Were the Nazis socialist

Answer 1

No, they were not.

Why people get confused on the issue is because those that simply look at the names of historical items, rather than examining their context, see the word "socialist" in the official name of the Nazi party, and presume that they are socialists as we currently think of the word.

That's not the case.

Hitler was not a socialist. He was a fascist. The Nazi party, despite its name, was not a socialist party. It was a fascist party.

Bear in mind that Saddam Hussein called himself a President, the nation had a Parliament, and was deemed a Republic - if we were to take their word on it at least.

What words a nation chooses to identify itself with are up to that nation. That doesn't always mean it's accurate, or that it applies in a modern context however.

Answer 2

No, they were not. There is considerable confusion regarding the issue, and misinformation on the internet further exacerbates this.

First, let's discuss the name of the group- Nazis. The term "Nazi" comes from the German name of the political party, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, often abbreviated as "NSDAP" or "Nazi Party"- "Nazi" itself is derived from the German pronunciation of "National". Translated to English, the whole name means "National Socialist German Workers Party". So, as you can see, the word "socialist" is right there in the name of their own political party. That must mean they're socialists, right?

Well, no. First off, history is full of misnomers. Remember Voltaire's famous quip that "the Holy Roman Empire is not holy, nor Roman, nor an empire"? North Korea is officially called the "Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea", as was East Germany officially called the "Democratic German Republic". "Democratic" is in their names, so they must be democratic, right? These two countries are/were among the most undemocratic countries in world history.

Secondly, the Party was originally called the "German Workers Party"; at first, it just a bunch of racist, communist-hating, mostly blue-collar men from Munich who hated how World War I ended (ie Germany losing), and they would go to their local beer hall and complain loudly. Hitler joined (initially as a spy working for the German government) and quickly came to become their leader. After attaining power within the party, one of his changes was to rename the party as the NSDAP in an attempt (to which he admitted) to try to broaden the party's overall popularity. I've even read that reportedly he later regretted doing so.

Hitler and his reformed Nazi Party appear to have even said things that made them sound like they were socialists; the problem here being that there are a ton of misquotations floating around the internet. You'll often see a quote where supposedly Hitler says something about "we are socialists" blah blah blah, stuff about hating capitalism. The problem is that Hitler never said it; Gregor Strasser did in his 1928 book "Freedom and Bread". Strasser, along with his brother Otto, was the leader of a small socialist wing of the Nazi Party- Hitler had these "Strasserites" murdered in the 1934 Night of the Long Knives. Likewise, there is a "Hitler Quote" where he talks about successfully banning guns in 1935; there's no evidence he ever said it (the Nazis loved writing down what Hitler and his pals said), likewise, there was no reason for him to ban guns, since gun prohibition laws were already in place long before he took power. Hitler did occasionally say things that sounded almost vaguely socialist (such as in the "National Socialist Program"- although that was issued in 1920, a few years before he was in charge of the party), but it was generally referring to racist policy of elevating German people at the expense of Jews, Russians, etc; not because of actual belief in socialism. He also occasionally said negative things about things like capitalism, but, again, this was mainly due to racism (he believed Jews ruled the capitalist system as well as capitalist countries like the UK and USA) not due to belief in socialism.

Then there's the history, and what actually happened. Throughout the late 1920s, the Nazi Party (which had attracted a lot of ex-soldiers from World War I) would literally fight against leftist parties out in the streets of German cities- for this reason, in 1928 the German Weimar government actually passed a gun control law to try to limit the violence (it failed). Hitler and the Nazi Party then came to power in Germany by allying with other German right-wing parties, namely the Catholic "Centre Party" and the "German National Peoples Party" (DNVP in German); these other parties saw it as a win-win for them, since the Nazis would continue fighting the street battles for them, and Hitler was thought to be a fool they could easily control- how wrong they were. Once the Nazi-Centre-DNVP coalition won a major election and took control of the parliament, they amended the German constitution to give Hitler all government power. Hitler spent the next year eliminating socialist and communist parties, reworking the government bureaucracy to fit his view of how it should work, and implementing racist laws. Once firmly in power, Hitler even turned against his Centre and DNVP allies, forcing the parties to disband and either join the Nazis or leave politics; some were even killed during the Night of the Long Knives.

So, after having successfully seizing power, Hitler's Nazi government pushed what may be recognizable as a decidedly right-wing agenda. It lavished upon the military, talked loudly about using that military to enforce their beliefs on other countries, and sought to "make things like they were in the good old days"- hence "Third Reich" (trying to tie their government to historical German governments that were seen as being "good"). They squashed labor unions, and implemented very pro-business laws; major corporations, the ones owned by Germans (not Jews or other "foreigners") like Krupp, Farbe, Siemens, and so forth did very well under Nazism. Hell, in 1937, Hitler even relaxed gun-owning restrictions. You'll see internet pundits claim that Hitler implemented universal health care, and that is socialist- the problem? It was actually implemented by Chancellor Bismarck, who was absolutely not a socialist, before Hitler was even born! Bismarck did this specifically to stop socialists from gaining power- if the workers are happy, there's no need for them to turn to socialism.

Lastly, many people, especially in the USA, seem to believe that "big government" is somehow always equivalent to liberalism, socialism, marxism and communism (and, curiously, that all of those "-isms" are the same) and there is no grey area; Nazis used "big government", so they must have been leftist (and all those other -ists) too. The issue here should be obvious; "big government" is not solely in the realm of the left side of the political spectrum. Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy are prime examples of "big government" among far right-wingers; and then various anarchist movements (which are usually extreme leftist) advocate for no government whatsoever. Remember... things that right-wingers tend to support, such as the military, police, border patrol/customs agencies, counterintelligence agencies and so on, are all part of the government; when those grow large, does that make the government automatically leftist? So clearly there is a grey area, and the simple fact that the government is "big" does not automatically make it "leftist" (or "socialist", "communist", etc).

So don't believe everything you read in a meme on Facebook or in the emails your ultraconservative uncle forwards you. The Nazis were not really socialist in any way, and are nearly always considered to have been a far right-wing party, albeit with quirks (such as their dislike of Western capitalism).