Nazism vs Socialism
Nazism is a political ideology that was once very popular in Germany under the rule of Adolf Hitler. It was a system of governance that believed in the superiority of the German race while trying to get rid of the Jews from the population. The reason why people confuse between Nazism and socialism is because of the fact that the official name of the Nazi party of Germany contained the word Socialist. However, Hitler was of the opinion that communists presented distorted view of socialism. There are as such many differences between socialism and Nazism that will be highlighted in this article.
Nazism
Nazism is an ideology that is credited to Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party before WW II and through events running up to it. The word Nazi comes from the pronouncement of the first two syllables of the word national in German language. The actual name of the party was the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Hitler believed socialism of the communist states a distorted version of socialism and considered himself to be a socialist. However, the ideology of the party was one of the far right wing political party as it believed in the superiority of the German race (called Aryans) and tried to exterminate Jews from among the population. Nazi party cleverly coined the phrase Third Reich and combined elements of socialism of the left and fascism of the right to come up with a unique political ideology.
Nazism advocated nationalism and a totalitarian government with a racist society dominated by German race. Historians believe that the inclusion of the word socialist in the name of the party was a misnomer and only a gimmick to attract popular votes to continue rule over the region.
Socialism
Socialism is a social and economic theory propounded by Karl Marx that believes in ownership of the assets and means of production by the state. This method of common ownership was devised as a means to achieve a classless society in which everyone was equal. The practice of socialism is varied, and there are many models of socialism within different political systems ranging from communism to democracy, and even right wing Nazism. It is the distribution of production according to the contribution that is the chief characteristic of socialism. Right from the time of Karl Marx and till today, socialism has been construed as an economic theory that favors the working classes and criticizes industrialization and entrepreneurship. Thus, socialism has always been in direct opposition to capitalism.
What is the difference between Nazism and Socialism?
• Socialism is a social and economic theory whereas Nazism is a political ideology.
• Socialism talks about common ownership of assets and means of production to help achieve the goal of a classless society, whereas Nazism does not object to private property and believes in the superiority of the German race.
• Nazis believed themselves to be socialists of a different variety rather than socialists as envisaged by Karl Marx.
• Nazism advocates extreme nationalism whereas socialism does not talk about boundaries.
• Hitler did not like the fact that Karl Marx, the developer of Socialism, was of Jewish descent as he was in favor of extermination of all Jews.
I would rather someone wrote an article *comparing* the two, rather that citing the minor differences between them as if they were all consuming and calling on the aid of the court historians when it turns out not to make any sense.
Calling racism, nationalism, and fascism “minor differences” is hardly an educated opinion.
It’s fun that this article consistently refers to Nazism as right-wing, then labels the origin of Nazism as a hybrid between the far-right and the far-left.
The far-Left and far-Right are both forms of Fascism; they simply choose different groups to scapegoat and direct their fear and hate toward. The Right (which has largely embraced the ideology of the far-Right) in USA demonizes the poor, the Liberal Progressives, the LGBTQIA, the minorities, specifically the Blacks, the Hispanics, Muslims, and immigrants.
The far-Left demonizes the rich, the Capitalists, the Conservatives, the racists, the homophobic, the Fundamentalists…
You forgot the main scapegoat for the far left…working class whites. I’m sure that was just a mistake though 😉
absolutely smartest thing Ive read on this page… TY Mikado
Love the way the far left can turn everyone one into the bad guy all the while demanding tolerance but giving none, they name there little zero tolerance clicks claiming the other side is the racist all the while bashing whites and making blacks their victim’s to exploit , push a zero tolerance agenda while bashing Christians, whites and all who do not agree. They don’t want equality… they want forced speech, extreme hate extreme racism and property destruction, they want to refuse service to a select group, deny freedom of speech, be allowed to openly use blacks for a racist agenda and attack any free thinking Black person that does not allow them to to use them as there pocket victim’s. Its always white gender confused racist socialist’s leading the march of slavery, a common cry they love to use, when they are the kids of the KKK marching with the KKK party and blaming everyone else for there actions and feelings. The snowflakes push for class division, forced speech and slavery to anyone who does not agree they call for their death. Mad messed up ignorant snowflakes.
the defense of socialism, which fails to compare the result of socialism which is the political ideology of “Force”. huh.
What the Nazis have introduced in Germany is a form of graduated Bolshevism, directing their first attack not against the capitalist class as a whole, but against Jewish capitalists, excoriated on racial rather than economic grounds…Nor is there reason to expect that the Nazis will stop at this point.
