National Socialist Ideology

With Germans of all outlooks desperately seeking solutions for the nation's problems, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party began their climb to power. 'Hitler was gifted with effective political talents. He offered an explanation for Germany's defeat, and a vision of Germany's future destiny, that played upon the fears, prejudices, and hopes of many Germans. He promised to rebuild Germany's power and restore its prosperity' (Isaacman, 16). This won the support of many Germans. Hitler was such an effective speaker that anything he said was believed even if it was not true.

In the case of Germany its political State’s purpose was to “preserve and improve the race [for] progress in human civilization.”(Mein Kampf 1). This concept of race in which Hitler speaks appears to be influenced by the work of Arthur de Gobineau who in his book The Inequality of the Human Races(1853-1855) discussed the superiority of the white in the Aryan race, “negroid and yellow” races. He writes, “yellow races are thus clearly superior to the black”(205) because “he commits none of the strange excesses so common among the negroes” such as “kill[ing] for the sake of killing.(206) Although these definitions and interpretations of race and Germans as the race that “transformed western mind in the fifth century” as Aryan are not correct in our time, they had real life consequences when Hitler declared that the folk state “right and obligation are: that purity of the racial blood should be guarded, so that the best types of human beings maybe preserved…[for] a more noble development of humility itself”(Mein

But why racism? It is generally believed by sociologists that one cannot be a racist unless he is distinguishing between different biological traits between people, which somehow make one biological 'race' superior to another. And Hitler knew how bitter the Germans were about the loss of the First World War, so he needed a reason to give them as to why they lost. So he turned to racism and began distinguishing the Aryans from other races in Germany such as the Jews and homosexuals. By blaming the mixing of these inferior races into Aryan blood he gave the people a reason to believe they were better than someone else, and gave them a purpose, people to blame for Germanys devastated economy.

In the year of 1938, during the Nuremburg Conference, a man stands up to deliver the closing speech. This speech is not particularly as well known or as significant as many of his other speeches, but the words of this thin and paunchy man are strong and resolute. He states, “When the question is still put to us why National Socialism fights with such fanaticism against the Jewish element in Germany, why it pressed and still presses for its removal then the answer can only be: Because National Socialism desires to establish a true community of the people…. Because we are National Socialists, we can never suffer an alien race which has nothing to do with us to claim the leadership of our working people

-The Aryan race all started in prison when Hitler wrote the Mein Kampf. In the Mein Kampf he wrote about his racial beliefs and the Aryan race. The Aryan race was the race that Hitler supported and was part of his beliefs. The Aryan race is a race of “purity”, meaning that if they stayed “pure” they would one day rule. The perfect Aryan has blond hair, blue eyes, and was tall. The “Aryan” race was not as glory as it sounded and did not work out for Hitler like he hoped. The race was threatened by a couple of things, one being Aryans married with non-Aryans. The Aryan race was considered the “master race” and was Hitler’s belief.

It’s difficult to imagine a society where millions upon millions are murdered because of their religion and race. According to A Teacher’s Guide to the Holocaust “Approximately 11 million people were killed because of Nazi genocidal policy” (“Victims”). Not only did they get killed because they were Jews. Some people were undesirable by Nazi standards because of who they were their genetic or cultural origins, or health conditions. These included Jews, Gypsies, Poles and other Slavs, and people with physical or mental disabilities. Others were Nazi victims because of what they did. These victims of the Nazi regime included Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, the dissenting clergy, Communists, Socialists, a socials, and other political enemies” (victims”). They didn’t consider Jews as a race they consider it as a religion. According to the Jewish virtual library “Hitler focused his propaganda against the Versailles Treaty, the "November criminals," the Marxists and the visible, internal enemy No. 1, the "Jew," who was responsible for all Germany's domestic problems. In the twenty-five-point programme of the NSDAP announced on 24 February 1920, the exclusion of the Jews from the Volk community, the myth of Aryan race supremacy and extreme nationalism were combined with "socialistic" ideas of profit-sharing and nationalization inspired by ideologues like Gottfried Feder. Hitler's first written utterance on political questions dating from

His theory was that Aryans characterized by having blond hair and blue eyes of Christian German descent should rule and take over the world since they were far more superior than other races (http://remember.org/guide/Facts.root.hitler.htm). This is very hypocritical because Hitler himself was not an Aryan ad therefore he himself should have been eliminated. His political aim was to kill anyone who did not fit this description and he did not only just hate Jews, he hated anyone who did not fit

The Nazi Germany theoretically believed that those, whom were considered as Aryan, were ultimately the superior race. In result of this, the Nazi army feared the reproduction of other races and set out to ethnically cleanse Germany and the rest of Europe as well (Museum, Racism: An Overview, 2016). While racism played a drastic role in the Holocaust, ethnic supremacy along with religion also played as a factor in the genocide.

