{"id":4574,"date":"2011-02-01T02:56:33","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T02:56:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=4574"},"modified":"2011-02-01T02:56:33","modified_gmt":"2011-02-01T02:56:33","slug":"fascism-origins-and-ideology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2011\/02\/fascism-origins-and-ideology\/","title":{"rendered":"Fascism: Origins and Ideology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Post War Chaos<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The social and political upheaval that accompanied the end of World War I fused the various attitudes (elitism, racism, irrationalism, anti-modernism) that characterized the radical right of the early years of the century into a cohesive political movement, <strong>fascism.<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism was nurtured in the atmosphere of chaos, uncertainty, disillusionment, and rebellion that swept the world in 1919.\u00a0 Demobilized soldiers returned home to face unemployment, bread lines, strikes and riots.\u00a0 The successful communist revolution in Russia and the growth of an international communist movement panicked the established order, especially business interests who felt that their social, economic, and political positions were directly threatened.\u00a0 Many thought that a force willing and able to resort to unlimited counter-revolutionary violence was necessary to remedy the situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4615\" title=\"Fascism1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism1.png?resize=348%2C545\" alt=\"\" width=\"348\" height=\"545\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Mussolini Comes to Power in Italy<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Just such a force appeared in Italy.\u00a0 Seemingly coming out of nowhere, black-uniformed paramilitary groups led by a former socialist turned ultra-nationalist Benito Mussolini stepped into the fray.\u00a0 Nicknamed the \u201cBlackshirts,\u201d Mussolini\u2019s squads brutally attacked socialists, communists, trade unionists and their sympathizers.\u00a0 Soon, Mussolini\u2019s squads attracted the attention of Italian businessmen who saw them as their best guarantee against the rising tide of revolution.\u00a0 Support and money started to flow to Mussolini\u2019s <em>Fascisti di Combattimento<\/em> or \u201cCombat Units.\u201d Making full use of the prevailing mood of chaos, the fascists combined extreme violence, passionate anti-communism and brute force to propel them to the forefront of Italian politics.\u00a0 By 1921, the socialists and communists had been routed; and, backed up by his private army of Blackshirts, Mussolini becomes Italy\u2019s main power broker.\u00a0 Hailed by his followers as <em>Il Duce<\/em> (\u201cthe Leader\u201d), Mussolini rallies the fascists to march on Rome on October 22, 1922; an act that intimidates Italian King Victor-Emmanuel into naming Mussolini as Prime Minister. Mussolini used his Blackshirts to brutalize any and all opposition, and, by 1925 his power was complete. The fascist dictatorship had begun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4614\" title=\"Fascism2\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism2.jpg?resize=490%2C312\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"312\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The Fascist National Party, as it called itself after 1921, was governed by a Fascist Grand Council headed by Mussolini. In fact, however, power was much more diffused in Fascist Italy than appeared on the surface. The base of the fascist movement was the Blackshirt foot soldiers, the <em>\u2018squadristi.\u2019<\/em> These fascist squads were controlled by a local boss or \u2018<em>Ras<\/em>\u2019 \u2013 curiously, this term comes from an Ethiopian term for a chieftain. Every neighborhood, city, and province had a Ras who operated as a near independent power in his region. Thus, despite Fascist propaganda which loudly claimed a monolithic unity behind its Duce, Mussolini never had complete freedom of action and always had to take into account the wishes and rivalries of the fascist bosses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4613\" title=\"Fascism3\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism3.jpg?resize=150%2C275\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"275\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">More effective at propaganda than at actually ruling, the fascist government quite often operated as more of a Mafia-like patronage structure than as an efficiently running state.\u00a0 This despite fascist claims of establishing a modern, streamlined, disciplined system.\u00a0 As for the name \u2018fascism\u2019 itself, there is some dispute as to its origin.\u00a0 On the one hand there is the Italian word <em>fascio<\/em>, meaning a unit or detachment; on the other there is the fasces, a symbol of state authority in ancient Rome, that consisted of an axe in a bundle of rods.\u00a0 The fascists will take this ancient symbol and make it their emblem.\u00a0 Often contradictory, fascist thought claimed to reject liberalism and communism and to embrace authority, hierarchy and perpetual action and mobilization.\u00a0 The fascist slogan of <em>\u201cCredire! Obbedire!\u00a0 Combattire!\u201d <\/em> (\u201cBelieve!\u00a0 Obey!\u00a0 Fight!) embodied this sense of militarization as did the Fascist Decalogue, which every school child had to memorize:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Know that the Fascist and in particular the soldier, must not believe in perpetual peace.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Days of imprisonment are always deserved.