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187-850: Set up in November 1933 as a tool to promote the advantages of Nazism to the German people and internationally, it was also used to ease the process of the rearmament of Germany . Through its structure of organized events and promotion of propaganda, it was also intended to prevent dissident and anti-state behavior. By 1939, it became the world's largest tourism operator. KdF was composed of several departments with their own specific goals, with each department organizing different leisure activities. It organized activities such as sporting events on factory floors, art exhibitions, discounted concerts and, most famously and popularly, subsidized holidays and cruise trips. One of its largest departments, although sometimes considered

374-669: A Reichsleiter , the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. In May 1933 Rosenberg visited Britain, to give the impression that the Nazis would not be a threat and to encourage links between the new regime and the British Empire . It was a notable failure. When Rosenberg laid a wreath bearing a swastika at the Cenotaph , a Labour Party candidate slashed it, later threw it in the Thames and

561-636: A buffer state to ease the pressure on the German eastern frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia could be exploited for the benefit of Germany. During the war, Rosenberg was in favour of collaboration with the East Slavs against Bolshevism and offering them national independence unlike other Nazis such as Hitler and Himmler who dismissed such ideas. Rosenberg criticised those who did not subscribe to his racial theories. For example, he attacked Fascist Italy for what he perceived as its incorrect and improper stance on race and Jewishness. Rosenberg

748-559: A yokel . In this sense, the word Nazi was a hypocorism of the German male name Igna(t)z (itself a variation of the name Ignatius )—Igna(t)z being a common name at the time in Bavaria , the area from which the NSDAP emerged. In the 1920s, political opponents of the NSDAP in the German labour movement seized on this. Using the earlier abbreviated term Sozi for Sozialist ( German for 'Socialist') as an example, they shortened

935-529: A "state within a state" that threatened German national unity. Fichte promoted two options in order to address this, his first one being the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine so the Jews could be impelled to leave Europe. His second option was violence against Jews and he said that the goal of the violence would be "to cut off all their heads in one night, and set new ones on their shoulders, which should not contain

1122-423: A "superior" society based on ethnic German "folk" culture and German "blood". It denounced foreigners and foreign ideas and declared that Jews, Freemasons and others were "traitors to the nation" and unworthy of inclusion. Völkisch nationalism saw the world in terms of natural law and romanticism and it viewed societies as organic, extolling the virtues of rural life, condemning the neglect of tradition and

1309-498: A blood-and-soil ideology, the notion of a master race, [and] the idea of territorial acquisition and settlement in the East. These ideas were embedded in a popular nationalism which was vigorously anti-modernist, anti-humanist and pseudo-religious. Brought together, the result was an anti-intellectual and politically semi-illiterate ideology lacking cohesion, a product of mass culture which allowed its followers emotional attachment and offered

1496-539: A chamber of culture, but ultimately fell through due to backlash from Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess . The Leisure Time Office enabled workers to attend theatres and concerts by organizing local events and offering discounted tickets. It also organized concerts and events to take place in factories. As the Adult Education Office focused more on propaganda and refined education, the Leisure Time Office

1683-638: A drawing teacher at the Gustav Adolf Gymnasium and Tallinna Reaalkool (current Tallinn Polytechnic School ). He gave his first speech on Jewish Marxism on 30 November, at the House of the Blackheads , after the 28 November 1918 outbreak of the Estonian War of Independence . He emigrated to Germany with the retreating Imperial German army , along with Max Scheubner-Richter , who served as something of

1870-755: A form of far-right politics . Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents denied that Nazism was either left-wing or right-wing: instead, they officially portrayed Nazism as a syncretic movement. In Mein Kampf , Hitler directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying: Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from

2057-713: A healthy attitude, and as such the Sports Office began to organize physical education events for workers. Under supervision of the National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise , by 1936 sports and physical training were implemented in factories, and employees under the age of 18 were required to spend time in their workweek performing exercise. The Sports Office also pushed employers to build recreation facilities on work grounds, such as tennis courts, and offered tax incentives as encouragement. Official estimates by

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2244-457: A hierarchy of evolution from apes while Darwinian theory did not grade races in a hierarchy of higher or lower evolution from apes, but simply stated that all humans as a whole had progressed in their evolution from apes. Many Lamarckians viewed "lower" races as having been exposed to debilitating conditions for too long for any significant "improvement" of their condition to take place in the near future. Haeckel used Lamarckian theory to describe

2431-654: A hindrance to the expansion of the Nordic population. Rosenberg's attitude towards Slavs was flexible because it depended on the particular nation which he referred to. As a result of the ideology of " Drang nach Osten " ("Drive to the East"), Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the Slavic East. In The Myth of the Twentieth Century , Rosenberg describes Russian Slavs as being overwhelmed by Bolshevism. Regarding Ukrainians , he favoured setting up

2618-536: A medical and psychiatric report on him in prison to evaluate him as a suicide risk: He gave the impression of clinging to his own theories in a fanatical and unyielding fashion and to have been little influenced by the unfolding during the trial of the cruelty and crimes of the party. Summarizing the unresolved conflict between the personal views of Rosenberg and the pragmatism of the Nazi elite: The ruthless pursuit of Nazi aims turned out to mean not, as Rosenberg had hoped,

2805-600: A mentor to Rosenberg and to his ideology. Arriving in Munich , he contributed to Dietrich Eckart 's publication, the Völkischer Beobachter ( Ethnic/Nationalist Observer ). By this time, he was both an antisemite – influenced by Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century , one of the key proto-Nazi books of racial theory – and an anti-Bolshevik . Rosenberg became one of

2992-475: A nation's need to maintain its racial purity in order to prevent its degeneration and argued that racial intermingling with Jews should never be permitted. In 1923, Chamberlain met Hitler, whom he admired as a leader of the rebirth of the free spirit. Madison Grant 's work The Passing of the Great Race (1916) advocated Nordicism and proposed that a eugenics program should be implemented in order to preserve

3179-466: A nationalist redefinition of socialism , as an alternative to both Marxist international socialism and free-market capitalism . Nazism rejected the Marxist concepts of class conflict and universal equality , opposed cosmopolitan internationalism , and sought to convince all parts of the new German society to subordinate their personal interests to the " common good ", accepting political interests as

3366-944: A program offered by KdF, the initial successes of the cruises led to six large ships, including the MV Wilhelm Gustloff , being built specifically for use by KdF while a further six were chartered. They were first ships to be built specifically for cruises. They were collectively known as the KdF fleet, with the MV Robert Ley being considered as its flagship. Through these cruises Nazism was promoted internationally, and KdF travelers therefore were expected to represent its positively by dressing modestly and behaving appropriately. Ship events included masquerades , political and educational lectures, and events dedicated to displaying customs of individual German regions, such as shows of dance groups performing dances from their home regions. Drinking alcohol

3553-421: A renaming that Hitler initially objected to. The National Socialist Program , or "25 Points", was adopted in 1920 and called for a united Greater Germany that would deny citizenship to Jews or those of Jewish descent, while also supporting land reform and the nationalisation of some industries. In Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), published in 1925–1926, Hitler outlined the antisemitism and anti-communism at

3740-402: A separate organization altogether, was Beauty of Labour , which concerned itself with physical and sanitary improvements of the workplace. KdF was responsible for the improvement of several factories and sports facilities throughout its operations in the 1930s. KdF was supposed to bridge the class divide by making middle-class leisure activities available to the masses. It also sought to bolster

3927-675: A simplified and easily-digestible world-view based on a political mythology for the masses. Adolf Hitler himself along with other members of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei , NSDAP) in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933) were greatly influenced by several 19th- and early 20th-century thinkers and proponents of philosophical, onto-epistemic, and theoretical perspectives on ecological anthropology , scientific racism , holistic science , and organicism regarding

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4114-736: A single Jewish idea". The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (1912) is an antisemitic forgery created by the secret service of the Russian Empire , the Okhrana . Many antisemites believed it was real and thus it became widely popular after World War I. The Protocols claimed that there was a secret international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Hitler had been introduced to The Protocols by Alfred Rosenberg and from 1920 onwards he focused his attacks by claiming that Judaism and Marxism were directly connected, that Jews and Bolsheviks were one and

