Abstract

Roots of National Socialism

This article focuses on the book "Hitler--Whence and Whither?," by Wickham Steed. This book is an analysis of the fundamental social and governmental ideas of Hitlerite Germany against the background of these philosophical systems, but it fails to substantiate the promise of its sweeping title. It must fail, because the author seeks to establish a philosophical system where there is only the "systemlessness" of rank opportunism. Hitler's political strength lies in the fact that he had no unified philosophical conception, that with the unerring instinct of the arrant demagogue he took from each what at the moment promised the greatest and most immediate return. Fascism, socialism, nationalism, militarism, Aryanism, and anti-Semitism are all definite concepts around which a unified Weltanschauung may be developed.