Question: In what ways did Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany differ ideologically?
Identification and Evaluation of Sources
Nicolaides, Angelo. "Evaluating National Socialism as a “True” Fascist Movement." Advances in Historical Studies 2 (2013): 11-16.
Nazism and fascism have been regarded, in theory, and practice, as belonging to the same ideological family. The author interrogates this premise and discloses certain overlaps and affinities with other ideologies such as conservatism, socialism and liberalism. The author also notes that fascism as well as Nazism, also termed as National Socialism, has a series of contradictory strands and serious internal tensions especially at the level of race, state and nation necessitating the question which one constitutes the true fascist movement. With this in mind, the author goes ahead to offer not just similarities between fascism and Nazism but also areas of commonalities. In doing so, the author attempts to demonstrate differences at the level of ideology and also practice. In brief, therefore, this material offers insights on the origins and nature of fascism and Nazism and goes ahead to undertake a comparative analysis of the two.
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Paxton, Robert. The Anatomy of Fascism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004:135-170
This book by Paxton is a wonderful introduction to fascism more so its ideological roots and how it evolved both in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as well as other parts of Europe in what in termed as ‘Unsuccessful Fascisms’. The account therein stands out for its great detail and makes a comparison with other events taking place in continental Europe. Thus, the reader gets a contextual understanding of fascism which is crucially important for any inquiry into fascist ideology. In offering such a contextual account, fascism in Italy and its version in Germany in effect are analyzed. Though it is not the intention of the author to delineate between the two ideologies, his discussion, inter alia, proffers such insights.
Investigation
Modern accounts of Fascism and Nazism regard the two ideologies as belonging to the same ideological family. Such accounts tend to over emphasize the areas of harmony between German Nazism and Italian fascism which, for all intent and purposes, are many despite the considerable lack of coherence and intellectual confusions in both ideological systems 1 . The confusions that mired the two are not hard to find: both were middle-class movements that sought the restoration of traditional gender and social hierarchies, and yet they laid claim to a revolutionary status that would lead to new racial and national communities. Both at one point, especially in the case of fascist Italy, promised private ownership of means of production and respect for private property and yet they built a mercantilist vision that suggested complete state control of the economy. Above all, the two regimes advanced a Spartan-like ethics of austerity, the subordination of self to the group and self-denial which was not shared by a majority of Italians or Germans nor reflected in the behavior of the political or military leadership 2 . Despite these far-reaching discontinuities, the similarities between the two systems are indisputable.
Both ideologies emerged in Europe after World War I when the European political system was in a crisis 3 . Both notoriously combined vicious kinds of nationalism and highly emotive xenophobia. Any form of political opposition was disallowed and summarily crashed as it was deemed dangerous to the unity of the state; to this end, totalitarianism was deeply entrenched. The state in both systems expressed far-reaching control over the economy and many other aspects of life 4 . Both were also mass movements by the middle class and were unequivocal in their rejection of liberalism, socialism or any other major ideology of the time. Furthermore, the two nation’s leaders were key sources of the ideas expressed, and there exists evidence to indicate a level of ideological exchange between the two. In both, totalitarian dictatorships were not just accepted but perceived as justifiable since only a superior leader could ensure the collective will of the people was exemplified. Hitler was hateful and distrustful of all while Mussolini thought that all people are selfish and not worthy of trust. This negative view of human nature was characteristic of the two systems 5 . It is argued here that despite these similarities that have led to fascism and Nazism being perceived as essentially the same, there remained a number of subtle and patent ideological differences worthy of attention that separated the two systems.
Perhaps the issue of race was the most profound ideological difference between Nazism and fascism. Nazi Germany was characterized by a strong volk tradition while this was nearly absent in Italian fascism. In the former, the race was a strong ideological factor that was used to separate various social spheres. There were three major races in German society: the Aryans, the Jews and the blacks. The Aryans were said to be the master race, superior to all else and thus it was argued they had more rights, including of survival more than the rest. The Aryans were described as cultural founders and responsible for creativity in the arts, literature, music, political thought and philosophy 6 . Other races were thus bearers of culture, meaning they were merely capable of utilizing these initiatives and ideas of the Aryan rave but unable to engage in their own acts of creativity. The Jews were said to be destroyers of culture and were in an unending struggle against the creative and noble Aryans 7 . Additionally, drug use was associated with the Jews. According to the Nazi office of racial purity, the Jewish personality was described as drug-dependent, and they were to be exterminated from Germany 8
The future of the German nation, argued Hitler, was reliant on the maintenance of the racial purity of the Aryan race as well as its continued dominance over the Jews. The quest to safeguard the purity of the Aryan race led to the passage of laws that allowed for sterilization of those deemed to be hereditarily ill and thus capable of producing inferior offspring. Secret murders of those considered to be weak and an affliction to society were also authorized to prevent the possibility of breeding. In the interest of racial purity, it is estimated that about 550,000 people were unwillingly sterilized and an additional 200,000 were secretly murdered between 1933 and 1945. These events acted as a prelude to the holocaust in which nearly six million Jews lost their lives 9 .