4301-900: A temporary strategic alliance between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to form a common anti-liberal front so they could defeat liberal democracies, particularly France . Hitler admired the British Empire and its colonial system as living proof of Germanic superiority over "inferior" races and saw the United Kingdom as Germany's natural ally. He wrote in Mein Kampf : "For a long time to come there will be only two Powers in Europe with which it may be possible for Germany to conclude an alliance. These Powers are Great Britain and Italy." The historical roots of Nazism are to be found in various elements of European political culture which were in circulation in

4488-459: A year researching in Latvian and Estonian archives before publishing an open letter in 1936, with copies to Hermann Göring , Joseph Goebbels , Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath and others, accusing Rosenberg of having "no drop of German blood" flowing in his veins. Szell wrote that among Rosenberg's ancestors were only "Latvians, Jews, Mongols, and French." As a result of his open letter, Szell

4675-460: Is determined for its part ruthlessly to seize the reins of power—that is the beginning of resistance of which I spoke a few minutes ago. Hitler at times redefined socialism. When George Sylvester Viereck interviewed Hitler in October 1923 and asked him why he referred to his party as 'socialists' he replied: Socialism is the science of dealing with the common weal. Communism is not Socialism. Marxism

4862-525: Is not Socialism. The Marxians have stolen the term and confused its meaning. I shall take Socialism away from the Socialists. Socialism is an ancient Aryan, Germanic institution. Our German ancestors held certain lands in common. They cultivated the idea of the common weal. Marxism has no right to disguise itself as socialism. Socialism, unlike Marxism, does not repudiate private property. Unlike Marxism, it involves no negation of personality, and unlike Marxism, it

5049-453: Is outlawed in many European countries, including Germany and Austria. The full name of the Nazi Party was Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei ( German for 'National Socialist German Workers' Party') and they officially used the acronym NSDAP. The term "nazi" had been in use, before the rise of the NSDAP, as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or peasant . It characterised an awkward and clumsy person,

5236-404: Is patriotic. In 1929, Hitler gave a speech to a group of Nazi leaders and simplified 'socialism' to mean, "Socialism! That is an unfortunate word altogether... What does socialism really mean? If people have something to eat and their pleasures, then they have their socialism." When asked in an interview on 27 January 1934 whether he supported the "bourgeois right-wing", Hitler claimed that Nazism

5423-487: Is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Europe, it was frequently referred to as Hitler Fascism (German: Hitlerfaschismus ) and Hitlerism (German: Hitlerismus ). The later related term " neo-Nazism " is applied to other far-right groups with similar ideas which formed after

5610-677: The Schutzstaffel (SS) functioned as the paramilitary organisations of the Nazi Party. Using the SS for the task, Hitler purged the party's more socially and economically radical factions in the mid-1934 Night of the Long Knives , including the leadership of the SA. After the death of President Hindenburg on 2 August 1934, political power was concentrated in Hitler's hands and he became Germany's head of state as well as

5797-560: The Amt Volksbildungswerk ('Office for Popular Education'). In Nazi Germany, the term "after-work organization" was increasingly applied to the entire area of organized leisure activity, including holidays. Nazism Final solution Parties Nazism ( / ˈ n ɑː t s ɪ z əm , ˈ n æ t -/ NA(H)T -siz-əm ), formally National Socialism ( NS ; German : Nationalsozialismus , German: [natsi̯oˈnaːlzotsi̯aˌlɪsmʊs] ),

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5984-666: The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce) developed for the purpose of looting art and cultural goods . The ERR were especially active in Paris in looting art stolen from famous Jewish families such as the Rothschilds and that of Paul Rosenberg . Hermann Göring used the ERR to collect art for his own personal gratification. He created a "Special Task Force for Music" ( Sonderstab Musik ) to collect

6171-531: The Völkischer Beobachter became the Nazi party newspaper in December 1920, Rosenberg became its editor in 1923. Rosenberg was a leading member of Aufbau Vereinigung , Reconstruction Organisation, a conspiratorial organisation of White Russian émigrés which had a critical influence on early Nazi policy. Rosenberg sympathized and identified with Talaat Pasha and the Committee of Union and Progress that carried out

6358-660: The Armenian genocide , also claiming that there was "a deliberately Jewish policy which had always protected the Armenians" and that "during the world war, the Armenians have led the espionage against the Turks, similar to the Jews against Germany". In 1923, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch , Hitler, who had been imprisoned for treason , appointed Rosenberg as the leader of the Nazi movement. Hitler remarked privately in later years that his choice of Rosenberg, whom he regarded as weak and lazy,

6545-544: The Berlin Philharmonic orchestra in these performances, while at other times concerts would be conducted by local composers and played by local orchestras. The Sports Office organized several sports events and classes throughout the operation of KdF. In the summer months, activities such as horse riding, sailing and swimming were offered with KdF emphasizing track and field activities. Gymnastics became an increasingly popular sport for German women during this time. During

6732-602: The Jeep . The few Beetles that were produced went to the diplomatic corps and military officials. An important propaganda tool in Nazi Germany was the radio, something that Goebbels realized and attempted to utilize. At his request, engineer Otto Greissing developed the ' people's receiver ,' or 'people's radio' ( Volksempfänger.) The original model was the VE301 and exhibited in August 1933 at

6919-532: The Kriegsmarine and converted to serve as hospital ships. The Robert Ley was requisitioned in August 1939 and converted to serve as a hospital ship after only six months of operation. The ship would be converted several times to serve different purposes throughout World War II and was bombed by the Royal Air Force in the port of Hamburg on 9 March 1945 where the wreckage remained afloat until June 1947, when it

7106-592: The Second World War when the Third Reich collapsed. Nazism is a form of fascism , with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system . It incorporates a dictatorship , fervent antisemitism , anti-communism , anti-Slavism , anti-Romani sentiment , scientific racism , white supremacy , Nordicism , social Darwinism , homophobia , ableism , and the use of eugenics into its creed. Its extreme nationalism originated in pan-Germanism and

7293-626: The Soviet Union 's leader Joseph Stalin and Stalinism on numerous occasions. Hitler commended Stalin for seeking to purify the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of Jewish influences, noting Stalin's purging of Jewish communists such as Leon Trotsky , Grigory Zinoviev , Lev Kamenev and Karl Radek . While Hitler had always intended to bring Germany into conflict with the Soviet Union so he could gain Lebensraum ("living space"), he supported

7480-486: The Soviet Union . The Nazi Party won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, making them the largest party in the legislature by far, albeit still short of an outright majority ( 37.3% on 31 July 1932 and 33.1% on 6 November 1932 ). Because none of the parties were willing or able to put together a coalition government, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933 by President Paul von Hindenburg through

7667-555: The Volta Conference about Europe. British historian Sir Charles Petrie met him there and regarded him with great distaste; Petrie was a Catholic and strongly objected to Rosenberg's anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic sentiments. The following year, following the Nazi seizure of power , Rosenberg was named leader of the Nazi Party's Foreign Policy Office in April, and on 2 June 1933 he was named

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7854-544: The ethno-nationalist Völkisch movement which had been a prominent aspect of German ultranationalism since the late 19th century. Nazism was strongly influenced by the Freikorps paramilitary groups that emerged after Germany's defeat in World War I , from which came the party's underlying "cult of violence". It subscribed to pseudo-scientific theories of a racial hierarchy , identifying ethnic Germans as part of what

8041-415: The far-right political canard which was popular when the ethnic völkisch movement and its politics of Romantic nationalism for establishing a Großdeutschland was strong. Nazism's racial policy positions may have developed from the views of important biologists of the 19th century, including French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , through Ernst Haeckel 's idealist version of Lamarckism and

8228-415: The immortality of the soul , saying, "indeed, absorbing Christianity enfeebled our people." Publicly, Rosenberg affected to deplore Christianity's degeneration owing to its Jewish influence. He took inspiration from Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's ideas and condemned what he called "Negative Christianity" (which was conventional Christianity preached by Protestantism and Catholicism ), instead Rosenberg

8415-557: The " Lebensraum " idea in Germany during the war; facilitating the persecution of Christian churches and the Jews in particular; and opposition to the Versailles Treaty . According to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, who covered the executions for the International News Service , Rosenberg was the only condemned man who, when asked at the gallows if he had any last statement to make, replied with only one word: "No". Hitler

8602-505: The 1870s, German völkisch nationalism began to adopt antisemitic and racist themes and it was also adopted by a number of radical right political movements. Radical antisemitism was promoted by prominent advocates of völkisch nationalism, including Eugen Diederichs , Paul de Lagarde and Julius Langbehn . De Lagarde called the Jews a " bacillus , the carriers of decay ... who pollute every national culture ... and destroy all faiths with their materialistic liberalism" and he called for

