The Rise of Fascism and Nazism

The Great War period was a turning point in european history. It had reshaped the
economic, political and demographic landscape of Europe. The industrial revolution and the
emergence of advanced military technology at the end of the nineteenth century changed the
way war was waged. The end of the Great War was the end of an era and the beginning of a
new age in modern history. Diplomatic relations and foreign policy in Europe had changed
tremendously following the defeat of the Central Powers in 1919. The signing of the Treaty
of Versaille on the twenty eighth of June had set conditions for drastic change throughout
Europe. Many of the war reperations imposed on the defeated nations of the Central Powers
were too much to be ever repaid. The economies of european nations were in turmoil after the
war and many nations were politically unstable. This political instability had pathed the way
for new reforms in many countries in Europe during this period. The early years of the
twentieth century ushered in new radical ideologies that presented new challenges in inter-
state relations. Mass uprisings and government reforms were on the main agenda.1
Communist ideology was spreading throughout Europe, as well as the fear of
communism. Liberal democratic states faced strong opposition as well, both from the
political left and the right. Opposing ideologies took form in left and right-wing extremism.
Class struggle was becoming ever more prevelant in many nations. To make matters even
worse, economic and financial degredation reached a high with the U.S. stock market crash in
1929 which had rippling effects throughout the global economies. Former alliances would be
dismantled and nations which fought on the same side during the war were soon to clash
against one another due to differing national interests and ideologies. The rise and success of
right-wing extreme nationalist ideology in the form of Fascism in Italy, and later on in the
form of Nazism in Germany were the defining events in what historians today call the inter-
war period between 1919-1939 leading to the Second World War. Both Italian Fascism and
German Nazism had much in common in many aspects.
The unfolding events surrounding the period of the Great War were the precursors to
extremist movements both on the political left and right. In Russia, worker strikes, peasant
unrest, and military mutiny, many of which were directed toward the government and the
monarchy, resulting in the Russian Revolution of 1905, which later on culminated into the
February Revolution of 1917, bringing about left-wing communist regime to political power.
Fascism in Italy and National Socialism in Germany fed on the frustrations of nationalists
who deplored the failure of their country to achieve the glorious objectives for which they
had entered the war.2 The peace settlements at the end of the war played a major role in
political revision in countries associated with them. The British economist John Maynard
Keynes had accurately predicted that the treaty would lead to a renewed outbreak of war
within twenty years.3 The framework laid out by the Treaty of Versaille meant for
unfavorable remunerations for Italy. They felt betrayed having gained very little out of the
cost of having fought on the side of the Entente. The political instability and social unrest in
Italy called for measures long awaited by the Italian people through the embodiement of
1 Dave Renton, Fascism, p. 30.
2 Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, and Legacies, p. 20.
3 John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace.
Fascism and the ‘Partito Nazionale Fascista’ (National Fascist Party) led by a charasmatic,
strong minded and driven leader, Benito Mussolini. It is important to note that the National
Fascist Party was, to an extent, alligned to the left in certain aspects to encompass a broader
audience under its influence during its road to a single party government later on in 1928.
The german people, although having lost the war, were also very much upset with the
staggering amount of war reperations they had to pay. Having been defeated by the Entente,
the newly established Weimer Republic had a huge problem on its hands, both politically and
economically. The harsh conditions set out by France, Great Britain, and Russia in the peace
settlements following the war which was meant to prevent Germany from remilitarizing, in
turn would lead to the rise of an ultra-nationalist movement which took the form of the
‘Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei‘ (National Socialist German Workers’ Party).
Formerly known as the ‘Deutsche Arbeiterpartei’ (German Workers Party) was led by Adolf
Hitler, a charismatic public speaker that could reach all social classes through his gripping
speaches and rhetoric.
Fascism, the word itself derives from the Latin fasces and the Italian fascio meaning
‘bundle, political group’, a Roman symbol of judicial authority consisting of a bundle of
wooden sticks, with an axe blade embedded in the center.4
Stanley Payne’s Definition Of Fascism:
A. The Fascist Negations
• Anti-liberalism.
• Anti-communism.
• Anti-conservatism (though with the understanding that fascist groups were more
willing to undertake temporary alliances with groups from any other sector, most
commonly the right).
B. Ideology And Goals
• Creation of a new nationalist authoritarian state.
• Organisation of some new kind of regulated, multi-class, integrated national
economic structure.
• The goal of empire.
• Specific espousal of an idealist, voluntarist creed.
C. Style And Organisation
• Emphasis on aesthetic structure stressing romantic and mystical aspects.
• Attempted mass mobilisation with militarisation of political relationships and style
and the goal of a mass party militia.
• Positive evaluation and use of violence.
• Extreme stress on the masculine principle.
• Exaltation of youth.
• Specific tendency toward an authoritarian, charismatic, personal style of command.5
In Italy, 1919 and 1920 were known as the ‘Biennio Rosso’ or the two Red Years
which resulted in waves of strikes, factory occupations and land seizures. The first self-
proclaimed fascist movement, the ‘fascisti di combattimento’ (Italian Fasci of Combat), was

