Behemoth: The Structure and Practice of National Socialism, 1933–1944
By Franz Neumann
With a new introduction by Peter Hayes
“Behemoth…inspired what became [Raul Hilberg’s] The Destruction of the European Jews, the monumental work… that ultimately emerged as the foundational text for the study of the Holocaust.”
— from the introduction by Peter Hayes
Franz Neumann’s classic account of the workings of Nazi Germany, first published in 1942 and expanded in 1944, was immediately recognized as a groundbreaking investigation. To this day the book has remained a stimulus to inquiry and debate. “The provocative and controversial central argument, Peter Hayes writes in his introduction, is that the Third Reich neither expressed a consistent ideology nor possessed a coherent structure.”
Neumann was one of the only early Frankfurt School thinkers to examine seriously the problem of political institutions. After the Nazis’ rise to power, his emphasis shifted to an analysis of economic power, and then after the war to political psychology. His insights into the structure of the Nazi state have to some extent been eclipsed by their own success: subsequent research on the Nazi period has tended to absorb the lessons of Neumann’s study while often losing sight of their subtlety and originality. He suggested that the Nazi organization of society involved the collapse of traditional ideas of the state, of ideology, of law, and even of any underlying rationality. The book is so important that it must be “studied, not simply read,” Raul Hilberg wrote. “The most experienced researchers will tell us that the scarcest commodity in academic life is an original idea. If someone has two or three, he is rich. Franz Neumann was a rich man.”
Peter Hayes’ introduction offers biographical background on Neumann and sets his book in the context of studies of Nazism, pointing out its shortcomings as well as its accomplishments.
“Audacious….Startling….What a discussion, what a conclusion!”
— Raul Hilberg in “The Relevance of Behemoth Today”, Constellations
“[A] masterpiece….Neumann’s assumptions concerning the functions of violence for Nazi Germany have been the basis for all historical research on this regime.”
— Armin Nolzen, Yad Vashem Studies (2003)
“The most penetrating and informative study of German national socialism, by an eminent scholar.”
— Hajo Holborn, The American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical Literature
“To unravel and set out the confusing tangle of public and semi-public institutions is in itself an achievement….Professor Laski hardly puts it too highly when he calls it ‘the ablest study of the Nazi system at work.’”
— The Manchester Guardian
“At once a definitive analysis…and a basic contribution to the social sciences.”
— C. Wright Mills, Partisan Review
“Listed, by the [London] Times Literary Supplement, among “The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the War””
Selected by History Book Club and Military Book Club
Table of Contents
Introduction by Peter Hayes
vii
Preface to the Second Edition
xxi
THE COLLAPSE OF THE WEIMAR REPUBLIC
3
2.
The Structure of the Weimar Democracy
8
4.
The Decline of Organized Labor
17
5.
The Counter-Revolution
20
6.
The Collapse of the Democracy
29
7.
A Tentative Summary
33
THE POLITICAL PATTERN OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM
Introductory Remarks on the Value of National Socialist Ideology
37
I.
THE TOTALITARIAN STATE
41
1.
The Techniques of Anti-Democratic Constitutional Thought
41
2.
The Totalitarian State
47
3.
The Synchronization of Political Life
51
4.
The Totalitarian State in the War
56
II.
THE REVOLT OF THE PARTY AND THE ‘MOVEMENT’ STATE
62
1.
The Ideological Protest against the Totalitarian State
62
2.
The Tripartite State
65
3.
The Party and the State
66
4.
The S.S. and the Hitler Youth
69
5.
The Party and the Other Services
71
6.
Party and State in Italy
75
7.
The Rational Bureaucracy
77
8.
The Party as a Machine
80
III.
THE CHARISMATIC LEADER IN THE LEADERSHIP STATE
83
1.
The Constitutional Function of the Leader
83
3.
The Thaumaturgic Kings
92
4.
The Psychology of Charisma
95
IV.
THE RACIAL PEOPLE, THE SOURCE OF CHARISMA
98
3.
Anti-Semitic Theories
108
4.
Blood Purification and Anti-Jewish Legislation
111
5.
Aryanization of Jewish Property
116
6.
The Philosophy of Anti-Semitism
120
V.
THE GROSSDEUTSCHE REICH (Living Space and the Germanic Monroe Doctrine)
130
1.
The Medieval Heritage
131
3.
Population Pressure
147
4.
The New International Law
150
The Breaking of the Fetters of Versailles
152
The New Neutrality and the Just War
154
The Germanic Monroe Doctrine
156
The Folk Group versus Minority
160
Folk International Law and State Sovereignty
166
5.
The Scope and Character of the Grossdeutsche Reich
171
VI.
THE THEORY OF RACIAL IMPERIALISM
184
1.
Democracy and Imperialism
184
2.
The Proletarian Folk against Plutocracies
186
3.
Pseudo-Marxist Elements in the Social Imperialist Theory
191
4.
Nationalist Forerunners of Social Imperialism
193
5.
German Imperialism
199
6.
The Social Democrats and Imperialism
210
7.
Racial Imperialism and the Masses
215
TOTALITARIAN MONOPOLISTIC ECONOMY
I.
