The emergence of German Nazism.
The political and ideological predecessor of National Socialism in Germany was the German nationalist and anti-Semitic movement that formed in the late 1870s and 1880s. His supporters came mainly from among urban and rural small property owners and declassed elements. Already one of the first political organizations of the movement, the “League of Anti-Semites,” had secret membership and was built on the strict principles of blind obedience to the leaders. The League and associated groups collected signatures for a petition to limit the civil rights of Jews and organized pogroms against Jews. There were also the “Christian Social Workers Party”, “Social Reich Party”, “German People’s Union”, “German Reform Party”, “German Anti-Semitic Union”, an association of anti-Semitic student unions, etc. In 1888, a united national “German Anti-Semitic Union” was created. Union". His program envisaged the creation of a “German welfare state” with strong imperial power, restrictions on democratic freedoms and an aggressive foreign policy. Anti-Semites proposed introducing strict “state-socialist” regulation of the economy: establishing control over banking and stock exchange activities, over monopolistic associations, taking measures to protect the peasantry and developing guild crafts, eliminating class struggle and achieving harmony between labor and “national” capital while destroying “ anti-national" (primarily Jewish). Since 1890, the anti-Semitic movement has been represented in the German parliament - the Reichstag.
At the beginning of the 20th century. The nationalist movement “völkische” (from German das Volk - the people) entered the ideological and social arena of Germany. “Völkische” interpreted the people as a cultural-biological and mystical community of “blood and soil” and promoted the superiority of the “German spirit” and German culture over the soulless liberal civilization of the rest of Europe. They not only glorified the ancient German past and the Middle Ages, but also combined the idealization of antiquity with the “racial theories” of Huston Stuart Chamberlain (1855–1927), Count Gobineau and others, the ideas of social Darwinism and the rule of the strong, as well as with mystical and occult teachings ( theosophy, ariosophy, etc.). All these teachings, old and new, were used to justify the original biological "superiority" of the Germanic or "Aryan" race. The Völkische movement consisted of many thousands of public organizations - youth, peasants, clerks, workers and other unions, as well as intellectual groups that were engaged in developing the ideology of German racism and nationalism. Among these latter, a special place was occupied by the occult orders - the “German Order”, the “Order of the Knights of the Holy Grail” and the “Thule Society”, which chose the ancient “swastika” sign as its emblem, which was then borrowed by the National Socialists.
A significant intensification of nationalist organizations in Germany occurred during the First World War. Hundreds of thousands of people were members of groups that appeared in 1917–1918, such as the “Free Committee for German Workers' Peace”, “Independent Committee for German Peace”, “People's Committee for the Speedy Defeat of England”, etc. On March 3, 1918, one of these organizations arose in Munich - the “Free Workers' Committee for a Good World”, led by railway mechanic Anton Drexler. Initially it consisted of only 40 members. In fact, Drexler's committee was under the ideological and political influence of the Thule Society. After Germany's defeat in the war, nationalist and revanchist sentiments intensified. On January 5, 1919, on the basis of circles and committees associated with Thule and Drexler, the creation of the German Workers' Party was proclaimed in one of the beer halls in Munich; it initially consisted of about 40 people. By the fall of 1919, officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers, including Corporal Adolf Schicklgruber, an Austrian by birth who took the name Hitler, and Captain Ernst Röhm, had joined the party on instructions from the military command. In February 1920, the party changed its name to NSDAP - National Socialist German Workers' Party; members of the party (there were already about 200 of them) began to be called “Nazis” or “Nazis.” The NSDAP program combined fundamental nationalist declarations in the spirit of “völkische” and all kinds of social promises addressed to the lonely “little man” who felt fear of the world, who was supposed to eventually feel like the master of the country. At the same time, the Nazis widely used the principle of promising people exactly what they wanted to hear, without worrying about fulfilling the promises made. In the field of foreign policy, the Nazis proclaimed as their goal the unification of all Germans in “Greater Germany” and the abolition of Versailles and other post-war treaties, as unequal and infringing on German interests. As for domestic policy, the NSDAP declared itself a supporter of equal rights and responsibilities for all German citizens, but immediately stipulated that only those “in whose veins German blood flows” could be citizens; Jews were subject to deprivation of citizenship. The party appealed to the spirit of collectivism, but interpreted it in a very unique way, in the traditions of “völkische” and “front-line brotherhood”, subordinating the individual to a nation defined on the basis of “racial” criteria, ideally organized as a huge, strictly disciplined military machine. The NSDAP declared its desire for national, “genuine and honest socialism”, in which “personal benefit” is subordinated to the “public good”, all people work mentally or physically (this included not only wage labor, but also entrepreneurial activity), the profits of military speculators and moneylenders have been nationalized, large trusts have been transferred to the state, an extensive pension system is in place, education and healthcare are being developed. The peasants were promised land reform, the workers were promised participation in the profits of enterprises, and the shopkeepers and traders were promised the closure of large department stores owned by “Jewish capital.” Various social strata (“estates”) were to receive bodies representing their interests—“chambers.”
The German fascists relied on widespread dissatisfaction with the consequences of the country's rapid industrial modernization, which had existed since the 19th century. shared by most of the population. Völkische and the Nazis actively used anti-urban and agrarian-romantic sentiments. However, the “anti-industrialism” of the National Socialists turned out to be imaginary, since it was combined with the Nietzschean concepts of the “will to power” and social Darwinist aggression. The latter required the creation of a strong power, which, in order to maintain its own power and fight competitors, needed a developed industry.
In 1921, Hitler managed to completely take over the leadership of the NSDAP. In the same year, the party began to organize its own paramilitary groups - “assault troops” (SA) led by Röhm and Hermann Goering. She received considerable sums of money from military circles and some industrialists.
The Nazi Party was initially only one, and far from the strongest among the numerous and extensive groups of German ultra-rightists and fascists. “The diversity of all these tourist clubs, labor associations, sports clubs, regimental associations, rifle societies, warriors’ unions, officer’s unions, organizations of popular, national, military revival - gives the impression of complete chaos...,” noted the German lawyer E. Gumbel, author of the study about the fascist movement in Germany in the early 1920s. – It would be wrong to think that all these unions really exist independently of each other. Often one of them comes from the other; circles bearing completely different names may turn out to be one and the same organization, since the same people are usually members of a number of unions... The actual active composition of these secret organizations does not exceed 200 thousand members.” (E. Gumbel. Conspirators. On the history of German nationalist unions. L., 1925. P.50). Although there was a sharp struggle for leadership between the leadership of individual far-right groups, the Nazi leaders still recognized the authority of the ideologists of the “völkische” and the “conservative revolution” (a kind of “conservative socialism”). So, at the beginning of 1922, Hitler said to one of the “conservative-revolutionary” theorists A. Möller van den Broek: “You have everything that I lack. You are developing spiritual weapons for Germany. I’m nothing more than a drummer and a gatherer, let’s work together.” The Nazis blocked with other far-right unions - the Oberland and the Imperial Flag, and joined the united German Combat Union. But the Nazis' "modesty" did not last long. Very soon the NSDAP emerged as a contender for power in the German state.
"Beer Hall Putsch", rollback and revival of Nazism.
In January 1923, the NSDAP held an all-German congress and a 6,000-strong parade in Munich. But the Nazis enjoyed real influence during that period, first of all, in the south of the country, primarily in Bavaria. Here they were favored by special circumstances: the onset of reaction after the suppression of the Munich Soviet Republic of 1919, the joining of a mass of members of the “volunteer corps” created to fight the revolution, a tolerant or even patronizing attitude on the part of the right-wing regional regime of the General Commissioner of Bavaria G. von Kahr, who himself sympathized with fascism. The position of the NSDAP was strengthened by the joining of the former Quartermaster General of the German Army, General Erich Ludendorff, widely known to many participants in the First World War. In the fall of 1923, the organization had more than 50 thousand members.
Like other far-right groups, the Nazis widely resorted to terror against their political opponents. So, in October 1922, during the “Day of Germany,” 800 stormtroopers led by Hitler attacked the city of Coburg and for two days, with the connivance of the authorities, they smashed workers’ demonstrations and organizations and beat passers-by. Other Nazi actions included pogroms of newspaper offices, assassination attempts on deputies, attacks on Jews, a bomb explosion at the Mannheim stock exchange, destruction of hotels, cafes of working youth, attacks on factories and labor activists.
In conditions of a sharp aggravation of the political situation in Germany, the Nazi party attempted to carry out a coup d'etat. The signal for it should have been the events in Munich. On November 8, 1923, armed stormtroopers led by Hitler attacked a meeting of representatives of the Bavarian political and economic elite convened by von Kahr in the Bürgerbräu beer hall and forced those gathered to approve the NSDAP plan: Hitler was declared the head of the German government, Ludendorff the head of the armed forces. The rebels tried to occupy strategic points of the city, arrested Social Democratic members of the municipality and citizens “with Jewish surnames,” and prepared mass executions. However, the “beer hall putsch,” as Hitler’s rebellion was dubbed by contemporaries, was very poorly organized and, encountering resistance from the army and police forces, collapsed the very next day. The soldiers opened fire on the three thousand column of putschists, killed 14 of them and dispersed the procession; Ludendorff was captured, but was soon released “on parole”; Captain Rehm surrendered. On November 12, 1923, the leader (“Führer”) of the NSDAP, Hitler himself, was arrested.
In November 1923, National Socialist publications were banned in Bavaria. The Nazi leaders got off with a very mild punishment. According to the verdict of the Munich court on April 1, 1924, Ludendorff was acquitted, Hitler and several of his associates received sentences of up to 5 years in prison, but with the right to early release. In prison, Hitler was busy writing his main “theoretical” book My struggle(Mein Kampf). Already in December 1924, the “Führer” was released.
