Fascism

The Rise of Mussolini and Hitler

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 What is Fascism?
• “...the word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless. In
conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than
in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers,
Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-
fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee,
Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality,
Priestley's broadcasts,Youth Hostels, astrology, women,
dogs and I do not know what else ... Except for the
relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost
any English person would accept ‘bully’ as a synonym for
‘Fascist’. That is about as near to a definition as this
much-abused word has come.”
Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Fascism • authoritarian

• What is fascism? • anti-democracy

• Historians give different • ultranationalism

and confusing definitions
• violence, militarism
• Common elements:
• corporatist, mixed
economy
• vanguard party

• veneration of the State • anti-capitalist, anti-free

market, anti-
inidividualist, anti-
• hostile to individual
conservative, anti-
rights and liberties
communist
Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

• Socialist journalist (editor of The

Future of the Worker) who became
leader of the Italian Socialist Party

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

• Took over the government of Italy

in 1922 after the March on Rome

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

• Won election in 1924, and

discouraged dissent, through
violence and intimidation

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)

• 1925: As ‘Il Duce’ (“The Leader”),

dismantled all restraints on power

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Mussolini’s Marxism

• Mussolini’s parents were socialist/anarchists

• Deeply influenced by Marx and Nietzsche

• Marx was “the father and teacher,” “the

magnificent philosopher of working-class
violence”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Georges Sorel (1847–1922)

• French Marxist philosopher—revolutionary

syndicalism

• Reflections on Violence (1908)

• power of social myths

• virtue of violence

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Divergence from Marxism

• Revolutionary elite

• Rejection of materialism,
economic determinism

• Rejection of class struggle

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Mussolini’s Heresy

• “Vanguard minorities,” small, trained, dedicated, elite

to “raise the consciousness” of the proletariat

• Violence would be necessary

• Prepare the proletariat for the “greatest bloodbath of

all”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Lenin and Mussolini
• Opposed to reformism, democracy

• Party as centralized, hierarchical, disciplined

• Proletariat won’t organize itself

• Leadership of professional revolutionaries

• Revolutionary, self-appointed elite can bring

about revolutionary consciousness

• Organized violence would win out

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Revolutionary Elite
• Both Leninism and Fascism start as movements on the
far Left of the political spectrum

• In fact, both start as variants of Marxism

• Marx + Nietzsche

• Class struggle + will to power = revolutionary elite

committed to violence

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Lenin in Russia
• But then Mussolini saw what the Russian Revolution wrought

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Lenin in Russia

• 3 million died of starvation in the winter of

1921-1922

• 1920, compared to 1913:

• Iron, 2%

• Manufactured goods, 13%

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 “Meet the New Boss”

• Lenin replaced one ruling class with another: the

“New Class” (Milovan Djilas)

• Vanguard elite—ruling class of bureaucrats and party

functionaries

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 “Meet the New Boss”

• Robert Michels, Iron Law of Oligarchy (1911): All

forms of organization eventually turn into oligarchies:
“Who says organization, says oligarchy.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Western Press

• Western press reports were generally glowing

• Lincoln Steffens, 1919: “I have been over into the future—and

it works!”

• “All roads in our day lead to Moscow.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Russia’s Economy

• Petrograd, 1917-1920, lost

72% of its population

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Russia’s Economy

• 3 million died of starvation in the winter of

1921-1922

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Socialists’ Dilemma

• Lenin’s Revolution resulted in

disaster

• famine,

• collapse of industry

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Socialists’ Dilemma

• Socialists’ dilemma:

• market forces reassert themselves

• So, one must either

• allow resurgence of the free market or

• use force to stop market forces, at terrible economic and human

cost
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Socialists’ Dilemma

• Lenin’s New Economic Program, 1921:

allowed ownership, free exchange for
peasant farmers to end famine

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Socialist’s Dilemma

• Market forces reassert themselves

• Why?

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Socialist’s Dilemma

• Market forces reassert themselves

• Why?

