Nazism: Encyclopedia II - Nazism - Nazi Theory

Nazism - Nazi Theory

Alfred Rosenberg's racial philosophy wholly embraced the Aryan Invasion Theory, which traced Aryan peoples in ancient Iran invading the Indus Valley Civilization of India, and carrying with them great knowledge and science that had been preserved from the antediluvian world. This "antediluvian world" referred to Thule, the speculative pre-Flood/Ice Age origin of the Aryan race, and is often tied to ideas of Atlantis. Most of the leadership and the founders of the Nazi Party were made up of members of the "Thule Gesellschaft" (the Thule Society), which romanticized the Aryan race through theology and ritual.

Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a race, and great nations (literally large nations) were the creation of homogenous populations of great races, working together. These nations developed cultures that naturally grew from races with "natural good health, and aggressive, intelligent, courageous traits". The weakest nations, Hitler said, were those of impure or mongrel races, because they had divided, quarrelling, and therefore weak cultures. Worst of all were seen to be the parasitic Untermensch (Subhumans), mainly Jews, but also Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled and so called anti-socials, all of whom were considered lebensunwertes Leben (Life-unworthy life) owing to their perceived deficiency and inferiority, as well as their wandering, nationless invasions ("the International Jew"). The persecution of homosexuals as part of the Holocaust has seen increasing scholarly attention since the 1990s.

According to Nazism, it is an obvious mistake to permit or encourage multilingualism and multiculturalism within a nation. Fundamental to the Nazi goal was the unification of all German-speaking peoples, "unjustly" divided into different Nation States. Hitler claimed that nations that could not defend their territory did not deserve it. Slave races he thought of as less worthy to exist than "master races". In particular, if a master race should require room to live (Lebensraum), he thought such a race should have the right to displace the inferior indigenous races. Hitler drew parallels between Lebensraum and the American ethnic cleansing and relocation policies towards the Native Americans, which he saw as key to the success of the US. Hitler had always admired the Americans for their treatment of the Indians, and considered America to be a shining example of what Germany's ambitions should be. Hitler often compared his Lebensraum policies to the Manifest Destiny policy of the United States, in which the ultimate destiny of the American people was to expand west and defeat the Indians.

"Races without homelands", Hitler proclaimed, were "parasitic races", and the richer the members of a "parasitic race" were, the more "virulent" the parasitism was thought to be. A "master race" could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating "parasitic races" from its homeland. This was the given rationalization for the Nazis' later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, the homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories in the Holocaust. Hitler and his living space doctrine found immense popularity among the German population. The Wehrmacht, Waffen-SS and other German soldiers as well as civilian paramilitary groups in occupied territories were responsible for the deaths of an estimated eleven million men, women, and children in concentration camps, prisoner-of-war camps, labor camps, and death camps such as Auschwitz and Treblinka.

Hitler extended his rationalizations into religious doctrine, claiming that those who agreed with and taught his "truths", were "true" or "master" religions, because they would "create mastery" by avoiding comforting lies. Those who preached love and tolerance, "in contravention to the facts", were said to be "slave" or "false" religions. The man who recognized these "truths", Hitler continued, was said to be a "natural leader", and those who denied it were said to be "natural slaves". "Slaves" – especially intelligent ones, he claimed – were always attempting to hinder their masters by promoting false religious and political doctrines.

The ideological roots which became German "National Socialism" were based on numerous sources in European history, drawing especially from Romantic 19th Century idealism, and from a biological reading of Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on "breeding upwards" toward the goal of an Übermensch (Superhuman). Hitler was an avid reader and received ideas that were later to influence Nazism from traceable publications, such as those of the Germanenorden (Germanic Order) or the Thule society. He also adopted many populist ideas such as limiting profits, abolishing rents and generously increasing social benefits - but only for Germans.

Hitler's theories were not only attractive to Germans: people in positions of wealth and power in other nations are said to have seen them as beneficial. Examples are Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and Eugene Schueller, founder of L'Oréal. Nevertheless, the support for these theories was highest among the general population of Germany.

It must be noted that Nazism, as a doctrine is far from being homogeneous and can indeed be divided into various sub-ideologies. During the 20s and 30s, there were two dominant NSDAP factions. There were the followers of Otto Strasser, the so called Strasserites and the followers of Adolf Hitler or what could be termed Hitlerites. There was something of an internal rivalry between these factions, which stemmed primarily from their respective economic outlooks. Strasserites wished to see the creation of a squarely Socialist economic system which would have called for a planned economy, the abolition of private property and the formation of strong links with the Soviet Union. Although anti-semitic in tone, Strasserism saw Jews as the 'enemy' in largely the same way that Karl Marx did, i.e. through their percieved affinity for Capitalism, and sought to extend the scope of a potential Class war to encompass a Race war as well. This would have been done by linking the Class interests of the impoverished non-jewish, German proletariat with anti-semitic sentiment. Strasserites within the early NADAP also tended to play down the signifigance of Aryanism, seeing it as too 'quasi religious' and 'mystical'. The Strasserite faction eventually fell foul of Hitler, when Otto Strasser was expelled from the party in 1930, and his attempt to create an oppositional 'left-block' in the form of the Black Front failed. The remainder of the faction, which was to be found mainly in the ranks of the SA was purged in the Night of the long knives, which also saw the murder of Gregor Strasser Otto's brother. After this point, the Hitlerite faction became dominant. In the post war era, Strasserism has enjoyed something of a revival with many neo-Nazi groups openly proclaiming themselves to be 'Strasserite'. Whether they genuinely eschrew Hitlerism in favour of Strasserism - seeing the brothers as a sort of National Socislist equivalent of Trotsky, or whether they simply think that by distancing National Socialism from Hitler they can somehow make the ideology more acceptable is a matter of intense debate however.

The role of homosexuals in the Nazi Party is considered anecdotal by most historians. Some tiny groups, like the International Committee for Holocaust Truth, and authors Scott Lively and Kevin E. Abrams in The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, (ISBN 0964760932), argue that many homosexuals were involved in the inner circle of the Nazi party: Ernst Röhm of the SA (whose execution was thinly rationalized as being based on his homosexuality), Horst Wessel, Max Bielas, and others. This perspective is denounced as hateful propaganda by most human rights associations and groups, stirring heated debates and accusations of censorship and "hate-speech" from both sides. Most historians and scholars of fascism do not take the work of Lively and Abrams seriously, and dismiss it as part of a Christian Right campaign against gay rights. Conversely, some Nazi supporters argue that such claims are simply more attempts to discredit Nazi ideology.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nazi Theory", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki