Nazism

=== Economics ===
{{main|Economy of Nazi Germany}}
{{further|Economics of fascism}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-15750, Ausstellung "Deutsches Volk-Deutsche Arbeit".jpg|thumb|upright=1.05|''Deutsches Volk–Deutsche Arbeit:'' German People, German Work (1934) – an example of [[reactionary modernism]]]]

The Nazis came to power in the midst of [[Great Depression]], when the [[unemployment]] rate at that point in time was close to 30%.<ref name="DeLong 1997">{{cite web|last=DeLong|first=J. Bradford|title=Slouching Towards Utopia?: The Economic History of the Twentieth Century. XV. Nazis and Soviets|date=February 1997|publisher=University of California at Berkeley|work=econ161.berkeley.edu|url=http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Purge15.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511190923/http://econ161.berkeley.edu/TCEH/Slouch_Purge15.html|access-date = 21 April 2013|archive-date=11 May 2008}}</ref> Generally speaking, Nazi theorists and politicians blamed Germany's previous economic failures on political causes like the influence of Marxism on the workforce, the sinister and exploitative machinations of what they called international Jewry and the vindictiveness of the western political leaders' [[World War I reparations|war reparation]] demands. Instead of traditional economic incentives, the Nazis offered solutions of a political nature, such as the elimination of organised [[trade union]]s, rearmament (in contravention of the Versailles Treaty) and biological politics.<ref>[[Richard Overy|R.J. Overy]], ''War and Economy in the Third Reich'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 1–5.</ref> Various work programs designed to establish full-employment for the German population were instituted once the Nazis seized full national power. Hitler encouraged nationally supported projects like the construction of the ''[[Autobahn]]'' highway system, the introduction of an affordable people's car (''[[Volkswagen Beetle|Volkswagen]]'') and later the Nazis bolstered the economy through the business and employment generated by military rearmament.<ref>[[Richard Overy|R. J. Overy]], ''War and Economy in the Third Reich'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 7–11.</ref> The Nazis benefited early in the regime's existence from the first post-Depression economic upswing, and this combined with their public works projects, job-procurement program and subsidised home repair program reduced unemployment by as much as 40 per cent in one year. This development tempered the unfavourable psychological climate caused by the earlier economic crisis and encouraged Germans to march in step with the regime.<ref>Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich: A Social History of Nazi Germany, 1933–1945'' (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1971), p. 19.</ref>

The economic policies of the Nazis were in many respects a continuation of the policies of the [[German National People's Party]], a [[national-conservative]] party and the Nazis' coalition partner.<ref>Beck Hermann, ''The Fateful Alliance: German Conservatives and Nazis in 1933: The Machtergreifung in a New Light'' (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008), p. 243.</ref> While other Western capitalist countries strove for increased [[state ownership]] of industry during the same period, the Nazis transferred [[public ownership]] into the [[private sector]] and handed over some [[public service]]s to private organizations, mostly affiliated with the Nazi Party. It was an intentional policy with multiple objectives rather than ideologically driven and was used as a tool to enhance support for the Nazi government and the party.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Bel |first=Germà |date=April 2006 |title=Against the mainstream: Nazi privatization in 1930s Germany |url=http://www.ub.edu/graap/nazi.pdf |journal=Economic History Review |publisher=University of Barcelona |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=34–55 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00473.x |ssrn=895247 |access-date=20 September 2020 |hdl-access=free |hdl=2445/11716 |s2cid=154486694|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720073011/http://www.ub.edu/graap/nazi.pdf |archive-date=20 July 2011 }}</ref> According to historian [[Richard Overy]], the Nazi [[war economy]] was a [[mixed economy]] that combined [[free market]]s with [[Economic planning|central planning]] and described the economy as being somewhere in between the [[Economy of the Soviet Union|command economy]] of the Soviet Union and the [[Economy of the United States|capitalist system]] of the United States.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Overy |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Overy |title=Why The Allies Won |publisher=Random House |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-84595-065-1 |location=London}}</ref>