• People care more about themselves and theirs than they do about the whole

• People care more about themselves and theirs than the elite care about them

• People know more about themselves and theirs than the elite know about them

• Even if human nature can be transformed, it takes time

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Mussolini’s Fascism
• Mussolini saw the disaster caused by Lenin’s
policies and adapted

• Rejected class struggle, materialism

• Sought to unify classes through nationalism

• Don’t destroy the bourgeoisie—get both classes

to work for a common goal

• Stress on unity, getting beyond politics

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Anti-Materialist
• “That the vicissitudes of economic life
- discoveries of raw materials, new
technical processes, and scientific
inventions - have their importance, no
one denies; but that they suffice to
explain human history to the exclusion
of other factors is absurd. Fascism
believes now and always in sanctity
and heroism, that is to say in acts in
which no economic motive - remote
or immediate - is at work.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Marx
• Bourgeoisie Proletariat

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Mussolini
• Bourgeoisie Proletariat

The State
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Mussolini’s Solution

• “Everything within the state,

nothing outside the state,
nothing against the state.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Nothing outside the state
• “No individuals or groups (political parties, cultural associations,
economic unions, social classes) outside the State.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?

• Marxists labeled Fascism a movement of the Right

• Mussolini was to the right of Lenin

• But it is still quite similar to Marxism

• Is it right-wing or left-wing?

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?

• What do right and left even mean?

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?
• French Revolution (1789):

Left: Right:
Supporters of the Revolution Supporters of the King

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?
• National Assembly (1791):

Left: Right:
Innovators Defenders of the Constitution
Primacy of the Legislature Strong executive

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?
• Contemporary Europe:

Left: Right:
redistribution of wealth defense of property
power of reason free enterprise
secularism religion
mistrust of strong leadership need for strong leadership

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Right or Left Wing?
• Contemporary U.S.:

Left: Right:
redistribution of wealth defense of property
protection of minorities free enterprise
secularism religion
mistrust of private associations social capital
big government small government
few limits on government power limits on government power

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Bottom-up v. Top-down

• Bottom-up: Government gets

its rights, freedoms, powers, and
privileges from the people

• Top-down: People get their

rights, freedoms, powers, and
privileges from the government

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Classical Liberalism (Libertarianism): a system of

social and economic organization that
emphasizes individual rights and liberties,
allowing the government to act only to prevent
harm to others.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Conservatism: a system of social and economic

organization that emphasizes ordered liberty—
the individuals freedom to choose within a social
order maintained by the rule of law and a variety
of private organizations and institutions.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Conservatism: a system of social and economic

organization that emphasizes the love of one’s
own (oikophilia).

• Conservatism: a system of social and economic

organization that emphasizes respect for people
and the free choices they make, individually and
together.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Socialism: a system of social and economic

organization that places key institutions
under centralized conscious direction
toward consciously selected ends.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Communism: a system of social and economic

organization that places key institutions under
centralized government ownership and control.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Definitions

• Fascism: a system of social and economic

organization that places key institutions under
centralized, authoritarian government control
through indirect means—regulation, selection of
directors, government/management/labor
boards, etc.—as well as through direct
ownership.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Socialism

Communism Fascism

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Fascism vs. Bottom-Up Theory

• Fascism Bottom-up theory

• Communitarian Individualistic

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Communitarian

• “In the Fascist conception of history, man is man

only by virtue of the spiritual process to which
he contributes as a member of the family, the
social group, the nation, and in function of history
to which all nations bring their contribution.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Anti-Individualism

• “Outside history man is a nonentity. Fascism is

therefore opposed to all individualistic abstractions
based on eighteenth century materialism…. It does
not believe in the possibility of "happiness" on earth
as conceived by the economistic literature of the
XVIIIth century….”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 The State is All

• “The Fascist conception of the State is all

embracing; outside of it no human or
spiritual values can exist, much less have
value. Thus understood, Fascism, is
totalitarian, and the Fascist State—a
synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values
—interprets, develops, and potentates the
whole life of a people.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Anti-Individualism

