Nazism

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This page Nazism is part of the Nazism portal.
Illustration: A Child at Gunpoint (1943) from the Stroop Report

"Not so long ago, Nazism transformed the whole of Europe into a genuine colony. The governments various European nations demanded reparations restitution in money and kind for their stolen treasures. As a result, cultural artifacts, paintings, sculptures, and stained-glass windows were returned to their owners. In the aftermath of war the Europeans were adamant about one thing: "Germany pay.""--The Wretched of the Earth (1961) by Frantz Fanon

This page Nazism is part of the censorship portal.
Illustration: Cover of the catalogue of the Nazi "Degenerate Art Exhibition" (1937). The exhibition was held to defame modern and Jewish artists. On the cover is Der Neue Mensch sculpture by Otto Freundlich.

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Nazism, or National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus) in full, was the ideology of the Nazi Party in Germany and related movements outside Germany. It is a variety of fascism that incorporates biological racism and antisemitism. Nazism developed in Germany from the influence of the far-right racist Völkisch German nationalist movement and the anti-communist Freikorps paramilitary culture which fought against the communists in post-World War I Germany. The German Nazi Party and its affiliates in Germanic states supported pan-Germanicism. It was designed to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism. Major elements of Nazism have been described as far-right, such as allowing domination of society by people deemed racially superior, while purging society of people declared inferior, who were said to be a threat to national survival.

Nazism claimed that an Aryan master race was superior to all other races. To maintain what it regarded as the purity and strength of the Aryan race, Nazis sought to exterminate Jews and Romani, and the physically and mentally disabled. Other groups deemed "degenerate" or "asocial" received exclusionary treatment, including homosexuals, blacks, Jehovah's Witnesses and political opponents. The Nazis supported territorial expansionism to gain Lebensraum ("living space") as being a law of nature for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races growing in population to displace peoples of inferior races; especially people of a superior race facing overpopulation in their given territories. Nazism rejected democracy because it believed Jews used it for their self-preservation.

The German Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler had objected to the party's previous leader's decision to use the word "Socialist" in its name, as Hitler at the time preferred to use "Social Revolutionary". Upon taking over the leadership, Hitler kept the term but defined socialism as being based upon a commitment of an individual to a community. Hitler did not want the ideology's socialism to be conflated with Marxian socialism. He claimed that true socialism does not repudiate private property unlike the claims of Marxism, and stated that the "Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning" and "Communism is not socialism. Marxism is not socialism." Nazism denounced both capitalism and communism for being associated with Jewish materialism. Nazism favoured private property, freedom of contract, and promoted the creation of a national solidarity that would transcend class differences. Like other fascist movements, Nazism supported the outlawing of strikes by employees and lockouts by employers, because these were regarded as a threat to national unity. Instead, the state controlled and approved wage and salary levels.

Romanticism and Nazism

German Romanticism and the völkisch ideologies were influential in the development of Nazism. Authors such as Thomas Mann and Georg Lukács have advanced the thesis of romanticism as the intellectual parent of Nazism (Rereading Romanticism).

