453 Fascist movements Socioeconomic preconditions SVEN REICHARDT It is now generally accepted that fascist move­ ments did not draw on the support of the HISTORICAL BACKGROUND "panicking" middle classes (Falter 1991). The three major socioeconomic explanations for Political and long-term causes the rise of - late industrial and demo­ cratic development and/or economic back­ Fascism belongs to the "family" of right-wing wardness; sudden and profound economic cri­ authoritarian and radical nationalist move­ sis; and social tensions caused by heightened ments and regimes. Fascist movements regard class conflict - emphasize that fascist move­ the state as an organic whole and omnipo­ ments did best in countries that were neither tent principle transcending class interests, eco­ particularly backward nor had completed a nomic tensions, and ethnic conflicts. Fascism steady and protracted modernization process. and authoritarianism rejected and repressed Recent scholarship has questioned the Marxist socialism, , ethnic minori­ assumption that class should be central to our ties, and laissez-faire capitalism. One may dis­ understanding of fascism. Instead it stresses tinguish between authoritarian, reactionary, that explanations for its rise need to incorpo­ corporatist, and fascist movements and regimes rate a set of complex social preconditions like according to the degree of mass support used youth, military experience, education, religion, to mobilize society and the forms of violence and regional peculiarities (Mann 2004). The and murder used to dominate society. rise of fascist movements is poorly understood Fascist movements gained significance as the product of material and status-based mainly within right-wing authoritarian forms interests of social groups. Social contexts were of government, especially when conservatives not causal explanations, but merely created failed to establish broad social connections and gain acceptance by means of moderate opportunities. Fascist collective action cannot and/or respect for their economic be derived from psychological dispositions competence. Fascist movements also arose or social problems. Fascists were neither the where .the parliamentary system developed puppets of capital nor the rejoicing (or more late all;d, thanks to oligarchic traditions, was aptly, thrashing) third party in societies rent by not fully established even after World War 1. class struggle. Instead of deriving fascism from Lack of acceptance for a multi-party system, social circumstances we should look instead at free elections, and corresponding changes of what fascists actually did. government, as well as skepticism toward free and rational political debate, characterized this Short-tenn causes and the impact of World right-wing authoritarianism, which provided War! fertile ground for fascist movements. The destruction of the multi-ethnic empires The following political and social changes after after World War I, the weakening of traditional World War I and the played conservati$,m, the intensification of st~te inter­ a key role in the process of supporting fascist ventions in technology and business, as well movements: a widespread acceptance of social as the strengthening of aggressive nationalism welfare models influenced by eugenics; fan ­ against wartime adversaries, promoted a new tasies of a potentially total and state-directed nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s, especially shaping of society, fueled by planning for war; in the Mediterranean and East -Central Europe. radical populist nationalism oriented toward Fascism aimed to cleanse a purportedly unitary communal ties; the spread of anticommunism and indivisible nation of enemies, developing and antifeminism; the deployment of violence organicist and racist notions of society. and militarism as political instruments; and the 454 455

attraction of theatrical politics with charismatic International constellations All classifications for comparing fascist meaning and object of fascist cQmilat. eleITlents. movements aside, neither nor Italian groups. The struggle agains( "Marxism, " Between the Convention of Lausanne of Jan­ The mass mobilization of society during fascismo, the Hungarian Arrow Cross under communists, and social democrats was uary 1923 and World War II, more than 40 World War I made elitist political forms less Ferenc Szalasi, or Zelea Codreanu's Romanian their central purpose. Paradoxically million people were forcibly resettled accord­ tenable; social conflicts erupted in the class­ Iron Guard can be understood in isolation. enough, it was frequently also this very ing to ethnic, religious, or linguistic criteria stratified army and on the home front in 's function as a "historic violence that appeared to promise the (Aly 1999). The massive frontier shifts after response to hunger and hardship. Young sol­ indicator" (Schieder 2008: 149 - 249) in the middle classes peace and order. World War I, some of which conflicted with diers' experience of violence, the sometimes 1920s and early 1930s was as significant for The