However, despite this amazing leniency of the authorities, after the shameful failure of the rebellion, the Nazi Party began to fall apart. By the beginning of 1925, only 500 members remained. Most of the organizations joined another organization, the Deutsche-Völkisch Freedom Party, headed by Ludendorff. However, the successes of the “legal” fascists were also modest: in the elections to the Reichstag in May 1924, Ludendorff’s supporters collected about 7 percent of the votes, and in December of the same year - only 3 percent of the votes.
Once free, Hitler took measures to restore the NSDAP. Until the great economic crisis that engulfed Germany in the early 1930s, the influence of the National Socialists generally remained limited. As the Nazi author H. Fabricius later admitted, the leaders of the NSDAP in that period were considered “braggarts and talkers, political buffoons. They made fun of them and made fun of them.”
However, it was at this time that the NSDAP was laying the foundation for its future success, establishing a rigid internal structure and expanding its network of connections in society. With the help of the brothers Gregor and Otto Strasser, popular in nationalist circles of small owners and workers, she managed to create Nazi organizations in the north-west of the country (in the industrial zones - Ruhr, Hamburg, Central Germany). In the second half of the 1920s, the Nazis actively established contacts with entrepreneurs and obtained from them the allocation of significant funds to finance the party. SA assault troops were revived and resumed bloody attacks on supporters of left-wing parties and trade unions, anti-fascist activists, labor demonstrations and meetings. In 1925, another, more elite paramilitary unit was formed - the “security detachments” of the SS, a kind of internal police; at the end of 1930 there were about 2,700 people. The number of Nazi publications grew: in 1926 the NSDAP had only one daily newspaper with a circulation of 10.7 thousand copies, in 1928 - already four with a total circulation of 22.8 thousand, and in 1929 - 10 newspapers with a circulation of 72.6 thousand copies .
During this period, the National Socialists managed to oust their competitors in the far-right camp and become, in essence, the main and fundamental fascist force in Germany. In 1927, three Völkische deputies went over to the NSDAP, and in the 1928 elections, the Völkische political organization finally disappeared from the scene. At the end of 1929, the Nazis achieved success in elections in a number of land parliaments, in addition, a kind of “political taboo” was overcome - for the first time (albeit briefly) they were included in the land government (in Thuringia). Most activists of extreme nationalist groups joined the NSDAP, accepting the authority of its “Führer” and its program.
The road to power.
Taking advantage of the almost universal mood of discontent generated by the acute social and economic crisis in which Germany found itself in 1930–1932, the National Socialists were able to achieve rapid growth in their ranks and popularity. They again gained broad sympathy among their traditional base - among small owners, expanded nationalist agitation among workers and the unemployed, and developed contacts among entrepreneurs. The number of members of the NSDAP in 1932 exceeded 1 million. The NSDAP became the largest political force in the country: in the elections to the Reichstag in September 1930 it collected more than 18% of the votes, in June 1932 - more than 37% (in November 1932 the number of votes decreased slightly - to one third) . In a number of states, governments were formed with Nazi participation.
Success in the elections and hopes for a “legal” victory did not at all prevent the Nazis from continuing and even intensifying their terror against leftist forces. In a number of regions of the country, bloody clashes between Nazis and anti-fascists became a systematic phenomenon.
As candidates for the role of “strong power” and a force capable of “restoring order,” the Nazis became increasingly acceptable to the country’s economic and political elite - leading entrepreneurs (especially in heavy industry), officials, military men, and politicians. Hitler himself and other party leaders held numerous meetings with them and reassured them, promising not to put into practice the measures outlined in the party program to limit the activities of economic trusts. “Our entrepreneurs,” declared the “Führer,” “owe their position to their abilities. This selection, which only confirms their belonging to a superior race, gives them the right to lead.” This reorientation caused discontent among many ordinary members of the NSDAP and the assault troops. Among them ideas became widespread that were called “left-wing fascism." It was about a combination of militant German chauvinism and anti-Semitism with the demand to take action against big capital. The theorist of this movement, Otto Strasser, advocated the transformation of major enterprises and firms into the joint ownership of the state, workers and former owners. Together with a group of his supporters, he left the Nazi Party and created his own organization.However, many adherents of “left-wing fascism” remained in the NSDAP and occupied senior positions in the SA (including the head of the stormtroopers, Ernst Röhm).
Representatives of influential financial circles began to call for the involvement of the “largest party in the country” in governance. In September 1932, a similar statement was made by a group of entrepreneurs from the Ruhr, and in November 1932 by leading industrialists Thyssen, Schröder, Schacht, Rosterg, director of Kommerz-Bank Reinhart and others. Hitler also reached an agreement with leading right-wing politicians, primarily with the former Reich Chancellor Franz von Papen. On January 30, 1933, German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed a new government headed by Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler. In addition to the Nazis, the cabinet included several representatives of other far-right organizations (the German National People's Party and the Steel Helmet), as well as non-party members.
The formation of Hitler's government was subsequently declared by the Nazis to be a “National Socialist Revolution.” Now Nazi terror was legalized and became state policy. In the context of mass arrests of opponents of fascism and the beginning of the persecution of the opposition, new elections to the Reichstag were held on March 5, 1933, in which the NSDAP gained almost 44 percent of the votes. By expelling communist deputies from parliament, the Nazi Party gained the necessary majority of seats and could begin to impose its model of state power.
"Third Reich".
The National Socialists called their state the “Third Reich.” In German legends this was the name for the coming happy age. At the same time, this name was supposed to emphasize the continuity of imperial claims: the first Reich was considered the medieval Holy Roman Empire, the second was the German Empire created by Bismarck.
The National Socialists abolished the principle of parliamentarism and democratic government. They replaced the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) with a model of an authoritarian state based on the principle of “Führerism” (leadership). According to him, decisions on all issues were made not by a majority vote, but by a “responsible leader” at the appropriate level in the spirit of the rule: “authority from the top down, responsibility from the bottom up.” Accordingly, the Nazis did not completely abolish the Weimar Constitution of 1919, but made fundamental changes to it and abolished a number of its fundamental provisions. First of all, maternity leave On the protection of the people and the state(February 28, 1933) eliminated guarantees of personal rights and freedoms (freedom of speech and press, associations and meetings, privacy of correspondence and telephone conversations, inviolability of home, etc.).
If in Republican Germany laws were adopted by the parliament - the Reichstag, with the participation of the state representative body (Reichsrat) and the president, then, in accordance with the “Law to overcome the plight of the people and the Reich” (March 24, 1933), laws could also be adopted by the government. It was assumed that they could diverge from the constitution of the country, unless they concern the institutions of the Reichstag and the body of representation of the lands that made up Germany - the Reichsrat. Thus, the legislative power of parliament was reduced to nothing. The German jurist Professor E.R. Huber emphasized in 1939 that this was “the first Basic Law of the new Reich... Its core is the unification of legislative and executive powers in one hand. This is an act... which denies the entire constitutional development of the West... and destroys the concept of a constitutional state of the 19th century.”
During the spring and summer of 1933, the regime dissolved or forced all other political parties to dissolve. On July 14, 1933, the creation of new parties was officially prohibited by law. From November 12, 1933, the Reichstag as a “body of people’s representation” was elected from the “single list” of the Nazi Party. With the disappearance of the opposition, he became a mere statistic in government decisions.
The Reich Government, headed by the Reich Chancellor, became the supreme authority in the country. This post was held by the Fuhrer of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler, from January 30, 1933. He determined the main directions of state policy. After the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, the post of head of state was, by law of August 1, 1934, combined with the post of Reich Chancellor. Thus, all supreme power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the Fuhrer. (January 30, 1934) granted the government the power to create a new constitutional law.
The Nazis destroyed the federal structure of the German state. By Law on the unification of the states with the Reich dated April 7, 1933, the President, on the recommendation of the Reich Chancellor, appointed governors of the lands responsible to the Chancellor. The governors received the right to appoint heads of state governments and approve members of these governments, dissolve state parliaments, call new elections, enact land laws, preside over meetings of state governments, etc. Law on the new structure of the Reich(January 30, 1934) proclaimed the dissolution of the state parliaments and the transfer of state sovereignty to the Reich. The state governments were subordinate to the central government. On February 14, 1934, the representation of the states - the Reichsrat - was abolished. The regime abolished landed citizenship and introduced a unified German citizenship. The law of January 30, 1935 turned the governor into a permanent representative of the Reich government. He could now be the head of the state government, whose ministers were appointed by the Fuehrer at his proposal. The Fuhrer also appointed land officials. Land laws were issued by the governors with the consent of the Reich government.
The National Socialist German Workers' Party played a special place in the system of the Nazi Reich. Law on ensuring the unity of the party and the state(December 1, 1933) declared her “the bearer of the German state idea.” To strengthen interaction between the party and the state, the deputy Fuhrer in the party leadership became a member of the Reich government.
The Nazi regime carried out the “unification” of all public (professional, cooperative, civil and other) organizations. They were replaced by specialized organizations of the Nazi Party. The status of party units was: Assault Troops (SA), Security Troops (SS), Hitler Youth, National Socialist Motorized Corps, National Socialist Pilot Corps, National Socialist German Students' Union, National Socialist Women, as well as the Organization of National Socialist industrial cells and the National Socialist Organization of Craftsmen and Traders. Corporate and social organizations operated under the Nazi Party: National Socialist German Doctors' Union, National Socialist German Lawyers' Union, National Socialist Teachers' Union, National Socialist People's Charity, National Socialist War Victims' Assistance, Association of German Officials, National Socialist Union German technicians and the German Labor Front. The administrative division of the party structure did not coincide with the administrative-territorial structure of the state: the country was divided into “party regions” (Gau) led by Gauleiters. It was the Gauleiters who were often appointed governors of the Reich in the states. Later, in 1939, the lands were abolished and completely replaced by the Gau. Thus, party and local administrative control were largely merged.
