ALL ABOUT NATIONALSOCIALISM
also called NAZISM, OR NAZIISM, German NATIONALSOZIALISMUS, OR NAZISMUS, totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as head of the Nazi Party in Germany. In its intense nationalism, mass appeal, and dictatorial rule, National Socialism shared many elements with Italian Fascism. Nazism, however, was far more extreme both in its ideas and in its practice. It was home-grown in Germany and shaped by the unique personality of Hitler. National Socialism had its peculiarly German roots. Some can be traced to the Prussian tradition as it developed under Frederick William I, Frederick the Great, and Otto von Bismarck. This tradition had always regarded the militant spirit and the discipline of the Prussian Army as the model for all individual and civic life. To it was added the tradition of political romanticism, with its sharp hostility to rationalism and to the principles underlying the French Revolution, with its emphasis on instinct and the past, and with its proclamation of the rights of the exceptional individual over all universal law and rules. These two traditions were later reinforced by the 19th-century adoration of science and of the laws of nature, which seemed to operate independently of all concepts of good and evil. Further reinforcements came from such 19th-century intellectual figures as the Comte de Gobineau, Richard Wagner, and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. These men greatly influenced early National Socialism with their claims of the racial and cultural superiority of the "Nordic" (Germanic) peoples over all other Europeans and all other races. In addition to these currents in the German tradition, it should be pointed out that the formation of Hitler's own intellectual viewpoint was influenced during his youth by specific Austrian movements that professed various political sentiments, notably those of pan-Germanic expansionism and anti-Semitism. Much in Hitler's nationalism, his contempt of the Slavs, and his hatred of the Jews can be explained by his bitter experiences living a threadbare existence on the streets of Vienna, the capital of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire. But this intellectual preparation would in no way have been sufficient for the growth of National Socialism in Germany if that nation's defeat in World War I, with its ensuing disillusionment, pauperization, and frustration, especially in the lower middle classes, had not paved the way for Hitler's propaganda. The Treaty of Versailles (1919), the formal settlement of World War I drafted without German participation, alienated many Germans by the harsh monetary and territorial reparations it imposed on their nation. Resentment of the peace treaty gave Hitler a starting point. Because Germany agreed to cease hostilities and did not unconditionally surrender in the Armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, there was a widespread feeling, particularly in military circles, that Germany's defeat had been engineered by diplomats at the Versailles meetings. From the beginning, Hitler's propaganda of revenge for this traitorous act and his call for rearmament appealed to the military circles, which regarded the peace only as a temporary setback in Germany's expansionist program. The ruinous inflation of the German currency in 1923 wiped out the savings of many middle-class households and led to further public alienation and dissatisfaction. Hitler added to pan-Germanic aspirations the almost mystical fanaticism of a faith in the mission of the German race and the fervour of a social revolutionary gospel. This gospel was most fully expressed in Hitler's personal testament Mein Kampf (1925-27), in which he outlined both his practical aims and his theories of race and propaganda. Hitler found a powerful ally in the widespread fear of Bolshevism (Communism), which he exploited, first in Germany and then on a worldwide scale, posing as the bulwark against Bolshevism. Thus, he secured the support of many conservative elements that approved the totalitarian character of his movement. Hitler's most important individual contribution to the theory and practice of National Socialism was his deep understanding of mass psychology and mass propaganda in the contemporary world. He stressed the fact that all propaganda must hold its intellectual level at the capacity of the least intelligent of those at whom it is directed, and that its content of truth does not count compared with the only valid criterion, that of success. According to Hitler: It is part of a great leader's genius to make even widely separated adversaries appear as if they belonged to but one category, because among weakly and undecided characters the recognition of various enemies all too easily marks the beginning of doubt of one's own rightness. Hitler found this common denominator in the Jews, whom he identified with both Bolshevism and manipulation. The Jews were to be discriminated against not according to their religion but according to their race. National Socialism declared the Jews, whatever their educational and social development, to be forever fundamentally different from and inimical to Germans. National Socialism attempted to reconcile conservative, nationalist ideology with socially radical doctrine. In so doing, it became a profoundly revolutionary movement. It rejected rationalism, liberalism and democracy, and all movements of international cooperation and peace. It stressed instead instinct, the subordination of the individual to the state, and the necessity of blind and unswerving obedience to leaders appointed from above. It also stressed the inequality of men and races and the right of the strong to rule the weak. It sought to purge or suppress competing political, religious, and social institutions and advanced an ethic of hardness and ferocity; it greatly destroyed class distinctions by drawing into the movement misfits and failures from all social classes.
