Are you becoming National Socialist?
What was National Socialism?
Everything you learnt about the rise of Nazism is probably a lie. The truth is that Nazism was based on Mussolini’s Fascism and Reparations had little to do with it.
Almost no Reparations were paid by Germany and Hitler took power after the Reparations bill had been cancelled:
(See World War I Reparations).
Reparations are compensation for losses caused by war. The Reparations demanded from Germany were comparatively small and only a small fraction were ever paid. Left wing sources such as the BBC still implicate Reparations in the rise of Nazism. This is still taught to children in the UK and probably the USA. This is propaganda, the Western Powers did not cause Nazism by squeezing Germany.
During the period when Germany was failing to pay reparations it remained one of the most prosperous countries in the world:
Source: Inflating away the debt: The debt-inflation channel of German hyperinflation
Germany was not a poor country in the 1920s, even during the hyperinflation year it did not fall to Italian levels of GDP per capita or those experienced by France in 1918-19.
The year of hyperinflation was ended in 1923 by the introduction of a new currency, the Rentenmark. The inflation had been a weapon used by the German Central Bank to oppose reparations and to wipe out domestic debt. (See Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic). Rule by Hitler was still a decade away when this was happening. When Hitler was a true contender for power in Germany, in the early 1930s, the German economy had recovered from WWI and Reparations had ended.
If Reparations did not cause Fascism and Nazism how did it happen?
Fascism was the brainchild of Mussolini. Benito Mussolini was a fervent Marxist who attended the 29th July 1914 Congress of the Second International in Brussels on behalf of the Italian (Marxist) Socialist Party (See The Second International by James Joll). The “International” was the vehicle for cooperation between Marxists at a global level. Rosa Luxemburg attended and Trotsky was in Brussels at the time but his attendance is unclear. The attendance by Mussolini was to be expected because he was a leader of the Italian Socialist Party.
(Image: Mussolini in 1904)
Mussolini broke with the Marxists because they instructed their members to abstain from the First World War.
Mussolini invented Fascism during WWI. His manifesto was for absolute state authoritarianism accompanied by the acceptance of capitalist industry. A version of this manifesto was also adopted by the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP) (See Modern European History 1870-2000). However, the German version included hatred of Jews. The NSDAP was based in Munich which is only 100km from Italy. Adolf Hitler joined the NSDAP in 1920 and was a great admirer of Mussolini.
The name of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party became abbreviated as NAZIS - National Socialists.
Mussolini gained power in Italy in 1922. Italy was one of the Allies that had fought Germany in the First World War. It was a Guarantor of the Versailles Treaty. Mussolini’s Fascism/National Socialism arose independently of any actions by the UK, USA or France. The idea that these countries caused the rise of Fascism, Nazism and Hitler is left wing propaganda that was invented by Soviet sympathisers.
(Image: Mussolini and Hitler, best mates who developed a Pact of Steel).
Almost every Marxist (communist) state has followed the ideological path first trodden by Mussolini. They start as authoritarian states with Communist officials acting as the equivalent of a “Board of Directors” that controls state owned industry. This control of industry by the “workers” is the foundation of Marxism. It is the essence of the Marxist ideal and without it the state is not Marxist.
State owned industry is a failure so the Marxists change their beliefs to National Socialism consisting of an authoritarian government and a semi-independent, capitalist industry. National Socialism is authoritarian socialism plus capitalist industry. This change happened in Russia, Vietnam, and China. Many smaller, ostensibly “Marxist”, states never even bother to bring industry into full state ownership.
Marx was utterly wrong. The historical end point of unrestrained economic development is National Socialism, not Communism. Only the careful management of economic development by democratic states, with control of cartels, multinational corporations and monopolies, can stop this from happening.
People are often fooled by the word “National” but the National Socialists are quite capable of International ambitions in the same way as the communists. As an example, the Nazis first proposed the EEC (European Economic Community) and Oswald Mosley, the archetypal British National Socialist, founded the fascist National Party of Europe in the 1960s to promote the foundation of the EU.
Despite the evident truth that communism leads to National Socialism there are still millions of people being misled by academics into the belief that communism is a “good idea”. Even without the transition to National Socialism communism is uniformly, murderously bad (Castro, Mengistu, Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, Chavez). The further transition of communists to National Socialism turns communist states into incredibly dangerous entities. They seduce corporations and businesses and can outcompete democracies.
National Socialism is part of the Far Left. Just past Trotskyism on the scale of leftist fanaticism. No conservative or centrist party has ever evolved into being National Socialist but almost all communist countries have undergone this change (see Note). Covering up this reality is one of the greatest propaganda achievements of the past 100 years.
