Analysis Of Hitler And The Uniqueness Of Nazism

Alexander Caracciolo

World Civilizations II (A)

Spring 2014

ARTICLE

Hitler and the Uniqueness of Nazism

Ian Kershaw, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 39, No. 2, Understanding Nazi Germany (Apr., 2004), pp. 239-254

I INTRODUCTION

Though Nazism can be sited as a form of fascism or type of totalitarianism, these common concepts inadequately account for what was unique about the regime that unleashed such devastating inhumanity; a terrible war of annihilation and the worst genocide the world has yet experienced. This article suggests the answer is located in a unique mixture of potent forces emulsified in a vicious cocktail, Hitler's dictatorship. The extraordinary power of his 'charismatic authority', the distinctive climate of German political culture, and the bureaucratic capacity of a highly modern state system ultimately lead to uprising and the uniqueness of Nazism.

II. SUMMARY

1. Introduction

In the introduction, Ian Kershaw discusses what he considers common knowledge about the Nazi regime. Through a series of counterexamples, he disproves these theories as the singular causes of Nazism uniqueness. The idea that Hitler alone was unique is disproved, the idea that First World War was instrumental in Nazism’s uniqueness was disproved and countless others.

2. Hitler’s Indispensability

When describing Nazism it seems only natural to begin with Hitler. Although he himself cannot account for Nazism’s uniqueness, his role as a dictator is indispensable in making this claim. Kershaw explains, no Hitler: “no SS-police state, no general European war by the late 1930s, no attack on the Soviet Union, no Holocaust, no state policy aimed at wiping out the Jews of Europe” (245). Yet the forces that led to the “undermining of law, to...

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...mbodied and its corrupting effect on the instruments and mechanisms of the most advanced state in Europe. Both the broad acceptance of the 'project' of 'national salvation', seen as personified in Hitler, and the internalization of the ideological goals by a new, modern power-elite, operating along-side weakened old elites through the bureaucratic sophistication of a modern state, were necessary prerequisites for the world-historical catastrophe of the Third Reich.

III. SOURCES

This article is not based on any one primary source, but is instead smattered with the ideas from several historians.

IV. SIGNIFICANCE/HISTORICAL CONTEXT

In addressing previous historical scholarship, Kershaw sheds new light on what is commonly thought of as Nazism. He recognizes other theories a being part Nazism but uses several sources to explain how they were not what was unquie to it.