Working from these principles, Adolf Hitler was able to carry his party from its small beginnings in a beer cellar in Munich to a dominant position in world politics 20 years later. The Nazi Party originated in 1919 and was led by Hitler from 1920 onward. The party came to power in Germany in 1933 and governed by totalitarian methods until 1945, when Germany was defeated and occupied by the Allies at the close of World War II. The history of National Socialism after 1934 can be divided into two parts of about equal length. The years between 1934 and 1939 were used to establish the full control of all phases of life in Germany by the party. During these years Hitler and his movement gained the support and even the enthusiasm of a majority of the German population. Many Germans had grown weary of the party conflicts, economic and political instability, and in general the disorderly freedom that characterized the last years of the Weimar Republic. They welcomed the strong, decisive, and effective government provided by the Nazis. After 1934 the endless ranks of Germany's unemployed rapidly dwindled as the jobless were put to work in extensive public-works projects and in rapidly multiplying armaments factories. Germans were swept up in this orderly, intensely purposeful mass movement bent on restoring their country to its dignity, pride, and grandeur and to first place on the European stage. Economic recovery from the effects of the Great Depression and the forceful assertion of German nationalism were thus the key factors in National Socialism's appeal to the German population. Finally, Hitler's continuous string of diplomatic successes and foreign conquests from 1934 through the early years of World War II secured the unqualified support of most Germans, including many who had previously been opposed to him. But National Socialism also maintained its power by mass propaganda. The Nazi regime kept up a perpetual outpouring of propaganda through all cultural and informational media. Its rallies, insignia, and ubiquitous uniformed cadres were intended to impart an aura of omnipotence. .
The years between 1938 and 1945 witnessed the attempt to expand and apply the Nazi system to territories outside the German Reich. This attempt was confined, in 1938, to lands inhabited by a German-speaking population. In 1939 began the control of non-German-speaking nationalities to the totalitarian Nazi police state. When Germany started World War II, it came as the logical outcome of Hitler's plans. Thus, Hitler's first years were spent in preparing the Germans for the approaching struggle for european control and in forging that instrument which would enable Germany to establish its military and industrial superiority and thereby fulfill its ambitions. With mounting diplomatic and military successes, the aims grew in quick progression. The first aim was to unite all people of German descent within their historic homeland on the basis of self-determination. The next step foresaw the creation of a Grosswirtschaftsraum ("large economic unified space") -the first step to European Economic Community- or a Lebensraum ("living space") through the military conquest of Poland and other Slavic nations to the east. Thereby the Germans would acquire sufficient soil to become economically self-sufficient and militarily impregnable. There, the German master race, or Herrenvolk, would rule over a hierarchy of subordinate peoples and organize and exploit them with efficiency. The initial success of that plan in the military campaigns of 1939-41 widened it into the vision of a hemispheric order that would embrace all of Europe, western Asia, and Africa and finally of an order that would establish worldwide domination of National Socialism.
To a certain extent World War II had repeated the pattern of World War I: great initial German military successes, the forging of a large-scale coalition against Germany as the result of German ambitions and behaviour, the loss of the war because of German overreaching and conduct. National Socialism as a mass movement effectively ended on April 30, 1945, when Adolf Hitler committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of Soviet troops completing the occupation of Berlin. Out of the ruins of National Socialist Germany there arose a divided and occupied Germany. Though a high number of Germans remained faithful to National Socialism even after Hitler's downfall, and though there were a few attempts made to reorganize National Socialist groups in West Germany, the political and mental climate there was not