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The nation serves even as a sentinel over a can of petrol.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">A companion must be a brother, first, because he lives with you, and secondly because he thinks like you.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The rifle and the cartridge belt, and the rest, are confided to you not to rust in leisure, but to be preserved in war.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Do not ever say &#8220;The Government will pay . . . &#8221; because it is you who pay; and the Government is that which you willed to have, and for which you put on a uniform.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Discipline is the soul of armies; without it there are no soldiers, only confusion and defeat.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">For a volunteer there are no extenuating circumstances when he is disobedient.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">One thing must be dear to you above all: the life of the Duce.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Mussolini is always right.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The fascist regime touted its achievements in expanding the educational \u00a0system and leisure-time activities, giving monetary bonuses to large families and embarking on major construction projects. Especially prestigious was an agreement with the Catholic Church which, for the first time, recognized an Italian government as legitimate. In economics, fascism promoted the idea of national self-sufficiency and large labor unions which were merged with corporate management, the corporate state. In reality, production declined, wages fell and big business and industrial interests dominated the fascist state.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4612\" title=\"Fascism4\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism4.jpg?resize=490%2C326\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"326\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Fascism Defined<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">In 1935, the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International famously defined fascism as <em>\u201cthe openly terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.\u201d<\/em> This definition, termed the Dimitrov Formulation (after Georgi Dimitrov, head of the Comintern) provides a solid Marxist foundation for understanding the nature of fascism.\u00a0 Some further fleshing out, though, is needed in order to fully distinguish fascism from other forms of bourgeois repression; for fascism is a very specific type of bourgeois dictatorship with its own unique features.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">A problem here arises because, unlike other ideologies, fascism does not have a coherent body of thought behind it.\u00a0 This is, perhaps a consequence of fascism\u2019s origins in the various attitudes that constituted the eclectic radical right of the 19<sup>el<\/sup> century.\u00a0 The closest that fascism comes to having a &#8220;Bible,&#8221; Hitler\u2019s book <em>Mein Kampf<\/em>, is very specific to early 20<sup>el<\/sup> century German issues and does not function as a unifying text.\u00a0 Many individuals from different backgrounds and concerns will come to fascism for different reasons. \u00a0Thus, there will be what has been termed &#8220;hyphenated fascism&#8221;:\u00a0 radical-fascism, clerical-fascism, monarcho-fascism etc. It is often easier to say what fascism is against than to discern what fascism is <em>for<\/em>.\u00a0 Moreover, the image fascism projects as a movement is often at variance with the reality that fascism imposes once it comes to power.\u00a0 There will be two closely related, yet distinct variants of fascism:\u00a0 Italian fascism and German fascism (National Socialism or Nazism).\u00a0 However, it is possible to outline some of the qualities which all fascist movements have in common:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism claims to be anti-liberal; anti-conservative and anti-communist.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism claims to be a \u2018Third Way,\u2019 rejecting both capitalism and communism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism strives to establish a nationalist, authoritarian regime.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism rejects the idea of class struggle, offering nationalism in its place.\u00a0 The idea of melding labor and management into a nationalist whole is variously termed, in fascist terminology, National Corporatism (the Corporate State), National Socialism, or National Syndicalism.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism actively pursues imperialism and territorial expansion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism rejects reason and rationality, and embraces irrationalism and romanticism.\u00a0 As such, fascism makes extensive use of symbols, emblems, and uniforms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism encourages the total militarization of society and espouses a philosophy of \u2018romantic violence.\u2019<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism creates private paramilitary militias.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism is extremely male supremacist, relegating women to subservient roles in society.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism sees itself as a movement of the young, emphasizing energy, health, vitality and generational conflict.