You're making the mistake of associating an organisation, or a person within an organisation using some socialist elements in their policy and jumping to the conclusion that that was their entire manifesto.
After WWI the majority of political movements adopted some elements of socialist ideals, because of the rise of working class left-wing ideology throughout Europe. Even German conservative movements adopted some socialist ideals. The reason being a majority of the German population was disillusioned with the old power base that had led Germany into a devastating war and were wanting something different. Other countries also had right wing and traditional conservative political entities use elements of Socialism as part of their attempts to woo the public as well.
You have to remember that a lot of social changes were promised to working class people during WWI, especially in Britain and Germany. Many of them never materialised.
But, this doesn't mean that those parties were "left-wing", or even "socialist". It isn't as simplistic as that.
The German Workers Party, indeed, started off as a (semi) "socialist" party, but mainly drew its core from conservative WWI veterans. Groups such as the Freikorps and other right wing conservative and nationalist movements were drawn to what the party had to say as unemployment was extremely rife in Germany at the time, Socialist musings on that particular issue began to make much sense to many people, regardless of where their political compass pointed. The leader of the party, Anton Drexler, professed anti-monarchist and anti-Marxist views and this appealed to many unemployed Germans of both political wings at the time. Drexler generally assumed the contemporary nationalist positions and was fiercely opposed to the rising Communist and left-wing movements of European politics at the time.
It was this version of the party that Hitler, as a right wing nationalist, was sent to investigate by his army regiment in September 1919.
He later joined in October, after finding himself in agreement with the views of Drexler.
In actual fact, the German Workers Party was little more than a sounding off club for disenfranchised and disgruntled, unemployed Germans. There was no real leadership, no organisation, no proper direction. This appealed to Hitler, as he'd rejected politics, both left and right, up to that stage. Here, he saw the opportunity to create his own political movement, free of the constructs and restraints of the limited political views espoused by traditional left and right organisations. Hitler quickly started to direct the party's momentum and after he achieved leadership and formed the National Socialist German Workers Party, changed the party's make up from a disorganised group of largely aimless individuals into a new nationalist concern with a serious view to power, vehemently opposed to American style capitalism and Russian style communism with a complete hatred of the Marxist groups within Germany that had looked like they were on the verge of a Russian style revolution in the wake of WWI. This further increased the appeal of the nazis to traditional German conservatives and centrists, as they greatly feared this scenario. In fact the largest voter group of the nazis were middle class conservatives, who had lost everything in the post war period.
You are making the assumption that because the nazis don't conform to the modern style conservative outlook (which has little, to no bearing on the politics of the early 20th Century), that they were left wing and while it may go some way to salving your limited political bubble, it doesn't make you any less wrong.
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Originally Posted by SBEADER
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