I’m in Gdańsk, Poland, this week for an interview at the excellent Museum of the Second World War, in connection with a documentary they are producing.
The museum’s director, Dr. Karol Nawrocki, and I will discuss the following questions:
1) Why did Nazism stem from Germany and not from any other country? And why did the Germans instigate WWII?
2) Is ideology always the lynchpin for powerful systems? What about the Nazi breakthrough? Is it possible that Nietzsche’s writings helped consolidate the Nazi ideology?
3) How much do Nietzsche and the Nazis have in common? To what extent were the Nazis justified in seeing Nietzsche as a precursor to their movement?
4) In the first National Socialist program announced by Adolf Hitler, Gottfried Feder and Anton Drexler in 1920, 14 of the 25 points were connected with socialist/communist ideals. Later, in May 1927 Hitler shouted, “We are socialists, we are enemies of today’s capitalist system.” Was Hitler a really a socialist?
5) About the future: As historical trends continue, what should we be worried about in this century after two horrific world wars in the last?
Related: My 2018 lecture on “Philosophers and the Birth of National Socialism”: