4/18 Nazism

In January 1919,  the same month that Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered in Berlin and shortly after Weber delivered his speech to the students at the University of Munich, the German Worker’s Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP) was formed in Munich by right-wing nationalists and former soldiers. A few months after in September, a police spy and veteran of the war, Adolph Hitler infiltrated the party. As part of his cover he gave speeches in support of the party’s strong anti-communism, Antisemitism, nationalism, and its promise to resolve the differences between business and labor and lead Germany back to prosperity and its past glory. He had a strong effect on the audience. Soon he abandoned his cover and became a real member of this party that claimed to represent the common man and would lead Germany back to greatness. In 1920 the party is renamed the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nationalsozialistiche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP, or more commonly, the Nazi Party).

The symbol they adopt the Swastika is originally a symbol used in Ancient Indian society and found in other ancient cultures like the Greeks and the Celts. The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit word "svastika" and means "to be good" or "being with higher self."

By 1921, Hitler is the sole leader of the party. In 1923, Hitler attempts to seize power in Munich. He fails and police kill over a dozen of his supporters (Hitler reportedly fled the scene) and he is put in jail. Despite committing what could clearly be called treason he is released less than a year later in December 1924. During his time in prison, he writes his biography and political statement Mein Kampf (My Struggle) where he outlines his future plans for Germany among these are: revenge against France for the war and its harsh treatment of Germany after, expulsion of the Jewish influence, and the conquest of “Living Space” (Lebensraum) so that Germany could possess enough resources to be fully self-sufficient. 1923 is also significant because it is the same year in which German inflation hit its peak when a pound of bread cost three billion marks. In 1923 France also occupied parts of Germany’s Western industrialized areas in order to enforce Germany’s war reparations; it was also the year after Italian fascist dictator and future war ally Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy who became an inspiration to Hitler.

Germany in 1925 was much different than 1923. The government had managed to get inflation under control; diplomatic relations with other countries improved from a series of treaties; war reparations payments were reduced; and foreign trade expanded especially with the United States who also helped the Weimar government in the other areas as well. Hitler had to adjust his tactics, switching from a revolutionary seizure of power to participating in the political system by gaining representation in the parliament (Reichstag) while still openly condemning the political system. Although their party membership steadily grows they have difficulties gaining political power. As late as 1928, the Nazi party receives less than 3 percent of the vote in national elections. The German Communist Party (KPD) the offspring of the Spartacists and the Worker’s Councils, and the arch nemesis of the Nazi party and also openly condemning the political system has three times as many members in the Reichstag.

In general, however, the political system was in crisis and voters were deserting political parties and retreating into private life and private associations. Many of these organizations increasingly took on a nationalist and in many cases an anti-Semitic character. The officials who ran these organizations later supplied the Nazi party with disciplined party organizers and activists. This and the weakness of political parties were decisive factors in the Nazi seizure of power.

In late 1929 the Great Depression hit worldwide as a result of the crash of the stock market in America and resulting mass bank failures. Germany was particularly affected because its economy had become deeply linked to the U.S. economy. Unemployment increases from about 1.5 million workers in 1929 to over 5 million workers in 1932 out of a total population of about 60 million. The Nazi’s capitalized on the severe economic disaster. By 1930 they had become the second largest party in the Reichstag after the Social Democratic Party (SPD), it now became impossible to form a majority in parliament without them. Street fights between Nazi and Communist forces intensify. The centrist government under Chancellor Heinrich Brüning, invokes article 48 of the Constitution and declares a state of emergency in order to keep the government functioning because the Nazis are completely uncompromising and will not work with the more moderate parties. Years later, French Marxist, Alfred Sohn-Rethel would note the conflict between different "factions of capitalists" the newer, more prosperous industries siding with Brüning and the older, less successful industries-namely coal, construction, and steel-favoring the Nazis.

In 1932 they became the largest party in the Reichstag. Hitler runs for president (Reichpresident) against the incumbent Paul von Hindenburg who is 84 years of age and in poor health. He was pushed to run because Brüning and the other government leaders believed that this old-school monarchist who openly condemned democracy was the only man who could beat Adolph Hitler. Hitler loses narrowly. Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor of the Reich (Reichkanzler) in January 1933, ten years after he fails to seize power and is sent to jail, and two months before Franklin Roosevelt is sworn in as the 32^nd President of the United States (The 20^th amendment of the U.S. Constitution was passed in 1933 to change the date the president is sworn in to January).

