Why Hitler? (New Prespectives in History)

The editor's primary purpose here is to present a collection of data with evaluations, and judgments to enable readers to decide how this phenomenon came to be. Mr. Simpson states that the German people established Hitler and the Nazis in power through conscious action and inaction. Here is an evaluation from an excerpt chosen of Fromm’s book Escape from “Nazism is a psychological problem, it has to be understood how these socio-economic were molded; Nazism is an economic and political problem, but the hold it has over a people has to do be understood on a psychological grounds…The answer to the question why the Nazi ideology was so appealing to the lower middle class has to be sought in the social character of this class. It is different from that of the middle class, and of the nobility before the war of 1914. This character does not imply that is was not present in the working class also, but it was typical and only a minority of the working class exhibited the character of love of the strong, hatred of the weak, pettiness, hostility, thriftiness with feelings as well as with money. Their outlook on life was narrow, they suspected and hated the stranger, and they were curious and envious of their acquaintances, rationalizing their envy as moral indignation; their whole life was based on the principle of scarcity—economically as well as psychologically. This projection is apparent in Hitler’s development. He was the representative of the lower middle class a nobody without chances. He felt very intensely the role of being an outcast. He speaks in Mein Kampf of himself as the “nobody.” Although this was due to his social position, he rationalized it in national symbols. Being born outside the Reich he felt excluded not so much socially as nationally, and the great German Reich to which all her sons could return became for him the symbol of social prestige and security.” A very interesting and thought provoking read.