The Nazi Dictatorship Rle Responding To Fascism

Faced with a political movement that was effectively unparalleled many observers found it extremely difficult to work out exactly what kind of regime they were dealing with: whose interests did it serve? First published in 1934, The Nazi Dictatorship argues both that the Nazi regime represented a clear break from pre-War ‘Prussian militarism’ and that it was not a passing fad. It describes a ‘State of Monopoly Capitalism’ in which large scale industrial and financial interests are paramount.

The extent to which Jews were being actively persecuted in Germany through the 1930’s was a hotly debated issue, with many apologists downplaying the centrality of race in Nazi ideology. This book, first published in 1939, provided a clear counter argument to this position. Based on official German publications and reliable external reports, it details the many methods adopted by the Nazi party against the Jews.

The extent to which the Nazi regime was truly representative of the German people was a key issue for external commentators. First published in 1940, The German People versus Hitler sets out to prove that the identification of ‘Germany and the Third Reich, Germanism and Nazism, the German people and the Nazi Party’ is a fallacy. It identifies widespread sources of opposition to the Nazi regime from all strata, including the Church and from the former socialist parties.

Higher Education in Nazi Germany was first published in 1944, when it was apparent that Germany was likely to lose the war. Developing themes that were to become commonplace in the analysis of totalitarian regimes, it provides an account of how higher education became a means of both installing and re-enforcing the dominant state ideology.

A set of titles regarding fascisim in Germany, Italy and Spain in the mid-twentieth century.

Not all of the responses to fascism in the English speaking world were hostile. With the aim of providing a representative sample, Routledge here re-issues Norman Hillson’s I Speak of Germany. First published in 1937, this is an account of the author’s travels in Germany, and is largely sympathetic to the changes wrought by the regime. Like others adopting a similar position, the author believes that the terms of the Versailles treatment put Germany in an impossible position, and that the Nazis had inspired a recovery. Racial politics, whilst not ignored, are not seen as being at the heart of the programme – ‘obsession of race purity maybe a little absurd and quite impractical of realization’.

Konrad Heiden was an influential journalist and historian of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Eras. He became an early critic of National Socialism after attending a party meeting in 1920. First published in English in 1934, A History of National Socialism provides a detailed account of the growth of the movement through the 1920’s until its assumption of full control of Germany in 1934. It argues that Nazi ideology was extremely pragmatic and able to accommodate a wide diversity of opinion in return for the unconditional support of Hitler as leader.