It evolved from Hitler's private army, the SA ( Sturmabteilung or "assault division"), also known as "brownshirts" or "stormtroopers." One of the most prominent SS members was Heinrich Himmler, who commanded the SS and was responsible for splitting the SS from the SA.Īs World War II progressed, the SS grew to over 250,000 members and split into subdivisions, including SS Verfügungstruppen ("Dispositional troops"), Totenkopfverbande ("Death's Head Unit") and Waffen SS ("Armed SS"). The SS was a paramilitary group originally tasked with protecting Hitler and the higher-ranking Nazi officers. When you see the letters SS in reference to Nazis or World War II, it stands for Schutzstaffel ("protective squad" or "protective eschelon"). Some members of the party used the colloquial term, but for the most part, they referred to each other as Nationalsozialisten (National Socialists). Leopold von Mildenstein did the same in Ein Nazi fährt nach Palästina in 1934. Joseph Goebbels, a Nazi propagandist, wrote a pamphlet called Der Nazi-Sozi in 1926 to reclaim the nickname. Party members attempted to reclaim the nickname for their own purposes. As anti-Hitler Germans fled the country in the 1930s and 1940s, the teasing nickname for Hitler's party became part of international vocabulary. It transferred well to the German pronunciation of Nationalsozialist. As Mark Forsyth writes in The Etymologicon, Nazi had long been a derogatory nickname for the Bavarian peasant name Ignatius, which referred to a stereotypically unintelligent and clumsy person. In fact, Hitler disliked the term because it was used as an insult by his enemies. While it's difficult to know who exactly coined the word "Nazi" as a nickname for Hitler's party, historians generally agree that it wasn't Hitler. Even the threat of a far-right government's approach to Nazism warrants attention from democratic countries around the world. It had characteristics of capitalism (German citizens of non-Jewish ancestry could own property) and a state-run economy (the labor and production market shifted to accommodate the government's war needs).Īlthough Nazi Germany only existed for 12 years (1933-1945), it made an enormous impact on twentieth-century geopolitical relations. Sovereign economy - The Nazi economy did not fall into traditional definitions of economic systems.Common Nazi mottos included Alles für Deutschland ("everything for Germany") and Deutschland über alles ("Germany above all"). Loyalty - Nazis swore loyalty to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.Nazis believed in Aufbruch der Nation - "a new start for the nation" - to rebuild after suffering economic and infrastructural losses in the first World War.
Nationalism - One of the main Nazi party platforms was the unification of Germany after World War I.They put a stop to immigration into Germany and stripped rights from non-German residents. Xenophobia - Nazis wanted to preserve an Aryan race (Nordic heritage) and eliminate all who they deemed to be inferior, especially Jewish people.These actions ranged from arresting people without cause to executing them in concentration camps. Limited civil liberties - Personal freedom was unimportant to the Nazis, who quickly took liberty from those it persecuted.As he ascended Germany's political ranks, the German government rapidly shifted from a constitutional monarchy to an absolute dictatorship. Dictatorship - Adolf Hitler was the unquestioned leader of the Nazi party.The philosophy allowed no dissension among German citizens. Totalitarianism - The Nazi party sought sole control of the government and severe punishment of political enemies.Hitler's definition of National Socialism, a platform that serves one's country only, is closer to far-right fascism and authoritarianism on the ideological spectrum. Although the word socialist appears in the party title for Nazism, the Nazi ideology doesn't have much to do with far-left traditional socialism.
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