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.
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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.
Hermann Graf Keyserling, founder of the School of Wisdom at Darmstadt, was the first to use the term "Führerprinzip". 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 Darwinist prejudices with Keyserling's more intellectual form of elitism. [1] [2] [3]
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.
[edit] Application
During the post-war Nuremberg Trials, Nazi war criminals – and, later, Adolf Eichmann during his trial in Israel- 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 (Milgram experiment) 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] References
- ^ 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.'
- ^ Hedwig Conrad-Martius. Utopien der Menschenzuchtung: Der Socialdarwinismus und seine Folgen, Kosel Verlag, 1955
- ^ Michael FitzGerald. Adolf Hitler: A Portrait. Spellmount, 2006
[edit] See also
- Führer
- Adolf Hitler
- World War II
- Functionalism versus intentionalism historian debate
- Obedience to Authority Study
- Charisma
