Question about the classification of National Socialism as right-wing ideology

[Mike2908]

Dear all,

Something that has been bothering me for a while now is the following:

National Socialism (the Nazi ideology) is being considered an extreme right-wing ideology. Particularly here in Europe, considering it anything else gets you weird looks in the best case, a serious shitstorm otherwise.

However, the Nazis themselves did consider it a left-wing ideology. Aside from the obvious (as the word "socialism"), there are remarks of leading figures such as Hitler or Goebbels towards that effect, such as Hitler's remark that it was his mistake not to take out the right-wing opposition.

 

My questions are the following:

I) Did anybody do a study or publication on the subject? I can't find anything meaningful on the web.

II) If so, when did the change of classification (from left- to right-wing) occur, and who was the driving force behind it?

 

I know that for instance in East-Germany (or the GDR, as it was officially know), the issue of National Socialism possibly being a left-wing ideology (and hence somehow related to the official political system of Socialism) was pretty much avoided, simply by referring to the ideology as "Fascism" instead of "National Socialism". The differences between the Italian Fascism and the German National Socialism were simply ignored. Only past 1989 did the classification as an extreme right-wing ideology really enter the public eye.

 

In case this forum is the wrong place for this question, I apologize. "Political Science" did seem to be a better place then History...

 

Regards,

Mike

[terefere]

There wasn't really any change in classification. The problem with NSDAP is that it was largely hybrid, with some left wing elements, and a lot of populism. However, given that the main political opponents were social-democrats and communists, and that the ideological part was largely right-wing, most people classify it as right-wing. Socialism was a way of gaining popular support for NSDAP. Do keep in mind that they promoted private property, strong military, nationalist ideology and strong national identity, and were at least on neutral terms with religion, which is usually more associated with right-wing parties.

[cronkam]

Hey Mike,

It's generally filed under extreme right wing as Nazism was (and is) a fascist movement.  It's pretty significant that among the enemies of the Nazis politically were labor unions and Communists (the Communists especially were targeted for violence). The attachment of the term 'socialism' is kinda spurious, as the word held a different connotation before social democrats and modern socialists became more prominent.  I file it away with the fact that 'terrorism' was considered a positive force when the term was originally employed. To my knowledge, Nazism was never considered a left-wing political movement (though there certainly has been a modern effort to redefine it as such in the US), and I'm reasonably knowledgeable on the subject (though I don't have a publication to point to).

In response to the whole 'mistake not to take out right-wing opposition,' Hitler wasn't really fond of opposition as a rule.  He simply did not tolerate it, so he would probably have regarded as a mistake the failure to take out the kindergartener who asked him a math question he couldn't answer.

That said, the traditional left-right spectrum is a bit wonky when it comes to authoritarian movements (in my opinion), and so it'd be more useful probably to think of it as a two dimensional plane rather than a flat line.  Both left and right sides have folks who tend authoritarian (in extreme terms, these would be Communists/Stalinists and Fascists/Neo-Nazis) and folks who tend more anarchist (the extremes would be sovereign citizens and anarchists).  The "Nolan Chart" shows this reasonably well, though I don't think I buy into the idea that populism is inherently totalitarian (which the chart indicates).

Anyway, for further research, maybe take a look at Hitler's War Aims by Norman Rich or even some of the links provided by the Wikipedia article on the subject of Fascism and Nazism (I know citing Wikipedia is pretty weak, but the links tend to be fairly good sources).

Best,

Cronkam

Nolan-chart.svg

[Mike2908]

Thanks for the answers. Especially @ cronkam ... most helpful.

I found this: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100260720/whenever-you-mention-fascisms-socialist-roots-left-wingers-become-incandescent-why/ which is somewhat supportive of what I had in mind. Doesn't help me answering my main questions on the subject though.

 

Also found this: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-hitler.htm

While all the Points raised make some kind of sense, they hardly seem convincing. It's - in my eyes at least - purely on a theoretic level. Left-wing ideology in practice seems to be utterly contradictory to the theory. I mean, apply the same criteria as listed in this article to Josip Stalin, and he Comes out as a extremist right-wing guy. Pretty much the same works for other leftist leaders, although to different degrees.

 

The Nolan chart seems rather odd to me, at least in the indicated degree of personal freedom. Possibly you'll find the concept of personal freedom somewhere in the left-wing theoretical writings, but it never did exist in any pratical version of a left-wing regime (<- source, among others, are my 16 years living in a socialist state).

 

So in the end I'm more confused than ever. What remains as a point of interest for me is the question: When was National Socialism classified as right-wing ideology (for the first time)? Are there any contemporary sources, or some from the 50s?

 

Any further insight welcome...

 

Cheers,

Mike

[terefere]

Hi Mike,

Check out this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_federal_election,_1930

and in particular, the graphic with Reichstag composition. Assuming all this is accurate, communists where seated on the extreme left, followed by social democrats, and then a number of other parties. On the very right was NSDAP. I know this is not quite the answer you are looking for, but it is suggestive that already at its beginnings NSDAP was considered a right-wing party and therefore no "change" of classification has occurred.