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascism promotes a charismatic, personalist, dictatorial style of leadership; with the leader worshipped as a god-like figure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4611\" title=\"Fascism5\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism5.jpg?resize=279%2C340\" alt=\"\" width=\"279\" height=\"340\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4610\" title=\"Fascism6\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism6.jpg?resize=471%2C375\" alt=\"\" width=\"471\" height=\"375\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4609\" title=\"Fascism7\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism7.jpg?resize=343%2C449\" alt=\"\" width=\"343\" height=\"449\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4608\" title=\"Fascism8\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism8.jpg?resize=270%2C300\" alt=\"\" width=\"270\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Although most of its first adherents were demobilized soldiers and street &#8220;toughs,&#8221; fascism broadened its appeal \u2013 otherwise it would have remained a marginal movement.\u00a0 Industrialists were attracted to fascism for its intense anti-communism.\u00a0 Large segments of the petty-bourgeois, office workers and small business owners, saw fascism as both protecting them from big business (note the contradiction with the fact of big business support for fascism) and saving them from falling into the working class.\u00a0 Many in rural areas saw fascism as providing opportunities for advancement.\u00a0 Thus, fascism became a mass movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Fascist movements aping Mussolini\u2019s Italy and, later, Hitler\u2019s Germany, spread throughout the world.\u00a0 Falangism in Spain, Rexism in Belgium, Peronism in Argentina, the Arrow Cross in Hungary, the Iron Guard in Romania, and ex-Labour Party member Oswald Mosley\u2019s British Union of Fascists in the United Kingdom.\u00a0 Of the two variants of fascism, the Italian and German, some fascists claimed loyalty to the one, some to the other.\u00a0 The difference between the two lies in that racism and anti-Semitism, while not a necessary component of Italian fascism, is central to German fascism (Nazism.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4607\" title=\"Fascism9\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism9.jpg?resize=200%2C152\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"152\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>The Weimar Republic in Germany<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">After the German surrender in World War I, and the Kaiser\u2019s exile to Holland, a new liberal democratic government was established, the Weimar Republic.\u00a0 Led by moderates, the new German government managed to survive threats from both the left (the Spartacist Rebellion) and the right (an abortive attempt to establish a military dictatorship, the \u201cKapp Putsch\u201d).\u00a0 However, the Weimar Republic was discredited in the eyes of many for agreeing to the provisions of the Versailles Conference. This conference dismantled Germany\u2019s oversees empire, took German territory and handed it over to the newly created state of Poland, placed French troops on German soil, forbade the existence of a German submarine fleet and air force, strictly limited the size of the German army, ordered that Germany pay billions of dollars worth of reparations to the British and French and decreed that Germany bear the sole blame for the outbreak of World War I.\u00a0 Indeed, many refused to believe that Germany had even been defeated in the War; preferring, instead, to claim that Germany had been \u201cstabbed in the back\u201d by Jews, Liberals, politicians and socialists.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4606\" title=\"Fascism10\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism10.jpg?resize=490%2C354\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"354\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">This conspiracy theory, that Germany had been betrayed during the War, coupled with the failed communist revolution of 1919 led to rise of ultra-nationalist paramilitary gangs, such as the Frei Korps.\u00a0 After helping destroy the communist rising and murdering its leaders, groups such as the Frei Korps now directed their anger at the Weimar Republic itself.\u00a0 Assassination, political violence and right-wing plots to overthrow the government were rife in the early years of the Republic.\u00a0 One such attempt, the Beer Hall Putsch \u201cuprising\u201d of 1923 took place in a Munich beer hall, hence the name, when a group of conspirators kidnapped leading city politicians who were holding a public meeting in the beer hall.\u00a0 The conspirators\u2019 plan was to seize the politicians, force them to call out the army, then march to Berlin and overthrow the Republic.\u00a0 The plot was a dismal failure.\u00a0 The army refused to play along, and most of the conspirators were caught or killed.\u00a0 The leader of the conspiracy, an Austrian-born ex-corporal in the German army, was tried for treason and jailed.\u00a0 His name was Adolf Hitler.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4605\" title=\"Fascism11\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism11.jpg?resize=490%2C330\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"330\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Hitler and the Origins of Nazism<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Born the son of an Austrian customs officer in 1889, the young Adolf Hitler originally wanted to be an artist.\u00a0 Portfolio in hand, he traveled to Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in 1905 to enroll in the Academy of Fine Arts.