From Ishay Landa’s “The Apprentice’s Sorcerer: Liberal Tradition and Fascism”
This book seems pretty good, I’m only a few pages in, but so far going well
Spoilers: Strasser would be assassinated shortly afterwards, killing along with him any pretense of the “social” aspects of Nazism as an ideology
I guess the problem wasn’t just the word “socialist,” but the socialists as well
I don’t get the point you’re making reading is hard
I think it means fascists have always been putting forth a continual stream of gibberish and trying to understand what they actually mean is difficult as on the face of it it’s nonsense.
You know how people say, or used to say, “national SOCIALIST german WORKERS party,” or generally try to argue that fascists and communists share values like collectivism and anti-capitalism? This quote is Hitler straight up saying “Damn, don’t want to actually do that socialism stuff, it’s a misnomer.” Whatever control the Nazis would exert over businesses, it never emerged from the same root as Soviet socialism.
Ultimately, I think, this book argues that liberalism and fascism have the relationship that proponents of “totalitarian” or “horseshoe theory” claim exist between fascism and communism. This is an intro section entirely on clarification of terms, which also provides a direct historical quote from a Nazi’s journals’ regarding Hitler’s actual beliefs on communism/socialism. If you take some time with the intro PDF, it also can make more sense than my stoned ass.
This image may give more context https://ibb.co/pLRZ7Dk
I have always used this copy paste and think others should too when possible. Wasn’t even mine to begin with and it’s changed a bit over time:
The Nazis were not socialists. Their entire goal was to latch onto a popular political movement and redefine it to fit their needs(as all fascists typically do).
They did not support worker ownership of the means of production and the right for workers to work for themselves. Hitler repealed legislation that nationalized industry in Germany, and oversaw the expansion of private industry. The first modern implementation of privatization on a grand scale took place under the supervision of the Nazis. The word “privatization” was coined to describe a central tenet of Nazi economic policy. The Nazis raided and imprisoned union leaders and broke up trade unions. They repealed worker rights.
Behold Hitler’s own words:
“There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that the people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction - to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything, is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power - that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago.”
- Hitler explaining that he vehemently opposes the Left, and believes only Rightists like himself can make Germany great again. (Source is a speech in April 1921)
“Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true socialism is not.”
- Hitler literally admitting his “socialism” is a whole new thing and has nothing to do with the usual definition of the word. (Source is an interview Hitler gave to the Sunday Express printed on Dec 28th in 1938, you’ll need to visit the library for this one)
“The ideology that dominates us is in diametrical contradiction to that of Soviet Russia. National Socialism is a doctrine that has reference exclusively to the German people. Bolshevism lays stress on international mission. We National Socialists believe a man can, in the long run, be happy only among his own people.”
- Hitler trying so hard to explain that he isn’t a socialist, that he opposes socialism, and that the term National Socialist is something he made up and only has meaning within the context of its own paradigm. (Speech at the Reichstag May 21 1935)
“We National Socialists see in private property a higher level of human economic development that according to the differences in performance controls the management of what has been accomplished enabling and guaranteeing the advantage of a higher standard of living for everyone. Bolshevism destroys not only private property but also private initiative and the readiness to shoulder responsibility.”
- Hitler spelling it out in very clear terms that he wholeheartedly supports private ownership of property, i.e. capitalism, and opposes worker ownership of property, which he calls “Bolshevism”, i.e. real, actual socialism. ( (Speech at the Reichstag May 21 1935)
“What right do these people have to demand a share of property or even in administration?.. The employer who accepts the responsibility for production also gives the workpeople their means of livelihood. Our greatest industrialists are not concerned with the acquisition of wealth or with good living, but, above all else, with responsibility and power. They have worked their way to the top by their own abilities, and this proof of their capacity – a capacity only displayed by a higher race – gives them the right to lead.”
- Hitler attacking the notion of worker ownership of property and licking capitalist boot. (Something he said to Max Amann, May 1930. It is from the book A history of National Socialism page 128.
i knew that looked familiar.
that book was a revelation for me when i read it years ago, before i had gotten into left politics and exposure to the idea of fascism as capitalism in decay. it completely blew my yet unchallenged conceptualization of liberalism apart. i had a real hard time explaining it to my friends at the time, who were/are still a bunch of :LIB: s
I’ve gotten a lot of value out of mentioning the fascist party in Brazil was the “Social Liberal Party” and the fascists in Japan are the “Liberal Democratic Party”
excerpt from aimixin responding in r/redskilledtrillions to the “nazis were socialists, it’s in the name” canard:
“…the Nazi state — unlike the Soviet Union to which it is sometimes compared — refrained from the widespread nationalization of industry…Available sources make perfectly clear that the Nazi regime did not want at all a German economy with public ownership of many or all enterprise…. On the contrary the reprivatization of enterprises was furthered wherever possible.”
— “The Role of Private Property in the Nazi Economy”, The Journal of Economic History
They mass privatized, in fact the word “privatization” was literally coined by The Economist to describe Hitler’s policies. The only faction in the Nazi party that opposed mass privatization was the Strasserite faction. This is what Hitler told Otto Strasser when he proposed nationalization of industry to Hitler.
“It’s Marxism!..In fact, it’s Bolshevism! Democracy has laid the world in ruins, and nevertheless you want to extend it to the economic sphere. It would be the end of German economy. You would wipe out all human progress, which has only been achieved by the individual efforts of great scholars and great inventors.”
— Quoted by Otto Strasser, “Hitler and I”
Hitler would then go onto purge that faction during the Night of the Long Knives, killing Gregor Strasser and Otto having to flee the country.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
— Martin Niemöller
Literally the only argument people have for them being “centrist” is “iT’s iN tHe nAmE!” but the term “socialist” was added to the party’s name against Hitler’s own wishes.
“Meanwhile, on February 20, 1920, the German Workers’ Party changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeitpartei, called the NSDAP or Nazi Party). Hitler did not like the addition of the term “Socialist” but acquiesced because the executive committee thought it might be helpful in attracting workers from the left.”
— Samuel Mitcham, “Why Hitler?”
When later ask to justify the “socialist” label, Hitler just redefines socialism to a government that cares about regular people, but is also an ethnostate, and is not in contradiction to private property. Hitler even says that with his definition of socialism, “we might as well have called ourself the Liberal Party”.
"Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists. Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it is patriotic. We might have called ourselves the Liberal Party. We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national. We demand the fulfilment of the just claims of the productive classes by the state on the basis of race solidarity. To us state and race are one.”
— Hitler, Interview by George Viereck
here’s a paper from the University of Barcelona on nazi privatization and how it was one of the first and largest sprees of mass privatization of state assets in modern history
