Hitler was a Leftist

Hitler was a Leftist ^ | John Ray

[finnman69]

"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions." --Adolf Hitler

(Speech of May 1, 1927. Quoted by Toland, 1976, p. 306)

[Below is the 25 of the NSDAP Program - This is basically the National Socialist German Workers Party Platform. It included measures that in effect would redistribute income and war profits, profit-sharing with large industries, nationalization of trusts, extensive development of old-age pension (just like FDRs Social Security Program), and free education. Clearly this demonstrates Hitler was indeed a left winger and here is startling proof.]

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The 25 points of the NSDAP Program were composed by Adolf Hitler and Anton Drexler. They were publically presented on 24 February 1920 "to a crowd of almost two thousand and every single point was accepted amid jubilant approval." (Mein Kampf, Volume II, Chapter I) Hitler explained their purpose in the fifth chapter of the second volume of Mein Kampf:

[T]he program of the new movement was summed up in a few guiding principles, twenty-five in all. They were devised to give, primarily to the man of the people, a rough picture of the movement's aims. They are in a sense a political creed, which on the one hand recruits for the movement and on the other is suited to unite and weld together by a commonly recognized obligation those who have been recruited.

Hitler was intent on having a community of mutual interest that desired mutual success instead of one that was divided over the control of money or differing values.

THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF-INTEREST - THAT IS THE SPIRIT OF THE PROGRAM. BREAKING OF THE THRALDOM OF INTEREST - THAT IS THE KERNEL OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM.

In these straightforward statements of intent, Hitler translated his ideology into a plan of action which would prove its popularity with the German people throughout the coming years. For many, the abruptness of its departure from the tradition of politics as practiced in the western world was as much of a shock as its liberal nature and foresight of the emerging problems of western democracy.

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The Programme of the German Workers' Party is designed to be of limited duration. The leaders have no intention, once the aims announced in it have been achieved, of establishing fresh ones, merely in order to increase, artificially, the discontent of the masses and so ensure the continued existence of the Party.

1. We demand the union of all Germany in a Greater Germany on the basis of the right of national self-determination.

2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in its dealings with other nations, and the revocation of the peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain.

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) to feed our people and to settle our surplus population.

4. Only members of the nation may be citizens of the State. Only those of German blood, whatever be their creed, may be members of the nation. Accordingly, no Jew may be a member of the nation.

5. Non-citizens may live in Germany only as guests and must be subject to laws for aliens.

6. The right to vote on the State's government and legislation shall be enjoyed by the citizens of the State alone. We demand therefore that all official appointments, of whatever kind, whether in the Reich, in the states or in the smaller localities, shall be held by none but citizens.

We oppose the corrupting parliamentary custom of filling posts merely in accordance with party considerations, and without reference to character or abilities.

7. We demand that the State shall make it its primary duty to provide a livelihood for its citizens. If it should prove impossible to feed the entire population, foreign nationals (non-citizens) must be deported from the Reich.

8. All non-German immigration must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who entered Germany after 2 August 1914 shall be required to leave the Reich forthwith.

9. All citizens shall have equal rights and duties.

10. It must be the first duty of every citizen to perform physical or mental work. The activities of the individual must not clash with the general interest, but must proceed within the framework of the community and be for the general good.

We demand therefore:

11. The abolition of incomes unearned by work.

The breaking of the slavery of interest

12. In view of the enormous sacrifices of life and property demanded of a nation by any war, personal enrichment from war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We demand therefore the ruthless confiscation of all war profits.

13. We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations (trusts).

14. We demand profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises.

15. We demand the extensive development of insurance for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate communalizing of big department stores, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that the utmost consideration shall be shown to all small traders in the placing of State and municiple orders.

17. We demand a land reform suitable to our national requirements, the passing of a law for the expropriation of land for communal purposes without compensation; the abolition of ground rent, and the prohibition of all speculation in land. *

18. We demand the ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common interest. Common criminals, usurers, profiteers, etc., must be punished with death, whatever their creed or race.

