Hitler's Socialism
Why the National Socialists and Adolf Hitler were Socialist
In the last little bit, the name Adolf Hitler has been popping up again. Instead of it being for what he did, it was because rapper Kanye West praised the dictator on an interview with Alex Jones. Naturally, this sparked controversy through the internet as Hitler is rightfully hated among every sane person. But an interesting fact that most people don’t know is that Hitler was a socialist. Despite the fact that Nazi is short for National Socialist German Worker’s Party, many people (specifically the left) outright reject the idea that Hitler was a socialist. They argue that even though Nazi had the word “Socialist” in it, they didn’t embody socialism. But if we look at the economics and quotes from Hitler himself, we find that Hitler and the rest of the Nazis did live up to the title of socialism.
We have been taught that Hitler was a “right-winger.” However, this was not the case. According to historian George Watson, Hitler and his friends would’ve rejected the idea that Hitler was a conservative.
“His own thoughts have no prominence to left and right, and he is unlikely to have seen much point in any linear theory of politics. Since he solved for all the time the enigma of history, as he imagined, National Socialism was unique.”
Watson points out that the origins of Hitler being right developed before the outbreak of World War II. According to most western intellectuals, Stalin was left, Hitler was right. Some people still believed Hitler was a socialist. That was until Hitler launched an invasion of Poland.
In 1920, Hitler presented his twenty-five-point plan for the Nazi Party. In it, many pro-socialist policies were promoted by Hitler. The platform called for the “THE GOOD OF THE COMMUNITY BEFORE THE GOOD OF THE INDIVIDUAL.” Karl Marx regularly promoted collectivism in his works such as the Communist Manifesto.
But wait, there’s more:
“The state [was to] be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for citizens.”
“Abolition of unearned (work and labour) income.” (This plank is identical to Marx’s view that value of a product is derived from the labor that went into the making of the product)
“We Demand the nationalisation of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).” (This is the entirety of socialism, state ownership of the means of production.)
“The state to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program.” (This is exactly what Marx argued in his tenth plank of the Communist Manifesto.)
The left will argue that Hitler can’t be a socialist since he persecuted members of the Communist Party and Bolshevik socialism. If one were to use this logic, they must then argue that Stalin was no socialist since he killed other communists and persecuted labor unions. Furthermore, it is odd that Hitler can’t be a socialist since he persecuted Bolsheviks and communists when socialism does not equal Bolshevik or communist. We are not asking if they were Bolsheviks or Marxists, we are asking if they were socialist.
Hitler and the Nazis themselves never denied their socialist allegiance. Historian George Watson wrote that,
“It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical.”
Herman Rauschning, a Danzig Nazi who knew Hitler before and after his rise to power, tells that Hitler acknowledged his profound debt to Marxism. "I have learned a great deal from Marxism,” Hitler said, “as I do not hesitate to admit.”
Democratic-Socialist George Orwell was a pain in Hitler’s side, often criticizing the tyranny Hitler displayed. Yet, he argued that Hitler’s socialism proved that a planned economy is preferable to a free market.
Hitler accepted and expounded the traditional Marxism socialism. He believed “the one and only problem of the age . . . was to liberate labour and replace the rule of labour over capital.”
Hitler did make some changes to socialism. He added nationalism among the ethnic hatred of Jews (though Marx himself was an antisemite himself) and a touch of Christianity.
Despite all of this, we continually hear that the Nazis were capitalists. This lie is spread by people such as Michael Mann. But they were quite the opposite.
Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek was a major critique of the Nazis and Hitler, well, when he wasn’t dunking on John Maynard Keynes. He argued that the term “right-winged” was indescribable to the Nazis. In his masterpiece the Road To Serfdom, he writes,
“One of the main reason why the socialist character of National Socialism has been quite generally unrecognizable, is, no doubt, its alliance with the nationalist groups, which represent the great industries and the great landowners. But this merely proves that these groups too- as they have since learnt to their bitter disappointment- have, at least partly, been mistaken as the nature of the movement. But only partly because- and this is the most characteristic feature of modern Germany- many capitalists are themselves strongly influenced by socialist ideas, and have not sufficient belief in capitalism to defend it with a clear conscience. But, in spite of this, the German entrepreneur class have manifested almost incredible of whose strong anti-capitalistic tendencies there should never have been any doubt.”
The dominant feature, to Hayek, was that national socialism was in opposition towards anything relating to capitalism. According to Senator Rand Paul, “National socialism, rather than being an attempt to break with the Bolsheviks, was rather socialism mixed with nationalism and animated by racial hatred.”
Some might turn to fellow Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises to hear his opinions. Those who read Mises’ essay, Planned Chaos, might find Mises saying Nazism was capitalism since Mises admitted that the Nazis “seemingly and nominally, maintains private ownership of the means of production, entrepreneurship, and market exchange.” However, PH.d author George Reisman wrote that Mises identified . . . that private ownership of the means of production existed in name only under the Nazis and that the actual substance of ownership of the means of production resided in the German movement.”
Ayn Rand believed that socialism was public ownership of the means of production. Therefore, against private property. Under Nazism, the state held all the power its use and disposal.
Take for example, the case of Herr V. He was a one of the largest conservative landowners in Prussia. He believed that when Hitler came to power, he was “saved from the Bolshevists and the Jews.” However, he became horrified at that the new government was interfering with his property far more than the Social-Democratic government that he despised. After he fell out of favor with Party Secretary, he was bombarded with decrees and regulations. He was ordered to lodge to S.A. man and members of the Hitler Youth League, who annoyed him.
In his book The Vampire Economy: Doing Business Under Fascism, Marxist economist Gunter Reimann detailed the government takeover of the economy. The manufacturers were struck with fear when news broke that industrialists were being expropriated by the state. They fined businessman millions of marks for a bookkeeping error.
The main feature of capitalism has always been private property. The main thing socialism opposes is private property. Reimann, argued that,
“The owner of the property was helpless, since under fascism there is no longer an independent judiciary that protects the property rights of private citizens against the State. The authoritarian State has made it a principle that private property is no longer sacred. The decree of February 28, 1933, nullified article 153 of the Weimar Constitution which guaranteed private property and restricted interference with private property in accordance with certain legally defined conditions . . . The conception of property has experienced a fundamental change. The individualistic conception of the State-a result of the liberal spirit-must give way to the concept that communal welfare precedes individual welfare”
While businessmen were guaranteed property rights, it meant little when the courts refused to uphold these rights out of fear of the tyrannical government.
In summary, history from economists and Hitler himself admitted that the Nazis were socialist and far from being right winged, especially in economic terms. The lie that they weren’t socialist needs to end.