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.
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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."
The source intends to provide a controversial opinion in order to prevent people from blindly following leaders as well as to provide a statement warning of the acts of nationalism. While the views from the source are beneficial and introduce different views on the subject of nationalism—nationalism doesn’t start wars nor does it lead to blind obedience; greedy and power hungry people who decidedly hind behind the views of nationalism do. Nationalism is just a term that describes the desire for the prosperity of one’s country as well as patriotic feelings towards said country. Feelings of pride for a country do not evoke malicious intent the people who twist those ideas and cross the line into ultranationalism do. Leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Hirohito, and Harry Truman use the word nationalism to persuade others to follow them by glamorizing the term and tricking people into agreeing with them. The Holocaust wasn’t caused due to
Peter Fritzche’s book, Germans into Nazis, contends that, “Germans became Nazis because they wanted to become Nazis and because the Nazis spoke so well to their interests and inclinations…however, voters did not back Hitler mainly because they share his hatred of the Jews…but because they departed from established political traditions in that they were identified at once with a distinctly popular form of ethnic nationalism and with the basic social reforms most Germans counted on to ensure national well-being.” (8-9) His argument rests on the notion that the Nazis had a vision for Germany that incorporated Germans into a national community, throwing off the restraints of a tired government, and propelled them towards a future that would
Moving further, Germans began challenging their current political structure, as a large majority of civilians now rejected the seemingly weak authority of the Weimar Republic. With the decrease in faith towards a strong democratic republic, a desire for a powerful nationalistic leader such as Adolf Hitler arose. Hitler and the Nazi Party were able to quickly spread their own extremist beliefs through the rising German nationalism. For instance, Hitler utilized the appeal of uniting all Germans in Europe in a singular nation, then using this unification to strengthen German desire for expansion and militarization. He desired the power colonize and control Eastern territories, an establishment of complete power demonstrated previously by imperial powers such as Britain. However, Hitler and the Nazis also maintained a sense of Aryan racial superiority, believing all other races were inferior to the Germans, especially Jews. They called for a complete ethnic cleansing, thus resulting in the Holocaust. As horrific as these beliefs were, they were made possible through a remarkable faith in Hitler and the Nazi Party. The extremist actions taken within Nazi Germany can be traced back to a desire for nationalism due to the results of the Treaty of Versailles and diminishing of faith in a failing democratic system.
In the context of 1814-1914 nationalism is seen a prevailing factor for the cause of World War I. However in this essay I will be questioning how important nationalism really is and how imperialism may intersect with nationalism as a factor of generating World War I. Nationalism is a controversial topic with regards to WW1, with many different interpretations and definitions. First to understand nationalism you have to understand what a nation is, the Oxford dictionary describes a nation as “A community of people of mainly common descent, history, language. etc., forming a state or inhabiting a territory.” One historian, German historian Peter Alter defines Nationalism as "both an ideology and a political movement which holds the nation and
Nationalism creates and encourages an ideology that emphasizes a competitive association between what can be considered the ‘in-group’ and ‘others’; which is applicable to the subject of race and racism (Garner, 2010). A clear example in support of this argument is the case of Nazi Germany; where whilst the Jewish community may have identified themselves with being German, their Jewish customs and practices identified them as the ‘others’, due to their behaviour failing to adhere to what was deemed acceptable by the majority
A group of people trying to achieve the same violent goal. With that more ideas to destroy others is a more of priority than keeping people safe. Nationalism goes with militarism. Having superior view of everything or winning everything. Nationalism makes people want genocides and wars like Hitler's thinking. so they can see who’s nation is better. Nationalism makes people forget about the safety of their country and more about the military and killing other races,nations and countries
Nationalism is being proud of your country and it is something historically people have worked for a long time to have. The rise of nationalism reshaped the world in many way including both socially and politically by mid-nineteenth century (1800’s).
