National Socialism: Its Foundations, Development, and Goals

Rudolf Jung’s National Socialism: Its Foundations, Development, and Goals (first published in the early 1920s) is written as both a manifesto and a historical justification for the movement he helped shape before Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Jung begins by tracing what he sees as the intellectual and social roots of National Socialism. He situates it as a response to the political fragmentation, economic dislocation, and class antagonisms of the late Austro‑Hungarian Empire and post‑World War I German‑speaking world. In his telling, the movement emerges from the experiences of German workers who, disillusioned with Marxist socialism’s internationalism, sought a doctrine that combined social reform with a strong national identity. The “foundations” section lays out his core principles: the primacy of the nation as an organic community; the rejection of both laissez‑faire capitalism and orthodox Marxism; the belief that the state should coordinate economic life in the interest of the whole people; and the insistence on cultural and ethnic cohesion as the basis for political stability. Jung frames these ideas as a “third way” meant to transcend class struggle by uniting workers, farmers, and the middle class under a shared national purpose. In the “development” portion, he recounts the early organizational efforts in Bohemia and Austria, the formation of workers’ associations, and the adoption of the term “National Socialist.” He emphasizes the role of propaganda, public meetings, and programmatic statements in building a coherent movement, and he presents these as deliberate steps toward a mass political force. The final “goals” section projects a future in which the state actively shapes the economy, education, and culture to serve the national interest. Jung envisions a corporatist structure in which occupational groups cooperate under state guidance, foreign policy is directed toward securing resources and protecting ethnic Germans abroad, and political life is purged of what he portrays as divisive or alien influences.