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Nazism as an Extension of Nationalism Essay

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Nazism as an Extension of Nationalism

Nazi Germany was the creation of Adolf Hitler, and Nazism was his movement. It began as a union, known as the 'National Sozialistische Deustches Arbeiten Partei." It grew to be a powerful political party under the ruling of Hitler, paving his way to German Chancellor and President, the undisputed leader of the entire German state. The concept of Nazism was developed during this course in history. It is a concept based loosely on an abstract theme of nationalism, interpreted by Hitler to proclaim his Ayran race as the 'Master Race'. It was taken to an extreme, however, by Hitler's sadistic genocide of minority groups within the country, particularly the Jews. …show more content…

Nationalism was a major starting force of World War I, with the Austro - Hungarian, Ottoman and Russian Empires. The very idea of empires is nationalistic - a pride in your nation means you want to expand and expose others to your rule. And previously in Germany, nationalism had contributed to the unification of the German state.

Hitler took nationalism to a new level. By comparing the basic points of nationalism and Nazism, the connection between the two is clear, but the development of Nazism from nationalism is incomprehensible. Nationalism is being proud of your country. Nazism was a fantastical interpretation of this, and pride morphed into the thought of being superior. This superiority led to the belief in the Aryan race, "All the human culture, all the results of art, science and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan. This very fact admits of the not unfounded inference that he alone was the founder of all higher humanity. Therefore representing the prototype of all that we understand by the word 'man'…If we were to divide mankind into three groups, the founders of culture, the bearers of culture, the destroyers of culture, only the Aryan could be considered as the representative of the first group. From him originates the foundations and walls of all human creations."

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