O Nazism, also known as National Socialist Party of German Workers, was a political and social movement that emerged in Germany shortly after the First World War and achieved great notoriety in the political framework of that country. He assumed power in 1933, when adolf hitler he became chancellor of Germany. It has been classified by historians as a movement of the far right.[1] [2] [3]
The Nazi ideology was largely responsible for the extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust. In addition to Jews, other minorities (such as Gypsies, homosexuals and blacks) were persecuted and imprisoned in concentration camps. THE swastika it became the great symbol of Nazism.
Read too:Was Nazism on the left or on the right?
Summary
O Nazism, or National Socialist German Workers' Party, was a far-right party that emerged in Germany in 1920. It emerged based on nationalist and extremist ideals that were widespread in Germany since the 19th century, among which were anti-Semitism.
The rise of Nazism came just after World War I, at a time when Germany was devastated and humiliated after that conflict. The economic crisis and the harsh impositions of the
Treaty of Versailles they strengthened the nationalist and extremist discourse spread by certain sections of German society.Nazism had principles such as anti-Bolshevism, anti-liberalism, anti-Semitism, militarism, exaltation of war, among others. The Nazis took power in 1933, when hitler was appointed prime minister of Germany. From that moment, Hitler imposed a series of changes in the country, recovering the economy and implanting a totalitarian dictatorship that persecuted its opponents.
Germany walked towards its military strengthening and territorial expansionism, and the The direct result of this was the war, which started on September 1, 1939, when the Germans invaded the Poland. At the end of World War II, Germany was destroyed, and the world was shocked by the horror of Holocaust, genocide responsible for the death of six million Jews.
The entire bibliography used in the preparation of this publication can be found at the end of the text. |
Origins of Nazism
The origins of Nazism are primarily related to extremist ideals that were widespread in German society at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, such as nationalism. extreme, exaltation of war as a legitimate way to promote the development of the nation, anti-Semitism (aversion to Jews), racial prejudice against other minorities, such as the Slavs, etc.
The diffusion of these ideals was linked to the social Darwinism (an incorrect reading of the theory of species evolution of Charles Darwin), who defended the idea that biologically superior peoples existed. From this idea was born the Arianism, who saw the Germanic (who was born in Germany or ethnically descended from Germans), coined as “Nordic” or “Aryan”, as naturally superior to other peoples.
O anti-Semitism it was also a strong feature in Germany during this period, but not only in Germany but in different parts of Europe as well. Anti-Semitism found an echo in some German personalities, such as Hermann Ahlwardt, Adolf Stöcker, Ernst Henrici, Wilhelm Marr, etc.
Read too:Final solution: the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jews in Europe
It is worth saying that the Nazism it was also a political phenomenon that emerged in Germany because of the great changes that took place after the German defeat in the First World War. In economic matters, Germany suffered severely from the impact of the war, mainly because of the heavy indemnity that was demanded by the British, French and Belgians.
This indemnity was a part of the Treaty of Versailles, which imposed other very harsh sanctions on Germany, such as the ban on having a military force exceeding 100 a thousand men and the loss of a series of territories (within German territory itself and even colonies in the Africa). The impositions of the Treaty of Versailles were seen as a great humiliation and dragged Germany into a crisis economic unprecedented in its history, which paved the way for far-right parties to gain ground in the society.
German society after the First World War organized itself into a liberal political system that emphasized the values of a representative democratic system and which was dominated by the Social Democratic Party (the largest party in Germany in the 1920). This period of German history was known as Weimar Republic and extended from 1919 to 1933.
This period, however, was extremely troubled because of the aftermath of the First World War. The German economy collapsed. The country's currency suffered a huge devaluation (Hobsbawm says that the German currency in 1923 had been reduced to the value of one millionth of a million of what it was worth in 1913)[4], and unemployment reached 44% in the years of great depression[5].
Furthermore, part of society felt betrayed by a defeat that was considered impossible by a large part of the population. This generated a great deal of resentment in German society, which combined with a strong militaristic nostalgia that spread through Germany and spread violence in the country.
In this context of violence, radicalization of politics and society, economic crisis, fear of Soviet communism and resentment of defeat, Nazism found space to emerge and grow within the political framework of the Germany.
Austrian Adolf Hitler, born in 1889, was the great leader of the Nazi Party. (Credit: Everett Historical and Shutterstock)
The National Socialist German Workers Party (in German, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, or just NSDAP) officially appeared in 1920 and was heir to the German Workers' Party, of which Adolf Hitler was a member. hitler he quickly rose in the ranks of that party and, in July 1921, he was already the leader and called the Fuhrer (means leader).
adolf hitlerhe was born in Austria in 1889 and, during World War I, he joined the army of the German Empire. With the end of the war, Hitler joined groups formed by ex-combatants who defended the recovery of the Germany so that it could resume the prosperity of the past (there was a particular nostalgia for the so-called First Reich, the Holy Roman Empire-Germanic, and with the Second Reich, the German Empire founded by Otto von Bismarck).
