“Deutscher Sozialismus”
The idea of a specifically German socialism, “Deutscher Sozialismus”, has its roots in German philosophy and social theory, especially that of Lorenz von Stein (Vogel 1925). Stein’s idealistic version defines socialism by the ethical relationship between the individual and society, conceived either as Volk (people), or state.
German socialism rejected Marxist and other “materialist” approaches. There is a romanticist current in German socialism which admired the spirit of corporatism which permeates the urban societies of the Middle Ages.An extreme idealistic, non-economic version of socialism was presented under the impression of Germany’s defeat in World War I by Oswald Spengler with his Prussian socialism (Preuβentum und Sozialismus, 1919 [1932]). Spengler’s concept of socialism rested on the idea of an identity of state and people. Whereas in Britain - and also in Marxist thinking - the state in its essential meaning does not appear, the Prussian state is essentially a socialist state since it represents the whole people, with all social formations within the population being integral parts of the state. In the Prussian socialist state, labour is not a commodity but a social duty, wages are impartially set by the state, not by bargaining between trade unions and employers, rivalry between political parties of the type of British parliamentary democracy is alien to German socialism (Spengler 1919 [1932]: 80 ff.).
Sombart’s concept of Deutscher Sozialismus (1934) was rejected by the Nazis mainly due to its anti-industrialist, anti-modern-growth orientation. Efforts from the side of academic economists to further elaborate German socialism as a basis of National-socialist economic and social policies were more or less neglected. Most academic sympathizers of Nazi Germany tried to play down the socialist element in the economic policy of the Nazi state (Hausmann 2011: 840-72).