OPINION

The National Socialists weren't socialists

The Nazis weren't socialists.

Even if one's high school history classes didn't cover the subject (high school history classes sometimes bog down in the 19th century; some teachers have a thing for Samuel Gompers), most of us pick up something from the movies. I don't advocate getting history from movies, but Hollywood history is better than none at all.

I've seen Nazis described as left-wing and "socialist" before--a Texas congressman tried to tie self-described Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders to the Nazis in 2015--but since the Charlottesville debacle it's become a talking point among the whatabouters who want to insist there were "fine people" among the tiki torchers. (As though those who marched and chanted "blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us" could really be moderate Republicans.) It's unclear how this semantic argument helps their case, but now might be a good time to look at the historical record.

The political party Adolf Hitler rode to power was officially named the National Socialist German Workers' Party. It was preceded by the German Workers' Party, founded in the immediate aftermath of the First World War by, among others, a 4-F locksmith named Anton Drexler. Drexler believed Germany's defeat was due to an international Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. An avowed anti-Marxist, Drexler referred to Jews as "the plastic demon of the fall of Mankind."

In September 1919, Hitler, a corporal in the German army, was assigned to spy on the GWP. If you've read Mein Kampf (and, life being brief, I'm not recommending you do) you might remember he was unimpressed with Drexler, finding him "weak and uncertain" and "not brutal enough" to lead the party. But Hitler liked the GWP's platform. In fact, after hearing a speech by civil engineer and crackpot economist Gottfried Feder, who railed against "Jewish finance capitalism," Hitler decided to join.

(Hitler later claimed he was the seventh member of the party, implying he was a founder. But Nazis lie. GWP membership cards started at 500, in order to make their ranks look bigger. Hitler had card No. 555.)

Drexler apparently didn't like Hitler any more that Hitler liked him--calling him an "absurd little man"--but the future Fuhrer quickly became one of the most important party leaders. Good at giving speeches, he, along with Drexler and Feder, drafted the 25-point manifesto that in 1920 announced the founding of the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei--what we call the Nazi party. (A name chosen at least in part for its similarity to Deutsche Nationalsozialistische Arbeiterpartei, an Austrian party that was at the time slightly more robust. Hitler wanted to call it the Social Revolution Party but was outvoted.)

While the word "socialist" is in the name of the party, most of us understand the concept of misnomers. Political organizations are fond of euphemism, puffery and Orwellian branding. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea isn't a democracy. Neither was the German Democratic Republic. White chocolate isn't really chocolate. Mountain oysters aren't shellfish.

What the Nazis were about is clearly delineated in the 25 points. They were a nationalistic, authoritarian party from the beginning. They were anti-Communist and sought to undo the Treaty of Versailles, expel any "non-Germans" who had entered the country since 1918, and deny citizenship to and abrogate the civil rights of Jews.

Sure, some items in the 25 points may look fairly benign and maybe even reasonable to people who don't see anything problematic with an America First! slogan. But again, Nazis lie. Don't look at their advertising, look at what they do.

On Nov. 8, 1923, inspired by Mussolini's successful March on Rome in October 1922, Hitler and his Brownshirts took over a Munich beer hall and tried to capture the local army headquarters. They meant to take over the city and use it as a base from which they could move against what they called the "Berlin Jew government and the November criminals" of 1918.

Stupidly, the Nazis left Munich's telegraph office unmolested, so someone called the Bavarian police. After a battle that cost the lives of 16 Nazis and four cops, the Beer Hall Putsch was put down. Two days later Hitler was arrested for treason. His 24-day trial--in which he admitted wanting to overthrow the government and portrayed himself as a German patriot-- made him world famous. In his closing statement he said, "The man who is born to be a dictator is not compelled. He wills it. He is not driven forward, but drives himself. There is nothing immodest about this ... The man who feels called upon to govern a people has no right to say, 'If you want me or summon me, I will cooperate.' No! It is his duty to step forward."

The Nazis were nationalists, hard right-wingers. The "socialist" in their name was a branding tool; the cynically propagandistic appropriation of a term that had cozy associations for a lot of people at the time. They didn't believe in state ownership of the forces of production, their welfare provisions were no more progressive the Otto Bismarck's, they repressed labor unions, and while we might approve of their animal welfare laws, the Nazis were a bunch of murderous, racist thugs.

Not socialist. Nope. Wrong.

pmartin@arkansasonline.com

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Editorial on 08/27/2017

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