Führerprinzip
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The Führerprinzip, the German name for the leader principle, refers to a system with a hierarchy of leaders that resembles a military structure. This principle was applied to civil society at large in Nazi Germany. Like Führer, Führerprinzip should be spelled Fuehrerprinzip, but not Fuhrerprinzip if no umlaut can be used.
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[edit] Ideology
The concept of the Führerprinzip came to prominence under the Nazi regime. However, it was not invented by the Nazis.
There were essentially three sources for the Führerprinzip, the first being the Hegelian idea of the State. This was devised during the Napoleonic wars by the German philosopher Hegel and is best expressed by the summary of it put forward by Giovanni Gentile, the Italian philosopher and ideologist of Fascism. He said 'nothing above the State, nothing against the State, nothing outside the State.' 1)2)
The second source was the Superman (Übermensch) concept put forward by the German philosopher Nietzsche. Nietzche's ideas were grossly distorted both by the Nazis and by Nietzsche's own sister, an enthusiastic Pan-German. 3)4)
The final and most immediate source, and the first to actually use the term Führerprinzip was the German philosopher Count Hermann Graf Keyserling, founder of the School of Wisdom at Darmstadt. His work was astonishingly influential during the 1930s and 1940s, not only in Germany. He recommended that Europeans should adopt something resembling the Hindu caste system. It was, however, Keyserling's claim that certain 'gifted individuals' were 'born to rule', not on the basis of birth or class but of 'the laws of nature', which made his ideas so appealing to the meritocratic instincts of Hitler and his regime. Keyserling, like Nietzsche and Hegel, was caricatured by the Nazis, but his invention of the Führerprinzip and use of those exact words to describe it, was profoundly influential. It enabled Hitler and his movement to assimilate their Social Darwinism prejudices with Keyserling's more intellectual form of elitism.5) 6) 7)
The ideology of the Führerprinzip sees each organization as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him and answers only to his superiors. The supreme leader, Adolf Hitler, answered to no one. Giorgio Agamben has argued that Hitler saw himself as an incarnation of auctoritas, and as the living law itself. The Führerprinzip paralleled the functionality of military organizations, which continue to use a similar authority structure today. The justification for the civil use of the Führerprinzip was that unquestioning obedience to superiors supposedly produced order and prosperity in which those deemed 'worthy' would share.
This principle became the law of the Nazi party and the SS and was later transferred onto the whole German totalitarian society. Appointed mayors replaced elected local governments. The Nazis suppressed associations and unions with elected leaders, putting in their place mandatory associations with appointed leaders. The authorities allowed private corporations to keep their internal organization, but with a simple renaming from hierarchy to Führerprinzip. In practice, the selection of unsuitable candidates often led to micromanagement and commonly to an inability to formulate coherent policy. Albert Speer noted that many Nazi officials dreaded making decisions in Hitler's absence. Rules tended to become verbal rather than written; leaders with initiative who flouted regulations and carved out their own spheres of influence might receive praise and promotion rather than censure.
References:
1) Giovanni Gentile. Il fascismo al governo della scualla.
2) Benito Mussolini. The Political and Economic Doctrine of Fascism.
3) Friedrich Nietzsche. The Will to Power.
4) Carol Diethe. Nietzsche's sister and 'The Will to Power.' University of Illonois Press.
5) Count Hermann Keyserling's most influential works were: The Travel Diary of a Philosopher; The Art of Life; Creative Understanding; The Recovery of Truth; and 'Europe.'
6) Hedwig Conrad-Martius. Utopien der Menschenzuchtung: Der Socialdarwinismus und seine Folgen, Kosel Verlag, 1955
7) Michael FitzGerald. Adolf Hitler: A Portrait. Spellmount, 2006
[edit] Application
During the post-war Nuremberg Trials, Nazi war criminals – and, later, Adolf Eichmann – attempted to use the Führerprinzip as a means to evade responsibility for war crimes: "I only did what I was told". Eichmann explicitly declared having abandoned his conscience in order to "do his job" and follow the orders. In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt concluded that, aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the "banality of evil", as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality, displaying neither guilt nor hatred, denying any form of responsibility. Eichmann argued he was simply "doing his job", which was supposed to be in accordance with Kant's categorical imperative. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and different from common people. (Many concluded from this and similar observations that even the most ordinary of people can commit horrendous crimes if placed in the right situation, and given the correct incentives, but Arendt disagreed with this interpretation – as Eichmann justified himself with the Führerprinzip. Arendt argued that children obey, while adults adhere to an ideology).
[edit] See also
- Führer
- Adolf Hitler
- World War II
- Functionalism versus intentionalism historian debate
- Obedience to Authority Study