In February, the Reichstag is set on fire. The Nazis blame the Communists for the fire and under the pretext of a terrorist attack, the Reichstag Fire Decrees are passed immediately and the Enabling Act is passed in March 1933 granting Hitler’s government full dictatorial powers. All of the communists and about a ¼ of the social democratic representatives in the Reichstag are arrested, beaten, or otherwise forcibly prevented from voting for this law. Only the remaining members of the SPD vote against the Enabling Act, the Catholic Center and conservative parties vote for the Enabling Act. This act gives permanent emergency powers to the German Chancellor, Hitler, who promptly suspends all civil and political liberties. 

The Weimar Constitution remains in effect but from this point on it is just a formality. Political parties are dissolved except for the Nazi party and it becomes illegal to form new parties. The government begins cracking down on communists, artists, intellectuals, trade unionists, social democrats, and other political opponents. Feminists are attacked, as are homosexuals as traditional patriarchic values are forcibly re-established. Jews and all racial minorities are persecuted and denied any legal protection. The first concentration camp is created at Dachau, near Munich, the birthplace of Nazism in 1933. Around the cultural center of Weimar which represents the highest achievements of German art and humanism, the Buchenwald concentration camp is constructed in 1937 (along with hundreds more). Buchenwald and Dachau were among the first concentration camps in Germany liberated by the U.S. and allies in 1945 (the first concentration camp liberated by the U.S. was Natzweiler in France in August 1944) this was the first confirmation for the West of the true horrors of the Nazi regime. On the Eastern front the Russians liberated the Majdanek concentration camp in July 1944 in Poland. It is in Poland where the "death factories" like Auschwitz and Treblinka are established.

By 1934, Hitler’s dictatorship is firmly established.  Hitler purges the party of all but his most loyal supporters and those who share his ideology. Several political executions occur, including the man responsible for Hitler being sent to jail in 1924. President Hindenburg dies in office. Hitler fuses the offices of Chancellor (technical leader) and President (emotional leader) into the new title, The Leader (Fürher).

By 1935, the militaristic and expansionist ambitions of the fascist leaders are evident. In 1931 Japan occupies Manchuria in Northern China and establishes the puppet state of Manchukuo (Japan had also occupied the Korean peninsula since 1910 and Taiwan in 1895). Hitler’s ally Mussolini invades Ethiopia in 1935. Ethiopia and Liberia were the only African nations not to be conquered by European imperialists in the 19th century. Unlike Liberia however which was founded in the 19th by American colonists looking to transport freed slaves, Ethiopia's origins date back to the Aksum Empire stretching back to the time of the Roman and Persian Empires, and for centuries had been an independent and sovereign power. Fascists in Italy were driven by the the idea of recreating the Roman Empire that once controlled the Mediterranean and set about trying to conqueror North Africa to accomplish this. The modern day state of Libya is actually a product of Italian fascism which fused together three separate colonies in Northern Africa and renamed it Libya in 1934. The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie I, puts up a good fight against a superior force.  The Italian fascists resort to using chemical weapons against the Ethiopians, even attacking Red Cross hospitals. Selassie becomes an icon of anti-fascism and becomes Time magazine’s "Man of The Year" for 1935, but the Italians conquer Ethiopia. In 1936 Germany occupies the Rhineland, an area that had been declared a "demilitarized" zone after the first world war. 

Also in 1936 Germans and Italians support a fascist revolt in Spain led by General Francisco Franco against the republican government in Spain. Already in 1933 a fascist government was installed in Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar, the "New State," or Estado Novo. This also inspires Getúlio Vargas who had ruled Brazil since 1930, a former Portugese colony, to institute a Estado Novo in Brazil in 1937 until the return of democracy in 1945. The Spanish Civil War is seen by many as a testing ground for World War II, the Germans were able to test out their war equipment and see how well it performs. It performs well because by 1939 Franco is installed as the fascist dictator of Spain. Ironically, Franco and Salazar who stayed neutral during the war are possibly the most successful of the fascists in a way. Salazar lasts until 1968, the regime itself lasts until 1974. Franco and his regime last until his death in 1975. Both nations, however, were accepted into all of the major international organizations after the war like the United Nations (UN) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after World War II.