The Nazi government continued the economic policies introduced by the government of [[Kurt von Schleicher]] in 1932 to combat the effects of the Depression.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=49}} Upon being appointed Chancellor in 1933, Hitler appointed [[Hjalmar Schacht]], a former member of the [[German Democratic Party]], as President of the [[Reichsbank]] in 1933 and Minister of Economics in 1934.<ref name="DeLong 1997"/> Hitler promised measures to increase employment, protect the German currency, and promote recovery from the Great Depression. These included an agrarian settlement program, labour service, and a guarantee to maintain health care and pensions.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=37}} However, these policies and programs, which included a large [[public works]] programs supported by [[deficit spending]] such as the construction of the ''Autobahn'' network to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment,{{sfn|Tooze|2007|p={{page needed|date=January 2011}}}} were inherited and planned to be undertaken by the [[Weimar Republic]] during conservative [[Paul von Hindenburg]]'s presidency and which the Nazis appropriated as their own after coming to power.<ref>W. Dick; A. Lichtenberg (4 August 2012). [https://www.dw.com/en/the-myth-of-hitlers-role-in-building-the-autobahn/a-16144981 "The myth of Hitler's role in building the German autobahn"]. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 4 August 2012.</ref> Above all, Hitler's priority was rearmament and the buildup of the German military in preparation for an eventual war to conquer ''[[Lebensraum]]'' in the East.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=38}} The policies of Schacht created a scheme for deficit financing, in which capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called [[Mefo bills]], which could be traded by companies with each other.<ref>{{cite book|last= Overy|first=R.J.|author-link=Richard Overy|title= The Nazi economic recovery 1932–1938|year= 1996|publisher= Cambridge Univ. Press|location= Cambridge [u.a.]|isbn= 0-521-55767-4|page= 42|edition= 2.}}</ref> This was particularly useful in allowing Germany to rearm because the Mefo bills were not [[Reichsmark]]s and did not appear in the federal budget, so they helped conceal rearmament.<ref>William L. Shirer, ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), p. 260.</ref> At the beginning of his rule, Hitler said that "the future of Germany depends exclusively and only on the reconstruction of the Wehrmacht. All other tasks must cede precedence to the task of rearmament."{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=38}} This policy was implemented immediately, with military expenditures quickly growing far larger than the civilian work-creation programs. As early as June 1933, military spending for the year was budgeted to be three times larger than the spending on all civilian work-creation measures in 1932 and 1933 combined.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=55}} Nazi Germany increased its military spending faster than any other state in peacetime, with the share of military spending rising from 1 per cent to 10 per cent of national income in the first two years of the regime alone.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=66}} Eventually, it reached as high as 75 per cent by 1944.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=333}}

In spite of their rhetoric condemning [[big business]] prior to their rise to power, the Nazis quickly entered into a partnership with German business from as early as February 1933. That month, after being appointed Chancellor but before gaining dictatorial powers, Hitler made a personal appeal to German business leaders to help fund the Nazi Party for the crucial months that were to follow. He argued that they should support him in establishing a dictatorship because "private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy" and because democracy would allegedly lead to communism.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=99}} He promised to destroy the German left and the trade unions, without any mention of anti-Jewish policies or foreign conquests.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=100}} In the following weeks, the Nazi Party received contributions from seventeen different business groups, with the largest coming from [[IG Farben]] and [[Deutsche Bank]].{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=100}} Historian Adam Tooze writes that the leaders of German business were therefore "willing partners in the destruction of political pluralism in Germany".{{sfn|Tooze|2006|pp=101}} In exchange, owners and managers of German businesses were granted unprecedented powers to control their workforce, [[collective bargaining]] was abolished and wages were frozen at a relatively low level.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=102}} Business profits also rose very rapidly, as did corporate investment.{{sfn|Tooze|2006|p=114}} In addition, the Nazis privatised public properties and public services, only increasing economic state control through regulations.<ref name="guillebaud"/> Hitler believed that private ownership was useful in that it encouraged creative competition and technical innovation, but insisted that it had to conform to national interests and be "productive" rather than "parasitical".<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 403"/> Private property rights were conditional upon following the economic priorities set by the Nazi leadership, with high profits as a reward for firms who followed them and the threat of nationalisation being used against those who did not.<ref name=economic573/> Under Nazi economics, free competition and self-regulating markets diminished, but Hitler's [[social Darwinist]] beliefs made him retain business competition and private property as economic engines.<ref name="economics"/><ref name="university28"/>

