Are Nazis far left or far right?

Answer 1

Nazism is a tricky animal. It doesn't easily fit into the traditional "left vs right" system that we love so much. Most political scientists will probably tell you that Nazism is considered to be right wing.

At its core, Nazism is extremely right wing. They believe in things typically associated with the far right, such as extreme nationalism, militarism, "traditional values", authoritarianism, and xenophobia. They hated communism, liberalism and socialism (despite the name- I'll get to that later), and they blamed most of society's ills on those groups. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the first thing they did was pass laws to make those parties (communist and socialist) illegal and imprisoned their leaders.

But as you delve deeper into their brand of philosophy, things become murkier. The Nazis also rejected capitalism and western notions of democracy. Hitler felt capitalism was corrupt and was tainted by Jews, thus was undesirable. He felt private ownership was ok as long as it conformed to his views and contributed to the nation sufficiently. He even threw blame at right-wing German political parties, claiming that they were lazy and it was their fault that Jews had made Germany lose World War I.

If you asked Hitler if his party was left or right wing, he would tell you they were neither (just before having you imprisoned). Despite the extreme right wing stuff I already mentioned, the Nazi government had no problem stealing ideas from the left. They nationalized some industries, ran some socialist programs like national healthcare, and even took control of trade unions.

But it was more of a pragmatic desire for full control over everything and through that control, a way of enforcing their beliefs on everyone, and not any sort of left-wing ideology, that led them to do these things. They believed that things needed to be run by the government, not to resolve class warfare or bring about a workers' paradise, but to keep people under control and protect against communism. So, for example, nationalized healthcare would allow them to better weed out "undesireable" people- there was a program, the Aktion T4, which killed off people with genetic disorders and disabilities (because the idea that German people needed to be "pure" was important to the Nazis).

As for the socialist thing i mentioned early on... if you cruise the intergoogles, you may run across websites, particularly those run by people who sit on the right-wing, who claim that Nazism was socialist because "Nazi" is short for "National Socialist"; the full name of the Nazi party was "National Socialist German Workers Party" (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei, or NSDAP). They see the "socialist" in their name as full irrefutable proof that the Nazis were "socialist", and therefore, left-wing. Throw in some of the socialist style policies the Nazis played, and it almost seems to make a solid case.

The fact that the word "socialist" appears in their name doesn't automatically make them socialists. Ever heard of the "German Democratic Republic"? That's what communist Dictatorship East Germany officially called itself. Same for the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea"- North Korea, one of the most undemocratic countries ever. Hitler and his Nazi stooges fully admitted that they only added "socialist" (along with "national") to their party's name in 1920 to broaden their appeal (the party was originally called the "German Workers Party").

Now, to be fair, until 1934, there were originally two sides of the Nazi party. There were the mainline ones led by Hitler and Göring, who eventually won out and their "philosophy" was the basis of Nazi Germany's. The other faction, led by brothers Otto and Gregor Strasser, actually believed in socialism and wanted to incorporate a lot more of it. Otto eventually went into exile, and in 1934 Hitler had Gregor and the rest of the "Strasserites" murdered in the "Night of the Long Knives", to prevent any in-fighting in the party. This permanently ended that "socialist" wing of the party.

Answer 2

The Nazis were (and still are) almost universally considered "far right". Nazis doctrine focused strongly on the following tenets, all of which are considered hallmarks of far-right ideologies:

1. extreme nationalism/patriotism
2. desire for a return to a previous glorious era (eg "make our country great again"), and linking themselves to that era
3. hatred of "foreigners", ie, racism - in this case, Jews and Slavs (Russians, Polish, Serbs, etc).
4. anti-communism, anti-socialism
5. anti-liberalism, and a general disdain for democracy
6. militarism, and glorification of the military, its lifestyle, and its victories.
7. "traditional values" (eg, dad works, mom stays home to raise the family, homosexuals are deviants who should be eliminated, opposition to miscegenation, and so on)
8. "Might makes right" and "if you aren't successful, it's your fault because you aren't trying hard enough" mentalities.