In 1937 Japan launches a full-scale invasion of China. International relations theorist Immanuel Wallerstein refers to World War I and World War II as the "Thirty Year's War," suggesting a radical reinterpretation of of historical events. Eurocentric historians date the beginning of World War II to the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the invasion of China in 1937 could just as easily be considered the beginning of World War II, because it was a continuous and unending conflict between the two Asian powers which expanded into Japanese conquest of European colonial empires and into the war against the U.S. and Japan in 1941 (however the "official date" is still given September 1st, 1939).

Despite the obvious militaristic nature of the fascist governments many celebrate Hitler’s success. The economy grows on average 9% between 1933-1939, roughly similar to the level that the Chinese economy is growing today. Unemployment was lower in Germany than in the United States during the 1930s, although workers were paid less on average than U.S. workers. 

John Heartfield, AIZ, 1935

Many U.S. business executives at Ford and General Motors praise the Germans success like GM head William S. Knudsen, who called Nazi Germany "the miracle of the twentieth century" and later as head of GM was the first civilian to be promoted directly to an U.S. Army General and played a key role in directing the economic side of the U.S. war effort in the 1940s. Hitler in turn praises industrialists like Henry Ford both for their success in business and antisemitism.  The Nazi Volkswagen project was meant to imitate the success of the Ford Model T, while Ford published articles like The International Jew (Hitler was known to have a portrait of Ford in his office). In 1936 Germany hosts the Olympics and in 1938 Hitler is named Time "Man of the Year." 

Groups like the America First Committee (largely funded by business executives) were committed to non-intervention in the war and peace with Germany right up until the attack on Pearl Harbor in late 1941. Another controversial, and seldom discussed, event is the alleged "Business Plot" planned against Franklin Roosevelt in 1934 to overthrow the government and replace it with a fascist regime. Although no one disputes that plans were made, the extent of the execution of the planned coup is disputed, but it is believed to have involved major U.S. corporations such as General Motors, DuPont, Ford, and JP Morgan and other businesses with close ties to the Nazi regime, as well as private organizations like the American Legion and the American Liberty League. In 1935, American novelist Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) publishes It Can't Happen Here, it takes place in a fictional U.S. taken over by a fascist government who similar to the Nazis claim to be restoring traditional values. The irony of the title is that even as the country becomes more of a totalitarian dictatorship characters are constantly assuring each other "fascism could never happen here."  Even more ironically, the fascist paramilitary group in the story are referred to as "The Minute Men," a distorted version of the colonial militias who were supposed to "be ready to fight in a minute." In 2005 a group using that name who claim to be "a nightwatch on the border" has emerged composed of private individuals who have taken it on themselves to enforce "border security." 

By 1938 however, Germany is making obvious moves to occupy other countries. Hitler (born in Austria near the birth of the Nazi movement in Bavaria) occupies Austria without a fight. Through a vote, the country becomes part of Germany. Next, Hitler tries to occupy the German speaking areas of Czechoslovakia. The British and French governments allow him to do this believing this will satisfy the Hitler’s ambition at the end of 1938. A few months later in early 1939, Hitler invades and occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia absorbing its factories, its resources, and its workforce into the German military machine. 

In August 1939 the Germans and the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin sign a “Non-Aggression Pact” promising not to attack each other. This signals to the world war is inevitable.  Prior to this, the Soviet Union had maintained a "Popular Front" stance working with liberal democratic governments in the West with an anti-fascist alliance. In China, a similar alliance is struck between the communist forces of Mao Zedong and nationalist Chiang Kai-shek who interrupt their own civil war to make an alliance against Japan that lasts till the end of the war, eventually culminating in the communist takeover in 1949. 

On September 1^st, 1939 Germany invades Poland. On September 3rd, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. They begin an advance into Germany that stalls out and ends in stalemate. Poland is conquered in less than a month after the capital Warsaw is heavily bombed, the first time a city had been systematically bombed from the air, and becomes the site of some of the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime. Hitler and Stalin divide Poland before Hitler turns his sights west; the Second World War is underway.

