The Program of the Party of Hitler

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The Program of the Party of Hitler

This is a basic primary historical text for studying National Socialism. The author Gottfried Feder was one of the original eight members of the Nazi party prior to Hitler. He was essentially shuffled out of a position of authority in the party, although Hitler lauded Feder as a source of inspiration for some of his thinking.

This book is basically a pamphlet written in 1932 to explain the 25 points of the Nazi program. As such, it is good basic material for obtaining a view of how the Nazis understood themselves.

Interestingly, one of the ways that they understood themselves was absolutely and unqualifiedly anti-semitic:

“No man who feels that he cannot go the whole way with us in the Jewish question, in our fight against high finance, the Dawes Pact and the pauperizing policy, or in any other questions contained in our Program, or is inclined to barter the liberty of the German nation through the League of Nations, the Locarno Pact, by compromise and cowardice, need apply to us; his place is outside the NSDAP.”

Other sources indicate that many Germans felt that the Nazi emphasis on the “Jewish Question” was an eccentricity that the Nazis would move away from when in power. Obviously, as we know, and as Feder is saying, it was not an eccentricity.

Feder also underscores the “social” nature of National Socialism. National Socialism was “socialist” but not Marxist. Even though it was not Marxist, National Socialism hated capitalism in a way that would make an Occupy Wall Street protester happy. Thus, Feder could write:

“Break down the thralldom of interest is our war-cry.

And:

“for one of our Party slogans is “Fight capital and the stock exchange.””

“Usury and profiteering and personal enrichment at the expense and to the injury of the nation shall be punished with death.”

The Nazis were quite serious about usury, it seems.

My interest is in Nazi-Catholic conflict. There is not a lot here on that, but there are a few indications, such as:

“Hitler attacked the black-red system with ever increasing energy and stood forth without a rival as the most powerful leader against all that was meant by “democracy.”

And:

“Adolf Hitler declared then publicly that we were rushing headlong in the direction of inflation, which he had foreseen as the result of the policy of the black-red coalition.”

And:

“The kind of officials, who are at the beck and call of the Reds and the Blacks, will disappear in the coming State; such Party wire-pullers have no use for honor and duty.”

“Black” refers to the Catholic Center Party and “red” refers to the Social Democrat Party. This is a useful reminder that the Catholic Center Party was as much a bete noire of the Nazis as the leftist parties. The alliance of these parties in support of German democracy is the background of this passage:

“It is the corrupting policy of the Center and the Bavarian People's Party which we attack; these lose no opportunity of crying “Church in Danger” except when they are making common cause with the atheistic, God-denying Social Democracy.”

The interest of this book is purely for background. It is not a casual or inspirational read or otherwise interesting.