The Nazi Party program promised the creation of a “class state”, and the “estates”, in essence, acted as an analogue of fascist corporations. This is how the “imperial estates” arose (industry, crafts, trade, etc.). However, Hitler's government did not follow the path of the Italian fascists, who created a special Chamber of Corporations. It also did not accept the plan for restructuring the economy in the spirit of a “class state”, proposed by conservatives Franz Seldte and Franz von Papen, fearing that it would give too much power to entrepreneurs who would find themselves at the head of the “class organization.” The role of the corporate body in Nazi Germany was played by the German Labor Front, which united workers, employees and entrepreneurs - “all Germans who work with their heads and hands.” To prevent labor conflicts, “social labors of honor” were introduced, which dealt with cases of violation of “social duties” by both employees and entrepreneurs. Production competitions and competitions were held. The “Strength through Joy” society formed under the Labor Front was engaged in mass cultural work and organization of recreation.
In the economic sphere, the Nazi Party abandoned its previous slogans directed against large industrial and financial groups and compromised with them. On July 15, 1933, the General Council of the German Economy was formed with the participation of major entrepreneurs. At the same time, the rights of the Ministry of Economy were expanded to exercise control over loans, prices and the creation of new monopolistic associations. Law on the Organization of National Labor(January 10, 1934) abolished all rights of works councils in enterprises. By Law on Economic Measures(July 3, 1934), the department of the Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht became the center for regulating foreign and domestic trade and pricing. Later, the consolidation of economic structures was also carried out. Essentially, state-assisted economic restructuring meant a redistribution of resources to powerful groups in heavy industry, electricity, and chemicals. In 1936, management of the economy passed into the hands of another group - the “Four-Year Plan Administration” led by Nazi leader Hermann Goering, who in 1937 (despite the protests of steel corporations) headed the state concern that bore his name. Relying on the support of chemical and electrical companies, the new administration set a course for “economic self-sufficiency” (“autarky”) of the country and expansion of budget financing. In connection with the World War, the centralization of the German economy increased even more. In the late 1939 - early 1940s, leading concerns spoke out for a unified, dictatorial and competent management of the economy under the leadership of the military armaments department, but Hitler and Goering opposed expanding the functions of the armed forces. In February 1942, the authorities introduced the “New Organization of Economic Management,” which established centralized production management, headed by Minister of Arms and Ammunition Speer; Industry associations and regional structures were created, which included representatives of industrialists. However, it was not excluded that after the successful completion of the war, the norms of the “controlled market” would be restored, and similar projects were even developed. “In accordance with the principle of the Führer,” said the head of the imperial industrial group W. Zangen in February 1941, “when the state only directs the economy, but is not involved in economic activities itself, the details of economic cooperation with the states of a wide area will be determined by private capital.”
Another area in which the Nazi hierarchy had to negotiate with the former elites was the military sphere. Hitler's government quickly suppressed all hopes and demands of the leaders of the Sturm Troops (SA) to replace the army with their formations. On June 30, 1934, army units and the SS defeated stormtroopers during the “Night of the Long Knives.” At the same time, many political opponents of Hitler were executed, including the SA commander Röhm and the leader of the “left fascists” Gregor Strasser. Since February 1938, the army reported directly to the Fuhrer, but had a certain autonomy. In 1935, it was even decided to suspend membership in the Nazi Party while serving in the armed forces. A decisive blow to the independence of the army was struck only at the end of the Second World War. In December 1943, the authorities introduced the service of “officers for the implementation of National Socialist leadership” in the Wehrmacht. After the unsuccessful attempt at a military coup on July 20, 1944, the membership of military personnel in the party was restored, the party greeting was introduced instead of the statutory greeting, the political affairs of military personnel were transferred from military courts to people's courts, military intelligence was removed from the subordination of the army department.
The repressive system played a key role in the mechanism of Nazi domination. A huge and extensive apparatus was created that suppressed any opposition or subversive activities and kept the population in constant fear. Another major motive for terror was the racial policies of the Nazis.
In March 1933, the secret state police “Gestapo” was created within the Prussian police, which in April 1934 became subordinate to SS chief Heinrich Himmler. Ultimately, an extensive Reich Security Office (RSHA) was formed, which included the SS, Gestapo, Security Service (SD), etc. The RSHA served as another autonomous center of power.
In March 1933, the creation of concentration camps began, which were also eventually subordinated to the SS. Just before the start of the war, about 1 million Germans passed through them. In total, by the end of World War II, there were 1,100 concentration camps in Germany alone, through which 18 million people passed, 12 million of whom died.
Special courts were created. In April 1934, the People's Court became the highest court. Its members were appointed personally by the Fuhrer. By the beginning of the war, it had sentenced 225 thousand people with a total of 600 thousand years of imprisonment, and before 1945 - 5 thousand official death sentences.
"Racial State".
If the economic provisions of the NSDAP program were sacrificed to agreement with the economic elites of Germany, then in the field of “racial politics” the Nazis hastened to fulfill their promises. In Hitler's Reich, racism became not just state policy, but the very basis of the state. “Since 1933, Jews in Germany are subject to state legal restrictions as non-Aryans,” explained, for example, in 1935 in the publication People's Brockhaus, a dictionary “for school and home.” At the same time, the degree of racial intolerance of the Nazis grew more and more over the years.
Already in April 1933, the Nazis launched a boycott campaign against shops and stores owned by Jews. Adopted in the same month Law on the restoration of professional bureaucracy, who blocked “non-Aryans” from entering public service; restrictions were placed on lawyers of Jewish origin; the expulsion of Jews from higher educational institutions began. On September 15, 1935, at the NSDAP congress in Nuremberg, the first of the “racial laws” was adopted - Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor; followed in November Healthy Marriage Act. These legal measures were aimed primarily against national minorities - Jews and Gypsies, who were subject to legal discrimination; mixed marriages were prohibited so as not to violate the “purity of the race.” In the fall of 1937, the systematic “Aryanization” of Jewish property and property began. In 1938, the authorities introduced new coercive measures against Jews, imposed “indemnity” on them and banned them from attending theaters and concerts, and completed the confiscation of “Jewish enterprises.” On November 9, 1938, pogroms of Jews (“Kristallnacht”) were carried out throughout the country. That same year, mass deportations of Roma to concentration camps began. In 1939, and especially with the outbreak of World War II, Nazi racism moved from the persecution of minorities to their extermination. Already in 1939–1940. The National Socialists began deportations and occasional executions of the Jewish population of European countries: ghettos were created in the territories occupied by Hitler's troops, and the authorities developed plans for the eviction of Jews from Europe. Finally, since 1941, the systematic mass extermination of the Jewish and Gypsy population of Germany and the occupied lands began. In total, up to 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Roma died from Nazi racial terror. In addition, the National Socialist regime planned the mass extermination of other European peoples that it did not classify as the “Aryan race” (Slavs, etc.), but the Nazis never managed to implement this plan.
As part of the policy of “racial hygiene”, the Nazi regime also dealt with those Germans who, in its opinion, were “corrupting the race” or “degenerated” - “asocial” elements and the mentally ill. Already in 1933, laws were passed on the forced sterilization of “asocial” individuals and people who, as the Nazis feared, could produce “offspring suffering from hereditary diseases.” In 1935, abortion was introduced for genetic and hereditary reasons; those who were recognized as sick were prohibited from marrying. In 1937–1938, “antisocials” began to be sent en masse to concentration camps. In 1939, the authorities introduced a euthanasia program for mentally ill and hereditarily disabled children, in 1940 they extended it to adults and “antisocial” elements, and in 1942 prisoners belonging to this latter category were handed over to the SS for “destruction through labor.” In total, at least 70 thousand people, declared “mentally ill,” died at the hands of the Nazis.
Military expansion and the collapse of the Nazi regime.
Nazi doctrine declared foreign policy expansion a natural consequence of the constant process of struggle between races and peoples for “living space.” From the Nazi point of view, this was a factor in the survival of the nation, which, like a biological species in the concepts of Charles Darwin, could either spread its presence, overcoming competitors, or was doomed to death. “Every being strives for expansion, and every people strives for world domination,” Hitler said in 1930. “Only those who keep this goal in sight take the right road.” In addition, Nazi promises to turn the Germans into a people of “landowners and warriors” implied the seizure of “living space” (vast lands of neighboring countries) and the elimination of the local population.
Having come to power, the NSDAP had the opportunity to implement its foreign policy program. It also coincided with the interests of the German economic elite, which sought to solve economic problems through the massive development of the military industry and push aside foreign competitors. The actions of the Nazi government were clearly aimed at forcing a military conflict with other states. Thus, in 1936, Germany began armed intervention in the Spanish Civil War, and also concluded the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, which Italy joined the following year. A bloc of states was formed that felt offended as a result of the First World War. Relying on it, the Nazi regime carried out a wave of conquests in Europe: in 1938 it annexed Austria and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, in 1939 it captured the Czech Republic and Moravia, and seized the Memel region from Lithuania. The desire of the “offended” to expand the sphere of their control encountered resistance from the victorious powers (primarily England, France and the USA), as well as the foreign policy interests of the USSR. The result of international confrontation was the Second World War, which began on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Nazi Germany into Poland.
