The Rise of Fascism in Italy and Germany

by Luca Sand (CY) The rise of fascism in Europe was the pivotal event in modern history, and began in Italy and Germany in the mid-19th century.

Whereas other established states such as Britain, France and Spain, had a clear political structure and unified economy, the two nations at the centre of Europe were but a collection of small independent states, linked in loose coalitions. Their transformation into fascist dictatorships was accelerated by nationalism, the First World War and the devastating effects of the inter-war period. As Theodore Roosevelt once said: ‘People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made’.

Italy

Italy was united in 1861 under King Victor Emmanuel II, but only became fully unified in 1870 after the annexation of Rome and the Papal States. Despite this, the idea of an Italian nation meant little to the people, who cared not for nationalism, but instead were defined by ‘campanilismo’, a sense of identity linked to the precise location of their birth. ‘Campanile’, meaning clock tower, is the pride of each town or village in Italy, often hundreds of years old, and the focal point of every settlement to this day. The predecessor of the nationalist movement – irredentism - brought Italians closer together after Italy’s unification. The ‘irredente’ belief was that all areas considered to be culturally, linguistically, or historically Italian, including many areas outside Italy’s borders such as the Adriatic coast, should come under Italy’s rule. Italy carried little weight though and did not have political or military power to oppose Austria-Hungary, which ruled most of the ‘irredente terre’ in the 19th century. The future fascist party blamed the government’s weakness at the time for their failure to capture these lands. Image: Italian fascist propaganda postcard on the Italy-Germany Axis, 1936

By the turn of the 20th century, Italy had travelled a long way – nationalism was on the rise and the economy was significantly improving, turning Italy into an industrialised state. The First World War was a major turning point in Italian history. Many bloody battles were fought with the Austro-Hungarians, mainly the Battles of Isonzo (all 12 of them), in which they lost hundreds of thousands of men. Despite being on the victor’s side of WWI, all Italy got in the Treaty of Versailles was small lands around the minor city of Trieste and a pat on the back, where they expected to receive the Adriatic coast, former Ottoman colonies and more. Many Italians felt insulted by this and viewed the Allies as having betrayed Italy. Mussolini and the Fascist party used this to their full advantage.

In the coming years Mussolini’s fascists gained huge amounts of support due to Italy’s struggling post-war economy and humiliatingly small gains at Versailles. Throughout the 1920s, Socialist and Communist parties emerged as the only prominent rivals of the fascists – until 1926. In this period, there were violent clashes in the streets and frequent political assassinations. Not long after, the fascist dictatorship was formed. In 1922 they marched on Rome. Due to this the Prime Minister resigned; the king could not form another government. With no other liberal politician able to gain support for a government, Victor Emanuel invited Mussolini to become Prime Minister, and was thereafter reduced to a figurehead. By 1924 the Fascist Party had won the crucial 66% of the vote, and in 1926 Mussolini was granted the right to rule by decree and opposition parties were officially banned. Thus, the first fascist state in Europe was born, just over half a century after the nation’s birth.

Germany

In 1871, one year after Italy’s formation, the representatives of each Germanic state gathered in Frankfurt to create a German nation. Their first call of order was to draw out the boundaries. Due to a recent war and the inclusion of many non-Germanic peoples, Austria was excluded. They issued a Declaration of Rights and drew up a constitution. The new chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck, formed a new government: the Reichstag. However, it had no say in his policies, it just approved laws and decided the annual budget. In the Reichstag, the Social Democratic Party was the one party that would never give support to Bismarck; he in turn despised socialists. Despite this, the Social Democratic Party was on the rise in the early twentieth century, with one in three Germans voting for it. Simultaneously, nationalist sentiment

was growing. Just before WWI, Germany, not content with being the greatest European land power, engaged in a naval arms race with Britain, which dominated this field. Newspapers and politicians from both sides stirred up nationalist feelings, as citizens of each country cheered with every new battleship, each bigger, better, and crucially more expensive than the last. Eventually in 1910 Germany refocused its military spending on the army; however, the damage to Germany’s relationship with Britain remained.

Four years later, Germany was at war. After the murder of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, Germany pressured Austria-Hungary into sending an extremely harsh ultimatum to Serbia, one which could never be accepted. Germany gave the green light to Austria-Hungary for war, and so Russia backed Serbia; France backed Russia. This was an important step in gaining the support of the socialists, as Russia was now the aggressor.

After a long and bloody war, Germany had to concede. An armistice was signed on the 11th November 1918. A permanent agreement was signed in 1919 - the Treaty of Versailles. Its consequences were far-reaching. The sanctions imposed on Germany included: war reparations of billions of marks (money Germany did not have); losing all land gained by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Russia in 1917 and it had to reduce its army and navy drastically, could have no air force and had to demilitarize the Rhineland, the country’s main industrial area. It could be argued this sowed the seeds for the next war, some twenty one years later.

Between 1919 and 1939, Germany underwent huge social struggle and political change. The post-war government was established in 1919. The Weimar Republic, named after the small city in which it first met, could not gather in Berlin due to political tension and threat of socialist revolution. The major change from Germany’s pre-war government was the removal of the emperor, replaced by a president and chancellor to balance power. The Weimar Republic struggled to gain legitimacy and was handicapped by its association with national defeat and humiliation. Adding to this, there was never one dominant party, instead a coalition of different parties that constantly disagreed: on the left, the socialist and communist parties; on the right, the nationalists who wanted to bring back the emperor and overthrow the restrictions of Versailles. Just two years after the republic’s creation, Germany was thrown into chaos by hyper-inflation of the currency. Between 1919 and 1923 political assassinations and violence plagued the country. One such murder was, by no coincidence, the man who had represented Germany at Versailles. the place of the largest party in the Reichstag. Nationalist sentiment was high, accelerated by Hitler’s powerful and persuasive verbal skills, promoting himself as the nation’s leader. The old president Hindenburg was the only restraining force; he swore never to let such an intolerant man become chancellor. However, with his untimely death in 1934, Hitler assumed the role of chancellor and president.

Adolf Hitler’s party was side-lined for most of the 1920s. It was called the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP); of right-wing ideology, it only included ‘socialist’ to appeal to workers. He wanted to destroy political divisions and create a unified Germany, with him as führer. In 1923 he marched on Munich with support from local army units in an imitation of Mussolini’s march on Rome. It was a dreadful failure, and Hitler was sentenced to prison; however, he received a light sentence – only five years - because he was acting for patriotic reasons and was released after only one year.

Had it not been for the Great Depression and the renewed economic turmoil it brought to Germany, it is most likely that the Nazis would never have become a power. In 1930 the government - a coalition - broke up. A subsequent election saw the Nazi party rise from 2.6% of votes to 18.3% as a result of rapidly increasing unemployment and social hardship. At the next election in 1932 they gained 37.3% and assumed The Nazi party grew substantially in the Reichstag, and with two thirds of the vote, Hitler began to ban other parties and crack down on opponents. Soon after, he had fulfilled his promise to overthrow the Treaty of Versailles. He reintroduced army and air force conscription, he sent troops into the Rhineland, and performed the Anschluss - the banned unification with Austria - in 1938. The Allies played a game of appeasement, hoping the Nazis would stop. By 1939, the Second World War had begun.

With the power of hindsight, it is quite clear that the rise of fascism in Europe could have been avoided, and consequently the Second World War.

However, human emotions are plain to see: revenge on the Western Powers at Versailles; vengeance for Italians and Germans during the inter-war period. The rise of fascism changed the course of the 20th century.