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Strasserism ( or Straßerismus) refers to a dissident, far-right ideology named after brothers Gregor Strasser and Otto Strasser, who were associated with the early Nazi movement.
While sharing Nazism's core rhetoric of revolutionary nationalism, anti-capitalism, antisemitism, and Anti-communism—as well as its populist tactics and strategic appropriation of leftist/socialist-sounding rhetoric—Strasserism distinguished itself through a unique ideological framework promoted by Otto Strasser. Like mainstream Nazism, it posited the nation and its "nature", rather than Social class, as the central organizing principle of society. However, it diverged by advocating for a radical, total restructuring of society based on a socioeconomic model of national Fief ( Erblehen) and Guild, under which property holders would be redefined as mere Lehnsmann (fief-holders or Vassal) accountable to the nation rather than as sovereign individuals—a system Otto Strasser labeled "German Socialism," which he contrasted with what he considered Hitler's deviation from the movement's original path, particularly the party's dealings with capitalist interests—as well as its opposition to Hitler's specific strategies for seizing power. Otto Strasser presented this model, with its emphasis on "de-proletarianization" and a return to an agrarian-based society through de-urbanization, as a more revolutionary and authentically socialist alternative to what he condemned as Hitler's state-managed capitalism. He frequently equated Adolf Hitler's regime with that of Benito Mussolini, dismissing both as forms of "fascism" while presenting his own ideology as genuine "National Socialism". Strasser's vision was to be realized through what he termed "authoritarian democracy," a system designed to permanently insulate what he considered the sacrosanct essence—freedom, religion, and, above all, the nation—from the legitimate authority of the state and the fluctuations of parliamentary debate, which the state's duty was to protect, not to alter. His relationship with Christianity, however, was complex. While Strasser presented Christian values as the "fundamental bond of the unity of the West" in opposition to what he claimed was Hitler's alleged "atheism," however, his "Fourteen Theses" had targeted "Ultramontanism" as a "supra-national power" colluding with Jews and Freemasonry. Otto Strasser later adapted his rhetoric to focus on a form of "economic antisemitism." Presented as a policy of segregation rather than extermination, this stance nevertheless remained grounded in foundational völkisch concepts of racial purity.
As an ideological theory, Strasserism is primarily associated with Otto Strasser, whose writings and political activities developed the doctrine in opposition to Adolf Hitler. The ideology's name was actively used by Otto to present their views as unified. Gregor Strasser remained within the party leadership until 1932 and did not join his brother's opposition movement before his death in 1934, during the Night of the Long Knives.
Otto Strasser had been active in the Nazi Party but broke with it in 1930 over fundamental disagreements about economic policy and the structure of the state. While the party leadership emphasized centralized authority and sought to harmonize labor and capital under state oversight, Strasser advocated breaking up industrial monopolies, placing key industries under public control, and reorganizing society through vocational representation and the partial inclusion of workers in a tripartite model of co-management. Central to his long-term vision, most systematically outlined in his 1940 work Germany Tomorrow, was a romantic, anti-modernist rejection of urban industrialism. Strasser called for a "re-agrarianization" of the country, involving large-scale de-urbanization and the re-establishment of a peasant society grounded in his principle of abolishing private property in land and means of production. His alternative was not direct state ownership, but a system of hereditary entails where the nation retained ultimate ownership while granting usage rights to individuals and groups.
To illustrate his "leftist" credentials in contrast to Hitler, Otto Strasser, in his 1943 memoir Flight from Terror, claimed that the Nazi Party was only perceived as the "Rightest" party due to Hitler's "pro-monarchist statements and industrial support." He further claimed that the Prussian membership he belonged to was "far more left than right". In the same passage, he presented General Erich Ludendorff—a key figure in the Beer Hall Putsch, Militarism—as his faction's own candidate, meant as an alternative to the mainstream conservative candidate, and depicts him as a heroic figure. Although in Germany Tomorrow, published three years prior to this memoir, Strasser portrayed the rejection of Prussian militarism as one of his key political objectives, going so far as to condemn Prussia itself as an "appendage to Russia" in order to justify its partition.
He resigned from the party in 1930 over ideological differences with Hitler and subsequently founded the Black Front (the Black Front) as a dissident organization which opposed Hitler's leadership and the direction it was moving the Nazi movement towards. Despite its anti-capitalist rhetoric, Strasser's movement at times received material support from British intelligence services and, according to his own claims, from certain German industrialists as well. Due to his opposition to Hitler, Otto Strasser fled Germany in 1933 and spent the following years in exile, returning to West Germany only after World War II in 1953.
Following his return to West Germany, Otto Strasser's post-war ideology, known as " Solidarism" ( Solidarismus), served as a significant ideological tool in the new political climate. According to historian Christoph Hendrik Müller, in an era where overt Nazism was legally proscribed, Strasser's framework provided a publicly acceptable vehicle for attacking the West Germany's new democratic order and its Western alignment. Its anti-capitalist and anti-liberal rhetoric functioned as a form of coded economic antisemitism, allowing older völkisch ideas to persist under a new guise. Müller notes that this strategic guise was adopted not only by Strasser's followers but was also utilized by figures with direct continuities to Hitler's former Nazi Germany and its ideology of Hitlerite Nazism. These groups sought a legitimate way to express opposition to the post-war system, whether by co-opting the Strasserist label or utilizing other nationalist facades.
During the early 1930s, some members of the Sturmabteilung (SA) expressed support for a so-called "second revolution," which called for further social and economic transformation beyond what the Nazi leadership envisioned. While this rhetoric echoed certain themes found in Strasserist ideology, the motivations and organizational bases were distinct. Gregor Strasser held a very low opinion of Ernst Röhm, the head of the SA, whom he disparagingly referred to as a "pervert."
In July 1934, Adolf Hitler ordered the Night of the Long Knives, a political purge targeting the SA leadership and other perceived rivals. Among those killed were Ernst Röhm, the head of the SA, and Gregor Strasser.
