The official title of the Nazi party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party) and the rhetoric of party members and even the early ’25 Point Programme’ drawn up by Hitler and Drexler, would suggest that Socialism was a major and definitive influence in the Nazi party. This was not the case. Although there were senior members of the Nazi party who strongly wanted Socialism (e.g. Strassers), once Hitler rose to become Fuhrer, he disregarded most of the Socialist policies he had promised to enforce during his election campaign, focusing more on extreme Nationalism. In fact, many of the Nazi Nationalist policies were in obvious contradiction of Socialism. The industrialists and financiers did not face any action and the working class did not benefit from new rights or equality. Many historians accept that the only reason Hitler supported Socialism being in the Nazi Party manifesto and propaganda, was that it would entice many different sections of society into voting for the party. [Got stuck here, couldn’t find/think of anything else to write about Socialism]
Nationalism, on the other hand, has always been proved and portrayed as a fundamental Nazi belief. The Nazi Party had many strong Nationalistic policies, including, Lebensraum and the nullification of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Some extreme Nationalist ideas are better classed as Fascist values.
A major influence for Nazi beliefs is Fascism. In particular, we know that Hitler looked upon Mussolini as a model of goodness and success. Hitler admired Mussolini’s strong leadership and leadership principle, which he, himself adopted when he rose to power. Nazis also vehemently believed in the supremacy of the state over the individual. Social Darwinism was also a core Nazi principle. They Nazi party were anti-democracy, anti-liberalism, anti-egalitarianism and intolerant to those who it wasn’t in favour of. War was seen as a symbol of glory and a perfectly natural way of removing the weak from the world, thus creating a better and stronger race, this relates back to social Darwinism. Being anti-intellectualism is, in a way, essential for Nazis because intellectualism uses rationalism and Nazis and their policies are anything but rational. [I’m finding it difficult to go into detail about each of these topics and it feels like this is just a list]
Hitler’s own personality and values had enormous effect on Nazi policy. The leadership cult that existed within the ranks of the Nazi Party created a common conception that the Fuhrer was almost a messianic figure, whose every word was to be obeyed and accepted as a righteous truth. Hitler was obsessed with race. According to Hitler, race is what separates the weak from the strong in this world and it is up to the strong race (the Aryans) to ensure that the weak are isolated so as to keep the bloodline of the strong pure. Policies like this were no more than Hitler’s own, unique ideology.
So, in conclusion, Nazism is a mix of not just Nationalism and Socialism. It is a combination of mainly Nationalism and Fascism that also includes Hitler’s own ideology and a limited amount of Socialism.
