By Christopher Sams
Ba (hons) PGC
There are many arguments and discussions about
where Nazism sat on the political spectrum and the age old belief that Fascism
and Nazism were the final expression of the Right is being challenged by
historians who point to the Socialist policies and the deep involvement in the
state as an expression of the left akin to Stalin’s regime in Russia. Indeed
the article by Dr John Ray (
here) that I was sent tries to link the two in
quite a general way but his arguments can be quite flawed.
Nazism was reactionary rather than a thought out ideology and this was its’
great strength and its’ undoing. It reacted to Versailles, it reacted to the
1929 crash, it reacted to economic growth and it reacted to the calls of total
war albeit two years too late. It reacted with whatever means were available to
it and it reacted against Communism and the conventional political system
controlled by moderate Conservatives, the very people that were perceived to
have lost Germany the Great War.
Dr Ray uses this quote from Engels to illustrate
that Hitler drew on ideals from the left concerning the rise of the German
Empire and the all conquering Teutonic hand:
True, it is
a fixed idea with the French that the Rhine is their property, but to this
arrogant demand the only reply worthy of the German nation is Arndt’s: “Give
back Alsace and Lorraine” For I am of the opinion, perhaps in contrast to many
whose standpoint I share in other respects, that the re-conquest of the German
speaking left bank of the Rhine is a matter of national honour, and that the
Germanisation of a disloyal Holland and of Belgium is a political necessity for
us. Shall we let the German Nationality be completely suppressed in these
countries while the Slavs are rising ever more powerfully in the East?
It does indeed sound like a Nazi style ideal and
is argued to show that Hitler had sympathies with the left. This is of course
nonsensical as the author fails to remember that Engels was a German, and the
German national pride over the territories of Alsace and Lorraine demanded
their return. Germany was a late player on the international scene and as such
had not been really involved in the great land grabs for Africa or the Pacific
territories and only managed to grab the parts Britain hadn’t been to
interested in or in the case of the Caroline islands, bought them from Spain in
the aftermath of the American Spanish war. Alsace-Lorraine had been a heavily
disputed area of land for generations with both German and French nations
laying heavy claims onto it. It is not an alien concept for Engels, as a proud
German and Hitler, a German Nationalist politician of Austrian decent, to agree
that these territories should be returned to the
Vaterland and that fresh territorial gains in Holland and Belgium
should be sought. I am sure that you could not label Kaiser Wilhelm II nor any
of the officers of the German General staff like Von Moltke a Communist either,
yet territorial gains from weaker European nations and the gaining of a
Germanic Empire in continental Europe was clearly one of their aims.
The idea of
the rising power of Russia was also not an alien ideal across the whole of
Europe. In the wake of the Napoleonic wars many Western nations became
concerned by the Russian military might, especially Great Britain who saw her
as the next great competitor to her power. The advance of the Czar’s armies and
the ease with which he dealt with Napoleon’s grand armies concerned British
political thinkers for a whole century. The worry that the Russians could march
through the German states or annexe the Balkans and finally gain a warm water
port dominated military thought and planning and culminated in the Crimean war.
Although an impasse was reached there was always a watchful eye on the Eastern
borders of Europe lest the Russian Bear mobilise its armies. Being aware of
this does not tie one to any ism in particular; it was just an on going fact
within Political and military thought throughout the Nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.
Dr Ray’s article then moves to focus on Anti-Semitism
as a root of all Nazi ideals and again quotes Marx:
Let us
consider the actual, worldly Jew – not the Sabbath Jew, as Bauer does, but the
everyday Jew. Let us not look for the secret of the Jew in his religion, but
let us look for the secret of his religion in the real Jew. What is the secular
basis of Judaism? Practical need, self-interest. What is the worldly religion
of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his worldly god? Money. Very well then!