During the war, success initially accompanied the Nazis. During 1939 - the first half of 1941. The troops of Germany and its allies captured most of Europe. A number of countries and territories were directly annexed to or subordinated to the German Reich: Poland, the Czech Republic and Moravia, Alsace and Lorraine, Luxembourg. In Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece captured by Nazi troops, occupation regimes were created. Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Romania, and Finland also found themselves in the orbit of German influence. German armies operated in North Africa. On June 22, 1941, the Soviet-German war began, and in 1941–1942 Germany captured vast areas up to Moscow, the Volga and the Caucasus ridge.
The Nazis intended to integrate the European economy under German control. Minister of Armaments Albert Speer received Hitler's permission in 1943 to introduce “European production planning”; a corresponding department was created in his ministry. In September 1943, a memorandum on “European Economic Planning” was prepared; this idea was approved at a meeting between Speer and his French colleague Bichlonne. Labor was brought to Germany from occupied countries; this was done mainly by force. By August 1944, more than 7.5 million foreign workers and prisoners of war were working in the Reich.
Concentration, police and filtration camps were also created in countries captured by the German Nazis. The exact number of their victims has not yet been established. It is known, for example, that in Belgium and Northern France 450 people were shot, including 240 as hostages; 3.5 thousand were deported to Germany. In France, the Nazis shot about 30 thousand hostages; in addition, about 3 thousand death sentences were carried out. In Denmark, the German occupation authorities executed 102 citizens of that country, etc. Hundreds of people were killed in Europe by special units as part of “anti-partisan” operations. In Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, the numbers of those killed and executed were significantly higher.
However, the Nazis' successes were short-lived. Faced with a long-term confrontation from the anti-German bloc, the Hitler machine was strained. In 1942–1943, the forces of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition (primarily the USSR, USA and Great Britain) launched a counter-offensive. By early 1945, North Africa and most of Europe had been cleared of German troops.
In an attempt to mobilize all resources, the Nazi regime declared “total war” in 1943. But this could no longer change the course of the war. The difficulties of the National Socialist dictatorship increased. Discontent was brewing not only among the population, but also in the highest military circles, among some of the old elites, etc. On July 20, 1944, a group of conspirators attempted a coup d'etat, trying to kill Hitler and overthrow the Nazi government, but the uprising was brutally suppressed. Despite the waves of terror, new defeats and the collapse of the economy continued to create the ground for opposition sentiments. In the last months of the war, underground “anti-fascist committees” began to emerge, which, however, remained too weak to intervene in the course of events.
By May 1945, the German armed forces were completely defeated, and German territory was occupied by the Allied armies. The National Socialist regime ceased to exist. The occupation authorities of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France banned Nazi activities in their zones. The Potsdam Declaration, signed on August 2, 1945 by US President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and USSR Prime Minister Joseph Stalin, stated in part: “The National Socialist Party... is to be destroyed; it is necessary to create guarantees that it cannot arise again in any form...” Nazi activities and propaganda were prohibited, and laws adopted by the regime that served as its basis or enshrined the principles of racial and national discrimination were repealed. In all zones of occupation of Germany, “denazification” measures were carried out, including the purge of National Socialist cadres. However, the period after World War II saw the re-emergence of fascist groups in Germany in the form of neo-Nazism.
Vadim Damier
APPENDIX 1. DIRECTIVE No. 1 “ON THE CONDUCT OF WAR”
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Headquarters of the operational leadership of the armed forces
National Defense Department
1. Now that all political possibilities for peacefully resolving the situation on the eastern border, which has become unbearable for Germany, have been exhausted, I have decided to achieve this solution by force.
2. The attack on Poland must be carried out in accordance with the preparations made according to the “White Plan”, taking into account changes in the situation that may arise following the strategic deployment of ground forces. Objectives and operational goals remain unchanged. Day of the offensive - September 1, 1939. Start of the offensive - 4 hours 45 minutes.
The same time applies to operations against Gdynia - Gdansk Bay and to capture the Dirschau (Tczew) bridge.
3. In the West, responsibility for the opening of hostilities should be placed unequivocally on England and France. Minor violations of our borders should first be eliminated on a purely local basis.
Strictly observe the neutrality we promised to Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
The German land border in the west must not be crossed at any point without my express permission. The same applies to all naval operations, as well as to other actions at sea that may be regarded as military operations.
The actions of the air force must first of all be limited to the air defense of state borders from enemy air raids and strive, as far as possible, not to violate the borders of neutral countries when repelling both individual aircraft and small air units. Only in the event of raids on German territory by large forces of French and British aviation through neutral states and when it becomes impossible to provide air defense in the west, is it allowed to carry out air defense also over the territory of neutral countries.
Of particular importance is the immediate notification of the high command of the armed forces of every violation of the borders of neutral countries by Western adversaries.
4. If England and France begin military operations against Germany, then the task of the armed forces operating in the West will be, by maximizing the conservation of forces, to preserve the prerequisites for the victorious completion of operations against Poland. In accordance with these tasks, it is necessary, as far as possible, to destroy the enemy’s armed forces and his economic potential. Begin the offensive only on my orders.
Ground forces hold the Western Wall and prepare to prevent it from being bypassed from the north in the event that the Western powers violate the neutrality of Belgium and Holland and begin to advance through their territories. If the French army enters the territory of Luxembourg, I give permission to blow up border bridges.
The navy is fighting the enemy's merchant fleet, mainly the British. It is possible that in order to increase the efficiency of our fleet's operations we will have to resort to declaring danger zones. The High Command of the Naval Forces must determine in which seas and to what extent it is advisable to create dangerous zones. The text of the public statement must be prepared jointly with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and submitted to me through the High Command of the Armed Forces for approval.
Measures must be taken to prevent enemy invasion of the Baltic Sea. The decision on the advisability of mining the entrances to the Baltic Sea rests with the commander-in-chief of the naval forces.
The air force's task is primarily to prevent the actions of French and British aircraft against German ground forces and German living space.
In a war against England, the air force must be used to influence the sea routes leading to England, destroy troop transports sent to France, and attack enemy military-industrial installations.
It is necessary to use favorable circumstances to launch effective attacks on concentrations of British naval forces, especially battleships and aircraft carriers. I reserve the right to make the decision to bomb London.
The attack on the English metropolis must be prepared in such a direction as to avoid, under any conditions, unsuccessful results due to the delivery of an attack with limited forces.
Signed: A. Hitler
APPENDIX 2. PLAN "BARBAROSSA"
Fuhrer and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
Operational management headquarters.
National Defense Department.
Fuhrer Headquarters
The German Armed Forces must be prepared to defeat Soviet Russia in a short campaign even before the war against England is over. (Variant "Barbarossa".)
Ground forces must use for this purpose all units at their disposal, with the exception of those necessary to protect the occupied territories from any surprises.
The task of the Air Force is to release such forces to support the Ground Forces in the Eastern Campaign, so that ground operations can be counted on quickly and, at the same time, the destruction of the eastern regions of Germany by enemy aircraft can be limited to a minimum. However, this concentration of the Air Force in the East must be limited by the requirement that all theaters of military operations and areas where our military industry is located are reliably protected from enemy air raids, and offensive actions against England, especially against its sea communications, are by no means weakened.
The main efforts of the Navy should, of course, be concentrated against England during the Eastern Campaign.
I will give the order for the strategic deployment of the Armed Forces against the Soviet Union, if necessary, eight weeks before the scheduled start of the operation.
Preparations that require a longer time, if they have not yet begun, should begin now and be completed by May 15, 1941.
It must be of utmost importance that our intentions to attack are not recognized.
I. GENERAL INTENTION
The main forces of the Russian Ground Forces located in Western Russia must be destroyed in bold operations through deep, rapid extension of tank wedges. The retreat of combat-ready enemy troops into the wide expanses of Russian territory must be prevented.
By rapid pursuit a line must be reached from which the Russian Air Force will be unable to carry out raids on Imperial German territory.
The ultimate goal of the operation is to create a barrier against Asian Russia along the common Volga - Arkhangelsk line. Thus, if necessary, the last industrial area remaining with the Russians in the Urals can be paralyzed with the help of aviation.
During these operations, the Russian Baltic Fleet will quickly lose its bases and will thus be unable to continue the fight. Effective actions of the Russian Air Force must be prevented by our powerful strikes at the very beginning of the operation. Adolf Gitler
II. INTENDED ALLIES AND THEIR OBJECTIVES
1. In the war against Soviet Russia on the flanks of our front, we can count on the active participation of Romania and Finland. The Supreme Command of the Armed Forces will, at the appropriate time, agree on and determine in what form the armed forces of both countries will be subordinated to the German command upon their entry into the war.
2. The task of Romania will be to support with selected troops the offensive of the southern flank of the German troops, at least at the beginning of the operation, to pin down the enemy where German forces will not operate, and otherwise to carry out auxiliary service in the rear areas.
3. Finland must cover the concentration and deployment of a separate German northern group of forces (part of the 21st Army), coming from Norway. The Finnish army will conduct military operations together with our troops. In addition, Finland will be responsible for the capture of the Hanko Peninsula.
III. CARRYING OUT THE OPERATION
Ground forces. (According to operational plans reported to me).
The theater of military operations is divided by the Pripyat swamps into northern and southern parts. The direction of the main attack should be prepared north of the Pripyat marshes. Two army groups should be concentrated here.
The southern of these groups, which is the center of the general front, has the task of attacking with especially strong tank and motorized formations from the Warsaw region and north of it in order to fragment the enemy forces in Belarus, thus creating the preconditions for turning powerful units of mobile troops to the north in order to in cooperation with the northern army group advancing from East Prussia in the general direction of Leningrad, destroy enemy forces operating in the Baltic states. Only after completing this urgent task, which should be followed by the capture of Leningrad and Kronstadt, should the operation to take Moscow, an important center of communications and military industry, begin... Only the unexpectedly rapid collapse of the Russian resistance could justify the formulation and execution of these two tasks simultaneously. ..
