Dictatorship in Spain
The first phase of authoritarian government
in Spain was established during 1923-30 by
General Miguel Primo de Rivera. It emerged as a
kind of military reaction to the socialist pressure
for democratic reforms and above all the attempt
of Spanish Parliament to fix 'responsibilities' for
disastrous military campaign in Morocco. Initially
the overthrow of the Spanish Cortes or parliament
was intended to be a temporary step. But a
dictatorship was institutionalized gradually.
The demise of Rivera's dictatorship
inaugurated a new phase of mass democracy
and led to the radicalization of Spanish politicsalong
both left and right lines. CEDA or the
Confederation of Spanish Right groups was the
main conservative authoritarian party during
1933-36. Its youth movement (JAP) underwent a
certain vertigo of fascistization but remained
ambivalent.
The failure of militant nationalistic ideology
in Spain stemmed partially from the influence of
intense regional nationalism (or sub-nationalism)
of Catalans and Basques, directed against the
unified Spanish nation-state. Moreover, Spanish
Civil war (1936-39) produced a polarized
revolutionary-counter revolutionary conflict in
which leadership passed completely in the hands
of the insurgent Nationalist Army which created
the Franco regime.
Fascism in Germany
The regime that took over in Germany in 1933
represented the most extreme form of fascism.
Crisis of parliamentary democracy in Germany
in the 1920s created conditions for the rise of fascism.
In the realm of ideology, there were strong
precursors to the doctrines of the Nazi era.
Racialism and imperialism were powerful themes
in the aspirations of the Wilhelmine German elite,
for whom the phrase Weltpolitik signified their
search for great-power status and a world
mission. In Vienna, the Christian Socialist mayor
combined social and administrative reform with
virulent scapegoating of the Jews for all social
ills. The repeated attempts by the communist to
bring about a soviet-like seizure of power
sharpened tensions, spread fear among the
middle classes and conservative elements, and
contributed to an atmosphere of extreme
polarization.
German Politics & Failure of Weimar
Republic
The Weimar Republic underwent a crisis in
1922-23. The collapse of the monetary system
resulted in hyperinflation, with one pound
exchanging for 15 million marks in September
1923. In January 1923 the French army occupied
the Ruhr in response of Germany's defaulting on
reparations payments. There was high
unemployment, far too great a dependence on
foreign investment and stagnation in German
agriculture. Political instability was endemic,
with no single party majorities, as many as 15
ministries between 1919 and 1928.
The Weimar Republic refers to the political
system that came into place in Germany after
World War I and continued till the Nazi takeover
in 1933. The name comes from the town of
Weimar in Germany were the Republic's
constitution was promulgated. The threat from
revolutionary socialism, which became the
Communist Party, was to be a constant feature
in the Weimar period till the rise of the Nazis.
Stresemann was the most important political
leader in the country. He vigorously opposed the
French occupation of Germany's Ruhr valley. He
got the Dawes plan of 1924 for the economic
reconstruction of Germany ratified in the
Reichstag of Parliament. He gained German
admission to the League of Nations in 1926, and
also encouraged and helped stimulate German
economic recovery by rationalizing German
industry through a series of cartels, and an
aggressive export drive.
Despite all efforts, Weimar experiment
collapsed under the weight of the economic crisis
after 1929. The Wall Street Crash of October 1929
had a terrible impact on Germany, with the
withdrawal of American loans, loss of export
markets, and collapse of industrial production.
Unemployment rose to 5.6 million in 1932. A
series of political intrigues in January 1933 led to
an agreement to a conservative coalition to be
led by Hitler as Chancellor.
There were to be only three Nazis in a twelvemember
government, and the conservatives
believed that they could use Hitler to suppress
the left. In a series of ruthless political move Hitler
proved them disastrously wrong, as he
consolidated his hold on power, crushed all real
and potential opposition, and created a highly
centralized state.
The Enabling Act (Law for Removing the
Distress of People and Reich) was passed on 23
March 1933. This became the legal basis for
Hitler's dictatorship. Legislative power was
transferred to the executive, politically undesirable
and 'non-Aryan' civil servants dismissed. After
the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933 a state of
emergency was proclaimed the following day.
On 2 August 1934 Hindenburg died and Hitler
assumed the office of President. Henceforth all
armed forces personnel were required to swear
and oath to the Fuehrer and the Chancellor.