The Nazis were hostile to the idea of [[social welfare]] in principle, upholding instead the social Darwinist concept that the weak and feeble should perish.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=483–84}} They condemned the welfare system of the Weimar Republic as well as private charity, accusing them of supporting people regarded as racially inferior and weak, who should have been weeded out in the process of natural selection.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=484}} Nevertheless, faced with the mass unemployment and poverty of the Great Depression, the Nazis found it necessary to set up charitable institutions to help racially-pure Germans in order to maintain popular support, while arguing that this represented "racial self-help" and not indiscriminate charity or universal social welfare.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=484–85}} Nazi programs such as the [[Winterhilfswerk|Winter Relief of the German People]] and the broader [[Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt|National Socialist People's Welfare]] (NSV) were organised as quasi-private institutions, officially relying on private donations from Germans to help others of their race, although in practice those who refused to donate could face severe consequences.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=486–87}} Unlike the social welfare institutions of the Weimar Republic and the Christian charities, the NSV distributed assistance on explicitly racial grounds. It provided support only to those who were "racially sound, capable of and willing to work, politically reliable, and willing and able to reproduce". Non-Aryans were excluded, as well as the "work-shy", "asocials" and the "hereditarily ill".{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=489}} Successful efforts were made to get middle-class women involved in social work assisting large families,<ref name="Grunberger46"/> and the Winter Relief campaigns acted as a ritual to generate public sympathy.<ref name="Richard Grunberger p 79">Richard Grunberger, ''The 12-Year Reich'', p. 79, {{ISBN|0-03-076435-1}}</ref>

Agrarian policies were also important to the Nazis since they corresponded not just to the economy but to their geopolitical conception of ''Lebensraum'' as well. For Hitler, the acquisition of land and soil was requisite in moulding the German economy.<ref>Ian Kershaw, ''Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution'' (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2008), pp. 52–53.</ref> To tie farmers to their land, selling agricultural land was prohibited.<ref>Rafael Scheck, ''Germany, 1871–1945: A Concise History'', p. 167.</ref> Farm ownership remained private, but business monopoly rights were granted to marketing boards to control production and prices with a quota system.<ref name=berman >{{cite book |title=The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BNV5uVCQnq8C&q=146&pg=PA146 |first=Sheri |last=Berman | author-link=Sheri Berman|page=146 |isbn=978-0-521-52110-9|date=2006| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> The Hereditary Farm Law of 1933 established a cartel structure under a government body known as the [[Reichsnährstand]] (RNST) which determined "everything from what seeds and fertilizers were used to how land was inherited".<ref name=berman/> Hitler primarily viewed the German economy as an instrument of power and believed the economy was not about creating wealth and technical progress so as to improve the quality of life for a nation's citizenry, but rather that economic success was paramount for providing the means and material foundations necessary for military conquest.<ref>[[Richard Overy|R.J. Overy]], ''War and Economy in the Third Reich'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), pp. 1–30.</ref> While economic progress generated by National Socialist programs had its role in appeasing the German people, the Nazis and Hitler in particular did not believe that economic solutions alone were sufficient to thrust Germany onto the stage as a world power. The Nazis thus sought to secure a general economic revival accompanied by massive military spending for rearmament, especially later through the implementation of the [[Four Year Plan]], which consolidated their rule and firmly secured a command relationship between the German arms industry and the National Socialist government.<ref>Klaus Hildebrand, ''The Third Reich'' (London & New York: Routledge, 1986), pp. 39–48.</ref> Between 1933 and 1939, military expenditures were upwards of 82 billion Reichsmarks and represented 23 per cent of Germany's gross national product as the Nazis mobilised their people and economy for war.<ref>Jost Dülffer, ''Nazi Germany 1933–1945: Faith and Annihilation'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2009), pp. 72–73.</ref>

==== Anti-communism ====
[[File:Bolshevism is Jewish!.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Anti-communist, antisemitic propaganda poster in Nazi Germany]]

