Totalitarian Nationalism in Nazi Germany.
The main reason why the Nazi Party gained so much popularity among Germans, was that their policies appealed to German nationalism. People enthusiastically voted for the Nazi Party and on 30th January 1933 Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. German nationalism, stirred up after World War 1, was an important part of Nazi policy. It ultimately gave Hitler and the Nazis total control over all aspects of German life.
Nazism is a belief that the Aryan (pure German) is a supreme form of human being and that the Jews, Communists and Slavic people are racially inferior (Untermenschen). In principle the Nazis also believe in military conquer, subjugation and eventual extermination of these people. Hitler describes his belief in Aryan superiority in his autobiography "Mein Kampf".
" All the human culture, all the results of art, science and technology that we can see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan. Hence it is no accident that the first cultures arose in places where the Aryan, in his encounters with lower peoples, subjugated them and bent them to his will. They then became the first technical instrument in the service of a developing culture ." (Luedecke, K. I Knew Hitler).
Hitler and the Nazis also believe in tight control of society, national greatness and the right to acquire new territories in the east (Lebensraum). According to Nazism everyone was to serve the state and be loyal to the Nazi Party only. They strongly believed in a one-party political system and the use of violence in order to achieve their goals. At the beginning most of the members of the Nazi Party were disgruntled former soldiers and members of the lower middle classes. Later it included Germans from all social groups, even moderate Socialists. The Nazis thus gained power by appealing to a large number of people. Its regime used promises of German greatness and prosperity to gain support of the army as well as the wealthy German industrialists, which were the driving factor in bringing Hitler to power.
