Although anti-Jewish and in favour of a totalitarian state, Niekisch rejected Adolf Hitler, who he felt lacked any real socialism, and Niekisch instead looked to Joseph Stalin and the industrial development of the Soviet Union as his model for the "Führerprinzip". Writing in 1958, Niekisch condemned Hitler as a power-obsessed demagogue who was an enemy of the elitist spirit that Niekisch advocated. He was particularly ill-disposed towards Joseph Goebbels and, at a meeting between the two facilitated by their mutual friend, Arnolt Bronnen, Niekisch and Goebbels had almost come to blows. Bronnen would break from Niekisch in 1932 after the latter published the pamphlet "Hitler - ein deutsches Verhängnis", with Bronnen considering the attack on Nazism a personal insult. In the immediate aftermath of the Reichstag fire, his house was searched for evidence of any involvement, but that was not pursued. He also discussed his opposition to the new regime with Ulrich von Hassell although Niekisch did not join the German Resistance.