19. We demand that Roman Law, which serves a materialistic world order, be replaced by a German common law.

20. The State must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of education (with the aim of opening up to every able and hard-working German the possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement). The curricula of all educational establishments must be brought into line with the requirements of practical life. The aim of the school must be to give the pupil, beginning with the first sign of intelligence, a grasp of the nation of the State (through the study of civic affairs). We demand the education of gifted children of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, at the expense of the State.

21. The State must ensure that the nation's health standards are raised by protecting mothers and infants, by prohibiting child labor, by promoting physical strength through legislation providing for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and by the extensive support of clubs engaged in the physical training of youth.

22. We demand the abolition of the mercenary army and the foundation of a people's army.

23. We demand legal warfare on deliberate political mendacity and its dissemination in the press. To facilitate the creation of a German national press we demand:

(a) that all editors of, and contributors to newspapers appearing in the German language must be members of the nation; (b) that no non-German newspapers may appear without the express permission of the State. They must not be printed in the German language; (c) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participating financially in or influencing German newspapers, and that the penalty for contravening such a law shall be the suppression of any such newspaper, and the immediate deportation of the non-Germans involved.

The publishing of papers which are not conducive to the national welfare must be forbidden. We demand the legal prosecution of all those tendencies in art and literature which corrupt our national life, and the suppression of cultural events which violate this demand.

24. We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State, provided they do not threaten its existence not offend the moral feelings of the German race.

The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not commit itself to any particular denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health only from within on the basis of the principle: The common interest before self-interest.

25. To put the whole of this programme into effect, we demand the creation of a strong central state power for the Reich; the unconditional authority of the political central Parliament over the entire Reich and its organizations; and the formation of Corporations based on estate and occupation for the purpose of carrying out the general legislation passed by the Reich in the various German states.

The leaders of the Party promise to work ruthlessly -- if need be to sacrifice their very lives -- to translate this programme into action.

Source: Programme of the NSDAP http://www.hitler.org/writings/programme/

[Maelstrom]

Good idea...a petition...with Hitler's quote on the front and the source on the back.

[Maelstrom]

Wait...

...let's think about this...

...We SHOULD do this for real. Circulate the petition *without* attribution for the quote.

Then send the petition AND the attribution to FOX News, Sean Hannity, Tony Snow, and the Rush Limbaugh show!

[antiRepublicrat]

Damn Tripod image blocking. You'll see the images on the site.

[longtermmemmory]

You know that is a real good idea. Protestwarrior.com is set for this type of deal. (all praise the bellygirl for her fitness program) They would even provie pictures and video of the people signing...

[Billthedrill]

I wish people would stop using "left" and "right" in this particular context. It doesn't really apply. Hitler was a "rightist" only insofar as he was in opposition to the revlolutionary Communists of his day, who were "left" only by notational convention.

Both the Nazis and the Communists were certainly (1) socialistic, (2) authoritarian, and (3) attempting the violent overthrow of the Weimar Republic. If you want to use contemporary usages, they both were social and political and economic "progressives" inasmuch as they wished to replace the status quo with their own schemes in those regards. That would make the Weimars "conservatives," despite the fact that they represented progress from the authoritarian Hohenzollern model of government grafted from Prussia by Bismark, which was in its turn "progressive" with respect to the myriad of small states that went before it. All of these are relative terms.

[onedoug]

How far were the nazis to the left of the commies?

[luckydevi]

for later

[longtermmemmory]

ORIGINAL QUOTE: "We are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions"

how about this question to every president:

Mr/Mz Presidential Candidate: Will you work to end the present ecconomy with the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and will you be determined to achieve this goal?

[dubyagee]

Reading Adolf Hitler by John Toland right now for this very reason. (Poorly written, IMHO) It has been an eye opening book. I am currently to where he has just gained power. The interesting thing is, he played everyone in his attempt to gain power, including monied Jews. It is truly frightening how easily complete power was handed to him. He used a fire in the Reichstag to basically abolish the constitution. Imagine what Bush could have done with 9-11 if he had evil intentions.

[longtermmemmory]

Socialist are on the left
Nazi's are socialists
Mazi's are on the left.

This sylogism is closed captioned for the Democrat Party Impaired.

