The Hitler Swarm

Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology 117 (2013), 68-88

28 Pages Posted: 30 Aug 2011 Last revised: 9 Aug 2013

See all articles by Dirk Baecker

Dirk Baecker

Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen

Date Written: August 30, 2011

Abstract

Explaining the seizure of power by the National Socialist Party and the totalitarian workings of the Nazi regime in the Third Reich is still difficult not only with respect to the atrocities committed but also to understanding whether the German population and society had to be terrorized into complying with the regime or were part and parcel of it. The paper introduces a notion of swarm to advance the idea that the German population was terrorized into a deliberate compliance with the regime. The notion of swarm is sociologically controlled by a complementary notion of form, which serves to reconstruct and model the social calculus realized by the swarm to differentiate and reproduce itself inside a complex society. The data we use are the results of historical research done in the last sixty years.

Keywords: fascism, form, modern society, Nazi Germany, swarm, Third Reich

Suggested Citation

Baecker, Dirk, The Hitler Swarm (August 30, 2011). Thesis Eleven: Critical Theory and Historical Sociology 117 (2013), 68-88, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1919472 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1919472

Dirk Baecker (Contact Author)

Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen ( email )

Am Seemooser Horn 20
Friedrichshafen, 88045
Germany

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