\u00a0 Hitler\u2019s application was twice rejected by the Academy, and, penniless and homeless, he was compelled to eke out an existence on the streets of Vienna.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4604\" title=\"Fascism12\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism12.jpg?resize=282%2C426\" alt=\"\" width=\"282\" height=\"426\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Many historians and biographers have emphasized the importance of Hitler\u2019s Vienna years (1905 \u2013 1913) in the formation of his thought and personality.\u00a0 It is in Vienna that Hitler first encounters racist and anti-Semitic literature.\u00a0 Alone, bitter, resentful, too proud to work, surrounded by &#8220;hordes of alien races&#8221; (Slavs, Hungarians, Jews); Hitler moves from flop house to flop house, making a meager living by drawing post cards for tourists and spending the little money he had on racist literature and attending performances of Richard Wagner\u2019s\u00a0 mediaeval-heroic German operas.\u00a0 Moving to Munich in 1913 to be among &#8220;real Germans&#8221; likewise ends in failure, and Hitler ends up on the streets again.\u00a0 It is here, in Munich, that the declaration of war finds him in 1914, and Hitler joins the German army.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">In many ways, the army provided Hitler with a sense of belonging that he had not known since leaving home in 1905.\u00a0 He is several times cited for bravery in combat, and is awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, Germany\u2019s highest military decoration.\u00a0 This is interesting in that the Iron Cross, First Class, was a decoration usually given only to officers; yet Hitler never rises beyond the rank of lance-corporal.\u00a0 The fact has caused some biographers to wonder if there was something about the moody loner who preferred to stay in barracks reading anti-Semitic literature rather than engaging in the usual carousing of young soldiers on leave that made his superiors not want to promote him.\u00a0 In any event, the end of the War finds Hitler in a military hospital recovering from a mustard gas attack.\u00a0 Like many others, Hitler is shocked at the news of Germany\u2019s surrender and believes that Germany could only have been stabbed in the back by Jews and socialists.\u00a0 Peacetime leaves Hitler with few options, and, rather than returning to the streets, he takes a job working as spy for the German military police.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4603\" title=\"Fascism13\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism13.jpg?resize=342%2C410\" alt=\"\" width=\"342\" height=\"410\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">It is in this capacity that Hitler is sent to spy on a newly formed political group in Munich, the German Workers Party.\u00a0 In the hothouse atmosphere of 1919 Munich, the military authorities assumed that a group calling themselves the &#8220;German Workers Party&#8221; would be another communist grouping.\u00a0 After attending some meetings, Hitler is pleased to report back to his superiors that the German Workers Party is <em>no<\/em> a communist organization; rather, it is an ultra-patriotic nationalist group.\u00a0 The group\u2019s name is explained in that it intended to win German workers <em>away<\/em> from socialism and steer them into right-wing politics. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Hitler joins the group he was originally sent to spy on.\u00a0 While attending meetings of the German Workers Party, Hitler discovers a previously unknown talent, a gift for public speaking and the ability to enthrall an audience with oratory.\u00a0 Soon, the one-time spy becomes the organization\u2019s most valuable member, and then its leader (<em>\u201cFuhrer\u201d).<\/em> Once assuming leadership, Hitler changes the name of the group to the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP).\u00a0 The Nazi party, as it became known, is born.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Modeling his party on Mussolini\u2019s fascists (in fact, at this time Hitler wrote a fan letter to Mussolini asking for an autographed picture, the Duce never replied \u2013 Hitler would later remind Mussolini of this), the newly formed Nazi Party acquired a potent symbol in the ancient Hindu\/Buddhist swastika (in the eyes of some racist theorists, the &#8220;Aryan&#8221; or white race originated in northern India), an ideology that combined Italian-style fascism with virulent racism and anti-Semitism and built up a private paramilitary militia.\u00a0 This brown shirt wearing paramilitary force, the &#8220;Storm Troopers,&#8221; (SA) would be Hitler\u2019s instrument in bullying his political opponents and engaging in street fights with the communists.\u00a0 Rising to the position of SA Chief of Staff would be one of Hitler\u2019s first political followers, the battle-scarred ex-army captain Ernst R\u00f6hm.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4602\" title=\"Fascism14\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism14.jpg?resize=252%2C217\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"217\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4601\" title=\"Fascism15\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism15.jpg?resize=360%2C305\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"305\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4600\" title=\"Fascism16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism16.jpg?resize=199%2C270\" alt=\"\" width=\"199\" height=\"270\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">After the debacle of the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler is sentenced to five years imprisonment.