(no offense intended to you, just a ha ha)

[longtermmemmory]

Imagine algore putting the constitution and bill of rights in "protective suspension" following 9/11.

[longfellow]

In 1986 I began my graphic novel with this same message in attempt to 'wake up' America. I have not had much luck and have even lost a job over it. I have been called every name in the book at conventions and have been attacked on comic book websites. But I take pride in the fact that our little comic book was before Ann Coulter's great book Treason and Hannity's book, we didn't wait for 9-11 to wave our flag and stand up for our country neither. check out our web site (tagline) mention freepers and i'll send you a free set of books.

[Kleon]

I agree, we can connect Socialism to a lot of terrible things--the totalitarian USSR being the most extreme, but to link it to Hitler and Socialism is just plain wrong.

What I've been reading here are a lot of posts saying either a) that they called themselves "socialist," therefore they were socialists and b) Hitler's words prove he was Socialist.

There are some problems here.

First, it is wrong to assume they were socialist because of their name. What about the "German Democratic Republic"? It was Democratic, right? No, that was just the official name of East Germany.

In fact, Hitler never actually practiced Socialism. In his Germany, the means of production were controlled by capitalists, not the workers. If you understand this and still say Hitler was a socialist, then you should really stop and think about what "Socialism" means.

And about those quotes, given his actions after gaining total power, there is no reason to believe he actually meant any of that. Hitler is one of the biggest liars in history; his statements were pure propoganda, designed to win the worker vote.

I don't know why we have to play this game of hot potato with Hitler against the Left. His policies were so extreme, it is meaningless to connect him to any modern group, left or right.

[You Dirty Rats]

This is total nonsense.

The 25 points were developed before the Beer Hall Putsch, for crying out loud. They were designed to attract votes rather than intended to be implemented.

As proof, note that the high-ranking members of the Nazi Party who believed in these points (the Strasser Brothers and Roehm) were drummed out and/or shot by the Nazis after Hitler became Chancellor.

Hitler's support in the years 1931-3 immediately prior to his rise to power and in 1933-4 while he consolidated his power was from the Army and the Business Establishment -- i.e. the Right. They provided the money and the support. The Left was detroyed by the nazis in 1933-4 (unions were banned, for example) -- but the business establishment, the Army, and other institutions of the Right were not.

In the climactic vote in the Reichstag in 1934, which transferred their functions to the Chancellor & Cabinet, the Communists were banned from the chamber and the only votes against Hitler were from the Social Democrats. The Center and Right parties (Catholic Center, Nationalists, etc.) all voted Ja.

Claiming Hitler was a Leftist is as ridiculous as those that claimed in the Late 1980's and '90's that the Politburo were the "Conservatives" and Yeltsin, et al were "Liberals" -- and that, therefore, the Politburo were Rightists. Stalin was Left (i.e. pro-worker anti-capitalist) and Hitler was Right (anti-worker and pro-business). The 25 points mean squat -- actions, not words or papers, are the means to judge.

[ellery]

btttt

[finnman69]

WHERE IS THE CAPITALISM HERE?

"Most cruel joke of all, however, has been played by Hitler & Co. on those German capitalists and small businessmen who once backed National Socialism as a means of saving Germany's bourgeois economic structure from radicalism. The Nazi credo that the individual belongs to the state also applies to business. Some businesses have been confiscated outright, on other what amounts to a capital tax has been levied. Profits have been strictly controlled. Some idea of the increasing Governmental control and interference in business could be deduced from the fact that 80% of all building and 50% of all industrial orders in Germany originated last year with the Government. Hard-pressed for food- stuffs as well as funds, the Nazi regime has taken over large estates and in many instances collectivized agriculture, a procedure fundamentally similar to Russian Communism."

(Source: Time Magazine; Jaunuary 2, 1939.)

[finnman69]

MORE

A democratic Leftist!


But Hitler was not a revolutionary Leftist. He fought many elections and finally came to power via basically democratic means.

It is true that both Hitler and Mussolini received financial and other support from big businessmen and other "establishment" figures but this is simply a reflection of how radicalized Germany and Italy were at that time. Hitler and Mussolini were correctly perceived as a less hostile alternative (a sort of vaccine) to the Communists.