violent destruction of traditional ethnic self-attributions and promoted or "in­ extreme flows of refugees, and territorial shifts European fascist movements as the cultural groupings and the "rapid reintegration­ vented" this ethnicization, not merely spawned transfer and linkages between . At the [of their members] into a wholly new within the European nations created important a number of irredentist demands, but also fos ­ preconditions for fascism's emergence. time of the Great Depression, with widespread group formation" were key characteristics tered a new type of nationalism and racism. of the fascists and their "gospel of The period following World War I witnessed anxiety about the future and disgust with the Particularly in the new nations in Southern violence" (Mannheim 1952: 150-156). a militarization of public opinion and the polit­ present, Italian fascism, in particular, appeared and East-Central Europe, the combined eco­ Violence became the "decisive principle" ical culture, in which the "metamorphosis of to offer a model. People sought stability and nomic, military, political, and cultural crisis (Neumann 1988: 467) of their social the political" expressed itself in a dramati­ orientation in an authoritarian alternative after World War I inspired calls for order, secu­ organization and an expression of fascist zation and emotionalization of the political, to the parliamentary system and democracy, rity, and hierarchy as well as the emergence of a volition. The violent acts themselves stoked by the mass media. World War I engen­ in the introduction of , which value system oriented more toward the sacred performatively produced a myth that dered a "fundamental crisis of representation" supporters hoped would provide a third way than the secular, and more toward national represented their self-image and served (Weisbrod 2000) through mass media trans­ between capitalism and socialism. Arthur than class interests, which promoted the advent Moeller van den Bruck's 1922 dictum "Italia the purposes of mobilization. For the missions of glorious promises invoking hero­ and development of fascism (Mann 2004). docet" was on everyone's lips (Schieder 2008: fascists, acts of violence were indicative of ism and sacrifice. This visual, dramatic, and The thesis that fascist movements succeeded 149- 184). a creative will to live, an act of freedom, violent charging of the political corresponded in establishing themselves in countries where A European network of fascist movements collective decisiveness, and heroic deeds. to social distribution battles and rationalizing the communist and socialist movement had had emerged in the 1920s and 1930s. A The intellectual misgivings of critical tendencies, culminating in the "compulsively been especially powerful and class conflict transnational history of these diverse mutual reflection were sacrificed to aestheticized normalized society" of fascism, which propa­ particularly intense no longer holds up to receptions, contacts, and exchange relation­ action. Fascist street fighters presented gated "introspection instead of intellect, feeling scrutiny. In all European countries - with the ships that explores the chronology of their themselves as diffusely dangerous and instead of analysis, community instead of social notable exception of the Soviet Union - the reciprocal influences and transformation aggressive, targeting not one particular contradictions, ideals instead of interests." The violence of fascist movements surpassed the proces~es remains to be written, but such group, but anyone outside the martial utopian model of a society pacified in this man­ violence of socialists in the immediate postwar an inquiry is certainly needed in order to manliness in their own ranks. A propensity ner thus highlighted the repressive features of period. But fascist activities and successes in the understand the divergences and convergences toward racism and a cult of violence, social norms and discipline (Peukert 1989). various European countries were not consis­ of European fascisms (Woller 1999; Reichardt camaraderie, and the glorification of The young men who had experienced the tentlyan immediate response to communism, & Nolzen 2005). danger and adventurism as front only in the accounts of fathers and since most fascist coup attempts and violence gesture belonged to the fascist repertoire older brothers succumbed to the propaganda occurred only in the 1930s, far too late to be (Reichardt 2009). of unflappable superiority in the face of mortal considered responses or even "understandable FASCIST MOVEMENTS AS POLITICAL Violence, as a polyvalent manifestation danger that flourished after 1918. The image of reactions" (Nolte 1987) to left-wing violence. PRACTICE of fascist movements, lent them their cool masculinity parted with the nineteenth­ Yet it was more the demonization of the social­ unmistakable stamp:·thematically in polit­ century cult of conscience. The martial abso­ ist foe and the virtually hysterical (liberal) Overall, in its movement phase, fascism was ical attitudes, symbolically in