The conclusion of this multi-part entry has once again Wikipedia
in teal, proper quotations in blue, and my occasional in-text comments in red.
---
Hitler’s
Nazism drew heavily on Italian Fascism: nationalism, including
collectivism and populism, based on nationalist values; the Third Position (including
class collaboration, corporatism, economic planning, mixed economy, national
syndicalism, protectionism, and the studies of socialism which fit the Nazi
party ideologues and agendas); totalitarianism (including dictatorship, holism,
major social interventionism, and statism); and militarism. (The fact that German Nazi ideology was chronologically posterior
to Italian totalitarian Fascism has been amply discussed already, and no wonder
that the Third Reich borrowed a lot from the last Roman Imperium. However, it
was not entirely derivative, as all totalitarian philosophies, both “anterior”
and “posterior” rely heavily on the totalitarian principles of the grandfather
of them all, Plato. At the same time, we must admit that totalitarianism is a
natural tendency in human society, Plato or no Plato. In that respect, each
manifestation of totalitarianism anywhere has its own peculiarities and
idiosyncrasies, which clarifies the following discourse about the “uniqueness”
of German Nazism. –)
Uniquely,
Nazism added a non-rationalist racial dimension to this otherwise typically
Fascist ideology:
“Every
manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical
skill, which we see before our eyes to-day, is almost exclusively the product
of the Aryan creative power. This very fact fully justifies the conclusion that
it was the Aryan alone who founded a superior type of humanity; therefore he
represents the archetype of what we understand by the term: “Mann.” He
is the Prometheus of mankind, from whose shining brow the divine spark of
genius has at all times flashed forth, always kindling anew that fire which, in
the form of knowledge, illuminated the dark night by drawing aside the veil of
mystery and thus showing man how to rise and become master over all the other
beings on the earth. Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will
descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will vanish,
and the world will become a desert.” (Mein Kampf)
The
anti-rationalist identification between Aryanism and Germanism, and its
esoteric opposition to Jewish Bolshevism, was a source of much
confusion. Large institutions were established to define what an Aryan was,
with poor success and finally the concept evolved around their practical needs.
Originally some Aryan peoples, like Roma, were excluded and annihilated, while
certain “infrahuman” East Slavs, like Ukrainians, were redefined as Aryans
during the war, for the sake of alliances.
Although
Nazism experimented with many different ideas, the core values of Hitler and
most of his popular base are seen by some as strongly conservative and have
been usually defined as reactionary. Hitler and the Nazis supported a certain
subset of traditional values:
---Antifeminism.
The role of women in Nazi Germany was still defined with the traditional
formula Kinder, Küche, Kirche. In a 1934 speech, Hitler
stated that the slogan “Emancipation of Women” was invented by
Jewish intellectuals, and its content was formed by the same spirit. In the
really good times of German life, the German woman had no need to emancipate
herself. She possessed exactly what nature had necessarily given her to
administer and preserve; just as the man in his good times had no need to fear
that he would be ousted from his position in relation to the woman. In fact,
woman was least likely to challenge his position. Only when he was not
completely certain in his knowledge of his task did the eternal instinct of
self--, and race-preservation begin to rebel in women. There then grew from
this rebellion a state of affairs, which was unnatural and lasted until both
sexes returned to the respective spheres which an eternally wise providence had
preordained for them. If the man’s world is said to be the State, his struggle,
his readiness to devote his powers to the service of the community, then it may
perhaps be said that the woman’s is a smaller world. For, her world is her
husband, her family, her children, and her home. Strong social and familiar
order with rigid hierarchization of all aspects of life, supported by harsh
discipline and a militaristic point of view.
---Extreme
homophobia, leading to the extermination of homosexuals.
---Persecution
of the so-called “degenerate” art.
---Strong
rejection of youth sex, prostitution, pornography and “sexual vice.” Smoking,
drinking and use of cosmetics were discouraged.
Here are
a few more quotations from Mein Kampf:
“If we
study the course of our cultural life during the last twenty-five years, we
will be astonished to note how far we have already gone in this process of
retrogression. Everywhere we find the presence of the germs that give rise to
protuberant growths which must sooner or later bring about the ruin of our
culture. Here we find undoubted symptoms of slow corruption; and woe to the
nations that are no longer able to bring that morbid process to a halt.
In
almost all the various fields of German art and culture those morbid phenomena
may be observed. Here everything seems to have passed the culminating point of
its excellence and to have entered the curve of a hasty decline. At the
beginning of the century the theatres seemed already degenerating and ceasing
to be cultural factors, except the Court theatres, which opposed this
prostitution of the national art. With these exceptions, and also a few other
decent institutions, the plays produced on the stage were of such a nature that
the people would have benefited by not visiting them at all. A sad symptom of
decline was manifested by the fact that in the case of many ‘art centers’ the
sign was posted on the entrance doors: For Adults Only. …That such a
mentality (racial purity) may be possible cannot be denied in a world where
hundreds and thousands accept the principle of celibacy from their own choice,
without being obliged or pledged to do so by anything except an ecclesiastical
precept. Why should it not be possible to induce people to make this sacrifice
if instead of such a precept they were simply told that they ought to put an
end to this truly original sin of racial corruption, which is steadily being
passed on from one generation to another. And, further, they ought to be
brought to realize that it is their bound duty to give to the Almighty Creator
beings such as He himself made to His own image.
Prostitution
is a disgrace to humanity and cannot be removed simply by charitable or
academic methods. Its restriction and final extermination presupposes the
removal of a whole series of contributing circumstances. The first remedy must
always be to establish such conditions as make early marriage possible,
especially for young men--- for women are, after all, only passive subjects in
this matter.
Those
who want seriously to combat prostitution must first of all assist in removing
the spiritual conditions on which prostitution thrives. They will have to clean
up the moral pollution of our city 'culture' fearlessly and without regard for
the outcry which is sure to follow. If we do not drag our youth out of the
morass of their present environment, they will be engulfed by it. Those people
who do not want to see these things are deliberately encouraging them, and they
are guilty of spreading the effects of prostitution to the future, as the
future belongs to our young generation. This process of cleansing our Kultur
will have to be applied in practically all spheres. The stage, art, literature,
the cinema, the Press and advertisement posters--- all must have stains of
pollution removed, and be placed in the service of a national and cultural
idea. The life of the people must be freed from the asphyxiating perfume of
our modern eroticism, and also, from every unmanly and prudish form of
insincerity. In all these things the aim and the method must be determined by a
thoughtful consideration for the preservation of our national well-being in
body and soul. The right to personal freedom comes second in importance to the
duty of maintaining the race.”
Hitler
blamed Germany’s parliamentary government for many of the nation’s ills, and
wrote that he would destroy that form of government. Many historians have
asserted that his essential character can be found in Mein Kampf. In this
book, he categorized human beings by their physical attributes, claiming that
German, or Nordic Aryans were at the top of the hierarchy, while assigning the
bottom orders to Jews and Roma. He proclaimed that dominated peoples benefit by
learning from superior Aryans, and said that the Jews were conspiring to keep
this master race from rightfully ruling the world by diluting its racial and cultural
purity, and exhorting Aryans to believe in “equality”, rather than in
superiority and inferiority. He also described a struggle for world domination,
an ongoing racial, cultural, and political battle between the Aryans and the
Jews. (Hitler’s Germanism is by no means
original, of course. Fichte had made this point no less eloquently and
emphatically well over a century before Hitler.)
This may conclude the present
entry, but its subject is carried on into the next entry Hitler’s Gentile. It is therefore proper to close this one with “To Be Continued…”
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