Was Nazism An Ideology? Essay, Research Paper
Nazism, ideological
or not? This is a very important question when looking into the rise of Hitler
and how he used his so-called ?ideologies? to win over the support of the
German people. The dictionary definition of the word ?Ideology? is ?Ideas that
form the basis of a political or economic theory?, from this we should be able
to weigh the evidence to see if the Nazis ideas about political and economic
system form an ideology. The Nazis did not fit the criteria for being ideological;
they were contradictory and hypocritical. The Nazis coagulated the ideas and
theories of philosophers, musicians and scientists and produced them in a way
that appealed to the masses this is what made the Nazi party believable and supportable.
Hitler presented to the masses a bombardment of political and ideological ideas,
which seemed to take into account every individual and personal opinion of the
average and indeed middle class German. The nationalistic component to Nazism
appealed to every German, the fact that they were superior and stronger than
other nations appealed to the masses and the apparent coherent way in which
Hitler presented these ideas made it more believable than ridiculous. Firstly it is necessary to
look at what Hitler and indeed the NSDAP wanted for Germany. In a programme,
which the German Workers? Party published on 24th February 1920 it
states the beliefs and ideas of the party, it was co-written by Hitler along
with Anton Drexler, the leader of the party at that time. Reading through this
document it is clear that the 25 point ?demands? of the party were very
contradictory. For example point 2 states that ?We demand equality of right for
the German People in its dealings with other nations, and the abolition of the
Peace Treaties of Versailles and St Germain.? This would indirectly appeal to
German Generals as the down sizing of the army caused the dwindling power and
server job losses in Germany. The Generals would be able to reassert themselves
into the military positions that they once held and take advantage of the independent
states that once belonged to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. In point 22 however
it says ?We demand the abolition of the professional army and its replacement
by a peoples army.? Obviously this is alienating the Generals, as the original
autocratic and militant regime of the army would be abolished for a new ?peoples?
army, which is very socialistic and partly communistic. From this we can see
that Hitler was very contradictory, it is evident that Hitler wanted to whip up
the support of the people but not just certain people he wanted the whole
support of the nation, to do this he had to be hypocritical and contradictory. In
Hitler?s book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), 1925 he states that ?Politics is the
art of using men?s weaknesses for one?s ends.? This clearly shows Hitler?s
intentions on how to get the support of the German people, by appealing to
every single German regardless of social standing. From the 25-point programme
I have picked out the four predominant beliefs of the party they are racism,
socialism, nationalism and anti-democracy I will go onto see how these became
the ?ideologies? of the Nazi party. Hitler?s National Socialists
believed heavily in the ?November Criminals? and ?Stab in the Back? theories.
Hitler used this against the government as propaganda to whip up support for
his own party. He believed that the weimar republic had humiliated Germany and
had put shame on the German people. Hitler?s ideas were built on
his concept of race. He believed that humanity consisted of a graduated
hierarchy of races and that life was no more than ?the survival of the fittest?.
He argued that Social Darwinism necessitated a struggle between races, just as
animals fought for food and territory in the wild. Furthermore, he considered
it vital to maintain racial purity, so that the blood of the weak would not
undermine the strong. It was a crude philosophy, which appears even more
simplistic when Hitler?s analysis of the races is considered. The Herrenvolk
(master race) was the Aryan race, made up of peoples of Northern Europe and
epitomised by the Germans. It was the task of the Aryan to remain pure and to
subjugate the inferior races.? At the
lower end of his racial pyramid Hitler placed the Negroes, the Slavs, the
Gypsies and, the particular focus of his hatred, the Jews.? Hitler?s anti-Semitism was violent and irrational.