8789-532: The Bavarian Soviet Republic and he stated that he became an antisemite in 1913 during his years in Vienna. This statement has been disputed by the contention that he was not an antisemite at that time, even though it is well established that he read many antisemitic tracts and journals during that time and admired Karl Lueger , the antisemitic mayor of Vienna. Hitler altered his political views in response to

8976-605: The Christian denominations in favor of "positive Christianity". Hitler privately condemned mystical and pseudoreligious interests as "nonsense", and maintained that National Socialism was based on science and should avoid mystic and cultic practices. However, he and Joseph Goebbels agreed that after the Endsieg (Final Victory) the Reich Church should be pressed into evolving into a German social evolutionist organisation proclaiming

9163-572: The DNVP lost many of its seats in the Reichstag . The Nazis denounced them as "an insignificant heap of reactionaries". The DNVP responded by denouncing the Nazis for their "socialism", their street violence and the "economic experiments" that would take place if the Nazis ever rose to power. However, amidst an inconclusive political situation in which conservative politicians Franz von Papen and Kurt von Schleicher were unable to form stable governments without

9350-480: The German tourist industry , something it did successfully up until the outbreak of World War II . Official statistics showed that in 1934, 2.3 million people took KdF holidays. By 1938, this figure rose to 10.3 million. With the outbreak of war in 1939, most of the organization's programs were suspended and several projects, such as the Prora holiday resort, were never completed. On November 27, 1933, Strength through Joy

9537-634: The German Army and several prominent industrialists, formed an alliance in opposition to the Weimar Republic on 11 October 1931 in Bad Harzburg , officially known as the "National Front", but commonly referred to as the Harzburg Front . The Nazis stated that the alliance was purely tactical and they continued to have differences with the DNVP. After the elections of July 1932, the alliance broke down when

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9724-688: The German Labour Front show that by 1939, approximately 3,000 sports facilities were created and over 12 million sports courses were organized through these efforts. Overall, it sought heightened physical and mental health for workers, important aspects for potential citizens living in the 'people's community.' The Leisure Time Office and Adult Education Office, seeking to educate adults in arts and culture as well as to ensure they spend their time profitably, took steps to provide access to events for workers. To do as such, exhibitions, concerts and cultural events were held within factories to ensure workers had

9911-690: The German Nation (1808), written amid the First French Empire 's occupation of Berlin during the Napoleonic Wars , Fichte called for a German national revolution against the French Imperial Army occupiers, making passionate public speeches, arming his students for battle against the French and stressing the need for action by the German nation so it could free itself. Fichte's German nationalism

10098-427: The German politician Friedrich Naumann formed the National-Social Association which aimed to combine German nationalism and a non-Marxist form of socialism together; the attempt turned out to be futile and the idea of linking nationalism with socialism quickly became equated with antisemites, extreme German nationalists and the völkisch movement in general. During the era of the German Empire , völkisch nationalism

10285-463: The Jewish population of Europe – were eventually exterminated in a genocide which became known as the Holocaust . Following Germany's defeat in World War II and the discovery of the full extent of the Holocaust, Nazi ideology became universally disgraced. It is widely regarded as evil , with only a few fringe racist groups, usually referred to as neo-Nazis, describing themselves as followers of National Socialism. The use of Nazi symbols

10472-457: The Lutheran chaplain who communed with some of the Nuremberg prisoners with Lutheran backgrounds, like Joachim von Ribbentrop and Wilhelm Keitel . Due to his criticism of Christianity, some polemical texts have called him a neo-pagan . In 1940 Rosenberg was made head of the Hohe Schule (literally "high school", but the German phrase refers to a college), the Centre of National Socialist Ideological and Educational Research, out of which

10659-434: The Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda created the 'Caring for the Troops' department of KdF, with Goebbels appointing Hans Hinkel as its head. The equivalent of the United States' USO , the troop-care units utilized portable stages and civilian performers such as musicians and actors, hiring them for up to 100 Reichsmarks per day. Many of the hired performers had little experience or were considered third-rate. By

10846-455: The NSDAP's name, Nationalsozialistische , to the dismissive "Nazi", in order to associate them with the derogatory use of the aforementioned term. The first use of the term "Nazi" by the National Socialists occurred in 1926 in a publication by Joseph Goebbels called Der Nazi-Sozi ["The Nazi-Sozi"]. In Goebbels' pamphlet, the word "Nazi" only appears when linked with the word "Sozi" as an abbreviation of "National Socialism". After

11033-413: The NSDAP's rise to power in the 1930s, the use of the term "Nazi" by itself or in terms such as " Nazi Germany ", " Nazi regime ", and so on was popularised by German exiles outside the country, but not in Germany. From them, the term spread into other languages and it was eventually brought back into Germany after World War II. The NSDAP briefly adopted the designation "Nazi" in an attempt to reappropriate

11220-486: The Nazi Party emerged from obscurity to become a major political force after 1929, the conservative faction rapidly gained more influence, as wealthy donors took an interest in the Nazis as a potential bulwark against communism. The Nazi Party had previously been financed almost entirely from membership dues, but after 1929 its leadership began actively seeking donations from German industrialists, and Hitler began holding dozens of fundraising meetings with business leaders. In

11407-580: The Nazi Party is controversial. He was perceived as lacking the charisma and political skills of the other Nazi leaders, and was somewhat isolated. In some of his speeches Hitler appeared to be close to Rosenberg's views, rejecting traditional Christianity as a religion based on Jewish culture, preferring an ethnically and culturally pure "Race" whose destiny was supposed to be assigned to the German people by "Providence". But Hitler rejected Rosenberg's spiritual views on race but instead based his views on biology. After Hitler's assumption of power he moved to unify

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11594-415: The Nazi Party's chief racial theorist , Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's racial and ethnic policies . Rosenberg built on the works of Arthur de Gobineau , Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Madison Grant and the Klansman Lothrop Stoddard as well as on the beliefs of Hitler. Rosenberg placed Blacks and Jews at the very bottom of the ladder, while at

11781-409: The Nazi Party. His four sons, including Prince Eitel Friedrich and Prince Oskar , became members of the Nazi Party in hopes that in exchange for their support, the Nazis would permit the restoration of the monarchy. Hitler dismissed the possibility of a restored monarchy, calling it "idiotic." Wilhelm grew to distrust Hitler and was appalled at the Kristallnacht of 9–10 November 1938, stating, "For

11968-423: The Nazi movement the Heil greeting, the Führer title and the model of absolute party leadership. Hitler was also impressed by the populist antisemitism and the anti-liberal bourgeois agitation of Karl Lueger , who as the mayor of Vienna during Hitler's time in the city used a rabble-rousing style of oratory that appealed to the wider masses. Unlike von Schönerer, Lueger was not a German nationalist and instead

12155-454: The Nazi seizure of power, there were even Social Democrats and Communists who switched sides and became known as " Beefsteak Nazis ": brown on the outside and red inside. The leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm , pushed for a "second revolution" (the "first revolution" being the Nazis' seizure of power) that would enact socialist policies. Furthermore, Röhm desired that the SA absorb the much smaller German Army into its ranks under his leadership. Once

12342-400: The Nazis achieved power, Röhm's SA was directed by Hitler to violently suppress the parties of the left, but they also began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction. Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and

12529-487: The Nazis as a useful ally to promote their interests. Business groups made significant financial contributions to the Nazi Party both before and after the Nazi seizure of power, in the hope that a Nazi dictatorship would eliminate the organised labour movement and the left-wing parties. Hitler actively sought to gain the support of business leaders by arguing that private enterprise is incompatible with democracy. Although he opposed communist ideology, Hitler publicly praised

12716-576: The Nazis regarded as an Aryan or Nordic master race . Nazism sought to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous German society based on racial purity which represented a people's community ( Volksgemeinschaft ). The Nazis aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, as well as gain additional lands for German expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum and exclude those whom they deemed either Community Aliens or "inferior" races ( Untermenschen ). The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create

12903-478: The Nazis, Papen proposed to President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor at the head of a government formed primarily of conservatives, with only three Nazi ministers. Hindenburg did so, and contrary to the expectations of Papen and the DNVP, Hitler was soon able to establish a Nazi one-party dictatorship. Kaiser Wilhelm II , who was pressured to abdicate the throne and flee into exile amidst an attempted communist revolution in Germany, initially supported

