Tyrone Schiff His 270

Fascism and Nazism

Fascism and Nazism were two predominant political schools of thought duringthe earlier part of the 20

century, specifically localized around Hitler’s Germany andMussolini’s Italy. Fascism and Nazism, though similar in many regards, have manyaspects to them that make them different from one another. These primarily include each political ideology when it comes to society, economics, and gender issues. Furthermore,an outlook on the status of the state and nation makes Fascism and Nazism slightlydifferent from one another. In order to gain a further understanding of these two politicalideologies, I will explain and compare the two using references from the course pack.Following the tragedy of World War I, Germany came out of the mix tattered and bruised on a World stage. Germany was blamed for the war and was ordered to paymassive reparations to various countries, which terribly hurt their economy andembarrassed their people. This created a perfect stage for Adolf Hitler to enter into the political realm with his ideas of Nazism fueled by his book,

Mein Kampf

. The concept of Nazism was broadened by The National Socialist German Workers’ Party. This party,with whom Hitler associated and eventually came to lead, published a list of grievancesin response to the Versailles Treaty. This list, which was published originally in 1920, became known as the Twenty-Five points. This was the beginning of the Nazismmentality and political ideology. Many of the points touched on anti-Semitism, demandedmore land, and espoused superiority of the “German Race.”From the beginning of Hitler’s control, he ruled over Germany like a watch dog.For instance, “Hitler issued an Emergency Decree suspending civil liberties and

proceeded to arrest communists or alleged communists” (CP, 100). This speaks volumesabout the type of societal control that the Nazi regime commanded. It would ruthlesslyhunt you down and try to eradicate everything and everyone that did not agree with it.Beyond this, the Nazis were also exceptional at using political propaganda to fuel their cause against the enemy. One of the chief methods of propaganda use was the radio, andaccording to Josef Goebbels, head of Nazi propaganda, “The radio must subordinate itself to the goals which the Government of the national revolution has set itself” (CP, 101).This is a scary thought to consider. If all media is pumping out information that furthersthe interest of the Government, then people are literally becoming brainwashed bycorruption and lies.The Nazis were also staunchly against the Jews, and used them as a scapegoat for many of their own failings post-World War I. In 1935, the Nazi party established RacialLegislation, in which they established rules regarding marriage and divorce, extramaritalrelations, employment, and display of Nazi symbols. Jews were treated especially harshlyin this legislation; most of their equitable rights to regular German citizens were takenaway.Economically, the Nazis were able to hoist the German people out of the trenchesof their Great Depression, but it came at a significant price. “The Nazi economicexperiment proved that by sacrificing all political and civil liberty, destroying a freetrade-union movement, preventing the private exercise of capital, and ignoring consumer satisfaction, full employment to prepare for war and aggression could be achieved” (CP,104). All work was devoted towards the state and the development of the army as theywere soon to embark in war.

For women, Nazism meant a place in the home taking care of children andsupporting the actions of her husband. Hitler believed that women and men belonged indifferent worlds from one another. Women who tried to further their rights wereconsidered “symptoms of cultural decline” (CP, 105). One of the reasons that childrearing was so important to the Nazi ideology was because they were attempting to createan entire pure race of Aryans. Therefore, populating the nation was critical.Fascism was the major political and national ideology that was accepted by theItalians under the control of Mussolini. Fascism came about as an effort to stabilize boththe Italian social and economic life. Fascism was a move towards isolationism in a sense, because during Mussolini’s efforts, he attempted to make Italy completely self-reliant,where they wouldn’t have to seek help from outsiders in order for their own country tothrive. One instance of this can be seen in the “battle of wheat” in which Mussoliniattempted to prevent foreign grain from entering the country. As a result, Italian farminggrew tremendously.To further detail the economic endeavors of Fascism, we learn that fascistsengaged in a policy known as corporatism, which is a middle-ground between socialismand a market system. Fascists established this plan because they assumed that, “classconflict would be avoided if both labor and management looked to the greater goal of productivity for the nation” (CP, 109). However, the corporatism system did not work asideally as the Fascists planned. It ended up creating more bureaucracy and corruption inthe system.Above all else, Fascism was a nationalistic idea in which the nation was the mostessential component. Mussolini tried to infuse an idea of continual service and pride in