Towards a Topography of the NSDAP

[R.M. Schultz]

I am trying to develop a chart of the Factions Within the NSDAP. My chief aim here is less the actual categorization of particular individuals, but rather to enable analysis of the political differences and power struggles within the party. Any advice, help, or leads on sources in this research would be appreciated. I look forward to any criticism or corrections that are forthcoming.

A little explicating of the categories is probably in order here. The columns run both literally and politically from Left to Right, while the rows run from nationalist to racist.

On the left we find three categories: National Bolsheviks who are too far left to remain within the NSDAP or ever to have joined, National Socialist who were the genuinely socialist faction within the party, and Left Opportunist who, while being socialist in outlook, ultimately subordinated this to other motivations. Thus National Bolshevik includes Nazi defectors (e.g. Stennis and Otto Strasser), disaffected Communists and Socialists who could not embrace the lingering petite-bourgeois character of the NSDAP (e.g. Radek, Niekish and Winnig), and characters who were simply too radically anti-bourgeois to fit anywhere else (e.g. Ernst Saloman, or Captain Erhardt). The Left Opportunists usually were careerists (e.g. Hans Fritzsche) who willingly subordinated any opinions to their personal interests, though there were many (e.g. Dr. Joseph Göbbels or Julius Streicher) who subordinated their socialist ideas to their racist mania, as well as those who, for whatever reason, failed to act upon their beliefs (such as the brain-damaged Dr. Ley).

In the Nazi center we find those who are Anti-Bourgeois without being pro-Proletarian. This is something of a grab bag, including as it does out-and-out monarchists (e.g. Frick and von Epp), third way theorists (e.g. Möller van den Bruke, Spengler, and the Tatkreis), disaffected militarists (e.g. Doenitz or Steldte), and flaky race theorists (e.g. Dintner or Eckhardt), and earnest Christians who were disaffected with the capitalist order (e.g. Rauschning). Ultimately, of these groups, the disaffected militarists and race theorists hitched their wagons most firmly to Hitler, the monarchists largely went along with the program, the third way theorists left the movement, and Hitler alienated or expelled the genuine Christians.

To the right we find State Capitalists who, though accepting capitalism, wish to subordinate it to the nation, Right Opportunists who mirror their complement on the left, and Reactionary Capitalist who in fact constitute a conventional hard right faction alienated from the “Weimar System” which they perceive, rightly or wrongly, as “socialist.”

The “Y-Axis” of this chart deals with the national/race issue. No one in the NSDAP is an internationalist or anything less than a German patriot, so we begin there with völkish. The völkish believe Germany was cheated at Versailles, is the best of all possible nations, and perhaps they believe that neither Poles, Jews, nor Czechs living within the Reich can ever really be good Germans, yet they are not obsessed with the race issue, respect other nations, nor harbor real hatreds. Anti-Semitic defines those who see Jews as constituting an economic or cultural menace, see other nations as inferior, and are not adverse to a war of conquest. Racist defines those as favoring or willing to go along with genocide. Hitler’s sole program was genocide, thus he was fundamentally neither right nor left (though he ultimately allied himself with the right) but merely a racist. The proof of this is that no one supporting genocide was ever purged!

I look forward to any criticism or corrections that are forthcoming. Finally, let me point out that this chart is copyright material and not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author.

[Durand]

Hallo R.M. Schultz,

The leftwing of the NSDAP is interesting and it becomes more so as I continue to read your posts. I can not claim anything approaching familiarity with the subject and what little I have picked up has been from bits and pieces scattered throughout more general works. Sometime ago I started reading "Nemesis? The Story of Otto Strasser and the Black Front" by Douglas Reed. I did not get far with it as I found Reed's drippy favoritism annoying and it caused me to doubt the veracity of the work. I am wondering if you could please be so kind to provide some reading suggestions, a sort of Leftwing NSDAP 101 reading list.

Best Regards,

Durand

[R.M. Schultz]

I am wondering if you could please be so kind to provide some reading suggestions, a sort of Leftwing NSDAP 101 reading list.