However, it's noteworthy that they also distrusted traditional conservative movements. They felt that the conservative parties in Germany in the 1920s had catered too much to Jews and leftists, and allowed Germany to be weakened. So while the Nazis were decidedly right-wing in outlook, especially once in power, early on they tended to claim they were actually "third way" (not left or right), or "syncretic" (borrowing ideas from both sides). However, Nazis were fairly pragmatic, so their distaste for conservatism did not prevent them from cutting deals with those parties. In 1933, conservative political parties were key allies that helped complete the Nazi Party's Machtergreifung ("seizure of power").

When it comes to economics, the Nazis, and their leader Adolf Hitler in particular, didn't really concern themselves too much with them (Hitler once basically said that economics were boring and a waste of time). They largely kept in place the old capitalist system of the previous regime, although they did pass some pro-corporate legislation (such as eliminating unions, lowering minimum wages, and forbidding workers from quitting their job without their boss's approval), and especially tended to favor the corporations that supported their regime. Those that didn't support the regime sufficiently or, worse, were owned by "foreigners", were occasionally liquidated- but it was for purely political reasons, not due to socialism/communism. On more than one occasion, Hitler did give speeches decrying Western capitalism- but this was more due to racism than any sort of Socialist notions. He believed that Western capitalism was being corrupted by Jews, and wanted to purge them from it.

What makes it tricky with the Nazis is that:

1. Before they came to power, they did occasionally say things that made them sound pretty left-leaning. In particular, the "National Socialist Program", passed before Hitler took full control of the party in the early 1920s, does have some very leftist sounding stuff in it. However, once in power, they conveniently "forgot" all the leftist stuff they had said, to focus on the list I provided above. Hitler was also quietly cutting deals with powerful businessmen throughout the 1920s, procuring funding and support for his rise to power. These businessmen were fearful of Communism and Socialism and Hitler's opposition to those- and his willingness to use his Nazi stooges to fight them- appealed to them.
2. People tend to focus a little too much on the name. The full name of the Nazi Party is the "National Socialist German Workers Party". Sounds pretty leftist, right? Especially since "Socialist" is right there in the name! Well, that doesn't really matter. Is the "Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea" a democracy? Anyway... there were a lot of parties in Germany in the 1920s that had leftist sounding names but weren't leftist at all. Hitler added "Socialist" to the name purely for advertising purposes- he wanted to make his party more popular.
3. Before 1934, there actually was a leftist wing of the Nazi Party that believed in some socialist ideas. Most of the time when you see a quote on the internet from the Nazis or Hitler and it sounds super leftist, it's because it's actually from someone from that wing of the party. Led by the brothers Otto and Gregor Strasser, these "Strasserites" advocated for workers rights and mass action (ie using labor strikes and protests to push their agenda, a popular tactic among Socialists and Communists). However, they were never a large part of the party, and Nazi leaders like Hitler, Göring, and Goebbels were never part of the group. In summer 1934, Hitler had the Strasserite leaders murdered, and the rest of the Strasserites were imprisoned, or fell in line with Hitler's wing.
4. Cherry-picking issues to "prove" that Nazis were leftist. What I mean is, people will ignore the major issues (see the list above) and focus on relatively minor issues to "prove" that Nazis were leftist. For example, Hitler was famously a vegetarian towards the end of his life- and some people will actually try to use this as proof that he was a leftist! Or they'll point to the fact that Germany had universal healthcare during the Nazi era. While this is true, it's not that simple. First and foremost, universal healthcare was installed in Germany by Otto Von Bismarck in the 1880s, before Hitler was even born! Second, the reason why Bismarck started it was because he hated socialism, and he basically hoped to kill its popularity by giving the people some of the things the socialists had been promising. Lastly, the Nazis expanded their healthcare system a bit, but this was primarily for racist reasons (to keep the races they liked healthy, and even to kill off people with genetic defects/disorders).
5. Focus on the "big government" issue. For some reason a lot of people, Americans in particular, believe that a country with a large government means that that government is alwaysleftist. This is ludicrous, and far from the truth. First off- what constitutes a "big government"? It's an arbitrary term. Furthermore, Nazis and Fascists are the prime example of right-wing movements that advocated large governments. Additionally, most anarchist movements are considered far-left, yet they advocate having no government at all. The size of the government isn't what makes it leftist or rightist; what that government does is.