The army group operating south of the Pripyat marshes must, through concentrated attacks, with its main forces on the flanks, destroy the Russian troops located in Ukraine, even before the latter reach the Dnieper.
For this purpose, the main blow is delivered from the Lublin region in the general direction of Kyiv. At the same time, the troops located in Romania cross the Prut River in the lower reaches and carry out deep envelopment of the enemy. The Romanian army will have the task of shackling the Russian forces located inside the pincers being formed...
All orders that will be given by the commanders-in-chief on the basis of this directive must clearly proceed from the fact that we are talking about precautionary measures in the event that Russia changes its current position towards us. The number of officers involved in initial preparations should be as limited as possible. The remaining employees whose participation is necessary should be brought into work as late as possible and should be introduced only to the specific aspects of training necessary for the performance of the official duties of each of them individually. Otherwise, there is a danger of serious political and military complications arising as a result of the disclosure of our preparations, the dates of which have not yet been set...
Adolf Gitler
Correct: Captain Engel
APPENDIX 3. ORDER TO THE ARMED FORCES of December 31, 1940
In the war year 1940, the National Socialist Armed Forces of Greater Germany achieved glorious victories of historical significance. With unprecedented courage they defeated the enemy on land, on water and in the sky.
All the tasks that I had to set for you were completed by you, thanks to your heroism and your fighting qualities. You have defeated the enemy by force of arms and captured territories that had already been won morally through your spirit and exemplary discipline. Thanks to your comradeship, the futile and heroic efforts of the German Armed Forces during the World War were transformed into a success that, after a few months of heroic struggle, wrote your names into history and washed away the shame of the Forest of Compiegne.
As Supreme Commander, I thank you, soldiers of the Army, Navy and Air Force, for your unparalleled achievements.
We remember our comrades who gave their lives in the fight for the future of our people. We also remember the brave soldiers of our ally, fascist Italy.
According to the wishes of the warmongers - the Democrats, and their Jewish allies, this war must continue. Representatives of a collapsing world hope that in 1941 they will be able to achieve what they did not achieve in the past. We are ready. We enter 1941 armed as never before. God, great and all-powerful, will not turn away from a man who is threatened by a hostile world, from a man who is destined to fight with steadfastness and courage.
Soldiers of the National Socialist Armed Forces of Greater Germany! The year 1941 will bring us the final, greatest victory in our history on the Western Front!
APPENDIX 4. DIRECTIVE No. 41 OF APRIL 5, 1942
The winter battle in Russia is nearing its end. Thanks to the outstanding courage and selfless actions of the soldiers of the Eastern Front, the tremendous defensive success of German weapons was achieved.
The enemy suffered heavy losses in men and equipment. In an effort to exploit the supposed initial successes, this winter he also largely used up the bulk of his reserves intended for further operations.
As soon as weather and terrain conditions are favorable, the German command and troops must again seize the initiative and impose their will on the enemy.
The goal is to completely destroy the manpower still remaining with the Soviets, to deprive the Russians of as many of the most important military-economic centers as possible.
All troops at the disposal of the German and Allied armed forces will be used for this purpose. At the same time, it is necessary under all conditions to ensure the retention of occupied territories in the west and north of Europe, especially the coasts.
I. General plan.
Adhering to the initial principles of the Eastern Campaign, it is necessary, without taking active actions on the central sector of the front, to achieve the fall of Leningrad in the north and establish contact with the Finns by land, and on the southern wing to make a breakthrough into the Caucasus region.
Considering the situation that had developed by the time the winter battle ended, given the available forces and means, as well as existing transport conditions, this goal can only be achieved in stages.
Initially, it is necessary to concentrate all available forces to carry out the main operation on the southern sector of the front with the goal of destroying the enemy west of the Don River and subsequently capturing the oil regions of the Caucasus and the passes through the Caucasus ridge.
The final blockade of Leningrad and the capture of the Neva River area will be carried out as soon as the situation in the encirclement area or the release of other sufficient forces allows.
II. Carrying out operations.
a) The primary task of the ground forces and aviation after the end of the muddy road is to create preconditions for the implementation of the main operation.
This requires streamlining and strengthening the situation on the entire Eastern Front and in the operational rear in order to attract as many forces as possible for the main operation, while at the same time maintaining on the remaining sectors of the front the ability to repel any enemy offensive with minimal forces. However, where this requires, according to my instructions, offensive operations with a limited purpose, it is necessary to ensure the superiority of ground forces and aviation in order to achieve quick and decisive successes by introducing their offensive weapons into battle. Only in this way, and above all before the start of major spring operations, will our troops again have unconditional faith in victory, and the enemy, as a result of our attacks, will be forced to realize that they are hopelessly inferior to us in strength.
b) The next tasks within this framework are: clearing the Kerch Peninsula in Crimea from enemy troops and capturing Sevastopol. Aviation, as well as the navy, in preparation for these operations, will decisively paralyze enemy communications in the Black Sea and the Kerch Strait.
On the southern sector of the front, cut off and destroy the enemy in the area of the Donets River, wedged on both sides of the Izyum River. What exact measures to adjust the front line will still be required in the central and northern sectors of the Eastern Front can be finally established and decided only after the end of the current hostilities and the period of muddy roads
However, the forces necessary for this - as soon as the situation allows - must be obtained by reducing the front line.
c) The main operation on the Eastern Front. Its goal, as has already been emphasized, is to deliver a decisive blow to the Russian forces located in the area south of Voronezh, west and also north of the Don River, and destroy them in order to reach the Caucasus. For reasons related to the transfer of troops intended for it, this operation can only be carried out through a series of successive, but interconnected and complementary offensives. Therefore, their implementation should be coordinated in time from north to south in such a way that, in addition, in each individual offensive, maximum concentration in decisive sectors of both ground forces and especially aviation is ensured.
Considering the Russians' well-proven insensitivity to operational encirclements, decisive importance (as in the battle in the area of Bryansk and Vyazma for the purpose of encirclement) is given to the implementation of individual breakthroughs in the form of dense double envelopments.
It must be avoided that, as a result of too late a turn of the troops carrying out the encirclement, the enemy is left with the opportunity to escape destruction.
Do not allow that, due to the too fast and long-range throw of tank and motorized formations, their communication with the infantry following them is disrupted, or that these formations themselves lose the opportunity, through their direct actions in the rear of the encircled Russian armies, to come to the aid of the infantry troops advancing with heavy battles from front.
Thus, in addition to the main operational goal, in each individual case it is necessary under any conditions to ensure the destruction of the attacked enemy by the very nature of the formulation of the combat mission and the methods of commanding one’s own troops.
Begin the general operation with an enveloping offensive, respectively a breakthrough from the area south of Orel in the direction of Voronezh. Of both tank and motorized formations intended to carry out the encirclement, the one operating from the north should be stronger than the one operating from the south. The goal of this breakthrough was to capture Voronezh itself. While part of the infantry divisions must immediately create a strong defensive front at the line from the starting point of the offensive from the Orel region in the direction of Voronezh, tank and motorized formations have the task of continuing the offensive from Voronezh to the south with their left flank, adjacent to the Don River. support for the second breakthrough, carried out approximately from the Kharkov area to the east. The main goal here is not to push back the Russian front line as such, but in cooperation with the motorized formations making their way downstream of the Don River, to destroy Russian forces.
The third offensive within the framework of these operations should be conducted in such a way that the troops moving down the Don River join in the Stalingrad area with those forces that are making their way east from the Taganrog - Artemovsk region through the Donets River between the lower Don River and Voroshilovgrad . At the end of the operation, they must come into contact with the tank army advancing on Stalingrad.
If during these operations, especially as a result of the capture of intact bridges, the prospect of creating bridgeheads to the east or south of the Don River arises, such opportunities must be taken advantage of. In any case, we should try to reach Stalingrad itself, or at least expose it to our weapons to such an extent that it ceases to serve as a military-industrial and transport center.
It would be especially desirable if it were possible to either capture intact bridges, for example in Rostov itself, or reliably capture any bridgeheads south of the Don River in order to continue operations planned for a later date.
In order to prevent a significant part of the Russian forces located north of the Don River from crossing it and going south, it is important that the right wing of the battle group moving from the direction of Taganrog to the east is reinforced with tanks and motorized troops, which, if necessary, should also be created and in the form of improvised connections.
As we advance in the course of these offensives, we should not only pay attention to strong support for the northeastern flank of the offensive operation, but also immediately begin equipping positions adjacent to the Don River. At the same time, it is important to attach decisive importance to the creation of the most powerful anti-tank defense. The location of positions should be determined in advance based on their possible use in winter, and also equipped in every possible way for this purpose.
To occupy the front line along the Don River, which is increasingly lengthening during these operations, first of all, attract allied formations, on the condition that German troops will be used as a powerful barrier between Orel and the Don River, as well as along the coastal strip of Stalingrad; otherwise, individual German divisions will be behind the line along the Don River as a mobile reserve.
Allied troops should be used in the areas they occupy as far as possible in such a way that the Hungarians are located to the north, then the Italians and then the Romanians to the southeast.
d) Rapid continuation of movement across the Don River to the south to achieve the objectives of the operation must be ensured taking into account the conditions of the time of year.
Literature:
Galkin A.A. German fascism.
M., 1967
History of fascism in Western Europe. M.: Nauka, 1978
Bracher K.D., Funke M., Jacobsen H.A. (Hrsg.) Deutschland 1933–1945. Neue Studien zur nationalsozialistischen Herrschaft. Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, 1992
Fest I.K. Hitler. Biography,
vol. 1–3. Perm, 1993
Totalitarianism in Europe of the twentieth century. From the history of ideologies, movements, regimes and their overcoming.