General works on the Third Reich that acknowledge the existence of an NSDAP Left Wing:

• Richard Gruneberger, “The 12-Year Reich, A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933 - 1945,” Holt, Rinehart and Winston, N.Y, Chicago, San Francisco, 1971. An interesting topic-by-topic history of the Third Reich that clearly draws distinctions between the “Reactionaries” and “Radialinskis.”

• Konrad Heiden, “A History of National Socialism,” London, 1934. Solid, if gossipy, with much attention to intra-party rivalries.

• Dietrich Orlow, “History of the Nazi Party: 1919 - 1933,” University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1969 and “History of the Nazi Party: 1933 - 1945,” University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA, 1973. The standard work. Unlike books that focus on Hitler, there is a good deal about the course of factional disputes, but very little on the substance of these disputes.

Biographies of Left Wing Nazis:

• Joachim C. Fest, “The Face of the Third Reich, Portraits of the Nazi Leadership,” Pantheon Books, N.Y.C., 1970. The sections on Gregor and Otto Strasser and Ernst Röhm are worth reading.

• Peter D. Stachura, “Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism,” George Allen & Unwin, London, January 1983. The only biography of Strasser in English, and thus a necessary book, yet deeply flawed. Statchura confounds Bourgeois Liberalism with Proletarian Socialism and thus concludes that Strasser, a social conservative, is not a genuine socialist, when the whole point of National Socialism was to combine conservative social values with economic socialism.

• Peter Hayes, “‘A Question Mark with Epaulettes?’ Kurt von Schleicher and Weimar Politics,” Journal of Modern History vol. 52, 1980, p. 35-65. Schleicher was Strasser’s ally in government and this is one of the few things about him in English.

• Ronald M. Smelser, “Robert Ley : Hitler's Labor Front leader,” Berg, Oxford / N.Y.C. / Hamburg, 1988. Though Ley was something of a leftist, he was bitter enemies with the Strassers and a fanatical Hitler loyalist. He is a much more important figure in the Third Reich than is usually understood.

Memoirs of Left Wing Nazis:

• Otto Strasser, “Hitler and I,” Johnathan Cape, Ltd., London, 1940. Short, punch, very readable. The Strasser perspective in a nut shell.

• Otto Strasser and Michael Stern, “Flight From Terror,” Robert M. McBride & Co., New York City, 1943. A longer version of the Strasser story.

• Albert Krebs, “The infancy of Nazism: the memoirs of ex-Gauleiter Albert Krebs,” edited and translated by William Sheridan Allen, New Viewpoints, New York, 1976. An important document and a first-rate book! Must reading!

Books on factional disputes within the NSDAP:

• Joseph Nyomarkay, “Charisma and Factionalism in the Nazi Party,” University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1967. This is the standard work on the subject and completely opposed to my viewpoint. Nyomarkay claims that the NSDAP was Hitler, that there were no meaningful political factions within the party, and that the disputes were all just personal jockeying for power.

• Robert Henry Frank, “Hitler and the National Socialist Coalition,1924 - 1932,” Doctoral Dissertation - Johns Hopkins University, 1969, available from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan. My favorite work on the subject! A brilliant analysis of how Hitler steered his way through the conflicting factions of the party without swinging the balance to either one until he was secure enough in power to purge the left wing. A superb book!

• Robert Lewis Koehl, “Feudal Aspects of National Socialism,” American Political Science Review LIV, December 1960, pp. 921-933. A very interesting little article that explains much about the workings of power relationships within the NSDAP.

• Barbara Miller Lane, “Nazi Ideology: Some Unfinished Business,” Central European History, VII, 1974. Lane, who also did a book of translations of NSDAP propaganda, says that her reading of original sources has led her to believe there was a wide range of political opinion within the NSDAP and she goes on to document this nicely.

• Herman Mau, “The “Second Revolution — June 30, 1934,” in “Republic to Reich: The Making of the Nazi Revolution,” edited by Hajo Holborn, Pantheon Books, N.Y.C., 1972. It is surprising that Holborn should have included this incisive essay in his book, since he takes the NSDAP=Hitler stance while Mau is very concerned with the factional tensions.

• Nikolai Tolstoy, “Night of the Long Knives,” Balantine Books, New York City, 1972. Fast, short, fun.

