Articles

Are There Nazis In Germany Today?

Today, Germany has some of the strictest laws in the world about propagating the Nazi ideology. It is illegal to incite race hatred on the Nazi basis. Many different Nazi symbols, such as the swastika, cannot be produced, sold, or worn in public. Anyone who is found guilty of engaging in “Neo-Nazi” behavior can be charged with a crime and punished within the legal system. The rights accorded to these “Neo-Nazis,” who often deny the Holocaust ever happened, are far and away better than the rights that Nazis accorded to their victims.
 
Despite this, there are some Nazi supporters still in Germany today. They feel that Hitler was a military genius whose behavior brought Germany out of the worst of the Great Depression. Sadly, many of their beliefs about Hitler and Nazism come from Hitler’s own propaganda, which has been decisively proven false. That said, most of the Germans of today’s Germany are fully and unambiguously opposed to the cruelty and barbarity of Nazism.
 
Although the Nazis have lost power in Germany today, visiting Germany will allow you to see a number of buildings and monuments that have been there since World War II. Much of what the Nazis created was destroyed in bombing or in the period following the war. However, there are Holocaust memorials and World War II memorials in many major cities, paying tribute to the undeniable truth of the Nazi Holocaust. One of these stands in central Berlin as a “Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.”
 
Some office buildings and other complexes that were used by the Nazis continue to stand today as well. For example, as of the time of this writing the building that held the Nazi Propaganda Ministry is still standing within just a few feet of the city center.
 
Buildings constructed by the Nazis are easy to spot amid the cityscape of Berlin today. They are squat, ugly, boxy structures with that conform to a very hard-edged and military-like appearance. Many of the surviving buildings are nearly identical. This reflects Hitler’s ideas about what was “appropriate” in the world of architecture. It is not surprising that beauty, individuality, and other ideals that many of today’s people value dearly are not in evidence in these structures.
 
With the help of Nazis like architect Albert Speer, Hitler commissioned many large monuments and statues to the greatness of Nazism. However, all of these major works were destroyed as the Nazis were overthrown in 1945.