Atlas / Comparisons / Classical Marxism vs National Socialism
Classical Marxism and National Socialism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposite ends of the recorded space. They agree within three points on CH. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Scientific socialism | NSDAP | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | +02 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −06 | +09 | 15 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +02 | +10 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +04 | +09 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −09 | +10 | 19 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +08 | +09 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
Scientific socialism · EC −10
At the floor: abolition of private property in the means of production.
- Programme textThe Manifesto states the theory of the communists in a single sentence: abolition of private property.
NSDAP · EC +02
Ownership stayed private and was pushed further private, while allocation was directed by the state for rearmament. That combination sits just right of the midpoint, not at either pole.
- Programme textThe 1920 twenty-five point programme demanded nationalisation of trusts, profit-sharing and land expropriation without compensation.
- Documented act or statuteHitler declared the programme unalterable in 1926 and none of its collectivist points were enacted.
Scientific socialism · CU −06
Coded −6: the bourgeois family, religion and nationality all treated as historically transient.
- Programme textThe Manifesto answers the charge of abolishing the family and of abolishing countries by accepting both.
NSDAP · CU +09
Social order was to be reconstituted on racial hierarchy, with women's role restricted by policy and all autonomous civil association dissolved.
- Documented act or statuteMarried women were pushed out of the professions from 1933 and awarded the Mother's Cross for childbearing from 1938.
- Documented act or statuteYouth, professional and leisure organisations were merged into party bodies under the Gleichschaltung laws of 1933–34.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Classical Marxism
1848–1914 · Germany, Europe
History driven by class struggle; capitalism generates its own gravediggers; proletarian revolution abolishes classes and eventually the state.
National Socialism
1920–1945 · Germany
A racially defined national community, hierarchy by blood, conquest of living space, extermination of designated enemies.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
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