M.: Monuments of historical thought, 1996
“The Myth of the Twentieth Century by Alfred Rosenberg, considered the main book of the National Socialist worldview, bears such undoubted features of the Protestant-liberal origin of its author.”
definition
racial morality
The racial nature of National Socialist ideology gives rise to a complex of corresponding secular virtues and sins.
The “myth of the 20th century” does not promise its adherents salvation in the Christian sense, but only grants equality to oneself, allowing the Aryan to become who he is.
Rosenberg dreams of a German Nordic revival:
“I hope that the discussion of the emerging new world with the old forces will expand, penetrate into all areas of life, and the fertilized thought will constantly give birth to something new, close in blood, proud, until the day when we stand on the threshold of the fulfillment of our dream of German life, until the hour when all the emerging sources will merge into one great stream of the German Nordic revival. This is a dream worth exploring and living. And this test, and this life is already a reflection of the anticipated eternity, the mysterious mission in this world, destined for us, so that we become what we are”: 15. “Germanic Germanness is a metaphysical form of character generated by the Nordic racial essence, which manifests itself in creative power based on the heroism of the individual, while the individual is the embodiment of the folk organic essence in the individual. Such a person transcends the order of existence determined by space-time and cause-and-effect relationships, but still remains within this order in order to achieve an endless, eternal and free life as a perfect organic unity of the national concept of its essence and the form that the people's reality takes within the Reich. .
Fuhrer
The furerprinzip of National Socialism is associated both with the myth of the new man and with the mysticism of the collective. Both the Gnostic collective itself and the Fuhrer are objects of faith in Gnosticism, where faith in oneself turns into faith in the Fuhrer and vice versa.
The Führer is specifically and personally Adolf Hitler, and at the same time it is a myth about Hitler, to whom strictly Nordic racial characteristics are therefore attributed: “Hitler is blond with blue eyes and therefore a pure example of an Aryan-German” (Richter, Unsere Fuhrer im Lichte der Rassenfrage und Charakterologie)".
mysticism of time
Third Reich
Gregor Strasser states in June: “Consciously opposing itself to the French Revolution, being its antipode and overcoming, National Socialism rejects the idle talk of individualism, which distorted the internal German idea of freedom with the concept of internal economic chaos; he rejects rationalism, the doctrine of reason, which is ready to recognize only the mind and intellect as the rulers of the destinies of the people and the state, and not the full-blooded will and soul of man”: 342.
mysticism of space
The myth of living space (Lebensraum).
Blood and soil
scientism
The regime of National Socialism as a whole should be characterized as positivist. It is based on such a fundamental teaching for mass science as the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel. Here science influences ideology, and ideology influences science. Thus, according to Hitler, the ideology of National Socialism was built on a “scientific” basis, in particular on Darwinism, raceology, etc. . For Alfred Rosenberg, on the contrary, ideology guides scientific understanding, which also occurs, in particular, in the field of religious studies and the study of myths.
This did not prevent the flourishing in National Socialist Germany not only of mass science, but also of pseudoscience.
features of propaganda
For Hitler, “it’s all about political faith, “around which the whole world revolves in circles,” the program can be “thoroughly idiotic, but the source of faith in it is the firmness with which it is defended.” Just a few weeks later he will create and use the opportunity to declare the old party program, despite all its pronounced weaknesses, “not subject to change.” It is her outdated, old-fashioned features that turn her from a subject of discussion into an object of veneration - after all, she was not supposed to answer questions, but give energy; clarification, Hitler believed, would only mean fragmentation. And the fact that he insisted with unwavering consistency on the identity of the Fuhrer and the idea corresponded, among other things, to the principle of the infallible Fuhrer, the principle of an unchangeable program. “Blind faith moves mountains,” said Hitler, and one of his confidants briefly formulated it this way: “Our program in a nutshell: Adolf Hitler”:66.
For Hitler, “what makes a thought convincing is not its clarity, but its intelligibility, not its truth, but its ability to strike: “Any idea, including the best one,” he will declare with that vagueness of formulation that does not tolerate objections, which was so characteristic of him, – becomes dangerous if it convinces itself that it is an end in itself, although in reality it represents only a means to such an end”: 205.
Hence the theatricality of the regime in the spirit of a synthesis of all arts, which was supposed to symbolize the unity and completeness of people's life. In popular culture, this was corresponded to such experiences of total art as the Thingspiel and opera (Wagner).
Alfred Rosenberg:
“I express in relation to all German art the postulate of a religious starting point and religious background, that I, with the help of Wagner, explain that a work of art is a living embodiment of religion”: 6.
The highest achievement of National Socialist propaganda is the film “Triumph of the Will”.
Among the propaganda themes: the figure of Horst Wessel, who became the archetypal hero of National Socialism, “The Unknown Stormtrooper” (Der Unbekannte S.A.-Mann), “rebirth and return”, etc. All of them were, in one way or another, initiated by Goebbels’ newspaper “Der Angriff”.
secular cult
An extensive ritual was built around this event, at the center of which was Hitler himself, alone meditating over the coffins of the Nazis.
tingspiel
sacred objects
Banner of Blood (Blutfahne).
pathological speech
In the chapter of Mein Kampf entitled “On the Art of Reading,” Hitler states that he understands “reading” as something completely different from that of the majority of our so-called “intelligentsia”:
After all, reading is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end. Reading has the goal of helping a person gain knowledge in the direction determined by his abilities and his sense of purpose. Reading gives a person the tools he needs for his profession, whether it is a simple struggle for existence or the satisfaction of a higher purpose. But on the other hand, reading should help a person form a general worldview. In all cases, it is equally necessary that the content of what is read is not stored in the brain in the order of the table of contents of the book. The goal is not to burden your memory with a certain number of books. We must ensure that, within the framework of the general worldview, the mosaic of books finds an appropriate place in a person’s mental baggage and helps him strengthen and expand his worldview.
stable forms
stampsIn the field of religion, National Socialism supports positive Christianity instead of Christianity. In their program, the National Socialists stated: “We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the state, if they do not threaten its integrity or offend the moral feelings and morals of the German race. The Party, as such, represents the point of view of positive Christianity without committing itself to a particular denomination."
According to Rosenberg, “the negative and positive forms of Christianity have long been at war and are fighting even more bitterly in our day. The negative one relies on its Syrian-Etruscan traditions, abstract dogmas and ancient sacred customs, the positive one again awakens the forces of the Nordic blood, consciously, just as the first Germans once invaded Italy and gave the decaying country a new life”: 61.
A characteristic figure is the Catholic modernist Karl Adam, whose revision of the teachings of the Church was combined with public support for Hitler's rise to power. In 1939, Karl Adam called for a closer fusion of Catholicism with National Socialism, and after the war he became one of the most influential ecumenists.
collaborationism
The National Socialists were supported by Dmitry Merezhkovsky and Zinaida Gippius, and by Archbishop. John (Shakhovskoy), who, in the article “The Hour is Near” in the Parisian newspaper “Novoye Slovo” dated June 29, welcomed Hitler’s invasion of the USSR. To the circle of acquaintances about. Alexander Schmemann and other post-war modernists also belonged to the famous collaborationist Boris Filippov (real name: Boris Andreevich Filistinsky).
Vladimir Ilyin collaborated in the Russian collaborationist press, and
Social nationalism as an ideology
The newest ideologists of social-nationalism (A. Beletsky, O. Odnorozhenko) define it as an ideology based on maximalism, national-racial egoism, love for one’s own and intolerance for what belongs to others. The basic principles of social nationalism are:
1. Sociality (“We do not reject the existence of the rich, but we reject the possibility of the existence of the poor”).
2. Raciality (“People are born by nature with different abilities and capabilities, and therefore a person’s happiness is when he finds his place in the national hierarchy and conscientiously fulfills his life task”).
3. Great power (“This question, oddly enough, is not so much political as biological. Any living organism in nature strives to expand, reproduce and increase in number. This law is universal for the ciliate slipper, and for humans, and for the nation - race").
Social nationalism, also by the definition of its ideologists (A. Beletsky, O. Odnorozhenko), is anti-systemic (anti-democratic and anti-capitalist), self-sufficient, militant and uncompromising.
Social nationalism as a political doctrine
The goal of social-nationalism in the sphere of state creation is proclaimed to be the construction of a new social system, where the principles of social and national justice will be embodied.
Social nationalism is aimed at establishing the state-political regime of nationalocracy. According to some supporters, the form of state proposed by social nationalism is original and does not fit into the doctrine of fascism or national socialism. Currently, the ideology of Social Nationalism is professed by the All-Ukrainian Association “Svoboda”, the VGO “Patriot of Ukraine” and the Social-Nationalist Assembly, as well as some individual right-wing political groups.
