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Beefsteak Nazi (German: Rindersteak-Nazi),[1][2] or "Roast-beef Nazi", was a term used in Nazi Germany to describe communists and socialists who joined the Nazi Party. Munich-born American historian Konrad Heiden was one of the first to document this phenomenon in his 1936 book Hitler: A Biography, remarking that in the Sturmabteilung (Brownshirts, SA) ranks there were "large numbers of Communists and Social Democrats" and that "many of the storm troops were called 'beefsteaks' – brown outside and red within".[3] The switching of political parties was at times so common that SA men would jest that "in our storm troop there are three Nazis, but we shall soon have spewed them out".[3]
The term was particularly used to designate working class members of the SA who were aligned with Strasserism.[4] The image of these "beefsteak" individuals wearing a brown uniform, whilst having underlying "red" communist and socialist sympathies,[5] implied that their allegiance to Nazism was superficial and opportunistic.[6] After Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, beefsteak Nazis continued during the suppression of communists and socialists (represented by the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany, respectively) in the 1930s and the term was popular as early as 1933.[6]
Ernst Röhm and the Sturmabteilung
[edit]Ernst Röhm, SA co-founder and later commander, developed an "expanding Röhm-cult" within the SA ranks,[7] through which many members sought a revolutionary socialist regime, radicalizing the SA.[8] Röhm and large segments of the Nazi Party supported the 25-point National Socialist Program for its perceived socialist, revolutionary, and anti-capitalist positions, expecting Hitler to fulfill his promises when power was finally attained.[8] In the words of historians D. G. Williamson and Jean-Denis, since Röhm had "considerable sympathy with the more socialist aspects of the Nazi programme",[9] "turncoat Communists and Socialists joined the Nazi Party for a number of years, where they were derisively known as 'Beefsteak Nazis'."[10]
Röhm's radicalization came to the forefront in 1933–1934 when he sought to have his plebeian SA troopers engage in permanent or "second revolution" after Hitler had become Chancellor. With 2.5 million stormtroopers under his command by late 1933,[9] Röhm envisaged a purging of the conservative faction, the "Reaktion" in Germany that would entail more nationalization of industry, "worker control of the means of production", and the "confiscation and redistribution of property and wealth of the upper classes".[11][12] Such ideological and political infighting within the Nazi Party prompted Hitler to have his political rival Röhm and other Nazi socialist radicals executed on the Night of the Long Knives in the summer of 1934.
Some[who?] argued that since most SA members came from working-class families or were unemployed, they were amenable to Marxist-leaning socialism.[8] Historian Thomas Friedrich argues that repeated efforts by the Communist Party of Germany to appeal to the working-class backgrounds of the SA were "doomed to failure" because most SA men were focused on the cult of Hitler and the destruction of the "Marxist enemy".[13]
Extent
[edit]In some cities, the number of party-switching beefsteak Nazis was thought to be significant. Rudolf Diels, head of the Gestapo from 1933 to 1934, reported that "70 percent" of new SA recruits had been communists in the city of Berlin.[14] According to German historian Sven Reichardt, the claim made by Diels, as well as others made at the time, was most likely exaggerated.[15] Writing on the various estimates, historian Timothy S. Brown wrote:
Rudolf Diels, the first head of the Gestapo, estimated that in Berlin, 70 percent of new SA recruits after 30 January were former Communists. In some cases, wrote Diels, entire units of the RFB went over to the SA en masse. Peter Longerich has questioned Diels’s frequently cited 70 percent figure as exaggerated, and although he must certainly be right that the figure is too high, he appears himself to have erred in the other direction. According to Diels’s subordinate Gisevius, at least a third of the post-1933 SA was made up of former Communists for whom “the popular phrase… was ‘Beefsteak Nazis’ — Brown on the outside, red inside.’” A leading functionary in the KPD’s Red Sport organization gave a figure of 20 percent. The SA itself gave a figure of 55 percent. Internal SA memoranda, the surviving files of the Gestapo, and reports from the KPD’s own intelligence apparatus all contain evidence of a significant Communist presence in the SA.[16]
See also
[edit]- August Winnig
- Crypto-communism
- Ernst Niekisch
- National Bolshevism
- Old Social Democratic Party of Germany
- Widerstand (magazine)
- Paternalistic conservatism
- Sansepolcrismo
- Sorelianism
References
[edit]Notes
- ^ Küpper, Heinz (April 1966). "Appendix: Scherz-, Spott- und Hohnworte auf Personen, Einrichtungen und Sachen des Dritten Reiches". Berufsschelten und Verwandtes. Wörterbuchs der deutschen Umgangssprache (in German). Vol. 4. Hamburg, Germany: Claassen Verlag.