13090-402: The Nineteenth Century (1899), praised Germanic peoples for their creativity and idealism while asserting that the Germanic spirit was threatened by a "Jewish" spirit of selfishness and materialism . Chamberlain used his thesis to promote monarchical conservatism while denouncing democracy , liberalism and socialism . The book became popular, especially in Germany. Chamberlain stressed

13277-417: The Old Testament as well as the notion of Christ as the Jewish Messiah) and the Manichaean-inspired, "Aryo-Iranian" Cathari , as being the more authentic interpreters of Christianity versus historically dominant Judaeo-Christianity; moreover these ancient, externally Christian metaphysical forms were more "organically compatible with the Nordic sense of the spiritual and the Nordic 'blood-soul'." For Rosenberg,

13464-749: The Pan-German Großdeutschland ("Greater Germany") which the Nazis advocated, Hitler stated that Bismarck's attainment of Kleindeutschland was the "highest achievement" Bismarck could have achieved "within the limits possible at that time". In Mein Kampf , Hitler presented himself as a "second Bismarck". During his youth in Austria, Hitler was politically influenced by Austrian Pan-Germanist proponent Georg Ritter von Schönerer , who advocated radical German nationalism , antisemitism, anti-Catholicism , anti-Slavic sentiment and anti-Habsburg views. From von Schönerer and his followers, Hitler adopted for

13651-643: The Reich. The Sanctum Officium in Rome recommended that Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century be put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of books forbidden by the Catholic Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, and the very fundamentals of the Christian religion". Rosenberg has been described as an atheist by some people, including Henry F. Gerecke ,

13838-574: The Semitic race, which they associated with "cultural sterility". Arthur de Gobineau , a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing , which he argued had destroyed the purity of the Aryan race, a term which he only reserved for Germanic people. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasised

14025-428: The Soviet Union , tourism opportunities were suspended and the organization shifted to more domestic activities and troop entertainment; up until this point, KdF had sold more than 45 million package tours and excursions, totaling over 700,000 German travelers. By 1939, it had 7,000 employees and over 135,000 volunteers. KdF formed 'troop-care units' ( Truppenbetreuung ) in 1935, and after the invasion of Poland in 1939

14212-456: The Twentieth Century ( Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ) which deals with key issues in the Nazi ideology, such as the "Jewish question." Rosenberg intended his book as a sequel to Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's above-cited book. Despite selling more than a million copies by 1945, its influence within Nazism remains doubtful. It is often said to have been a book that was officially venerated within Nazism, but one that few had actually read beyond

14399-548: The Twentieth Century (1930), Rosenberg is considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theory and its hatred of the Jewish people, the need for Lebensraum , abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles , and opposition to what was considered " degenerate " modern art. He was also known for his hatred and rejection of what he regarded as "negative" Christianity, however, he played an important role in

14586-580: The Volkswagen be sold at 1,000 Reichsmarks or less, the project was taken over by the German Labour Front ( Deutsche Arbeitsfront ; DAF). Now working for the DAF, Porsche built a new Volkswagen factory in Fallersleben at a huge cost, partly met by raiding the DAF's accumulated assets and misappropriating the dues paid by DAF members. The Volkswagen was sold to German workers on an installment plan, where buyers of

14773-486: The Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 which later led it to sign the Treaty of Versailles. A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist Freikorps , paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I. Initially, the post–World War I German far-right was dominated by monarchists , but the younger generation, which was associated with völkisch nationalism,

14960-433: The ability to attend. Exhibitions of art created by exclusively German artists, plays, musicals and concerts were organized and admission for workers was either very cheap or free. Some art exhibitions featured art created by workers, oftentimes created in classes organized by the KdF. At all exhibitions, the art was for sale. In some cases, renowned composers such as Wilhelm Brueckner-Rueggeberg and Wilhelm Furtwängler led

15147-616: The afternoon, even after he became Chancellor and then Führer. After the war, his battalion was absorbed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic from 1918 to 1919, where he was elected Deputy Battalion Representative. According to historian Thomas Weber , Hitler attended the funeral of communist Kurt Eisner (a German Jew), wearing a black mourning armband on one arm and a red communist armband on the other, which he took as evidence that Hitler's political beliefs had not yet solidified. In Mein Kampf , Hitler never mentioned any service with

15334-582: The anti-intellectual, religious doctrine was inseparable from serving the interests of the Nordic race, connecting the individual to his racial nature. Rosenberg stated that "The general ideas of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our (German) soul." His support for Luther as a great German figure was always ambivalent. In January 1934, Hitler appointed Rosenberg cultural and educational leader of

15521-807: The approval of the propaganda ministry, the Great Theatre ( Großes Schauspielhaus) in Berlin was renamed the 'Theatre of the People' ( Theater des Volkes ) and was established as the official theatre of KdF, with numerous other KdF theatres opening in major cities. The Adult Education Office similarly used these theatres for showings of propaganda films, alongside the film buses. Employing civilian performers as well as organizing performances of their own orchestras, by 1938 KdF had sponsored and offered ticket packages to performances such as As You Like It by William Shakespeare and Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff , but over time

15708-461: The benefit of future Aryan generations, in accord with geopolitical " Lebensraum im Osten" plans. They would provide a buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of Communism and Bolshevism by decisive pre-emptive military action. Following these plans, when Wehrmacht forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats of Ostland and Ukraine , under

15895-521: The best musical instruments and scores for use in a university to be built in Hitler's home town of Linz , Austria . The orders given to the Sonderstab Musik were to loot all forms of Jewish property in Germany and of those found in any country taken over by the German army, and any musical instruments or scores were to be immediately shipped to Berlin . Following the invasion of the USSR , Rosenberg

16082-457: The car made payments and posted stamps in a stamp-savings book, which, when full, would be redeemed for the car. Due to the shift of wartime production, no private citizen ever received a KdF-Wagen , although after the war, Volkswagen did give some customers a 200 DM discount for their stamp-books. The Beetle factory was then primarily converted to produce the Kübelwagen , the German equivalent of

16269-643: The churches into a national church which could be manipulated and controlled. He placed himself in the position of being the man to save Positive Christianity from utter destruction at the hands of the atheistic antitheist Communists of the Soviet Union . This was especially true immediately before and after the elections of 1932; Hitler wanted to appear non-threatening to major Christian faiths and consolidate his power. Some Nazi leaders, such as Martin Bormann , were anti-Christian and sympathetic to Rosenberg. Once in power, Hitler and most Nazi leaders sought to unify

16456-438: The concept of the Aryan race to draw a distinction between what they deemed to be "high and noble" Aryan culture versus that of "parasitic" Semitic culture. Notions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority were combined in the 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining the belief that certain groups of white people were members of an Aryan "master race" that is superior to other races and particularly superior to

16643-448: The conquered Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts, to replace the previously Soviet -controlled territories with new Reichskommissariats . These would be: Although Rosenberg believed that all of the peoples of the Soviet Union were subhumans because of their communist beliefs, such suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian forms of nationalism and promote German interests for

16830-641: The conservative-oriented German Army. This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA in 1934, in what came to be known as the Night of the Long Knives . Before he joined the Bavarian Army to fight in World War I, Hitler had lived a bohemian lifestyle as a petty street watercolour artist in Vienna and Munich and he maintained elements of this lifestyle later on, going to bed very late and rising in

17017-604: The constitution of complex systems and theorization of organic-racial societies. In particular, one of the most significant ideological influences on the Nazis was the 19th-century German nationalist philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte , whose works had served as an inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi Party members, and whose ideas were implemented among the philosophical and ideological foundations of Nazi-oriented Völkisch nationalism . Fichte's works served as an inspiration to Hitler and other Nazi Party members, including Dietrich Eckart and Arnold Fanck . In Speeches to

17204-507: The cost of 76 Reichsmarks, the equivalent to two weeks' average salary at the time. A cheaper model was later produced, the DKE38 (sometimes called the Goebbels-Schnauze – "Goebbels' snout" – by the German public) and was used as the base of a KdF branded radio. Giving poor Germans access to this medium for the first time, it cost 35 Reichsmarks and the option of paying with an installment plan

17391-465: The creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica, Ukraine, and Caucasus. During an 18 November 1941 press conference , he made the following statements about the Jewish question : Some six million Jews still live in the East, and this question can only be solved by a biological extermination of the whole of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Question will only be solved for Germany when

