Antisemitic Völkisch Nationalists: Liberalism and Socialism Were Divisive Jewish Ideologies Tearing the Nation Apart

In Germany, antisemitism and völkisch nationalism merged. Antisemitic völkisch nationalists believed that both liberalism and socialism were divisive Jewish ideologies that were tearing the nation apart. They crusaded against liberalism – laissez-faire capitalism, parliamentary democracy, and civic equality – and the individualism it spawned. They violently opposed socialism, linking it to equality, pacifism, and internationalism. To counter these ills, they posited a brave new world in which pure Germans would subordinate their personal strivings to a united Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) that embodied true German values.

--Catherine Epstein, Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths, Wiley Short Histories (Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2015), 6-7.