-[[Image:Degenerate art exhibition in Nazi Germany.jpg|thumb|right|200px|This page '''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' is part of the [[Nazism]] portal.
+[[Image:A Child at Gunpoint of the Stroop Report.jpg |thumb|right|200px|This page '''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' is part of the [[Nazism]] portal.<br><Small>Illustration: ''[[A Child at Gunpoint]]'' ([[1943]]) from the ''[[Stroop Report]]''</small>]]
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+"Not so long ago, [[Nazism]] transformed the whole of Europe into a genuine [[colony]]. The governments various European nations demanded [[Reparation (legal)|reparation]]s restitution in money and kind for their stolen treasures. As a result, [[cultural artifact]]s, paintings, sculptures, and stained-glass windows were returned to their owners. In the aftermath of war the Europeans were adamant about one thing: "Germany pay.""--''[[The Wretched of the Earth]]'' (1961) by Frantz Fanon
+|}
+[[Image:Degenerate art exhibition in Nazi Germany.jpg|thumb|right|200px|This page '''''{{PAGENAME}}''''' is part of the [[censorship]] portal.
 <br>
 <Small>Illustration: Cover of the catalogue of the Nazi "[[Degenerate Art Exhibition]]" (1937). The exhibition was held to defame modern and Jewish artists. On the cover is ''[[Der Neue Mensch]]'' sculpture by [[Otto Freundlich]].</Small>]]
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-'''Nazism''' or '''Naziism''', officially called '''National Socialism''' ([[German language|German]]: ''Nationalsozialismus''), refers primarily to the [[totalitarianism|totalitarian]] ideology and practices of the Nazi Party (''National Socialist German Workers' Party'', German: ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'' or ''[[NSDAP]]'') under [[Adolf Hitler]]. It also refers to the policies adopted by the government of [[Germany]] [[1933]] to [[1945]], a period in German history known as [[Nazi Germany]] or the "[[Third Reich]]".
-Many see strong connections to the values of Nazism and the [[irrationalism|irrationalist]] tradition of the [[romantic movement]] of the early 19th century. Strength, [[passion]], [[frank]] declarations of [[feeling]]s, and deep devotion to family and community were valued by the Nazis though first expressed by many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers.
+'''Nazism''', or '''National Socialism''' (''Nationalsozialismus'') in full, was the [[ideology]] of the [[Nazi Party]] in [[Germany]] and related movements outside Germany. It is a variety of [[fascism]] that incorporates [[Scientific racism|biological racism]] and [[antisemitism]]. Nazism developed in Germany from the influence of the [[Far-right politics|far-right]] [[Racism|racist]] ''[[Völkisch movement|Völkisch]]'' [[German nationalism|German nationalist]] movement and the [[Anti-communism|anti-communist]] ''[[Freikorps#Post-World War I|Freikorps]]'' [[paramilitary]] culture which fought against the [[Communism|communists]] in post-[[World War I]] Germany. The German Nazi Party and its affiliates in Germanic states supported [[pan-Germanicism]]. It was designed to draw workers away from communism and into ''völkisch'' nationalism. Major elements of Nazism have been described as [[Far-right politics|far-right]], such as allowing domination of society by people deemed racially superior, while purging society of people declared inferior, who were said to be a threat to national survival.
-==Ideology==
-From 1920 to 1923, Hitler formulated his ideology, then published it in 1925–26, as ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', a two-volume, biography and political manifesto.
-Though Hitler for "tactical" reasons had rhetorically declared a 1920 party platform with [[Socialism|socialist]] platitudes "unshakable," actually "many paragraphs of the party program were obviously merely a demagogic appeal to the mood of the lower classes at a time when they were in bad straits and were sympathetic to radical and even socialist slogans...Point 11, for example...Point 12...nationalization...Point 16...communalization.... put in at the insistence of Drexler and Feder, who apparently really believed in the 'socialism' of National Socialism." In actual practice, such points were mere slogans, "most of them forgotten by the time the party came to power.... the Nazi leader himself was later to be embarrassed when reminded of some of them." Historian Conan Fischer argues that the Nazis were sincere in their use of the adjective ''socialist'', which they saw as inseparable from the adjective ''national'', and meant it as a socialism of the [[master race]], rather than the socialism of the "underprivileged and oppressed seeking justice and equal rights."
