Socialism and Nazism

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This article deals with the relationship between Socialism and Nazism.

Nazism, i.e., National Socialism, appears to some as a form of socialism but this is commonly rejected by modern socialists. The word Totalitarianism was coined to address the similarities of Nazism and Stalinist Socialism

The view that the Nazis were socialists is nevertheless promoted by some. Others consider this label a smear tactic employed with the sole motive of associating socialist policies with genocide, mass murder, forced labor and aggressive expansionism, attributes which they feel are at best characteristic for totalitarian communist regimes.

Table of contents

1 Reasons Nazism is considered socialist 2 Reasons Nazism is not considered socialist 3 Means of production 4 Centralized planning

Reasons Nazism is considered socialist

• Self-depiction: the German Nazi Party called itself the "National Socialist Worker's Party", and in 1927, Hitler said, "We are socialists."
• The Left Wing (examples include Gregor Strasser and Ernst Röhm), and working class brownshirts (or Sturmabteilung) within the Nazi Party supported socialist programs.
• One writer, Llewellyn H. Rockwell at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, suggests that the chief difference beween Nazism and (as he puts it) others forms of socialism is that the Hitler's socialism was nationalistic while other forms (such as Communism) were internationalist. [1]

Reasons Nazism is not considered socialist

• Throughout its rise to power and rule, the Nazis were strongly opposed by left-wing and socialist parties, and Nazi rhetoric was virulently anti-Marxist, attacking both communists and social democrats.

• Nazis proposed that only people who were considered "racially pure" or Aryan would benefit from their policies. This is contrary to the socialist notion of a society for the benefit of all.

• In his rise to power, Hitler reassured German industrialists that he would respect private property and fight labor unions.

• Hitler received strong support from the conservatives for the "Enabling Act." This legislation was opposed by left wing social democrats.

• After coming to power, Hitler sent thousand of communists, social democrats and unionists to concentration camps and killed the communist leaders in Germany. He outlawed labor unions and guaranteed corporate profits for Krupp & Co.

• The profits of large corporations soared under the Nazis.

• Ultimately, Hitler was interested in absolute power and is thus correctly classified a fascist.

Means of production

One definition of socialism is:

"[A] system of social organization by which the major means of production and distribution are owned, managed, and controlled by the government, by an association or workers, or the community as a whole."

To the extent which Nazi Germany nationalized the means of production in the 1930s and early 1940s, it fits this definition.

Centralized planning

In some versions of socialism, collective ownership is limited to control of natural resources and utilities. In others, there is a view that economic planning and control should be centralized in the state.

To the extent that the Nazis centralized economic planning and control, it might seem to some to fit this description as well. Centralized economic planning and control is a necessary condition of socialism.