Fascism, Nazism, and Hitler’s Rise to Dictatorship
Core Tenets of Fascism
Fascism, an ultra-nationalist, illiberal, and undemocratic movement, emerged in Italy after the First World War. The term originates from the political organization founded by Benito Mussolini in 1919: The Italian Fasci di Combattimento, whose members were known as Blackshirts. Fascist movements later appeared not only in Germany but also in Spain, Poland, Austria, the United States, and other countries.
General Characteristics:
- Radical nationalism evolving into imperialism, characterized by territorial claims and aggressive, militaristic policies.
- Anti-parliamentary and illiberal stance, demanding individual submission and denying personal freedoms.
- Subordination of individuals to the state. Government led by an elite, justifying inequality through notions of superior beings and racism.
- Absolute leadership centered around a single head, supported by a cult of personality.
- Distrust of reason and intellect, often promoting fanaticism and action.
Hitler and the Nazi Ideology
Nazism is inseparable from its leader, Adolf Hitler, who effectively embodied the aspirations of many Germans facing post-war crisis. The National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party, was founded in 1920 as part of the extreme nationalist right.
In 1923, the Nazis attempted a coup d’état in Bavaria (the Munich Putsch), which failed. Hitler spent 9 months in prison for his role, during which he wrote Mein Kampf (My Struggle). This book outlined his core political ideas, including:
- Abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles.
- Racism, particularly the concept of Aryan racial superiority and virulent antisemitism.
- Expansionist foreign policy (Lebensraum).
- Rejection of liberalism and democracy.
- Hatred of communism and socialism.
- Advocacy for a centralized state led by a charismatic leader, the Führer, who would embody the German state.
Throughout the 1920s, Hitler violently eliminated internal dissent within the Nazi Party. Following the economic crisis of 1929, support for Nazism grew significantly, especially among the middle class.
Hitler’s Consolidation of Power (1933-1934)
Between 1933 and 1934, Hitler transformed Germany’s democratic regime into a dictatorship. On January 30, 1933, he was appointed Chancellor by President Hindenburg of the Weimar Republic. During the subsequent election campaign, the parliament building, the Reichstag, was set on fire. This event, blamed on a Dutch Communist, served as a pretext for a violent crackdown on political opposition, especially the Communist Party. It is widely believed the Nazis orchestrated the fire themselves.
The Reichstag Fire Decree (officially the Decree for the Protection of People and State) was passed, granting extensive powers to the police and suspending civil liberties. This was a crucial step towards dictatorship. Although the March 1933 elections gave the Nazis and their nationalist allies a majority, it wasn’t absolute. Nevertheless, the newly elected Parliament approved the Enabling Act, which effectively granted Hitler dictatorial powers, allowing him to legislate without parliamentary consent. This power was later used to eliminate internal party rivals (notably during the Night of the Long Knives).
Upon President Hindenburg’s death in August 1934, Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President, becoming the undisputed Führer. He concentrated absolute power in his hands. Democracy had ceased to exist in Germany.
Establishing the Nazi Dictatorship
Under Hitler’s Nazi dictatorship, the army swore an oath of allegiance directly to him. Political opposition was ruthlessly eliminated, with leaders arrested or forced into exile. The first concentration camps were established in 1933, initially imprisoning political opponents.
The Gestapo (Secret State Police) and the SS (Schutzstaffel, the party’s paramilitary wing) enforced a brutal police state. Heinrich Himmler, head of both the SS and Gestapo, was appointed Chief of German Police. A primary function assigned to these organizations was to ensure supposed racial purity and persecute perceived enemies, particularly Jews, who were scapegoated for Germany’s problems.
The systematic persecution of Jews began immediately. A boycott of Jewish-owned businesses was declared in 1933, and Jews were progressively excluded from public administration, universities, and various professions.
The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 prohibited marriages between ‘Aryans’ and Jews and stripped Jews of their German citizenship. In late 1938, the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jewish man was used as a pretext for a state-sanctioned wave of violence against Jews across Germany and Austria, known as Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass). Synagogues were burned, Jewish businesses destroyed, and thousands of Jewish men arrested and sent to concentration camps.
The approximately 300,000 Jews remaining in Germany faced escalating persecution, which would ultimately culminate in the Holocaust.