Growth of Nazism
Throughout the 1920s, Nazism gained strength within the political framework of Germany. The members of the Nazi Party organized themselves as extremely disciplined and properly uniformed military troops. These troops had as their central idea the blind and absolute obedience to the head of the party. Throughout the 1920s, they marched as a show of force and attacked political opponents.
In 1923, the Nazis organized an attempted coup in Bavaria (Southern Germany). this attempt to coup, however, was a failure, and many of the agitators were arrested, including Adolf Hitler. During his imprisonment, Hitler wrote the book named My fight (Mein Kampf), which organized the basic precepts of Nazi ideology: anti-Semitism, antiliberalism, anti-bolshevism, racialmo, exaltationgiveswar, nationalismextreme etc.
The book "Mein Kampf" (My Struggle), by the German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. (Credit: 360b / Shutterstock.com)
O growth of the Nazi Party considerably explored the despair of much of German society with the economic and political crisis. Despite naming itself as a party that represented the workers (in this sense we are referring to the working classes), Nazism had great support from the middle classes in Germany. From 1930 onwards, the country's upper classes joined the party on a large scale.
The growth and strengthening of Nazism in Germany throughout the 1920s, in addition to relying on Hitler's excellent rhetorical skills, resulted from a strategy created to infiltrate party members in different places of society to strengthen the diffusion of ideas in which believed.
From then on, the Nazism's range of action in Germany reached different groups, which joined the Hitler's salvationist speech, which promised to raise Germany to the level of power again. An interesting fact that reinforces the adhesion to Nazism as a result of despair is that, during the years of Great Depression (1929-1933 mainly), 85% of Nazi Party members were unemployed [6].
The strengthening of Nazism in Germany made Hitler a well-known figure in German politics. In 1932, presidential elections were held in the country. Hitler received 36.8% of the vote and was defeated by Paul von Hindenburg, who had 53% of the vote. However, the following year, Hindenburg, under pressure, was forced to nominate Hitler as chancellor of Germany, marking the end of the Weimar Republic.
In 1934, Hindenburg died, and Hitler accumulated the titles of Chancellor and President of Germany. This gave greater powers to Hitler, who carried out the implantation of his totalitarian regime. Quickly, Hitler purged German policy and eliminated all possible threats to his power.
In the following years, in addition to eliminating his opponents, whether on the non-radical right or on the left, Hitler managed to recover Germany's economy, initiated the process of militarization of the country, challenged the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, formed a mass of fanatical followers and started the process of territorial expansion of the country. parents. Hitler's actions led Germany to a new war.
Swastika
After its founding, the Nazi Party transformed the swastika, also known as swastika, as its symbol. The swastika, which is an ancient symbol, was used by different peoples with different meanings (such as Hindus). In the German context, the swastika referred to the idea of German national pride since the 19th century. Most likely, for this reason, the Nazis turned it into a symbol of the party.
The swastika was a symbol of the Nazi party
Nazi ideology
Nazi ideology is quite complex and broad, addressing different issues. The great concepts that were part of this movement are:
anti-Semitism;
antiliberalism;
anti-Bolshevism;
racism;
exaltation of war;
eugenics (ideal purification of the race);
exaltation of the Germanic race;
extreme nationalism;
desire for territorial expansion;
contempt for the modern arts; etc.
Anti-Semitism
O anti-Semitism, as mentioned, was something that had existed in German society since the 19th century. There was no shortage of names in German history of personalities who defended anti-Semitic ideals. Aversion to Jews took the forms of religious prejudice and, mainly, from racial prejudice.
Hitler advocated the purification of the German race – starting with the expulsion of Jews from society – and he attributed all the ills of German society to the Jews, especially the defeat in the war and the economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s. These theories that there was an international Jewish conspiracy were even publicized from a Russian book of unknown author and well known in Germany called “The protocols of the wise men of Zion".
Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany was progressively led to actions aimed at excluding Jews from society. The radicalized speech gave way to concentrated attacks against Jews in what became known as pogroms. Then, there was the implementation of laws that took away the rights of the Jews (emphasis on the Nuremberg Laws) and, finally, systematic actions for the genocide of these people.
Read too:Einsatzgruppen: Nazi death squads
In Nuremberg, large rallies (like the one in the photo) of the Nazi Party were held. (Credit: Everett Historical and Shutterstock)
Anti-Marxism
O anti-Marxism, represented in the form of the anti-bolshevism, was a fundamental condition of Nazi ideology and had been propagated by Hitler in his book and throughout his speeches. Hitler claimed that Bolshevism was part of the Jewish-orchestrated conspiracy of international domination. Over the years in power, Hitler indoctrinated the German population to regard Bolshevism as a natural enemy of the German people and to be destroyed at all costs.
anti-liberalism
O antiliberalism of Nazism was part of the party's tendency to discredit the representative democracies that existed in the Europe (important to consider that Nazism sharply criticized the democratic system of the Republic of Weimar). Here it is important to consider that Nazism's opposition to liberalism was not strictly aimed at economic liberalism (also seen by Hitler as part of the international conspiracy of the Jews), but to all the basic principles of liberalism, such as democracy, the system of representation, the basic rights of the citizen, such as freedom of expression, freedom of expression politics etc.