Notes
Literature
- Oleg Odnorozhenko “The Social-Nationalist Movement and its Main Objectives” (“Ukrainian Social Nationalism” - Kharkov: “Patriot of Ukraine”, 2007 .- pp. 46-54)
Links
Authors
- Yuriy Mikhalchyshyn: "Landmarks of cultural struggle against social-nationalism" (Ukrainian)
Criticism
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
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In the United States, there is a two-party political system, in which the two main political parties have predominant importance in the political life of the country, and it is extremely difficult for other parties and independent candidates to win seats in Congress.... ... Wikipedia
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- Color and Blood: French Theories of Racism, Pierre-André Taguieff, In his book, Pierre-André Taguieff, a famous contemporary French philosopher, political scientist and historian, critically analyzes and debunks the purported scientific concepts of racist... Category: World History Publisher: Ladomir,
- Color and blood. French theories of racism, Pierre-André Tagieff, In his book, Pierre-André Tagieff, a famous modern French philosopher, political scientist and historian, critically analyzes and debunks the concepts of racist... Category:
Having consequently declared almost all the basic values of modern “decadent” European civilization to be the creation of world Jewry, National Socialism made this the main argument for their denial and eradication. Thus, the liquidation of all democratic institutions in Germany by National Socialism was justified by the Jewish spirit that thoroughly imbued them (Nazi propaganda called the Weimar Republic “Judenrepublik,” that is, “Jewish Republic”), and all ideological and political opponents of National Socialism, including liberals, Social Democrats and others were counted among the willing or unwilling accomplices of the Jews. A multi-party system, free trade unions, an independent press, individual freedoms and individual rights were recognized as the product of organic Jewish individualism and egoism, and the total dissolution of the individual in the state was declared a truly German ideal, in which, according to Goebbels, freedom of thought no longer exists, but simply exists thoughts that are right, thoughts that are wrong, and thoughts that need to be eradicated. In this regard, National Socialism, immediately after coming to power, proclaimed and then consistently implemented a policy of exterminating Jews and Jewish influence. The first and immediate step was the expulsion of Jews from the political life of Germany and from all spheres of life in the country. In the “Aryanization” of the economy, accompanied by anti-capitalist demagoguery, the same motive was dominant: it was the Jews who imposed on the German people the alien “loan slavery”, the rule of plutocracy and greedy banking capital, and thereby deliberately caused depression, unemployment, poverty and even the growth of prostitution among the German people, which were beneficial for their machinations. German
National Socialism declared an open rejection of universal morality, the ideals of which were declared an insidious invention of the Jews (Hitler: “... conscience is a Jewish invention intended for the enslavement of other races”); they were contrasted with “truly German” moral norms, designed to serve the dominance of the superior race in the world: “righteous fanaticism”, violence, cruelty and ruthlessness, as well as military discipline and intra-German solidarity, which were introduced by the entire system of education and upbringing in the Third Reich (from preschool to university) and pervasive mass propaganda.
This also resulted in a negative assessment of Christianity. Although National Socialism recognized in its party program (“25 points”, 1920) the traditional Lutheran and Catholic churches in Germany and concluded a concordat with the Vatican (July 1933), the activities of all church organizations in the Third Reich were placed under strict control and strongly limited, priests were often subjected to repression. National Socialism openly (at least until the outbreak of the Second World War) called Christianity a racially alien religion, which, with its purely Jewish idea of forgiveness, weakens the Aryan's will to power and disarms him in the face of the Jewish threat (Hitler: “... antiquity is better than modernity, so how she did not know Christianity and syphilis"). The so-called “positive” (or “Germanic”) Christianity created by the official philosopher of National Socialism A. Rosenberg became completely liberated from Jewish roots and the Jewish spirit: the entire Old Testament (see Bible) and most of the New Testament were rejected as inappropriate “ new Germany"; Jesus is declared not to be a Jew, but a Nordic martyr who saved the world from Jewish influence by his death; Hitler (whose cult constituted the most important point of the entire doctrine of National Socialism) was proclaimed as the new messiah (see Messiah), who had come to finally free humanity from the Jews.
The radical “cleansing of Jews” from all spheres of spiritual life in Germany was not limited to their expulsion from science, literature, theater, cinema, music, etc. Under the pretext of eradicating the Jewish spirit and influence, the greatest achievements of human thought and creativity were defamed and discredited. The entire rationalist tradition of European culture turned out to be “racially alien”, accused of sterile intellectualism generated by the Jewish-Talmudic (see Talmud) spirit, the embodiment of which was declared not only Marxism, but even Kantian apriorism. A racial criterion for evaluating scientific theories was introduced. “Aryan” science, in particular physics, based on “factuality” and observation, was opposed to Jewish science - with its abstract and speculative constructions, divorced from living reality. Nazi physicist F. Lenard, Nobel Prize laureate, called A. Einstein's theory of relativity a mixture of mathematical chatter, arbitrary additions and commercial combinations, and another Nobel laureate, G. Stark, called the leading German physicists M. Planck, W. "white Jews". Heisenberg and M. Laue, who disagree with this assessment. The degradation of the spiritual and intellectual life of Germany was also reflected in art, in which primitive “realism” and pompous-monumental classicism were canonized, indulging traditional German sentimentality and at the same time intensively cultivating cruelty and ruthlessness towards the racial enemy. All new movements in art - expressionism, dadaism, surrealism, etc. - that did not correspond to this canon were exposed as degenerate art that was purely Jewish in origin and spirit (or simply “meshugaism”, from the Hebrew meshuggah, in Yiddish meshugener- `crazy`), whose sole purpose is to corrupt the healthy artistic taste of the superior race. J. Goebbels called the burning of many thousands of books on the square in front of the University of Berlin on June 10, 1933, the authors of which - Jews and non-Jews - constitute the pride of world culture, as “the uprooting of Jewish roots and traces from German culture.” The anti-Jewish actions of the Nazi regime were actively, and often enthusiastically (especially during periods of economic and military successes of National Socialism), supported by the broad masses of all layers of the German people, including academic circles, and sometimes even major cultural figures, for example, the composer R. Strauss, who headed the music department in the Third Reich.
National Socialism moved towards the “final solution” of the Jewish question in stages, gradually accustoming the German people and world public opinion to the idea of it, and taking each subsequent step only after making sure of its impunity (about the indifference of Western democratic countries to the fate of European Jewry, see, for example , Bermuda Conference; Israel - a people in the diaspora. Modern times. Destruction of European Jewry during the Second World War; League of Nations; Evian Conference). Beginning with the instigation of anti-Jewish excesses and the economic boycott of 1933 (see Anti-Jewish Boycott), the Nazi regime increasingly legalized its intentions through comprehensive anti-Jewish legislation (see Nuremberg Laws), which soon after the expulsion of Jews from all spheres of professional and public activity led to the deprivation their civil and then human rights, confiscation of Jewish property, and starting from 1938 (see Kristallnacht) - to open pogroms with numerous casualties (see Israel - a people in the diaspora. Modern times. Nazi regime in Germany). The logical result of racial anti-Semitism and the rejection of the basic values of humanistic culture was the carefully prepared and meticulously carried out, organizationally and technically ensured physical destruction of European Jewry (see Wannsee Conference; Holocaust; Germany. A. Hitler, A. Eichmann; Ghetto; Concentration camps; Judenrhein ; Einsatzgruppen ; Yad Vashem ; War criminal trials). In addition to the six million Jews killed in gas chambers, gas chambers and other methods, the victims of National Socialism were also millions of non-Jews (including Gypsies, chronically ill people, as well as persons declared enemies of the Third Reich, including Germans).
The ideologists and organizers of the “final solution” of the Jewish question and all other atrocities of National Socialism were, along with A. Hitler, all the leaders of the Third Reich. G. Goering, who came from a family of Prussian officials and officers, was formally considered the second person in the Nazi hierarchy of power and held a number of senior positions: as Minister-President and Minister of the Interior of Prussia, he was responsible for the creation of the Gestapo (1933); as responsible for the militarization of German industry (the so-called four-year economic plan, 1936) - for the total confiscation of Jewish property in Germany, and later in the occupied countries; as Hitler's deputy in the government - for the decision to exterminate European Jewry; he signed a letter to R. Heydrich (July 31, 1941; the author of which many researchers consider Hitler), in which detailed proposals were developed regarding the preparation of organizational, material and other measures for the practical implementation of this decision. Sentenced to death by the Nuremberg Tribunal (see War Crimes Trials), Goering committed suicide. G. Himmler, the son of zealous Catholics, an agronomist by training, head of the political police, and then Minister of the Interior, created and headed the entire mechanism of destruction: a network of concentration and death camps, a personnel training system for them, special SS and SD units involved in deportation to Jewish camps, etc.; captured by British troops while trying to escape, he also committed suicide. R. Heydrich, Himmler's deputy and de facto head of the Gestapo, a former naval officer, organized the burning of synagogues on Kristallnacht and the subsequent sending of more than 30 thousand wealthy Jews to concentration camps; supervised the deportation of about 15 thousand Jews - Polish citizens - in Germany to the borders of Poland (October 1938), and after its occupation - the deportation of Polish Jews from villages and towns to the ghettos of large cities. With the help of A. Eichmann, Heydrich organized the mass deportation of Jews from the annexed parts of Poland, as well as from Germany and Austria to the territory of the so-called “General Government” (see Poland); Heydrich was responsible for the mass murder of Jews in the summer and fall of 1941 in the occupied areas of the Soviet Union (see Einsatzgruppen). In May 1942, Heydrich was assassinated by Czech anti-fascists. Doctor of Philosophy J. Goebbels, Minister of Public Education and Propaganda, played a decisive role in promoting the “final solution to the Jewish question”: heading the entire system of education, culture, as well as the media, he directed them to cultivate unbridled anti-Semitism, for which he first introduced propaganda use of almost undisguised shameless lies, falsification and insinuations; in May 1945 he and his wife committed suicide, having first poisoned their six children. A. Rosenberg, the main ideologist and philosopher of National Socialism, a native of Estonia, an architect by training, laid the foundations of the racial anti-Semitic doctrine in his book “The Jewish Trace in World History,” permeated with hatred of Jews and proving their fatal, corrupting influence on all aspects of life peoples; appointed in 1923 by Hitler as the editor-in-chief of the official national socialism newspaper “Völkischer Beobachter”, he then published “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in it and turned it into a tribune of rabid anti-Semitism; how the Minister of the Occupied Eastern Territories during World War II shared responsibility for the extermination of their Jewish population; in 1946 he was hanged by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal. The same was the fate of G. Frank, lawyer, Hitler's personal charge d'affaires, Minister of Justice of the Third Reich; also heading the Academy of German Law, he took a decisive part in the preparation and adoption of the entire system of anti-Jewish legislation, including the Nuremberg laws; as the governor-general of occupied Poland, he earned Hitler's praise for the exemplary operations of forcibly confiscating all Jewish property in favor of the Third Reich, and then sending Jews from the ghettos of Warsaw, Lublin and other Polish cities to extermination camps.