The destructive aftermath of Germany’s defeat in World War I led to a decline in nationalism and morale of the German people. However, Hitler and his Nazi regime’s passion to bring back patriotism quickly generated a contagious sense of pride that ultimately split the once unified country into a dichotomous society among the German youth and adults. Hitler’s propaganda indoctrinated the youth of the false realities of war and forced them to think the same ideologies as him. With the absence of parental guidance, they easily had their own perspectives about politics, war, and the real world which did not concur with the rest of the older population. Therefore, parents remain at fault for allowing children to believe the skepticism of propaganda set forth by the government because objection to anything in relation to Hitler's ideology instilled the fear of treason witnessed by their nationalistic children.
Nazism, the ideology devised by the National Socialist German Worker’s Party or Nazi Party formerly known as the German Worker’s Party until Hitler came to power within the party, regards itself as national socialist. Hitler(1922 speech ex.1) described national as, “to be ‘national’ means above everything else to act with a boundless and all-embracing love for the people and, if necessary, even to die for it” , and social as , “to be ‘social’ means so to build up the State and community that every individual acts in the interest of the community of the people and must be to such an extent convinced of the goodness, of the honourable straightforwardness of this community of the people as to be ready to die for it.” This essay will reinforce the point that Nazism is a nationalist and will do so by examining the key factors of the actions National Socialist German Worker’s Party or NSDAP took to improve the economy of Germany.
Nationalism is a multidimensional concept that contributes a shared identification with one’s nation. It is an ideology that makes people of a particular nation feel so proudly of their nation and that their nation is better than all others. It places emphasis on promoting its culture and interests.
Nationalism is defined as “patriotic feeling”, now this patriotism can be used positively and bring a nation together, or it could have a negative impact that leads to the hatred of other countries. This negative impact that Nationalism had was especially true in Germany, they were extremely proud of their military system and were very proud of their leaders. Russia was also patriotic, for they created a form of nationalism called “Pan-Slavism”, where in some way all the Slavic people were considered one nation. And so Russia was
Nationalism was a result of a myriad of contributing factors which had a plethora of significant impacts on Germany during the years 1815 and 1871. Nationalism is an ideology based on the sense of loyalty and devotion one has to their nation and the beliefs that those who share a common language, history, and culture should constitute an independent nation free of foreign domination. The first, and perhaps most significant, effect that nationalism had upon Germany was that it led to German unification in 1871. Another impact that nationalism had in Germany was that it allowed Germans to develop a sense of national identity. Nationalism also played a huge role in enabling Germany to become a dominant power within Europe. Therefore, nationalism
In 1920, Hitler and Anton Drexler wrote the 25 points, explaining the main ideas of the party and the principles to bring Germany to his former glory. They were written to appeal to the Nationalists who believed that Germans were the superior race, socialists who wished to assist lower class people and most others who wanted restore Germany and blamed other such as the Jews for Germany’s defeat in World War 1. The points regarded the unification of Germany, self-determination gain back of land and expansions of settlements, destroying the treaty, anti-semitism, anti-foreigner, “member of the race” citizenship, no immigration, everyone must work, division of profits, extension of welfare for
Wailing comes from the room next to yours. Your used to the sound of young children’s cries, but this is something much different. You can hear the woman’s heart being wrenched out by the sound of her cries. Thoughts of kidnappers and other horrors flow through your mind as you stroke the child in your crib. It’s only a matter of time before that woman’s cries become a harmony for your own. That was the price you had to pay to make the new generation in Nazi Germany. They say the next generation is the future of the world. Imagine being offered to be part of that future generation, but knowing that in the process, you would be encouraged to take away the future of a different generation. Most people would say no, as your conscience has developed with freedom of thought and speech. But in Nazi Germany, some people didn’t know better. And those people were children. From a young age, even from the time they were born, these children were conditioned to think that this other generation, the Jews, was evil, and it was necessary to eradicate them. This is the epitome of Anti-Semitism, meaning a “hatred and suspicion of the Jews” (Laqueur 1). They were using children to enhance this ‘hatred’. Nursery Schools like the Lebensborn Project had Aryan women breed with Nazi soldiers to create “perfect” Aryan children. Past that, Anti-Semitic textbooks taught about the superiority of the Aryan race, and skewed the evolutionary ideas of Darwin. After all this it is no surprise these
Hitler attained power in 1933 as the result of a complex set of factors. He was the right man at the right time to take advantage of the problems that had arisen in Germany in the post war years.