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Hitler's Ethic Hitler’s Ethic The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress Richard Weikart 2009 CO N T E N T S List of Illustrations vii Preface ix Brief Chronology xi Introduction 1 One Hitler as Moral Crusader and Liar 17 Two The Cult of Evolutionary Progress 31 Three Racial Struggle 55 Four Morally Upright Aryans and Immoral Jews 85 Five Hitler’s Socialism: Building the People’s Community 101 Six Sexual Morality and Population Expansion 121 Seven Controlling Reproduction to Improve the Human Species 137 Eight The Struggle for Living Space: War and Expansionism 159 Nine Justifying Murder and Genocide 179 Conclusion 197 Notes 205 Bibliography 235 Index 247 IL L U S T R A T I O N S I.1 Nazi school poster: “Eradication of the Sick and Weak in Nature” 4 1.1 Nazi poster: “Death to the Lies” with “high finance” on the serpent’s back and “Marxism” on its belly 20 2.1 “Life Requires struggle” 32 2.2 “All of nature is a powerful struggle between power and weakness, an eternal victory of the strong over the weak.” Adolf Hitler 37 3.1 “Racial Fronts” (from a book by J. W. Ludowici, a Nazi official) 57 3.2 “Fertility and Race: The Growth of the Slavs in Europe” (from Volk in Gefahr) 60 3.3 Nordic racism in schools (from Nazi periodical) 66 3.4 “Should the same soul, the same mind, inhabit these different bodies?” (from SS pamphlet) 69 3.5 Slavs as Subhumans (cover of Nazi pamphlet) 72 3.6 Nazi poster: “Degenerate Music” with ape playing sax 80 4.1 Article from Nazi periodical: “The Criminal Jew”; captions by photos indicate the crimes each committed: swindler, counterfeiter, pickpocket, etc. 88 5.1 Nazi poster: “Don’t contribute/[instead] sacrifice.” 103 5.2 Nazi Weekly Proverb quoting Hitler: “The individual must and will as always perish; only the Volk must remain.” 115 6.1 “The German Mother: Every child that she brings into the world is a battle that she wins for the existence or non-existence of her Volk. Adolf Hitler.” (from Nazi periodical) 128 viii Illustrations 7.1 Certificate from the Second International Eugenics Congress, 1921 149 7.2 “The Threat of the Subhuman,” showing fertility rates of criminals (top two figures), parents with special education children (middle figure), the average German family (bottom left), and the German academic (bottom right) (from Volk in Gefahr) 151 7.3 “Sterilization: Not Punishment—but Liberation” (from Nazi periodical) 153 PR E F A C E When I received my Ph.D. fourteen years ago, I never imagined that I would be writing about Hitler or Nazism. I thought the history of the Third Reich was an overworked field, so I figured the chances of uncovering anything genuinely new, interesting, and truthful were scant. Nonetheless, as I investigated the history of evolutionary ethics in pre-World War I Germany, I noticed—to my surprise—remarkable similarities between the ideas of those promoting evolutionary eth- ics and Hitler’s worldview. This discovery (which happened around 1995) led me to investigate Hitler’s worldview more closely, and this research convinced me that I had found something important to say about Hitler’s ideology. Many scholars have noticed Hitler’s reliance on social Darwinism, and many recent works have explored the importance of eugenics and scientific racism in Nazi ideology and policy. I am indebted to many of these fine expositions of Nazi thought and practice, and I thank all those scholars (listed in my bibliography) for laying the groundwork for my own work. I would also like to thank those scholars who read all or part of the manuscript: Edward Ross Dickinson, Derek Hastings, and Randy Bytwerk, as well as a couple of anonymous readers. Also special thanks to Randy Bytwerk for helping with six of the illustrations (the dust- jacket and figures 1.1, 2.1, 3.4, 5.1, and 5.2). I am greatly indebted to my own university for providing research funds, access to Inter-Library Loan (thanks again to Julie Reuben), and a research leave for the academic year 2007–2008, which allowed me to complete the manuscript. Lastly, I thank my precious wife, Lisa, and my seven children (Joy, John, Joseph, Miriam, Christine, Hannah, and Sarah) for their love and support. B R I E F C H R O N O L O G Y April 20, 1889 Hitler born in Braunau, Austria-Hungary 1907 Hitler moved to Vienna 1913 Hitler moved to Munich 1914 Hitler joined German military at opening of World War I October 1918 Hitler wounded in gas attack and hospitalized November 1918 Revolution overthrows emperor and Social Demo- crats proclaim a republic 1919 Hitler assigned to army propaganda unit August 1919 Weimar Constitution approved, instituting parliamentary democracy September 1919 Hitler joined German Workers’ Party October 1919 Hitler gave first speech to German Workers’ Party February 1920 National Socialist German Workers’ Party proclaims its Twenty-Five Point Program, coauthored by Hitler November 1923 