In What Sense was National Socialism, nationalist and socialist?
... the belief in the superiority of the nation and race this results in war asserting their authority over other nations. In Germany this manifested itself in lebensraum and Hitler’s desire to create greater living space for his Aryan race and this resulted in Germany’s expansion into Eastern Europe, for example Poland. In addition, nations are not regarded as equal and interdependent entities, but natural rivals in a struggle for dominance thus resulting in the legitimisation of war, this goes strongly against socialism, which emphasise international cooperation. This meant the creation of an empire, the Reich to include all those members of the German Volk who lived beyond the frontiers of the Kaiser’s Germany. The Austrian Germans, the Sudeten Germans, the German communities along the Baltic coast, all were to be included within the borders of Germany. However Hitler’s nationalist aims did not end there. He dreamed of a Greater Germany, a superpower capable of competing with the British Empire and the United States. Such an objective could be achieved only by territorial expansion on a grand scale. As stated by Hitler in his ‘Mein Kampf’, ‘the German people must be assured the territorial area which is necessary for it to exist on earth…People of the same blood should be in the same Reich. The German people will have no right to engage in a colonial policy until they shall have brought all their children together in one state.’ National socialism can also be regarded as nationalist with regards to the management of the economy. Hitler wanted to achieve economic self-sufficiency as national self-determination required economic self-determination. This can be linked with his ‘war economy’ and the three-year plans he implemented to ensure that all goods Germany needed, could be produced in Germany itself or in the countries Germany had conquered. Therefore National Socialism can be regarded as highly nationalist, with it affecting both the foreign and domestic policies with regards to war and purifying the race and the economy, the type of national followed is essentially that of chauvinistic and expansionist but the emphasis on self determination for example of the economy can also be seen as a form of liberal nationalism. National Socialism can also be regarded as socialist. This can be mainly accredited to the fact that the majority of Nazi supporters are the lower middle classes who despise capitalism and the power of big businesses and financial institutions. This however, could be regarded as more of an anti ideology than a support of socialism. Nazism and capitalism are in effect ideologically incompatible as fascism places emphasis on the importance of the community as opposed to the individualistic nature of capitalism, which threaten to undermine the nation or race. Capitalism also goes against fascists’ belief that leadership should be based upon nobility, honour and a sense of duty instead of dominated by a desire to accumulate wealth and thus resulting in a meritocracy. Nazi socialism can thus be described as anti bourgeoisie and anti individualistic and Hitler followed policies for example nationalisation and state regulation of industries. However, this could mainly have been to benefit themselves as for example the ‘war economy’ of Nazi Germany was highly lucrative. In addition, Nazism was also highly anti communist, and its objective was to seduce people away from Marxism, which encourages internationalism, which goes against the strong expansionist nationalism element of Nazism. Communism also suggests that the bonds of social class are stronger than race, which fascists disagree with. Thus it can be argued that the only major aspect in which Nazism can be regarded as socialist is with regards to the managing of the economy, but in addition Hitler saw socialist measures designed to improve the lot of the working class in Germany compatible with Nazism as Nazism was based on a well established social and cultural foundation that socialism encouraged. In addition, in German thought, the idea that all national resources should be used for the national purpose was well established; Fichte for example had advocated the planned economy. In Mein Kampf Hitler purported to define the ‘socialist’ aspects of Nazism in quite vacuous terms such as ‘nationalising the masses’. According to Robert Cecil, in Hitler’s view the only acceptable form of socialism was that of the ‘front line’ which had developed in the trenches of World War One, which lead to the cohesion of the different social classes. Although Hitler’s early views held some socialist values, for example the Twenty Five Point programme of the Nationalist Socialist German Worker’s Party, as support for socialism among workers grew Hitler had to turn away from it portraying it a ‘Jewish Marxist conspiracy’. Nazism has also highlighted the importance of agriculture and traditional crafts as they claim that industrialisation and modern technology have corrupted society and have thus advocated the ‘peasant ideology’, but nevertheless, Germany did experience mass industrialisation in the build up to the Second World War. In addition, it has been argued that Germany followed a ‘third way’ economically known as corporatism. Although this is usually more commonly associated with fascist Italy, there is some evidence of it being followed in Germany as well. The theory is one neither of capitalism nor socialism and is instead based on the belief that major economic interests should be incorporated into the processes of government, this differs from communism which would argue for the abolition of the corporate outright. It can also be argued that what distinguishes Nazism from other types of fascism is its roots in the socialist theory of proletarian revolution. National Socialism does not believe in a social revolution with regards to economic life and the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, but it does however seek to bring about a revolution of the psyche, a ‘revolution of the spirit’ aimed at creating a new type of human being, the new fascism man who would be motivated by duty and honour and his willingness to die for the glory of the nation or race. Thus in a similar way to socialism fascists advocate the abolition of the individual and the dominance of the community in an extreme form of collectivism, or as the Nazi slogan stated, ‘strength through unity’. However, National Socialism was not merely nationalistic and socialist, it also comprises of other principles, albeit some anti ideologies as opposed...