+Nazism claimed that an [[Aryan race|Aryan]] [[master race]] was superior to all other [[Race (classification of humans)|races]]. To maintain what it regarded as the purity and strength of the Aryan race, Nazis sought to [[Genocide|exterminate]] [[Jews]] and [[Romani people|Romani]], and the [[Physical disability|physically]] and [[Developmental disability|mentally disabled]]. Other groups deemed "[[Degeneration|degenerate]]" or "[[Asociality|asocial]]" received [[Social exclusion|exclusionary treatment]], including [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[Black people|blacks]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and political opponents. The Nazis supported territorial [[expansionism]] to gain ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") as being a [[Natural law|law of nature]] for all healthy and vigorous peoples of superior races growing in population to displace peoples of inferior races; especially people of a superior race facing [[overpopulation]] in their given territories. Nazism rejected [[democracy]] because it believed Jews used it for their self-preservation.
-===Social class===
+The German Nazi ''[[Führer]]'' [[Adolf Hitler]] had objected to the party's previous leader's decision to use the word "[[Socialism|Socialist]]" in its name, as Hitler at the time preferred to use "Social Revolutionary". Upon taking over the leadership, Hitler kept the term but defined socialism as being based upon a commitment of an individual to a community. Hitler did not want the ideology's socialism to be conflated with [[Socialism (Marxism)|Marxian socialism]]. He claimed that true socialism does not repudiate [[private property]] unlike the claims of [[Marxism]], and stated that the "Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning" and "Communism is not socialism. Marxism is not socialism." Nazism denounced both [[capitalism]] and communism for being associated with Jewish [[materialism]]. Nazism favoured private property, freedom of contract, and promoted the creation of a national [[Social solidarity|solidarity]] that would transcend class differences. Like other fascist movements, Nazism supported the outlawing of [[Strike action|strikes]] by [[employee]]s and [[Lockout (industry)|lockouts]] by [[employer]]s, because these were regarded as a threat to national unity. Instead, the state controlled and approved wage and salary levels.
-In 1922, Adolf Hitler discredited other nationalist and racialist political parties as disconnected from the mass populace, especially lower and [[working class|working-class]] young people:
-:The racialists were not capable of drawing the practical conclusions from correct theoretical judgements, especially in the Jewish Question. In this way, the German racialist movement developed a similar pattern to that of the 1880s and 1890s. As in those days, its leadership gradually fell into the hands of highly honourable, but fantastically naïve men of learning, professors, district counsellors, schoolmasters, and lawyers&nbsp;— in short a bourgeois, idealistic, and refined class. It lacked the warm breath of the nation's youthful vigour.
-Despite many working-class supporters and members, the appeal of the [[Nazi Party]] was arguably more effective with the [[middle class]]. Moreover, the financial collapse of the [[White-collar worker|white collar]] middle-class of the 1920s figures much in their strong support of Nazism, thus the great percentage of declared middle-class support for the Nazis. In the poor country that was the [[Weimar Republic]] of the early 1930s, the Nazi Party realised their socialist policies with food and shelter for the unemployed and the homeless — later recruited to the Brownshirt ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA — Storm Detachment).
-===Sex and gender===
-:''[[Women in the Third Reich]]''
-Nazi ideology advocated excluding women from political involvement and confining them to the spheres of "[[Kinder, Küche, Kirche]]" (Children, Kitchen, Church).{{citation needed|date=May 2012}}
-====Opposition to homosexuality====
-;''[[Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust]]''
-After the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler promoted Himmler and the [[SS]], who then zealously suppressed homosexuality, saying: "We must exterminate these people root and branch ... the homosexual must be eliminated." In 1936, Himmler established the "Reichszentrale zur Bekämpfung der Homosexualität und Abtreibung" ("Reich Central Office for the Combating of Homosexuality and Abortion"). The Nazi régime incarcerated some 100,000 homosexuals during the 1930s. As concentration camp prisoners, homosexual men were forced to wear [[pink triangle]] badges.
-===Racial policy===
-:'[[Nazism and race]], [[Racial policy of Nazi Germany]]''
-Several of the founders and leaders of the Nazi Party were members of the ''[[Thule-Gesellschaft]]'' (Thule Society), who romanticized Aryan race superstitions with ritual and theology. Originally, derived from the ''[[Germanenorden]]'', the Thule Society shared the racist superstitions of [[Ariosophy]] and the society's activities consisted of [[anti-Semitism]] lectures and excursions of Germanic antiquity. The Thule Society member, [[Dietrich Eckart]], coached Adolf Hitler in public speaking, and Hitler later dedicated ''Mein Kampf'' to Eckart. The DAP had initial support from the Thule Society — but after Hitler had taken over the Party, by denigrating their superstitious approach to politics, the society's members were quickly marginalised to allow the party to become a mass movement.
