While the beginnings of nationalism finds its roots in Germany, it is in Germany that we find its excess. After World War I right-wing governments sprang up all over Europe, but the greatest was German national Socialism, better known as Nazism. The leader of the Nazi movement was Austrian-born Adolf Hitler, who was named chancellor of the German Republic on 30 January 1933. Two years later he gained complete control of the government. The Nazis taught the world the meaning of totalitarianism. They were a right-wing version of dictatorial rule called "fascism". Such governments counter personal frustration and alienation, as well as social and economic tensions by stressing class unity and reaffirming traditional values. Fascist movements glorify the nation. The Nazis believed in the absolute unity of the German people under the Fuhrer and the expression of this leadership principle in all structures of the nation. By integrating all social, economic, and political instruments of the country, they intended to create an ideal super-community. The distinctive Nazi trait was a rejection of the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment and the nineteenth century. They magnified, instead, a primitive, idealized past portrayed in Wagnerian operas and ancient Germanic sagas. The concern with race was central to Nazi ideology and Nazi theoreticians developed a barbaric doctrine of anti-Semitism. The eradication of the Jewish race was the act of social purification necessary to restore Germany to her uncorrupted past. Reasonable estimates put the number of Jewish deaths in the "holocaust" at six million.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Enlightenment, history, Nazism[/tags]