A lot of folks from the US seem to think the Nazis were socialists, because they called themselves “nationalist socialists” and well, by US standards, the Nazis were rather socialistic, too.
But the other big parties at the time were:
The “center” party, basically Christian/conservative (Z / BVP)
The communist party (KPD)
The socialist party (SPD)
So, yeah. You did not vote for the nationalist socialist party, because you wanted socialist politics.
Here’s a copypasta that I put together two years ago yesterday in response to the usual “but it sez soshulist in the name” arguments (this isn’t an argument against you, per se, it’s just there for anyone to use in the event of such arguments):
[Hitler] was wholly ignorant of any formal understanding of the principles of economics. For him, as he stated to the industrialists, economics was of secondary importance, entirely subordinated to politics. His crude social-Darwinism dictated his approach to the economy, as it did his entire political “world-view.” Since struggle among nations would be decisive for future survival, Germany’s economy had to be subordinated to the preparation, then carrying out, of this struggle. This meant that liberal ideas of economic competition had to be replaced by the subjection of the economy to the dictates of the national interest. Similarly, any “socialist” ideas in the Nazi programme had to follow the same dictates. Hitler was never a socialist. But although he upheld private property, individual entrepreneurship, and economic competition, and disapproved of trade unions and workers’ interference in the freedom of owners and managers to run their concerns, the state, not the market, would determine the shape of economic development. Capitalism was, therefore, left in place. But in operation it was turned into an adjunct of the state.
—Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Biography, 2010
In the climate of postwar counter-revolution, national brooding on the “stab-in-the-back,” and obsession with war profiteers and merchants of the rapidly mushrooming hyperinflation, Hitler concentrated especially on rabble-rousing attacks on “Jewish” merchants who were supposedly pushing up the price of goods: they should all, he said, to shouts of approval from his audiences, be strung up. Perhaps to emphasize this anti-capitalist focus, and to align itself with similar groups in Austria and Czechoslovakia, the party changed its name in February 1920 to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party…. Despite the change of name, however, it would be wrong to see Nazism as a form of, or an outgrowth from, socialism. True, as some have pointed out, its rhetoric was frequently egalitarian, it stressed the need to put common needs above the needs of the individual, and it often declared itself opposed to big business and international finance capital. Famously, too, anti-Semitism was once declared to be “the socialism of fools.” But from the very beginning, Hitler declared himself implacably opposed to Social Democracy and, initially to a much smaller extent, Communism: after all, the “November traitors” who had signed the Armistice and later the Treaty of Versailles were not Communists at all, but the Social Democrats.
—Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, 2004
This ideology took a leftist label chiefly for tactical reasons. It demanded, within the party and within the state, a powerful system of rule that would exercise unchallenged leadership over the “great mass of the anonymous.” And whatever premises the party may have started with, by 1930 Hitler’s party was “socialist” only to take advantage of the emotional value of the word, and a “workers’ party” in order to lure the most energetic social force. As with Hitler’s protestations of belief in tradition, in conservative values, or in Christianity, the socialist slogans were merely movable ideological props to serve as camouflage and confuse the enemy.
—Joachim Fest, Hitler, 1973
And finally, don’t forget that the Nazis banned the Social Democrats and other leftists from politics, and that the holocaust focused on more than just Jews:
In the months after Hitler took power, SA and Gestapo agents went from door to door looking for Hitler’s enemies. They arrested Socialists, Communists, trade union leaders, and others who had spoken out against the Nazi party; some were murdered. By the summer of 1933, the Nazi party was the only legal political party in Germany. Nearly all organized opposition to the regime had been eliminated. Democracy was dead in Germany.
—United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
I’m just glad I hadn’t deleted it. Guess I’ll continue to keep it.
So Hitler went from door to door killing off political opponents. Alex Jones has been insisting that Democrats have been doing this on the reg for the past thirty years. Seems to have worked pretty good for Hitler, and probably would have continued to do so if not for invading neighboring countries and genociding Jews. Since MAGAts are an actual terrorist organization with plenty of kills under their belts, we can probably avoid invading neighboring countries or genociding Jews.
The Nazis were not socialistic by any metric, unless your definition of socialism is the government doing stuff, but especially not by New Deal America standards.
That just goes to show how ignorant the average American is. Not what any word means. By that definition all governments would be socialist. Which clearly isn’t the case. Unless you’re one of those people that likes to imagine themselves both capitalist and libertarian.
I feel like there’s plenty room for different interpretations here and I truly do not care to make a point about which Nazi policies were good, ackshually.
My metric here was that I assume modern US Republicans would want to roll back the socialist structures put in place by Bismarck (mandatory health insurance & retirement saving).
The NSDAP didn’t, and that was the very least that they virtue-signaled by calling themselves “socialist”.
A lot of folks from the US seem to think the Nazis were socialists, because they called themselves “nationalist socialists” and well, by US standards, the Nazis were rather socialistic, too.
But the other big parties at the time were:
So, yeah. You did not vote for the nationalist socialist party, because you wanted socialist politics.
Here’s a copypasta that I put together two years ago yesterday in response to the usual “but it sez soshulist in the name” arguments (this isn’t an argument against you, per se, it’s just there for anyone to use in the event of such arguments):
—Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Biography, 2010
—Richard J. Evans, The Coming of the Third Reich, 2004
—Joachim Fest, Hitler, 1973
And finally, don’t forget that the Nazis banned the Social Democrats and other leftists from politics, and that the holocaust focused on more than just Jews:
—United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
I’m just glad I hadn’t deleted it. Guess I’ll continue to keep it.
So Hitler went from door to door killing off political opponents. Alex Jones has been insisting that Democrats have been doing this on the reg for the past thirty years. Seems to have worked pretty good for Hitler, and probably would have continued to do so if not for invading neighboring countries and genociding Jews. Since MAGAts are an actual terrorist organization with plenty of kills under their belts, we can probably avoid invading neighboring countries or genociding Jews.
The Nazis were not socialistic by any metric, unless your definition of socialism is the government doing stuff, but especially not by New Deal America standards.
That basically IS the majority opinion on the definition here in the modern U.S, so their point stands.
Only if you believe in only letting idiots define what words mean.
That just goes to show how ignorant the average American is. Not what any word means. By that definition all governments would be socialist. Which clearly isn’t the case. Unless you’re one of those people that likes to imagine themselves both capitalist and libertarian.
Not if they’re just straight up wrong about the definition.
I feel like there’s plenty room for different interpretations here and I truly do not care to make a point about which Nazi policies were good, ackshually.
My metric here was that I assume modern US Republicans would want to roll back the socialist structures put in place by Bismarck (mandatory health insurance & retirement saving).
The NSDAP didn’t, and that was the very least that they virtue-signaled by calling themselves “socialist”.
Folks from the US: “DDR was a democracy! Why else would they have “democratic” in their name?!!?”