In the 1980s, the revolutionary nationalism and the economic anti-Semitism of Strasserism reappeared in the politics of the National Front in the United Kingdom.Sykes, Alan (2005). The Radical Right in Britain: Social Imperialism to the BNP. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0333599242 p. 124.
While Strasserism is primarily associated with Otto Strasser's oppositionist ideology, some historians have challenged the retrospective application of this label to a broader so-called "Nazi Left" or "Strasser Wing" within the Nazi Party. Peter Stachura argues that no such faction meaningfully existed within the party, and that what has often been interpreted as a left-wing current was, in reality, little more than an expression of petty-bourgeois panic in the Weimar Republic. Furthermore, the originality and authorship of the "Strasserist" platform have been subjects of historical debate. The early 1925/26 program draft, associated with the northern bloc led by Gregor, contained radical antisemitic policies. While Otto is considered its primary ideologue, Gregor's own later economic platform, the 1932 Sofortprogramm, has been identified by historians as largely plagiarized from Robert Friedländer-Prechtl, an economist of partial Jewish descent (a program whose core policies were ironically later implemented by the Hitler regime after Gregor's murder). This complexity reflects Gregor's political focus, as he is generally characterized as a pragmatic party organizer rather than a committed ideologue.
In the mid-1920s, Strasser, as the leader of the northern German party organization, formed an internal bloc known as the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nord-West (Working Community Northwest). This group advocated for radical economic policies, most notably supporting the expropriation of the estates of the former German nobility. Seeking to elaborate a more detailed party program to assert its own direction within the party, they drafted the so-called "Strasser Program" of 1925-26. While Gregor was the political face of this program, its detailed economic and ideological formulations are believed by historians to have been heavily influenced, if not primarily drafted, by his brother Otto. The program called for the nationalization of key industries with a profit-sharing model (workers receiving 10% of shares), the breakup of large agricultural estates and their redistribution as hereditary fiefs (Erblehen), and the establishment of a Corporatism chamber system to replace the parliamentary republic. On foreign policy, it advocated for a "Greater German Reich" including Austria and the creation of a Central African colonial empire, as well as a "United States of Europe." It also contained a detailed section on the "Jewish question," which called for the expulsion of Jewish immigrants and the stripping of citizenship from all German Jews, who were to be reclassified as foreigners ("Palestinian Jews") under a system of legal segregation.
However, by the early 1930s, reflecting Strasser's pragmatic approach, he began cultivating contacts within industrial circles, appealing to industrialists who saw him as a figure capable of "taming" the Nazi Party by integrating it into a coalition government. This pivot was made clear in his new "Economic Construction Program" of October 1932, which significantly toned down the anticapitalist rhetoric of his earlier "Emergency Program." He now called for tax cuts for the wealthy instead of hikes and advocated for price liberalization over controls. In a 1932 interview with American journalist H.R. Knickerbocker, he explicitly affirmed his new course: "We recognize private property. We recognize private initiative. We recognize our debts and our obligation to pay them. We are against the nationalization of industry. We are against the nationalization of trade. We are against a planned economy in the Soviet sense."Neebe, Reinhard (1981). Großindustrie, Staat und NSDAP 1930–1933: Paul Silverberg und der Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie in der Krise der Weimarer Republik Big (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 3-525-35703-6. Correspondingly, Strasser received direct financial support from several industrialists, including monthly payments from Ruhr mining interests organized by lobbyist August Heinrichsbauer,Heinrichsbauer, August (1948). Schwerindustrie und Politik Heavy (in German). Essen: West-Verlag. p. 40. as well as funds from Paul Silverberg and Otto Wolff. This has led historians like Peter Stachura to argue that Strasser was not primarily a "left-wing" Nazi pushing an ideological agenda, but rather a "Realpolitik" opportunist seeking to broaden the party's appeal and secure his own power base.Stachura, Peter D. (1978). "The 'Strasser Case': Gregor Strasser, Hitler and National Socialism, 1930–1932". In Stachura, Peter D. (ed.). The Shaping of the Nazi State. pp. 88–130.
The originality of Gregor Strasser's economic later platform has been seriously questioned by historians. German historian Gerhard Kroll, in his study of the period, concluded that the 1932 Sofortprogramm under Gregor's name was almost a verbatim copy of the work of Robert Friedländer-Prechtl, a contemporary economic commentator of partial Jewish descent. According to Kroll, Strasser's primary contribution was to skillfully adapt Friedländer-Prechtl's ideas into the language of a political emergency program. This assessment was conveniently corroborated by Otto Strasser, who admitted in a 1974 interview that Friedländer-Prechtl's thought had "decisively influenced Gregor." This late-life statement specifically addressed the 1932 program, for which Gregor was politically responsible. However, it stands in stark contrast to numerous earlier accounts, including Otto's own, which identified Otto as the primary ideologue and author behind the more radical 1925/26 program draft. Beyond the issue of originality, Gregor's own grasp of the radical ideology attributed to him was questioned even at the time. During a 1928 Reichstag debate over lifting his immunity for one such libel case, an opposing deputy publicly suggested that Strasser lent his name to newspapers whose content he was likely in no position to review. This aligns with private observations, such as that of Joseph Goebbels, who noted with surprise in his diary that during the crucial 1926 Bamberg Conference, Strasser defended the radical program draft 'falteringly, trembling, clumsily' (stockend, zitternd, ungeschickt), as if he could not fully identify with the words he was speaking.
Having demonstrated little personal conviction for these programmatic ideas, Strasser effectively abandoned any pretense of ideological leadership from the late 1920s onward. Instead, he strategically ceded the role of the movement's ideological arbiter entirely to Hitler, whom he publicly praised for articulating the essence of National Socialism with "magnificent, philosophically compelling logic." Strasser pivoted to what he knew best: party organization and power politics. This shift allowed him to consolidate his influence as a practical organizer, a role he believed was separate from and reserved for Hitler's lieutenants, while leaving the ideological domain to the Führer himself.