Emancipation from huckstering and money, consequently from practical, real
Jewry, would be self-emancipation of our time… we recognize in Jewry, therefore
a general present-time-orientated anti social element, an element which through
historical development – to which in this harmful respect the Jews have
zealously contributed – has been brought to its present high level, at which it
must necessarily dissolve itself. In the final analysis, the emancipation of
the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Jewry.
Anti-Semitism was also
not a wholly Nazi ideal, true it is what it will be remembered for and the
Holocaust against all Untermenschen
is a blight on Mankind’s collective history as well as Germany’s but it was a
pan European ideal. Countries like Latvia, Lithuania even western nations like
France and Holland showed support and willingness within elements of the
population to rid themselves of “The hated Jew.” The advancing German military
found to the Einsatzgruppen’s joy,
that towns had murdered the Jewish populations as they reached the city limits or
were willing participants in the hunting down and denouncements. Throughout the
nineteenth century Anti-Semitism had been very vivid. Ghettos, labels,
curtailing of political and individual freedoms – all hall marks of a later displayed
by Nazi planners and the Totenkopfverbunde
SS. Despite the centuries of the pan-European anti-Semitism it reached fertile
ears within Germany from many political backgrounds in the post World War One
era because of the perceived betrayal of the Jews. Joseph Chamberlain had
stated that British policy was to create Zion for the Jews in Palestine should
they win the war and it was perceived that the German Jews stopped giving their
support to Germany as a way to bring about British victory. Also, with the
collapse of the German economy and industry it appeared that German Jews had
done quite well out of the war and ultimately prospered at everyone else’s
misery thus reigniting an age old hatred.
Marx and Hitler would have indeed seen eye to eye over the prominence of the
Jewish international banks controlled by families like the Rothschild’s and as
an anti-capitalist in a time where Industrialist and international capitalists
were causing misery to millions of workers across Europe it would have appeared
symptomatic of a wider problem. For Hitler and the Nazis it was about the
International threat of Jewry and their ultimate plan of world domination and
self preservation. The Nazis argued that a German Jew was firstly a Jew and
their loyalty was not to the state, which they believed the Jews had betrayed
during World War One and this was also crudely coupled to the idea of a Jewish
conspiracy and the label of “Profiteers”.
To truly understand the
ideas of Nazism you must first look at the ground into which the seed was sewn.
Germany had completely collapsed at the end of the First World War, the economy
lay in ruins, the people were starving in the grip of the Allied blockade and
the German armed forces, who were still very much a capable force in the field
and had not suffered the ignominious defeats they would in the Second World
War, were forced to surrender with embarrassingly harsh terms meted out at
Versailles. The German people did not feel that Germany alone was to blame for
starting of war. There were reactionary politics everywhere as working class
people blamed the old Conservative elites for dragging Germany into this
depression and darkness. The Kaiser abdicated and former nobles lost lands and
titles as it was all brought down. Into this mess a fledging workers party was
formed – the National socialist workers party, and eventually it was noticed by
the German Military Intelligence which was trying to avert overt Communist and
Socialist groups. A young Corporal who held the Iron Cross for bravery, Adolf
Hitler, was assigned to monitor them. Hitler, like many German servicemen was disillusioned
by the state of modern Germany and the betrayal of the fighting forces by the
politicians and industrialists. Change was needed to the political and social
spectrums. Germany, unlike a pre-war Britain which had, under the Liberal
Governments, brought in social reform and the basis of Welfare where as Germany
had lagged behind and this had attracted a lot of will for change which was
desperately needed. Socialist policies, which were no different to the British
Labour party in this period, were exceptionally popular amongst Germans and
indeed the working classes across Europe who had to deal with the mess and
death caused by Empire building Conservatives, Industrialists and Monarchists
and the Liberals who had been the opposition had failed to stop this.
Hitler did not see the
Nazis as either Right or Left though and stated in
Mein Kampf that:
Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting
that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily result from
the disarmament of Germany, where as 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.
He went on to say that
the party was not indeed exclusive to any one faction or class and instead drew
from all of them;
From the camp of Bourgeois tradition it takes National resolve, and
from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative socialism.