The Marxist foundation of Mussolini’s beliefs is airbrushed from most coverage of the rise of Fascism and National Socialism. I once attempted to get Mussolini’s financing of, and attendance at, the Marxist 1914 Brussels Congress included in Wikipedia’s biopic of Mussolini and the information was immediately removed. The link between the far left and National Socialism is suppressed everywhere. The fact that the Communist Soviet Union supported Germany at the start of WWII, even signing a Non-Aggression Pact that led to economic support and the partition of Poland, is swept under the carpet, the fact that the 1930s British Union of Fascists and National Socialists was founded by Oswald Mosley who had been a member of a Labour Government is not mentioned, and so on.
Those who routinely call nationalists and racists “Fascists!” should take note that the objects of their ire are nationalists and racists and usually not fascists, in fact it was only after the German occupation that the holocaust spread to Italy. Fascists are something altogether more sinister and dangerous than racists.
It is the UK Labour Party and US Democrats who stand on the threshold of National Socialism, not the Conservatives. This understanding is extremely important because Russia and China have become National Socialist and capitalist authoritarianism is permeating corporations globally. There has never been a greater risk of a resurgence of National Socialism. It is happening all around us.
We are on our way, the younger adults in the UK are receptive to abandoning democracy in favour of totalitarianism:
It will be a bumpy ride. The love of authoritarianism is probably part of the highly successful Woke campaign that targets free speech.
(From UKONWARD: The Kids Aren’t Alright )
The media controls the social norms, the corporations control the media and National Socialist China controls the corporations.
A note on the British after WWI
UK GDP in 1918 was $22 bn. The First World War increased debt by 170% of GDP to $37.4 bn.
UK National Debt
The reparations bill for Germany was US $26.3 billion, at 1914 exchange rates (Reduced by the Young Plan from $33bn). This was far less than the cost of the war for the UK. It was far, far less than the cost of the war for the UK, USA, France, Canada, Australia etc. and Russia combined.
As can be seen above, the debt incurred by WWI continued to afflict the UK. What happened to the German debt? They inflated it away and reparations were cancelled from 1931 (see: Inflating away the debt: The debt-inflation channel of German hyperinflation). The UK only finally repaid the last of its war debts, much of which originated in WWI, in the 21st century.
The myth that Germany had a worse Great Depression than other advanced economies
Compared with the USA the Great Depression (1929) was a minor event in Europe. Germany’s experience was similar to that felt by France (which did not immediately turn Nazi). WWII had the biggest effect on Germany in the 20th Century.
References
THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL 1889-1914 James Joll FELLOW OF ST ANTONY'S COLLEGE OXFORD. Published in the United States of America in 1956 by Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers, 150 E.52nd Street , New York 22, N. Y.PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE SHENVAL PRESS LONDON, HERTFORD ANDHARLOW
Note: Hitler and Mussolini were described above but readers may be thinking of exceptions, what about Pinochet, Peron or Franco? In Chile Pinochet was appointed by the Marxist Allende but seized power to amend Marxism to National Socialism (Socialist authoritarianism + capitalist industry). Peron admits in his writing to being an ardent supporter of National Socialism and Franco, like Hitler, was a follower of Mussolini’s National Socialism that also came from the Left.
There is a profound spiritual kinship between National Socialism and Communism. Both were opposed to democracy, political liberalism and the free market economic system. Both had complete contempt for the value of individual human life and were exceedingly destructive and cruel. This is why Stalin and Hitler got along so well before Hitler's betrayal, and why the Nazis and the Communists at times cooperated with each other in bringing down the Weimar democracy even while they were battling each other in the streets.
The are differences, though. The Nazis emphasized race and demonized Jews and other supposedly lesser races. The Communists emphasized economic class and demonized the capitalists and the kulaks.
Also, Naziism had deep roots in 19th century German thought. Before WWI and even before Hitler was born Germans were arguing that the Jews were the enemy of the German race . . . that racial purity was the key to cultural superiority . . . that democracy was a sham and Germans would find true freedom united under a dictator . . . that war has healthy and revitalizing while peace was enervating . . . that life was in essence a merciless struggle for survival of the fittest in which the death of even millions of people was an ordinary aspect of nature's harshness.
More than one student of Hitler has pointed out that none of the basic elements of his ideology were new. His unique contribution was to weld them all together and to organize an effective political movement to attain power.
Interesting history that I was not aware about. Seems true that the government-corporate corruption rises and falls over time as greed dominates. Must be that strong men-good times, etc story.