Rise of Fascism Investigative Report:

Alejandro Ossa O.
Juan Camilo Ospina V.
Part 1: Social and Economic Context
Germany:
Germany’s historical background at the eve of the rise of fascism by the Nazis is really
complex taking into account the reality of the Republic of Weimar as a product of the Great
War. Immediately after World War I ended, the German Empire disappeared with it and the
new democratic regime of the Weimar Republic was born in Germany. The Treaty of
Versailles as a resolution of the war blamed Germany severely for the conflict and
adjudicated immense punishment for it, making Germany admit culpability for the start of the
war, pay for the reparations of the war, return annexed and original territory, and reduce
significantly their armed forces or else be invaded by the Allies. Logically, this punishment
devastated Germany in many ways.1 First, people felt humiliated by their government which
had no other option to accept the terms, admit guilt and give up 13% of their territory.
Second, having to pay 132 billion gold marks in reparations to the civilian damage and giving
up the Rhineland to France left a hyper-inflation in the country that completely ruined
economy by social overspending, plummeting revenues with continuous deficit crisis and the
municipal finance and ordinary budgets collapsed leaving the citizens with unsustainable
lives.2 Third, Germany was left incredibly weakened with almost null military might having
to reduce its army to 100,000 men and no naval and air forces.3 This allowed Hitler, who
participated and was imprisoned in WWI to display his manifesto (Mein Kampf) with the
national socialism ideology and rise to power with his political party feeding on the rage,
humiliation, pain and desire of justice that the people were left with after the Treaty of
Versailles. Proposing a new beginning for Germany by destroying the Treaty of Versailles,
during the time of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi party took advantage of the rage the people
had against the past German leaders and the rest of the world who harshly punished them and
the idea naturally was well received. Combined with the great oratory skills of Adolf Hitler
and his simplistic promises of lebensraum, reparation of economy and hatred against the
weak, he was able to inspire people to support his party, winning a third of the German
Parliament which allowed Hitler to be in a position to be named Chancellor and in times of
convenient crisis he used his power to undermine the ill-fated and old President Hindenburg
and then with special powers to chase down any opposition and finally become President and
Chancellor, the Führer of Germany.

Italy:
Italy's historical background when the Fascist party lead by Mussolini in 1915 started to
gain power was extremely complex. The war costs had an staggering effect under Italy. 1/10
of young men died, people were disappointed by peace because they felt they had not

1
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/how-did-treaty-versailles-punish-germany-148213
2
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/projects/1920s/Econ20s.htm
3
https://spartacus-educational.com/GERfascist.htm
achieved much at the cost they paid. Unemployment was high, there was internal conflict,
and severe inflation, some people were starving to death. In more depth, Italy suffered a
massive expansion of the public debt, sectors like transport and agriculture suffered
significant damage, and the relevant exports of Italy were reduced almost to zero. 4In
addition, the government of King Victor Emmanuel II was divided and weak, unable to
provide leadership or to inspire confidence to the citizens that the postwar crisis and
economic depression would be solved. Also, Italy lacked a strong democratic tradition and
communists were a constant treat which lead to fear in the citizens and revolutions.5 The
general discomfort of Italians was notorious, Italy was basically the only victorious country
that gained little benefit from war, they expected territory in the Adriatic but instead this
lands became part of the newly created Yugoslavia. The internal conflict was notorious,
communist gained enormous power and inspired by the Russian Revolution, they seized land
and workers and went on strike or took over factories, landowners and industrialists were
terrified. All of this allowed the Fascist party to gain popularity. They promised they would
end with the strikes and curb working class political party, and he would give the strong
central government that business owners, government officials, landowners, the middle class,
soldiers, army officers nationalists and war veterans wanted. He basically promised to restore
Italy greatness (socially, militarily and economically) , end corruption and replace instability
with order. In no time , the Fascist was the most popular party within Italy, after effectively
eliminating most of the opposition using violence, they became the light of Italians in an era
of darkness, and under the inspirational phrase “Believe! Obey! Fight!” they didn´t struggled
to gain power.

Part 2: Techniques of Fascism

1. The primacy of the group. Supporting the group feels more important than maintaining
either individual or universal rights. (Italy)

Giovanni Gentile election as the minister of education is the perfect example of

maintaining the primacy of the group. He was noted Italian philosopher who believed that the
private and interests of the individual came second to the “common will” of the people. The
fascist state should put the will of people into action instead. He also explained that self
sacrifice and obedience to the state enable the individual to achieve unity with those of the
same kind, right belonged for people as a whole rather than individuals. He taught that the
“Common will of the people is the law of the state and therefore , only people that submitted
to the fascist order were truly free. His influence was huge in Italy, the same moral values he
believed were taught in schools, universities and in the media in general. This permitted the
many young adults feel loyal to the regime and facilitated a government that required such
high devotion and obedience from the people, since they would leave their egoism behind

4
https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/post-war_societies_italy
5

http://www.polytechpanthers.com/ourpages/auto/2012/1/24/45532409/ItalyandGermanyafterWWI.pdf
and work or serve in the army for Italy as a whole rather than for themselves in a way of
being loyal but at the same time having the “liberty” that the fascist regime presented. It also
inspired adult Italians to work as hard as they did and follow Mussolini even if they had to
have a hard time, since they did it for Italy, for all their peers rather than for them.

