Was Nietzsche a Nazi?

Simply put... NO. Nietzsche was not a Nazi.

It was often thought that Nietzsche was a Nazi, or to a lesser extent, the inspiration for the Nazis. It is very clear that their are some succinct similarities between the work of Nietzsche and the policies of the Nazis, however the Nazis incorporated many philosophies (including Hegel) to meet their own insane philosophical needs; not just the work of Nietzsche.

Nietzsche is famous for the quote "God is Dead". Obviously this upsets the Judea-Christian ethos and thus he is labelled a Nazi as they believed he caused Nazism to happen.

He is associated with the Nazis due to consequentialism. Religious sects were annoyed with Nietzsche as even when you take away the argument of whether or not God does or does not exist, upholding religious morals does in fact hold weight because it makes people behave morally and in an except able manner.

The main ideas between the Nazi regime and Nietzsche are the concept of the 'will to power' and the ideas of the superman. Nietzsche's idea of the will to power would have been massively frowned upon at the time he wrote his work as it incorporates the ideas of strong leadership at a time when the world was widely democratic and liberal - it could be argued that this is a clear Nazi association as Hitler lived out the idea of the 'will to power'.

The idea of the superman was held by both the Nazis and Nietzsche, however Nietzsche does not look at 'supermen' through racial characteristics. He does see Jewish people as undermench but only due to their religious restraint, which he sees as somewhat of a slave religion, not their race. The Nazis would have labelled the Jews as lesser people because of their race. Clearly Nietzsche was not a Nazi as Nazism was racism. Furthermore Nietzsche would have perceived racism as conformity; something which he strongly opposed.

Nietzsche was not a Nazi, he was an individual.