propaganda luteness of the heroic, determined, and violent bourgeois bewilderment and fear, conjured up characte~ed by a combination of five traits: style and movement/party aesthetic, orga­ man was attractive particularly for nationalist by memories of the Russian Revolution and nizationally in the paramilitary combat youth, who sought to shield themselves from the unrest of 1918-1919, that continued to 1. A high degree of violence and militancy. groups, physically at movement/party the presumed unmanly weakness of returning lend the violent fascist politics of the 1930s Particularly in their early phase, fascist events and. everyday "party work" in the shell-shocked veterans. The fascist movements' the appearance of communicative appeals to movements adopted a violent style, and streets. Violence enhanced group cohesion glorification of youth fell on fertile ground, the bourgeoisie and heightened its intransi­ their combat groups embodied vitality, within and propaganda outward. It was given the socioeconomic problems of young gence. This was the source of fascism's image intransigence, youth, militarism, cama­ intended to show that fascists were not all men and the changes in and crisis of the male as a nationalist force for order and a militant raderie, discipline, virility, and physical talk and no action. The cult of violence image (Herbert 1996; Wildt 2010). protector of capitalist property relations. violence. Violent actions were the actual and action as well as the violence-prone 456 457

lifestyle demonstrated intransigence and parliamentary elections. This created constituted two sides of the same sacralized over the tensions and conflicts within the mocked any willingness to compromise or polycratic power relations and inner mode of politics. soc ially hete rogeneous fas cis t rnovcrJ')cnt:5. rational modes of the finding of justice. instability, for which fascisms had to In fascism, the figures of the uncanny, 5. Fascist movements assumed an eclectic, Even fascist regimes were incapable of a compensate with the figure of the charis­ the sublime, and the adventurous mingled vague, and sacral political stance marked regulated resolution of political conflicts, matic leader, increased militarization and with a leader/follower relationship that by an emphasis on nation and race. belligerently oriented towards foreign hierarchy, the redemptive promise of has been characterized as a "paradox of Fascism manifested itself not in a uni­ expansionism. quick success, perpetual momentum, and mutual subordination" (Gumbrecht 1998: fied ideology graspable in terms of the 2. The absence of stable organs of decision­ violent activism. 383- 389). While the leader had to embody history of ideas, but far more in the making or a bureaucratic movement struc­ The fascist movements were thus the collective whence he emerged, he historical protagonists' bodily behavioral ture. Fascist organizational work concen­ marked by two permanent and para­ also remained lofty and isolated from the routines, collective interpretive models, trated on propaganda to mobilize the base doxical pairs of tensions: First, the masses. His propagandistically polished symbols, and subjective assignments of and foster aggressiveness. The polycratic tension between the centrifugal force solitude became a condition of his political meaning, which were in turn anchored rule within fascist movements, marked by of polycracy and the significance of the charisma. The leader existed between in their actions. Fascism focused on the constant rivalries, did not, however, pre­ charismatic leader, which had no regulated the poles of his followers' trust and "political field" (Bourdieu) in which what vent a strong attachment to the movement relationship with each other and required affirmation and elevation above the mass. counted were power struggles, affects, and among the core membership. The inte­ continual renegotiation. Second, there Paradoxically, the leader had an at once emotions as well as strategic aims, while grative principles of Bund (Schmalenbach was the tension between the increasingly rigid and loose power relationship with his its implementation in the "intellectual 1922: 35-105) meant that their entire lives routine nature and perpetuation of violent adherents, since his charisma proved itself field," where what counted were coherent increasingly took place within the organi­ ideologies, doctrines, and ideas, remained acts and the propagandistic trumpeting only in interaction with, and in the faith zationallife of the movement. The largely secondary (Breuer & Bach 2010). of their extraordinary nature. In order to and acknowledgment of, his followers. The informal but effective organizational struc­ balance this tension, fascist movements opportunity for charismatic rule and the ture formed a new type of political entity A key element of fascist meaning systems were virtually obliged to radicalize their charismatic formation of community were as social movement, which integrated the was racism and an extreme, palingenetic and violence constantly. rooted in