Were the Nazis Socialists?(Moved Posts)

[erasure]

Originally Posted by Anhityk

Yeah, if I understand correctly, according to some posters Hitler was a European socialist just like Willy Brandt, Francois Mitterrand, Tony Blair etc?

I think, yes, Hitler's economic policy was somewhat more left-wing compared to societies with completely laissez-faire economies. The point is that Hitler was a nationalist and a completely money-oriented society would have undermined his ideas of nationalism. At the same time, however, capitalism in Germany remained and existed during Hitler's reign. There is no doubt about that.



Similarity to the soviets - if the opinion is that the Soviet and Nazi regimes were inherently very similar, the question of why they hated each other remains unanswered. I have not lived under the nazis, so I don't know exactly how their propaganda might have been but I remember the soviet propaganda personally and remember it quite well. Soviet propaganda bashed all capitalist countries, constantly emphasizing that simple, working people 'were exploited' there. But without a doubt, soviet propaganda regarded Nazism as the worst of all forms of capitalism. Nazism was, according to it, the embodiment of the worst, according to soviet propaganda Nazism was viewed as the worst enemy of the working class. Similarly, the Nazis hated communists and all socialists. But especially they hated communists and that attitude was emphasized by their propaganda.

This is correct.
His ideas were right-wing, but the economic model he employed was more left-wing.

Because,( as you rightfully noticed,) the ideas of "capital" as the leading power of the society can be counter-productive for the goals of Nationalism.

[Thor herself]

Originally Posted by erasure

This is correct.
His ideas were right-wing, but the economic model he employed was more left-wing.

Because,( as you rightfully noticed,) the ideas of "capital" as the leading power of the society can be counter-productive for the goals of Nationalism.

I would say his economic policies were maybe centrist as most. Hitler crushed the labour unions which is a very right-wing thing to do, and while the Great Depression saw nationalisation or re-nationalisation of businesses in many countries, Hitler took the opposite path with privatising banks, railroads, shipyards and so on, also right-wing. The main architect of the German economy Hjalmar Schacht was a staunch believer in the free market, much more so than his vague belief in the nazi ideology.


Hitler's economical positions varied, because he had no economic ideology to begin with. He was first and foremost an economical opportunist - whatever he thought would give him more cash or tanks he did, regardless if they were traditionally right or left wing policies.

Hitler and the nazis did not think capitalism was an inherently broken system like the communists did, but you're correct, they didn't want it to run amok either. Therefore they recognised two variants of capitalism:

Schaffendes kapital was "good capitalism"; honest, patriotic German companies employing German workers for a living wage.

Raffendes kapital was "bad capitalism"; dishonest, borderless, greedy, speculating and exploiting. Often associated with Jews and the antisemitic tropes which came with it.

So some aspects of capitalism were good and to be encouraged, other aspects were not. The economy of nazi Germany is difficult to classify, because it's something that had never been tried before and never since, as the main motivation of the national economy was to wage war, and the only thing enabling the system to sustain itself was more war.


Therefore centrism is maybe the best place to put the economic policy of Hitler on, if you ignore the Third Position existing. In all other aspects of policy, nazi Germany ticks all the traditional extreme right boxes. Of course everybody saw that, which is evident in the fact that the nazis sat on the extreme right side in the Reichstag.

[artillery77]

Only in the same way the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) is more democratic than the simply named, Republic of Korea (S. Korea).

The Nazi's were ultra right nationalists. Lenin's Communists were ultra left socialists. Both employed heavy doses of centralized economic planning.

[WestPreussen]

Privare ownership of products existed only in name in Nazi Germany. The real owner of production goods was nazi government, because nazi government and not nominal owners decided what will be produced, in what amount will it be produced in what way and to whom will it be sold. In similar way were set prices and wages. Position of so called private owners was practically reduced to being government administrators.

In nazi Germany common good was above private good. If entity was just a mean to achieve country's goals it is obvious that its ownership also was.

That is not how capitalist country looks like. It is typical socialist economy.

There are two major parts of partie's programms. Worldview and economics. In worldview nazis were right wing. In economics they were left.