Pluralities of National Socialist Ideology

Abstract

This chapter suggests a new model for analysing National Socialist ideology or Weltanschauung, which is key to understanding the impact of the Volksgemeinschaft concept. Inspired by Pierre Bourdieu, it understands National Socialist ideology as a loosely defined set of concepts and ideas, coexistent and competing with each other in a field of cultural production. The limits of what could still legitimately be regarded as National Socialist were not just defined by those active in the field but were also controlled by official institutions and political leaders. The chapter then scrutinizes the relationship between National Socialist ideology and other political languages circulating in the Germany of the 1930s and early 1940s. Finally, with the example of party political training, it discusses how, typically, National Socialist ideas were generated and widely diffused.