4 The Oxford English Dictionary, ‘Fascism’.

5 Adapted from Payne, Fascism: Comparison and Definition, p. 7.
established by Mussolini in 1919.6 Benito Mussolini was born in 1883 near Predappio, a
small town in the Romagna. His father a republican and socialist blacksmith. His first
political involvement was as a left-wing journalist in 1908. He was the editorial chair of ‘Il
Popolo d’Italia’ (‘The Italian People’) which declared itself as the voice of ‘producers and
soldiers’. In 1921 the fascisti di combattimento became a political party called the ‘Partito
Nazionale Fascista’ (National Fascist Party). By mid 1922 the party encompassed more than
250’000 members many of which were former war veterans and nationalist.
After the infamous March on Rome in October 1922, the party gained more political
support from all corners of Italy. Within a year later Mussolini became the prime minister of
Italy and with him a fascist government was established. In Italy, different classes had
different experiences of fascism in power. For workers, Italian fascism was a brutal
dictatorship. There were waves of repression against trade unionists in 1921, 1923 and
1924. In 1925, all remaining independent trade unions were closed down.7 At the April 1924
parliamentary election fascist candidates had gained 66% of the votes and had won 374 out of
535 seats.8 The elections had been accompanied by unprecedented fascist violence carried out
by the ‘Black shirts’, the paramilitary organization established under the Italian Fascist Party
which exerted force against the enemies of Mussolini through violence and threats. One of
the cases was particularly significant which was effectively dubbed the Matteotti crisis, in
which a socialist in the name of Giacomo Matteotti was stabbed to death by the Black shirts.
The Matteotti crisis proved crucial to the development of a fascist regime. Amidst a wave of
anti-fascist sentiment, much of the socialist, Catholic and democratic opposition withdrew
from parliament in protest – the so called ‘Aventine-secession’.9 In 1925, as Prime Minister
Mussolini dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship, making him
officially the Duce (leader) of Italy. By 1928, having the majority of seats in the parliament,
the Fascist party was formally declared the only legal party in the nation.
The success of fascism can be perceived in a broader global perspective. Fascims as
an ideology had been adopted in many other countries during the twentieth century. Admirers
of Italian Fascism built upon the prewar anti-positivist and populist tendencies in their own
countries. Anti-Communism was a major theme, as was denouncing the link between Jews
and Communism. There were substantial differences among the various national versions of
fascism, this is in large part due to the fact that it is in the nature of all nationalisms to glorify
their own inherited institutions and traditions.10 Fascists took control in Spain until 1976
under General Franco, Portugal until 1974 under António de Oliveira Salazar, Greece 1967-
1974 by the Golden Dawn, Argentina 1976-1983, Chile 1973-1991 under Augusto Pinochet,
and other smaller nations such as Paraguay, Panama, Haiti, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El
Salvador.
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Braunau am Inn, a town in Austria-
Hungary. His father Alois Hitler was a civil servant working in customs. Adolf didn’t use to
get along well with his father who passed away in 1903. He wanted to pursue his dream of
becoming an artist but never got accepted into Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts after two