Books on “National Bolshevist” ideology and history:

• Klemens von Klemperer, “Germany's new conservatism; its history and dilemma in the twentieth century,” Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1957. A brilliant work on a very neglected subject. Anyone who calls Spengler “the greatest mystic of the twentieth century” is really on to something! You can get the whole message of the book in an article von Klemperer wrote earlier: “Towards a Fourth Reich? The History of National Bolshevism in Germany,” Review of Politics XIII, April 1951, pp. 191-210.

• Barbara Miller Lane, and Leila J. Rupp, “Nazi Ideology before 1933,” introduced and translated by Barbara Miller Lane and Leila J. Rupp, University of Texas Press, Austin and London, 1978. Actual speeches and articles by such left-wingers as the Strasser brothers, Gotfried Feder, R. Walter Darré, and even the Scheming Dwarf. It’s the original stuff — read it for yourself!

• Arthur Möller van den Bruck, “Germany’s Third Empire,” authorized English edition (condensed) by E. O. Lorimer; introduction by Mary Agnes Hamilton, Allen & Unwin,London, 1934. Dry, tough going, but a seminal work that inspired a whole generation of Germans.

• Oswald Spengler, “Prussianism and Socialism,” in “Selected Essays,” H. Regnery Co., Chicago, 1967. The clearest, best, most persuasive statement of National Bolshevism. I stand by Spengler!

• Otto Strasser, “Germany Tomorrow,” translated from the German by Eden & Cedar Paul, J. Cape, London, 1941. Strasser’s political testament. I can’t find a copy.

[David C. Clarke]

Hi Dutch, just a question out of curiosity. How do you seperate the "racist" from the "anti-Semitic"? Seriously.

Best Regards, David

[Durand]

Hallo R.M.S.,

Thank you very much for the reading list. It will certainly keep me going for awhile.

For Strasser's "Germany Tomorrow" you might try the following:

http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?ac=sl ... 49_2:10:20

Hope it is of use to you.

Best Regards,

Durand

[Helly Angel]

Bouhler was a ferous antisemit!! since the early days because he was an Alter kämpfer and joined in 1922 but his motiv to join was the program anti-semitic.

[R.M. Schultz]

How do you seperate the "racist" from the "anti-Semitic"?

Those listed as Anti-Semite showed some kind of animus against Jews, but those labeled Racist were willing to go along with genocide. An example of this would be Kube and Koch. Both of these fellows were "Radicalinskis," socialists of the Strasser faction of the party, and they suvived the blood purge because there were both Anti-Semitic, but once they became commissioners for occupied terrritories, Koch unleased a reign of terror so sever in the Ukrane that it actually provoked opposition from the SS, while Kube governed White Russia so well and moderately that he was accused of being "in Jewish bondage" by the SS and was assainated on orders from Stalin because he wasn't stirring up discontent among the occupied population. Thus, Kube is classified as Anti-Semitic while Koch is a racist.

For Strasser's "Germany Tomorrow" you might try the following …

The problem isn't finding the book, it's finding the money. I still have a few tricks to try with inter-library loan (friends at university libraries, a mole at the Hoover Institution, etc.) and I hope to get a copy that way, but I am so behind on my reading (Just got a tract by Graff zu Reventlow on the German Christian Movement through inter-library loan, my son found Rauschning's "Voice of Destruction" at the Brandeis Book Fair …) that I don't worry about things I can't get around to reading for months anyway.

Bouhler was a ferous antisemit!

Yep! That's why I have him listed as a racist.

[David C. Clarke]

Those listed as Anti-Semite showed some kind of animus against Jews, but those labeled Racist were willing to go along with genocide. An example of this would be Kube and Koch. Both of these fellows were "Radicalinskis," socialists of the Strasser faction of the party, and they suvived the blood purge because there were both Anti-Semitic, but once they became commissioners for occupied terrritories, Koch unleased a reign of terror so sever in the Ukrane that it actually provoked opposition from the SS, while Kube governed White Russia so well and moderately that he was accused of being "in Jewish bondage" by the SS and was assainated on orders from Stalin because he wasn't stirring up discontent among the occupied population. Thus, Kube is classified as Anti-Semitic while Koch is a racist.

Okay, that makes sense.

Best Regards, David