Nazi Germany

From Imperial Wiki
Revision as of 12:32, 3 February 2012 by Ted C (talk | contribs) (→‎See also)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Kirk undercover on the Nazi Planet

Nazi Germany refers to Germany under the fascist dictatorship of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, circa 1933-1945. The Nazi Regime was defeated by the combined efforts of the Allied Nations (most notably the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, The British Empire, and United States of America) during the second world war

The Nazi military serves as source material for the Star Trek episode "Patterns of Force".

Beliefs and Ideology

National Socialist ideology (clearly explained in Adolf Hitler's book, Mein Kampf) was highly racist, dividing up the world's population up into a strict hierarchy of races. At the top were the Aryans (Western Europeans), beneath whom were the Slavs, Asians and Blacks, who they believed to be mentally inferior to Aryans and were to be used as slaves. Beneath them were the Jews, whom they believed were a racial group in which every member, from birth to death, acted to control the world and bring misery upon the Aryans and must be destroyed. It was also Social Darwinist, believing that weakness needed to be bred out using Eugenics and Homophobic.

The Nazis believed that they were to push East and carve out an Empire out of Russia to be colonized by Germans. Their move to do so failed.

Use of Nazi Aesthetics in Science Fiction

The Nazis have a number of iconic images associated to them, including their insignia, uniforms, rallies and architecture. Hitler himself took a keen interest in such matters. These aesthetics are often represented in science fiction to denote villain status or to represent fascist qualities. Among these are...

Use of Nazism in Debate

For its obvious evils, Nazism is nearly universally reviled. This fact is often used in debates, sometimes figuratively and sometimes as a cheap ploy to gain the upper hand. Uses include accusing a person that has political ideologies they find objectionable of Nazism, even when the ideology is antithetical to Nazi ideas and denounced by the Nazi party. A similar ploy is "reductio ad Hitlerum", in which someone misuses the fact that an opponent shares some tendencies or viewpoints with Hitler or the Nazi party. The flaw is that not everything the Nazis believed in was evil; for example, Hitler owned a Dog and loved his mother: this does not make dogs or mothers evil.

See also