The Nazis used the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche as a theoretical basis of their outrageous acts. In specific, the idea of superman or ubermensch proved persuasive. Nietzsche has argued human beings are inherently different and that some members of the human race were endowed with superior capabilities than others and as such societal domination was inevitable. There would, therefore, reasoned Nietzsche, always a ruler who governed over the weak. Thus, the Nazis saw inequality as a function of biological differences and as a permanent feature of interaction between different races. The Negroes, the Slavs and Jews were thus naturally inferior to the Aryans. Underscoring this point, Hitler once noted that progress amongst human is not the doing of the majority but rather a product of the energy and genius of the personality 10 .
In Italian fascism, by contrast, racism and anti-Semitism were less ideologically significant. In the 1930s, about 50,000 Jews were residing in Italy. Italian Jews tended to be within the middle class, were involved disproportionately in academic life and more than the rest of the Italian population, more likely to be members of the fascist party. Racism did not seem to play such a significant role in Italian society, and when it did, such prejudices were largely directed towards the Arabs and Africans rather than Jews. In fact, the level of these irrational biases was a far cry from what was witnessed in Nazi Germany. Indeed, Italy referred to Germany as a ‘racialist lunatic asylum’ 11 .
Other than not reaching anywhere close to the astonishing levels of anti-Semitism rampant in Germany, the levels of controlled violence and intensity of terror were much less in Italy. This should however not be interpreted to mean the absence of racial discrimination or superiority in fascist Italy. Nietzsche idea of ubermensch was used to justify fascist Italy colonialization of Africa. When the Italians invaded Ethiopia, anti-Ethiopian racist laws were imposed, and some fascists argued at the time that if the fascist project was going to be accomplished in Italy, then there was a need for Italians to generate a greater sense of their own race. Anti-Jewish laws would later be introduced in Italy towards the end of the 1930’s which included a ban on teaching, marriage with Aryan Italians and from the fascist party in Italy 12 . These developments can, however, be argued to have been the result of influences from Nazi Germany. As some have rightly noted, the adoption of anti-Jewish policies which caused tremendous anxiety to Italian Jews led to a lot of sympathy from the bulk of the Italian population. In fact, the king, military sections, some fascist party leaders and the Catholic Church were deeply opposed to anti-Semitism. It is instructive that even when German forces moved into Italy and embarked on a project of sending Italian Jews to concentration camps, about 80% of Italian Jews evaded capture thanks to the help they got from the Italian people.
An additional point needs to be mentioned here about the nature of Italian fascism that distinguishes it from that of Nazi Germany. While discrimination and persecution in the latter were premised on biological and racial discrimination, in the former, it was influenced by the interpretation of the sociological theories of elitism inter alia that were propagated by such thinkers as Vilfredo Pareto and Robert Michels.
The conception of the nature of the state also varied significantly between the two. Italian fascists developed and advocated for a totalitarian state in which power was concentrated in the hands of the state which itself was under a charismatic leader leading, in the fascist, conception, to a totalitarian democracy which was considered superior to a liberal democracy. It was considered superior because it would foster a sense of national unity that transcends any social fractures that are ascribed to pressure groups and political parties. In doing so, the self-serving liberal individual would be replaced by one concerned about national interest as defined by the political leader. The Nazis were opposed to this view and argued that the state ought to be merely used as a mechanism for the Aryan race to continue its domination. In practice, however, the German Nazis ended up being more totalitarian than Italian fascists 13 .
Italian fascists also claimed that totalitarian rule would lead to the growth a corporate state in which the state engenders cooperation as opposed to a confrontation between trade union leaders and business thus fostering greater economic efficiency and national unity. The corporate state theory had always been a core ideological ideal of Italian fascists 14 . Cooperation was seen as being better than the negative class conflicts which had been spurred by other ideologies such as Marxism and liberalism. While radical socialists subscribed to the inevitability of class conflicts as the final stage of capitalism and trade unions and socialist organizations sought to use their political influence to bring about reform or overthrow the current regime, fascists thought it was possible to cooperate harmoniously on such issues, and as such, rejected such ideological systems. Instead, all these actors ought to give up their independent positions and participate as partners in the corporatist state to ensure social progress. In Germany, such corporatist views were rejected since the German economy was intended to remain under private control and ownership 15 . The objectives of the German economy were nonetheless to be set by the Nazi Government. Furthermore, the abolition of all opposition to the government, including political parties and trade unions, meant that there were no actors to cause the conflict that was being avoided in fascist Italy. It needs to be noted here that even the corporate state envisaged in Italy did little, if nothing at all, to ameliorate the living standards of workers it had laid claim to help.
