Racial Nationalism
Hitler was a Pan-Germanic hyper-nationalist whose ideology was built around a philosophically authoritarian, anti-Marxist, anti-Semitic, anti-democratic worldview. There are strong connections to the values of Nazism and the anti-rationalist tradition of the Romantic movement of the early nineteenth century in response to the Enlightenment. Like many Romantic artists, musicians, and writers, the Nazis valued strength, passion, frank declarations of feelings, and deep devotion to family and community. German romanticism in particular expressed these values. For instance, Hitler identified closely with the music of Richard Wagner, who harbored antisemitic views as the author of Das Judenthum in der Musik.
The Nazis' idealization of German tradition, folklore, volkisch culture, leadership (as exemplified by Frederick the Great and as eventually instantiated in the Fuhrerprinzip), their rejection of the liberalism and parliamentarianism of the Weimar Republic, and calling the German state the “Third Reich” (which traces back to the medieval First Reich and the pre-Weimar Second Reich) has led many to regard the Nazis as reactionary.
Nazism drew heavily on Italian Fascism: nationalism (including collectivism and populism based on nationalist values); Third Position (including class collaboration, corporatism, economic planning, mixed economy, national syndicalism, protectionism, and the studies of socialism that fit the Nazi Party ideologues and agendas); totalitarianism (including dictatorship, holism, major social interventionism, and statism); and militarism.
Uniquely, Nazism added a non-rationalist racial dimension to this otherwise typically Fascist ideology:
| “ | Every manifestation of human culture, every product of art, science and technical skill, which we see before our eyes to-day, is almost exclusively the product of the Aryan creative power. This very fact fully justifies the conclusion that it was the Aryan alone who founded a superior type of humanity; therefore he represents the archetype of what we understand by the term: MAN. He is the Prometheus of mankind, from whose shining brow the divine spark of genius has at all times flashed forth, always kindling anew that fire which, in the form of knowledge, illuminated the dark night by drawing aside the veil of mystery and thus showing man how to rise and become master over all the other beings on the earth. Should he be forced to disappear, a profound darkness will descend on the earth; within a few thousand years human culture will vanish and the world will become a desert. | ” |
| — Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf |
The anti-rationalist identification between Aryanism and Germanism, and its arcane opposition to Jewish Bolshevism, was a source of much confusion. Large institutions were established to define what an Aryan was, with poor success, and finally the concept evolved around their practical needs. Originally Aryan peoples like Roma were excluded and annihilated, while certain "infrahuman" East Slavs, like Ukrainians, were redefined as Aryans during World War II for the sake of alliances.
Read more about this topic: Adolf Hitler's Political Views
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