-Hitler viewed individual races as being part of a hierarchy, and he espoused the "aristocratic idea of nature". This view led to his assertion of superior and higher qualities of the Aryan race. Hitler claimed to have first developed his worldview while in Vienna from 1907 to 1913, concluding that the [[Austria-Hungary|Austro–Hungarian Empire]] comprised racial, religious, and cultural hierarchies; he viewed "Aryans" as the ultimate master race inhabiting the top, whilst Jews and [[Romani people|Gypsies]] were at bottom. Other research suggests that Hitler's virulent antisemitism was a post-war development, influenced from the [[Russian civil war]]. The idea of the Russian roots of Nazism has been explored by [[Walter Laqueur]] and Michael Kellogg.
-The racist subject of Nazism was ''[[Volk|Das Volk]]'', the German people living under continual cultural attack by [[Judeo-Bolshevism]]. Nazi Party leadership sought to unify the ''Volk'', and strongly encouraged [[stoicism]], self-discipline and self-sacrifice to achieve final victory. Nazi propagandist [[Joseph Goebbels]] frequently employed antisemitic rhetoric to underline this view: "The Jew is the enemy and destroyer of the purity of blood, the conscious destroyer of our race ... As socialists, we are opponents of the Jews, because we see, in the Hebrews, the incarnation of [[capitalism]], of the misuse of the nation's goods."
-In the [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] treatise, ''[[The Myth of the Twentieth Century]]'' — according to Terrence Ball and Richard Bellamy, the second-most important book to Nazism, after ''Mein Kampf'' — [[Reichstag (Nazi Germany)|Reichstag]] Secretary, [[Alfred Rosenberg]] proposed that, "[F]rom a northern centre of creation which, without postulating an actual submerged Atlantic continent, we may call [[Atlantis]], swarms of warriors once fanned out, in obedience to the ever-renewed and incarnate [[Nordic race|Nordic]] longing for distance to conquer and space to shape".
-According to Nazism, through struggle and proper "breeding", the "strong" would subdue the "weak" and rise to dominance. For example, Nazi policy since 1920 emphasized that only people of "German blood" could be considered German citizens thus excluding people of Jewish descent, a view that ultimately resulted in the killing of millions of people in the [[Holocaust]].
-To maintain the "purity and strength" of the Aryan race, the Nazis sought to [[Genocide|exterminate]] Jews, [[Romani people|Romani]], and the [[Physical disability|physically]] and [[Developmental disability|mentally disabled]]. Other groups deemed "[[Degeneration|degenerate]]" and "[[Asociality|asocial]]" who were not targeted for extermination, but received [[Social exclusion|exclusionary treatment]] by the Nazi state, included [[Homosexuality|homosexuals]], [[Black people in Nazi Germany|blacks]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]] and political opponents. One of Hitler's ambitions at the start of the war was to [[Generalplan Ost|exterminate]], expel, or enslave most or all [[Slav]]s from central and eastern Europe (i.e., [[Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles|Poles]], Russians, Ukrainians, etc.) so as to make [[Lebensraum|living space]] for German settlers.
-Hitler declared that racial conflict against Jews was necessary to save Germany from suffering under them and dismissed concerns about such conflict being inhumane or an injustice:
-<blockquote>We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany we have achieved the greatest deed in the world. We may work injustice, but if we rescue Germany then we have removed the greatest injustice in the world. We may be immoral, but if our people is rescued we have opened the way for morality.
-</blockquote>
-In Germany, the idea of creating a master-race resulted in efforts to "purify' the ''Deutsche Volk'' through [[Nazi eugenics|eugenics]]; its culmination was [[compulsory sterilization]] or [[involuntary euthanasia]] of physically or mentally disabled people. The ideological justification was [[Adolf Hitler]]'s view of [[Sparta]] (11th c.–195 BC) as the original ''Völkisch'' state; he praised their dispassionate destruction of congenitally deformed infants in maintaining racial purity:
-The number of Germans of African descent was low; however, some of them were enlisted into Nazi organisations like the [[Hitler Youth]] and the ''Wehrmacht''.
-===Religion===
-The [[National Socialist Program|Nazi Party Programme]] of 1920 guaranteed freedom for all religious denominations not hostile to the State and endorsed [[Positive Christianity]] to combat “the Jewish-materialist spirit”. It was a modified version of Christianity which emphasized racial purity and nationalism.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=182}} The Nazis were aided by theologians, such as, Dr. [[Ernst Bergmann (philosopher)]]. Bergmann, in his work, ''Die 25 Thesen der Deutschreligion'' (Twenty-five Points of the German Religion), held that the Old Testament and portions of the New Testament of the Bible were inaccurate. He claimed that Jesus was not a Jew and of Aryan origin, and that Adolf Hitler was the new messiah.{{sfn|McNab|2009|p=182}} At the same time the Nazis utilized Protestant [[Martin Luther]] in their propaganda. Nazis publicly displayed an original of Luther's ''On the Jews and their Lies'' during the annual Nuremberg rallies. The Nazis endorsed the pro-Nazi Protestant [[German Christians]] organization.