How then did Hitler and the Nazi party come to power? We have discussed some of the political, economic, and cultural variables that led to this. Obviously the strength of extremists movements like this capitalized on economic crises to push its message. Look at Hitler’s actions in 1923, and the strength of the party after 1929. Many have also looked to the political system as making it easier for the Nazis to gain power without a majority.

Germany during the Weimar period, unlike the U.S. system, had multiple large political parties competing against each other. Germany also had a voting system that allocated seats in parliament according the overall percentage of the vote each party captured. Most of the time, one party falls short of having a majority of the vote (n < 50%). Parties then form “coalitions” or alliances with other parties to reach the majority threshold. When the government was originally created there was a “Weimar Coalition"  made up of the parties most supportive of the government. 



The SPD was the largest party but still depended on other parties like the Catholic Center Party and the German Democratic Party (Deutsche Demokratische Partei, DDP) to form a majority. The DDP was made up of left-leaning liberals and intellectuals like Max Weber, this party was the weak link in the chain however and could not deliver enough of the votes. After 1920 this coalition never received a majority again. In order to form a majority government a “Grand Coalition"  would have to include the conservative, right-leaning parties, like the German People’s Party (Deutsche Volkspartei, DVP) that represented big business interests, or the German National People’s Party (Deutschenationale Volkspartei, DNVP) which represented the remaining feudal nobles and was the most conservative class in Germany outside of the Nazis.

The Nazis from the beginning identified themselves as representing the true Germans, Das Volk (the people). The other conservative parties also tried to identify with the “volk” and used it in their names. The Nazis were given political legitimacy when they were endorsed by the DNVP as a junior partner. Many of the old school aristocrats were equally anti-Semitic and had equal contempt for democracy, they foolishly believed that they could control Hitler and the Nazis while using their popularity. This changed after 1930 when the Nazis became the dominant partner in the alliance. Most of the conservative elements in Germany believed that Germany had been “stabbed in the back” by foreigners and intellectuals who had too much influence in society. The Nazis promised to “get their country back” and restore Germany to its proper place in the world.

They were also against both communism and capitalism, blaming them both on Jews, even though that seems like a contradiction. They promised to resolve the struggles between business and labor, and originally tried to portray themselves as a non-communist alternative for the working classes. In a sense they were not lying since their strategy was to substitute racial struggle for class struggle. German businessmen and workers should put their differences aside and recognize their racial superiority over other races and nations. After coming to power the Nazis were able to control class struggle by controlling the prices of products and wages of workers. Independent unions were destroyed in favor of a Nazi controlled national union, the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront, DAF). Managers and executives of major corporations were mostly left in control, since little that they did was offensive to Nazi ideology, but they had to follow the directions of the Nazi bureaucrats, but on the other hand the government became their biggest customer with an increasingly bigger demand for goods to satisfy their war production. Hatred of capitalism was more of the international aspect of capitalism than any opposition to large-scale industry as long as it was under the control of the German government.

Some of the earliest interpretations of the Nazi regime like Franz Neumann’s Behemoth (1944) originally saw Nazism as the logical consequence of "monopoly capitalism." Assuming that the free-market system of supply and demand broke down during the first world war, Nazism is only an attempt for large industrial monopolies to maintain control over production through the power of the state. In other words it emerges as a crisis response to communism. Capitalism, which had developed largely in a Protestant religious framework, also had some ethical principles that imposed some limitations on the process of accumulation for industries. Under the Nazi regime these limitations are gone and the ruthless pursuit of accumulating capital and wealth without any limitations becomes normal. All the war production by the Germans after 1936 that helped rebuild its economy needed to find some kind of outlet. The behavior of the Germans during the war would be to take over all factories and industrial components and try to squeeze every last bit of resources and wealth out of the country similar to a "leveraged buyout" of another company. The Germans also used slave labor in the construction of roads and factories. Signs with the phrase "Arbeit Macht Frei" (Work is Freedom) were hung over the entrances of many concentration camps like Auschwitz. The “Final Solution,” the plan to exterminate all the remaining Jews in Europe, was implemented when the Allies started bombing German cities in 1942.

