Hey,
I've been traipsing through
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich for a few chapters, and Shirer has me a bit confused with respect to the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
Shirer recounts that the Nazi party ran on a platform which relied heavily on putting the blame for the despised Weimar Republic on the German Social Democrat Party and on declaiming the GSDP in its entirety.
First of all, what is socialist about a party which forms a republic? Is the notion that socialism traditionally doesn't involve much autonomy in my mind a serious misconception?
Secondly, how did Hitler and his cronies debase the GSDP whilst pushing their own similarly-socialist agenda? For God's sake, "Social" and "Socialist" are in each name...How different could they be?
These questions will almost certainly be answered as I read a bit more into the book, but I figured why not give someone here who knows the answer a chance to use their precious knowledge.