-The Nazis were initially highly hostile to Catholics because most Catholics supported the [[German Centre Party]]. Catholics opposed the Nazis' promotion of sterilization of those deemed inferior, and the Catholic Church forbade its members to vote for the Nazis. In 1933, extensive Nazi violence occurred against Catholics due to the their association with the Centre Party and their opposition to the Nazi regime's sterilization laws. The Nazis demanded that Catholics declare their loyalty to the German state. In propaganda, the Nazis used elements of Germany's Catholic history, in particular the German Catholic [[Teutonic Knights]] and their campaigns in Eastern Europe. The Nazis identified them as "sentinels" in the East against "Slavic chaos", though beyond that symbolism the influence of the Teutonic Knights on Nazism was limited. Hitler also admitted that the Nazis' night rallies were inspired by the Catholic rituals he witnessed during his Catholic upbringing. The Nazis did seek official reconciliation with the Catholic Church and endorsed the creation of the pro-Nazi Catholic ''[[Kreuz und Adler]]'' organization that supported a [[national Catholicism]]. On 20 July 1933, a successful concordat (''[[Reichskonkordat]]'') was signed between Nazi Germany and the Catholic Church which demanded loyalty of German Catholics to the German state in exchange for acceptance of the Catholic Church in Germany. The Catholic Church then ended its ban on members supporting the Nazi Party.
-Historian [[Michael Burleigh]] claims that Nazism used Christianity for political purposes, but such use required that "fundamental tenets were stripped out, but the remaining diffuse religious emotionality had its uses". Burleigh claims that Nazism's conception of spirituality was "self-conciously pagan and primitive". However, historian [[Roger Griffin]] rejects the claim that Nazism was primarily pagan, noting that although there were some influential neo-paganists in the Nazi Party, such as [[Heinrich Himmler]] and [[Alfred Rosenberg]], they represented a minority and their views did not influence Nazi ideology beyond its use for symbolism; its noted that Hitler denounced Germanic paganism in ''Mein Kampf'' and condemned Rosenberg's and Himmler's paganism as "nonsense".
-===Economics===
-Hitler had little interest towards money and economics in general. After he became ''Reichskanzler'' on 30 January 1933 he never touched his salary from the state. At the national level, Hitler left the subject to others. In the early days of the Nazi government [[Alfred Hugenberg]], the party leader of the conservative German-National party, [[DNVP]], was the Minister of Finance - the ''Reichswirtschaftsminister''. He continued to serve in this position for a short time even after all parties except the [[NSDAP]] were prohibited in March 1933. In June Hugenberg was replaced by [[Kurt Schmitt]], a man that had joined the Nazi Party in late spring of 1933. Schmitt's time in office was also short and in 1934 the president of the national German bank [[Hjalmar Schacht]] become the third man responsible for the economy of Nazi Germany. He lasted until 1938 when the first real Nazi, [[Walther Funk]] was appointed to the position. Afterwards, Schacht remained minister without portfolio until he was put in a [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camp]] in 1944. Schacht survived and was later put on trial in [[Nuremberg trial|Nürmberg]] where he was found "not guilty" on all counts. During Walther Funk's era as Minister of Finance, he had to follow a ''four year plan'' created by [[Herman Göring]]. Although this was not possible due to the war and the incompetence of Göring, the fall of the Third Reich had little to do with economics.
-Hitler believed that private ownership was useful in that it encouraged creative competition and technical innovation, but insisted that it had to conform to national interests and be "productive" rather than "parasitical". Private property rights were conditional upon the economic mode of use; if it did not advance Nazi economic goals then the state could nationalize it. Although the Nazis [[Privatisation|privatised]] public properties and public services, they also increased economic state control. Under Nazi economics, free competition and self-regulating markets diminished; nevertheless, Hitler's [[Social Darwinism|social Darwinist]] beliefs made him reluctant to entirely disregard business competition and private property as economic engines.
-To tie farmers to their land, selling agricultural land was prohibited. Farm ownership was nominally private, but discretion over operations and residual income were proscribed.{{citation needed|date=November 2012}}  That was achieved by granting business monopoly rights to marketing boards to control production and prices with a quota system.
-====Anti-communism====
