During the inter-war period (1920-1939), totalitarian ideas, Fascism and Nazism developed rapidly in Italy and Germany respectively. Fascism comes from an ancient Latin word fasces, which is referred to an axe tied with rods. It represents a symbol of authority in ancient Rome and became the symbol of Fascist party which rose in power in Italy in 1922. While Nazism rose in Germany in 1933, whose name came from the Nazi party, National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). They threatened world peace and became an important factor of the outbreak of the WW2. Fascism and Nazism have many things similar, however, there are also some considerable differences between them.
Concerning the background, both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany rose because people were discontented with the weak democratic governments at that time and strongly felt the Paris Peace Settlement unfair. Italians were not satisfied with the limited reward granted to them after the WW1 compared to their huge contribution (i.e. the Italian government had made huge military expenditure and the total cost of the war is 148,000 million lire, twice more than the total sum expenditure of all Italian government for 1861 to 1913) (Lee, 2000). They thought the Italian government was too weak in defending the country’s interest as it was forced by the League of Nations to agree to let Fiume become a free city, which had a majority of ethnic Italians. The League of Nations also
During the 1930’s and 40’s Nazi Germany was a dictatorship ruled by Adolf Hitler he was a cruel dictator who had a goal to eliminate all european jews this shows in “Law,Justice,and the Holocaust” where it says that he and The Nazis mainly targeted people of the Jewish faith, at the end of the war they successfully killed six million jewish men,women, and children. This event was known as the holocaust. Hitler was a very cruel and hated man by the people who weren’t being schooled by the Nazis.
World War I devastated countries throughout Europe. Economies collapsed and dismantled the way of life for the majority of people, especially in Germany. The Allied powers had blamed them for being the perpetrator of the war and so they punished Germany severally. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin ruled the country with an iron fist that resulted in millions dead and/or starving. In Italy, the country had been promised territory but never received any land.
I do not believe that there is a future to fascism. As time goes on people have wanted more of a say in their government, and fascism would not lead to that. A system with fascism does not ever work, and it could lead to corruption and the killings on many people. Adolf Hitler is one of the main examples of what fascism could lead you to. He led a genocide in his own country that killed jews, political prisoners, the disabled, and homosexuals.
Fascism is ideology which often uses totalitarianism and nationalism methods. The fascist leaders made people are the subject to the government, and limit the independency of the people, in order to gain the better for the nation. This is somehow similar to absolutism of western Europe during 17th and 18th century. Absolutism had given the monarch absolute power to rule over people, while fascism had given the leader and the nation the power to rule over the people of the state. Moreover, fascism had denied the democratic parliament system, and had only allowed the “elite” to rule over the country.
The cartoon displayed the nationalist ideology of Germany and their desire to pin the blame on the people they deemed inferior or outsiders such as Jewish people. Document A, Benito Mussolini’s The Definition of Fascism written in 1932 described Fascism from the eyes of a Fascist leader. The document laid out the positives of Fascism explained that Fascism was the best government for the people. Mussolini wanted to make the Mediterranean an Italian lake and unite all Italian people. These nationalist sentiments garnered him significant support and gave rise to his fascist regime.
As a conclusion, Arendt define totalitarianism as a combination of total terror and ideology with the potential of destructive power existing within both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s rule in Soviet Russia. Arendt’s argument was criticized massively since it draws similarities between a communist regime and national socialism which have completely different economic base and the structure of the party system (Kershaw, 2004 : 239). Moreover, there are differences between Nazism and Stalinism in terms of the role of the leader (Sauer, 1967 : 419). While fascist regimes are identical with their leaders, Bolshevism is relatively less dependent on the leaders in order to survive and maintain the social and political order. (Sauer, 1967 : 419).
The Third Reich, referring to Hitler’s reign and Germany being under Nazi rule between the years 1933-1945, is often referred to as a totalitarian state. A totalitarian state is a system of government in which all power is centralized and does not allow any rival authorities, and the state controls every corner of individual lives with absolute power. Nazi Germany has been referred to as an excellent example of this type of government. This essay will analyse five aspects of Nazi Germany to determine whether it truly exhibited the totalitarian style of government.
Nazi Germany is the common name for the German Reich from 1933 to 1945 with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in command. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as the totalitarian ruler. Under Hitler’s rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist dictatorial state that controlled all aspects of life. The fascists, in Italy, imposed totalitarian rule and crushed the political and intellectual opposition. With this being said, there are other similarities and differences between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Communism believed in a classless society, while Fascism followed a dictatorship, but maintaining a dictatorship required the suppression of the people. Fascist ideology believed that “war alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it,” which requires constant violence to prove power (Lualdi 236). By 1924, Mussolini was able to gain 65% of the vote for fascism, but in 1933, the Nazi party only gained 44% of the vote, and even with a minority ruling party was able to gain control of the government. Both Mussolini and Hitler came into power through legal means, but Mussolini was named Prime Minister in the hopes of avoiding war but after gaining control. Yet after their legal rise into power, they used coercion and violence to further their fascist rulings.
The period of the Third Reich (also known as the National Socialist period) began in 1933 and lasted until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945. During this time of history, Germany had shift its focus on antisemitism, from blaming them for its social and economic failure toward a hate for their religion and ethnic background. The Christian church, still harboring antisemitic feelings towards the Jews, attempted to further propagate antisemitism through politics. After Hitler came to power, his prerogatives were to unify the church with the state. Prior to Hitler the Nazi party was indifferent about the church.
Nazism significantly impacted the propaganda, terror and repression in a time of the abolition of the Weimar and rising of Hitler. The German civilization was greatly affected German people from 1933-1939 making the ideology of Nazism change most facets of life. The underlying nature of the anti semitic and nationalist theme amongst the media was a supplement to a large portions of society 's initial views. By the 30th of January 1933, Hitler had been appointed Chancellor. The intentions to commit to the ‘Final Solution’ was obvious when he used propaganda, terror and repression in order to influence and persuade his actions, therefore justifying it to himself and others he took authority over.
Fascism in an authoritative government that is led by a dictator with complete power. Fascists believe in extreme nationalism, militarism etc. However, the citizens of Italy were subjected to strict media control. Everything in the media was overseen by the government. However, Mussolini wasn’t the only person watching over these people.
In other words, Italy after WWII presents a physiologic and cyclical attraction to far-right ideologies. Scholars like Cas Muddle and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser have analyzed the far-right movements for long time, and concluded that in Italy and most European countries far right movements are populist and exclusionary (167). As other European countries, Italy is facing today another wave of far right populism. It is important to highlight that these populist movements are not a threat to democratic system. On the contrary, they tend to give voice to the voiceless, and support people who are at the margin (Smith).
Communism is similar to fascism,because in both theory and practice. The difference in the both is that Fascism is established in nationalism and worked towards to create a socialist utopia. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx,advocating class war leading to a society,and also property is publicly owned and each person works and is also paid according to their abilities and needs. Adolf Hitler was Member #7 of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.
The term Fascism first used by the party started by Benito Mussolini, it refers to A oppressive attitude of government that deifies the state and nation and gives to the state control over every part of national life. The causes of Fascism can be a result of a previous week regime failed to save a bad living and bad economy so the Fascism took place. For Example, the Russian revolution, the bad economy and losing the war against Japan. The bad economy and humiliation the people feel after world war I in Germany brought the Nazi party by Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini taking over a week old government. And use the coincide term Fascism.