?The Jew became the universal scapegoat
for the nazis, responsible for all the problems of Germany past and
present.? Hitler saw the Jewish
community as a kind of cancer within the German body politic ? a disease that
had to be treated, as the following extract from Mein Kampf illustrates:? ?The adulteration of the
blood and racial deterioration conditioned thereby are the only causes that
account for the decline of ancient civilisations: for it is never by war that
nations are ruined, but by the loss of their powers of resistance, which are
exclusively a characteristic of pure racial blood. ? A number of points in the
1920 programme demanded socialist reforms, and for a long time there existed a
faction within the party which emphasised the anti-capitalist aspect of
Nazism.? Hitler accepted these points in
the early years because he recognised their popular appeal, but he himself
never showed any real commitment to such ideas, and they were to be dropped
after he came to power.? What Hitler did
promote was the concept of the Volksgemeinschaft (people?s community).? This remained the vaguest element of the
Nazi ideology, and is therefore difficult to define precisely.?? It meant working together for the benefit
of the nation; the provision of jobs and social benefits; and the encouragement
of ? German values?.? Such a system could
of course only benefit those who belonged to the German Volk and who willingly
accepted the loss of individual freedoms in an authoritarian system. In Hitler?s opinion there
was no realistic alternative to strong dictatorial government.? Ever since his years in Vienna he had viewed
parliamentary democracy as weak and ineffective.? It went against the German Historical traditions of militarism
and absolutism, and further more, it encouraged the development of an even
greater evil, communism.? More
specifically, Hitler saw Weimar democracy as a betrayal. In his eyes, it was
the democratic and socialist politicians of 1918 ?the November Criminals? who had
stabbed the German army in the back, by accepting the armistice and
establishing the Republic.? Since then
Germany had lurched from crisis to crisis.?
In place of democracy Hitler envisaged the creation of an all-embracing
one party state that would be run on the leadership principle. (Fuhrerprinzip).? Thus, the mass of individuals in society
were t be subjugated for the common good, but the individual leader was to? be elevated in order to rouse the nations
into action, and to take the necessary decisions. The final element in Nazi
ideology was an aggressive nationalism, which developed out of the particular circumstances
of Germany?s recent history.? The
armistice of 1918 and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles had to be overturned
and the lost territories had to be restored to Germany.? But Hitler ?s nationalism called for more
than a mere restoration of the 1914 frontiers.?
It meant the creation of an empire (Reich) to include all those members
of the German Volk who lived beyond the frontiers of the Kaiser?s Germany. The Austrian
Germans, the Sudeten Germans, the German communities along the Baltic coast,
all were to be included within the borders of Germany.. Yet Hitler?s
nationalist aims did not end there.? He dreamed
of a Greater Germany, a superpower capable of competing with the British Empire
and the United States.? Such an
objective could be achieved only by territorial expansion on a grand
scale.? This was the basis of Hitler?s
demand for Lerberndtaum (living space) for Germany.? Only by the conquest of Poland, the Ukraine and Russia could Germany
obtain the raw materials, cheap labour and food supplies so necessary for
continental supremacy.? The creation of
the ?New Order? in eastern Europe also held one other great attraction;; namely
it would involve the destruction of Russia, the centre of world communism.? As he argued in Mein Kampf: ?the German people must be
assured the territorial area which is necessary for it to exist on earth?People
of the same blood should be in the same Reich.?
The German people will have no right to engage in a colonial policy
until they shall have brought all their children together in one state.? To descirbe Hitler?s
thinking as an ideology is flattery. It lacked coherence and was intellectually
superficial and simplistic. It wasn?t even a rational system of thought. It was
merely a collection of ideas not cleaverly pieced together. Although the
combination was unique, it was not in any positive sense origional. Every
aspect of Hitler?s thinking was to be found in the nationalist and racist
writings of the 19th century. His nationalism was generated in
Germany in the years between Prussia?s struggle against Napolian and the unification
of 1871. His idea of an all German Reich was a simple repition of the demands
for the ?Greater Germany? made by those German nationalists who criticised Bismarck?s
limited unification. Even the imperialism of Lebensraum had already found
expression in the programme of ?Germanisation? supported by those writers who
saw the German racer as some how superior. This growing support for the Volk
had also gone hand in hand with the development of racist ideas, and in
particular of anti-Semitism. Thus, even before Hitler and other leading Nazis
were born, the core of what would become Nazism was already current in
political circles.