the connection between mass whole person with all aspects of his/her integral nationalism, which fostered chiliastic 3. Affinity between the "leader principle" and body and individual heroism (Gumbrecht existence. attitudes. The masculine, military, and hier­ the movement's structures. In contrast to 1998). Fascists presented and staged Fascist movements were characterized archical image of a community marked by themselves as "totalitarian democrats," by the non formalized, highly personalist the compromise politician, the charismatic fanatical anticommunism and racism as well they combined populism and hierarchy. organizational form of communion, com­ leader was eminently suited to embodying as (male) homosocial sociability manifested bined with a quasi-military organization the movement's faith in the future. The 4. An asserted monopoly on male youth and a itself in fascism's radical nationalism, which seltimage as the "organized will of youth" of the masses. The initiation process, isola­ emotionalization and aestheticization of was rehearsed practically in daily marches and tion from the outside world, uniforms, lists politics was accompanied by the ornamen­ against the "gerontocratic" and "effeminate" funeral ceremonies, and cemented by symbols of regulations, systems of privileges and talization of the masses and the closed democracies. This propagandistic thrust, from flags to uniforms. The reference to vio­ penalties, informal control by comrades, crowd, as well as a sacralized glorification which the generational conflict in postwar lence and the will, to military tradition, the pressures to conform, and use of special­ ofviolence. In many respects, fascist move­ societies intensified and stylized, was effec­ army, and the comradely community belonged ized jargon all created an informal nor­ ments assumed the character not of a "po­ tively underlined by the fact that fascist par­ to this circle of organic, integral nationalism, mative code alongside official instructions, litical religion" but of a form of sacralized ties could claim the lowest average age and whose obsession with purification and unifor­ which acted as a second, disciplinary sub­ politics (Gentile 1996). The constant use of the -largest percentage of male members of mity constructed a clear image of the enemy life. The propensity for violence· and the religious terms such as sacrifice, faith, res­ all parties of their day. Fascist propaganda both within and outside the nation. emotional and romanticized ideal of cama­ urrection, or spirit was directed against the associated the elements of maleness and This connects to the racism of all fascist raderie were not in conflict, but mutually alleged moral decay of a society branded youth with dynamism, energy, and future. movements, which made "" reinforced each other. as hedonistic, skeptical, and rationalist. A The crilt of male youth underlined the fas­ a main objective against the "inferior" races. The high proportion of paramilitaries mystical certainty of salvation and victory cist claim to represent a new, fresh force, Racism was explicitly installed as a counter­ within fascist movements - half of all and repeated reminders of the necessity of an awakening, and an avant-garde. Like model to class-based social hierarchy, and fascists in Germany and Italy, for example, struggle characterized the sacralization of palingenetic nationalism and the charis­ expressed itself often in anti-Semitism, which and a good deal more in Romania - almost fascist politics. This attitude of redemption matic cult of the leader, youthfulness was permeated not just the Nazi movement, but inevitably led to tensions between the by ruthless combat, as well as proclama­ strongly aestheticized in fascism and, like also Romanian fascism under Zelea Codreanu, paramilitary lifestyle and cult of violence tions of immortality and the impending integral nationalism, assumed a compen­ Hungarian fascism under Ferenc SzaIasi, the and the strategy for taking power through advent of a destined everlasting dominion, satory function that consisted of papering Croatian Ustasha under Ante Pavelit, and (to 458 459 a lesser degree) Italian fascism. Although a civil subordination, order with destruction, Gumbrecht, H.U. (1998) In 1926: Living on the Edge convincing integration of racism, ethnic cleans­ conservative stability with dynamic, youthful of Time. