Introduction.

The Nazis. The very name conjures up images of the Second World War and the Final Solution. How did a party such as this come to rule Germany is a question asked by many. Fewer however ask where did the Nazis find their ideas and their roots. The aim of this dissertation is to trace the major strands of what became Nazi ideology, to see where they came from and how they developed.

To do this we have to begin by looking back almost one hundred and twenty years before the Nazis came into existence with the beginnings of the Völkish movement. From there we trace the main strands of nationalist nineteenth century philosophy and see how it was used, and distorted, by the Nazis to achieve their own unique world vision.

However, in this dissertation we deal only with the main strands, for to attempt to deal with all of them would be a titanic task. It is also worth remembering that we should not always see the philosophies of former times as leading inevitably to the Nazis, but rather judge them in the light of their own time.