Yes, Virginia: Hitler really was a socialist Much hay has been made of late regarding a decades-old debate as to whether Adolf Hitler and the Nazis were socialists. On the face of it, the argument may seem ridiculous. … After all, the name of the party was National Socialist German Workers' Party. For some, it should be as simple as that. They called themselves socialists, so they were socialists. However, proponents of the idea that Hitler and the Nazis were diametrically opposed to socialism point out numerous reasons that this simple explanation is, by itself, insufficient, and in fact can...