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, ing, and genocide remains a desideratum in mobility, and fanaticism with opportunism. MA. theories of fascism, it has become unmistak­ The rejection ofliberal democratic society and Herbert, U. (1996) Best: Biographische Studien iiber Radikalismus, Weltanschauung und Vernunft, ably apparent in recent years that Italian fascism socialist movements alike was .expressed in 1903-1989. Verlag J.H.W. Dietz Nachfolger, also had racist and anti-Semitic traits and in this the massive use of violence to "purify" the Bonn. respect differed from Nazism not structurally, nation, with the ultimate aim of foreign expan­ Kershaw, I. (1994) Totalitarianism revisited: Nazism but only as a matter of degree. sionism. Fascism's radicalness was fostered by and Stalinism in comparative perspective. Tel a structure of rule stabilized by charismatic Aviver Jahrbuch fUr deutsche Geschichte 23,23- 40. CONCLUSION leadership, permanent propagandist mobiliza­ Mann, M. (2004) Fascists. Cambridge University tion, and a shared attitude toward life (Broszat Press, Cambridge. Fascism may be understood as a form of polit­ 1970, 1983). While the capacity for open dis­ Mannheim, K. (1952) Diagnose unserer Zeit. ical and social practice that articulated itself in cussion and compromise was limited among Blichergilde Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main. the symbols, rituals, and world-views of a racist communists by ideological dogmatism, among Neumann, F.L. (1988) Behemoth. Struktur und Praxis des Nationalsozialismus 1933-1944. Fis­ and "ethnically" homogeneous society (Paxton fascists it was the intransigent lifestyle and cher, Frankfurt am Main. 2004). Nationalist militarists organized in mass cult of the will that hampered these mecha­ Nolte, E. (1987) Der europaische Biirgerkrieg organizations and allied with traditional elites nisms. What united fa$cisms was above all a certain political practice, which made use of 1917-1945. Nationalsozialismus und Bolschewis­ enforced the fascist cult of unity and purity, mus. Propylaen Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. an aestheticized cult of the will and of vio­ community and will. Paxton, R.O. (2004) The Anatomy of Fascism. Alfred lence. This expressive side of fascist cultural Fascist street politics successfully occupy the A. Knopf, New York. practices influenced its ideological side. Both newly vacant field of political relationships in Payne, S.G. (1995) A History of Fascism, 1914-1945. historical situations of a profound crisis of were tightly intertwined and mutually influen­ University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. democracy, in which the legitimacy of polit­ tial. Peukert, D. (1989) Inside Nazi Germany: Confor­ ical parties, government, and the state were mity, Opposition and Racism in Everyday Life. Yale SEE ALSO: Charisma; Culture and social increasingly tenuous. In such situations fascists University Press, London. movements; Nationalist movements; Nazi transformed previously loose contacts with tra­ Reichardt, S. (2009) Faschistische Kampfbiinde. movement (Germany); Racist social movements; ditional power elites into alliances. Because Gewalt und Gemeinschaft im italienischen Right-wing movements; Strain and breakdown Squadrismus und in der deutschen SA, 2nd edn. alliances with traditional elites did not succeed theories; Violence and social movements. everywhere, many European fascisms failed to Bahlau, Cologne. Reichardt, S., and Nolzen, A. (eds) (2005) Fasch ism us develop beyond the movement phase. in I talien und Deutschland. Studien zu Transfer und Fascism was a type of social movement that REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS Vergleich. Bahlau, Gattingen. adopted a radical opposition to the parliamen­ Aly, G. (1999) Final Solution: Nazi Population Policy Schieder, w. (2008) Faschistische Diktaturen. Studien tary system and the socialist labor movement, and the Murder of the European Jews. Hodder zu Italien und Deutschland, Wallstein, Gattingen. not least in violent public propaganda. In Arnold, New York. Schmalenbach, H. (1922) Die soziologische Kate­ their political style and techniques for cap­ Breuer, S., and Bach, M. (2010) Faschismus als gorie des Bundes. Die Dioskuren 1,35-105. turing power, fascists coupled repression with Bewegung und Regime: Italien und Deutschland Weisbrod, B. (2000) Die PoJitik der Reprasentation. acclamation. im Vergleich. VS Verlag fur Sozialwissenschaften, Das Erbe des Ersten Weltkrieges und der Fascism underwent changes, and needs to be Wiesbaden. Formwandel der Politik in Europa. In: Mommsen, (re)defined according to its founding, move­ Broszat, M. (1970) Soziale Motivation und H. (ed.), Der Erste Weltkrieg und die europaische Fiihrer-Bindung des Nationalsozialismus. Viertel­ ment, implementation, regime, and radical­ Nachkriegsordnung. Sozialer Wandel und Form­ jahrshefte fUr Zeitgeschichte 18,392-409. ization phases (Paxton 2004; Schieder 2008: veranderung der Politik. Bahlau, Cologne, pp. Broszat, M. (1983) Zur Struktur def NS­ 7 - 28). Nonetheless, strong similarities between 13- 41. Massenbewegung. Vierteljahrshefte fUr Zeit­ Wildt, M. (2010) An Uncompromising Generation: the fascists existed in ideologemes, propaganda geschichte 31, 52- 76. The Nazi Leadership of the Reich Security Main forms, organizational structures, militarism, Falter, J.W. (1991) Hitlers Wahler. C.H. Beck, Office. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison. and the practice of violence, particularly in Munich. Woller, H. (1999) Rom, 28. Oktober 1922. Die faschis­ the movement phase (Kershaw 1994). Gentile. E. (I 996} The Sacralization of Politics in Fas­ tische Herausforderung. 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