Hitler redefined
socialism so that it was about the social collective, in this case Germany and
the German
Volk and that the Nazis
were basically about making the German equal to every other German citizen and
what was best for German citizens. He is quoted, on more than one occasion as
saying;
Every hour, of every day you must think of Germany and the German Volk.
Volk is a difficult
word to define, loosely it translates as People but it means more than that, it
is like the nationality and almost German race as a collective, hence
Volkswagen – the car for the people, affordably produced and sold to the
people, or the Volksjager fighter jet, built by the people for the people’s
benefit and flown by the people rather than by the Luftwaffe.
Undoubtedly, there were many socialist and
left wing ideas used by the Nazis whilst in power. Massive state sponsored
mobilisation of workers, the Org-Todt, social programs for workers. There were
also right-wing moves as well, such as the abolition of Trade unions, the
overtly nationalistic fervour, the Volkisch
racial supremacy and belief in uniting all of the German peoples under the one
German flag as well as maintaining personal property and big business. There
were no collective farms or factories run by Soviets or advised by Commissars
in Germany as there were in Russia, it was not until defeat was near that the
State took an active role in monitoring and directing production. Big
Companies, such as Krupps, Messerschmitt and Porsche were not nationalised,
rather they were allowed to carry on business as before which ultimately caused
problems during the war as Messerschmitt wasted many resources developing a
Four-engine bomber when the project was officially cancelled by the RLM and
Feldmarschall Milch. Indeed the Nazi party itself was split between
Conservatives under Goring and Himmler and Socialists like Goebbels and
the Strassers who wanted to bring down
the capitalist systems and urged strikes.
The National Socialist
party had evolved over time as well. In 1918 they were a group of malcontent
social reactionaries who wanted change but also a return to the 1914 spirit of
Imperial-Military Germany. By 1926 Hitler had to call the Bamberg conference to
pull all the groups together and to come up with a final plan of what the party
stood for. He argued that the party was based on the Leader and their will and
not on a party program. Twenty-five points were agreed and formed the basis of
the party’s policy:
1. One
Germany for all Germans.
2. Equal
rights for all German people
3. All
land and territory to be returned for lebensraum
4. Only
a member of the German Race can be a citizen (So Jew/Gypsies etc. are ruled out
as citizens.
5. If
you aren’t a citizen, you are a guest in this country and live under legislation
for foreigners.
6. Citizens
are the only ones who can determine law and vote.
7. The
State must be changed to allow every citizen a livelihood and if that is not
possible then the guests must be asked to leave to make way for the German
people.
8. Immigration
into Germany is to be stopped. All those who have arrived since 1914 are to
leave immediately.
9. All
citizens have equal rights and obligations.
10. Every
citizen is to work both spiritually and physically
11. Abolition
of unearned incomes and the breaking of debt slavery.
12. Confiscation
of War profits for the state.
13. Nationalisation
of associated businesses
14. Division
of profits of all heavy industry
15. Expansion
of old age welfare.
16. Healthy
Middle class must be encouraged to grow.
17. Land
reform with private lands passing to the public and abolition of taxes on land.
18. Struggle
against those whose activity is injurious to the General interest such as
profiteers.
19. Creation
of a Common German Law
20. State
to reconstruct the education program and to give fairer access to the poorer elements
for gifted children to university.
21. Forming
a National health, ending child labour, encourage national sports and PE
22. Abolition
of Mercenary troops and form a national army.
23. Legal
opposition to the lies printed in the press and that all members of the press are
Citizens.
24. Religious
freedom for all citizens.
25. A
powerful central Reich parliament to bring these reforms into being.
As you can see there are
as many right wing policies to do with race and nation mixed with Socialist
ideals and changes to make Germany fairer and more open with favour for the
working lower and middle classes but there are no real Marxist ideals here.
