership was nominally private, but business monopoly rights were granted to marketing boards to control production and prices with a quota system.[178]
The Nazis sought to gain support of workers by declaring May Day, a day celebrated by organised labour, to be a paid holiday and held celebrations on 1 May 1933 to honour German workers.[179] The Nazis stressed that Germany must honour its workers.[180] 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.[179] 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.[180] Songs in praise of labour and workers were played by state radio throughout May Day as well as fireworks and an air show in Berlin.[180] Hitler spoke of workers as patriots who had built Germany's industrial strength, had honourably served in the war and claimed that they had been oppressed under economic liberalism.[181] Berliner Morgenpost that had been strongly associated with the political left in the past praised the regime's May Day celebrations.[181]
The Nazis continued social welfare policies initiated by the governments of the Weimar Republic and mobilised volunteers to assist those impoverished, "racially-worthy" Germans through the National Socialist People's Welfare organisation.[182] This organisation oversaw charitable activities, and became the largest civic organization in Nazi Germany.[182] Successful efforts were made to get middle-class women involved in social work assisting large families.[183] The Winter Relief campaigns acted as a ritual to generate public sympathy.[184] Bonfires were made of school children's differently coloured caps as symbolic of the abolition of class differences.[183] Large celebrations and symbolism were used extensively to encourage those engaged in physical labour on behalf of Germany, with leading National Socialists often praising the 'honour of labour', which fostered a sense of community (Gemeinschaft) for the German people and promoted solidarity towards the Nazi cause.[185]
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".[186] Private property rights were conditional upon the economic mode of use; if it did not advance Nazi economic goals then the state could nationalise it.[187] Although the Nazis privatised public properties and public services, they also increased economic state control.[188] 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.[189][190]
Central to understanding the National Socialist government and its economic policies requires one to come to terms with Hitler’s basic view of the German economy as an instrument of power. Hitler believed the economy was not just about creating wealth and technical progress so as to improve the quality of life for a nation’s citizenry; economic success was paramount in that, it provided the means and material foundations necessary for military conquest.[191] While economic progress generated by National Socialist programs had its role in appeasing the German people, the Nazis and Hitler in particular, did not believe that economic solutions alone were sufficient to thrust Germany onto the stage as a world power. Therefore, the Nazis sought first to secure a command economy through general economic revival accompanied by massive military spending for rearmament, especially later through the implementation of the Four Year Plan, which consolidated their rule and firmly secured a command relationship between the German arms industry and the National Socialist government.[192] Between 1933-1939, military expenditures were upwards of 82 billion Reichsmarks and represented 23 percent of Germany's gross national product as the Nazis mobilized their people and economy for war.[193]
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 business, and its atheism.[194] 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.[195]
During the 1920s, Hitler urged disparate Nazi factions to unite in opposition to Jewish Bolshevism.[196] Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish Marxism" were democracy, pacifism, and internationalism.[197]
In 1930, Hitler said: "Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not."[198] In 1942, Hitler privately said: "I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative".[199]
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.[200]
A very significant influence was the losing side in the Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution. After 1918, Tsarist exiles flooded into Munich and Berlin and spread theories about a worldwide Jewish Bolshevik conspiracy. Aufbau Vereinigung (Reconstruction Organisation) was a Munich-based counterrevolutionary conspiratorial group composed of White Russian émigrés and early German National Socialists. Michael Kellogg [201] argues that Hitler’s own antisemitism was deepened and intensified by extensive conversations with Fyodor Vinberg, a Russo-German member of this organisation.
The Nazis argued that capitalism damages nations due to international finance, the economic dominance of big business, and Jewish influences.[194] Nazi propaganda posters in working class districts emphasised 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."[202]
Adolf Hitler, both in public and in private, expressed disdain for capitalism, arguing that it holds nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class.[203] He opposed free market capitalism's profit-seeking impulses and desired an economy in which community interests would be upheld.[186]
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.[203]
Hitler told a party leader in 1934, "The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews."[203] Hitler said to Benito Mussolini that capitalism had "run its course".[203] Hitler also said that the business bourgeoisie "know nothing except their profit. 'Fatherland' is only a word for them."[204] Hitler was personally disgusted with the ruling bourgeois elites of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, who he referred to as "cowardly shits".[205]
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.[206] 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.[206] He claimed that war to gain such resources was the only means to surpass the failing capitalist economic system.[206]
A number of other Nazis held strong revolutionary socialist and anti-capitalist beliefs, most prominently Ernst Röhm, the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA).[207] 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.[27] Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction.[27] Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and the conservative-oriented German Army.[28] This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA.[28]
Another radical Nazi, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had stressed the socialist character of Nazism, and claimed in his diary in the 1920s 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."[208]
Under Nazism, with its emphasis on the nation, individual needs were subordinate to those of the wider community.[209] Hitler declared that "every activity and every need of every individual will be regulated by the collectivity represented by the party" and that "there are no longer any free realms in which the individual belongs to himself".[210] Himmler justified the establishment of a repressive police state, in which the security forces could exercise power arbitrarily, as national security and order should take precedence over the needs of the individual.[211]
According to the famous philosopher and political theorist, Hannah Arendt, the allure of Nazism as a totalitarian ideology (with its attendant mobilization of the German population), resided within the construct of helping that society deal with the cognitive dissonance resultant from the tragic interruption of the First World War, the economic and material suffering consequent the Depression, and brought to order the revolutionary unrest occurring all around them. Instead of the plurality that existed in democratic or parliamentary states, Nazism as a totalitarian system promulgated 'clear' solutions to the historical problems faced by Germany, levied support by de-legitimizing the former government of Weimar, and provided a politico-biological pathway to a better future, one free from the uncertainty of the past. It was the atomized and disaffected masses that Hitler and the party elite pointed in a particular direction, and using clever propaganda to make them into ideological adherents, exploited in bringing Nazism to life.[212]
While the ideologues of Nazism, much like those of Stalinism, abhorred democratic or parliamentary governance as practiced in the U.S. or Britain, their differences are substantial. An epistemic crisis occurs when one tries to synthesize and contrast Nazism and Stalinism as two-sides of the same coin with their similarly tyrannical leaders, state-controlled economies, and repressive police structures; namely, since while they share a common thematic political construction, they are entirely inimical to one another in their worldviews and when more carefully analyzed against one another on a one-to-one level, an "irreconcilable asymmetry" results.[213]
Following Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II and the end of the Holocaust, overt expressions of support for Nazi ideas were prohibited in Germany and other European countries. Nonetheless, movements that self-identify as National Socialist or are described as adhering to National Socialism continue to exist on the fringes of politics in many western societies. Usually espousing a white supremacist ideology, many deliberately adopt the symbols of Nazi Germany.[214]
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(help)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.
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