17578-577: The cult of race, blood and battle, instead of Redemption and the Ten Commandments of Moses , which they deemed outdated and Jewish. Heinrich Himmler 's views were among the closest to Rosenberg's, and their estrangement was perhaps created by Himmler's abilities to put into action what Rosenberg had only written. Also, while Rosenberg thought Christianity should be allowed to die out, Himmler actively set out to create countering pagan rituals. Lieutenant Colonel William Harold Dunn (1898–1955) wrote

17765-538: The decay of morals, denounced the destruction of the natural environment and condemned "cosmopolitan" cultures such as Jews and Romani. The first party that attempted to combine nationalism and socialism was the (Austria-Hungary) German Workers' Party , which predominantly aimed to solve the conflict between the Austrian Germans and the Czechs in the multi-ethnic Austrian Empire , then part of Austria-Hungary . In 1896

17952-660: The development of German nationalist Positive Christianity , which denied that Jesus is the Messiah and rejected the Old Testament. Rosenberg was born on 12 January 1893 in Reval (now Tallinn , Estonia), then in the Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire . His mother Elfriede (née Siré), who had French and German ancestry, was the daughter of Louise Rosalie (née Fabricius), born near Leal (modern Lihula , Estonia) in 1842, and of

18139-521: The disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors ... But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms. In a speech given in Munich on 12 April 1922, Hitler stated: There are only two possibilities in Germany; do not imagine that

18326-642: The earliest members of the German Workers' Party – later renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party , better known as the Nazi Party – joining in January 1919, eight months before Adolf Hitler joined in September. According to some historians, Rosenberg had also been a member of the Thule Society , along with Eckart, although Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke contends that they were only guests. After

18513-552: The effect of adding to their problems. Posters for "volunteer" labour, with inscriptions such as "Come work with us to shorten the war", hid the appalling realities faced by Russian workers in Germany . Rosenberg noted that many joined the partisans when volunteers for work details declined and the Germans resorted to force to acquire workers from the East. Rosenberg was captured by Allied troops on 19 May 1945 in Flensburg - Mürwik . He

18700-591: The end of 1941 it had become a massive program, as troop-care units had staged over 300,000 performances across every theater of war, including Africa. Hinkel described the units in official propaganda as equally essential as the Wehrmacht , stating that soldiers and artists had a special bond through their allegiance to Hitler, and were "an essential part of modern war and human leadership in National Socialist Greater Germany ." Seeking also to ensure

18887-406: The entire course, cost 80 pfennings per 90 minutes, and often covered more skilled sports such as boxing, golf and rowing. Activities organized early in KdF's existence often deliberately left out competition, training and expectations of high performance. This was intended to focus the course on the production of joy and improvement of the population's health. Another reason for it may have been that

19074-612: The entire school evacuated to the Moscow Imperial Higher Technical School ( Russian : Императорское Московское техническое училище (ИМТУ) ), where he completed his PhD studies in 1917. During his stays at home in Reval, he attended the art studio of the famed painter Ants Laikmaa - though he showed promise, there are no records that he ever exhibited. During the German occupation of Estonia in 1918, Rosenberg served as

19261-430: The existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan ( Germanic ) and Jewish cultures . Aryan mysticism claimed that Christianity originated in Aryan religious traditions, and that Jews had usurped the legend from Aryans. Houston Stewart Chamberlain , an English-born German proponent of racial theory, supported notions of Germanic supremacy and antisemitism in Germany. Chamberlain's work, The Foundations of

19448-427: The existence of interracial struggle and put races on a hierarchy of evolution, ranging from wholly human to subhuman . Mendelian inheritance , or Mendelism, was supported by the Nazis, as well as by mainstream eugenicists of the time. The Mendelian theory of inheritance declared that genetic traits and attributes were passed from one generation to another. Eugenicists used Mendelian inheritance theory to demonstrate

19635-492: The extermination of the Jews. Langbehn called for a war of annihilation against the Jews, and his genocidal policies were later published by the Nazis and given to soldiers on the front during World War II . One antisemitic ideologue of the period, Friedrich Lange , even used the term "National Socialism" to describe his own anti-capitalist take on the völkisch nationalist template. Johann Gottlieb Fichte accused Jews in Germany of having been and inevitably of continuing to be

19822-560: The fact that words in European languages and words in Indo-Iranian languages have similar pronunciations and meanings. Johann Gottfried Herder argued that the Germanic peoples held close racial connections to the ancient Indians and the ancient Persians, who he claimed were advanced peoples that possessed a great capacity for wisdom, nobility, restraint and science. Contemporaries of Herder used

20009-570: The father of genetics , German botanist Gregor Mendel . Haeckel's works were later condemned by the Nazis as inappropriate for "National-Socialist formation and education in the Third Reich". This may have been because of his " monist " atheistic , materialist philosophy, which the Nazis disliked, along with his friendliness to Jews, opposition to militarism and support altruism, with one Nazi official calling for them to be banned. Unlike Darwinian theory, Lamarckian theory officially ranked races in

20196-514: The fields of agricultural and industrial labour. German Jewish financiers and bankers played a key role in fostering Germany's economic growth from 1871 to 1913 and they benefited enormously from this boom. In 1908, amongst the twenty-nine wealthiest German families with aggregate fortunes of up to 55 million marks at the time, five were Jewish and the Rothschilds were the second wealthiest German family. The predominance of Jews in Germany's banking, commerce and industry sectors during this time period

20383-546: The first branch of a projected Advanced School of the NSDAP , dedicated to identifying and attacking supposed Jewish influence in German culture and to recording the history of Judaism from a radical nationalist perspective. He was elected as a Reichstag Deputy in 1930 and would continue to serve in this capacity until the end of the Nazi regime. First elected as a representative of the electoral list , from 1933 on he represented electoral constituency 33, Hesse. In 1930, he also published his book on racial theory The Myth of

20570-440: The first chapter or even found comprehensible. Hitler called it "stuff nobody can understand" and disapproved of its pseudo-religious tone. Rosenberg helped convince Hitler, whose early speeches focused on revenge against France and Britain, that communism was a serious threat to Germany. " Jewish-Bolshevism " became an ideological target for Nazism during the early 1920s. In Rome during November 1932 Rosenberg participated in

20757-469: The first time, I am ashamed to be a German." The former German emperor also denounced the Nazis as a "bunch of shirted gangsters" and "a mob ... led by a thousand liars or fanatics." There were factions within the Nazi Party, both conservative and radical. The conservative Nazi Hermann Göring urged Hitler to conciliate with capitalists and reactionaries . Other prominent conservative Nazis included Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich . Meanwhile,

20944-443: The government hoped that class divisions would be bridged leading to the building of a ' people's community ,' and that a common national consciousness would end class conflict and enable all classes to work together for the greater benefit of the nation. A key feature of the people's community was the overall good physical health of the German people, in order to produce a population fit for military service and for work. In addition, it

21131-725: The government sought to prevent opposition between participating groups, and rather promote and encourage cooperation. In 1939, KdF was awarded the Olympic Cup by the International Olympic Committee . The Leisure Time Office offered a variety of different activities and discounts for workers. Offering discounted ticket packages to theatres for films, musicals and plays for workers in cities, KdF also organized events to occur in rural areas by utilizing buses, called Theaterzüge, equipped with film projectors and loudspeakers as well as organizing productions using mobile stages. With

21318-512: The head of the government, with the title of Führer und Reichskanzler , meaning "leader and Chancellor of Germany" (see also here ). From that point, Hitler was effectively the dictator of Nazi Germany—also known as the Third Reich—under which Jews, political opponents and other "undesirable" elements were marginalised, imprisoned or murdered . During World War II , many millions of people – including around two-thirds of

21505-481: The heart of his political philosophy as well as his disdain for representative democracy , over which he proposed the Führerprinzip ( leader principle ), and his belief in Germany's right to territorial expansion through lebensraum . Hitler's objectives involved the eastward expansion of German territories, German colonization of Eastern Europe, and the promotion of an alliance with Britain and Italy against

21692-511: The heightened physical and mental health of troops, other forms of light KdF entertainment were made available such as art exhibitions and sports. Entertainment by troop-care units was not exclusive to the Wehrmacht, as they were also tasked to put on shows for SS guards in concentration camps and 'Ethnic Germans' living in occupied territory. Germany's troop-care units remain a lightly researched topic. Several KdF cruise ships were requisitioned into

