Strasserism: The Far-Right Vision of a Medieval, Agrarian, and Anti-Industrial German State
In short: Otto Strasser, a dissident Nazi, proposed a radical alternative to Hitler’s regime: an agrarian society governed by state-sanctioned feudalism. He aimed to dismantle heavy industry, relocate urban populations to the countryside, and replace traditional capitalism with a rigid hierarchy of vocational estates, all while maintaining a deeply exclusionary, ultranationalist agenda.
Strasserism emerged from the early Nazi movement as a dissident ideology championed by Otto Strasser, who claimed his vision of 'German Socialism' was more authentic than Hitler’s. Unlike the mainstream Nazi focus on state-managed capitalism, Otto envisioned a total reconstruction of society. He sought to abolish urban industrialism, advocating for the mass relocation of city dwellers to rural areas and the dismantling of large-scale industry into decentralized, small-scale structures. His model, which he termed 'state feudalism,' replaced private land ownership with inheritable fiefs (Erblehen) granted by the state, managed by local councils.
The economic framework of Strasserism was built on corporatism rather than class-based competition. Otto proposed dividing the nation into five vocational corporations—workers, peasants, clerks, industrialists, and the liberal professions. Within this structure, factory managers were to act as a functional elite, holding significant authority over their subordinates. While he rejected the concentration of productive monopolies, he paradoxically encouraged personal egoism and allowed for the accumulation of wealth, provided it was not used to purchase land or means of production. He also maintained a role for private bankers, arguing that unsecured loans based on personal security were compatible with his system.
Central to Strasser’s ideology was a rejection of modern progress, which he dismissed as a youthful illusion. He viewed cities as 'nerve-destroying' environments and proposed moving the capital from Berlin to a smaller town. His political model, which he called an 'authoritarian democracy,' concentrated power in a president elected for life, theoretically balanced by councils that the president himself appointed. Despite his attempts to frame his ideology as a 'left-wing' alternative, Strasserism remained rooted in extreme racialism, antisemitism, and a desire to preserve a 'White Europe' through exclusionary policies and the eventual support of Zionism as a tool for segregation.
After World War II, Otto rebranded his doctrine as 'Solidarism,' attempting to align it with Catholic social teaching by proposing a tripartite co-ownership model between the state, employees, and private enterprise. Historians note that this rebranding, alongside the use of 'anti-capitalist' rhetoric, served as a legal vehicle for coded antisemitism in the post-war era. Otto’s accounts of his conflict with Hitler are largely considered unreliable, and his political influence during the 1930s is often viewed as minimal, despite his efforts to position himself as a heroic, dissident leader.
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