We should call the Nazis what they really were — socialists.

Hitler’s party name, policies, and ideology make it undeniable: Nazism was a form of socialism.

Left to right: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, and Rudolf Hess (photo: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Wikipedia)

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This is a guest essay by Nick Buckley, an author of five books.

You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.

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Every time someone dares to ponder the question “Were the Nazis socialists?” a tidal wave of unhappy socialists hit back.

Accusations of stupidity, distorting history, and a lack of understanding abound. Some imply darker motives, such as Nazi apologists. This constant flare-up intrigued me: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

I remember being quite shocked many decades ago when I first discovered that the word “Nazi” stood for “National Socialist.” The word is a portmanteau, meaning it was created by the joining of two other words.

Nazis by definition were members of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. They saw themselves as socialists. Adolf Hitler always referred to himself as a socialist, he personally placed the word Socialist in his party’s name, alongside the word Workers — so it all feels a bit socialistic to me.

It has to be conceded that Hitler was not a trustworthy man. It would not surprise anyone if he used socialism to further his evil ends. Let us forget for a moment that the first political party Hitler tried to join was the German Socialist Party and that he co-founded the National Socialist German Workers Party.

Let us start by defining what socialism means: It is an economic and political system where the community, or the state, owns the general means of production for the benefit of the populace.

Followers of a Welshman, Robert Owen, began calling themselves socialists in 1841. Owen is seen as a founder of the Co-operative Movement in Britain. He said that workers should own the companies they worked for and share the profits among themselves.

To most people, Karl Marx is the modern-day father of socialism. His name is synonymous with a particular vein of socialism: Marxism. His basic idea was the world is split between the workers and the richer capitalists, who exploit the workers. The proletariat versus the bourgeoisie. He thought that when the workers realised their exploitation, they would revolt and take over ownership of production. He believed that the workers when in power, would not exploit others. His ultimate aim was communism, which he defined as a stateless, classless society with free enterprise.

In February 1920, Hitler publicly proclaimed a 25-point policy programme for the German Workers’ Party. A few weeks later, the party changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, aka the Nazi Party. Throughout the 1920s, others sought to change the 25 stated policies within this programme. Hitler suppressed every instance of programmatic change.

This list of policies is worth reading to see what Hitler was ultimately aiming to achieve. I split the 25 points into two categories so I could assess the level of socialistic influence. There are 14 socialist-themed points and 11 nationalist-themed ones. The majority of policies are clearly socialist in nature. Hitler wanted to expand old-age welfare, break the slavery of rent, nationalise businesses, create profit-sharing, and reform land ownership. These are all socialist aims that are still popular today.

Hitler was not a capitalist; he berated capitalism. He referred to it as “democratic warmongers and their Jewish-capitalist backers.” He believed that his war against the UK was fundamentally a battle against capitalism, the German welfare state against the plutocratic-capitalist Britain. He even linked the war with anti-colonialism and the Arab struggle against Britain in British Mandate Palestine; when socialists acquire a new mantra they run with it forever, regardless of facts.

Here is Hitler in 1923, in his own words:

“Communism is not Socialism. Marxism is not Socialism. The Marxists have stolen the term and confused its meaning. … We chose to call ourselves the National Socialists. We are not internationalists. Our socialism is national.”

I think it is becoming clear that Hitler and therefore the Nazi Party were socialists. They were simply a different type of socialist compared to the word’s generally accepted meaning today. The Nazis stated that they wanted a type of socialism that only benefited the German state and people — national socialism.

Therefore, they created an openly racist form of socialism. Some would argue that all forms of socialism tend towards nationalism and racism. Look at what the Chinese government is doing to the Uyghurs, the Jewish experience in the USSR, and the genocide in Cambodia where ethnic and religious minorities were systematically targeted. All this would sound very familiar to a Nazi living a hundred years ago.

Socialist countries surprise me when they have fortress borders; it’s not very international of them. Unless, of course, it is to prevent their own citizens from wandering off to a better life in a capitalistic country.

Finally, I have seen many arguments explaining that Hitler could not have been a socialist, since he murdered many socialists. This is completely accurate: Hitler killed many socialists. He was an equal-opportunities psychopath; you could say he was an early proponent of equity. It did not matter what race, colour, or creed you were; if he did not like you, then you died. We know he did not like internationalist socialists; he considered them an enemy. He also did not like communism; “Bolshevik-plutocratic world conspirators and their Jewish wire-pullers,” he said. When it came to competition, he eradicated it.

Socialism comes out of revolution. When it is over, the purge begins. If we want to talk about who has murdered other socialists, then we must start with Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. Reaching the top of any socialist state requires a level of brutality not within most people.

Northern Ireland has a history of Protestants and Catholics murdering each other; both groups claim they are Christian. Sunnis and Shiites are both Muslim sects and kill each other every day in the Middle East. Many ideologies split and follow different paths, yet claim affiliation with the same ideology. The Nazis followed their own version of socialism, but socialism it was.

The sharing of resources within a defined group has always been practised in a historical sense. It was our way of life when we lived in small tribes. We shared food, since we were all related and pulled together to survive. I believe this innate sense of a very basic type of “sharing socialism” is programmed into human DNA. This is why the idea of a socialist utopia will not die.

But there is a huge difference between sharing in a small family-oriented tribe and sharing in a nation-state of millions. Even after the undisputable atrocities of 20th-century socialism, the idea of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” still reverberates and remains popular. It seems we cannot fight our DNA.

Hence, socialism is a complicated topic that could take a lifetime to unpack and analyse. But from where I am standing, in the broad use of the term socialist, the Nazis were definitely socialists.

Our political divide should no longer be viewed as a Left/Right spectrum, since this makes no sense in today’s world. It should be viewed rather as statism versus individual liberty. Through this lens, you will find the Nazis sat very comfortably alongside all the other socialists.

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