21879-454: The hygiene of workplaces, by providing toilets, locker rooms, and proper washing facilities. It also looked to improve air quality and reduce noise for workers. The government offered tax incentives as encouragement, and by 1938 the conditions of 34,000 workplaces had improved considerably. This was largely achieved by workers completing renovations while on unpaid overtime. KdF stressed that partaking in sports would encourage physical health and

22066-491: The improved conditions of factories. Groups were shown engaging in calisthenics, going on walks through company grounds, and checking out books from the company library. The Feierabendgestaltung ('After-work organization') was the "planned" structuring of daily leisure time within KdF's programme, attempted by the Nazis through individual state agencies, including the Amt Feierabend ('Office for After-Work Activity') and

22253-546: The induction of the Nuremberg Race Laws in 1935 by the Nazis, many German nationalists such as Roland Freisler strongly supported laws to ban Rassenschande between Aryans and Jews as racial treason. Even before the laws were officially passed, the Nazis banned sexual relations and marriages between party members and Jews. Party members found guilty of Rassenschande were severely punished; some party members were even sentenced to death. The Nazis claimed that Bismarck

22440-508: The intellectual capitals of the continent, what Joachim Fest called the "scrapheap of ideas" prevalent at the time. In Hitler and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic , historian Martin Broszat points out that [A]lmost all essential elements of ... Nazi ideology were to be found in the radical positions of ideological protest movements [in pre-1914 Germany]. These were: a virulent anti-Semitism,

22627-458: The invasion of the Soviet Union intended to impose the New Order , it was essentially a war of conquest. German propaganda efforts designed to win over Russian opinion were, at best, patchy and inconsistent. Alfred Rosenberg was one of the few in the Nazi hierarchy who advocated a policy designed to encourage anti-Communist opinion among the population of the occupied territories. His interest here

22814-538: The job he did. On 1 January 1924, Rosenberg founded the Greater German People's Community , a Nazi front organization . Headquartered in Munich , it was largely limited to Bavaria , the birthplace of National Socialism, had no substantial presence outside that State and became a haven for Nazi Party members from that area. Prominent members included Max Amann , Phillip Bouhler , Hermann Esser , Franz Xaver Schwarz and Julius Streicher . Rosenberg, one of

23001-627: The last Jew has left German territory, and it will only be solved for Europe when not a single Jew stands on the European continent as far as the Urals... And to this end, it is necessary to force them beyond the Urals or otherwise bring about their eradication. At the Nuremberg trials he said he was ignorant of the Holocaust , despite the fact that Leibbrandt and Meyer were present at the Wannsee conference . Since

23188-488: The leadership of Hinrich Lohse and Erich Koch , respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to conflict between Rosenberg and the SS over the treatment of Slavs under German occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples. He proposed

23375-523: The least charismatic of the Nazi leaders and lacking in leadership qualities, was soon pushed aside by Streicher, a far more ruthless and abrasive personality, who was elected Chairman on 9 July 1924 with Esser, also a coarse, bullying sort, as his Deputy Chairman. In 1929 Rosenberg founded the Militant League for German Culture . He later formed the " Institute for Research on the Jewish Question ",

23562-495: The main priority of economic organisation, which tended to match the general outlook of collectivism or communitarianism rather than economic socialism. The Nazi Party's precursor, the pan-German nationalist and antisemitic German Workers' Party (DAP), was founded on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s, the party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party in order to appeal to left-wing workers,

23749-427: The middle class. Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union , tourism opportunities were suspended and the organization shifted to more domestic activities and troop entertainment; up until this point, KdF had sold more than 45 million package tours and excursions, totaling over 700,000 German travelers. The Nazi government also sought to attract tourists from abroad, a task performed by Hermann Esser , one of

23936-520: The midst of the Great Depression, facing the possibility of economic ruin on the one hand and a Communist or Social Democrat government on the other hand, German business increasingly turned to Nazism as offering a way out of the situation, by promising a state-driven economy that would support, rather than attack, existing business interests. By January 1933, the Nazi Party had secured the support of important sectors of German industry, mainly among

24123-501: The nation. He believed that communism was invented by the Jews to weaken nations by promoting class struggle. After his rise to power, Hitler took a pragmatic position on economics, accepting private property and allowing capitalist private enterprises to exist so long as they adhered to the goals of the Nazi state, but not tolerating enterprises that he saw as being opposed to the national interest. German business leaders disliked Nazi ideology but came to support Hitler, because they saw

24310-503: The occupied countries of Europe, as well as the brutal conditions in Eastern Europe. During his trial he wrote his memoirs, which were published posthumously and with analytical commentary by Serge Lang and Ernst von Schenck. He was sentenced to death and executed with other condemned co-defendants at Nuremberg Prison on the morning of 16 October 1946 . His body, like those of the other nine executed men and that of Hermann Göring ,

24497-550: The occupiers. But decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, and Hermann Göring demanded that the collective farms be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as "stupid". There were numerous German armed forces ( Wehrmacht ) posters asking for assistance in the Bandenkrieg, the war against the Soviet partisans , though, once again, German policy had

24684-615: The office organized activities such as hiking trips and swimming excursions. In most destinations hotelkeepers and some local businesses saw increased profits thanks to the increasing number of tourists, as did the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German National Railway). Popular extended holiday destinations included the Alps, the Black Forest, and the coasts of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, but most of

24871-534: The people will forever go with the middle party, the party of compromises; one day it will turn to those who have most consistently foretold the coming ruin and have sought to dissociate themselves from it. And that party is either the Left: and then God help us! for it will lead us to complete destruction—to Bolshevism, or else it is a party of the Right which at the last, when the people is in utter despair, when it has lost all its spirit and has no longer any faith in anything,

25058-625: The performances would be replaced almost entirely by propagandistic pieces. Other notable performances included Wibbel the Tailor and The Land of Smiles . Following the declaration of total war , most musicians and performers utilized by the KdF were used for troop entertainment. The Office for Travel, Hiking, and Holidays offered various discounted vacation trips, ranging in length from day and weekend trips to one week or upwards of three weeks. Taking travelers via rail and bus to their destinations, within Germany or its occupied and annexed territories,

25245-470: The purity of the Nordic race. After reading the book, Hitler called it "my Bible". In Germany, the belief that Jews were economically exploiting Germans became prominent due to the ascendancy of many wealthy Jews into prominent positions upon the unification of Germany in 1871. From 1871 to the early 20th century, German Jews were overrepresented in Germany's upper and middle classes while they were underrepresented in Germany's lower classes, particularly in

25432-455: The radical Nazi Joseph Goebbels opposed capitalism, viewing it as having Jews at its core and he stressed the need for the party to emphasise both a proletarian and a national character. Those views were shared by Otto Strasser , who later left the Nazi Party and formed the Black Front in the belief that Hitler had allegedly betrayed the party's socialist goals by endorsing capitalism. When

25619-573: The railway official Friedrich August Siré, born in Saint Petersburg , Russia, in 1843. Born in the same city in 1868, Elfriede Siré received the Christian sacrament of Confirmation in Reval at 17 in 1885. She married Woldemar Wilhelm Rosenberg, a wealthy merchant from Reval, in the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (St-Petersburg) in 1886. His paternal grandfather, Martin Rosenberg,

25806-438: The rise of Hitler and the Nazis. In addition, the different ideologies incorporated into Nazism were already well established in certain parts of German society long before World War I . The Nazis were strongly influenced by the post–World War I far-right in Germany, which held common beliefs such as anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism and antisemitism, along with nationalism , contempt for the Treaty of Versailles and condemnation of

25993-485: The same and that Marxism was a Jewish ideology-this became known as " Jewish Bolshevism ". Hitler believed that The Protocols were authentic. During his life in Vienna between 1907 and 1913, Hitler became fervently anti-Slavic . Prior to the Nazi ascension to power, Hitler often blamed moral degradation on Rassenschande ("racial defilement"), a way to assure his followers of his continuing antisemitism, which had been toned down for popular consumption. Prior to

26180-542: The secretaries of the Ministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda (' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda '). A series of multilingual and colourful brochures, titled Deutschland , advertised Germany as a peaceful, idyllic and progressive country, on one occasion even portraying the ministry's boss, Joseph Goebbels , grinning in an unlikely photo series of the Cologne carnival . Following Germany's invasion of