Major corporations in Germany benefited during the Nazi regime. Especially in the first few years of the Nazi regime, Hitler believed that automobile production was the key to reviving German industry (much as it had become the cornerstone of American industry). Companies like BMW profited under the Nazi regime. BMW actually stands for Bavarian Motor Works, it was founded in 1916 producing airplane engines for the German air force. This origin can be seen in the BMW emblem which is actually a plane propeller spinning against the blue sky. After the Treat of Versailles was signed in 1919, a stipulation of the treaty made it illegal to produce airplane engines in Germany for five years. The company switched to making motorcycles and cars. The famous design of BMWs then partially comes from the unintended consequences of the peace treaty which resulted in stripped down air plane engines installed in cars and motorbikes. After 1924 they were allowed to resume making airplane engines. During the Nazi era after 1933, production of airplanes increased dramatically. The No. 2 person in the Nazi regime was Hermann Göring, the head of the Air Force (Luftwaffe), which was a key element in the German strategy of warfare the Blitzkrieg (lightning war). BMW now admits to using as many as 20,000-30,000 slave laborers during the Nazi regime as well as producing military equipment for the Nazis.

The automobile was invented by Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler in Stuttgart in 1885, also the birthplace of Hegel. Ironically, Daimler and Benz were working separately and independently from each other and both began a process of inventing more complex internal combustion engines from the 1870s that culminated in the first "horseless carriage" (technically Benz is given credit for his design being patented first).

The first automobile, Karl Benz

 
Until 1926, Benz and Daimler operated separate companies that eventually merged (Daimler also had another partner named Maybach). Daimler-Benz AG the company that produces Mercedes Benz also produced military equipment for the Germans, and reportedly used the most slave labor of all the German car manufacturers. Daimler-Benz also owned Chrysler from 1998-2007.

Volkswagen was founded in 1937 by Austrian engineer Ferdinand Porsche (designer of the Porsche sports car and also designed several prototypes for tanks). Porsche had originally worked for the Daimler company before founding a design consulting firm that became the original Porsche company in 1931 (the sports car brand was not produced until after the war).

Founded during the peak of the Nazi regime, Volkswagen (People’s Car), was seen as a vehicle for the common people of Germany instead of the luxury brands Germans were already famous for. Volkswagen today also owns Audi and even foreign brands like Bentley (BMW owns Rolls Royce who made airplanes for the British during the war).

Besides the major car manufacturers other German corporations benefited from the Nazis. IG Farben, the parent company of Bayer, the company that invented aspirin, was allowed to perform experiments on people in concentration camps, and also developed “Zyklon B” the nerve gas used in the gas chambers in Auschwitz and other “death factories.” Hugo Boss, the fashion designer, designed the Nazi SS uniforms. The Deutsche Bank, at one time the largest bank in the world, helped confiscate Jewish owned businesses and loaned the funds to build Auschwitz.

Deutsche Bank Towers, Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany

Apart from the German companies that benefited from the Nazis major American corporations did as well. The support shown by many Americans for the Nazis in the 1930s until the U.S. entry in the war is a shameful chapter in American history. Linguistic theorist Noam Chomsky, who grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia, recalls people throwing block parties after Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940. In 1939 a major rally for American supporters of the Nazis was held at Madison Square Garden (not something you will see on the "50 Greatest Moments at MSG"). Besides these more individual and anecdotal examples there was active financial, trade, and commercial linkages between American banks and firms and their German counterparts. By the 1920s General Motors and Ford Motor Company were already considered “multinational corporations” having set up offices and production plants in many corners of the world. Henry Ford was an open Nazi sympathizer who also owned Ford Motorwerke in Germany which produced vehicles for the Nazis. General Motors purchased German auto manufacturer Opel and became sole owner in 1931. Although both companies claim they lost control of operations during the Nazi regime both companies still retained legal control throughout the Nazi era and benefited from the profits of these companies during and after the war without ever being asked to pay anything in reparations, the U.S. government actually paid them after the war to repair damages to their facilities. Opel is known to have produced as many as half of all the trucks used by the Nazis during World War II. 

