IDs and Definitions

• Duce/Fuehrer (definition)• Stalin• Dawes Plan / Young Plan• Mein Kampf

Questions and Imperatives

• Describe a “totalitarian regime,” giving examples from the regimes of Hitler and Stalin.

• Discuss the changes in Italy following WWI.• Describe the 3 phases of the Weimar Republic.• How did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin come to

power in their respective nations?• Can personal liberty be maintained under

conditions of material hardship? (Class discussion)

Modern Totalitarian• absolute control by the state or centralized government• monopoly in power by the party• monopoly over the arts (use aesthetic environment to glorify ruling party)• a one man leadership, over all means of the community• Censorship• suppression of individualism and initiative• Propaganda• no existence of other parties• terroristic police & secret institutions instigate terrorism to carry out directives

= (gangsterism)• future looking toward utopia and universalism (spread to world)• psychology of hatred of the enemy• militarism (rearming receives top economic priority)• collectivism (weaken family and individual identity)...state run nurseries, youth

groups, uniforms • coercion, keep population in permanent state of fear• possible genocide when political violence pushed beyond limits

Stalin• had been party secretary, paper pusher, had kept

membership list• Trotsky had no party following and therefore was

left out on a limb• at first Stalin laid low until 1927-29• tried to break the backs of the Kulak class• the Kulaks protested by burning their stuff and they were sent to the Gulag• now there was forced collectivization, Stalin’s personal rule• he formulated a five-year plan to command the economy by party expropriations from

the factories• He ruled the economy with an iron hand, telling what should be produced (there was

no private market)• He weeded out the Jews of the Bolshevik leadership...he was an anti-Semite• Purges of 1934:

– removal of party members, secret police would arrest and denounce them, torture them and force them to sign, saying they were guilty

– 2/3 of the generals of the soviet army were shot for conspiring with the Germans• 1936-38, imprisonment in gulags and forced labor killed millions

Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili

Italy• Italy felt like a defeated power after WWI, not victorious• Italy came into the war a year after it began; during that

year deciding which side would benefit her• felt betrayed by the English and Americans• no fulfillment of the Treaty of Versailles for Italy• had been promised huge territories in the pact of London, April 1915 if

they came into the war on the side of the allies• Wilson’s “self-determination” caused Italy’s inability to fulfill territorial

ambition (i.e. Italy lost in formation of Yugoslavia)• Italy felt estranged, wanted to avenge the mutilated victory• they emerged as a battered country and the people blamed the government• had hardly any resources to begin with, a miracle they got through the

war• afterward, there was high inflation and unemployment, a rise of social

violence, strikes, social and economic chaos (manipulation)• soldiers came back to menial jobs, their minds barbarized by war

Unified Italy??

• Many in Italy never wanted a unified country; they regarding Rome as an enemy

• where Germans were law abiding, Italians rose up• jails filled with many Italians• we will revoke your sentences if you join the special

fighting forces• they were armed with knives and grenades to fight

Austria during war• now they came home and followed Mussolini, became his

squad • they were born and breed in violence

MUSSOLINI (1883-1945)• born in NE Italy, father was an active socialist• Mussolini was a tough kid• believed Italy should involve herself in the War on the side of the allies) it

would spark revolution)• fought and was injured in the War, returned home to politics• joined the socialist party like his father and started to make a name for

himself as a young man• a powerful orator and writer• one of the most outspoken critics of the government and spokesman for

veterans• his socialist ideas changed to ideas of nationalism• in the year following War, Italy experienced social unrest from political

instability• Mussolini hated liberalism and it was then Fascism was born• Mussolini became the Duce (leader)

Fascism• Mussolini founded the movement (1919), consisted of nationalist

intellectuals and war veterans, starting with about 100 followers• from Latin word fasces (“sticks bound around an ax handle, used in

ancient Rome as a symbol of unity” or from Italian “union of forces”)

• Fascists were mostly from lower middle class with many veterans (blamed government for battered country)

• the Fascist program was a combination of Socialist and nationalist demands

• they wanted territorial expansion, land reform for peasants, and benefits for workers

• Mussolini spoke out against other socialist parties and started to grow support from the middle classes and conservatives, but he did not become their puppet

Symbol for Fascism

How Mussolini got support• Fascist thugs went out at night and beat up members of

socialist gatherings• fear of Communism spread over Italy in 1920-21 (as it would in

