Names vs. Reality: Why the Nazis Were Not Socialist

Objects have a name. Objects also have properties – foundational aspects to the object independent from the name of the object.

Take a cube, for example. The name “cube” implies certain properties, but there is nothing stopping me from calling a cube a “sphere.” I could even get hundreds, or even thousands, of people to call a cube a sphere.

But that doesn’t make the object, the physical cube, a sphere. A cube lacks the physical, reality-based properties of a sphere. The cube remains a cube in reality, in the physical space, regardless of what I, or anyone calls it.

Just like calling a spoon a fork does not alter the reality of the spoon, nor does it turn the spoon into a fork. Calling a spoon a fork does not make that spoon able to stab a steak and hold it on the spoon’s tines. The spoon doesn’t get tines simply because it’s named after an object with tines.

And just like the cube and the spoon, socialism as a concept has foundational aspects to it that don’t change based on the name given to it.

The Nazi Party’s Name vs. Its Reality

The Nazi Party, despite its name, engaged in actions and policies that were quite clearly anti-socialist and anti-communist. Their supposed “socialism” was a branding trick — a way to lure working-class Germans away from genuine socialist and communist movements.

Their actions show their reality:

• Banned Trade Unions: On May 2, 1933, Nazi stormtroopers stormed union offices, arrested union leaders, and seized union funds (Evans, 2006).

• Destroyed Socialist & Communist Parties: Social Democrats and Communists were outlawed, their leaders jailed, tortured, or killed. The first people in concentration camps were socialists and communists (Shirer, 1960).

• Allied with Big Business: Hitler and the Nazis forged close partnerships with industrialists like Krupp and I.G. Farben. As historian Karl Dietrich Bracher put it: “Hitler never intended to destroy capitalism; he sought to harness it to his own ends” (Bracher, 1970).

• Suppressed Workers’ Rights: Collective bargaining, strikes, and independent labor organizing were abolished, replaced with the Nazi-controlled “German Labor Front.” Workers had no say — capitalists thrived (Peukert, 1987).

Their words show their reality:

• Hitler: “The whole of National Socialism is opposed to Marxism” (Mein Kampf, 1925/1999).

• Hitler: “The German worker must not become a Marxist” (Mein Kampf, 1925/1999).

• Goebbels: “What is the difference between Social Democracy and Communism? To us they are the same. Both are enemies” (Diaries, as cited in Evans, 2006).

National Socialism was not socialism. It was nationalism, militarism, and racism wrapped in populist language. The “socialism” in the party’s name was nothing more than a bait-and-switch.

The Hypocrisy of “Nazis Were Socialist” Claims

Which brings me to an interesting aspect of this whole situation and the people who claim that the Nazis were socialist.

There is no part of me that believes these people would disagree with the idea that politicians and political parties lie, deceive, and manipulate in order to gain and retain power. That’s a given. And yet, when it comes to this one case, suddenly they can’t wrap their heads around the possibility that the Nazis were lying about being socialist.

The West’s fearmongering about socialism is so powerful that these same people — who would be the first to say politicians are liars — somehow suspend that logic when it comes to FUCKING NAZIS.

Fascism as Capitalism’s Bodyguard

And here’s the part that really matters: this double standard fits perfectly into the West’s leitmotif of hating socialism and communism so much that anyone who opposed it becomes acceptable by default.

So acceptable that we allowed actual Nazis to immigrate to the West uncontested. We built statues commemorating them. We used Nazi scientists to build rockets and weapons. To this day, there are advocacy groups working to protect Nazis’ identities.

Because capitalism is so threatened by socialism that it will happily align itself with fascism to protect itself.

References

• Bracher, K. D. (1970). The German dictatorship: The origins, structure, and effects of National Socialism. Praeger.

• Evans, R. J. (2006). The Third Reich in power, 1933–1939. Penguin.

• Goebbels, J. (1987). The Goebbels diaries, 1939–1941 (L. P. Lochner, Trans.). Da Capo Press. (Original work published 1948)

• Hitler, A. (1999). Mein Kampf (R. Manheim, Trans.). Mariner Books. (Original work published 1925)

• Kershaw, I. (2008). Hitler: A biography. W. W. Norton & Company.

• Paxton, R. O. (2004). The anatomy of fascism. Alfred A. Knopf.

• Peukert, D. J. K. (1987). Inside Nazi Germany: Conformity, opposition, and racism in everyday life. Yale University Press.

• Shirer, W. L. (1960). The rise and fall of the Third Reich: A history of Nazi Germany. Simon & Schuster.

• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). The Nazi Party. Holocaust Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nazi-party

• Yale Law School. (1946). Nazi conspiracy and aggression: Opinion and judgment. The Avalon Project. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judopina.asp