Madmen in Authority: Adolf Hitler and the Malthusian Population Thesis

Ken McCormick

Journal of Economic Insight, 2006, vol. 32, issue 2, 1-8

Abstract: Keynes famously asserted that dead economists exert influence on madmen in authority. For Hitler, the economist appears to be Malthus. Hitler was obsessed with the Malthusian idea that the amount of available land limits population. Hitler never gave credit to anyone else for his ideas, so it is impossible to be certain about their origin. A case can be made that Hitler was influenced by Malthus as interpreted by Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, whose book The Third Reich captivated the Nazi party.

JEL-codes: B10 N44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mve:journl:v:32:y:2006:i:2:p:1-8

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