In the early 1930s, Gregor Strasser remained active in the NSDAP leadership. The 1930 split with his brother Otto, who left the party to form a dissident organization, publicly distanced Gregor from more explicit ideological opposition to Hitler. This break was the culmination of long-standing personal friction, as Otto had systematically published his most inflammatory articles under Gregor's name. This practice exploited Gregor's reputation and parliamentary immunity to shield Otto from prosecution, but in turn subjected Gregor to a persistent wave of libel lawsuits that pursued him until a general amnesty in late 1932. The legal battles became a constant drain on his time and resources, forcing him to resort to legalistic maneuvers such as changing his residence, obtaining medical certificates of unfitness to travel, and even notarizing the transfer of his household assets to his wife's name to protect them from seizure. Gregor sharply condemned his brother's actions, denouncing his departure as "pure madness." In letters to party members, he complained that Otto had treated him in a "humiliating fashion and the party in a treacherous way," and ridiculed his brother's ideological constructs as the product of "rational, abstract deductions from his work at his desk, enlarged by an extraordinarily strong assessment of his own ability." To further dissociate himself from Otto, Gregor, in his role as Organization Leader, actively participated in purging the party of suspicious elements.The animosity between the brothers intensified after Gregor's resignation in 1932, when Otto attempted to exploit the situation for his own political gain. In their first contact since 1930, Gregor sent a sharply worded letter rebuking his brother, stating: "You are highly dangerous for your friends and a tonic for your enemies... keep me out of your game in 1933!" While Gregor continued to hold senior roles in the party, internal tensions over strategy and political direction became increasingly apparent.
In 1932, as the Nazi Party's electoral momentum began to stall, Strasser became convinced that the party could not gain power by itself. His strategy shifted towards forming a broad coalition to gain a parliamentary majority, viewing an alliance with the Centre Party and trade unions as a viable path. Later, he entered into discussions with Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, who reportedly considered him for a role in a proposed Querfront (cross-front) government. This strategic disagreement became the core of his conflict with Hitler. While Strasser advocated for a pragmatic coalition to secure power and avert the party's decline, Hitler adamantly refused to accept any position other than Chancellor, viewing any compromise as a betrayal of the movement's goal of absolute power.
Although historical consensus, based on Strasser's own statements, indicates he never intended to split the Nazi Party, his openness to compromise was denounced by Hitler's inner circle as disloyalty.Kershaw, Ian, Hitler. 1889 – 1936 (Munich, 2002), p. 492-496. Despite his strategic disagreements with Hitler, Strasser retained a remarkable personal loyalty to him. His goal was to persuade Hitler to accept what he saw as the only realistic path to power. Stachura notes that Strasser, while dismissing the quasi-mystical Führer-cult, appeared to have been captivated by Hitler's personality, becoming one of the "most unsuspecting victims of the Führer-myth."
Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who had once been a supporter of Strasser, now publicly accused Strasser of plotting with Schleicher to divide the party, and Strasser found himself politically isolated.Strachura, Peter D. (1983). Gregor Strasser and the Rise of Nazism. Abingdon: Routledge (published 2015). pp. 123. After a final, decisive confrontation in which Hitler rejected his strategic proposals, a disillusioned Strasser resigned from all party positions in December 1932. He withdrew from active politics, and, with Hitler's consent, accepted a well-paid directorship at the chemical-pharmaceutical company Schering-Kahlbaum. He subsequently became the chairman of the National Association of the German Pharmacology Industry, reportedly finding his new corporate life "interesting and stimulating." He was killed during the Night of the Long Knives in July 1934.
Otto Strasser joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and soon developed a vision of National Socialism rooted in Distributism and guild socialism. He advocated breaking up large corporations, incorporating workers into enterprise structures through non-transferable shares, and preserving regional autonomy through a bottom-up economic and political structure. His rejection of the Führerprinzip and insistence on breaking up large industries brought him into conflict with the party's leadership, culminating in his expulsion in 1930. Strasser's vision for the so-called "German Revolution" was outlined in his 1930 "Fourteen Theses." The program called for a "Greater German Reich" stretching "from Memel to Strasbourg, from Eupen to Vienna" and the establishment of a "strong central power" to counter all "unity-destroying" forces. It specifically called for opposition to what he termed "supra-national forces" such as Judaism and Ultramontanism, further proposing resistance against the "rule of the Jewish-Roman Empire." In a manifesto titled "The Socialists Leave the NSDAP!", Strasser framed his departure as an act of ideological principle, declaring that any political compromise with the existing capitalist system was a betrayal of the German Revolution. He condemned the party leadership's increasing "bourgeoisification," where the pursuit of power had superseded core tenets. Citing foreign policy, he ostensibly opposed all forms of imperialism, denouncing any potential "war of intervention against Soviet Union" and criticizing the leadership's support for "British Empire" against the Indian independence movement, arguing that the weakening of any Versailles power would aid Germany. On domestic issues, he accused the party of abandoning its commitment to a "Greater German Reich" by tolerating existing state borders. In contrast to his brother Gregor, who favored pragmatic alliances, Otto presented himself as an uncompromising revolutionary.
To justify this split, Strasser immediately published a polemical tract detailing a dramatic confrontation he claimed to have had with Hitler. In this highly self-serving account, he cast Hitler as a traitor to the "socialist" cause and a vulgar proponent of material progress. Strasser, in turn, portrayed himself as a profound philosopher, reportedly declaring his anti-modernist creed: "I do not believe in this progress... man has not changed in 1,000 years." However, historians have systematically deconstructed this account, identifying it as a largely unreliable polemic rather than an accurate historical record. German historian Udo Kissenkoetter, for instance, has demonstrated that Otto was the primary ghostwriter for Gregor's public statements, a fact that complicates Otto's entire narrative. More pointedly, Rainer Zitelmann argues that Strasser's depiction of Hitler's views on key issues such as autarky and racial theory "diametrically contradicts" Hitler's own documented statements from the period. Zitelmann and other scholars conclude that Strasser's report should be treated with extreme skepticism, as it was crafted with the clear political aim of portraying Hitler as a traitor to Nazi's so-called "socialism" in order to attract followers to his new movement.
