Editing Oswald Spengler (section)

===''Prussianism and Socialism'' (1919)===
{{Excerpt|Preussentum und Sozialismus|hat=no}}{{Excerpt|Preussentum und Sozialismus#Prussian character and socialism|hat=no}}{{Excerpt|Preussentum und Sozialismus#Rebuke of Marxism and definition of "true socialism"|hat=no}}

==== Nazism and Fascism ====
Spengler was an important influence on Nazi ideology. He "provided skeletal Nazi ideas" to the early Nazi movement "and gave them a respectable pedigree".<ref name="VQR">{{cite web |last1=Dreher |first1=Carl |title=Spengler and the Third Reich |url=https://www.vqronline.org/essay/spengler-and-third-reich |website=VQR |access-date=7 February 2023 |archive-date=7 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230207131601/https://www.vqronline.org/essay/spengler-and-third-reich |url-status=live }}</ref> Key parts of his writings were incorporated into Nazi Party ideology.<ref name="VQR"/>

Spengler's criticism of the Nazi Party was taken seriously by Hitler, and Carl Deher credited him for inspiring Hitler to carry out the [[Night of the Long Knives]] in which [[Ernst Röhm]] and other leaders of the ''[[Sturmabteilung]]'' (SA) were executed.<ref name="VQR"/> In 1934, Spengler pronounced the funeral oration for one of the victims of the Night of the Long Knives and retired in 1935 from the board of the highly influential [[Nietzsche Archive]] which was viewed as opposition to the regime.{{Sfn|Engels|2019|p=6}}

Spengler considered [[Judaism]] to be a "disintegrating element" (zersetzendes Element) that acts destructively "wherever it intervenes" (wo es auch eingreift). In his view, Jews are characterized by a "cynical intelligence" (zynische Intelligenz) and their "money thinking" (Gelddenken).<ref>Ulrich Wyrwa:&nbsp;Spengler, Oswald.&nbsp;In:&nbsp;Wolfgang Benz&nbsp;(Hrsg.):&nbsp;Handbuch des Antisemitismus. Bd. 2: Personen. De Gruyter Saur, Berlin 2009,&nbsp;{{ISBN|978-3-598-44159-2}}</ref> Therefore, they were incapable of adapting to Western culture and represented a foreign body in Europe. He also clarifies in ''The Decline of the West'' that this is a pattern shared in all civilizations: He mentions how the ancient Jew would have seen the cynical, atheistic Romans of the late Roman empire the same way Westerners today see Jews. Alexander Bein argues that with these characterizations Spengler contributed significantly to the enforcement of Jewish stereotypes in pre-WW2 German circles.<ref>Alexander Bein:&nbsp;[https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1965_2_1_bein.pdf „Der jüdische Parasit“] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309180908/https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1965_2_1_bein.pdf |date=9 March 2021 }}.&nbsp;In:&nbsp;''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', 13 (1965), Heft 2, p. 150.</ref>

Spengler viewed Nazi anti-Semitism as self-defeating, and personally took an [[Ethnology|ethnological]] view of race and culture.<ref name="VQR"/> In his private papers, he remarked upon "how much envy of the capability of other people in view of one's lack of it lies hidden in anti-Semitism!", and arguing that "when one would rather destroy business and scholarship than see Jews in them, one is an ideologue, i.e., a danger for the nation. Idiotic."{{Sfn|Farrenkopf|2001|pp=237–38}}

Spengler, however, regarded the transformation of ultra-capitalist mass democracies into dictatorial regimes as inevitable, and he had expressed acknowledgement for [[Benito Mussolini]] and the [[National Fascist Party|Italian Fascist]] movement as a first symptom of this development.{{Sfn|Engels|2019|p=6}}