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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Naofumi" data-source="post: 47417" data-attributes="member: 39">In Mein Kampf Hitler divided mankind into three categories - founders of culture, bearers of culture, and destroyers of culture. His argument was that only Aryans were the founders of culture and it was the European (and American) influence of Japan that allowed for their own progress."Since the Jew - for reasons that I shall deal with immediately - never had a civilization of his own, he has always been furnished by others with a basis for his intellectual work. His intellect has always developed by the use of those cultural achievements which he has found ready-to-hand around him.""That is why the Jewish people, despite intellectual powers with which they are apparently endowed, have not a culture, certainly not a culture of their own. The culture which the Jew enjoys today is the product of the work of others and this product is debased in the hands of the Jew."...we must bear in mind the essential fact that there has never been any Jewish art and consequently that nothing of this kind exists today." - this remark is in relation to his belief that Jews do not have a culture of their own."No. The Jews have not the creative abilities which are necessary to the founding of a civilization; for in them there is not, and never has been, the spirit of idealism which is an absolutely necessary element in the higher development of mankind. Therefore Jewish intellect will never be constructive but always destructive."[ATTACH=full]8142[/ATTACH][MEDIA=youtube]WQYN2P3E06s[/MEDIA]Karl Marx, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jewish_Question" target="_blank">On the Jewish Question</a> - Marx characterizes the Jews of Europe as not having a real religious culture, but instead focusing their social integrity on materialism.Martin Luther, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Jews_and_Their_Lies" target="_blank">On Jews and Their Lies</a> - Many of Hitler's "remedies" were prescribed by Luther in this book.While Nietzsche was vocally anti-fascist, his writings (especially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_and_reception_of_Friedrich_Nietzsche#Nietzsche_and_fascism" target="_blank">The Will to Power</a>) were popular among Nazis, who saw his conception of the "ubermensch" as an alternative to the Jewish "untermensch."Kant and Hegel also characterized the Jews as irredeemable and a social and economic drain on Europe. John Weiss (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Ideology-Death-Holocaust-Happened-Germany/dp/1566631742" target="_blank">Ideology of Death</a>) does a good job of tracing anti-semitism through philosophical and religious texts in Europe leading up to the war, and has interesting things to say about Kant and Hegel.I do think, however, that Hitler's ideas about Jews were less a philosophical conclusion and more a reflection of a broader culture of self-destructive fantasy in Germany after WWII. Sigfried Kracauer discussed this in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Caligari_to_Hitler:_A_Psychological_History_of_the_German_Film" target="_blank">From Caligari to Hitler</a>.The German people, or Volk, were, he believed, a single ethnicitywith unique and singular self-interests. They were-indisputablyresponsible for many of the greatest achievements in Western history. Theywere among the leading lights in music, literature, architecture, science,and technology. They were great warriors, and great nation-builders. Theywere, in large part, the driving force behind Western civilization itself. Allthis is true and undeniable, and Hitler is justly proud of his heritage. Equallyis he outraged at the indignities suffered by this great people in then-recentdecades-culminating in the disastrous humiliation ofWWI and the Treatyof Versailles. He seeks, above all, to remedy these injustices and restoregreatness to the German people. To do this, he needs to identify both theirprimary opponents and the defective political ideologies and structures thatbind them. Then he undertakes to outline a new socio-political system thatcan carry them forward to a higher and rightful destiny. He accomplishesall this, and more.Finally, in its fourth aspect, Mein Kampf is a kind of blueprint for action.It describes the evolution and aims of National Socialism and the NSDAP,or Nazi Party, in compelling detail. Hitler naturally wants his newmovement to succeed in assuming power in Germany and in a futureGerman Reich. But this is no theoretical analysis. Hitler is nothing if notpragmatic. He has concrete goals and precise means of achieving them. Hehas nothing but disdain for the geistigen Waffen, the intellectual weapons,of the impotent intelligentsia. He demands results, and success. By allaccounts, he achieved both.Born on 20 April 1 889 in present-dayAustria, Hitler grew up as a citizen of the multi-ethnic state known as theAustro-Hungarian Empire. This diverse amalgamation was formed