National Socialism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Socialism is a political term that is both vague and ambiguous. As the name suggests, features of nationalism and socialism are combined and interrelated to form an overall National Socialist ideology, although the combination process is neither obvious nor straightforward. The term most typically refers to Nazism, which was the ideology of the German Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party, or Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP)), which was led by Adolf Hitler.
As a generic concept, National Socialism opposes capitalism, communism, international socialism and liberalism.[1] It also opposes certain nations, ethnicities and other groups that are deemed to be enemies of the specific ethnicity to which it is applied. Several political parties other than the Nazis in Germany have used the name National Socialist Party or National Socialist Movement. Maurice Barrès was the first to coin the term "national socialism".[2]
The National Socialist Program as advanced by Hitler in 1920 set out 25 points that constituted the party's fundamentals. The points were prepared in a one-night meeting between Hitler and Anton Drexler, and were presented at a public meeting on 24 February 1920, where they were affirmed by the attendees. There were attempts to alter the program in the early 1920s, most notably by Gregor Strasser, but Hitler quashed such deviations at the 1926 Bamberg Conference, and the points were declared soon thereafter to be "immutable" at the party's 1926 General Meeting.[3][4]. The program advocated uniting the German people (through Pan-Germanism), implementing profit-sharing in industry, nationalizing trusts, providing an extensive welfare state, instituting government control of the media, and persecuting Jews, in part by canceling their German citizenship.[5] The Program stated that "Only those who are our fellow countrymen can become citizens. Only those who have German blood, regardless of creed, can be our countrymen. Hence no Jew can be a countryman.."
Hitler's National Socialism was founded on a Weltanschauung, or translated "World View", in which history was reducible to a racial struggle in the Social Darwinian sense. National Socialism was thus a Messianic movement, centered in the Fuhrerprincip and anchored in the thesis that only through racial purity could Germany find her salvation. The movement was based on anti-Semitism, anti-Marxism and hyper-nationalism, manifesting itself through Pan-Germanism and the quest for Lebensraum.[6]
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- Browder, George C. (2004). Foundations of the Nazi Police State: The Formation of Sipo and SD. University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0813191114 ("Browder").
- Bullock, Alan (1971). Hitler: A Study in Tyranny. New York: Harper & Row. ISBN 0060802162 ("Bullock").
- Carsten, F.L. (1982). The Rise of Fascism (2nd Edition). New York: University of California Press. ISBN 0520046439 ("Carsten").
- Collier, Martin (2000). Germany 1919-45. Heinemann. ISBN 0435327216 ("Collier").
- Fest, Joachim C. (2002). Hitler. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 0156027542 ("Fest").
- Fischer, Conan (2002). The Rise of the Nazis. Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719060672 ("Fischer").
- Grant, Thomas D. (2004). Stormtroopers and Crisis in the Nazi Movement: Activism, Ideology and Dissolution. Routledge. ISBN 0415196027 ("Grant").
- Hoffman, Peter (2000). Hitler's Personal Security: Protecting the Fuhrer, 1921-1945. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306809478 ("Hoffman").
- Kershaw, Ian (1999). Hitler 1889–1936: Hubris. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-04671-0 ("Kershaw").
- Lemmons, Russel (1994). Goebbels and Der Angriff. University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0813118484 ("Lemmons").
- Machtan, Lothar (2002). The Hidden Hitler. Basic Books. ISBN 0465043097 ("Machtan").
- Nyomarkay, Joseph. Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816658390 ("Nyomarkay").
- Payne, Stanley G. (1996). A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. Routledge. ISBN xxx ("Payne").
- Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393048004 ("Read").
- Sternhell, with Mario Sznajder and Maia Asheri, Princeton University Press, NJ, l994. pg 11
- Toland, John (1976). Adolf Hitler. New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN 0-385-03724-4 ("Toland").
- Zeev. The Birth of Fascist Ideology, From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution. ISBN yyy ("Zeev").
