Agent theory

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As agent theory is mostly negative connotation , the Marxist-Leninist theory of fascism called, after Adolf Hitler and his closest followers essentially agents or puppets of big industry and of finance capital should have been. It is also known as a conspiracy theory. According to the opinion prevailing in historical studies today , however, the intentions of industrialists only played a subordinate role in the complex processes that led to the Nazis' seizure of power . The Nazi state was not determined by the will of these industrialists, but Hitler acted autonomously and under his own responsibility.

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A central component of the "agent theory" - a term that the proponents of this theory themselves reject - is Georgi Dimitrov's definition of fascism , which he presented in July 1935 at the VII World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow , according to which " fascism in power [ ...] the open, terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinist, most imperialist elements of finance capital ”.

Proceeding from the theory of the class struggle as the basis of capitalist society, fascism was understood as the aggressive response of the ruling class to the October Revolution and as a weapon or instrument of struggle of the bourgeoisie against the rising labor movement and as a means of waging an imperialist war to annihilate the Soviet Union and gain it of world domination . Under fascism, the financial oligarchy merges with state power and surrenders the state to finance capital .

Often this theory is also connected with the accusation that British, French and above all American capital with their loans ( Dawes Plan ) only built up the German armaments potential and promoted fascism during the time of the Weimar Republic and its appeasement policy , to use Germany as a spearhead against the Soviet Union. For the Soviet researcher AJ Kunina, it was “essentially American funds that financed Hitler”. It was also alleged that many of these companies belonged to " Zionist capital," that is, Jewish donors.

The most important justification of the theory is the connection between large-scale industry and the rise of the NSDAP before 1933, in particular the claim that big business helped the NSDAP to power through the input of industrialists and the high financial support from the Keppler circle, the later Freundeskreis Reichsführer SS . Historians from the GDR such as Kurt Gossweiler , Eberhard Czichon and Wolfgang Ruge had discussed this and Papen's meeting with Hitler in the house of the banker Schröder in several publications.

An extension of this fascism theory is the monopoly group theory, according to which the so-called capitalist class is not understood as a monolithic block, but as consisting of competing groups fighting for influence on the fascist movement or the fascist state.

Related terms

In a generalized understanding of the term, agent theory can be understood as a derogatory term for interpretations of socio-political conflicts, with which a disorder is attributed solely or mainly to measures taken by individuals or groups, thus ignoring structural reasons and framework conditions. In this sense, the term is used to denote the interpretation of the uprising of June 17, 1953 by the SED regime . After that it was not a workers' or popular uprising, but a "fascist coup attempt ", which would have been controlled by imperialist powers from outside the GDR.

As agency theory each is Marxist -inspired theory of the state understood in the modern bourgeois state is being exploited by the economic ruling class for their purposes, that is nothing other than the agent.

criticism

From the Marxist side it can be argued against any agent theory that it ignores the dialectic of base and superstructure , which plays a central role in Karl Marx's state thinking . The latter regarded the relative autonomy of the state from all classes as a necessary condition for the maintenance of capitalist relations of production and the political-ideological hegemony of capital.

In non-Marxist research, the agent theory and its extensions are rejected as explanations of National Socialism . In particular, since the research of the American historian Henry Ashby Turner , it has been denied that large-scale industry or notable representatives of it had generously financed the NSDAP before 1933. In addition, they are accused of reducing the complex and contradicting processes that led to Hitler's seizure of power to a “ monocausal act of purchase”. The German historian Gerd Koenen and the American political scientist Daniel Pipes therefore call the agent theory the conspiracy theory. The historian Wolfgang Wippermann also sees the image of fascism in the East as “charged with conspiracy ideology”.

Added to this is the poor explanatory power of the agent theory, with which the Holocaust in particular cannot be explained. According to Wippermann, the factor of Hitler's personality must be given a significant role in the decision-making of the Nazi regime and the primacy of politics over economy should be assumed. However, both are denied by the representatives of the agent theory.

literature

  • Eike Hennig : Industry and Fascism. Notes on the Soviet-Marxist interpretation . In: Neue Politische Literatur 15 (1970), pp. 433–449.
  • Gerd Koenen : Marxism-Leninism as a universal conspiracy theory . In: Die neue Gesellschaft / Frankfurter Hefte H. 2, 1999, ZDB -ID 1045750-1 , pp. 127-132.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tim Peters: The anti-fascism of the PDS from an anti-extremist point of view . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2007, p. 27.
  2. ^ Georgi Dimitrov: The offensive of fascism and the tasks of the Communist International. Report at the VII. World Congress of the Comintern, August 2, 1935. In: same: Selected Works . Fremdsprachverlag Sofia, 1960, p. 94. online at marxists.org, accessed February 27, 2009; also on the following see Eberhard Kolb : The Weimar Republic . 2nd edition, Oldenbourg, Munich 1988, p. 211 f.
  3. ↑ Manfred Buhr, Alfred Kosing: Small dictionary of Marxist-Leninist philosophy . Opladen 1979, p. 111.
  4. ↑ AJ Kunina: The True Face of American Imperialism. Dietz, Berlin (East) 1954, p. 73.
  5. ↑ So z. B. Andrej Gromyko : The external expansion of capital. Past and present . Dietz, Berlin (East) 1984, p. 153.
  6. ^ Kurt Gossweiler: Big banks, industrial monopolies and the state. Economics and Politics of State Monopoly Capitalism in Germany 1914–1932 . Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin (East) 1971.
  7. ↑ Eberhard Czichon: Who helped Hitler to power? On the share of German industry in the destruction of the Weimar Republic. Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1967.
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Ruge: The end of Weimar. Monopoly capital and Hitler. Dietz, Berlin (East) 1983.
  9. ↑ Reinhard Neebe: Big Industry, State and NSDAP 1930-1933. Paul Silverberg and the Reich Association of German Industry in the Crisis of the Weimar Republic (= critical studies on historical science. Volume 45). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1981, p. 11 ff .; Wolfgang Wippermann: Theories of fascism. On the status of the current discussion . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989, p. 60 f.
  10. ↑ Werner Fuchs-Heinritz (Ed.): Lexicon for Sociology . 5th edition, Springer-VS, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 19.
  11. ↑ Martin Krämer: The popular uprising of June 17, 1953 and its political echo in the Federal Republic of Germany . Brockmeyer, Bochum, 1996, p. 157; Bernd Eisenfeld , Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk and Ehrhart Neubert: The suppressed revolution. The place of June 17, 1953 in German history. Analyzes and documents . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, p. 26.
  12. ↑ Josef Esser : Agency theory . In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Lexicon of Politics, Volume 7: Political Terms. Directmedia, Berlin 2004, p. 25.
  13. ↑ Josef Esser: Agency theory . In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Lexicon of Politics, Volume 7: Political Terms. Directmedia, Berlin 2004, p. 25.
  14. ^ Wolfgang Wippermann: Theories of fascism. On the status of the current discussion . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989, p. 60 f.
  15. ↑ Eike Hennig : Industry and Fascism. Notes on the Soviet-Marxist interpretation . In: Neue Politische Literatur 15 (1970), p. 439.
  16. ↑ Wolfgang Wippermann: Agents of Evil, Conspiracy Theories from Luther to Today . Berlin 2007, p. 102.
  17. ^ Wolfgang Wippermann: Controversies about Hitler. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 63 f.