The Union Banking Corporation was a large bank based in New York City that had its assets seized in October 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act for dealings with Nazis. This bank was owned by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. a Wall Street investment bank that was run by W. Averell Harriman, later Governor of New York in the 1950s, and one of the highest-ranking advisor in the FDR and Truman administrations in the 1940s; Robert Lovett, another high-ranking advisor and later Secretary of Defense after World War II; and Prescott Bush, (among other partners) father of George Hebert Walker Bush, and grandfather of George W. Bush. Prescott Bush was also implicated in the business plot to remove FDR in 1934. Brown Brothers Harriman is the oldest and largest private bank in the United States.

John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War during World War II, and later High Commissioner of Germany during reconstruction in the post-war era also had linkages to Nazi officials and industrialists through his association with IG Farben. Harriman, Lovett, and McCloy would later be dubbed the "Wise Men" of U.S. foreign policy along with other close friends of theirs.

The International Business Machines Corporation, better known as IBM, provided the tabulating machines (literally counting machines) that enabled the Nazis to organize the Holocaust. 

Political philosopher Hannah Arendt would later speak of the "banality of evil" when writing about the infamous trial of Nazi Adolph Eichmann in the 1960s. Banality refers to something trivial, inconsequential, or overly concerned with small details. Her point, is that unlike popular depictions, most Nazis were not raving psychopaths but most seemed like very ordinary, boring bureaucrats.

Despite the obvious benefits and advantages given to major industries during the Nazi era, not all are convinced that the Nazi regime was an outgrowth of monopoly capitalism. Fredrick Pollock, of the Frankfurt School, described the Nazi regime as a form of “state capitalism” where  he says, “the power motive takes precedence over the profit motive,” in other words although industries are still run as for profit businesses their activities are directed by the state in the interest of increasing national power, not maximizing profitability. This state exercises control by its ability to control financing and credit, the prices of raw materials, and the wages paid to workers, as well as setting production goals for corporations to follow. The new ruling class is composed of industrial managers, the party bureaucracy, and the government bureaucracy (including the military). This assumes that the political realm is independent somewhat of the economic realm.

 
Certain aspects of the Nazi regime, most notably the Holocaust are difficult to explain using economic analysis, the war itself became extremely unprofitable and damaging to the German economy yet it continued, so if decisions were made only on the basis of profitability it would be hard to explain these things. Also most of the Nazi leadership including Hitler did not come from the industrialist class in society.

Besides political and economic factors there are certain cultural factors to look at. For one, many point out that since the Germans had no history of democracy that they had a weak commitment to the democratic process. Certainly many of the political parties did, both the NSDAP (Nazis) and KPD (Communists) were openly committed to the destruction of the political system despite participating in it, while other parties like the conservative DNVP openly favored returning to the German Empire. At the same time, Weimar Germany had a very active civil society. The concept of civil society has recently become popular again since the late 1980s and 1990s during the wave of revolutions that toppled the communist governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The idea of  a network of voluntary private associations (or interest groups) were believed to be the key mechanisms in explaining the transition from a communist state to a liberal democratic state. However, evidence of a similar institutional structure was present in Weimar Germany, and it remains unclear how important a role civil society plays in sustaining a democratic government even if it may play a role in overturning an authoritarian government. 



Still, it is unlikely without the severe effects of the Great Depression the Nazis would have been able to take power. It should also be said despite all their appeals to the working class, the Nazis failed to ever gain much support among the working class who were either communists or social democrats. Nazis drew most of their early support from disgruntled army veterans (Hitler was one himself); the lumpenproletariat: the unemployed, irregularly employed, or illegally employed urban classes (like the criminals in M); and the petty bourgeoisie or the lower middle classes. This latter group is sometimes hard to define, they were not poor but were not among the top levels of society. They were not the ones who ran the large national and international corporations but the regional and small businesses, they were “the big fish in the small pond” so to speak. The petty bourgeoisie formed the biggest base of support for the Nazis in the earliest days. The big industrial and financial bourgeoisie were somewhat skeptical of the Nazis at first because of their vaguely socialist rhetoric. However Hitler himself despised the socialist aspects of his party and purged these elements after 1934. From the early days he tried to appeal more to business interests who eventually came around to Hitler seeing in him a way to stop communism.