in 1867,with the union of the Austrian and Hungarian monarchies; thus does Hitlerrefer to the state as the "Double Monarchy." Throughout its 50-year history,it was always a loose conjunction of many ethnicities, and never a trulyunified state. The ethnic Germans in it were a minority, and had to struggleto promote their own interests. This fact caused Hitler no end of distress;he explicitly felt more attachment to the broader German Volk than to themulti-ethnic state into which he was born.As a youth, his interests tended toward the arts, painting, and history. Thisled to conflict with his obstinate father, who envisioned a safe, comfortable,bureaucratic career for his son. But his father's death on 3 January 1903,when Adolf was 13, allowed the young man to determine his own future.Two years later he moved to Vienna, scraping by with manual labor jobs tosurvive. In late 1907, his mother died. At the age of 1 8, he then applied toenter the Viennese arts academy in painting, but was diverted to architecture.He worked and studied for two more years, eventually becoming skilledenough to work fulltime as a draftsman and painter of watercolors.All the while, he studied the mass of humanity around him. He read thevarious writings and publications of the political parties. He observed theworkings of the press. He watched how unions functioned. He sat in onParliament. He followed events in neighboring Germany. And he becameintrigued by the comings and goings of one particular Viennese minority:the Jews.Gradually he became convinced that the two dominant threats toGerman well-being were Marxism-a Jewish form of communism-andthe international capitalist Jews. The problems were compounded by thefundamentally inept workings of a representative democracy that tried toserve diverse ethnicities. In the end, the fine and noble concept ofdemocracy became nothing other than a "Jewish democracy," working forthe best interests of Jews instead of Austrians or Germans.Upon turning 23 in 1912, Hitler went to Munich. It was his first extendedcontact with German culture, and he found it invigorating. He lived therefor two years, until the outbreak of WWI in July 1914. Thrilled at theopportunity to defend the German homeland, he enlisted, serving on theWestern front in Belgium. After more than 2 years of service, he was lightlywounded in October 1916 and sent back to Germany, spending some timein a reserve battalion in Munich. Appalled at both the role of Jews there andthe negative public attitude, he returned to the front in March 1917.By this time, the war had been dragging on for some two and a halfyears. It had effectively become a stalemate. Even the looming entrance ofthe Americans into the war-President Wilson would call for war the nextmonth, and US troops would soon follow-would have little near-termeffect. As Hitler explains, however, the Germans actually had reasons foroptimism by late 1917. The Central Powers (primarily Germany andAustria-Hungary) had inflicted a decisive defeat on Italy in the Battle ofCaporetto, and the Russians had pulled out of the war after the Bolshevikrevolution, thus freeing up German troops for the Western front. Hitlerrecalls that his compatriots "looked forward with confidence" to the springof 1918, when they anticipated final victory.NOVEMBER REVOLUTION, AND A NEW MOVEMENTBut things would tum out differently. German dissatisfaction with theprolonged war effort was being fanned by Jewish activists calling for massdemonstrations, strikes, and even revolution against the Kaiser. In lateJanuary 1918 there was a large munitions strike. Various workers' actionsand riots followed for months afterward. The Western front held, butGermany was weakening internally.In mid-October of 1918, the German front near Ypres, Belgium was hit withmustard gas. Hitler's eyes were badly affected, and he was sent to a militaryhospital in Pasewalk, north of Berlin. In late October, a minor naval revolt inKiel began to spread to the wider population. Two major Jewish-led parties, theSocial Democrats (SPD) and the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD),agitated for the Kaiser to abdicate-which he did, on November 9. Jewishactivists in Berlin and Munich then declared independent "soviet" states; for adetailed discussion of these events, see Dalton (2014). Germany formallycapitulated on November 11. After the dust had settled, a new 'Weimar'government was formed, one that was notably sympathetic to Jewish interests.Hearing about the revolution from his hospital bed, Hitler wasdevastated. All the effort and sacrifices made at the front had provenworthless. Jewish agitators in the homeland had succeeded in whipping uplocal dissatisfaction to the point that the Kaiser was driven from power.The revolutionaries then assumed power and immediately surrendered tothe enemy. This was the infamous "stab in the back" that would hauntGerman nationalists for years to come. And it was the triggering event thatcaused Hitler to enter politics.</blockquote>

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