The Nazis claimed that communism was dangerous to the well-being of nations because of its intention to dissolve [[private property]], its support of [[class conflict]], its aggression against the [[middle class]], its hostility towards small business and its [[atheism]].<ref name=autogenerated20 /> Nazism rejected class conflict-based socialism and [[economic egalitarianism]], favouring instead a [[Social stratification|stratified]] economy with [[social class]]es based on merit and talent, retaining private property and the creation of national solidarity that transcends class distinction.<ref name=autogenerated11/> Historians [[Ian Kershaw]] and [[Joachim Fest]] argue that in post–[[World War I]] Germany, the Nazis were one of many nationalist and fascist political parties contending for the leadership of Germany's [[anti-communist]] movement.{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

In ''Mein Kampf'', Hitler stated his desire to "make war upon the Marxist principle that all men are equal".<ref>Hitler, Adolf, ''Mein Kampf'', Hurst and Blackett ltd., 1939, p. 343</ref> He believed that "the notion of equality was a sin against nature."{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=51}} Nazism upheld the "natural inequality of men," including inequality between races and also within each race. The Nazi state aimed to advance those individuals with special talents or intelligence, so they could rule over the masses.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=49}} Nazi ideology relied on elitism and the {{Lang|de|[[Führerprinzip]]}} (leadership principle), arguing that elite minorities should assume leadership roles over the majority, and that the elite minority should itself be organised according to a "hierarchy of talent", with a single leader—the [[Führer]]—at the top.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|pp=49–50}} The {{Lang|de|Führerprinzip}} held that each member of the hierarchy owed absolute obedience to those above him and should hold absolute power over those below him.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=50}}

During the 1920s, Hitler urged disparate Nazi factions to unite in opposition to [[Jewish Bolshevism]].<ref name="Adolf Hitler"/> Hitler asserted that the "three vices" of "Jewish Marxism" were democracy, [[pacifism]] and [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]].<ref name="Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution"/> The Communist movement, the trade unions, the Social Democratic Party and the left-wing press were all considered to be Jewish-controlled and part of the "international Jewish conspiracy" to weaken the German nation by promoting internal disunity through class struggle.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=50}} The Nazis also believed that the Jews had instigated the [[Bolshevik revolution]] in Russia and that Communists had [[Stab-in-the-back myth|stabbed Germany in the back]] and caused it to lose the First World War.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=52}} They further argued that modern cultural trends of the 1920s (such as [[jazz|jazz music]] and [[cubism|cubist art]]) represented "[[cultural Bolshevism]]" and were part of a political assault aimed at the spiritual degeneration of the German ''Volk''.{{sfn|Bendersky|1985|p=52}} Joseph Goebbels published a pamphlet titled ''The Nazi-Sozi'' which gave brief points of how Nazism differed from Marxism.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Nazi-Sozi|url=http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/nazi-sozi.htm|trans-title=Joseph Goebbels, Der Nazi-Sozi (Elberfeld: Verlag der Nationalsozialistischen Briefe, 1927).}}</ref> In 1930, Hitler said: "Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not".<ref name="university29"/>

The [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) was the largest Communist Party in the world outside of the Soviet Union, until it was destroyed by the Nazis in 1933.<ref>David Nicholls. ''Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2000, p. 50.</ref> In the 1920s and early 1930s, Communists and Nazis often fought each other directly in [[Weimar paramilitary groups|street violence]], with the Nazi paramilitary organisations being opposed by the Communist [[Roter Frontkämpferbund|Red Front]] and [[Antifaschistische Aktion#Establishment|Anti-Fascist Action]]. After the beginning of the Great Depression, both Communists and Nazis saw their share of the vote increase. While the Nazis were willing to form alliances with other parties of the right, the Communists refused to form an alliance with the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]], the largest party of the left.<ref>Ben Fowkes. ''Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic''. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984. pp. 166–167</ref> After the Nazis came to power, they quickly banned the Communist Party under the allegation that it was preparing for revolution and that it had caused the [[Reichstag fire]].<ref>Ben Fowkes. ''Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic''. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984. pp. 170–171</ref> Four thousand KPD officials were arrested in February 1933, and by the end of the year 130,000 communists had been sent to [[Nazi concentration camps]].<ref>Ben Fowkes. ''Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic''. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984, p. 171</ref>