A special place in the preparation and implementation of the genocide of the Jewish people was occupied by J. Streicher, edited (hanged in 1946 by the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal) and published in Nuremberg in 1923–45. the weekly Stürmer, whose circulation increased from 25 thousand in 1933 to 500 thousand on the eve of World War II. The most unbridled anti-Jewish publication in the Third Reich, Stürmer was filled almost exclusively with slander against Jews, frightening tales about Jews - traders in German women and children, sadists, murderers, etc., as well as pogrom materials and disgusting caricatures of Jews. By exhibiting in specially installed display cases throughout Germany every issue of Stürmer and, as an appendix to it, low-grade anti-Semitic literature (including for blind children), National Socialism taught us to see the Jew as a “subhuman”, against whom any atrocity and violence not only permissible, but also beneficial. Almost all state, political, economic, social and other institutions of the Third Reich participated directly or indirectly in the “final solution” of the Jewish question: the Wehrmacht (armed forces), which often assisted the SS and SD in their anti-Jewish actions; large industrialists who willingly used the hard labor of many thousands of Jews until their extermination; a judicial system that unconditionally sanctioned the practice of genocide; scientific and engineering services that developed the most effective means and methods for killing millions of people and subsequent disposal of their remains, etc.
Carrying out the “final solution” of the Jewish question in the occupied countries, as well as pushing the dependent countries to this, National Socialism often found in them related ideology and organizations or found like-minded people who became its active accomplices. There was massive support for National Socialism in Austria, significant in Romania, Hungary, Slovakia (see Czechoslovakia), Ukraine, the Baltic countries (see Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), partial support in France, Croatia (see Yugoslavia) ), insignificant - in Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. Only in Denmark was resistance to genocide against Jews nationwide.
In the 1920s–30s. in the Russian emigration there were fascist groups and parties that shared the ideology and used the symbols of German National Socialism (for example, the fascist party in Connecticut, USA, leader A. Vosnyatsky, and the Russian fascist party in Manchuria, China, since 1932 leader K. Radzaevsky).
Due to the complete political and moral discredit of National Socialism and the exposure of its unprecedented atrocities, neo-Nazi parties and organizations that emerged in the post-war years in a number of countries directed their main efforts towards at least partial rehabilitation of Nazi Germany and its leaders (this goal was proclaimed by the European Social Movement, or the so-called Malmo International, created in May 1951 at a conference of representatives of neo-Nazi and neo-fascist groups from France, England, West Germany, Austria and other countries in the city of Malmo, Sweden). Already at the end of the 1940s. The first publications appeared (P. Rassinier and M. Bardeche in France, R. Howard in England, M. Raeder in West Germany and others) questioning or directly denying the Nazi extermination of European Jewry. Distribution in many countries of publications of the Institute for the Revision of History (Torrance, California) and other similar centers, translation into a number of languages of the book by the American professor of electronics A. Buts “The Hoax of the 20th Century” (claiming, in particular, that the Catastrophe of European Jewry is a Jewish invention with the purpose of extorting money from Germany /see German reparations /), as well as sharply increasing since the late 1950s. Publications of this kind in many European countries, the USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc., caused a stir in the 1960s. a stream of letters to universities, scientific institutions and newspapers with inquiries regarding the authenticity of the fact that the Nazis exterminated six million Jews. For decades, the Soviet Union suppressed or denied that the main victims of the Nazi death camps were Jews. Persistent attempts are also being made to challenge the validity of the Nuremberg trials and their verdicts and to find a “healthy moral charge” in National Socialism. (M. Bardesh “Nuremberg and the Promised Land”, 1948, “What is fascism?”, 1961). Since the late 1960s. openly anti-Semitic, neo-Nazi parties and movements became more active (National Socialist Party of the USA, National Front in England, to a certain extent National Front of J. M. le Pen in France, related organizations in Austria, Spain, Italy, several Scandinavian, Latin American and other countries). Taking advantage of financial and other support from Arab countries, these neo-Nazi organizations again launched widespread propaganda of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and other Judeophobic fakes under the banner of anti-Semitism and are increasingly moving to direct pogrom-terrorist acts (in France, Austria, Belgium, the USA and other countries) . Anti-Semitic propaganda of this kind had some success in some segments of the population, and sometimes in university circles (for example, in England) during the oil crisis after the Yom Kippur War: Nazi leaflets distributed in the United States called for burning Jews instead of oil.
In the Soviet Union, individual anti-Semitic speeches of a Nazi nature (use of swastikas, complaints about the incomplete success of Hitler’s “final solution” to the Jewish question, etc.) were noted back in the late 1950s - early 1960s, in particular in Leningrad (see . Saint Petersburg). In the 1970s–80s. such sentiments and views were almost deliberately provoked by numerous publications supposedly directed only against Zionism (authors V. Begun, L. Korneev, E. Evseev and others), in which racially anti-Semitic passages from Hitler's Mein Kampf, the Stürmer newspaper and other Nazi publications. Under the conditions of the Soviet leadership since the second half of the 1980s. Glasnost and democratization policies openly and almost unhinderedly advertise the commitment to the ideology and practice of National Socialism, inspired by traditional Russian Black Hundred anti-Semitism (symbols, demonstrations and manifestations on Hitler’s birthday, a number of anti-Jewish actions of a pogrom nature) of groups of youth in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities; the “Memory” society and similar associations (for example, “Fatherland” in Sverdlovsk) at mass rallies guarded by the police and in publications persistently instill in numerous listeners and readers the openly Nazi thesis about the Jewish-Masonic conspiracy as the main cause of economic, social, and environmental crises in the country, the destruction of monuments of Russian national history and culture. A number of publications in the magazines “Our Contemporary”, “Young Guard”, “Moscow” differed little from this in ideological orientation.
The political achievements of neo-Nazism were insignificant: after very modest successes in local elections in the 1960s and 70s. The National Democratic Party of Germany, the National Fronts in England and France and similar organizations in some other countries, most of them have almost disappeared from the political scene. However, neo-Nazi ideology (one-party system, authoritarian power, cult of a strong personality, the ideal of discipline and order, as well as chauvinism and, along with anti-Semitism, militant anti-communism) has quite deep socio-psychological roots in certain segments of the population of different countries, and in the conditions of new acute economic, social and other upheavals, neo-Nazism can become a real danger to humanity.
National Socialism is an ideological and political movement that arose in the early 20s of the last century in Germany as a reaction to the difficult economic situation of the country due to defeat in the First World War. Its founder, Adolf Hitler, appealed to the national pride of the Germans, humiliated by the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, blamed world Zionism and the German industrialists who had sold out to it for all the troubles, and dreamed of returning the golden age of Germany, which fell during the time of the Nibelungs - the royal dynasty that ruled one of the German principalities in the 12th century. century. Hitler, who was prone to mysticism, perceived the legends about the wealth and power of the Nibelungs as historical documents and a guide to action.
Hitler and his followers made Nazism, the idea of the superiority of the German nation over others, an instrument for the revival of the German nation. When the party, as a result of elections, took a majority of seats in the Reichstag (German parliament), the purity of German blood began to be protected by law. Marriages with Untermensch (representatives of lower races) were prohibited. Economic and political benefits were to be distributed only among the Germans; other peoples were obliged to work and die in the name of the superior race. The Jews, who became the first victims of the Nazis of the Third Reich, suffered especially.
Since in Germany itself there were not enough goods to return to the golden age, militarism became another component of National Socialism - a constant increase in military power and a willingness to resolve controversial issues from a position of strength. Every German had to become an excellent soldier, every woman had to be able to please a tired soldier.
In seeking power, Hitler promised a fair distribution of public goods among the Germans. Taking advantage of the popularity of social democratic and communist ideas in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, he introduced the word “socialism” into the name of his party. This did not mean the renunciation of private ownership of the means of production, the nationalization of large enterprises owned by German industrialists, etc.
NSDAP ideologist Joseph Goebbels said: “Socialism is the grain to lure the bird into a cage.”
What is fascism
Fascism is a political system that proclaims the absolute primacy of the state over the individual, the primacy of the ruling ideology, the prohibition of dissent and the denial of many basic human rights. In one form or another, fascist regimes existed and exist in many states: the regime of Mussolini in Italy, Rivera and Franco in Spain, Codreanu in Romania, Salazar in Portugal, Pinochet in Chile, etc. The term comes from the word “fascia” - bundle, ligament.
Similarities between National Socialism and Fascism
The common features of these systems are the ideas of complete state control over all aspects of the life of society and the individual (totalitarianism) and the subordination of the interests of the individual to the interests of the state, as well as authoritarianism - unconditional subordination to the head of state and the prohibition of criticism of his actions.
“One people, one state, one Fuhrer” - this is how the principle of authoritarianism was formulated in the Third Reich.
Difference between National Socialism and Fascism
Unlike National Socialism, Nazism is not a necessary component of fascism. For example, in fascist Italy, anti-Semitic laws were adopted only under pressure from Hitler and existed nominally. The regimes of Salazar, Franco, and Pinochet were not Nazi.