AN ECONOMY WITHOUT ECONOMICS?
221
2.
A National Socialist Economic Theory: The Myth of the Corporate State
228
II.
THE ORGANIZATION OF BUSINESS
235
1.
The Political Status of Business in the Weimar Republic
235
2.
The Political Organization of Business Under National Socialism
240
The Executive Machinery of the State
247
Machinery of Rationalization
249
Control of Raw Materials
251
III.
THE MONOPOLISTIC ECONOMY
255
1.
Property and Contract (Economics and Politics)
255
2.
The Cartel Policy of National Socialism
261
The Brüning Dictatorship and the Cartel
261
The Purge of the Chiseler
263
Compulsory Cartellization
265
Preparedness, War, and Cartels
268
3.
The Growth of Monopolies
274
Technological Changes and Monopolization
277
The Financing of the New Industries
280
The Elimination of Small Business
282
The Corporation Structure
284
Who Are the Monopolists?
288
IV.
THE COMMAND ECONOMY
293
1.
The Nationalized Sector
295
2.
The Party Sector (The Göring Combine)
298
3.
Price Control and the Market
305
4.
Profits, Investments, and ‘the End of Finance Capitalism’
316
5.
Foreign Trade, Autarky, and Imperialism
327
6.
The Control of Labor
337
The Utilization of Man-Power
340
Fight for Higher Productivity
344
The Failure of Democratic Planning
358
1.
The Ministerial Bureaucracy
369
2.
The Party Hierarchy
373
3.
The Civil Services and the Party
378
4.
The Armed Forces and the Party
382
5.
The Industrial Leadership
385
6.
The Agrarian Leadership
392
7.
The Continental Oil Corporation as a Model for the New Ruling Class
396
8.
The Renewal of the Ruling Class
398
II.
THE RULED CLASSES
400
1.
National Socialist Principles of Organization
400
2.
The Working Class Under the Weimar Democracy
403
Plant Community and Plant Leader
419
The Honor of Labor and the Labor Courts
425
5.
The Regimentation of Leisure
428
6.
Wages and Incomes as Means of Mass Domination
431
7.
Propaganda and Violence
436
8.
National Socialist Law and Terror
440
1.
Has Germany a Political Theory?
459
2.
Is Germany a State?
467
3.
What Are the Developmental Trends in this Structure?
470
THE POLITICAL PATTERN OF NATIONAL SOCIALISM
I.
THE TOTALITARIAN STATE IN THE WAR
521
1.
The National Leadership
521
2.
The Formation of the Political Will
521
3.
Inspector Generals, Commissioners, and the Cabinet
524
4.
The Interior Ministry
526
5.
The Regional Organization of the Reich
526
6.
Unification, the Encroachment of the Gau, and National Defense Commissars
528
II.
THE PARTY AS A MACHINE
530
2.
Prominent Nazis in the Government
533
4.
The Party Outside Germany
537
The Foreign Organization
537
The Party in Occupied Europe
538
5.
The Party Membership
539
III.
THE RISE OF HIMMLER, THE POLICE AND S.S.
540
The Security Police and the Security Service
544
V.
THE SCOPE AND CHARACTER OF THE GROSSDEUTSCHE REICH
553
1.
Types of Territory under German Control - Survey
553
2.
The Nazi Theory of Military Government
555
3.
The Administrative Control of the Occupied Territories
560
The Reich Ministry of the Interior as the Co-ordinating Agency
560
Annexed and Incorporated Territories
561
Territories in the Process of Annexation and Incorporation
565
4.
The Exploitation of Occupied Europe
577
5.
In Search of Co-operation with Occupied Europe
584
TOTALITARIAN MONOPOLISTIC ECONOMY
The Reorganization of 1942 and the Edict of 2 September 1943
587
I.
CONTROL INSTITUTIONS
589
1.
The Central Economic Controls and the Ministry for Armaments and War Production
589
The Ministry for Armaments and War Production
590
2.
The War Economy and Armament Office of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
594
3.
The Four Year Plan Office
595
4.
Commissioners Directly Responsible to Hitler
595
5.
The Ministry of Economics
596
6.
The Ministry for Food and Agriculture
596
7.
Transportation, Power, and Building Controls
597
8.
The Self-Government of Industry
598
10.
Reichsvereinigungen
601
II.
METHODS OF CONTROL
603
1.
Raw Material Control
603
2.
Price and Profit Control
604
III.
CONCENTRATION OF CAPITAL
607
3.
Combines and Corporations
611
1.
The Supreme Control Agencies
619
2.
Labor Exchanges and Trustees of Labor
621
3.
The Labor Chambers of the German Labor Front
622
1.
Social Stratification according to the Census of 1939
626
2.
The Middle Classes
626
Franz Neumann was a political activist and labor lawyer in Germany who became a political scientist in exile. He studied in Germany and the United Kingdom, and spent the last phase of his career in the United States.
Peter Hayes is the Theodore Z. Weiss Professor of Holocaust Studies at Northwestern University and the author or editor of seven books, including From Cooperation to Complicity and a prize-winning study of the IG Farben corporation.