Racism
O racism in the Nazi ideology it started from the point of the supposed superiority of the Germanic race, spread by the Nazis as Aryan race. This ideal of superiority was the fruit of social Darwinism and led the Nazis to persecute every type of minority existing in Germany, in addition to the Jews. Thus, Gypsies, Danes, Poles, among others, were persecuted and subjected to a Germanization.
living space
Another important point of the Nazi ideology was the formation of a “living space” for the Aryan race, in which the Third Reich would develop, the empire that would last a thousand years and that would be led, in principle, by Hitler himself. This idea of the living space was known as Lebensraum and is explained by Richard J. Evans as follows:
The Germans, in the view of some, needed more "living space" - the German word was Lebensraum – and this would have to be obtained at the expense of others, most likely the Slavs. Not because the country was literally overpopulated – there was no evidence of this – but because those who promoting such views were taking the idea of territoriality from the animal kingdom and applying it to society human. Alarmed by the growth of Germany's burgeoning cities, they sought the restoration of a rural ideal in which German settlers would lord over “inferior” Slavic peasants […][7].
It was this ideal of the formation of a living space that led to a series of expansionist actions by Germany in Europe throughout the 1930s – starting with the Austria, in 1938, annexed during the Anschluss. The annexation of Austria had been considered in Germany after World War I, but was denied by the French and British in the Treaty of Versailles. After that, the Germans focused their interests on the Sudetenland and on Czechoslovakia and then in Poland. The last step in this process would be to win part of the Soviet Union.
Read too:Operation Barbarossa: The Nazi Invasion of the Soviet Union
Çulterior to personality
Finally, it is worth highlighting thethe of personality cult existing in Nazism. This leader, as mentioned, was called by party members and followers as Fuhrer. Richard Evans[8] claims that this term was first used by followers of an anti-Catholic far-right movement that emerged in Germany and was known as "Far from Rome." Members of this group (which emerged in the early 20th century) used the term to refer to their leader, named Georg Ritter von Schönerer.
Schönerer was also responsible for popularizing the use of the term heil (Save). Both terms entered the vocabulary of the German extreme right and were appropriated by the Nazis in the mention of the leader (Hitler) and in the exaltation of his personality from the expressionheil hitler.
consequences of nazism
One of the biggest consequences, which is generally attributed to the Nazis, was the start of WWII. This conflict, which lasted for six years (1939-1945), started because of the German expansionist policy towards neighboring nations. The trigger for the beginning of the conflict was the invasion of Poland, carried out by the Germans from September 1st, 1939. World War II was responsible for approximately 70 million deaths.
Another consequence was the big persecution of the jews in the 1930s and 1940s. After Hitler seized power in Germany in 1933, the Nazis began a process of persecution of the Jews, especially from 1935, when the Nuremberg Laws were approved (laws that legally supported this persecution). One of the consequences of this persecution of the Jews was the construction of concentration camps.
Also access:Main Nazi concentration camps
concentration camps
The Nazis started to build concentration camps soon after taking power in Germany, that is, in 1933. The first concentration camp built by the Nazis was the Dachau, which initially housed political prisoners of the Nazi regime. Thus, this field received social democrats and communists, for example.
As the Nazis got stronger, new concentration camps were built and started to receive a wider range of people. With this, Jehovah's Witnesses, gypsies, homosexuals, blacks, in addition to Jews, started to be referred to these places. With the war, a extermination plan of Jews, which resulted in the death of 6 million people in different concentration camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau the biggest and responsible for the death of 1.2 million people.
Read too: Did you know that there were concentration camps in the United States during World War II?
Holocaust
The persecution of Jews and other minorities promoted by Nazism became known as Holocaust. Currently, it is known that 6 million Jews were killed as a result of this. This total corresponded to 2/3 of the Jews in Europe, since, before the war, the Jewish population on the European continent was 9 million people.
[1] EVANS, Richard J. The arrival of the Third Reich. São Paulo: Planet, 2016.
[2] HOBSBAWM, Eric. An era of extremes: the brief 20th century 1914-1991. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995.
[3] RICHARD, Lionel. The Weimar Republic 1919-1933. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1988.
[4] HOBSBAWM, Eric. An era of extremes: the brief 20th century 1914-1991. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995, p. 94.
[5] Idem, p. 97.
[6] HOBSBAWM, Eric. An era of extremes: the brief 20th century 1914-1991. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1995, p. 98.
[7] EVANS, Richard J. The arrival of the Third Reich. São Paulo: Planet, 2016, p. 74.
[8] Idem, p. 83.
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History