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Hitler's Germany

Routledge

Chapter One

Fascism and the conservative tradition

Fascist ideology, constituency,
and conditions for its growth

National Socialism may be best understood as a radical and peculiarly German formof fascism, a movement and ideology that gained millions of adherents in manyEuropean countries in the era of the two world wars of the twentieth century.The term "fascism" was first used in early 1919 by the former socialist BenitoMussolini who had left the Italian Socialist Party in protest against their anti-warpolicy in the First World War. The name was derived from the Latin fasces, the ceremonialbundle of rods and an axe that symbolized the unity and power of theRoman Empire. Mussolini turned his National Fascist Party into a militantly nationalistorganization that attacked the "weakness" of liberal democracy. Its chief target,however, was the international socialist movement reinvigorated and radicalized bythe Bolshevik revolution in Russia in late 1917. Movements similar to ItalianFascism emerged all over Europe in the years that followed, particularly inGermany, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Hungary, and Croatia, but also in Poland,western Europe, and even in the US, where, however, fascist ideas never becamedominant. Fascist movements inevitably differed from one another because eachwas dedicated to the revival of its own particular national culture. Thus ItalianFascists evoked the glory of ancient Rome while German Nazis extolled thesplendor of the medieval Hohenstaufen Empire as well as the mythical past of theNordic tribes who first settled northern Europe. But all fascist movements sharedcertain political values, beliefs, and methods, and common enemies.

Historical antecedents

Although fascism was a twentieth-century movement that developed in the specificcircumstances of Europe after the First World War, its roots lie in the nineteenthcentury. To understand fascism, it is helpful to examine its historical antecedentsand genealogy, which may be traced back to the great French Revolution that beganin 1789. Out of this extraordinary convulsion there emerged the three majorpolitical ideologies that viewed the Revolution in very different ways and competedfor power and dominance in European countries in the nineteenth and twentiethcenturies. These ideologies, though by no means monolithic or unchanging, may bebroadly designated as conservative (or monarchist), liberal, and socialist, respectively.The strength of each ideology differed widely from country to country, as did itsinternal unity. In some countries, differences on specific policy priorities led to theformation of more than one political party within each ideological camp. Althoughthese ideological movements and their political programs changed over time(which accounts for why the terms "conservative," "liberal," and "socialist" sofrequently cause confusion today), each movement subscribed to certain fundamentalgoals and values that put it in conflict with the other two ideologies.

Monarchical conservatism

Today the term "conservative" is often used in a very general sense to describe acautious political style. "Conservatism" as the designation for a broad ideologicalmovement in nineteenth-century continental Europe means more than merely acautious attitude toward political change, however; it stands for a substantivepolitical doctrine and set of values that few conservatives share today. Nineteenth-centuryEuropean conservatives viewed the French Revolution with loathing anddisdain. In France conservatives sought to reverse the changes it had brought aboutand to restore the ancien régime (the pre-revolutionary monarchical system). In othercountries conservatives sought to preserve the old order against the onslaught of revolutionaryideas. Conservatives favored a strong hereditary monarchy, aristocraticprivilege (special rights for elite groups), and an established (i.e. state-supported)Church. They believed in a divinely appointed natural order of authority and subordination.They desired a strong state that would mold character and use censorshipand surveillance to uphold timeless moral and religious standards. Quite unlikeAmerican and British conservatives today, who advocate a free market economy,nineteenth-century continental European conservatives favored an economyorganized and regulated to enhance the power of the state. They valued unity,authority, order, hierarchy, duty, and discipline, for which a powerful monarchprovided the best guarantee. The main support for monarchical conservatism camefrom aristocrats and untitled elites who benefited or hoped to benefit from theirroles in a monarchical system, but conservatism also drew support from ruralpopulations distrustful of changes in traditional practices or of challenges totraditional mores.

Liberalism

Liberals, on the other hand, supported the French Revolutionary call for individualliberty and limitations on the arbitrary power of the monarchical state. Liberalismis historically defined by three major commitments: commitment to civil libertiesor human rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedomof worship; commitment to a constitutional and representative form of government(entailing a separation of powers and an elected legislature); and commitmentto private property and free economic activity. England developed a liberal systemafter the defeat of Stuart absolutism in the late seventeenth century, and the UnitedStates has never known any other system (which is one reason why many Americanshave difficulty understanding European monarchical conservatism and the systemof aristocratic privilege). In France liberal institutions did not emerge until theRevolution. In Germany the liberal movement was much weaker and monarchicalconservatism correspondingly stronger than in western Europe for reasons thatwill be examined in more detail in Chapter 2.

    Even in France the struggle of liberals against absolute monarchy was notdefinitively settled in the great Revolution, as conservatives sought to salvage orrestore as much of the absolutist system as seemed feasible under the changed post-revolutionaryconditions. The conservative restoration after the overthrow ofNapoleon in 1815 extended the struggle into the nineteenth century and led torenewed revolutionary outbreaks in Europe in 1830 and 1848. Liberalism originallydefined itself by its opposition to the overweening monarchical state, whichhad led John Locke to enunciate his famous liberal principle: "That government isbest which governs least." For early liberals the sole function of the state was theprotection of life, liberty, and property (or, in Thomas Jefferson's words, "thepursuit of happiness"). Liberals advocated individual rights, a secular (nonreligious)state, equality of opportunity for all citizens, and equality under law. Theysought to replace the absolutist system of privilege based on birth with a system ofopportunity based on talent or merit. They believed in the possibility, indeed theinevitability, of progress, both social and technological, through the use of humanreason. Liberalism drew its main support from the rising middle class of businessand professional people (the bourgeoisie) — people of "common" birth but often ofconsiderable wealth or...