Adolf Hitler on Equality
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“The National Socialist State recognizes no ‘classes’. But, under the political aspect, it recognizes only citizens with absolutely equal rights and equal obligations corresponding thereto. And, side by side with these, it recognizes subjects of the State who have no political rights whatsoever.”
In a 1935 speech, Hitler condemned Marxist ideals of gender equality, arguing that such rights weakened women by drawing them into areas where they were inherently inferior.
“The so-called granting of equal rights to women, which Marxism demands, in reality does not grant equal rights but constitutes a deprivation of rights, since it draws the woman into an area in which she will necessarily be inferior. It places the woman in situations that cannot strengthen her position — vis-a-vis both man and society — but only weaken it.”
In a 1932 speech to industrialists, Hitler argued against political egalitarianism, warning it could lead to communist economic policies mirroring democratic politics.
“...(if) it is asserted – and that even by those engaged in business – that in the political sphere special abilities are not needed but that here an absolute equality in achievement reigns, then one day this same theory will be transferred from politics to economic life. But in the economic sphere communism is analogous to democracy in the political sphere. We find ourselves today in a period in which these two fundamental principles contend with each other in all contiguous spheres and are already intruding into economics.”
From *Mein Kampf*, Hitler outlines the racist, hierarchical worldview central to Nazi ideology, advocating for the dominance of supposedly superior races and the subjugation of others.
“...the völkisch view recognizes the importance of the racial subdivisions of mankind. In principle, it sees in the state only a means to an end, and it considers the preservation of the racial existence of men as its end. Thus, it by no means believes in the equality of all races, but along with their differences it also recognizes their superior and inferior nature, and by this recognition it feels the obligation, in accordance with the Eternal Will that dominates this universe, to promote the victory of the better and stronger and to demand the submission of the inferior and weaker in accordance with the eternal will that dominates the universe.”