- ^ Steinberg, Saul, ed. (1966-06-19). "Angst-Brosche bis Zuwachs-Arier". Der Spiegel (in German). Vol. 1966, no. 26. Article 51. Archived from the original on 2022-04-22. Retrieved 2022-04-22.
Beefsteak-Nazi Parteimitglied, das sich nach außen hin zum Nationalsozialismus bekennt, aber im Innern sozialdemokratisch eingestellt ist.
- ^ a b Heiden 1938, p. 390.
- ^ Mitcham 1996, p. 120.
- ^ Green 1996, p. 342.
- ^ a b Goodfellow 1992, pp. 231–258.
- ^ Kershaw 1999, p. 503.
- ^ a b c Bendersky 2007, p. 96.
- ^ a b Williamson 2011, p. 29.
- ^ Lepage 2016, Chapter 4.
- ^ Butler 2015, p. 117.
- ^ Petropoulos 2006, p. 144.
- ^ Friedrich 2012, pp. 213, 215.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 136.
- ^ Reichardt, Sven (2002). Faschistische Kampfbünde: Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im italienischen Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA. Industrielle Welt. Köln: Böhlau. p. 524. ISBN 978-3-412-13101-2.
- ^ Brown 2009, p. 138-139.
Bibliography
- Bendersky, Joseph W. (2007). A Concise History of Nazi Germany. Lanham, Maryland and Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield.
- Brown, Timothy S. (2009). Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists Between Authenticity and Performance. New York: Berghahn Books.
- Butler, Daniel Allen (2015). Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel. Philadelphia and Oxford: Casemate Publishers.
- Friedrich, Thomas (2012). Hitler's Berlin: Abused City. Translated by Spencer, Stewart. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16670-5.
- Green, Jonathon (1996). Words Apart: The Language of Prejudice. Kyle Cathie.
- Goodfellow, Samuel (1992). "From Communism to Nazism: The transformation of Alsatian communists". Journal of Contemporary History. 27 (2): 231–258. doi:10.1177/002200949202700202.
- Heiden, Konrad (1938). Hitler: A Biography. London: Constable & Co. Ltd.
- Heiden, Konrad (2012) [1944]. Der Fuehrer. New York: NY: A Herman Graf Book—Skyhorse Publishing.
- Kershaw, Ian (1999). Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-04671-7.
- Lepage, Jean-Denis (2016). "4: Members of the NSDAP". Hitler's Stormtroopers: The SA, The Nazis' Brownshirts, 1922–1945. Frontline Books.
- MacDonogh, Giles (2009). After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-00620-5.
- Merkl, Peter H. (1975). Political Violence Under the Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-07561-7.
- Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr. (1996). Why Hitler?: The Genesis of the Nazi Reich. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-95485-4.
- Petropoulos, Jonathan (2006). Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516133-5.
- Read, Anthony (2004). The Devil's Disciples: Hitler's Inner Circle. New York and London: Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04800-1.
- Williamson, D.G. (2011). The Third Reich. Routledge.
- Williamson, David G. (2018). Williamson, David G. (ed.). The Third Reich. doi:10.4324/9781315121154. ISBN 978-1-315-12115-4.
- "HITLERITE RIOT IN BERLIN.; Beer Glasses Fly When Speaker Compares Hitler and Lenin". The New York Times. 28 November 1925. ProQuest 103467163.