2. Believing that one’s group is a victim. This justifies any behaviour against the group’s
enemies. (Germany)

In the case of Germany, the technique of creating the view of the group as a victim to
justify violence against its enemies was doubtlessly the famous Dolchstoss or
stab-in-the-back myth. The dolchstoss myth was a right-wing promulgated and widely spread
lie that adjudicated the responsibility of losing WWI to the communists and Jews. In the
German newspapers, the myth spread to the ears of the German people claiming Germany did
not lose the war on the battlefield and that Germany was never invaded but that the Kaiser
forces were actually winning until the Socialists and Jews in the battlefield betrayed the
Fatherland. The right-wing and the Nazi party stood by the myth that claimed communist and
Jewish civilians and military men stabbed in the back their own country and army. Other
important propaganda painted Germans as victims of these traitorous criminals like the view
of the republicans who overthrew the monarchy and signed the Armistice of the Treaty of
Versailles as the “November Criminals”. Hitler and the Nazi party used these lies to hunt
down Jews and communist by using the power invested in him by Article 48 considering
these groups as enemies of the State. The anti-Semitic propaganda also denied substantially
the participation of Jews in the army even though in a census the Jews were the majority of
the personnel and the right wing also censored pro-Semitic campaigns. The intent of this
action was to weaken all of Hitler’s and the Nazi’s opposition who were basically the Jews,
the Communists and the republicans who favored the democratic regime. By painting
themselves as victims, they could justify the actions of Gestapo to exterminate the enemies of
the state and legitimising the Nazi’s actions as they would just be hunting down traitors. This
also strengthened the unity of the Germans with a common foe and inspired even more
disdain against the Nazi’s opposition.6

3. The belief that individualism and liberalism enable a dangerous decline and have a
negative effect on the group. (Spain)

7
In Spain a great example of this belief was Franco´s bill of rights called the Charter of
Rights. This was a move from Spain to impress the world democratic powers with Spain
“liberal” credentials in order to dismiss global tension over Spain Fascist government.
However, this Chart of Rights did more or less the contrary. The rights it granted were more
cosmetic that democratic, since the government could suspend them in any moment without

6
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/248615/jews-who-stabbed-germany-in-the-
back
7
http://countrystudies.us/spain/22.htm
justification. Furthermore, the Charter putting more emphasis on the duty of all Spaniards to
serve and obey their country rather than laws that defended the basic right of citizens. In
addition, many of this laws showed enormous logical contradictions towards liberty that
basically made liberty seem as something bad or negative for the regime. A great example is
that the Chart was supposed to grant Spaniards the right to express their opinion freely, but
they were not to attack the fundamental principles of the State and it was considered treason.
Basically, all the liberties they “granted” to the citizens were full of limitations that prevented
them to be used against the government or the people as a whole, showing all actions against
the group or state beliefs as dangerous and often perjudicial and hard punishing everyone
who decided to overpass this limitations. All this mess resulted in fear of the people from the
regime and indoctrination for them to see negative anything that went against Franco's rule. It
is easy to see the intent of the Charter, that gave Spanish citizens a illusion of freedom while
giving them fundamental rights that were actually harshly restricted and severely punished if
they were used to question the State and its doctrines or if any kind of liberalism was
presented. Lastly, as Spain was considered to be in reality semi-fascist, there is the better
example of how Hitler and the Nazis hunted down their opposition or anyone who criticised
their doings or was not a member of the Nazi race, of the superior group. The Nazis
oppressed any kind of individualist thinking and behavior and any liberalist movements by
using violence to those who dared to question the Nazi ideology and the intent of this was to
create a culture of fear towards individualism in a way no one would feel like they wanted to
question the government suppressing any kind of revolution intention.

4. A strong sense of community or brotherhood. This brotherhood’s “unity and purity are
forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary”.
(Germany)

Adolf Hitler believed himself and was in a way a psychological mind as he understood
profoundly and explained his view of the Zeitgeist, inheritance, racial identity and claimed
the one superior race was the Aryan Germans and that the characteristics and behaviours of a
person were subject to their race, thus, finding the Jews to be a “plague” and a “parasitic
vermin” needed to exterminate to assure the survival of the only superior, united and pure
race that the Nazi’s had. Hitler inspired a strong sense of community and brotherhood of the
German people by using exclusionary violence against the Jews and even the communists. It
was Hitler’s contention that the Germans needed to be united to terminate the other races and
to join in brotherhood under the same, arguably heinous, convictions. Hitler’s doings had the
intent of joining Germany under a strong sense of nationalism, of making “Germany great
again”, returning pride to the Germans, bringing strength through unity to the German people.
This action also had the clear intent of separating the Nazi’s followers in a personal and even
natural level from the opposition in a way the followers would obey with more strength the
Nazi convictions and even hate on a personal level the Nazi’s opposition, feeling as a part of
their group, seeing every attack to their group as personal allowing Hitler to violently
exterminate the excluded groups and grow in power and followers.8

