Author Description

This collection of early writings by leading Nazi intellectuals sheds light on the evolution of Nazi political thought as the party came to power.   Barbara Miller Lane and Leila J. Rupp bring together a crucial yet hitherto inaccessible body of material that thoroughly chronicles Nazi ideology before 1933. It includes the extensive writings and programs published by Dietrich Eckart, Alfred Rosenberg, Gottfried Feder, Joseph Goebbels, Gregor and Otto Strasser, Heinrich Himmler, and Richard Walther Darré. Hitler’s role in the development of Nazi ideology, interpreted here as a very permissive one, is thoroughly assessed.   In commentary by the editors, the significance of each Nazi theorist is evaluated at each stage of the history of the party. Lane and Rupp conclude that early Nazi ideology was not a consistent whole but a doctrine in the process of rapid development to which new ideas were continually introduced. By the time the Nazis came to power, however, a group of interrelated assertions and official promises had been made to party followers and to the public. Hitler and the Third Reich had to accommodate this ideology, even when not implementing it.   Each selection is accompanied by an introductory note and annotations which clarify its relationship to other works of the author and other writings of the period. Also included are original translations of the “Twenty-Five Points” and a number of little-known official party statements.