A few months following his departure, Otto founded the Combat League of Revolutionary National Socialists, better known as the Black Front, a small dissident group formed in opposition to Hitler's leadership. Strasser's Black Front attempted to create instability within the Nazi Party, most notably by supporting the 1931 Stennes revolt, an uprising of the Berlin SA led by Walter Stennes. In his memoirs, Strasser would portray Stennes not merely as an ally, but as an idealized revolutionary figure, praising him as a "typical son of a Junker family, rich in the tradition of that military caste." In the wake of the revolt, several hundred of Stennes's expelled SA members joined the Black Front, and the two groups briefly merged into a unified organization called the "National Socialist Combat Community of Germany (Nationalsozialistischen Kampfgemeinschaft Deutschlands)".
In Strasser's own memoir, Flight From Terror, he claimed that the rebellion, which he had involved to orchestrate, was primarily financed by prominent industrialists, who sought to remove Hitler from power. He specifically named the steel magnate Otto Wolff—whom Strasser takes care to describe as "a Jew converted to Christianity"—and Paul Silverberg (who was of Jewish descent), portraying them as key backers. According to Strasser's account, Wolff's motivation was partly to undermine his industrial rival, Fritz Thyssen, whom Strasser perceived as a key backer of Hitler. Strasser portrayed the arrangement as a "seemingly heaven-sent offer", a "miracle" that empowered his faction with "more money than Hitler had offered." He claimed that in accepting the deal, he would now be "beholden to a privileged group much the same as Hitler was," yet justified the decision as a pragmatic necessity. This funding, he wrote, enabled him to offer cash incentives to wavering party members, leading to a brief moment of what he described as "jubilant" success before the revolt ultimately failed due to Hitler's personal intervention.
Strasser fled Germany in 1933 to live firstly in Czechoslovakia and then Canada before returning to West Germany in later life, all the while writing prolifically about Hitler and what he saw as his betrayal of Nazism's ideals. During his exile, Strasser presented himself as a potential leader of a future German revolution and was briefly considered by British and Canadian officials as a possible asset. Strasser's collaboration with British intelligence services began in the 1930s, when he was utilized by MI6 to operate a black propaganda radio station from Czechoslovakia. This project, which disseminated rumors against the Nazi regime, drew on Strasser's insider status, though the strategic use of such methods was already a developed concept within British intelligence.
It was during this period of exile, in 1940, that Strasser published Germany Tomorrow, his most systematic attempt to present his ideology to a Western audience. In this book, he now prominently advocated for Christian values as the "fundamental bond of the unity of the West," and rejected Prussian militarism and centralization, citing the British Commonwealth as a model for a future "European Federation." At the same time, he began to publicly recount an earlier conversation he claimed to have had with his brother Gregor, who had been killed in 1934. According to Strasser's account, he had told his brother Gregor: "We are Christians; without Christianity Europe is lost. Hitler is an atheist." To this Western audience, he also presented his vision for a new European order, which included a plan for the "liberation" of Ukraine and Belarus to serve as an "internal colonial' market" for Europe and a buffer against Soviet Union. As his proposed solution to the "Jewish problem," he advocated for the support of Zionism, arguing it offered the ideal path to achieving a physical separation of Jews from Germany by categorizing them as "foreigners" belonging to their own nation.
In 1941, elements of his Black Front contributed to the foundation of the Free-Germany Movement, modeled on Free France and based largely in Latin America. It called for a democratic constitution, federalism and regional autonomy, peace between democracies and God-fearing policies. The movement was politically broader than his earlier group, uniting Christian, national-conservative, and social democratic exiles whose only shared stance was anti-communism. However, this ideological heterogeneity soon led to fragmentation.Joseph Strelka (2001). Deutschsprachige Exilliteratur seit 1933: USA. Francke. pp. 519–520. ISBN 978-3-908255-17-8. While Strasser's initial utility to the Allies was acknowledged, it did not last, as deep-seated distrust and conflicting interests emerged among the Allied powers. The Soviet Union disliked his strident anti-Bolshevism, and the Americans were never fully convinced of his usefulness. William Donovan, head of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), warned President Roosevelt that Strasser "is by no means so much anti-Nazi as anti-Hitler ... At heart he subscribes to the principles of National Socialism...." Despite this skepticism, it was evident that British and Canadian governments considered using him as a potential leader of an underground intelligence network, and his claims to control a powerful internal group like the Black Front were taken seriously by some officials. Ultimately, however, concerns regarding his strong anti-communist stance, unclear political positioning, and limited verifiable influence led Allied officials to view him with caution, and he was not considered a viable long-term political partner.Keyserlingk, R. H. (1981). Political Warfare Illusions: Otto Strasser and Britain'
According to a 1950 report based on his own statements, Otto Strasser publicly positioning himself as being opposed to alliances with either the Eastern or Western blocs by claiming he had rejected an invitation from East Germany's "National Front.""Strasser Asked To Join East German Reds". The Manitoba Ensign. 8 April 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 22 October 2019. However, this claimed neutrality did not prevent deep divisions among his few remaining followers. A bitter feud erupted between his long-time deputy, Bruno Fricke, who favored an Eastern orientation, and other functionaries who sought alignment with the West. The conflict culminated in 1951 with Fricke's departure, who publicly broke with Strasser, accusing his former leader of abandoning ideals for "business politics for the sake of earning a living" ( Geschäftspolitik zum „Brotwerb“).