During the late 1930s and the 1940s, anti-communist regimes and groups that supported Nazism included the [[Falangism|Falange]] in [[Francoist Spain]], the [[Vichy regime]] and the [[33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French)]] in France and the [[British Union of Fascists]] under [[Oswald Mosley]].<ref name="carroll"/>

==== Views of capitalism ====
{{see also|List of companies involved in the Holocaust}}

The Nazis argued that [[free-market capitalism]] damages nations due to [[international finance]] and the worldwide economic dominance of disloyal big business, which they considered to be the product of Jewish influences.<ref name="autogenerated20"/> Nazi propaganda posters in [[working class]] districts emphasised anti-capitalism, such as one that said: "The maintenance of a rotten industrial system has nothing to do with nationalism. I can love Germany and hate capitalism".<ref name="publishers30"/>

Both in public and in private Hitler opposed free-market capitalism because it "could not be trusted to put national interests first", arguing that it holds nations ransom in the interests of a parasitic [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] [[Rentier capitalism|rentier]] class.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 399"/> He believed that [[Free trade|international free trade]] would lead to global domination by the British Empire and the United States, which he believed were controlled by Jewish bankers in [[Wall Street]] and the [[City of London]]. In particular, Hitler saw the United States as a major future rival and feared that the [[globalization]] after World War I would allow [[North America]] to displace [[Europe]] as the world's most powerful continent. Hitler's anxiety over the economic rise of the United States was a major theme in his unpublished ''[[Hitlers Zweites Buch|Zweites Buch]]''. He even hoped for a time that Britain could be swayed into an alliance with Germany on the basis of a shared economic rivalry with the United States.<ref name=":0">{{Harvp|Tooze|2006|pp=8–11}}</ref> Hitler desired an economy that would direct resources "in ways that matched the many national goals of the regime" such as the buildup of the military, building programs for cities and roads, and economic self-sufficiency.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 403"/> Hitler also distrusted free-market capitalism for being unreliable due to its [[egotism]] and preferred a state-directed economy that maintains private property and competition but subordinates them to the interests of the ''[[Volk]]'' and Nation.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 399"/>

Hitler told a party leader in 1934: "The economic system of our day is the creation of the Jews".<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 399" /> Hitler said to [[Benito Mussolini]] that capitalism had "run its course".<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 399"/> Hitler also said that the business [[bourgeoisie]] "know nothing except their profit. 'Fatherland' is only a word for them."<ref name="dictators"/> Hitler was personally disgusted with the ruling bourgeois elites of Germany during the period of the Weimar Republic, whom he referred to as "cowardly shits".<ref>Kritika: ''explorations in Russian and Eurasian history'', Volume 7, Issue 4. Slavica Publishers, 2006, p. 922.</ref>

In ''Mein Kampf'', Hitler effectively supported [[mercantilism]] in the belief that economic resources from their respective territories should be seized by force, as he believed that the policy of ''[[Lebensraum]]'' would provide Germany with such economically valuable territories.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 402"/> He argued that the United States and the United Kingdom only benefitted from free trade because they had already conquered substantial internal markets through British colonial conquests and [[Territorial evolution of the United States|American westward expansion]].<ref name=":0" /> Hitler argued that the only means to maintain economic security was to [[Autarky|have direct control over resources]] rather than being forced to rely on world trade.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 402"/> Hitler claimed that war to gain such resources was the only means to surpass the failing capitalist economic system.<ref name="R.J. Overy 2004, p. 402"/>

