Now that I have given you the briefest of glimpses what happened in a regenerated Germany in the early 1930s under National Socialism, the next segment, entitled "What the "Socialism" really means" will have some undergirding.
One of the most often-heard objections that float across my desk is that the "nationalism" of Hitler may have been attractive, but the "socialism" part was only a twin to the Communist version - and therefore something to be rejected by a genuine libertarian spirit.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Heinz A. Heinz, author of "Germany's Hitler" describes what he saw:
It is scarcely necessary to enlarge here upon the "Nationalism" of Adolf Hitler's political creed. Enough has already been written about it. It has occupied so much space in the contemporary press and been discussed in so many books it has come to be regarded with a certain degree of Chauvinism. I propose, therefore, to confine myself, in the conclusion of this work, to a few observations under the second heading of our double-barreled title. It is so completely true that he who studies contemporary Germany with a view to forecasting the future of the country, must study it from inside and not from the outsider's point of view. From outside one mainly perceives the nationalism. From the inside the drive and force of the socialism is most apparent.
Germany Socialism - Adolf Hitler's Socialism - is a totally different thing from what is generally understood by this term, from the Socialism derived from Marxian and Communistic theory. The first essential difference between the two consists in this, that the former is strictly national in aim, scope and limit; the latter is international, without boundaries of race or land. The second vital distinction is that the first has been set up by the wish of the people concerned, the second is imposed upon nations by the will of those who organise and propagate it. A third contrast can be drawn inasmuch as German Socialism tends to draw all sections of the nation closely together, international socialism initiates class war. German socialism is directed by the country's nationals; international socialism is an instrument of the Jews. In the former it is the personality of the Leader which tells; in the latter we have nothing but the inertia of the mass which is exploited by the organisers.
By the above signs is German Socialism to be recognised and distinguished. When it has completely assimilated Germany to itself, it will extend and become the groundwork for the future development of other countries. Marxism and Communism are finished in Germany. They have played their part and their role is over. Long enough have they made their influence felt in every sphere of German life, intellectual, political and economic, to the suppression of the truer socialism. Socialism is not a thing to be apprehended through dreary theory only, but to be tested and proved in action. We have written enough, elsewhere, very fully to show that the present German Government is inspired in its legislation by the spirit of active philanthropy which it calls Socialism. This legislation incorporates the very essence of German Socialism.
As Dr. Goebbels writes: "Socialism, as we understand it, does not reduce men to a dead level, but ranges them in order according to their individual capacity and leading. If I were to try and put our aims and objects in this direction in a nutshell, I should say that it is our endeavor to build up in Germany a people who all possess the same rights in life. We want everyone, high and low, to belong to such a people. We desire that the highest among them shall feel themselves more closely united with the last and lowest of their own kith and kin than with the highest of any other nation. We aim at this - that the highest of our people would rather be the lowest of his own nation than the highest of any other nation. Such an aspiration can only be the outcome of an absolutely unified national will."
It would lead us too far afield to instance the many measures in which Hitler has exemplified his conception of true Socialism. We must confine ourselves to a mere sketch of the most important and obvious incorporations of the ideas through which he has restored to the German worker his honour and self-respect.
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Thought for the Day:
"The full, the monstrous demonstration that Tennyson was not Tennyson."
(Henry James)