Strasser was permitted to return to West Germany in 1955 after a lengthy legal battle and settled in Munich.Herbert Elzer: Bonn oder Paradise? Die Bundesregierung, der SPD-Parteivorstand und die umstrittene Rückkehr des NS-Dissidenten Otto Straßer aus Kanada (1948–1952). In: Jahrbuch Extremismus & Demokratie, 24. Jg. 2012, Nomos, Baden-Baden 2012, S. 72–101. His attempts to re-enter the political arena, most notably with the founding of the German Social Union ( Deutsch-Soziale Union) in 1956, failed to gain any significant support.Gerhard J. Bellinger, Brigitte Regler-Bellinger: Schwabings Ainmillerstraße und ihre bedeutendsten Anwohner: Ein repräsentatives Beispiel der Münchner Stadtgeschichte von 1888 bis heute. 2., durchgesehene Auflage, BoD, Norderstedt 2013, S. 354 f. in der Google-Buchsuche. He subsequently withdrew into private life, though he remained a prolific and ideologically committed writer. According to his son, who recalled their relationship as distant, Strasser was singularly focused on "politics and history, but little interested in anything else,"Jörg Krummenacher: Der Fluchtpunkt Schweiz und Hitlers Feind Nummer eins. In: NZZ, 8. November 2008, abgerufen am 12. April 2017. living in an apartment crammed with "files, books, and newspaper clippings."Gerhard J. Bellinger, Brigitte Regler-Bellinger: Schwabings Ainmillerstraße und ihre bedeutendsten Anwohner: Ein repräsentatives Beispiel der Münchner Stadtgeschichte von 1888 bis heute. 2., durchgesehene Auflage, BoD, Norderstedt 2013, S. 354 f. in der Google-Buchsuche.Otto Strasser. In: Der Spiegel. Nr. 2, 1955, S. 34
In his later works, Strasser continued to defend and systematize his ideological vision. In his 1962 book Fascism (Der Faschismus), he sought to distinguish his own brand of "socialism" from the fascism of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. This effort culminated in 1969 with the publication of a political autobiography pointedly titled Mein Kampf (My Struggle), a revised version of an earlier work.
Far from retreating into obscurity, Strasser remained an active propagandist for his cause. In 1971, he conducted a speaking tour across the United States, where he addressed an estimated 10,000 people and attracted considerable media attention. He died in Munich in August 1974.Dietmar Gottfried: Nazis gegen Hitler. In: Telepolis, 23. September 2012. In its obituary, The New York Times described Strasser as "Hitler's Leon Trotsky".
In the mid-1920s, a group of northern and western Gauleiter, including Gregor Strasser, formed the Working Community Northwest (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Nord-West). This internal bloc sought to elaborate the party's early economic statements, most notably the 1920 National Socialist Program, by proposing a more structured socioeconomic framework. In 1925, northern and western Nazi officials drafted the Eberfeld Program, which proposed a corporatist economic system under strong state supervision, including partial public ownership in key sectors, compulsory guilds and cooperatives, land reform favoring smallholders, and a hierarchical chamber structure to replace the parliamentary republic. The program reflected a vision of nationalist economic coordination distinct from both liberal capitalism and Soviet-style socialism.Kühnl, Reinhard, 'Zur Programmatik der nationalsozialistischen Linken: Das Strasser-Programm von 1925/26', Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte vol. 14 (1966), No. 3, p. 327-330.
Otto Strasser joined the Nazi Party in 1925 and soon began promoting a vision of Nazism centered on breaking up monopolies, nationalizing key industries, and building a state structure grounded in vocational and federal principles. He opposed the Führerprinzip and the consolidation of power under Hitler's leadership. In his key works, Nationalsozialistische Briefe (1925) and Ministersessel oder Revolution (1930), Strasser accused Hitler of betraying the social goals of National Socialism and aligning with conservative elites at the expense of revolutionary change.
Although Strasser's positions occasionally overlapped with those of militant factions within the SA, their strategic orientations and ideological emphases appear to have been largely distinct. As historian Ian Kershaw noted in reference to the broader "revolutionary" wing of the party, even its most vocal elements, "did not have another vision of the future of Germany or another politic to propose",Ian Kershaw, Hitler: A Profile in Power, chapter III, first section, (London, 1991, rev. 2001). a judgment that highlights the limitations of early intra-party dissent, though Otto Strasser would later attempt to develop a more systematic alternative.
The most systematic exposition of Otto Strasser's ideology is found in his 1940 work, Germany Tomorrow, which was written during his exile and aimed at a Western audience. Strasser grounded his philosophy in the intellectual tradition of the "Conservative Revolution," explicitly citing Oswald Spengler's theories on the organic nature of cultures and the rhythm of history. Building upon Spengler's macro-historical cycle, Strasser developed his own cyclical theory of history, the "Law of Triune Polarity," which he compared to the Earth's rotation on its axis. He posited that history oscillates in approximately 150-year rhythms between two fundamental poles: a "we-idea" (conservatism, community, socialism) and an "ego-idea" (liberalism, individualism, capitalism). He argued that the liberal epoch inaugurated by the French Revolution was ending, and the world, beginning with the "German Revolution" of 1914, was entering a new conservative, socialist era. Grounded in his philosophy of "conservative realism," it rejected both liberal individualism and Marxist materialism, he argued that a valid economic system must be deduced from what he defined as the innate "German nature", a character marked by a "longing for his own peculiar style, for independence, for delight in responsibility and joy in creation."