• “Anti-individualistic, the Fascist conception

of life stresses the importance of the State
and accepts the individual only in so far as
his interests coincide with those of the
State, which stands for the conscience and
the universal, will of man as a historic
entity.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Anti-Individualism

• “Fascism reasserts the rights of the State

as expressing the real essence of the
individual.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Fascism vs. Bottom-Up Theory

• Fascism Bottom-up theory

• Communitarian Individualistic

• Rights of government Rights of individual

• Liberty of government Liberty of individual

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Anti-Liberty

• “And if liberty is to be the attribute of living

men and not of abstract dummies invented
by individualistic liberalism, then Fascism
stands for liberty, and for the only liberty
worth having, the liberty of the State and of
the individual within the State.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Fascism Spells Government

• “Fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines

of [classical] liberalism, both in the political and the economic
sphere.”

• “If the XIXth century was the century of the individual

(liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that
this is the "collective" century, and therefore the century of
the State.”

• “If liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Fascism vs. Bottom-Up Theory
• Fascism Bottom-up theory

• Communitarian Individualistic

• Rights of government Rights of individual

• Liberty of government Liberty of individual

• Authoritarian Democracy, rule of law

• No limits on power Limits, checks, balances

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Mussolini’s Program

• Rule by the Elite: National Council of experts

• 8-hour workday, minimum wage, unions, workers’

representatives, retirement age of 55

• National militia, nationalized military industries

• Strong progressive tax on capital

• Seizure of church property

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Initiatives

• Gold for the Fatherland—encouraged

people to donate jewelry to the State

• Government took control of 3/4 of

Italian businesses

• Wage and price controls

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Propaganda

• Government propaganda program promoting

fascism as wave of the future

• All teachers had to swear loyalty oath

• All editors appointed by Mussolini

• Cult of personality around Mussolini himself

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Aggression
W. H. Auden: “a low dishonest decade.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Germany at War’s End

• In October 1918, the country came close to a communist revolution,

led by workers in Kiel

• Moderates managed to get the upper hand in the assembly

• But fighting against radical groups continued

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 Weimar Republic

• Constitutional republic in
Germany,1919-1933 born in
defeat

• First act: signing the Treaty of

Versailles

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Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Treaty of Versailles

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Terms of the Treaty
• Germany had to

• take responsibility for the war • All colonies

• surrender territory • pay reparations (132 billion

marks—almost
• Rhineland demilitarized, Saar $500,000,000,000 in today’s
mandate currency)

• Alsace/Lorraine • limit army and navy, no air

force
• Eastern farmland, Danzig
corridor (to Poland)
Wednesday, October 17, 18
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Prewar Europe

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Postwar Europe

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Weimar Republic

• War debts imposed by the Treaty of Versailles placed a

crushing financial burden on Germany

• Fostered a sense of injustice against the Allied powers

(Britain, France, and the US)

• Only way out: print money!

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Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Hyperinflation

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Hyperinflation

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Price of a loaf of bread
• 1914 .13

• 1916 .19
• 1921 1.35
• 1918 .22
• 1922 3.50
• 1919 .26

• 1920 1.20

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Price of a loaf of bread

• January 1923 700

• June 1,200 • November 1 3,000,000,000

• September 2,000,000 • November 15 100,000,000,000

• October 670,000,000

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 50,000,000 marks (9/1/23)

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 1,000 -> 1,000,000,000

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 Consequences of Hyperinflation

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Consequences of Hyperinflation

• Savings, pensions became worthless

• Most wealth became worthless

• Virtues of thrift, prudence, caution punished

• Middle class destroyed—so was middle class morality

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Consequences of Hyperinflation
• Thousands became homeless

• Debtors benefited

• Emphasis on consumption, hoarding

• Destruction of investment

• Government finds it can’t collect taxes fast enough—rising deficits

• No one, including government, can borrow

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Weimar’s Golden Age

• Issued new currency, stabilizing economy

• Dawes plan: resumed payments under Versailles, mostly with borrowed

American money

• Assembly with proportional representation: allowed small parties to

elect representatives

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 Weimar’s Golden Age
• Literature: Brecht, Mann, Kafka, Hesse

