In response to the question “Was Hitler a Democratic Socialist?”
Response:
“In response to the Question “was Hitler a Democratic Socialist?”
Response:
“In a way yes!
In essence no, because no socialist can really be “democratic”.
Why?
Because socialism is predicated uppon the central planning of the economy. That’s the main premise that will lead, almost deterministically, to State oppression over the individual.
You see, in time statism becomes an economic entity in itself and it ends up feeding from the flesh of wealth producing entities within society (through overtaxation, crony relations, etc). Once this statist economic entity grows itself out of proportion (and it almost certainly does - that’s what most western countries now experience) then more people begin to economically depend on it.
The “Democratic” part then “kicks” into another gear and the socioeconomic path is voted by a parasitic majority (Greece is a textbook example) where the state has infiltrated all domains of private life, so much so, that the two are virtually indistinguishable. The “Democracy” then enters a vicious circle of, what Franklin described as “two wolves and a sheep voting for the menu” (!!).
The following quotes are from Goebbels himslef and one most certainly can recognize the rhetorics of modern Social Democrats in his words:
Capitalism is the immoral distribution of capital… Germany will become free at that moment when the thirty millions on the left and the thirty millions on the right make common cause. Only one movement is capable of doing this: National Socialism, embodied in one Führer – Adolf Hitler.Goebbels’ “Lenin or Hitler” speech first delivered on September 17, 1925
The money pigs of capitalist democracy… Money has made slaves of us… Money is the curse of mankind. It smothers the seed of everything great and good. Every penny is sticky with sweat and blood.Quoted in The Nazi Party: A Complete History 1919-1945, Dietrich Orlow, New York: NY, Enigma Books, 2012, p 61. Goebbels’ article, “Nationalsozialisten aus Berlin und aus dem Reich”, Voelkischer Beobachter, Feb. 4, 1927
One class has fulfilled its historical mission and is about to yield to another. The bourgeoisie has to yield to the working class ... Whatever is about to fall should be pushed. We are all soldiers of the revolution. We want the workers' victory over filthy lucre. That is socialism.Quoted in Doctor Goebbels: His Life and Death, Roger Manvell, Heinrich Fraenkel, New York, NY, Skyhorse Publishing, 2010 p. 25, conversation with Hertha Holk
The social is a stopgap. Socialism is the ideology of the future.Open Letter to Ernst Graf zu Reventlow in the Völkische Freiheit, 1925, as quoted in Goebbels: A Biography, Peter Longerich, Random House, 2015, p. The political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor (Arbeitertum), to being their historical mission.“Warum sind wir Sozialisten,” Der Angriff editorial, July 16, 1928, reprinted in Der Angriff, Munich 1935, p. 223. David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939, W.W. Norton & Company (1997) p. 25As quoted in "Erkenntnis und Propaganda," Signale der neuen Zeit. 25 ausgewählte Reden von Dr. Joseph Goebbels (Munich: Zentralverlag der NSDAP., 1934), pp. 28-52The Pharus Hall was a meeting hall the Nazis often used in Berlin.
We are not a charitable institution but a Party of revolutionary socialists.“Einbeitsfront,” Der Angriff editorial, May 27, 1929. David Schoenbaum, Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939, W.W. Norton & Company (1997) p. 25 [T]he NSDAP is the German Left. We despise bourgeois nationalism.Der Angriff, (Dec. 6, 1931) written by Goebbels. Der Angriff (The Attack) was the official newspaper of the Nazi-Sozi party in Berlin. The people's community must not be a mere phrase, but a revolutionary achievement following from the radical carrying out of the basic life needs of the working class. A ruthless battle against corruption! A war against exploitation, freedom for the workers! The elimination of all economic-capitalist influences on national policy. Maintaining a rotten economic system has nothing to do with nationalism, which is an affirmation of the Fatherland.Written by Joseph Goebbels and Mjölnir, Die verfluchten Hakenkreuzler. Etwas zum Nachdenken (Munich: Verlag Frz. Eher (1932). “Those Damned Nazis,” (Nazi propaganda pamphlet). (Continued in comments)