Nationalism has been a major driving force of most European historic events. In the 1800’s it helped to rearrange the map of Europe, with cultural groups under foreign rule revolting, for example: Greece under Ottoman Rule, and Belgium under the rule of the Netherlands. It also contributed to the westward expansion, and the founding of the United States. Nationalism was a major starting force of World War I, with the Austro – Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian Empires. The very idea of empires is nationalistic – a pride in your nation means you want to expand and expose others to your rule. And previously in Germany, nationalism had contributed to the unification of the German state.
Hitler took nationalism to a new level. By comparing the basic points of nationalism and Nazism, the connection between the two is clear, but the development of Nazism from nationalism is incomprehensible. Nationalism is being proud of your country. Nazism was a fantastical interpretation of this, and pride morphed into the thought of being superior. This superiority led to the belief in the Aryan race, “All the human culture, all the results of art, science and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan. This very fact admits of the not unfounded inference that he alone was the founder of all higher humanity. Therefore representing the prototype of all that we understand by the word ‘man’…If we were to divide mankind into three groups, the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture, only the Aryan could be considered as the representative of the first group. From him originates the foundations and walls of all human creations.” (p.290, Hitler, 1969/1939) as quoted by Hitler himself. It was a master race, and therefore entitled to exterminate its enemies, to expand as it saw fit, and to conquer the world as the superior race.
This pride in the nation theory led to the idea of “Social Darwinism”. This is a far-fetched interpretation of Darwin’s theory of evolution, which states humans are the most evolved creatures on earth. That was eagerly changed to suit Hitler’s purposes by the Nazis. “By suggesting that man had evolved from more primitive creatures, and that some races had evolved further than others, it provided racism with a scientific mask.” (, Yahya, 01) This became a fact for Hitler and his fantastical party, and the Aryan race became a race that had evolved even further than mankind. The Aryan race was portrayed as the strongest race, due to the theory of “survival of the fittest”.
The German race was, according to Hitler, entitled to whatever land it needed. All German speaking people were so superior to the rest of the world, that should it need more Lebensraum it had every right to conquer and claim more territory as its own. In particular, the Russian state, which was controlled by Jews, was a prime candidate for Nazi domination. The Germans had every right to take over the failing Russian state because the Jews were inferior to them. This racism in every single ideology of Nazism barely shows the degree of hatred the Nazis had for the minority groups, in particular the Jews.
Anti-Semitism was the product of Social Darwinism, Lebensraum, and the belief that the Aryan race was superior. Therefore, this is indirectly a product of nationalism. “The German Reich as a state embraces all Germans and has the task, not only of assembling and preserving the most valuable stocks of basic racial elements in this people, but slowly and surely of raising them to a dominant position.” (p. 302 Hitler, 1939) This rising of the German race required the extermination of the ‘vermin’ that were the Jews. A horrific number of Jews and other discriminated groups were killed during this period, because of the fanatical belief of Hitler and his devout followers that Germans were in fact, the superior race of the entire world.
This theory was blatantly ignored in some situations, however. One example was in 1936. Hitler and the Japanese signed the ‘German-Japanese Agreement and Supplementary Protocol’ on November 25th. Hitler realised his plans to conquer the world could not be realised without the help of others, and after the signing of this pact, he proclaimed the Japanese to be “honourary Aryans.” This shows the fanaticism of Hitler, as he would relinquish his Aryan beliefs whilst he used the Japanese to accomplish his overall conquest of the world.
In 1934, Hitler became the Führer of the German state. “One people, one country, one leader” was the common phrase of the time. From this moment on, Germany was run by a totalitarian dictator. What may have begun as nationalist ideas were extremely construed by one of the most influential people in the history of today’s society. Aryan superiority, anti-Semitism, lebensraum and social Darwinism, all important ideologies in the Nazism movement came directly from the basic nationalist ideals of society. The same ideals that unified Germany, Italy and other countries, and freed the people of various countries under oppressive rule created the most feared movement in modern history.
Liz Ellison