Nazism (
/ˈnaːtsɪzᵊm/) or
National Socialism in full
[1] (
German:
Nationalsozialismus), was the
ideology and practice of the German
Nazi Party and of
Nazi Germany as a whole. Usually characterised as an offshoot of
fascism that incorporates
scientific racism and
antisemitism, Nazism arose from
pan-Germanism, the
Völkisch German nationalist movement and the
anti-communist Freikorps after
World War I.
Nazism subscribed to theories of
racial hierarchy and
social Darwinism.
Germanic peoples (called the
Nordic race) were depicted as the purest of the
Aryan race, and were therefore the
master race. Opposed to both
capitalism and
communism, it aimed to overcome social divisions, with all parts of a
homogeneous society seeking national unity and
traditionalism, and what it viewed as historically German territory as well as additional lands for expansion.
The term "National Socialism" arose out of attempts to create a nationalist redefinition of "socialism", as an alternative to both
internationalist Marxist socialism and
free market capitalism. The Nazis sought to achieve this by a
"people's community" (
Volksgemeinschaft) with the aim of uniting all Germans as national comrades, whilst excluding those deemed either to be community aliens or of a foreign race (
Fremdvölkische). It rejected the Marxist concept of
class struggle, opposed ideas of class equality and international solidarity, and sought to defend private property and businesses.
The Nazi Party was founded as the pan-German nationalist and antisemitic
German Workers' Party on 5 January 1919. By the early 1920s,
Adolf Hitler assumed control of the organisation, renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (
Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP) to broaden its appeal. The
National Socialist Program, adopted in 1920, 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, written in 1924, Hitler outlined his antisemitism and anti-communism at the heart of his political philosophy, as well as his disdain for
parliamentary democracy and his belief in Germany’s right to territorial expansion.
In 1933, with the support of more conservative elites, Hitler became
Chancellor of Germany and the Nazis gradually established a
one-party state, under which Jews, political opponents and other "undesirables" elements were marginalised, with several millions eventually imprisoned and killed. Hitler purged the party’s more socially and economically radical factions in the mid-1934
Night of the Long Knives and, after the death of
President Hindenburg, political power was concentrated in his hands, as
Führer or "leader".