The nature of nazi ideology Flashcards
Volkisch nationalism
Restoration of German supremacy
Volksgemeinschaft
‘people’s community’
Anti-semitism
Anti-Jewish and Aryan race
Social Darwinism
Ubermenschen and untermenschen
Blut und boden
‘Blood and soil’
Traditional family roles and values
Strong, conservative family unit - husband to work, wife
to have and raise children
Fuhrerprinzip
Secured Hitler’s control over Reichswehr (army) and then broader
Wehrmacht (combined armed forces)
Supremacy of the state
The individual will make sacrifices for the State. ‘National will’ was
called upon to make a Greater Germany
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer
‘One people, one realm, one leader’
Gleichschaltung
‘çoordination’ of all aspects of life to ensure ‘supremacy of the State’
Weltenshauung
Nazi/Hitler’s ‘World view’ encompasses all of these elements
Concordat
Agreement with the Catholic Church for Church to remove itself from politics if Nazi Party allowed it to survive
Lebensraum
It is the German right as superior race to expand east and claim ‘living space’
Autarky
Self-sufficiency
Mein Kampf and 25 Point Program
Documents that were central to ideology
Nazi Ideology
Fuhrerprinzip.
The key part of their ideology was having one prominent and dominating leader who had immense control over party operations. Hence, Hitler’s ideas underpinned the Nazi ideology.
This was characterized by Historian lan Kershaw as the Fuhrerprinzip, which described Hitler as the supreme leader.
The Nazis created the ‘Hitler myth’ to characterize Hitler as a hardworking, selfless and brave leader who would lead Germany to greatness. He was a man of the ‘volk’ (people) and his.
The authoritarian state was dedicated to militarism, cleansing the state of impure racial groups and the subordination of people to the greater interests of the nation.
Nazi Ideology
Social Darwinism
Hitler operated by blaming Germany’s problems on scapegoats such as Jews and Communists who put the ‘pure’ Aryan race in danger.
This played into Nazi racial ideology which functioned based on ideas of racial superiority.
Racial superiority was backed up by Social Darwinism (A racist pseudoscience) which stipulated that some races were superior.
It utilized language such as ‘Ubermensch’ for the superior race and ‘Untermensch’ for the inferior. Part of consolidating Germany would be to cleanse the Untermensch out through Eugenics (Racial hygiene).
This would biologically improve the Aryan master race by eliminating inferior groups from the gene pool through euthanasia, forced sterilization and laws to prevent relationships between different groups.
Nazi Ideology
Volksgemeinschaft.
Another major part of Nazi ideology was the commitment to the Volksgemeinschaft.
This would create a new classless society which was fully integrated and under the control of the Nazis.
Hitler desired to have strong national solidarity and this is reflected in the use of the Nazi slogan ‘Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer’, meaning one people, one country, one leader.
