Position in the political spectrum
The majority of scholars identify Nazism in practice as a form of
far-right politics.
[11] Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate over other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements.
[12] Adolf Hitler and other proponents officially portrayed Nazism as being neither left- nor right-wing, but
syncretic.
[13][14] Hitler in
Mein Kampf directly attacked both left-wing and right-wing politics in Germany, saying:
Today our left-wing politicians in particular are constantly insisting that their craven-hearted and obsequious foreign policy necessarily results from the disarmament of Germany, whereas the truth is that this is the policy of traitors [...] But the politicians of the Right deserve exactly the same reproach. It was through their miserable cowardice that those ruffians of Jews who came into power in 1918 were able to rob the nation of its arms.
[15]
Hitler, when asked whether he supported the "bourgeois right-wing", claimed that Nazism was not exclusively for any class, and indicated that it favoured neither the left nor the right, but preserved "pure" elements from both "camps", stating: "From the camp of bourgeois
tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the
materialism of the
Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism".
[16]
The Nazis were strongly influenced by the post–
World War I far-right in Germany, which held common beliefs such as anti-Marxism, anti-liberalism, and antisemitism, along with nationalism, contempt towards the
Treaty of Versailles, and condemnation of the Weimar Republic for signing the armistice in November 1918 that later led to their signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
[17] A major inspiration for the Nazis were the far-right nationalist
Freikorps, paramilitary organisations that engaged in political violence after World War I.
[17] Initially, the post-World War I German far right was dominated by
monarchists, but the younger generation, who were associated with
Völkisch nationalism, were more radical and did not express any emphasis on the restoration of the German monarchy.
[18] This younger generation desired to dismantle the Weimar Republic and create a new radical and strong state based upon a martial ruling ethic that could revive the "Spirit of 1914" that was associated with German national unity (
Volksgemeinschaft).
[18]
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