In practice, however, the Nazis merely opposed one [[type of capitalism]], namely 19th-century [[free-market capitalism]] and the ''[[laissez-faire]]'' model, which they nonetheless applied to the social sphere in the form of [[social Darwinism]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=483–84}} Some have described Nazi Germany as an example of [[corporatism]], [[authoritarian capitalism]], or [[totalitarian capitalism]].<ref name=":2" /><ref name="SJSU">{{Cite web |title=The Economic System of Corporatism |url=https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200712232229/https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/corporatism.htm |archive-date=12 July 2020 |access-date=2 October 2021 |publisher=San José University Department of Economics}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2007-07-01/return-authoritarian-great-powers|title=The Return of Authoritarian Great Powers|last=Gat|first=Azar|date=1 July 2007|work=Foreign Affairs|access-date=8 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Fuchs |first=Christian |date=29 June 2017 |title=The Relevance of Franz L. Neumann's Critical Theory in 2017: Anxiety and Politics in the New Age of Authoritarian Capitalism |url=https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/download/3d32b4bfd248b58cca5d0f68ede8ee936bb6e3dd0572344e82c86089553b79b0/570163/Neumann_Christian_tripleC.pdf |journal=Media, Culture & Society |volume=40 |issue=5 |pages=779–791 |doi=10.1177/0163443718772147 |access-date=8 July 2020 |s2cid=149705789}}</ref> While claiming to strive for autarky in propaganda, the Nazis crushed existing movements towards self-sufficiency<ref>{{cite book|title=Italian fascism: Its Origins and Development|orig-year=1938|last=De Grand|first=Alexander J.|year=2000|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-6622-3|edition=3rd|location=Lincoln|oclc=42462895}}</ref> and established extensive capital connections in efforts to ready for expansionist war and genocide<ref>{{cite book|title=IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance Between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation|last=Edwin|first=Black|date=2001|publisher=Crown Publishers|isbn=978-0-609-60799-2|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=45896166}}</ref> in alliance with traditional [[business]] and [[commerce]] elites.<ref>{{cite book|title=[[The Anatomy of Fascism]]|last=Paxton|first=Robert O.|author-link=Robert Paxton|date=2005|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-1-4000-3391-1|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=58452991}} – [https://archive.org/details/anatomyoffascism0000paxt Read online, registration required]</ref> In spite of their anti-capitalist rhetoric in opposition to big business, the Nazis allied with German business as soon as they got in power by appealing to the fear of communism and promising to destroy the German left and trade unions,{{sfn|Tooze|2006|pp=99–100}} eventually purging both more radical and reactionary elements from the party in 1934.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|p=133}}

Joseph Goebbels, who would later go on to become the Nazi Propaganda Minister, was strongly opposed to both capitalism and communism, viewing them as the "two great pillars of materialism" that were "part of the international Jewish conspiracy for world domination".<ref>Read, Anthony, ''The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle'', New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 138</ref> Nevertheless, he wrote in his diary in 1925 that if he were forced to choose between them, "in the final analysis, it would be better for us to go down with Bolshevism than live in eternal slavery under capitalism".<ref name="disciples"/> Goebbels also linked his antisemitism to his anti-capitalism, stating in a 1929 pamphlet that "we see, in the Hebrews, the incarnation of capitalism, the misuse of the nation's goods".<ref name="thosedamnednazis"/>

Within the Nazi Party, the faction associated with anti-capitalist beliefs was the SA, a paramilitary wing led by [[Ernst Röhm]]. The SA had a complicated relationship with the rest of the party, giving both Röhm himself and local SA leaders significant autonomy.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|pp=1110–11}} Different local leaders would even promote different political ideas in their units, including "nationalistic, socialistic, anti-Semitic, racist, völkisch, or conservative ideas."{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|p=113}} There was tension between the SA and Hitler, especially from 1930 onward, as Hitler's "increasingly close association with big industrial interests and traditional rightist forces" caused many in the SA to distrust him.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|p=119}} The SA regarded Hitler's seizure of power in 1933 as a "first revolution" against the left, and some voices within the ranks began arguing for a "second revolution" against the right.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|pp=123–124}} After engaging in violence against the left in 1933, Röhm's SA also began attacks against individuals deemed to be associated with conservative reaction.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|pp=123–124, 130}} Hitler saw Röhm's independent actions as violating and possibly threatening his leadership, as well as jeopardising the regime by alienating the conservative President Paul von Hindenburg and the conservative-oriented German Army.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|p=133}} This resulted in Hitler purging Röhm and other radical members of the SA in 1934, during the Night of the Long Knives.{{sfn|Nyomarkay|1967|p=133}}
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