The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

Die philosophischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus (The Philosophical Foundation or Basis of National Socialism) was written by Reichspressechef Dr. Otto Dietrich. The subtitle of this extremely rare Third Reich book is “A Call to Arms of the German Spirit”.

Dr. Otto Dietrich was not only the State Press Chief of Nazi Germany, he was also a SS-Obergruppenführer and State Secretary in the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, the Nazi Propaganda Ministry of Dr. Joseph Goebbels. A member of the Nazi Party since 1929, he was the editor of a Nazi Party newspaper in Essen before he became the Reichspressechef der NSDAP in August 1931. On 2 June 1933 Hitler appointed Dietrich a Reichsleiter, the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party.

This book contains the speech Dr. Dietrich gave at the Cologne University on 16 November 1934. Dr. Dietrich explained that Germans were aware of the meaning of National Socialism as “they lived it” but his aim was to explain the ideas and spirit of National Socialism to people outside Germany. Explain the connection of the old with the new, the new German environment and that the fundamental nature of National Socialism was a work in progress.

Dr. Dietrich quotes German philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Immanuel Kant but also Alfred Rosenberg’s view on the superiority of the German Race. Other subjects covered are individualism versus the German Community, artistic, cultural and economic values, the impact and practical application of National Socialism on the economy, and more.

Die philosophischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus has an Epilogue by author and journalist Alfred-Ingemar Berndt. Berndt was Dr. Dietrich’s Deputy, in charge of the Press Department at the Nazi Propaganda Ministry, and after volunteering for Wehrmacht duty he fought in France in 1940 and became Erwin Rommel’s aide-de-camp in North Africa (and with Dr. Goebbels is widely credited and being one of the creators of the Rommel ‘Desert Fox’ myth which the British loved and adopted).

The 5-7/8 x 8-3/8 inch, 64-page book was published by Ferdinand Hirth in Breslau in 1935. Facing the title page is a tipped in black & white photo portrait of Nazi State Press Chief Dr. Otto Dietrich above his facsimile signature. This example of Die philosophischen Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus is in very nice condition, with a few pencil annonations by a previous owner. The original dust jacket had darkened during the last 90 years but the spine is tight and the book has no unpleasant odor.