Nazism
ideology of the German Völkisch movement in the 20th century
Nazism, formally named National Socialism, is the far-right, ultranationalist, racist and totalitarian ideology associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP). It emerged in Germany during Hitler's rise to power and was frequently called Hitlerism. Nazism is a form of fascism that emphasizes pseudo-scientific theories of racial hierarchy which identify ethnic Germans and Nordic-Aryans as a master race. The term "neo-Nazism" is applied to far-right groups formed after World War II with a similar ideology.
Nazism opposes liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It advocates dictatorship, fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, anti-Slavism, anti-Romani sentiment, scientific racism, white supremacy, Nordicism, social Darwinism, homophobia, ableism, and eugenics. The Nazis sought to overcome social divisions and create a homogeneous German society based on racial purity. They aimed to unite all Germans living in historically German territory, gain lands for expansion under the doctrine of Lebensraum, and exclude those deemed either Community Aliens or "inferior" races (Untermenschen).
The term "National Socialism" arose from attempts to create a nationalist alternative to Marxist socialism and free-market capitalism. Nazism rejected Marxist concepts of class conflict and universal equality, opposed cosmopolitan internationalism, and sought to convince the social classes in German society to subordinate their interests to the "common good".
“Nazism” enters the record as ideology of the German Völkisch movement in the 20th century. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nazism, ideology and German can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Nazism” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Nazism, ideology and German provides the most credible route into that argument.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7310. The Library of Congress control number is sh85090131. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nazism” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.