This study in analytic intellectual history examines the ideologies that animated the rise of Hitler and the Nazi state. The research reveals linkages among three dominant strains of racist thought: mythological/intellectual, its roots in ancient saga, proclaimed the Nordic as the ideal race and urged its regeneration, biological, based on Darwinian theory, became the «scientific» basis for the claim of German superiority and was the dominant influence on Hitler, nationalist/conservative, called for a strong state to be governed by a single individual. All three strains extolled German superiority and provided the synergistic force that linked leadership, party, and the people.