The triumph of fascism

THE TRIUMPHOF FASCISMcreated byDavid William Phillips

Between 1919 and 1939, all the major countries of Europe except France and Great Britain had adopted some form of dictatorial government.

A dictatorship is a government in which a person or group has absolute power.

A new form of dictatorship was the modern totalitarian state.Totalitarian governments aimed to control all aspects of their citizens’ lives.

Totalitarian governments wanted to control the hearts and minds of everyone and used mass propaganda and modern communication to achieve their goals.

A single leader and a single party led the new totalitarian states.There were no individual freedoms or limits to government power.

Individuals were considered subservient to the collective will of the masses. The state demanded that citizens actively support its goals.

Benito Mussoliniin Italy established the first European Fascist government in the early 1920s.

Fascismglorifies the state above the individual.A strong central government led by a single dictator runs the state.Any opposition to the government is brutally crushed.

Italy suffered severe economic problems after World War I.There was a great deal of social upheaval. Middle-class Italians feared the possibility of a Communist revolution such as the one in Russia.

Mussolini formed groups of armed Fascists called Blackshirts, who attacked socialists and striking workers. Mussolini gained the political support of middle-class industrialists and large landowners.

Mussolini also appealed to nationalist pride among Italians.He demanded that Italy get more land from the peace treaties of World War I and gained thousands more followers.

In 1922, Mussolini had enough followers that he forced the Italian king to make him his prime minister.As prime minister, Mussolini created a Fascist dictatorship.

He added extensive powers to the government and was given the power to create laws by decree.

By 1926, the Fascists eliminated all opposition. They banned other political parties and created a secret police to enforce their will.The police were given authority to arrest anyone for any reason.

As ruler of Italy, Mussolini became known as Il Duce, “the Leader”.

Mussolini used the secret police to control the people activities and used mass-media to spread their propaganda to control their minds.

Two-thirds of Italian youth participated in Fascist youth groups that focused on military activities. The Italian Fascists were trying to create a new nation of fit, disciplined, and war-loving people.

Mussolini made a deal with the Catholic Church. He recognized the sovereign independence of the Vatican in Rome and of Catholicism as the Italian state religion. In return, the Church supported the Fascists.

Mussolini’s power, however, never achieved the total control over Italy that Adolf Hitler did in Germany.

Adolf Hitlerwas born in Austria on April 20, 1889.He failed secondary school but later rose to rule Germany and much of Europe during the Second World War.

In his youth, Hitler aspired to be a great artist but he was rejected by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts.It was in Vienna that he developed his ideas.

Racism, particularly against the Jewish people, was at the core of Hitler’s ideas.Hitler was an extreme nationalist and understood the use of propaganda and terror.

Hitler served on the Western Front for four years during the Great War.Angered by Germany’s defeat, the harsh terms of peace, and collapse of the German economy, he entered politics upon his return to Germany.

In 1919, he joined an extreme right-wing nationalist party in Munich.By 1921, Hitler controlled the party and renamed it the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, or Nazi Party for short.

Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party. Many people were in desperate situations, which made extreme political parties far more attractive.

Germany’s economic problems helped the rise of the Nazi Party.Many people were in desperate situations,which made extreme political parties far more attractive.

Within two years, the Nazi Party had grown to 55,000 people with 15,000 in the militia. In 1923, Hitler staged an uprising in Munich — called the Beer Hall Putsch — which was quickly crushed. Hitler was sent to prison.

In prison,Hitler wroteMein Kampf,in which he outlinedhis basic ideasand plans.His ideas combined German nationalism, anti-Semitism,anti-communism, and the coming of a Fuhrer– a political leader/savior to fulfill German destiny.

Völkerschlachtdenkmal: "Monument to the Battle of the Nations")

He also embraced the notion that stronger nations should expand to obtain living space, called Lebensraum,and that superior leaders should rule over the masses.

With the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler realized that the way to power was through legal means, not through violent overthrow of the government.

When he got out of prison, he worked to expand the Nazi Party throughout Germany.By 1929, the Nazis had a national party organization, and by 1931 it was the largest political party in the Reichstag, or parliament.

Hitler also appealed to national pride and militarism to gain the support of the German people.

After 1930, the Reichstag had little power. As Hitler’s power grew, more and more right-wing industrial leaders, aristocrats, military officers, and high-level bureaucrats wanted him to lead the country.

In 1933, the Nazis pressured President Hindenburg to allow Hitler to become chancellor.

In March 1933, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act, which gave the government the power to ignore the constitution and pass laws to deal with the nation’s problems.

The act gave Hitler a legal basis for his actions.The Nazis had complete control.Hitler had become Germany’s dictator.

The Nazis established control over all aspects of government.Jews were purged from the civil service and trade unions were dissolved.Concentration camps were set up for Nazi opponents.All political parties except the Nazis were abolished.

The Nazis had set the stage for a totalitarian state. When Hindenburg died, the Nazis abolished the presidency and Hitler became Germany’s only leader. He was known to the German people as Der Führer, the Leader.

"Divine destiny has given the German people everything in the person of one man . . . statesmanship, soldier, worker and economist . . . but, perhaps his greatest strength, he is an artist … And now he has also become the Reich's builder."

Hitler wanted to develop an Aryanracial state to dominate Europe and possibly the world. Nazis wanted the Germans to create a new empire as the Romans had done. Hitler called his empire the Third Reich.

The Nazis used economic policies, mass rallies, organizations, and terror to control the country and further their goals.

Hitler demanded the German people were actively involved in the state.

Hitler put people back to work through public works projects and grants to private construction companies.

He also embarked on a massiverearmament program to stimulate the economy.

Unemployment dropped and the depression seemed to be ending.

The Nazis also controlled both the Catholic and Protestant churches as well as all schools.

The Nazis staged mass demonstrations and spectacles.Some of the largest were held in the city of Nuremberg.

Art was considered to be one of the most important elements to strengthening the Third Reich and purifying the nation.Political aims and artistic expression became one.

Modern art had no place in the Third Reich.

True art as defined by Hitler was linked with the country life, with health, and with the Aryan race.

While Hitler ruled absolutely over the Nazi Party, there were internal struggles within the party. To control the party and the nation, the Nazis used the elite SS or “Guard Squadrons.”

Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler, the SS controlled all the police forces.Terror and ideology drove the SS. Terror included repression, murder, and death camps.

Women played a special role in the Aryan state as the bearers of Aryan children. The Nazis said that women were to be wives and mothers, while men were to be warriors and political leaders.

The Nazis also controlled the types of work that women could do and strongly encouraged them to stay home.

Once in power, the Nazi Party enacted programs against Jewish people. In 1935, the Nazis passed the “Nuremberg laws.”

These laws stripped Jews of German citizenship, forbade marriage between Jews and German citizens, and required Jews to wear yellow Stars of David and to carry special identification cards.

"Just as it is often hard to tell a toadstool from an edible mushroom, so too it is often very hard to recognize the Jew as a swindler and criminal..."

On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazis burned Jewish synagogues and destroyed thousands of Jewish businesses.They killed at least 100 people and sent30,000 Jews to concentration camps.This event is known as Kristallnacht,the “Night of Shattered Glass”.

After Kristallnacht, Jews were barred from all public transportation, schools, and hospitals. They could not own, manage, or work in a retail store. Jews were urged to leave Germany.

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