Hitler states, “It is idle to argue which race or races were the original representative of human culture and hence the real founders of all that we sum up under the word ‘humanity’(Hitler 605). According to himself, the top is a Germanic man with light skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes, known as Aryan. He is stated as the founder of all higher humanity and represents the prototype of all that we understand by the word ‘man’. Hitler disapproved of Marxism because it disregards the idea of nationalism and the importance of race. Through Hitler’s eye, Marxism basically handed the world over to the Jews, in which the Jews would have much control over Europe. In addition, he felt as though Marxism would give the Jews power in order to enslave and destroy people that are not Jewish. Jews contaminated aspects of culture such as art, literature, and theater and they convert these significant elements of society into their own beliefs. Overall, the Jews wanted to eliminate all others and control the Germans for their own gain. It was the battle for world domination; racially, culturally, and politically between the Aryans and the Jews. Hitler wanted to keep the Jews and Aryan separate because he felt as though the Jews were truly evil people and should be eliminated and the Aryans should be kept pure. Mixing between races would lower the quality of the higher race and would cause regression of the

Nationalism is a far right party. In today’s world we would be considered the “Nazi Party”. Meaning we have a very strong sense of an individual loyalty to our nation that exceeds any other interests from outsiders. Due to this party we hold very strong ideologies. The three main topics we researched were immigration, relations with the United States, and a 35-hour workweek configuration. Then we determined which position our party would most closely stand with.

Hitler and the NSDAP came rose to power in a Germany that was devastated. They advertised themselves as the saviors of Germany, who would bring Germany back to its former glory. They vowed to get revenge for the “atrocities” that the Weimar Republic had committed against the German people. The message they spread captivated millions of middle class Germans who longed for a revival of German might. It could be suggested, that Hitler had brought the people of Germany exactly what they had been asking for.

The NSDAP relied heavily on nationalistic ideals such as the Volk, as a means of uniting greater Germany. They incorporated the ideals of strong government as a means of revitalizing Germany. The NSDAP vilified non-Germans and communists and saw them as the causes of the nation’s problems. At first, their support was fairly low, but after the series of crises and the cleavages within the other parties, the NSDAP was able to win a majority of the Reichstag.

There were various factors that contributed to the failure of the Weimar Republic of Germany and the ascent of Hitler’s National Socialist German Workers Party into power on January 30, 1933. Various conflicting problems were concurrent with the eventuation of the Republic that, from the outset, its first governing body the socialist party (SPD) was forced to contend with.

The rise of National Socialism in post-WWI Germany is an understandable reaction to the problems of the Versailles Peace Treaty, considering the German attitudes and beliefs at the time. These attitudes and beliefs were the result of generations of Prussian militarism, extreme racist nationalism, and, most importantly, the failure of the Treaty of Versailles signed in June of 1919. The rise of the Nazi party, and their extremist National Socialist doctrine appealed directly to these attitudes and beliefs that permeated Germany society after the first World War.

Carl Schmitt argues that the role of myth plays an essential role in politics and that nationalism, in any confrontation, will win over socialism. Schmitt’s argument can be used to justify the events that occurred in Germany during the late 20s and early 30s. However, even though nationalism did play a key role in post-hyperinflation Germany, it is far too simplistic to say that the only motive of such events was nationalism. Events like the Beer hall putsch or the growth and success of the Nazi party were not solely because of nationalism. There were other factors that contributed to these events such as the fact that Germany was in a terrible situation to begin with. Germany was in chaos after WW1, and when the Great Depression followed, unemployment, inflation and food shortage increased even more. Such events led to the growth of the Nazi party as Germans felt like Hitler represented what many of them felt-- hatred of the republic. The Nazi party rose significatively because of their usage of propaganda, their anti-Semitism, their violence, their hatred of the Weimar republic and also because of opportunism.