Probably what set Hitler apart from other demagogues was his ability to exert “charismatic authority” (the Weberian concept) over his audiences, who saw in him some super-natural quality. Hitler was an admirer of Nietzsche and thought of himself as "the superman" (Übermensch) creating a new order of values that disposed of the weak liberal notions of human rights and substituted it for a philosophy of power legitimated through violence. This combined with claims to speaking for the “real Germans” and promises to “restore German greatness” struck a chord with insecure Germans who felt lost and directionless in their lives, and all too willing to find scapegoats for their alienation. One of the most common claims made by early Hitler supporters was the feeling that “he made me feel like I was not alone anymore.” Charismatic authority, combined with an appeal to tradition, and the highly bureaucratic nature of the party would then indicate all three major forms of authority identified by Weber (traditional, bureaucratic, and charismatic) and serves to illustrate that although these concepts can be analytically separated, in reality there is no clear separation between these forms of authority. The highly disciplined administrative staff that attached itself to Hitler would be an example of what Weber referred to as "the routinization of charisma" or the process of institutionalizing charismatic authority.

What lessons if any are there from the Nazi regime? I would argue that it seems sometimes that the extremes of the Nazis and the Holocaust is almost overemphasized sometimes to make them appear more distant from the rest of Europe and the U.S. Again, Arendt's comment on the banality of evil is instructive. Popular representations of Nazism and the Holocaust like the film Schindler's List (1993) are open to criticism on this point for depicting Nazis as barbaric savages instead of the more "human" banal bureaucrats that Arendt speaks of. This exaggeration is perhaps explained by an even deeper criticism against the inability to reflect upon the connection between our own way of life and atrocity, for example, Imre Kertész, a Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize winner in Literature, who wrote in response to the film, "I regard as kitsch [junk] any representation of the Holocaust that is incapable of understanding or not willing to understand the organic connection between our own deformed mode of life and the very possibility of the Holocaust." From this perspective a disturbing set of questions emerge: Do we in the U.S. today have people who like to separate “real Americans” from the rest and constantly talk about “taking our country back” and resort to all kinds of hysterical and paranoid theories? Do we not have those who exploit scapegoats, external or internal, as a way of directing attention away from other (possibly self-inflicted) problems? Do we not have those who manipulate people through the mass media to promote conformity? Is the country constantly at war or in a state of preparation for war? Do the military producers and contractors in this country (including companies like General Motors or Boeing) have a strong influence over government? Does our government keep the population under surveillance and detain individuals even without trial? These are all aspects of the Nazi regime as well. In other words are the Nazis a mirror through which we look at our own society, an extreme exaggerated behavior and worldview that reveals hidden impulses in all modern societies, or something totally alien? 

Leni Riefenstahl

Supposedly the first thing the Nazis would do when they conquered an area is to set up a public address (PA) system. Hitler articulated what would later be known as "the Big Lie" theory in Mein Kampf (the bigger the lie, the more outrageous, the more people will think its true). The Nazis employed propaganda and tried to manipulate the masses in their own country and in occupied areas as well. The following film is a propaganda film entitled “Triumph of the Will,” (Triumph des Willens) made in 1934, distributed by Ufa in 1935 and a reference to the Nietzschian notion of the “will to power.” The film was directed by Leni Riefenstahl who was given almost unlimited resources to construct this film. One thing that stands out is the complete absence of Antisemitic rhetoric in the film. This is because as we have already discussed film had become one of Germany's top exports and the propaganda conscious leadership also wanted to create a good image for the rest of the world. 

The other film is entitled Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard) a French film produced in 1955. The script was written by Jean Cayrol, a concentration camp survivor. It is noteworthy that this was not produced by a German. Even in France the film caused controversy for one scene that shows the back of a French police officer's head watching people being loaded into camps. This is because after Germany occupied France in 1940 a "collaborationist" government was set up in France--the Vichy government. In Germany there is even greater difficulty fully coming to terms with past crimes. Major political cleavages in Germany today are drawn along the lines of: how is the Nazi regime to be interpreted within German history?  Please note this is an extremely graphic film depicting scenes of the Holocaust and is far more disturbing than anything else that we have seen in this class. [sorry if you have to watch deodorant ads before watching a Holocaust film]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=373_1324912412 (part 1)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f32_1324912040 (part 2)