Hitler arrested for his role in Beer Hall Putsch 1924 Hitler wrote first volume of Mein Kampf in prison December 1924 Hitler released from prison July 1925 First volume of Mein Kampf published December 1926 Second volume of Mein Kampf published 1928 Hitler wrote his Second Book, which he never published 1929 Great Depression began 1930 Presidential rule began, undermining Weimar Republic April 1932 Hitler lost presidential race to Hindenburg July 1932 National Socialists became largest party in German parliament by winning over one-third of the votes xii Brief Chronology January 30, 1933 Hitler appointed chancellor March 1933 Enabling Act passed, giving Hitler’s cabinet emer- gency powers March 1933 First official concentration camp set up at Dachau July 1933 Compulsory sterilization law passed by Hitler’s cabinet August 1934 President Hindenburg died, and Hitler assumed his powers March 1935 Remilitarization begun with conscription and foundation of air force June 1935 Law allowing abortion for hereditarily ill September 1935 Nuremberg Laws proclaimed, which discriminated against Jews October 1935 Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health of the German People prohibits marriage of the hereditarily ill and requires a health certificate for marriage March 1936 Remilitarization of Rhineland November 1937 Hossbach Memorandum shows Hitler’s war plans March 1938 Austria annexed September 1938 Munich Conference gave Hitler Sudentenland region of Czechoslovakia November 1938 Crystal Night, first nationwide physical violence against Jews March 1939 Germany invaded Czechoslovakia and partitioned it August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, so Britain and France declared war September 1939 Polish Jews forced into ghettoes October 1939 Hitler signed decree to begin killing the disabled April 1940 Germany invaded Denmark and Norway May 1940 Germany invaded Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, and France June 1940 France surrendered June 1941 Germany invaded Soviet Union June 1941 Special units began massacring Jews in Soviet Union December 1941 First death camp at Chelmno began systematic extermination of Jews January 1942 Wannsee Conference organized transport of Jews to death camps Brief Chronology xiii February 1943 German army defeated at Stalingrad; major turning point on Eastern Front June 1944 D-Day opened up second front April 30, 1945 Hitler committed suicide as Berlin was surrounded May 7–8, 1945 Germany surrendered Introduction Why was Hitler so evil? How did he gain power in such a well- educated, civilized country? Why did so many leading scholars in Germany support Hitler’s policies? These questions have perplexed and haunted humanity since the Nazi era. Myriads of historians, social sci- entists, journalists, psychologists, and psychiatrists have tried to provide answers. However, even after all this thoughtful reflection by mul- titudes of scholars, none of the explanations have proved completely satisfying. Hitler’s evil still eludes our comprehension, and the reasons he committed such atrocities—with the complicity of many fellow Germans—are still shrouded in mystery. In 1998 the journalist Ron Rosenbaum dedicated an entire book, Explaining Hitler, to charting the many attempts by scholars to explain Hitler and his evil deeds. He concluded that we certainly have not yet explained Hitler’s evil, and maybe we will never be able to explain it.1 Most people suppose that Hitler was a power-hungry opportun- ist who simply ignored morality whenever it got in his way. His lust for power overcame his conscience—if indeed he had a conscience. Some—including Rosenbaum—insist that Hitler was so demonic that he embraced evil deliberately. According to this view, Hitler was fully conscious of his immorality, but he enjoyed evil and exulted in it. Alternatively, some scholars portray Hitler as an amoral nihilist exert- ing his will to power as a Nietzschean Superman.2 According to these typical views, any time Hitler spoke or wrote about ethics or morality, he was consciously lying (or to put a Nietzschean gloss on it, he was myth-making). He only cared about ethics and morality as a politi- cal tool to manipulate the masses and win support for himself and his regime. If this were true, it would be pointless to analyze Hitler’s views on ethics and morality, unless one were studying Nazi propaganda. Though many scholars today recognize the importance of ideology in 2 Hitler’s Ethic shaping Nazi policies, few have grappled with the role of ethics and morality in Nazi ideology.3 I will demonstrate in this book the surprising conclusion that Hitler’s immorality was not the product of ignoring or rejecting ethics, but rather came from embracing a coherent—albeit pernicious—ethic. Hitler was inspired by evolutionary ethics to pursue the utopian proj- ect of improving the human race.
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