This question has been steeping in my mind in the years since a conversation with an ex-friend of mine (libertarian baby-fascist) regarding his self-identification as a “Nationalist” and his point that he thinks “The ‘socialism’ of Scandinavian countries would be okay here (United States) if it were only for the American citizens”.
It didn’t occur to me then to ask him if that made him a National Socialist and if he had any familiarity with that term, but… Now I don’t talk to that baby-fasc at all.
So anyway, the question that I have now is “Why Did The Nazis Call Their Party ‘Socialist’?” I understand they definitely weren’t socialist, they were extremely capitalist with private interests using the power of the state to plunder the networth of “undesirables”.
So why did they call themselves socialist? Was there a pretense that the state would build a socialist support network after it established itself as an imperial entity? (But) The Night of Long Knives was them scouring the party of any left-leaning members, right?
Did they call themselves socialist just as branding?
have lost the provenance for this but the quotes check out
The Nazis were not socialists. Their entire goal was to latch onto a popular political movement and redefine it to fit their needs(as all fascists typically do).
They did not support worker ownership of the means of production and the right for workers to work for themselves. Hitler repealed legislation that nationalized industry in Germany, and oversaw the expansion of private industry. The first modern implementation of privatization on a grand scale took place under the supervision of the Nazis. The word “privatization” was coined to describe a central tenet of Nazi economic policy. The Nazis raided and imprisoned union leaders and broke up trade unions. They repealed worker rights.
Behold Hitler’s own words:
“There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that the people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction - to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything, is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power - that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago.”
—Hitler, explaining that he vehemently opposes the Left, and believes only Rightists like himself can make Germany great again.
“Our adopted term ‘Socialist’ has nothing to do with Marxian Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true socialism is not.”
—Hitler, literally admitting his “socialism” is a whole new thing and has nothing to do with the usual definition of the word.
“The ideology that dominates us is in diametrical contradiction to that of Soviet Russia. National Socialism is a doctrine that has reference exclusively to the German people. Bolshevism lays stress on international mission. We National Socialists believe a man can, in the long run, be happy only among his own people.”
—Hitler, trying so hard to explain that he isn’t a socialist, that he opposes socialism, and that the term National Socialist is something he made up and only has meaning within the context of its own paradigm.
“We National Socialists see in private property a higher level of human economic development that according to the differences in performance controls the management of what has been accomplished enabling and guaranteeing the advantage of a higher standard of living for everyone. Bolshevism destroys not only private property but also private initiative and the readiness to shoulder responsibility.”
—Hitler, spelling it out in very clear terms that he wholeheartedly supports private ownership of property, i.e. capitalism, and opposes worker ownership of property, which he calls “Bolshevism”, i.e. real, actual socialism.
“What right do these people have to demand a share of property or even in administration?.. The employer who accepts the responsibility for production also gives the workpeople their means of livelihood. Our greatest industrialists are not concerned with the acquisition of wealth or with good living, but, above all else, with responsibility and power. They have worked their way to the top by their own abilities, and this proof of their capacity – a capacity only displayed by a higher race – gives them the right to lead.”
—Hitler, attacking the notion of worker ownership of property and licking capitalist boot.