• Science: Heisenberg, quantum mechanics

• Arts: Bauhaus, Klee, Ernst, Kandinsky

• Philosophy: Heidegger, Husserl, Buber, Berlin and Vienna Circles

(Hempel, Reichenbach, Gödel, Carnap, Schlick)

• Social Theory: Adorno, Weber, Frankfurt School

• Music: Weill, Berg, Schönberg, Hindemith

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Wednesday, October 17, 18

 The Rise of Hitler

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 The Rise of Hitler
• Munich Beer Hall Putsch, Nov. 8-9, 1923

Wednesday, October 17, 18

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Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Why?
• Kant: Reich der Zwecke, the kingdom of ends, a “systematic union” of ends

• Hegel: State as expressing the Spirit of the Age

• Nietzsche: relativism, historicism, “blond beast,” strength, Rome v. Judea

• Nietzsche and Heidegger:

– Authenticity, expression of who you really are

– Freedom consists in not being subject to rules or social constraints

• Civilization (constraints) v. culture

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Kant’s Realm (Kingdom, Reich) of Ends
(Zwecke)

• “all the maxims that come from your own

law-giving should harmonize with a possible
realm of ends as with a realm of nature.”

• “Act in accordance with the maxims of a

universal-law-giving member of a merely
possible realm of ends.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals

• “the same men who inter pares were kept so rigorously in bounds through
convention, respect, custom, and gratitude, though much more through mutual
vigilance and jealousy, these men who in their relations with each other find so many
new ways of manifesting consideration, self-control, delicacy, loyalty, pride, and
friendship, these men are in reference to what is outside their circle (where the
foreign element, a foreign country, begins), not much better than beasts of prey,
which have been let loose.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals

• “They enjoy there freedom from all social control, they feel that in the wilderness they can give
vent with impunity to that tension which is produced by enclosure and imprisonment in the
peace of society, they revert to the innocence of the beast-of-prey conscience, like jubilant
monsters, who perhaps come from a ghastly bout of murder, arson, rape, and torture, with
bravado and a moral equanimity, as though merely some wild student's prank had been played,
perfectly convinced that the poets have now an ample theme to sing and celebrate. It is
impossible not to recognise at the core of all these aristocratic races the beast of prey; the
magnificent blonde beast, avidly rampant for spoil and victory; this hidden core needed an
outlet from time to time, the beast must get loose again, must return into the wilderness.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Hitler’s Socialism

• “I am a socialist, because it seems incomprehensible to me to

maintain a machine with careful handling, but to downgrade the
noblest representatives of labor, the people themselves.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 The Rise of Hitler
• Imprisonment—Mein Kampf

– Two great evils: Judaism and Communism

– Crowds are irrational

– A great leader can lead through propaganda

– Supplements class analysis with race: superior race

must rule

– Struggle for power—those who don’t fight don’t

deserve to live
Wednesday, October 17, 18
 Churchill’s Summary: Mein Kampf

• “Man is a fighting animal; therefore the nation, being a

community of fighters, is a fighting unit. Any living
organism which ceases to fight for its existence is
doomed to extinction. A country or race which
ceases to fight is equally doomed. The fighting capacity
of a race depends on its purity. Hence the need for
ridding it of foreign defilements.

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Churchill’s Summary: Mein Kampf

• “The Jewish race, owing to its universality, is of necessity

pacifist and internationalist. Pacifism is the deadliest sin;
for it means the surrender of the race in the fight for
existence. The first duty of every country is therefore to
nationalize the masses; intelligence in the case of the
individual is not of first importance; will and determination
are the prime qualities.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 One Mind and Will

• “To take abstract and general principles, derived from a philosophy

which is based on a solid foundation of truth, and transform them
into a militant community whose members have the same political
faith – a community which is precisely defined, rigidly organized, of
one mind and one will – such a transformation is the most important
task of all....”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Mein Kampf
• “The general justification of such action is to be sought in the
necessity for it and the individual will be justified by his success.”

