Did Hitler use the Word Nazi for his party?

Discussion in 'The Third Reich' started by TriciaF, Apr 15, 2019.

  1. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    Big argument with my husband today about this. I said he used the name National Socialists. He said Hitler did use the name Nazi.
    I know nazi is a condensation of national socialist. I think it had an earlier connotation, maybe derogatory.
     
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  2. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Good question.
    Personally, I always think of him using the full 'Nationalsozialist' or 'Deutsche Arbeiterpartei' in speeches etc. (with a lot of enunciation/emphasis/exclamation marks).
     
  3. Orwell1984

    Orwell1984 Senior Member

    Here's what wikipedia has to say:
    Nazism - Wikipedia
    nazi | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

    And I just learned something new as I never knew about the other meaning of Nazi!
     
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  4. idler

    idler GeneralList

    I'd have thought he'd have dropped the 'sozialist' having got p'd off with them trying to label him as 'right wing' all the time...

    Slightly more seriously, surely it would have been as freely used as all the other contractions of verbose compound words e.g. flak, Gestapo etc.?
     
  5. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    By the broader populous, yes, but Adolf was exceptionally careful about the power & placement of words.
    Thought I'd search a German language pdf of Mein Kampf, and there doesn't seem to be a single 'Nazi' in there, five years after the party was born/renamed & he began to properly take control of it. Though, obviously, that hinges on editions etc. (Seems to be the first 'popular' edition, though I took it ages ago from a rather stinky source...)
     
  6. TriciaF

    TriciaF Junior Member

    That's what I think, von Poop.
    My view of Hitler is that he was so proud of his national socialist party and what they were achieving (which they did) that he would never descend to giving them a lower name.
    In the 30s he had full respect and support from some of the UK royal family, and in America, many big business. Young people in other european countries joined his youth movements, So why would he want to cheapen his brand?
     
  7. Ramiles

    Ramiles Researching 9th Lancers, 24th L and SRY

    This (from 2011) : Why Hitler hated being called a Nazi and what's really in humble pie - origins of words and phrases revealed

    Has: "Nazi – an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive "Nazi""

    Also, as noted above as in: Nazism - Wikipedia

    Something else which caught my eye in there though was:

    "The first use of the term "Nazi" by the National Socialists occurred in 1926 in a publication by Joseph Goebbels called Der Nazi-Sozi ["The Nazi-Sozi"]. In Goebbels' pamphlet, the word "Nazi" only appears when linked with the word "Sozi" as an abbreviation of "National Socialism".[14]

    After the NSDAP's rise to power in the 1930s, the use of the term "Nazi" by itself or in terms such as "Nazi Germany", "Nazi regime" and so on was popularised by German exiles outside the country, but not in Germany. From them, the term spread into other languages and it was eventually brought back into Germany after World War II.
    "

    Churchill, I think, had a wonderful way of saying "Nazi" with the right sort of emphasis...

    "Winston Churchill Gives Speech on Nazi Propaganda & Uniting Against Hitler (1939) | War Archives"

    "First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill gives speech on first ten weeks of the war. Churchill speaks on the importance of the world uniting against Hitler, the strength of Britain, and the preparedness to endure the war before them."

     
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  8. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    I do not knowwhat heused in speaches, but NSDAP standsfor Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei.
    I don't think he ever used the word Nazi.
    Stefan.
     
  9. Harry Ree

    Harry Ree Very Senior Member

    The term NAZI was derived as a acronym from the first word NAtional and the second syllable of SoZIalist from the NSDAP member, National Sozialist.

    These terms were quite common in the Third Reich from the initial letters or syllables of successive parts of compound words. Geheime Staatspolizei was subject to the acronym Gestapo and while NAZI was not in the language currency internally in Germany it was soon picked up by dissidents abroad and foreigners.The word Gestapo was enough to predict terror in the minds of all who interfaced it whether it be in Germany or the occupied countries.

    Another acronym was the legal name of the NSDAP,an acronym in its own right.The acronym NSDAV was adopted from the National Sozialistischer Deutscher ArbeiterVerein

    Sufficient to say that Hitler and the NSDAP members would not use the term NAZI because the ideology was best propagated by the use and propaganda of the term National Socialism...NSDAP members were proud to be known as National Socialists.

    Interestingly WSC and others in political and military circles referred to the Third Reich as NAZIS. However in the House of Commons,the Third Reich was always referred to as "The German Government"
     
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  10. Lindele

    Lindele formerly HA96

    Harry,
    excellent summary. In the Germany of today, Nazi is probably used more frequently then during the war. often in anon-historic context.
    Stefan.
     

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