Nazism had peculiarly German roots. It can be partly traced to the Prussian tradition as developed under Frederick William I (16881740), Frederick the Great (171268), and Otto von Bismarck (181598), which regarded the militant spirit and the discipline of the Prussian army as the model for all individual and civic life. To it was added the tradition of political romanticism, with its sharp hostility to rationalism and to the principles underlying the French Revolution, its emphasis on instinct and the past, and its proclamation of the rights of Friedrich Nietzsches exceptional individual (the bermensch [Superman]) over all universal law and rules. These two traditions were later reinforced by the 19th-century adoration of science and of the laws of nature, which seemed to operate independently of all concepts of good and evil. Further reinforcements came from such 19th-century intellectual figures as the comte de Gobineau (181682), Richard Wagner (181383), and Houston Stewart Chamberlain (18551927), all of whom greatly influenced early Nazism with their claims of the racial and cultural superiority of the Nordic (Germanic) peoples over all other Europeans and all other races.

Hitlers intellectual viewpoint was influenced during his youth not only by these currents in the German tradition but also by specific Austrian movements that professed various political sentiments, notably those of pan-Germanic expansionism and anti-Semitism. Hitlers ferocious nationalism, his contempt of Slavs, and his hatred of Jews can largely be explained by his bitter experiences as an unsuccessful artist living a threadbare existence on the streets of Vienna, the capital of the multiethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Adolf Hitler (third from right) participating in a Nazi parade in Munich, c. 1930s.

This intellectual preparation would probably not have been sufficient for the growth of Nazism in Germany but for that countrys defeat in World War I. The defeat and the resulting disillusionment, pauperization, and frustrationparticularly among the lower middle classespaved the way for the success of the propaganda of Hitler and the Nazis. The Treaty of Versailles (1919), the formal settlement of World War I drafted without German participation, alienated many Germans with its imposition of harsh monetary and territorial reparations. The significant resentment expressed toward the peace treaty gave Hitler a starting point. Because German representatives (branded the November criminals by Nazis) agreed to cease hostilities and did not unconditionally surrender in the armistice of November 11, 1918, there was a widespread feelingparticularly in the militarythat Germanys defeat had been orchestrated by diplomats at the Versailles meetings. From the beginning, Hitlers propaganda of revenge for this traitorous act, through which the German people had been stabbed in the back, and his call for rearmament had strong appeal within military circles, which regarded the peace only as a temporary setback in Germanys expansionist program. The ruinous inflation of the German currency in 1923 wiped out the savings of many middle-class households and led to further public alienation and dissatisfaction.

Learn about the rise of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi Party, and the anti-Semitism they fomented in pre-WWII Germany

In 1933 Adolf Hitler's National Socialists were voted into power, and the campaign of terror began. From The Second World War: Prelude to Conflict (1963).

Hitler added to Pan-Germanic aspirations the almost mystical fanaticism of a faith in the mission of the German race and the fervour of a social revolutionary gospel. This gospel was most fully expressed in Hitlers personal testament Mein Kampf (192527; My Struggle), in which he outlined both his practical aims and his theories of race and propaganda.

Posing as a bulwark against communism, Hitler exploited the fears aroused in Germany and worldwide by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the consolidation of communist power in the Soviet Union. Thus, he was able to secure the support of many conservative elements that misunderstood the totalitarian character of his movement.

Hitlers most important individual contribution to the theory and practice of Nazism was his deep understanding of mass psychology and mass propaganda. He stressed the fact that all propaganda must hold its intellectual level at the capacity of the least intelligent of those at whom it is directed and that its truthfulness is much less important than its success. According to Hitler:

It is part of a great leaders genius to make even widely separated adversaries appear as if they belonged to but one category, because among weakly and undecided characters the recognition of various enemies all too easily marks the beginning of doubt of ones own rightness.

Hitler found this common denominator in the Jewish people, whom he identified with both Bolshevism and a kind of cosmic evil. Jews were to be discriminated against not according to their religion but according to their race. Nazism declared Jewswhatever their educational and social achievementsto be forever fundamentally different from and inimical to Germans.

Nazism attempted to reconcile conservative, nationalist ideology with a socially radical doctrine. In so doing, it became a profoundly revolutionary movementalbeit a largely negative one. Rejecting rationalism, liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and all movements of international cooperation and peace, it stressed instinct, the subordination of the individual to the state, and the necessity of blind and unswerving obedience to leaders appointed from above. It also emphasized the inequality of humans and races and the right of the strong to rule the weak; sought to purge or suppress competing political, religious, and social institutions; advanced an ethic of hardness and ferocity; and partly destroyed class distinctions by drawing into the movement misfits and failures from all social classes. Although socialism was traditionally an internationalist creed, the radical wing of Nazism knew that a mass base existed for policies that were simultaneously anticapitalist and nationalist. However, after Hitler secured power, this radical strain was eliminated.

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Nazism | Definition, Leaders, Ideology, & History | Britannica