26367-499: The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 and it was then that he became an antisemitic, German nationalist. Hitler expressed opposition to capitalism, regarding it as having Jewish origins and accusing capitalism of holding nations ransom to the interests of a parasitic cosmopolitan rentier class. He also expressed opposition to communism and egalitarian forms of socialism, arguing that inequality and hierarchy are beneficial to

26554-456: The steel and coal producers, the insurance business, and the chemical industry. Large segments of the Nazi Party, particularly among the members of the Sturmabteilung (SA), were committed to the party's official socialist, revolutionary and anti-capitalist positions and expected both a social and an economic revolution when the party gained power in 1933. In the period immediately before

26741-661: The support and connivance of traditional conservative nationalists who believed that they could control him and his party. With the use of emergency presidential decrees by Hindenburg and a change in the Weimar Constitution which allowed the Cabinet to rule by direct decree, bypassing both Hindenburg and the Reichstag, the Nazis soon established a one-party state and began the Gleichschaltung . The Sturmabteilung (SA) and

26928-563: The term "Nazi". Hitler Youth leader Melita Maschmann wrote a book about her experience entitled Account Rendered . She did not refer to herself as a "Nazi", even though she was writing well after World War II. In 1933, 581 members of the National Socialist Party answered interview questions put to them by Professor Theodore Abel from Columbia University . They similarly did not refer to themselves as "Nazis". The majority of scholars identify Nazism in both theory and practice as

27115-437: The term, but it soon gave up this effort and generally avoided using the term while it was in power. In each case, the authors typically referred to themselves as "National Socialists" and their movement as "National Socialism", but never as "Nazis". A compendium of Hitler's conversations from 1941 through 1944 entitled Hitler's Table Talk does not contain the word "Nazi" either. In speeches by Hermann Göring , he never uses

27302-662: The title The Eternal Jew . Rosenberg got the racial term Untermensch from the title of Stoddard's 1922 book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-men , which had been adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925). Rosenberg reshaped the Nazi racial policy over the years, but it always consisted of Aryan supremacy , extreme German nationalism and rabid antisemitism . Rosenberg also outspokenly opposed homosexuality – notably in his pamphlet "Der Sumpf" ("The Swamp", 1927). He viewed homosexuality as

27489-454: The transfer of biological illness and impairments from parents to children, including mental disability, whereas others also used Mendelian theory to demonstrate the inheritance of social traits, with racialists claiming a racial nature behind certain general traits such as inventiveness or criminal behaviour. Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg (12 January [ O.S. 31 December 1892] 1893 – 16 October 1946)

27676-435: The travelers to return as Nazis, he did expect them to look him in the eyes and say, "I tried hard to understand you." Many KdF travelers complained of their trips, noting poor travel conditions, second-class treatment by locals and the KdF alike, and little free time, thanks to the regimentation of activities. Most famously, the office also offered discounted cruise trips to German citizens. Although not initially planned to be

27863-460: The trips booked were overnight or over a weekend. Two weeks after the Anschluss , when SS-Gruppenführer Josef Bürckel became Reichskommissar für die Wiedervereinigung ('Reich Commissioner for Reunification') as well as Gauleiter , the first five KdF trains with some 2,000 Austrian workers left for Passau where they were ceremonially welcomed. While Bürckel announced that he did not expect all of

28050-487: The very top stood the " Aryan" race . Rosenberg promoted the Nordic theory which considered the Nordic race the " master race ", superior to all others, including to other Aryans (Indo-Europeans). He was also influenced by the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory promoted by the Catholic counter-revolutionary tradition, such as the book Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens (1869) by Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux , which he translated into German under

28237-489: The winter, KdF organized activities such as skiing, ice skating and winter hiking. Most of its activities and events occurred on weekends, and its volunteers, who were mostly unsalaried schoolteachers, taught exercise and sports classes. KdF would use local school gymnasiums or meeting halls and offer courses people could attend without prior registration, known as 'open courses,' for the price of 30 pfennings per 90 minutes. 'Closed courses' required participants to register for

28424-564: The work day and on weekends: the government sought not only to create a positive and productive environment, but also to dissuade potential anti-state activities. Borrowing from the Italian fascist organization Dopolavoro ('After Work'), but extending its influence into the workplace as well through the Beauty of Labour department, the KdF rapidly developed a wide range of activities and quickly grew into one of Nazi Germany's largest organizations. Wardens were posted in every factory and workshop employing more than 20 people. It strove to improve

28611-594: The working class were previously unable to partake in. Its main concerns were in building 'everyday joy' and improving the health of the masses, and KdF took a keen interest in building the physicality and bodily strength of the German population. Physical education classes and gymnastic events were scheduled on weekends and after working hours, but also included skiing and hiking trips. It also encouraged workers to partake in physical exercise and sports, encouraging employers to provide access to facilities and equipment during work hours and after hours. The Adult Education Office

28798-573: Was Wilhelm Heinrich Riehl , whose work— Land und Leute ( Land and People , written between 1857 and 1863)—collectively tied the organic German Volk to its native landscape and nature, a pairing which stood in stark opposition to the mechanical and materialistic civilisation which was then developing as a result of industrialisation . Geographers Friedrich Ratzel and Karl Haushofer borrowed from Riehl's work as did Nazi ideologues Alfred Rosenberg and Paul Schultze-Naumburg , both of whom employed some of Riehl's philosophy in arguing that "each nation-state

28985-464: Was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in the Nazi government . He was the head of the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs during the entire rule of Nazi Germany (1933–1945), and led Amt Rosenberg ("Rosenberg's bureau"), an official Nazi body for cultural policy and surveillance , between 1934 and 1945. During World War II , Rosenberg

29172-400: Was a leader oriented towards practical politics, whereas, for Rosenberg, religion and philosophy were key and he was the most culturally influential within the party. Several accounts of the time before the Nazi ascension to power speak of Hitler as being a mouthpiece for Rosenberg's views, and he clearly exerted a great deal of intellectual influence. The question of Rosenberg's influence in

29359-461: Was a master shoemaker and elder of his guild . Born in Riga in 1820, and probably partly of Latvian descent, he had moved to Reval in the 1850s, where he met Julie Elisabeth Stramm, born in Jörden (now Estonia) in 1835. The two married in the German St. Nicholas parish of Reval in 1856. His mother died two months after his birth. The Hungarian-Jewish journalist Franz Szell, who was apparently residing in Tilsit , Prussia , Germany , spent

29546-511: Was a pro-Catholic Habsburg supporter and only used German nationalist notions occasionally for his own agenda. Although Hitler praised both Lueger and Schönerer, he criticised the former for not applying a racial doctrine against the Jews and Slavs. The concept of the Aryan race , which the Nazis promoted, stems from racial theories asserting that Europeans are the descendants of Indo-Iranian settlers, people of ancient India and ancient Persia . Proponents of this theory based their assertion on

29733-423: Was a purposeful feature. Penalties ranged from fines and confiscation of radios to, particularly later in the war, sentencing to a concentration camp or capital punishment . A number of films were produced to promote KdF, usually showing workers engaging in the many activities offered by the organization. One, for example, was produced by UFA titled Henkel - ein deutsches Werk in seiner Arbeit, which showcased

29920-428: Was an organism that required a particular living space in order to survive". Riehl's influence is overtly discernible in the Blut und Boden ( Blood and Soil ) philosophy introduced by Oswald Spengler , which the Nazi agriculturalist Walther Darré and other prominent Nazis adopted. Völkisch nationalism denounced soulless materialism , individualism and secularised urban industrial society, while advocating

30107-464: Was announced by Robert Ley as a subset of the German Labour Front whose goal was to provide Germans with access to once-privileged leisure activities such as cruises and the ownership of motorcars. The government feared that increasing wages would dampen the rearmament process and decided to raise living standards differently to influence the opinion of Nazism, and paid for the program by taking deductions from workers' wages. By providing these luxuries,

30294-411: Was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete ) on 17 July 1941. Alfred Meyer served as his deputy and represented him at the Wannsee Conference . Another official of the Ministry, Georg Leibbrandt , also attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request. Rosenberg had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of

30481-423: Was arguing for a so-called "Positive" Christianity which was based on the argument that Jesus was not a Jew but a member of an Indo-European enclave which was resident in ancient Galilee who fought against Judaism . Significantly, in his work explicating the Nazi intellectual belief system, The Myth of the Twentieth Century , Rosenberg cryptically applauds the early Christian heretic Marcion (who rejected

