The Nazi 25-Point Program Was Not Socialist: A Point-by-Point Look
Conservatives often try to connect Nazis to socialism instead of fascism, even though conservative capitalists like Fritz Thyssen and Henry Ford praised and supported the Nazis. Among the misleading claims by conservatives is that the Nazi 25-Point Program was a socialist document.
Now, the first thing to do is decide what definition of “socialism” applies. Ignorant people say armies and libraries are examples of socialism, but if that’s so, monarchies and churches are socialist. When I google “socialism”, this is the first definition I get:
“a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.”
So the reasonable question to ask is whether the Nazis believed the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole. Once asked, the discussion should be over: They did not. The Nazis loved corporations and rich people, and corporations and rich people loved Nazis.
But logic never stops humans. So let’s break down the 25-Point Program that was created in 1920 when the Nazis changed their name from the uninspiring German Workers’ Party to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated as NSDAP) in the hope of capitalizing on the popularity of socialism in Germany.
What follows is from Modern History Sourcebook: The 25 Points 1920: An Early Nazi Program. The text is from Document №1708-PS of the Nuremburg Trials. Most of the points don’t deserve serious attention, so I’ve left glib comments on them. On the points that might honestly be mistaken for socialism (which start with point 11), I’ve tried to be thorough.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1708-PS
Edited by: Dr. Robert Ley Published by: Central Publishing House of the N.S.D.A.P. Franz Eher, successor Munich
The program of the NSDAP
The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP and accordingly the primary political law of the State. It has been made brief and clear intentionally.
All legal precepts must be applied in the spirit of the party program.
Since the taking over of control, the Fuehrer has succeeded in the realization of essential portions of the Party program from the fundamentals to the detail.
The Party Program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on the 24 February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at the first large Party gathering in Munich and since that day has remained unaltered. Within the national socialist philosophy is summarized in 25 points:
1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the right of self-determination of peoples.
This emphasizes that the Nazis were nationalists, unlike traditional socialists who made their appeal to the people of the world.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
If demanding equality is socialist, the United States’ founding fathers were socialists — they wanted “equality of rights” for the American people “in respect to the other nations.”
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population.
If expanding and owning territories is socialist, capitalists should be demanding that the US retreat to the original thirteen states.
4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.
In case you missed the implications of the first point, the Nazis are stressing their racism and antisemitism.
5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.
More nationalism.
6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.
Nationalism plus xenophobia.
7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.
More xenophobia.
8. Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since the 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.
Seriously more xenophobia.
9. All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.
Translation: “Wait, did we look nationalistic, anti-semitic, and xenophobic in the first eight points? We’re really good guys, honest.”
10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to work both spiritually and physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the whole for the benefit of all Consequently we demand:
Insisting people work is typical of capitalist countries. The working class must work for capitalists to thrive.
11. Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of rent-slavery.
If calling for the end of unearned income and usury is socialism, the Catholic Church’s long opposition to usury makes it socialist. More significantly, the Nazis never tried to enforce Point 11. It was just there to sound good to poor people.
12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total confiscation of all war profits.
This must have made Nazis giggle in the 1930s. Gearing up for World War 2 was enormously profitable, and Germany’s rich never shared those profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).
The call for nationalizing major industries was conveniently forgotten. Companies like I. G. Farben thrived under the Nazis.
14. We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.
This calls for sharing profit, not ownership. If that’s socialism, Alaska became a socialist hellhole in 1976, when a Republican governor convinced the state to adopt the Alaska Permanent Fund and pay part of the oil industry’s profits to every Alaskan.
15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
If social security is socialism, the US has been socialist since 1935. I have yet to see a fan of capitalism argue that America’s old people should be desperately poor.
16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
This calls for supporting small businesses by offering cheap storage facilities and preference for government contracts. That’s federal support for struggling businesses. American politicians who made the same demand would be applauded.
17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
See Hitler’s “clarification” at the end of the document. They just wanted to steal Jewish property.
18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, Schieber and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
A reminder that Nazis loved the death penalty.
19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order.
How anyone could think this had anything to do with socialism is enough to make me go get a beer.
20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbuergerkunde] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
If public education is socialism, socialism infected the thirteen colonies in 1635 when the still-operating Boston Latin School was founded.
21. The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
I would love to hear a conservative explain why outlawing child labor is socialist. Ditto for protecting mothers and encouraging sports.
22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.
National armies are socialist? Then the US has been socialist since June 14, 1775.
23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that: a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race: b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed in the German language: c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications, or any influence on them, and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life, and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.
Claiming censorship is socialist is a hard argument given the long history of censorship in the United States. As for socialist views on the free press, see Socialist quotes for free speech. Three examples from different schools of socialism:
“The absence of freedom of the press makes all other freedoms illusory. One form of freedom governs another just as one limb of the body does another. Whenever a particular freedom is put in question, freedom in general is put in question.” — Karl Marx
“Let the guarantee of free speech be in every man’s determination to use it, and we shall have no need of paper declarations.” — Voltairine de Cleyre
“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell
24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: common utility precedes individual utility.
If anti-semitism combined with state control of religion makes a country socialist, Italy was socialist until it allowed freedom of religion in 1947. Some socialists are atheists, but many are religious — see Marxism and religion.
25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.
If a strong federal government is socialist, the US became socialist under Lincoln.
The Nuremburg document concludes with this note from the German editor:
Adolf Hitler proclaimed the following explanation for this program on the 13 April 1928:
Explanation
Regarding the false interpretations of Point 17 of the program of the NSDAP on the part of our opponents, the following definition is necessary:
“Since the NSDAP stands on the platform of private ownership it happens that the passage” gratuitous expropriation concerns only the creation of legal opportunities to expropriate if necessary, land which has been illegally acquired or is not administered from the view-point of the national welfare. This is directed primarily against the Jewish land-speculation companies.
Hitler’s explanation should be the final word. Socialists distinguish between personal property, which consists of things we use, and private property, which is commercial property. Hitler is stressing the fact that the Nazis support commercial ownership — they were only “socialist” in their approach to Jewish land-speculation companies. For everyone else, they were capitalist. If you think seizing Jewish property is socialist, you must believe the US acquisition of land from Mexico and the American Indians was socialism.