It is now clear beyond all reasonable doubt that Hitler and his associates believed they were socialists, and that others, including democratic socialists, thought so too. The title of National Socialism was not hypocritical.
—George Watson, “Hitler And The Socialist Dream”
R. Scott Clark
R.Scott Clark is the President of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, the author and editor of, and contributor to several books and the author of many articles. He has taught church history and historical theology since 1997 at Westminster Seminary California. He has also taught at Wheaton College, Reformed Theological Seminary, and Concordia University. He has hosted the Heidelblog since 2007.
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I agree – let’s take Hitler at his (loathsome) word, instead of reshaping him they way some do, to suit a particular agenda.
Studying the man and his ideological movement still bears fruit – giving us an insight into forces that are still very much active in our age. The Nazis may have lost the military battle, but they mostly won the ideological war. Weirdly, the beachhead established on D-Day went both ways–it led to the vanquishing of the Third Reich materially but Nazi ideals live on in profound ways. Our society worships the will to power, loathes the vulnerable and has embraced the pagan. Back in the early 1940s, Nietzsche was still generally considered an intellectual failure. Now his thoughts are almost gospel among the intelligentsia.
The “rightist” Hitler is a creation of that thundering herd of independent Marxist 20th century minds who couldn’t stand a rival socialist vision–especially one with a better sense of style.
This being said, I loathe the memory of Hitler and Mussolini.