-Historians [[Ian Kershaw]] and [[Joachim Fest]] argue that in post-[[World War I]] Germany, the Nazis were one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] movement. The Nazis claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to dissolve [[private property]], its support of [[class conflict]], its aggression against the [[Middle-class|middle class]], its hostility towards small businessmen, and its [[atheism]]. Nazism rejected [[class conflict]]-based [[socialism]] and economic [[egalitarianism]], favouring instead a [[Social stratification|stratified]] economy with [[social class]]es based on merit and talent, retaining [[private property]], and the creation of national solidarity that transcends class distinction.
-During the 1920s, Hitler urged disparate Nazi factions to unite in opposition to "[[Jewish Bolshevism|Jewish Marxism]]." Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish [[Marxism]]" were [[democracy]], [[pacifism]] and [[internationalism (politics)|internationalism]].
-In 1930, Hitler said: "Our adopted term ‘Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not." In 1942, Hitler privately said: "I absolutely insist on protecting private property ... we must encourage private initiative".
-During the late 1930s and the 1940s, anti-communist regimes and groups that supported Nazism included the [[Falange]] in [[Spain]]; the [[Vichy France|Vichy regime]] and the [[33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)]] in France; and the [[Cliveden Set]], [[Lord Halifax]], and associates of [[Neville Chamberlain]] in Britain.
-====Anti-capitalism====
-The Nazis argued that [[capitalism]] damages nations due to [[international finance]], the economic dominance of [[big business]], and Jewish influences. Nazi propaganda posters in [[working class]] districts emphasized anti-capitalism, such as one that said: "The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism."
-[[Adolf Hitler]], both in public and in private, expressed disdain for capitalism, arguing that it holds nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] [[rentier capitalism|rentier]] class. He opposed [[free market]] capitalism's profit-seeking impulses and desired an economy in which community interests would be upheld.
-Hitler distrusted capitalism for being unreliable due to its [[egotism]], and he preferred a state-directed economy that is subordinated to the interests of the [[Volk]]. Hitler said in 1927, "We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are determined to destroy this system under all conditions."
-Hitler told a party leader in 1934, "The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews." Hitler said to [[Benito Mussolini]] that "Capitalism had run its course". Hitler also said that the business [[bourgeoisie]] "know nothing except their profit. 'Fatherland' is only a word for them." Hitler admired [[Napoleon]] as a role model for his anti-[[conservatism|conservative]], anti-capitalist and anti-bourgeois attitudes.
-In ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', Hitler effectively supported [[mercantilism]], in the belief that economic resources from their respective territories should be seized by force; he believed that the policy of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' would provide Germany with such economically valuable territories. He argued that the only means to maintain economic security was to have direct control over resources rather than being forced to rely on world trade. He claimed that war to gain such resources was the only means to surpass the failing capitalist economic system.
-A number of other Nazis held strong revolutionary socialist and anti-capitalist beliefs, most prominently [[Ernst Röhm]], the leader of the [[Sturmabteilung]] (SA). Röhm claimed that the Nazis' rise to power constituted a national revolution, but insisted that a socialist "second revolution" was required for Nazi ideology to be fulfilled. Röhm's SA began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction. Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardizing the regime by alienating the conservative President [[Paul von Hindenburg]] and the conservative-oriented German Army. This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA.
-Another radical Nazi, Propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] adamantly stressed the socialist character of Nazism, and claimed in his diary that if he were to pick between [[Bolshevism]] and capitalism, he said "in final analysis", "it would be better for us to go down with Bolshevism than live in eternal slavery under capitalism."
+==Romanticism and Nazism==
+[[German Romanticism]] and the [[völkisch]] ideologies were influential in the development of Nazism. Authors such as [[Thomas Mann]] and [[Georg Lukács]] have advanced the thesis of romanticism as the intellectual parent of Nazism (''Rereading Romanticism'').
 ==See also==
 * [[1940s subcultures]]
 * [[Fascism]]
 * [[Fascism and ideology]]
+* [[Female guards in Nazi concentration camps]]
+* [[First they came...]]
 * [[Final Solution]]
 * [[Functionalism versus intentionalism]]
 **[[Responsibility for the Holocaust]]
 * [[Nationalism]]
+* [[Nazi concentration camps]]
 * [[Nazi exploitation]]
 * [[Nazi Germany]]

Nazism

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