Indeed, as I have already illustrated, nationalisation and the return of war
profits did not happen. Modern Political thinkers would describe much of the
Nazis welfare and social reform as “Progressive” rather than Socialist as the
Nazis wanted those who had come off worst in society, namely the working and
middle classes, to be compensated and those who were responsible, the Upper
classes, to pay.
 |
| Wehrmacht troops parading in Czechoslavkia after absorbtion |
As time went by the
NSDAP became less radical, even sacrificing its radical street fighters, the SA
so as to be taken more seriously by voters. Conservatives like Von Ribbentrop
were attracted to this group of radicals who wanted to Modernise Germany but
still keep the old ideals of the Pre-war Second Reich.
The key value of Nazism
was fighting. When you read Nazi slogans and political papers they are always
waging war upon something. War on poverty, war on economic depression, Guns
before butter etc. The other factor was evolution and the mightiest vanquishing
the weak. This moulded themselves into the Nazi approach to policy and
Government. If an existing party or department did not work then create one
that would. If the approach to the problem was not working then try something
else. The other idea was that Competition was the key to forcing through the
best results from departments; this is why there were Nazi sections of state
competing with existing ones. For example the Ribbentrop Bureau headed by Joachim
Von Ribbentrop versus the German Foreign office headed by Von Neurath. Then
there was Military intelligence (Abwehr) headed by Admiral Canarais versus the
SS-SD section under Schellenberg and then another proposed by Ribbentrop
through the Foreign office! The idea that they would compete to provide better
results to problems and court the Fuhrer’s favour only succeeded in wasting
time and resources. Hitler was also willing to follow Stalin’s path and drag
the state to where he wanted it. The Four Year plan, designed to modernise
Germany and sort out the economic mess caused by reparations and the 1929
crash. Seeing the Soviet Five year plan as a blue print to modernise and
Communise Russia as a blue print and as a threat, the Nazi Government took
immediate steps and dictated where the state
MUST be by 1940. Public
works, removal of non-citizens to free up space for Germans and the massive
industrialisation and mobilisation of Military production including ship
building schemes in violation of the London treaty, aircraft manufacture
against the Treaty of Versailles which saw a force of some three thousand
aircraft built and combat ready by the summer of 1940 and the creation of
armoured spear heads. There were also defensive programs like the Siegfried
line built employing many workers, both skilled and unskilled by the state
within the confines of the Org-Todt. At no point were the companies
nationalised only directed and given a completely free hand and whatever
resources they needed to achieve the goals. Like everything else Nazi, it was a
mish-mash of lots of ideas to reach a goal rather than one political dogma.
This mixing of ideas is probably what gave it such a broad scope of acceptance by Germans from all walks of life. There was something for everyone and the party played to the popular whims and gave the people what they want. My Grandfather, a wide-eyed school boy on an exchange program to pre-war Germany was over awed by how clean the streets were, with no graffiti, no homeless people, no litter and everyone going to work. Of course he wouldn't have seen the undesirables being rounded up and taken to Dachau. Many Germans, before the Gestapo really grew in powers, were happy with the Government that solved their ills and was just the right mix of progressive socialism and older values of Conservativism.
Nazism is a strange
example of a Political force with no real spot on the spectrum. Its’ policies,
although full of xenophobic and racially Nationalistic bent on waging war also
convoluted with progressive left wing policies that were meant to benefit the working
classes. Hitler’s party was about solving problems, both perceived and actual,
through action and whatever means were necessary. Hitler was not an
intellectual, Mein Kampf is not a
politically ground breaking manuscript like Mills or Marx, rather a collection
of ideas and an attempt to cobble together a train of thought for what the
author thought would solve Germany’s problems with his understanding and
reactions to Geography, eugenics, race, religion, politics and military
matters. Nazism died out for a reason and that was not because of the Soviet
flag fluttering from the mast on the Reichstag. It died because as a system it
was too chaotic and reactionary for its own good and although it achieved goals
in modernising Germany and her economy it has been postulated that had the Nazi
regime conquered all of its enemies be they martial or political it would have
imploded with no purpose.