Drawing on this foundation, alongside influences from guild socialism and Catholic distributism, Strasser called for a vocationally organized economy structured around three elements: the state, workers, and managers. Each was assigned a distinct functional role. Industrial enterprises would be reorganized as joint-stock companies under state supervision. Strasser specified this supervision would be limited to regulation and the issuing of licenses, rather than direct state management, thereby creating a framework for what he termed "wholesome rivalry" between enterprises. Non-transferable shares would be granted to workers and managers according to merit and position, linking their income directly to the success of the enterprise. These shares were to be held in fief, not as private property but as conditional tenure. This conditionality was central, as the state, typically acting on the advice of self-governing vocational bodies, retained the power to reclaim a fief for "bad farming" or inefficient management, ensuring production aligned with the national economy. Under Strasser's model, possession and profits were tripartite, assigned in thirds to the manager, the staff of workers, and the state. This meant the state retained both partial ownership and a one-third share of all factory profits, in addition to collecting a fixed "tithe" in kind from agriculture.Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. pp. 160–166.
Strasser's vision for social renewal was rooted in a radical policy of de-urbanization and re-agrarianization, which he saw as essential to reviving Germany's agricultural base and restoring the moral foundations of rural life, and to to what he perceived as the spiritual crisis of the modern German worker—their "homelessness, discontent, and purposelessness." He believed that urban concentration was both a symptom and a driver of capitalist decay—undermining social cohesion, weakening personal responsibility, and accelerating cultural decline.Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. pp. 150–153. Strasser's deep-seated anti-modernism was starkly revealed in his account of a debate with Hitler. According to Strasser, Hitler had praised the "marvels of technology", and to this, Strasser claimed to have retorted that he "had to deny the so-called progress of mankind to begin with, because I was unable to regard the invention of the toilet as a work of culture." He then reportedly continued:"I don't believe in the progress of humanity, Herr Hitler. Men have not changed in the last thousand years.... Do you think that Goethe would have been happier if he had been able to ride in a motor car or Napoleon if he had been able to broadcast?" For Strasser, these policies were central to the primary task of German Socialism: the "de-proletarianization" of the German people.
He argued that the modern industrial worker, alienated and propertyless, represented a source of instability and Marxism influence. His solution was to transform the proletariat into a new class of property-holding small producers, thereby restoring their connection to the nation, a sacred bond with the soil, and eliminating the basis for Class struggle. Strasser's hostility towards industrial society was absolute; he called for the "disintegration of titanic enterprises" and an end to the "tyranny of technique," viewing the modern factory with its "murderous monotony" as an "unmitigated curse." In Strasser's ideal Germany, the "nerve-destroying giant towns" would be abandoned, and even the capital of the Reich would be relocated from Berlin to a smaller, historical town like Goslar or Regensburg, symbolizing a definitive break with the industrial, centralized state.
For Strasser, true possession was not a matter of legal ownership, but of spiritual connection. The cornerstone of this imagined pre-industrial society was a new system of land tenure explicitly modeled on medieval feudalism. To acquire the land necessary for this project, Strasser advocated for the breakup of all large landed estates, a policy aimed squarely at the traditional Prussian Junker aristocracy. He identified them not as a class to be liberated from, but as the social pillar of the militarism he sought to replace with his own system. The expropriated land was to be reassigned by the nation to individual farmers as non-transferable but inheritable Fief. Strasser obsessively distinguished this from private property by defining it as Besitz (possession or usufruct) rather than Eigentum (absolute ownership), meaning the holder could use and profit from the land but could not sell, damage, or neglect it. Consequently, the individual farmer or industrial manager was not an owner in the liberal sense, but a Lehnsmann—a fief-holder of the nation, whose right to possession was conditional upon fulfilling their duty to the national community. This form of possession was tied to productive use, family responsibility, and community welfare. This system, grounded in the overthrow of the old aristocracy to establish a new, nationalized feudalism, was, in his view, essential to restoring rural autonomy, ensuring national food security as a core component of his goal of autarky, and the only way to restore a moral counterpoint to the fragmentation of modern industrial society. Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 153-159. Building on this foundation, he also called for the preservation of individual initiative within a regulated economic order and a political structure grounded in federalism, local autonomy, and indirect democratic mechanisms inspired by the Catholic principle of subsidiarity.
Strasser's wider political program also reflected a marked rejection of Prussian militarism and authoritarianism. He criticized what he called "Prusso-German imperialism," which he equated with the "Asiatic power of Russia" by labeling Prussia an "appendage to Russia," and sought to dismantle its institutional legacy by abolishing conscription and replacing it with a fully voluntary military. In his view, the traditions of centralized command and compulsory military service had distorted Germany's political development and moral character. He believed that a true cultural shift away from militarism would only be achieved when the German people embraced different values, once writing that the "spirit of militarism will have been definitively overcome" only when people grasp that "schools of cookery are much more important than schools of politics." His opposition to these structures extended beyond the military, shaping his broader critique of authoritarian systems and centralized rule.Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 68-73.
In Germany Tomorrow, Otto Strasser rejected both fascism and communism as forms of totalitarianism, explicitly identifying Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin as parallel embodiments of centralized authority and bureaucratic control. He condemned both systems as forms of "State Capitalism," arguing that the direct management of enterprises by the state was a "blight of bureaucracy" that crushed individuality and created a new "official class" even more oppressive than private capitalists. As a safeguard against totalitarianism, Strasser argued for the "rejection of party democracy," viewing the abolition of all political parties as the only way to prevent the revival of "the Nazi and Bolshevik party movements."Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 66-67. Though framed as a democratic alternative to the Führerprinzip, his model concentrated executive power in a president (or non-hereditary monarch) elected for life, reflecting a blend of authoritarian structure and indirect popular representation, which he described as "authoritarian democracy."Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 182-184.
