Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance (Monographs in German History Book 28)

Exploring the gray zone of infiltration and subversion in which the Nazi and Communist parties sought to influence and undermine each other, this book offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between two defining ideologies of the twentieth century. The struggle between Fascism and Communism is situated within a broader conversation among right- and left-wing publicists, across the Youth Movement and in the “National Bolshevik” scene, thus revealing the existence of a discourse on revolutionary legitimacy fought according to a set of common assumptions about the qualities of the ideal revolutionary. Highlighting the importance of a masculine-militarist politics of youth revolt operative in both Marxist and anti-Marxist guises, Weimar Radicals forces us to re-think the fateful relationship between the two great ideological competitors of the Weimar Republic, while offering a challenging new interpretation of the distinctive radicalism of the interwar era. Exploring the gray zone of infiltration and subversion in which the Nazi and Communist parties sought to influence and undermine each other, this book offers a fresh perspective on the relationship between Communism and Fascism a key problem of twentieth-century German history. The struggle between Nazism and Communism is situated within a broader conversation among right and left-wing publicists, across the Youth Movement and in the National Bolshevik scene, thus revealing the existence of a discourse on revolutionary legitimacy fought according to a set of common assumptions about the qualities of the ideal revolutionary. Highlighting the importance of a masculine-militarist politics of youth revolt operative in both Marxist and anti-Marxist guises, Weimar Radicals forces us to re-think the fateful relationship between the two great ideological competitors of the Weimar Republic, while offering a challenging new interpretation of the distinctive radicalism of the interwar era. CONTENTS List of Figures Acknowledgements Abbreviations 1 The Revolt of the Masses: Populist Radicalism and the Discontents of Modernity 2 Faces of Social Militarism in the Weimar Republic 3 National Socialism and Its Discontents 4 German Communism and the Fascist Challenge 5 Between Gleichschaltung and Revolution Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index