A Short Note on Mein Kampf: Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler’s political manifesto, Mein Kampf (German: “My Struggle”).  It sold 5,200,000 copies and was translated into 11 languages by 1939.Die Abrechnung (“The Settlement [of Accounts],” or “Revenge”), the first volume, was written in 1924 at the Bavarian castle of Landsberg am Lech, where Hitler was imprisoned following the failed Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. It covers Hitler’s childhood, the First World War, and Germany’s “betrayal” in 1918; it also expresses Hitler’s racist ideology, identifying the Aryan as the “genius” race and the Jew as the “parasite,” and declaring the need for Germans to seek living space (Lebensraum) in the East at the expense of the hated Slavs and Russian Marxists. It also demands vengeance on France.

Mein Kampf

The holy intention of the German people…is to unify and preserve the most valuable racial elements…and to elevate them to a dominant position,” Hitler asserted. “All who are not of a good race are chaff,” Hitler wrote. As they put it, Germans needed to “concern themselves not only with the breeding of dogs, horses, and cats, but also with the purity of their own blood.”. Hitler gave the extermination of Jews international significance, writing that it “must obviously be a brutal process.”

Die Nationalsozialistische Bewegung (“The National Socialist Movement”), published after Hitler’s release from jail in December 1924, describes the political programme, including terrorist tactics, that National Socialism must pursue both in winning and exercising power in the new Germany.

Nazism

Nazism, also spelled Nazism, is a totalitarian movement led by Adolf Hitler as the leader of the Nazi Party in Germany. Nazism had many characteristics with Italian fascism, such as passionate nationalism, popular appeal, and authoritarian authority. Nazism, on the other hand, was far more radical in both its ideology and its actions. It was an anti-intellectual and atheoretical movement in nearly every way, emphasising the charismatic dictator’s will as the primary source of inspiration for a people and a nation, as well as a vision of the destruction of all enemies of the Aryan Volk as the one and only goal of Nazi policy.

The roots of Nazism

Nazism has distinctly German origins. It can be traced back to the Prussian tradition of Frederick William I (1688–1740), Frederick the Great (1712–68), and Otto von Bismarck (1815–98), who saw the Prussian army’s aggressive spirit and discipline as the model for all individual and public life. The political romanticism tradition was added to it, with its vehement opposition to rationalism and the principles that underpin the French Revolution, its emphasis on instinct and the past, and its proclamation of Friedrich Nietzsche’s exceptional individual (the Übermensch [“Superman”]rights )’s over all universal law and rules.The 19th-century veneration of science and natural laws, which seemed to function independently of any ideas of good and evil, fostered these two traditions. With their assertions of racial and cultural superiority, the comte de Gobineau (1816–82), Richard Wagner (1813–83), and Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927) all impacted early Nazism.The “Nordic” (Germanic) peoples over all other Europeans and races, provided further reinforcements.

Totalitarianism and expansionism

Hitler’s party rose from humble origins in a Munich beer basement to a prominent position in world politics 20 years later, based on these beliefs. The Nazi Party was created in 1919, and Hitler became its leader in 1920. The party came to power in Germany in 1933 through a combination of electoral victory and force, and ruled with totalitarian methods until 1945, when Hitler committed suicide and Germany was devastated and captured by the Allies at the end of World War II.

After 1934, Nazism’s history can be divided into two almost equal periods. Between 1934 and 1939, the party had complete authority over all aspects of German life. With many Germans tired of party rivalries, economic and political instability, and the disorderly freedom that characterised the Weimar Republic’s final years (1919–33), Hitler and his organisation earned widespread sympathy and even enthusiasm. The Nazis’ powerful, forceful, and presumably effective government was particularly well received by the population. Germany’s seemingly limitless numbers of unemployed were reduced as the unemployed were hired in massive public-works projects and quickly growing arms manufacturing.

Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism has existed in some form outside of Palestine wherever Jews have settled. Religious disagreements were the principal source of anti-Semitism in the ancient Greco-Roman civilization. During the Hellenistic Period, for example, pagans were enraged by Jews’ social seclusion and reluctance to recognise the gods worshipped by other peoples, especially in the 1st century BCE–1st century CE. Unlike polytheistic religions, Judaism is monotheistic, meaning it recognises only one God. Pagans, on the other hand, considered Jews’ refusal to worship emperors as gods as a sign of treachery.

Despite the fact that Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples were devout Jews, and Christianity is based on Jewish monotheism, Judaism and Christianity became adversaries soon after Jesus was crucified by Pontius Pilate, who followed Roman tradition. Initially, religious conflict was theological. It quickly turned political.

Conclusion

Despite its limited success at first, Mein Kampf’s popularity expanded along with Hitler’s and the Nazis’. It became obligatory reading in Germany, and the government purchased copies to give to newlyweds as state wedding gifts. Following WWII, many restrictions on access to the material were implemented. Following WWII, German legislation prohibited the sale and public display of literature advocating Nazi ideology. Furthermore, the German state of Bavaria had been awarded the copyright of Mein Kampf, which had refused to grant publishing rights. Foreign publishers, on the other hand, continued to publish the book, an act that drew censure in Germany and the countries where it was published, not least because of its popularity among white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups.