Is Naziismthe FinalStageof Capitalism? 141Hitlera Puppetof Germany’s Big Businesses?
Thehistoricalfactsgo unlearnedby the culturalmainstreamfor variousreasons.
Amongthemis thatleft-winggovernistintellectualshavesuccessfullyimplantedthis
irrationalsyllogisminto the mindsof collegians:
Unregulatedcapitalismgaverise to big business.
Big businessgaverise to Hitler.
Therefore,unregulatedcapitalismgaverise to Hitler.HistorianJoachimFestfindshimselfwearyof this anti-capitalistmyth.He lamentsthe
triteployto portrayDer Führer“as the ‘hireling’ or ‘sword-arm’ of capitalism.. .” As the
storygoes,Hitler’s militaristicconquestssomehow“carriedout the expansionistaimsof
his employers.”^72 Amongthe legionswhoadvancethis falseview,PulitzerPrize-winning
JohnsHopkinsUniversityinstructorWayneBiddlerelates,“TheNationalSocialistshad
madetheirbreakthrough... to mainstreamas a pettybourgeois” socialmovement“aided
by ultranationalistandconservativeestablishmentcirclesandantiunionbusinesslead-
ers.”^73
Despiteits havingsomevirtuesin exposingthe socialistelementsof the ThirdReich,
WilliamL. Shirer’sRiseand Fall of the ThirdReichhas partiallycontributedto this false
interpretation.The bookmakesa big dealout of particularindustrialistssupportingAdolf
Hitler,andthenconveysthe inaccurateimpressionthatsupportfor Hitler’s policiesis
somehowinherentto the natureof big business.Shirerobservesthatamongthe industri-
aliststo endorseHitlerpubliclyin the early1930sweresteelmagnateFritzThyssen,coal
tycoonEmilKirdorf,and the UnitedSteelWorks’ AlbertVögler.In fact,Shirergivesquite
a longlist of big-businessNazis.^74 Yet thesemendid not representthe majorityof busi-
nessinterestsin Germanyin the late 1920sor early1930s.Additionally,big business’s
financialcontributionsto the NaziPartyin the firstyearsof Hitler’s ruleshouldbe put
into perspective.Helpfulin the matteris the Universityof SheffieldhistorianIan Kershaw
(b. 1943).In Kershaw’s words,the anti-marketapparatchikscaricatureHitleras “an agent
of capitalism,a cypherfor the interestsof big businessand its leaderswhocontrolledhim
andpulledthe stringsof theirmarionette.”^75 W. E. B. Du Boislevelsthatsortof asinine
accusationaboutcapitalismcausingNaziism.^76 Andthe intervieweesof thatgovernist
propagandadocumentaryI mentionedin BookTwo—The Corporation:The Pathological
Pursuitof Profitand Power—alsodo theirbestto disseminatethesemisconceptions.In this
2003 filmBostonUniversity’s HowardZinn,authorofA People’s Historyof the United
States, comments,“Thereis an interestingconnectionbetweenthe rise of fascismin Eu-
ropeand... corporatepower.... therewas a recognitionthat fascismrosein Europewith
the helpof enormouscorporations.”^77 Yet anotherone of the movie’s interviewees,Noam
Chomsky,secondsthatwhenAdolfacquiredthe chancellorship,“investmentshotup in
Germany.”^78
ThecanardaboutNaziismbeingthe spawnof Lockeanismis fallaciouson multiple
counts.First,to the extentthata privatecompanylobbiesfor—andprofitsfrom—any
spoliation a State commits, sucha company’s supportfor governmental spoliation
amountsto an indiscretionwhollyirreconcilablewithlaissezfaire.Secondly,historians
whohavestudiedthe fundingsourcesfor Hitler’s politicalcampaignsdiscernthatGer-
many’s big businessesprovidedrelativelylittlecapitalto Hitlerand the NaziPartyprior
to Hitler’s attainmentof his dictatorial status.JoachimFestfaultsthe anti-capitalist
“schoolof thought.. .” Whenthe anti-capitalistwriterEehardCzichonsaysthatbig
businesses“manipulated” the Nazis,Festobjects.Thosewhohaveoptedto categorizethe
Führer“as conservative,reactionary,capitalistic,or pettybourgeois,” saysFest,did not
anddo not “comprehendhim.”^79 Dr. Kershawclarifiesthat“the viewof the Left” that