Otto Strasser outlined a detailed solution to the "colonial problem", which he reframed primarily as a problem of securing raw materials for Europe. He proposed the formation of a corporate entity, the "European Colonial Company" (E.C.C.), to take over and administer a portfolio of African territories. The structure of the E.C.C. resembled a joint-stock company where European "have-not" nations (like Germany and Poland) would subscribe funds and receive shares and administrative posts on a pro rata basis. The plan was strategically designed to not challenge the interests of the dominant colonial empires; therefore, it deliberately excluded Great Britain and France from its framework, targeting instead the possessions of weaker states like Belgium and Portugal, alongside Germany's former colonies. For the existing owners (Belgium and Portugal), Strasser's plan included detailed buyout terms, such as guaranteeing their flags could continue to fly and offering a ninety-nine year right to financial returns based on previous yields. Strasser justified the project on two fronts. For Europe, he argued it would prevent future wars over colonies and provide a "great civilizing work" that would be "most beneficial to the youths of Europe." For the native populations, he defined the company's role as that of a "guardian," tasked with their advancement and eventual, partial inclusion in the administration.Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 110-113.
Otto Strasser also supported a nationalist form of Pan-European unity, expressing admiration for Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi. In Germany Tomorrow, he advocated for a "European Federation," explicitly citing the British Commonwealth as a model for its "minimum of coercion, a maximum of freedom." In this context, he called for policies such as "the gradual abolition of all customs barriers upon free trade," the "discontinuance of...passports," and "unified currency systems." However, he explicitly excluded Russia from this federation, declaring it "never has belonged, and never will belong" to Europe.Strasser, Otto. Germany Tomorrow. London: Jonathan Cape Thirty Bedford Square. p. 120. He further envisioned a postwar European framework in which Western Slavic nations, particularly Poles and Czechs, would take the lead in integrating Ukraine and Belarus into a wider European system. He described these regions as economically backward and politically disconnected. The "liberation" of Ukraine and Belarus was presented by Strasser as a fraternal duty that would primarily serve to supply Europe with an "'internal colonial' market for their wares," furnish "western capital with lucrative opportunities for investment," and serve as a buffer against Soviet Union. Strasser also suggested collaborating with Japan to advance this anti-Bolshevik vision. Furthermore, his proposal for a "composite European army" conveniently assigned the core fighting roles—light artillery and infantry—to Germany, while allocating aviation to Britain and heavy armor to France, reflecting a carefully calculated division of military power that would benefit a resurgent Germany.
Although Strasser professed to oppose Nazi racial policies, Germany Tomorrow nevertheless reflected enduring ethnonationalist assumptions. He rejected the violent, biological antisemitism of the Hitler regime, instead proposing what he presented as a rational solution to the "Jewish problem." Central to this was his vocal support for Zionism, which he argued should be "supported by all 'nation-conscious' persons and peoples as a genuine endeavour for the renovation of Judaism." For Strasser, Zionism offered the ideal path to achieving a physical separation of Jews from Germany, categorizing them as "foreigners" belonging to their own nation. For those Jews who wished to remain, he proposed the status of a protected "national minority," a framework that would grant them communal rights but formally exclude them from the German national body; or assimilation, which required them to "abandon Judaism as a national religion" and provide "other guarantees of their determination to become Germans in every respect."
A foundational principle of Strasser's ideology was his clear distinction between negotiable and non-negotiable spheres of public life. He posited that the truly essential issues concerning mankind—what he termed fundamental matters of freedom, religion, and, above all, the nation—were sacrosanct. In his view, these were not political questions to be settled by majority vote or parliamentary debate, but were timeless principles that defined a people's existence. Consequently, Strasser argued that such matters must be placed entirely beyond the authority of any legislative body. While he argued that the nation, not class or even religion, was the ultimate driving force of history, his primary structural innovation was to create a political system where this "national essence" was permanently insulated from democratic processes.
This hierarchical view of reality, where abstract ideals are placed above the material and social spheres, has been characterized by historian Christoph Hendrik Müller as "German Idealism in its crudest form." In this framework, the abstract "idea" of the nation is considered the primary historical force, overriding the concrete economic or social interests of class. This idealist foundation explains why Strasser believed parliament could be relegated to merely administrative tasks concerning the economy; in his view, the truly important questions of national destiny were not matters of political compromise but of metaphysical principle. By insulating these "sacrosanct" issues from democratic processes, his system aimed to protect the nation's perceived eternal essence from the fluctuations of popular opinion.
The modern Strasserist current has been represented in Finland by a group called Musta Sydän (Black Heart) led by Ali Kaurila. The group was allegedly behind a stabbing attack on left-wing activists. Musta Sydän has also organized neo-Nazi Hardcore punk concerts attended by bands from Germany and Italy on the anniversary of the Kristallnacht in Turku.
During the 1970s, the ideas of Strasserism began to be mentioned more in European far-right groups as younger members with no ties to Hitler and a stronger sense of economic antisemitism came to the fore. Strasserite thought in Germany began to emerge as a tendency within the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) during the late 1960s. These Strasserites played a leading role in securing the removal of Adolf von Thadden from the leadership and after his departure the party became stronger in condemning Hitler for what it saw as his move away from socialism in order to court business and army leaders.R. Eatwell, Fascism: A History, 2003, p. 283.
Although initially adopted by the NPD, Strasserism soon became associated with more peripheral extremist figures, notably Michael Kühnen, who produced a 1982 pamphlet Farewell to Hitler which included a strong endorsement of the idea. The People's Socialist Movement of Germany/Labour Party, a minor extremist movement that was outlawed in 1982, adopted the policy. Its successor movement, the Nationalist Front, did likewise, with its ten-point programme calling for an "anti-materialist cultural revolution" and an "anti-capitalist social revolution" to underline its support for the idea.C. T. Husbands, "Militant Neo-Nazism in the Federal Republic of Germany" in L. Cheles, R. Ferguson, M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, 1992, pp. 99–100. The Free German Workers' Party also moved towards these ideas under the leadership of Friedhelm Busse in the late 1980s.C. T. Husbands, "Militant Neo-Nazism in the Federal Republic of Germany" in L. Cheles, R. Ferguson, M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, 1992, p. 97.
