Führerprinzip
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The Führerprinzip , German 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
Adolf Hitler claimed he was the incarnation of the Führerprinzip.[citation needed] The concept of the Führerprinzip came to prominence under the Nazi regime. However, it was not invented by the Nazis.
Some allege that Hermann Graf Keyserling, founder of the School of Wisdom at Darmstadt, was the first to use the term "Führerprinzip". His work was unquestionably very influential during the 1920s and 1930s, not only in Germany, but throughout the world, including the United States, where several of his books on philosophy were best sellers. One of Keyserling's claims, but hardly the central tenet of his work, was that certain 'gifted individuals' were 'born to rule', not on the basis of heredity or class, but on the basis of 'the laws of nature'. Keyserling here merely restated a central theme in Western culture of Philosopher Kings, that can be traced back to the work of Plato, The Republic, with its classes of "gold" "silver" and "iron". Although some Nazis may have co-opted his use of the term "Führerprinzip" and misapplied one of his ideas, Keyserling himself opposed the Nazis and despised their leaders. In return he was severely persecuted by the Nazis, but was not killed, primarily because of his support among the aristocracy, and the fact that he was married to one of Bismarck's daughters. Still, the Nazis closed his School of Wisdom and took his property, and he lived in poverty and great hardship until his death near the end of the War. At that time his son, Arnold Keyserling, reopened the School of Wisdom in Austria. 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.' [1] [2]
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. (See also Kant's What is Enlightenment?, where the argument for obedience against consciousness is made explicit.) 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
[edit] See also
- Führer
- Adolf Hitler
- World War II
- Functionalism versus intentionalism historian debate
- Obedience to Authority Study
- Charisma
- Cult of personality
- Unitary executive theory