Anton Drexler in Munich founded the
German Workers Party in 1919) In 1920-21 Hitler
has emerged as the leader of the party, which
soon after became the German National Socialist
Worker's Party (NSDAP). On 14 July 1934 the
NSDAP was declared the only political party in
Germany, with attempts at forming other parties
punishable under criminal law. After the
Enabling Act was passed, major changes were
introduced which rapidly altered the juridical
basis of the state.
Thus, the legal lights of the Third Reich
proudly proclaimed that "Hitler is the Law", and
produced theories transforming the principle of
the legal state into that of the leader state, or
Fuhrerstaat. The extra-legal notion of the Leader,
to whom the civil service and the Army swore
"unconditional obedience" by "sacred oath",
assumed crucial importance in administrative
functioning and signified a decisive break with
constitutionalism.
The fascist bureaucracy in Germany formally
submitted to the "leader-principle", that is, a
single charismatic leader controlled the entire
movement, the party, and the state.
Ascendency of Nazism
The new regime's attitude to women and the
family was an admixture of ultra-conservative
patriarchal sentiment and the racialist biological
characteristic of Nazi ideology. The slogan
"Kinder, Kirche, Kuche" (kids, church, kitchen),
became the favourite mode of referring to the
social role of women. The production of "racially
pure" babies became the Nazi's obsession, and
various financial and ideological incentives were
offered to females to give birth to more children.
These incentives ranged from marriage loans and
child subsidies to parents with large families,
towards such as the Honour Cross of the German
Mother in bronze, silver and gold, for mothers of
four, six, and eight children.
The Nazis were highly antipathetic to liberal
and cosmopolitan culture. Chambers whose
decisions had the validity of law were set up for
every sphere of cultural life, including the fine
arts, music, theatre, literature, press, radio and
films. The Press was completely controlled by
standing directives and oral instructions issued.
All education from primary school curricula to
university instruction was Nazified, Textbooks
were re-written and Mein Kamf was elevated to
the status of unfailing pedagogical guiding star.
Teachers were required to join the Nazi
Teachers League and swear allegiance to Hitler.
Jews were forbidden to teach. "Racial Science"
was introduced in curricula, which required
teaching the racial theories of the Aryan-German
master race and the Jews as the breeders of all
evil. Hitler was nominally a Catholic. However,
his stance toward the churches of various
denominations was hostile, and at best utilitarian.
Nazi party program spoke of the need for a
"positive Christianity", Within the Protestant
tradition too, there was conflict, but Nazism fed
upon the anti-semitic prejudices of the Lutherans.
(Martin Luther was ferociously anti-Jewish and
a staunch believer in absolute obedience to
authority.) On the whole however, the churches
remained loyal to the regime and fulfilled its
needs by ordering all pastors to swear allegiance
to the Fuehrer. During the war the 30 point
program for the national Reich Church of
Germany outlined Nazi church policy, which
included the elimination of Christian teaching,
the cessation of the publication of the Bible and
the placement on altars of nothing except a copy
of Mein Kampf and a sword.
Genocide
The most oppressive aspect of Hitler's regime
was a systematic persecution of the Jews. The
Nuremburg Laws of 15 September 1935 deprived
Jew of German citizenship, confining them to
"subject" status. Marital or extra-marital relations
between Jews and 'Aryans' were forbidden.
Three more laws over the next few years outcast
them completely.
The first concentration camps came up in
1933 under the SA. After the Roehm purge of
June 1934, the camps were turned over to the
SS, with guard duty being assigned to the
Death's Head units. Thus did the names such
as Dachau, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald
acquire notority. The actual process of
extermination was begun with the so called
euthanasia practiced on 70,000 mentally infirm
Germans between 1938 and 1941. In late 1941
this method was applied to concentration camp
victims unfit to work- camouflaged gas vans were
employed to gas Jews.
Mass extermination in gas chambers began
in Belzec, in Lublin district of Poland in March
1942. Jewish slave labours were also
systematically machine-gunned. The largest camp
was Auschwitz-Birkenau, where between 2 to 3
million Jews, along with gypsies, Poles, and Soviet
prisoner of war were murdered.
Conclusion
Fascism has been interpreted in multiple
ways. According to the Marxist position, Fascism
is a violent, dictatorial agent of finance capital.
It has been billed as a unique expression of Middle
Class Radicalism or product of a cultural and
moral breakdown. It was the result of Extreme
Neurotic or pathological impulses.
Some theorists have tried to understand
Fascism as product of the rise of amorphous
masses with the breakdown of traditional
identities based on kinship, church, guild and
residence, etc. and a form of Bonapartism or an
autonomous authoritarian government independent
of specific class-domination.