5. Individual self-esteem is tied up in the grandeur of the group. This can be viewed as an
enhanced sense of “identity and belonging”.(Italy)

9
The invasion of Ethiopia is a good example of how the regime managed to enhance identity
and belonging towards Italy. This invasion was part of “Make Italy great again movement”
that the Fascist regime had promoted since they reached power. Part of this campaign was
establishing the idea of people from the nation being better that those from other nationalities.
This invasion was extremely violent and was a way to stimulate people to feel power, and at
the same time trust that Mussolini would really make Italy what “It deserves to be”. Italians
used chemical weapons in combination with conventional weapons causing a quarter-million
Ethiopian deaths in 1938, they also did conventional savageries like decapitations and
castrations. However, in the eyes of Italians who didn't knew the full story, the party used its
manipulation of propaganda to make paint Italy as the more “humane” dictatorship and
inspiring people to trust Mussolini. As a result the invasion gave the dictatorship a great level
of popular acceptance and acclaim within Italy, encouraging “identity and belonging”. It was
also a way to encourage his most loyal followers, veterans of war and officials that needed
that sense of hard-edge, tough and virile, reinforcing their nationalism. In other words, it was
a way for Mussolini to materialize his political power and show his power when he said he
would make Italy what it deserves, he was serious and he would not vacillate in achieving his
goals.

6. Extreme support of a natural leader, who is always male. This results in one man taking
over the role of national saviour. (Germany)

Hitler understood it was easier for the people to follow only one man who was the
embodiment of all of the Nazi’s convictions than following many or not having a face to their
ideology. This way, Hitler as leader of the National Socialist party used his oratory skills to
spread his thinking and his promises and thus becoming himself the body and face of Nazism.
Hitler inspired revolutions against the republic and was the face of all of the Nazi’s political
success, this way he became the Chancellor appointed by President Hindenburg when his
party had the presence and power enough to press the republic and when Hindenburg died,
Hitler didn’t become the President but managed to become join the powers of the Chancellor
and President and become himself the leader or as he is best know, the Führer of the Third
Reich. Hitler granted himself the title of Führer as the military, political and spiritual guide of
the German people. The intentions of this technique were basically to allow Hitler to rule like

8
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/victims-of-the-nazi-era-nazi-racial-ideology
9

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fascism/2017/01/mussolini_s_racial_policies_in_east
_africa_revealed_italian_fascists_ambitions.html
a dictator or monarch, with all the power he wanted being legitimised by his title of Führer. It
was easier to control the people and mold the Nazi ideology however it was most convenient
if Hitler was the embodiment of this ideology and his word was unquestionable. The intent
also goes to the messianic delirium of the Fascist leaders which want to believe themselves to
be the true saviors of the people and the people follow easier a messianic leader as a
simplistic and emotional solution to the problems the country may have. The last intent of
this technique was to make a good use of Hitler’s impressive oratory skills to “fuel the fire in
the hearts” of the Germans who wanted justice for being betrayed and wronged, and allow
himself to inspire people to trust in him to do whatever he wanted, even if it meant engaging
in war and becoming the absolute dictator of Germany and making in a way people forget
they don’t have a democracy and the power anymore by being a sympathetic, popular and
authoritarian leader. 10

7. The promotion and support of big business at the expense of the citizens and private
enterprise. (Italy)

11
Mussolini´s establishment of corporate states in the 1930’s, which basically organized
the society into corporations subordinate to the state, placing employers and workers into
professional industrial corporations which served as an organ of political representation. Most
person´s activities within their jurisdiction were controlled. Fascist basically gave orders
about what to do in negotiations, banned trade unions, and prioritized solving the conflict
between workers and employers. This big corporations would set plans for production,
stimulate enterprise, encourage production wealth, and get rid of the internal conflicts within
the enterprise. The intention of this system was to organize the production of goods and
services in corporations in which both employers and workers are represented, the
corporation was not only the place they worked in but also their legal representation.
Mussolini believed that this kind of organization was the best way to recover the Italian
economy and at the same time solve the enormous discomfort between employers and
employees that Italy was suffering. The government could intervene in this corporations
much more than most democracies at the time, which for Mussolini would guarantee the
responsible and efficient management of the enterprises and avoid conflicts. Notice citizens
were delegated to certain industries and corporations, but they couldn´t necessarily freely
decide where to work. Also, only big corporations were promoted since they were the biggest
corporations, with the potential of generating more money, while mid sized and small
corporations failed that grow within this system.

10
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hitler-becomes-fuhrer
11
https://es.slideshare.net/ElizabethLugones/mussolini-part-2-mussolini-corporate-state