Readings on Fascism and National Socialism Part 9

On July 14, 1933 was issued the law against the formation of new parties which raised the NSDAP to the only political party in Germany [doc.u.ment 11-III] ... The overthrow of the old party-state was accompanied by the construction of the new movement-state [_Bewegungsstaat_]. Out of a political fighting organization the NSDAP grew to a community capable of carrying the state and the nation. This process was accomplished step by step in the first months after the National Socialist seizure of power. The a.s.sumption of the office of Chancelor by the Fuhrer of the movement formed the basis for this development. Various party leaders were appointed as _Reichsminister_; the governors of the provinces were national leaders or _Gauleiter_ of the party, such as General von Epp; the Prussian government officials are as a rule _Gauleiter_ of the party; the Prussian police chiefs are mostly high-ranking SA leaders. By this system of a union of the personnel of the party and state offices the unity of party and state was achieved.[85]

The culmination of this development was reached in the "Law To Safeguard the Unity of Party and State," of December 1, 1933 (doc.u.ment 11-IV, _post_ p. 221), which proclaimed the NSDAP "the bearer of the German state-idea and indissolubly joined to the state." In order to guarantee the complete cooperation of the party and SA with the public officials, the Fuhrer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA were made members of the Cabinet.

With regard to the relation between the party and the state, Neesse writes:

The NSDAP is not a structure which stands under direct state control, to which single tasks of public administration are entrusted by the state, but it holds and maintains is claim to totality as the "bearer of the German state-idea" in all fields relating to the community--regardless of how various single functions are divided between the organization of the party and the organization of the state.[86]

To maintain cooperation between the party and state organizations, the highest state offices are given to the men holding the corresponding party offices. Gauweiler (doc.u.ment 8, _post_ p. 204) attributes to the party supreme leadership in all phases of national life. Thus the state becomes merely an administrative machine which the party has set up in accordance with and for the accomplishment of its aims:

As the responsible bearer and shaper of the destiny of the whole German nation the party has created an entirely new state, for that which sought to foist itself upon her as a state was simply the product of a deep human confusion. The state of the past and its political ideal had never satisfied the longing of the German people. The National Socialist movement already carried its state within itself at the time of its early struggles. It was able to place the completely formed body of its own state at the disposal of the state which it had taken over.[87]

The official party interpretation of the relation between party and state, as set forth in the _Party Organization Book_ for 1940, appears in the Appendix as doc.u.ment 7 (_post_ p. 186).

Goebbels in his lecture on _The Nature and Form of National Socialism_ (doc.u.ment 2, _post_ p. 170) stressed the importance of _Gleichschaltung_ or the penetration of n.a.z.i ideology into all fields of national life. This to his mind must be the result of the National Socialist revolution. The same aims, ideals, and standards must be applied to economics and to politics, to cultural and social development, to education and religion, and to foreign and domestic relations.

The result of this concept of the totalitarian state has been the compulsory regimentation of all phases of German life to conform to the pattern established by the party. The totalitarian state does not recognize personal liberties for the individual. The legal position of the individual citizen in the Third Reich is clearly set forth by Huber (doc.u.ment 1, _post_ p. 155):

Not until the nationalistic political philosophy had become dominant could the liberalistic idea of basic rights be really overcome. The concept of personal liberties of the individual as opposed to the authority of the state had to disappear; it is not to be reconciled with the principle of the nationalistic Reich. There are no personal liberties of the individual which fall outside of the realm of the state and which must be respected by the state. The member of the people, organically connected with the whole community, has replaced the isolated individual; he is included in the totality of the political people and is drawn into the collective action. There can no longer be any question of a private sphere, free of state influence, which is sacred and untouchable before the political unity. The const.i.tution of the nationalistic Reich is therefore not based upon a system of inborn and inalienable rights of the individual.[88]

In place of these rights the const.i.tution of the Third Reich guarantees to the individual his place in the community of the people:

The legal position of the individual member of the people forms an entirely new concept which is indispensable for the construction of a nationalistic order. The legal position of the individual is always related to the community and conditioned by duty. It is developed not for the sake of the individual but for the community, which can only be filled with life, power, and purpose when a suitable field of action is insured for the individual member. Without a concrete determination of the individual's legal position there can be no real community.

