Examines the political history of the Nationalist Socialist regime in Germany. Consequence of slash-and-burn approach to state activities; Description of the system of government in the Third Reich; Competition over domination in the Third Reich.

Although anti-Semitism was fundamental to Nazism, it seems not to have been essential to the majority of Germans. Nor does it appear to have been a decisive factor in either the Nazi rise to power or Hitler's vast popularity throughout the 1930s and in the early years of the war. Yet Nazi Germany was a society on its way to the Holocaust (Hilberg, 1961). Hitler assumed power to save Germany from the Jews. Hatred of the Jews had been the core of his Weltanschauung from the very beginnings of his political career (Jackel, 1969; Waite, 1977). This paper asks whether we may tend to under- rate the significance of anti-Semitism for the popular appeal of Nazism in German

Historians disagree about whether Nazis embraced Darwinian evolution. By examining Hitler’s ideology, the official biology curriculum, the writings of Nazi anthropologists, and Nazi periodicals, we find that Nazi racial theorists did indeed embrace human and racial evolution. They not only taught that humans had evolved from primates, but they believed the Aryan or Nordic race had evolved to a higher level than other races because of the harsh climatic conditions that influenced natural selection. They also claimed that Darwinism underpinned specific elements of Nazi racial ideology, including racial inequality, the necessity of the racial struggle for existence, and collectivism. (Page 46 of PDF)

The article focuses on the problem of national solidarity in interwar Germany. Many historians see german nationalism as a crucial factor in the rise and establishment of National Socialism. The article focuses on German nationalism between 1918 and 1939, which was not only hugely influential, but also marked by internal tensions and conflicts. There is certainly plentiful evidence that the call for a Volksgemeinschaft or national community, generated a considerable degree of unity and cohesion--especially among the Protestant middle classes, who were motivated by it in their increasingly confident and aggressive confrontation with the labour movement from the mid-1920s onwards and who prepared the ground for National Socialism.

During last week's Q & A debate between Cardinal George Pell and Richard Dawkins, it was interesting that both men had perspectives on Nazism that were at once opposed and yet entirely congruent. Pell argued that Nazism and Stalinism were the "two great atheist movements of the last century." Dawkins responded that while Stalin was an atheist, Hitler was not. However, they both agreed that Hitler represented the "personification of social Darwinism" (Pell) or that certain of what he tried to achieve arose "out of Darwinian natural selection" (Dawkins).