\u00a0 The court was lenient on him, and it\u2019s worth remarking that Hitler was only sentenced to five years for <em>treason<\/em> and, actually, only served eight months of that sentence before being pardoned and released.\u00a0 During his confinement, Hitler is encouraged by his personal secretary, Rudolf Hess, to put his ideas down on paper.\u00a0 As a result, Hitler writes <em>Mein Kampf<\/em> (<em>My Struggle<\/em>), the action plan of the Nazi movement.\u00a0 In <em>Mein Kampf<\/em>, Hitler outlines his philosophy of extreme nationalism, anti-Semitism, and his plans for a new German Empire to be had in the East.\u00a0 Today, historians debate exactly how much Hitler\u2019s later actions can be traced to <em>Mein Kampf, <\/em>but the fact remains that much of it is there \u2013 from the invasion of Russia to statement that German would have been better off if a \u201chundred thousand Jews had been gassed at the beginning of World War I.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Hitler also used his enforced leisure time to do some thinking about the future of his movement.\u00a0 He concludes that attempts at a violent seizure of power, such as the Beer Hall Putsch, were wrong-headed.\u00a0 Instead, he now insists that the Nazis must come to power constitutionally, by gaining the support of the two most important groups in German society: the industrialists and the military.\u00a0 However, after his release, he finds it almost impossible to reign in the rowdy, street-brawling SA.\u00a0 More and more, Hitler finds that he cannot trust the SA to moderate their actions, and he more and more he finds them an embarrassment and an impediment to winning the support of the German elite.\u00a0 Thus, Hitler creates a new, disciplined, paramilitary force to serve as his personal army.\u00a0 Personally loyal to him and only him, this new force from the beginning thought of itself as an elite, imperial guard \u2013 in contrast to the beer drinking, back alley fighting SA.\u00a0 Sporting an all black uniform, this new force would be known as the \u201c<em>Schutzstaffl\u201d<\/em> (\u201chonor guard\u201d), the SS.\u00a0 Although at first constituted as only a part of the much larger SA, the SS, and its new leader Heinrich Himmler would play a major role in Hitler\u2019s later regime.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4599\" title=\"Fascism17\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism17.jpg?resize=217%2C297\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"297\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4598\" title=\"Fascism18\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism18.jpg?resize=352%2C547\" alt=\"\" width=\"352\" height=\"547\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4597\" title=\"Fascism19\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism19.jpg?resize=250%2C345\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"345\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">After coming out of prison, Hitler rebuilds his movement and actively courts the army and big business.\u00a0 Followers such as war hero Hermann G\u00f6ring, and the intellectual \u2013 and master propagandist \u2013 Paul Josef G\u00f6bbels are instrumental in getting Hitler the support of influential German circles.\u00a0 The Nazi Party grows in size and strength, but it will take the crisis of the Great Depression to propel Hitler into power.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4596\" title=\"Fascism20\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism20.jpg?resize=490%2C324\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"324\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4595\" title=\"Fascism21\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism21.jpg?resize=214%2C302\" alt=\"\" width=\"214\" height=\"302\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4594\" title=\"Fascism22\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism22.jpg?resize=193%2C278\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"278\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4593\" title=\"Fascism23\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism23.jpg?resize=183%2C235\" alt=\"\" width=\"183\" height=\"235\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4592\" title=\"Fascism24\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism24.jpg?resize=227%2C328\" alt=\"\" width=\"227\" height=\"328\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Hitler Comes to Power in Germany<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The poverty, despair and labor militancy sparked by the Great Depression were the factors that led to Hitler\u2019s coming to power.\u00a0 Nazi strength had grown throughout the late 1920s.\u00a0 However, many of the people whose support Hitler wanted still kept aloof from \u201cthe vulgar little Austrian corporal,\u201d and disdained his band of uniformed ruffians.\u00a0 The Depression would win them over to Hitler\u2019s camp.\u00a0 The daily scenes of unemployment and homelessness and the increased militancy of the Communist Party (KPD) caused many members of the German elite to fear that the events of 1919 were about to be repeated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4591\" title=\"Fascism25\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism25.jpg?resize=260%2C380\" alt=\"\" width=\"260\" height=\"380\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">By the end of 1932, just as the Nazi Party\u2019s electoral strength was declining, a group of conservative businessmen and politicians, led by the Conservative Catholic Party (Zentrum) leader, Franz von Papen, pressured President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor (Prime Minister).