30668-472: Was believed that if workers were given sufficient leisure time and provided with cleaner workplaces morale and productivity would increase, aspects needed of the working class for the rearmament. It initially was intended to focus on controlling evening and weekend leisure time, but after positive reception of KdF train trips, tourism became an important priority. KdF had a number of individual departments. The Beauty of Labour ( Schönheit der Arbeit) department

30855-411: Was cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the river Isar . Throughout the trial, it was agreed that Rosenberg had a decisive role in shaping Nazi philosophy and ideology. Examples include: his book The Myth of the Twentieth Century , which was published in 1930, where he incited hatred against " Liberal Imperialism " and "Bolshevik Marxism "; furthering the influence of

31042-410: Was deported by Lithuanian authorities on 15 September 1936. His claims were repeated in the 15 September 1937 issue of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano . The young Rosenberg graduated from the Petri-Realschule (currently Tallinna Reaalkool ) and enrolled in architecture studies at the Riga Polytechnical Institute in the Autumn of 1910. In 1915, as the German army was approaching Riga,

31229-470: Was devoted to improvements in the workplace, from general hygiene to reduction of sound pollution. Other departments included the Sports Office ( Sportamt), Adult Education Office ( Volksbildungswerk ), Leisure Time Office ( Amt Feierabend), the Office for Folklore and Homeland ( Amt für Volkstum und Heimat), and the Office for Travel, Hiking, and Holidays ( Amt Reisen, Wandern, und Urlaub). The Sports Office organized tennis, skiing, and likewise sports that

31416-411: Was fined 40 shillings for willful damage at Bow Street magistrate's court. In October 1933, Rosenberg was named as a member of Hans Frank 's Academy for German Law . Then on 27 January 1934, Hitler made Rosenberg the "Führer's Representative for the Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP." This was the origin of the Amt Rosenberg . Final solution Parties As

31603-408: Was headed by Fritz Leutloff . Its goal was to educate Germans on cultural and artistic topics. 'Popular education' programs had been taken over when the government began imposing Gleichschaltung , but the programs offered by the Adult Education Office were not centralized by KdF until 1936 when the Reichskulturkammer and KdF began stern cooperation. Plans had been proposed by 1939 to designate KdF as

31790-449: Was instrumental in founding the German Empire. The Nazis declared that they were dedicated to continuing the process of creating a unified German nation state that Bismarck had begun and desired to achieve. While Hitler was supportive of Bismarck's creation of the German Empire, he was critical of Bismarck's moderate domestic policies. On the issue of Bismarck's support of a Kleindeutschland ("Lesser Germany", excluding Austria) versus

31977-448: Was mainly in the non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Baltic States; however, supporters of the Russian Liberation Army were somewhat able to win him over. Amongst other things, Rosenberg issued a series of posters announcing the end of the Soviet collective farms ( kolkhoz ). He also issued an Agrarian Law in February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming and restoring family farms for those willing to collaborate with

32164-463: Was more concerned with the recreational aspects of spare time. The largest and most profitable department was the Office for Travel, Hiking, and Holidays, headed by Bodo Lafferentz . Organizing both domestic and international excursions, for the first time workers were able to travel at length. This was achieved by offering discounts on travel and tour packages, sending thousands of Germans on holidays before 1939. The Office for Folklore and Homeland

32351-491: Was more radical and it did not express any emphasis on the restoration of the German monarchy. This younger generation desired to dismantle the Weimar Republic and create a new radical and strong state based upon a martial ruling ethic that could revive the "Spirit of 1914" which was associated with German national unity ( Volksgemeinschaft ). The Nazis, the far-right monarchists, the reactionary German National People's Party (DNVP) and others, such as monarchist officers in

32538-411: Was not exclusively for any class and he indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps" by stating: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism." Historians regard the equation of Nazism as "Hitlerism" as too simplistic since the term was used prior to

32725-409: Was offered. Cheaply produced, these radios suffered from a short reception range, but it was deemed acceptable as long as the radios could receive Deutschlandsender and the local Reichssender . The radios were designed to be produced as cheaply as possible, and because the act of listening to non-German radio stations had become a criminal offense, it is speculated that the short reception range

32912-431: Was one of the deadliest maritime disasters in history . KdF's most ambitious programme for German workers was to set up production of an affordable car, the KdF-Wagen , which later became the Volkswagen Beetle ( Volkswagen being German for 'People's Car'). This was originally a project undertaken at Hitler's request by the engineer Ferdinand Porsche . When the German car industry was unable to meet Hitler's demand that

33099-454: Was overshadowed by both Prussian patriotism and the federalist tradition of its various component states. The events of World War I, including the end of the Prussian monarchy in Germany, resulted in a surge of revolutionary völkisch nationalism. The Nazis supported such revolutionary völkisch nationalist policies and they claimed that their ideology was influenced by the leadership and policies of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck , who

33286-447: Was populist and opposed to traditional elites, spoke of the need for a "People's War" ( Volkskrieg ) and put forth concepts similar to those which the Nazis adopted. Fichte promoted German exceptionalism and stressed the need for the German nation to purify itself (including purging the German language of French words, a policy that the Nazis undertook upon their rise to power). Another important figure in pre-Nazi völkisch thinking

33473-549: Was prohibited, and the government planted spies on ships instructed to pose as passengers and monitor participants' behavior. Cruise trips were sometimes offered as prizes in KdF competitions, but were largely affordable; an eighteen-day trip to Madeira cost 120 Reichsmarks , the equivalent to about four weeks' average salary at the time, and a seven-day trip to Norway cost about 50 Reichsmarks. Although cruises were inexpensive, workers were often greatly underrepresented on these voyages, with most of KdF's cruise participants being from

33660-571: Was raised as a Lutheran , but he rejected what he called "negative" Christianity later in life. Instead, Rosenberg argued for a new "religion of the blood", which was based on the supposed innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its noble character against racial and cultural degeneration. In his 1920 book Immorality in the Talmud , Rosenberg identified Jews with the antichrist . He rejected Christianity because its universality, for its doctrine of original sin (as he believed that all ethnic Germans were born noble), and for its teachings on

33847-466: Was strategic; Hitler did not want the temporary leader of the Nazis to become too popular or hungry for power, because a person with either of those two qualities might not want to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release. However, at the time of the appointment Hitler had no reason to believe that he would soon be released, and Rosenberg had not appeared weak, so this may have been Hitler reading back into history his dissatisfaction with Rosenberg for

34034-505: Was tasked with organizing smaller Nazi organizations that promoted the 'folklore' and the idea of Lebensraum , but was dissolved in 1934. Following its inception, KdF began to provide a wide range of activities at an affordable price, ranging from concerts and theatre trips to weekend trips and holidays. Workers could enter KdF competitions and win prizes that would send them and their families to local events, or on extended trips either in Germany or abroad. Many of their events occurring after

34221-415: Was the head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (1941–1945). After the war, he was convicted of crimes against peace ; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression ; war crimes ; and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging and executed on 16 October 1946. The author of a seminal work of Nazi ideology , The Myth of

34408-497: Was towed to the UK and scrapped. The MV Wilhelm Gustloff, requisitioned in September 1939, was designated as Lazarettschiff D and converted to serve as a hospital ship. In November 1940, medical equipment was removed from the ship and it was converted to serve as a barracks ship. Tasked with transporting civilians and military personnel during Operation Hannibal , the Lazarettschiff D was sunk on 30 January 1945 while returning to Germany from Prussia , killing an estimated 9,934. It

34595-410: Was tried at Nuremberg and found guilty of all four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace ; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression ; war crimes ; and crimes against humanity . The final judgment against him named him one of the principal planners of the invasion of Norway and the invasion of the Soviet Union. It also held him directly responsible for the systematic plunder of

34782-434: Was unable to complete German national unification because Jews had infiltrated the German parliament and they claimed that their abolition of parliament had ended this obstacle to unification. Using the stab-in-the-back myth , the Nazis accused Jews—and other populations who it considered non-German—of possessing extra-national loyalties, thereby exacerbating German antisemitism about the Judenfrage (the Jewish Question),

34969-417: Was very high, even though Jews were estimated to account for only 1% of the population of Germany. The overrepresentation of Jews in these areas fuelled resentment among non-Jewish Germans during periods of economic crisis. The 1873 stock market crash and the ensuing depression resulted in a spate of attacks on alleged Jewish economic dominance in Germany and antisemitism increased. During this time period, in

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