Were there Germans that were critical of this? Are there newspaper articles or politicians that spoke out about this?
Because they were giant hypocrites!
But really the name change happens early on around 1920 when they go from the German Worker's Party to the National Socialist German Worker's Party as a way of trying to appeal to people in the German Communist Party and the Social Democrat Party. They were absolutely relying on people not being too smart. The Communist party in Germany at the time was the largest communist party outside the Soviet Union. The Social Democrats were the largest party in the Weimar Republic. So socialism was popular - and so they rebranded their nationalist racial platform with the word socialism and then redefined socialism as something different from Marxism.
They kept trying to define the difference between "National Socialism" and Socialism that they typically referred to as Marxist or Bolschevik. In a speech in 1930, Hitler says "Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not." and in 1934 he stated that it was neither a left wing or. A right wing party, but one that took the best of both: "From the camp of bourgeois tradition, it takes national resolve, and from the materialism of the Marxist dogma, living, creative Socialism."
Goebbels, master of Nazi propoganda spells it out in a 1927 political pamphlet "The Nazi-Sozi" which is written in the form of a discussion between an uninformed voter and himself. As an aside, Goebbels in his youth was a hardcore socialist who chided his older brother for having a maid and a fancy car - at least until he met Hitler and basically turns into a Hitler fanboy. Goebbels kept a journal, and the difference between his political views pre and post Hitler is remarkable. In the 1925-1928 era, Hitler was very quick reprimand anyone for being too socialist as it tended to upset his wealthy industrialist political backers.
Anyway, back to the Nazi-Sozi:
“That means that you have become a party favoring class struggle! You called yourselves a workers’ party! That was the first step. You called yourself socialist. That was the second step. Now you are speaking of the bourgeois class state. That is the third and final step. How are you any different than Marxism?”
Yes, we call ourselves a workers’ party! That is the first step. The first step away from a bourgeois state. We call ourselves a workers’ party because we want to free labor, because for us creative labor is the element that drives history, because labor to us is more than possession, education, class, and family origin. That is why we call ourselves a workers’ party! Yes, we call ourselves socialist! That is the second step. The second step against the bourgeois state. We call ourselves socialist as a protest against the lie of social bourgeois pity. Your talk of ‘social legislation’ is absurd. It is too little to live on but too much to die on. We want our rights according to nature and the law. We want our full share of what Heaven has given us, and what we have created with our own hands and minds. That is socialism?
“You talk of socialism! Is it not right for the German worker, after the past 60 years have proven the complete bankruptcy of his political ideal, to feel despair about socialism and the future of his class?”
“Never! Because:
- He fought for 60 years not for socialism, but for Marxism. Marxism, whose theories are fatal to peoples and races, is the exact opposite of living socialism.
- Marxism was never the political idea of a German worker. He only accepted this jumble of Jewish ideas because he had no other choice in his struggle for the freedom of his class.
- Marxism is the death not only of nationally-minded peoples, but above all of the class that fights with total devotion for its realization: the working class.
The worker has no right to doubt socialism, but rather the duty to doubt Marxism. The sooner he does that, the better. The clock has almost struck midnight.”
It's basically a ridiculous argument. You can Google it and read the whole thing and get a better picture than the small excerpts I'm showing here - it's a quick read and it's a bit tough to explain because it doesn't make a whole ton of sense. In 1934, about a year after taking power, was the "Night of the Long Knives" where Hitler purged a good amount of the "left-wing" Nazi leadership.
Was there criticism? Sure.
"The worker in the kingdom of the swastika, vote social democrats!". https://i.pinimg.com/236x/26/df/fa/26dffa6e78e70dffd7712fbdb3a89d65--nazi-propaganda-political-posters.jpg?b=t
That's one example of how the opposition tried to paint the picture of how Nazis really viewed the working class, but trying to say they weren't real socialists wasn't super effective because they basically openly admitted that.