This legal position represents the organic fixation of the individual in the living order. Rights and obligations arise from the application of this legal position to specific individual relationships ... But all rights must be regarded as duty-bound rights. Their exercise is always dependent upon the fulfilment by the individual of those duties to which all rights are subordinate ...[89]

The concept of private property in the totalitarian state is also at variance with the democratic concept of private property. In the Third Reich the holder of property is considered merely as a manager responsible to the _Volk_ for the use of the property in the common interest. Huber sets forth the n.a.z.i view in the following words:

"Private property" as conceived under the liberalistic economic order was a reversal of the true concept of property. This "private property" represented the right of the individual to manage and to speculate with inherited or acquired property as he pleased, without regard for the general interests ... German socialism had to overcome this "private," that is, unrestrained and irresponsible view of property. All property is common property. The owner is bound by the people and the Reich to the responsible management of his goods. His legal position is only justified when he satisfies this responsibility to the community.[90]

Pursuant to this view of the nature of ownership, property may be confiscated whenever the state decides that public management would be in the interests of the community, or if the owner is found guilty of irresponsible management, in which case no compensation is paid him.

Reference has been made to the appointment of party members to important state offices. Gauweiler (doc.u.ment 8, _post_ p. 204) points out that the party insured the infusion of the entire structure of the state with its ideology through the civil-service law (_Beamtengesetz_) of January 26, 1937,[91] which provides that a person appointed to a civil-service position must be "filled with National Socialist views, since only thus can he be an executor of the will of the state which is carried by the NSDAP. It demands of him that he be ready at all times to exert himself unreservedly in behalf of the National Socialist state and that he be aware of the fact that the NSDAP, as the mouthpiece of the people's will, is the vital force behind the concept of the German state."[92]

The infiltration of party members into the civil service has now proceeded to such a point that early in 1942 Pfundtner, the Secretary of State in the German Ministry of the Interior, could write in the periodical _Akademie fur deutsches Recht_:

The German civil servant must furthermore be a National Socialist to the marrow of his bones and must be a member of the party or of one of its formations. The state will primarily see to it that the Young Guard of the movement is directed toward a civil-service career and also that the civil servant takes an active part in the party so that the political idea and service of the state become closely welded.[93]

FOOTNOTES TO FIRST SECTION

[Footnote 8: Huber, _Verfa.s.sungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), pp. 54-55.]

[Footnote 9: _Ibid._, pp. 153-155.]

[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, pp. 156-157.]

[Footnote 11: _Ibid._, p. 157.]

[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, p. 158.]

[Footnote 13: _Ibid._, p. 163.]

[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 164.]

[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, pp. 165-166.]

[Footnote 16: Neesse, _Die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei--Versuch einer Rechtsdeutung_ (Stuttgart, 1935), p.

44.]

[Footnote 17: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Footnote 18: _Ibid._, p. 54.]

[Footnote 19: _Ibid._, p. 58.]

[Footnote 20: _Ibid._, pp. 54-56.]

[Footnote 21: _Ibid._, p. 59.]

[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, pp. 60-61.]

[Footnote 23: _Ibid._, pp. 65-66.]

[Footnote 24: Scurla, _Die Grundgedanken des Nationalsozialismus und das Ausland_ (Berlin, 1938), pp. 10-11.]

[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 9.]

[Footnote 26: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 27: _Ibid._, p. 13.]

[Footnote 28: Beck, _Die Erziehung im dritten Reich_ (Dortmund and Breslau, 1936), p. 20.]

[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, pp. 20-21.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._, p. 35.]

[Footnote 31: _Ibid._, pp. 52-55.]

[Footnote 32: _Ibid._, p. 46.]

[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 57.]

[Footnote 34: _Ibid._, p. 118.]

[Footnote 35: _Ibid._, p. 140.]

[Footnote 36: Rosenberg, _Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts_ (Munich, 1935), p. 28 (1st ed. 1930).]