Vera Micheles Dean, Europe in Retreat, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York (1939 revised edition), p. 207.
I was looking for a non-bias explanation of the two but for some reason the articles always want to put the Germans killed jews slant on it and it detracts from the information.
You cannot divest the original Nazism from the Holocaust, as the Nazi ideology brought about the Holocaust. Even though the right-wing American Nazism, rebranded variously as white supremacy, white nationalism, Neo-Nazism, and the sub-groups, such as the Skinheads, Crew 38, Christian Identity, the Fundamentalist Movement, and including the separate, American-born racist hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Neo-Confederacy (which apparently wants to be called the Alt-Right, now) which was NOT responsible for the Holocaust, still spreads the SAME bigotry, the SAME nationalism, the SAME white supremacist ideology of hate and fear. The beliefs of Nazism were NOT true Socialism, just as the beliefs of the white nationalists in USA are not true patriotism. Evil is still evil, even if you pretend it is not.
So basically, in your opinion, you believe anyone who believes in nationalism is also a bigot or white supremacist? Why is it not ok to believe we do not need a one World Order to be a successful World leader in trade! How does closed borders and becoming a country of builders vs consumers make those who believe that way National Socialists? Nationalism is not the same as Nazism!
This article gets things completely wrong.
The reason why the Nazi’s created Nationalist Socialism was because they in fact wanted to balance aspects of socialism and aspects of nationalism for their imperial ambitions. The Nazis did not like the supposed “worker’s owning the means of production” aspects of capital, but they did want the government ownership aspects of the means of production, as well as education and many of the other necessities that Marx suggested were necessary to bring an end to capitalism.
The other reason why the Nazis wanted a combination of nationalism and socialism was because they despised the core part of capitalism which is private property and they believed that in order to achieve the 3rd Reich, such things had to be abandoned.
Socialists have always escaped the realm of objective definitions all the way back to the Utopian variety. But as Tocqueville said in the 19th century, the idea that unites all forms of socialism together, whether it be the Anarchists, the Utopians, the Revolutionaries etc, is either the abridgment or complete elimination of private property rights all over the world. Understanding that, it’s quite easy to see that there was and is, little difference between the socialists and the nationalists, and thus why the Nazis had no problem absorbing both of them, and reaching the same results as Fascist Italy and Communist Soviet Union.
All roads leading away from private property, and thus capitalism, have a tendency of arriving at the same destination of totalitarianism rather than the dreamt workers’ paradises and technocratic utopias often suggested by the intellectuals of socialism. A lesson that was pretty well established by the end of the 20th century. But then again, who learns from history?
Well written. Thank you.
Excellent!!!
The Nazi’s did control the means of production. They did nationalize companies. And the Soviet socialist did discriminate against race and groups. And both are a political ideology.
Bernies socialism
A glance at some of the Gottfried Feder’s 25 points for the NDSAP, published in 1920, should convince any reader that the NDSAP was a fully socialist party. See particularly points 13, 14 and 15. Hitler was not only a socialist but a uniquely successful one. (The credit may go to Hjalmar Schact who may have been influenced in his turn by Neville Chamberlain’s encouragement of capital expenditure on housing with borrowed money.) His first five years increased GDP by 65 per cent. The starting point was the creation of one and half million Reichmarks to fund autobahn construction. The success inspired the policies Keynes advocated in is 1935 book.
To the annoyance of some members of the NDSAP he decided not to nationalise industry as he was practical enough to see it was better that industry was run by those who knew it, not state bureaucrats, and it was the job of the SS to deal with any industrialist who stepped out of line. He did nationalise all private charities and created what became a impressive welfare system that grew to a huge size. In 1943 he made medical treatment free for all. At the time communism still claimed to be international but after WWII the communists decided to use the power of nationalism for their purposes and many communist movement were called ‘national fronts’. National Socialism and Communism became indistinguishable. The nationalism of the original NDSAP was stimulated by the treatment of German speakers in countries like Czechoslovakia and Poland. The three million German speakers in Czechoslovakia therefore chose a national socialist leader. Hitler claimed 1.2 million German speakers had been forced to flee Poland. In 1945 the ejection of all German speakers from other European countries led to between 11 and 14 million having to leave. Estimates of the number who died are between 500,000 and 2,000,000. The British media referred to them as ‘displaced persons’, and the British public was kept in ignorance of what that term really meant. I assumed at the time it meant people who had been bombed out. The truth was not revealed by British media until over half a century later.