Inattention to History Yields Faulty Conceptions of Nazi Leaders

Abstract

Harrower (1976) as well as Miale and Seizer (1975) partly base their analyses of the Nazi leadership on the contention that Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economics for the Third Reich, was a typical Nazi. Those analyses are called into question by the contention that Schacht was not a Nazi at all. Further, it is argued that the failure to understand Schacht is not the only misjudgment made by the two sets of authors. The same literature that suggests Schacht was not a Nazi indicates that the theses of Harrower and Miale-Selzer are too simple.