Germany)• Mussolini secured financial support from the rich (who feared

communism) • big landowners financed Mussolini against the Bolshevik threat• Blackshirts were sent out to the countryside as security for the

landowners• # of fascists grew quickly• Italian government began to break down in 1922 from all the

chaos• Mussolini enjoyed the support of the lower middle class

Mussolini comes to power• Mussolini came into power 11 yrs before Hitler• King Victor Emmanuel called on Mussolini to form a cabinet, become

Prime Minister• On October 28, 1922, Mussolini was appointed to resolve the crisis• Mussolini seized all power legally after widespread violence and

uprisings• he was granted dictatorial power for 1 year by the King and parliament• in 1924, the Fascists party had the majority of representatives in

parliament• that same year, the leader of the socialist opposition in Parliament

(Matteotti who had exposed the fascists illegal activities in election) was murdered

• opposition demanded Mussolini’s armed guards be disbanded and violence banned

• Mussolini chose to move ahead

A Fascist State•

made known his desire to make nation a fascist state• imposed repressive measures• - freedom of the press was abolished• - elections were fixed• - arrested his political opponents• - disbanded labor unions• - fascists controlled the schools• - created a fascists youth movement (see pg. 1064, text)• Mussolini’s famous slogan in 1926• “Everything in the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state”• Mussolini gained support from the Catholic Church• - Lateran Agreement of 1929 recognized the Vatican as a tiny independent state• - he gave the Church financial support• - the Pope urged Italians to support Mussolini• Mussolini abolished divorce and told women to stay home and produce children

Germany after the war• Weimar Republic formed by the provisional government

(Social Democratic Party) in Germany following the War• other parties (Marxists and right-wing radicals) saw an

opportunity and tried to take control• Between January 6 and January 15, 1919, Rosa Luxemburg

and Karl Liebknecht attempted a coup in Berlin– called Sparticus week as the group led by the two were called

Sparticists– government troops and Freikorps put down the coup, much

bloodshed– Luxemburg and Liebknecht were arrested and killed on the

way to jail

ROSA LUXEMBURG

– a brilliant writer– leader of radical socialists– stressed the revolutionary character of Marxism– Lenin was willing to sign the Brest-Litovsk Treaty

with the hope that Luxemburg and Liebknecht would start revolution in Germany

– Luxemburg canonized as a communist saint

Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebknecht

Continued Problems• Weimar Republic was compromise that no one

wanted, therefore constant coup attempts• - 1919 Sparticus Week, 1920 Kapp Putsch• Allies had pronounced Germany guilty of starting the war

and many Germans could not accept that, “stab in the back” well received!

• economic difficulties plagued Germany undermining the Republic

• unemployment was widespread• government printed millions of dollars worth of paper

money• government issued new currency in 1923 and the economy

stabilized

America helps Germany – Why?

• America realized the problems Germany had paying war reparations, introduced 2 plans– Dawes Plan in 1924

• delay payments for 2 years• $200,000,000 loan with regular payments

on an increasing scale• Germany, with economy restored, was then able to borrow

abroad for public works projects and rebuild industry– Young Plan in 1929

• revised the reparation payments• loan of $300,000,000 with payments over 59 years

Origins of Nazi Party

• NSDAP, National Socialist German Workers Party, founded 1919 as German Workers Party

• anti-Semitism characterized its meetings• Adolf Hitler joined the party in fall 1919, was his job to find

out what was going on in the meetings, any extremist parties, Ernst Roehm had recruited him as a civilian investigator

• he was taken with the group and became its leader in 1921• Nazi party based on leadership principle of a fuhrer (leader)• Ernst Roehm formed the Brown Shirts (SA), a paramilitary

group and the swastika appeared and would be used as the symbol for the Nazi party

Nazis

• SA seemed mostly to be thugs, watched out for party leaders • but then the SS was found by Himmler, an elite version of

the SA, brutal, but in a refined sort of way, became Hitler’s guard

• Hitler gave talks at rallies, tried to get people to believe in the “stab in the back”

• 1923 putsch in Munich (putsch is an uprising), party attempted to take over the government, Hitler was arrested and spent about 9 months in prison, writing Mein Kampf

• When it came to punishment...right wingers got a slap on the wrist whereas the Communists were jailed

Hitler realizes…

• The way to take power in Germany– LEGALLY– Get into the government– Nazis in the Reichstag– Hitler sends Goebbels to Berlin– Little comes of it until…?

Phases of the Weimar Republic

• EARLY• MIDDLE• LATE

• Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start?

DISCUSSION QUESTION: Similarity in polarity? – Fascism versus

Communism?