6 Dave Renton, Fascism, p. 31.

7 Dave Renton, Fascism, p. 32.
8 Martin Blinkhorn, Mussolini and Fascist Italy, p. 25.
9 Martin Blinkhorn, Mussolini and Fascist Italy, p. 25.
10 Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, and Legacies, p. 23.
failed attempts and ended up homeless after his mother had passed away. He ended leaving
Vienna for Munich to escape conscription into the Austria-Hungarian army which he saw as a
mix of people of different races. At the beginning of the Great War, Hitler volunteered for the
Bavarian army and served until the end of the war.
In September 1919 Adolf Hitler joined the German Workers’ Party as its fifty-fifth
member and soon became its leader. Hitler’s training as a political instructor for the army at
the end of the war and his leadership abilities enabled him to attract followers and build the
party membership.11 Like the Italian Black Shirts of Mussolini, Hitler’s nationalist movement
had a similar paramilitary organization which ran under the command of the party and his
leadership, the Brown Shirts or also known as the ‘Sturmabteilung’ (Assault division). In
February 1920 he renamed the party to the ‘Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei’
(National Socialist German Workers’ Party). The German Nazi Party sought to eliminate
communist opposition which was growing stronger in the Weimer Republic. In the same year
apparent bankruptcy of the Berlin government’s policy towards the French in the Ruhr set the
stage for Hitler’s putsch attempt.12 The attemped putsch failed resulting in a shootout
between the police forces and the Nazi party members. Sixteen members of the Party died as
a result and three police officers. Members including Hitler were sent to prison. It was during
this time that he spent in prison that he wrote his famous book ‘Mein Kampf’ (My struggle).
Following the failed attempt at a putsch he had realized that his rise to political power had to
be obtained through legal means.
The U.S. stock market crash in 1929 or also known as the Great Depression led to the
demise of the Weimer Republic. The ecomonic recovery of the Inter-war years had come to
an end and along with it led the way for German parties to obtain new political power
through elections. The Nazi Party was quick to act on the downfall of the former Republic
and gained the majority of votes in the elections. The main supporting class of the Nazi Party
had become the German middle class. German business interests were also behind the Nazi
Party which funded the Nazi propaganda machine to new political hights.13 After gaining
majority vote in parliament, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President
Paul von Hindenburg in 1933. Hitler was able to persuade the parties to vote for the Enabling
Act, which allowed Hitler to rule for the next four years. He used his powers during this time
towards the full ‘Nazification’ of Germany. All that was left to do for the newly installed
Nazi regime thereafter was to bring the German Empire back to its former might and glory.
An aspect closely tied to Nazism was Anti-Semitism. Hatred of the Jews served as an
irrational, pseudo-religious belief that pulled normally hostile groups together and blinded
them to their own true interests. Workers and capitalists, religious and secular, northern and
southern Germans; all allegedly found a sense of solidarity in their Aryan race, whereas the
Jew served as the symbol of destructiveness.14 The murder of six million Jews at the end of
the war stands as the ultimate testament to the barbarity of Nazism. The methods of
‘industrial killing’, used to systematically murder their victims in factories of death are
probably its darkest side.15

11 Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, and Legacies, p. 76.

12 Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, and Legacies, p. 76.
13 Keith O Hodgson, Fighting Fascism: The British Left and the Rise of Fascism, p. 76-77.
14 Lindemann, Blackwell Concise History of the Modern World: History of Modern Europe, p. 259.
15 N. Finkelstein, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, pp. 39–88.
 Many similarities can be noted between Italian Fascism and German Nazism. One of
the main similarities they share is the goal of empire. German nationalists felt driven in
achieving this goal as they perceived their nation superior if not equal to being worthy of an
Empire with Great Britain and France already being big empires during the time. Mussolini
argued that Italy needed an outlet for its surpluss of population which led them to pursue
imperial goals. Other common traits that Fascims and Nazism shared would include the
totalitarian regimes, in which the state controlled every aspect of public and private life of its
citizens or even the shared views against other ideologies, but what they have the most in
common is that they have reshaped the Modern History of Europe.

Bibliography:
Lindemann, Blackwell Concise History of the Modern World: History of Modern Europe.
Roderick Stackelberg, Hitler’s Germany: Origins, Interpretations, and Legacies.
Keith O Hodgson, Fighting Fascism: The British Left and the Rise of Fascism.
Martin Blinkhorn, Mussolini and Fascist Italy.

Dave Renton, Fascism.

N. Finkelstein, Hitler’s Willing Executioners.
Philip Morgan, Italian Fascism 1919-1945
Richard Bessel, Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Comparisons and Contrasts