And what was that about election campaigns? Yes, Hitler did start out as a half-hearted revolutionary (the Munich Putsch) but after his resultant incarceration was able enough and flexible enough to turn to basically democratic methods of gaining power. He was thenceforth the major force in his party insisting on legality for its actions and did eventually gain power via the ballot box rather than by way of violent revolution. It is true that the last election (as distinct from referenda) he faced (on May 3rd, 1933) gave him a plurality (44% of the popular vote) rather than a majority but that is normal in any electoral contest where there are more than two candidates. Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher never gained a majority of the popular vote either. After the May 1933 elections, Hitler was joined in a coalition government by Hugenburg's Nationalist party (who had won 8% of the vote) to give a better majority (52%) than many modern democratic governments enjoy. On March 24th, 1933 the Reichstag passed an Enabling Act giving full power to Hitler for four years (later extended by referendum). The Centre Party voted with the Nazi-led coalition government. Thus Hitler's accession to absolute power was quite democratically achieved. Even Hitler's subsequent banning of the Communist party and his control of the media at election time have precedents in democratic politics.

Even the torturous backroom negotiations that led to Hitler's initial appointment as Kanzler (Chancellor, Prime Minister) by President Hindenburg on January 30th, 1933 hardly delegitimize that appointment or make it less democratic. Shirer (1964) and others describe this appointment as being the outcome of a "shabby political deal" but that would seem disingenuous. The fact is that Hitler was the leader of the largest party in the Reichstag and torturous backroom negotiations about alliances and deals generally are surely well-known to most practitioners of democratic politics. One might in fact say that success at such backroom negotiations is almost a prerequisite for power in a democratic system -- particularly, perhaps, under the normal European electoral system of proportional representation. It might in fact not be too cynical to venture the comment that "shabby political deals" have been rife in democracy at least since the time of Thucydides. Some practitioners of them might even claim that they are what allows democracy to work at all.

The fact that Hitler appealed to the German voter as basically a rather extreme social democrat is also shown by the fact that the German Social Democrats (orthodox democratic Leftists who controlled the unions as well as a large Reichstag deputation) at all times refused appeals from the German Communist party for co-operation against the Nazis. They evidently felt more affinity with Hitler than with the Communists. Hitler's eventual setting up of a one-party State and his adoption of a "four year plan", however, showed who had most affinity with the Communists. Hitler was more extreme than the Social Democrats foresaw.

The only heartfelt belief that Hitler himself ever had would appear to have been his antisemitism but his primary public appeal was nonetheless always directed to "the masses" and their interests and his methods were only less Bolshevik than those of the Bolsheviks themselves.

[Sam Cree]

In case you hadn't seen it, thought you might be interested.

[Held_to_Ransom]

&&But Hitler was not a revolutionary Leftist. He fought many elections and finally came to power via basically democratic means&&

Until he came to power, then he eliminated those annoying elections in his own revolution, did he not?

Here's the real skinny. Hitler's railcar command center was named 'Amerika' and von Mainstein could never figure out why, but we know:

http://www.waragainsttheweak.com/

[Maelstrom]

Actually, the link between Hitler and Socialism is entirely correct.

First, ignore the name and look at the economic policies. There is a LOT of socialism evident within those economic policies as well as many social policies.

Second, Hitler did actually practice socialism. In his Germany, the means of production were not controlled outright by the GOVERNMENT, but via extensive and overburdening regulations, the business owners were figureheands.

Socialism doesn't place control over the means of production in the hands of the workers. It places it in the hands of central managers...it must...and as such, those central managers become the de facto government.

Socialism is fundamentally flawed due to the inability to allocate scarce resources without discrimination.

Very few of Hitler's policies were so extreme as to validate your complaint. I daresay that the ONLY policy that extreme was the extermination of Jews, Bohemians, Gypsies and other undesireables.

Of course...many other socialist nations also have their bogeymen whom they slaughter in the millions, so even that complaint needs to be buttressed for it to fail to apply to contemporary socialists.