Ideological differences also existed in the arena of foreign policy. Fascist Italy was based on expansionary nationalism though her expansionary aspirations were confined to northern Africa and the Balkans. Italy’s military forces were hardly prepared for war, and this explains their limited military achievements. Germany’s foreign policy goals were vast in scope and extended beyond Eastern Europe 16 . Italian fascist ideology was also more dependent on traditional sources of authority than was Nazis Germany. Thus, the former had to conform more to traditional values espoused by institutions like the Catholic Church which were relatively power. Nazi Germany, however, was minimally influenced by traditional centers of power in shaping her ideology partly because German Catholics and Protestants had limited influence in the country 17 . Also, while in Italy King Victor remained head of state, in Germany, Hitler overthrew the Weimar Republic to become chancellor and head of government 18 .
Reflection
The main method employed by the historian in such an inquiry is reliance on secondary and primary data sources. The latter is particularly important in offering first-hand information in a world of competing accounts of events. In this case, it would entail the biographies of the various actors involved. The historian nonetheless faces the challenge of having to sift accurate from the exaggerated opinion in such materials typically through a comparative analysis of accounts. In doing so, the historian, unlike the scientist, finds himself in the business of discriminating between competing accounts, a project riddled with the possibility of human biases. Maintaining objectivity is, therefore, a matter of necessity for the historian.
Since most historical accounts cannot be proved-since most actors are dead- reliability in competing versions is a major challenge. The historian here is bound to develop the closest possible thesis. This entails attempting to put oneself in the historical circumstance under study and predicting what would have been the most likely course of action. Therefore reliance on a version will depend on the demonstrable methods of inquiry used, and this partly distinguishes a historian from any other inquirer of historical events. This perhaps explains why historical accounts do not guarantee the truth of what happened.
Bibliography
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1 Angelo Nicolaides "Evaluating National Socialism as a “True” Fascist Movement." Advances in Historical Studies 2 (2013): 11-16.
2 Robert Paxton. The Anatomy of Fascism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004:135-150
3 James Nicholls. Weimar Republic and the Rise of Hitler. The Macmillan Press, 1991.
4 Weinberg, Gerhard. A World at Arms: a Global History of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994:56-87
5 Valentina Follo. "The Power of Images in the Age of Mussolini." University of Pennsylvania, 2013: 100-160.
6 Gori, Gigiliola. Italian Fascism and the Female Body: Sport, Submissive Women and Strong Mothers. Routledge, 2004:58-62
7 John Ezard. "Germans knew of Holocaust horror about death camps." The Guardian, 2001. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/17/johnezard
8 Rachel Cooke. "High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse steered the course of history." The Guardian, 2016. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/blitzed-norman-ohler-adolf-hitler-nazi-drug-abuse-interview
9 John Ezard. "Germans knew of Holocaust horror about death camps." The Guardian, 2001. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/17/johnezard
10 Martin Blinkhorn. Mussolini and Fascist Italy. Routledge, 1994:86-99
11 Thomas Rohkrämer. "Modernism and Fascism. The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler." Oxford Academic, 2009: 448-449.
12 Christopher Bollas. Being a character: Psychoanalysis and self-experience. Routledge, 1993:205
13 Philip Morgan. Italian Fascism 1919-1945. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003:69
14 Stephanie Hodgson. "Hitler and Mussolini: A comparative analysis of the Rome-Berlin Axis 1936-1940." E-International Relations Student, 2011.
15 Gary Lee Frazer. "Nature of totalitarian diplomacy: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini as test cases." The University of Montana, 1986.
16 Timothy Snyder. "The Reich's Forgotten Atrocity." The Guardian, 2010. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/21/secondworldwar-russia
17 Thomas Childer. "Five myths about Nazis." The Washington Post, 2016. Accessed December 17, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-nazis/2017/10/20/f4463dea-b2b5-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.4445aff30c0f
18 Christian Goeschel. "Staging Friendship: Mussolini and Hitler in Germany in1937." Historical Journal 60, no. 1 (2016): 147-172.