• Note: this is just like Trotsky; whatever serves the cause is thereby
moral

• There are no moral constraints other than success

• Not quite relativism; Hitler thinks his program promotes beauty and
dignity

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Racial Principles

• “...the völkisch concept of the world recognizes

that the primordial racial elements are of the
greatest significance for mankind. In principle,
the State is looked upon only as a means to an
end and this end is the conservation of the
racial characteristics of mankind.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 The Rise of Hitler

• Released from prison, December 1924

• Allied himself with Gregor Strasser and Joseph Goebbels, 1925

• Took control of National Socialist (Nazi) party, 1926

– Socialist working-class revolution

– But anti-Jewish, anti-Communist as well as anti-Weimar

– “Third way”—one meaning of ‘Third Reich’

Wednesday, October 17, 18
 The German Economy

• Early 1920s: extreme inflation; wiped out war

debts

• 1924-1929: prosperity, but still below pre-war

levels

• 1928: Nazis got less than 3% of the vote

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 The Collapse

• Smoot-Hawley (1930): Desperation!

• German unemployment

• 33.7% in 1931 and

• 43.7% in 1932

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 The Nazi Movement

• Who were Hitler’s chief supporters?

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 Increased Support

• Student movement—largely Nazi by 1930—as were many professors

• 1929: partnership with industrialist Alfred Hugenberg

• 1930: 18% of the vote

• 1932: 37% of the vote; Nazis and Communists had more than half

• Hindenburg refused to make Hitler Chancellor

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Why?
• Nationalism

– Aftermath of World War I

– Resentment at injustice of Versailles

– Rewriting the map: Principle of self-

determination

• Political divisions, street violence--largely

created by the Nazis

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Hitler’s Program, 1932

• “Politicians had ruined the Reich”

• Unifier: State as an organic unity (Hegel)

• To achieve unity, get beyond politics

• One-party state, “the party of a great, heroic

nation”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Hitler’s Program 1932

• Government of artists

• Leave industry alone: “Do you think I

should be so mad as to destroy
Germany’s economy?”

• Change relation of man to the state:

“We are socializing the people.”

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 Seizure of Power

• August 10: Hitler sent his men into the street, beat a
Communist to death in front of his family

• Hitler published a defense of the murder

• November elections: Nazis 196 seats (33%), Communists 100

• Hitler became Chancellor January 30, 1933

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 Posters 1932

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 Results (Nazi in red)

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 Seizure of Power

• 25,000 man torchlight parade

• Hindenburg dissolved Reichstag

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Seizure of Power

• February 27, 1933: set Reichstag on fire, blamed Communists

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Seizure of Power

• March 1933: won 44% of the vote

• Reichstag passed Enabling Act, giving all

legislative power to Hitler and cabinet

• Hitler to Socialists: “And now I have no

further need of you.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Seizure of Power

• Communist party banned

• July 1933: Nazi party was the only legal party

• Labor unions brought under Nazi control

• National government assumed all regional authority

• Goering: “The law and the will of the Führer are one.”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Security Systems
• Three competing security
systems; “institutionalized
Darwinism”

– SA (Brownshirts)

– SS (Blackshirts)

– Gestapo

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 SA

• Brownshirts, run by Roehm

• Over 1 million by fall 1933; 3.5 million in reserve

• Brutal, open-street violence

• July 2, 1934: “Night of the Long Knives”—Roehm,
Strasser, other political opponents shot; 5-7,000
victims

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 SS

• Heinrich Himmler headed up the SS

(blackshirts), a highly trained elite:
52,000 in 1933

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 Gestapo

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Concentration Camps

• March 1933: first concentration camp

opened at Dachau for 5,000 prisoners,
charged with “suspicion of activities
inimical to the state”

Wednesday, October 17, 18

 Concentration Camps

• Additional punishments: flogging, death for holding meetings, making

speeches, forming cliques, loitering, collecting information about the
camps.

Wednesday, October 17, 18