The flag of the Strasserite movement Black Front and its symbol of a crossed hammer and a sword has been used by German and other European neo-Nazis abroad as a substitute for the more infamous Nazi flag which is banned in some countries such as Germany.
The idea was reintroduced to the NF by Andrew Brons in the early 1980s when he decided to make the party's ideology clearer.N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, 2004, pp. 33–34. However, Strasserism was soon to become the province of the radicals in the Official National Front, with Richard Lawson brought in a behind-the-scenes role to help direct policy.Gerry Gable, 'The Far Right in Contemporary Britain' in L. Cheles, R. Ferguson & M. Vaughan, Neo-Fascism in Europe, 1992, p. 97. This Political Soldier wing ultimately opted for the indigenous alternative of distributism, but their strong anti-capitalist rhetoric as well as that of their International Third Position successor demonstrated influences from Strasserism. From this background emerged Troy Southgate, whose own ideology and those of related groups such as the English Nationalist Movement and National Revolutionary Faction were influenced by Strasserism.
In the United States, Tom Metzger, a white supremacist, had some affiliation to Strasserism, having been influenced by Kühnen's pamphlet.M. A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, p. 257. Also in the United States, Matthew Heimbach of the former Traditionalist Worker Party identifies as a Strasserist. Heimbach often engages primarily in Anti-capitalism rhetoric during public speeches instead of overt antisemitism, anti-Masonry or Anti-communism rhetoric. Heimbach was expelled from the National Socialist Movement due to his economic views being seen by the group as too left-wing. Heimbach stated that the NSM "essentially want it to remain a politically impotent White supremacy gang".
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Ideology
The term Strasserism refers to a political ideology primarily developed and promoted by Otto Strasser after his expulsion from the Nazi Party in 1930. Although the name evokes both Otto and his brother Gregor Strasser, the association is largely the result of Otto's retrospective efforts to link his dissident movement to his brother's earlier prominence within the party. Gregor did not articulate a distinct ideological system, nor did he break with the Nazi leadership during his lifetime. In the post-World War II era, this ideology also served as a convenient guise for groups with roots in Hitlerite Nazism, who strategically adopted its anti-capitalist rhetoric to legitimize their opposition to the new democratic order.
Influence
In Finland
Finnish politician Yrjö Ruutu founded the National Socialist Union of Finland (SKSL) in 1932, which was one of several Finnish Nazi parties at the time. Ruutu's ideas included the nationalization of large companies and other assets vital for national interests, a self-sufficient planned economy, a parliament controlled by trade unions and the appointment of technocrats as ministers. Ruutu's party remained on the fringes of Finnish politics and never gained any seats in parliament, but it is considered to have had a considerable influence on the ideology of the Academic Karelia Society and president Urho Kekkonen. In 1944, all Nazi parties in Finland were dissolved as contrary to Article 21 of the Moscow Armistice, which forbade fascist parties. Mikko Uola: "Suomi sitoutuu hajottamaan...": Järjestöjen lakkauttaminen vuoden 1944 välirauhansopimuksen 21. artiklan perusteella, s. 262–271. Helsinki: Suomen Historiallinen Seura, 1999. ISBN 951-710-119-8. Some former members of Ruutu's party, such as Yrjö Kilpeläinen and Unto Varjonen, became prominent figures in the right-wing faction of the post-war Social Democratic Party of Finland. Another prominent former member, Vietti Nykänen, became the vice chairman of the Radical People's Party. Early SKSL member Ensio Uoti was a presidential candidate in 1956 elections. He gained some support and was endorsed by Yleisö newspaper. Tommi Kotonen: Politiikan juoksuhaudat – Äärioikeistoliikkeet Suomessa kylmän sodan aikana, Atena, Jyväskylä 2018. p. 76-83. (1997). 9789512910243, Turun yliopiston poliittisen historian laitos. ISBN 9789512910243 Member of the board of the party Heikki Waris later became Minister of Social Affairs in the Von Fieandt Cabinet in 1957.Autio, Veli-Matti (toim.): Professorimatrikkeli 1918–1996 Professorsmatrikel, s. 598–599. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopisto, 1997. ISBN 951-45-7818-X. Ruutu himself became the head of the National Board of Education after the war.
In post-war Germany
In the immediate post-war period and throughout the "long 1950s," Strasserist ideas provided a crucial framework for far-right groups navigating the new political landscape of West Germany. In a climate where overt Nazism was legally and socially unacceptable, Strasser's "Third Position" ideology, particularly his slogan "Neither Moscow nor Wall Street," offered a strategic veneer for nationalist and anti-liberal activities. Christoph Hendrik Müller argues that this rhetoric was frequently co-opted by figures with direct ties to the orthodox Nazi regime, who used its anti-capitalist and anti-Western positions to attack the Federal Republic's democratic foundations without openly invoking the Nazi past. This early post-war adoption of Strasserism as a "legitimizing mask" laid the groundwork for its more visible re-emergence in later decades.
In the United Kingdom
Strasserism emerged in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s and centred on the National Front (NF) publication Britain First, the main writers of which were David McCalden, Richard Lawson and Denis Pirie. Opposing the leadership of John Tyndall, they formed an alliance with John Kingsley Read and ultimately followed him into the National Party (NP).N. Copsey, Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy, 2004, pp. 17–18. The NP called for British workers to seize the right to work and offered a fairly Strasserite economic policy.M. Walker, The National Front, 1977, p. 194. Nonetheless, the NP was short-lived. Due in part to Read's lack of enthusiasm for Strasserism, the main exponents of the idea drifted away.
Elsewhere
Third Position groups, whose inspiration is generally more Italian in derivation, have often looked to Strasserism, owing to their strong opposition to capitalism based on economic antisemitic grounds. This was noted in France, where the student group Groupe Union Défense and the more recent Renouveau français both extolled Strasserite economic platforms.R. Griffin, The Nature of Fascism, 1993, p. 166.
See also
Further reading
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