\u00a0 According to the Weimar constitution, the German Presidency was a largely ceremonial office; but the President did have one critical power, he appointed the Chancellor, the official who effectively ran the government.\u00a0 President Hindenburg was seen by many Germans of all political stripes as a bulwark of no-nonsense, traditional German values \u2013 besides, he was publicly known to detest Hitler and the Nazis.\u00a0 But Papen and the politicians were persuasive; they convinced Hindenburg that Hitler was the perfect foil to use against the rising popularity of communism.\u00a0 Once Hitler and his thugs had gotten rid of the KPD, Papen argued, then the Conservatives would no longer need him, and Hitler would be shunted aside.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Thus, on January 30, 1933, President Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany.\u00a0 Within two months the Nazis would establish their dictatorship.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4590\" title=\"Fascism26\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism26.jpg?resize=230%2C360\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4589\" title=\"Fascism27\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism27.jpg?resize=200%2C263\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"263\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4588\" title=\"Fascism28\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism28.jpg?resize=300%2C450\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>The Nazi State<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">In the early morning hours of February 27, 1933, the city of Berlin was shocked to discover that the German parliament (Reichstag) was on fire.\u00a0 Blaming the Reichstag fire on the communists, Hitler asked for, and was granted, sweeping powers in order to deal with the &#8220;emergency.&#8221;\u00a0 The very next day, the constitution was canceled, the right of <em>habeus corpus<\/em> was suspended and the KPD and SPD outlawed.\u00a0 Hitler was given dictatorial power almost overnight.\u00a0 A reign of terror was unleashed as the Nazis rounded up and suppressed communists, socialists, trade unionists and liberals.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">The press was silenced; and the first concentration camp, Dachau, outside of Munich, was opened to receive the incoming tidal wave of political prisoners.\u00a0 Although several communists were arrested and tried for setting the Reichstag fire \u2013 including a Bulgarian Communist living in Berlin, Georgi Dimitrov, who managed to refute the charges and later became head of the Comintern \u2013 it was soon evident that it was the Nazis themselves who set the fire.\u00a0 In short, a false crisis was created to justify Hitler\u2019s dictatorship.\u00a0 In order to expedite the increasing repression, G\u00f6ring formed a new police organization, the Geheime Staatspolizei (\u201cSecret State Police\u201d).\u00a0 Eventually becoming part of Himmler\u2019s SS-empire, the Geheime Staatspolizei became the main instrument of Hitler\u2019s terror.\u00a0 It fell upon some unknown clerk in the Berlin post office to devise a postal mark for the new police agency, and unable to fit \u201cGeheime Staatspolizei \u201c on to a stamp, decided to abbreviate.\u00a0 In this way, one of the most fearsome words of the 20<sup>el<\/sup> century came into existence: \u201cGestapo.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4587\" title=\"Fascism29\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism29.jpg?resize=331%2C444\" alt=\"\" width=\"331\" height=\"444\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4586\" title=\"Fascism30\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism30.jpg?resize=284%2C403\" alt=\"\" width=\"284\" height=\"403\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4585\" title=\"Fascism31\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism31.jpg?resize=250%2C198\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"198\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4584\" title=\"Fascism32\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism32.jpg?resize=275%2C317\" alt=\"\" width=\"275\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Over the next year, Hitler \u2018Nazified\u2019 German institutions.\u00a0 In a process known as <em>Gleichschaltung <\/em>(\u201cgetting into line\u201d), the German government bureaucracy, military, and civil society \u2013 even leading elements of the Catholic and Lutheran Churches \u2013 were brought into line with Nazi policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4583\" title=\"Fascism33\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism33.jpg?resize=490%2C334\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"334\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">By the beginning of 1934, most of Germany had been brought to heel.\u00a0 Only one institution remained in opposition to Hitler: ironically, this was to be his own organization, the SA.\u00a0 As the Nazi regime extended its hold on German society; the SA felt more and more disenchanted.\u00a0 Spouting a &#8220;share the wealth&#8221; attitude, the SA had hoped that a &#8220;national revolution&#8221; would have reaped benefits. It became more and more evident that this was not going to happen.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Seeing their Fuhrer rubbing shoulders with the elite and wearing white tie and tails as he attend the opera in the company of millionaires infuriated the rough and rowdy Storm Troopers.