1. Fascism

2. “Fascism” - Etymology from fasces– In ancient Rome a symbol of the authority of the magistrate, lictors carried them in front of the magistrates Symbolism: strength through unity

3. Fascism : difficult to define Not a coherent ideology Big differences between Nazism, Italian Fascism and other “fascist” states and movements Some characteristics in common with other authoritarian regimes Extreme left, extremism of the centre or extreme right? Inflationary use of the term to slander political enemy, has become a term of political conflicts

4. Fascism A collectivistic, nationalistic, authoritarian ideology based on Anti-communism (-socialism, - Marxism) Anti-liberalism (-democracy, individualism) Anti-capitalism (only until in power) Anti-semitism (only in Germany) (Anti-egalitarian, anti-intellectual, anti-pacifist) The idea of regeneration, rebirth and youth The nation (as the eternal embodiment of the collective spirit) Corporatism (Italy): organic organisation of society, harmonised by state Community (in Nazi Germany Volksgemeinschaft) Racism (more in Nazism) Leadership cult Imperialism and expansionism

5. Syndicalism: a set of ideas, movements with the aim of transforming capitalist society through action by the working class. For syndicalists, trade unions are the potential means both of overcoming capitalism and of running society in the interests of the majority. Industry and government in a syndicalist society would be run by trade union federations. National syndicalists imagined that the liberal democratic political system would be destroyed in a massive general strike, at which point the nation’s economy would be transformed into a corporatist model based on class cooperation, contrasted with Marxist class struggle.

6. Corporatism or corporativism (Italian corporativismo): a political or economic system in which power is given to unelected civic assemblies that represent economic, industrial, agrarian, and professional groups to exert control over their respective areas of social or economic life. In Fascism: corporations represent the interests of their members in relation to the state and are at the same time instruments of control of the state Alternative to class struggle “Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism as it is a merge of state and corporate power.” Benito Mussolini

7. “The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State… For Fascism the state is absolute, individuals and groups are relative… The State, as conceived and realised by Fascism, is a spiritual and ethical entity for securing the political, juridical, and economic organisation of the nation… The State is not only the present; it is also the past and above all the future. Transcending the individual’s brief spell of life, the State stands for the immanent conscience of the nation.” Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932) “For the Fascist, everything is within the State… For Fascism, the State is an absolute.” Giovanni Gentile (1932)

8. Fascism & Modernisation Fascism as backward-looking force (Lipsett) Social protection of middle classes against rise of organised capital & organised labour, but de facto support of big business (rearmament) Means & ends: modern means to archaic ends Multiple paths to modernity: technological, economic, political Horkheimer & Adorno’s Auschwitz paradox: height of barbarism achieved with factory-like precision; scientists of death working for ‘perfectibility of man’: a perverted Enlightenment project Nazism as “reactionary modernism” (Jeffrey Herf) Mass media: tomorrow will highlight use of film & radio

9. Fascist regimes Italy (Benito Mussolini) 1922- 1943/45 Germany Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (Adolf Hitler) 1933-1945 Austria (Dollfuß) - 1938 Spain (Franco) - Portugal (Salazar and Caetano) Fascist movements Some examples Britain British Union of Fascists (Oswald Mosley) Norway Nasjonal Samling (Vidkun Quisling) Romania Iron Guard Hungary Arrow Cross

10. Italy Fascist regime 1922-1943 (1945) Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) March on Rome, October 1922 Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti murdered by fascists, June 1924 Mussolini deposed August 1943 Saló Republic 1943-1945

11. Germany NSDAP formed 1920 Failed “beer hall coup”, Nov. 1923 Played no important role in 1920s After Great Depression fast growth of influence, 1932 strongest party Hitler becomes chancellor in Jan. 1933 Night of the Long Knives, June 1934: against SA-leaders who wanted to continue National-Socialist “revolution” and criticised Hitler’s alliance with the conservatives and the traditional elites

12. Potsdam, March 12, 1933, Hitler meets Reich President Paul von Hindenburg Alliance with the traditional elites – no social revolution

13. “The Scourge of God, Polish Jews" From A Brochure issued by Der Stuermer. 1939 Racism and Anti- semitism

14. Fascism, War & Empire Mussolini’s hopes to recreate Roman Empire & Mediterranean ‘Mare Nostrum’ 1935 invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia); 1940 stalling of Greek & Egyptian campaigns

15. Nazism, War & Empire Hitler’s admiration of American & Russian continental powers with natural resources Mein Kampf (1925): criticises Kaiser’s Weltpolitik Lebensraum: Germany ‘crowded’ people seeking continental empire in E. Europe/Ukraine Volksdeutsche: mission to reunite ‘lost’ territories of Greater Germany; Aryanisation schemes World ambitions: future confrontation with USA?

16. Some American historians (strange revival 10 years ago by Daniel Goldhagen) Nazism as culmination of centuries of German history From Luther – Fredrick the Great of Prussia – Bismarck and William II – Ludendorff/Hindenburg – Hitler

17. Conservative German historians after 1945 (Gerhard Ritter, Friedrich Meinecke) State oriented historians Aim: to save the German past Nazism as a complete break with the German past Nazism as part of an European trend of the collapse of moral and religious values in and after the Great War Demonizing of Hitler who is held responsible for the German catastrophe

18. Revisionist view German territorial war aims in the Great War similar to those of Hitler (Fritz Fischer in 1960s) Tradition of German expansionism Continuity of social structures and power of traditional elites In another step: Germany’s special path (+ late industrialisation, no successful bourgeois revolution) Some historians see Nazism as unique (anti-Semitism and racial theory and Holocaust) and fundamentally different from Italian fascism

19. Synthesis (according to Bracher and Jäckel): Hitler derived much of his strength from the rivalry and the overlapping responsibilities of state and party institutions. He thus could assume the role of a mediator. Single offices competed to win him over to their policies. Often they tried to implement what was considered to be his wish...

20. Fascism theory Stresses the similarities between Italy & Germany Imperial expansion as inherent War as overall goal Close relationship with capitalism Fascism as ‘faith-based’ political religion, placing willpower over material constraints

21. “Fascism is the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital”.