Nazi Ideology Before 1933: A Documentation

Description

This volume brings together a hitherto scattered and inaccessible body of material crucial to the understanding of the evolution of Nazi political thought. Before the publication of this volume, scholars had virtually ignored the extensive writings and programs published by leading Nazi ideologues before 1933. Barbara Miller Lane and Leila J. Rupp have collected the political writings of Nazi theorists-Dietrich Eckart, Alfred Rosenberg, Gottfried Feder, Joseph Goebbels, Gregor and Otto Strasser, Heinrich Himmler, and Richard Walther Darre-during the period before the National Socialists came to power. The Strassers are given considerable space because of their great intellectual importance within the party before 1933. In commentary by the editors, the significance of each Nazi theorist is weighed and evaluated at each stage of the history of the party.Lane and Rupp conclude that Nazi ideology, before 1933 at least, was not a consistent whole but a doctrine in the process of rapid development to which new ideas were continually introduced. By the time the Nazis came to power, however, a group of interrelated assertions and official promises had been made to party followers and to the public. Hitler and the Third Reich had to accommodate this ideology, even when not implementing it. Hitler's role in the development of Nazi ideology, interpreted here as a very permissive one, is thoroughly assessed. His own writings, however, have been omitted since they are readily available elsewhere.The twenty-eight documents included in this book illustrate themes and phases in Nazi ideology which are discussed in the introduction and the detailed prefatory notes. Long selections, as often as possible full-length, are provided to allow the reader to follow the arguments. Each selection is accompanied by an introductory note and annotations which clarify its relationship to other works of the author and other writings of the period. Also included are original translations of the "Twenty-Five Points" and a number of little-known official party statements." Preface Introduction Men! Dietrich Eckart The Twister. Dietrich Eckart Guidelines of the German Workers' Party The Russian Jewish Revolution. ALfred Rosenberg Jewishness in and around Us. Dietrich Eckart Manifesto for Breaking the Bondage of Interest. Gottfried Feder To All Working People! Dietrich Eckart The Social State. Gottfried Feder The Program of the NSDAP The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Jewish World Policy. Alfred Rosenberg The Folkish Idea of State. Alfred Rosenberg National Socialism or Bolshevism? Joseph Goebbels The Radicalizing of Socialism. Joseph Goebbels Draft of a Comprehensive Program of National Socialism. Gregor Strasser, Joseph Goebbels, and othe rs Thoughts about the Tasks of the Future. Gregor Strasser Farmer, Wake Up! Heinrich Himmler From Revolt to Revolution. Gregor Strasser National Socialism and the State. Otto Strasser The Peasantry as the Key to Understanding the Nordic Race. R. W. Darré The Fourteen Theses of the German Revolution.Otto Strasser Marriage Laws and the Principles of Breeding. R. W. Darré Official Party Statement on Its Attitude toward the Farmers and Agriculture German Freedom as the Prerequisite of Folk Culture. Alfred Rosenberg The Nature and Aim of the National Socialist Idea. Gregor Strasser The Farmers and the State. R. W. Darré Work and Bread! Gregor Strasser Appendix: Biographies of the Principal Nazi Writers Translators' Note Notes Index