\u00a0 The SA Chief of Staff, Ernst R\u00f6hm, one of Hitler\u2019s oldest confidantes, started making ominous speeches stating that \u201cAdolf sold us out,\u201d calling for a &#8220;second revolution,&#8221; and demanding that the SA should become a new German &#8220;Peoples\u2019 Army.&#8221;\u00a0 This was definitely <em>no<\/em> what Hitler\u2019s military and industrial sponsors wanted to hear.\u00a0 They had cast their lot in with the Fuhrer to prevent just such radical talk.\u00a0 Moreover, the conservative German military bristled at the thought that an open homosexual such as R\u00f6hm, and his gang of thugs, would dare to displace them.\u00a0 Hitler stands to lose the support he worked so hard to get.\u00a0 Internal faction-fighting within the Nazi leadership also played a part, as G\u00f6ring coveted R\u00f6hm\u2019s &#8220;number two position,&#8221; and Himmler\u2019s SS would never get anywhere so long as it continued to be merely a segment of the SA.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Hitler decides to act.\u00a0 On the night of June 30, 1934, while the SA leadership was on vacation at a small German resort, Hitler strikes.\u00a0 SS troops surround the hotel where the SA leaders are staying.\u00a0 The SA men are dragged from their beds, taken into the hotel courtyard and summarily shot.\u00a0 Many, having no clue what is happening to them, go to their deaths shouting \u201cHeil Hitler!\u201d\u00a0 R\u00f6hm is placed under arrest, taken to Stadelheim prison outside of Munich, and invited to commit suicide.\u00a0 When he refuses, he\u2019s cut down by the SS.\u00a0 The bloodbath, known as the Night of the Long Knives, continues until July 2, as the SA leadership is decimated.\u00a0 There will be no &#8220;second revolution&#8221; in Hitler\u2019s Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4582\" title=\"Fascism34\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism34.jpg?resize=490%2C388\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"388\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\"><strong>Territorial Expansion<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">Three consequences stemmed from the Night of the Long Knives: \u00a0 The SS becomes a state-within-the-state as Himmler\u2019s black uniformed band assumes all police and security duties (the disciplined SS will become more of a threat to the conservative German officer corps than R\u00f6hm\u2019s SA hooligans could ever be); Hitler\u2019s power is now absolute. President Hindenburg\u2019s death later that year gave Hitler the opportunity to abolish the office of President and concentrate all power in himself as \u201cChancellor and Fuhrer.\u201d\u00a0 Hitler is now free to pursue his territorial ambitions.\u00a0 The events leading up to World War II soon will follow.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4581\" title=\"Fascism35\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism35.jpg?resize=322%2C225\" alt=\"\" width=\"322\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">After World War II was over, an American officer asked Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemoller, an opponent of Hitler recently liberated from a concentration camp, how all this could have happened.\u00a0 \u201cHow could this have happened, in Germany of all places?\u00a0 Germany, one of the most cultured and civilized nations in Europe, the land of Mozart and Beethoven, the land of science and philosophy.\u00a0 How could this have happened in Germany?\u201d the officer asked.\u00a0 Niemoller\u2019s reply has become legendary.\u00a0 The Pastor said:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">\u201cFirst they came for the Communists; and I didn\u2019t speak up \u2013 because I wasn\u2019t a Communist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">\u201cThen they came for the Jews; and I didn\u2019t speak up \u2013 because I wasn\u2019t a Jew.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">\u201cThen they came for the trade unionists; and I didn\u2019t speak up &#8212; because I wasn\u2019t a trade unionist.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">\u201cThen they came for the Catholics; and I didn\u2019t speak up \u2013 because I was a Protestant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#000000;\">\u201cThen they came for me \u2013 and by that time, no one was left to speak up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4580\" title=\"Fascism36\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism36.jpg?resize=364%2C480\" alt=\"\" width=\"364\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4579\" title=\"Fascism37\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenixnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/fascism37.jpg?resize=490%2C490\" alt=\"\" width=\"490\" height=\"490\" \/><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Post War Chaos The social and political upheaval that accompanied the end of World War I fused the various attitudes (elitism, racism, irrationalism, anti-modernism) that..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,84,92],"tags":[228,229,333,197,226,232,357,227,349,347,351],"class_list":["post-4574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-international","category-statements","category-theory","tag-colonialism","tag-economic-exploitation","tag-germany","tag-imperialism","tag-imperialist-war","tag-italy","tag-racism","tag-racist-oppression","tag-second-world-war","tag-workers-struggle","tag-world-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/fascism1.png?fit=348%2C545&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}