Society for the Study of Fascism

The Society for the Study of Fascism (GSF) was an organization during the Weimar Republic that set itself the goal of transferring the experiences of Italian fascism to Germany and organizing a unity of the political right. It was founded on December 5, 1931, a few weeks after the meeting of the Harzburg Front , by Waldemar Pabst and Carl Eduard Herzog von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha in Potsdam and provided a link between conservative circles (mainly from the military, business associations and the right-wing nationalist press) and the NSDAP . The study society saw itself as a catalyst for the targeted reception of fascism in Germany, especially among the political and economic elites. The common goal was the replacement of the democratic order and the establishment of a nationally oriented dictatorship.

From March 1932, monthly lecture evenings took place in the internal circle and various invited guests, which represented the main activity of the GSF. Despite its name and the lecture events, it can be characterized as a political club. The discussion evenings and the working groups primarily served political purposes. The focus of the organization was the conception of the future social and trade union policy, which was decidedly directed against the socialist movement. The common orientation towards Italian fascism was able to temporarily bridge the divergences between the representatives of the various interest groups. In this way, the GSF has helped pave the way to power for the Hitler-Papen coalition government.

With the appointment of the Hitler cabinet, the GSF seemed to have achieved its goal. In the weeks and months that followed, many of its members moved up to the highest government offices or were able to occupy influential positions within the emerging dictatorship. The GSF itself constituted an action committee in March 1933, which wanted to establish itself as an advisory body for the new government, primarily on economic and social issues. The position of the GSF, which called for a universal fascism for Europe and based itself socio-politically on the model of Italian fascism, soon stood in opposition to the NSDAP's claim to sole rule. Therefore, the study society quickly found itself in an isolated position, could not gain any further influence and was dissolved at the end of 1933.

Members

In the course of its existence the society had 329 members, almost all of whom were high-ranking representatives of various interest groups from the anti-republican spectrum. As a political club, the GSF established its own network, which consists mainly of leading personalities from the right-wing conservative and nationalist parties and associations, representatives of large-scale industry, the East Elbe country nobility and their respective lobby associations, professional officers and conservative to nationalist intellectuals, publicists, journalists and Publishers composed. The organization was divided into 107 ordinary and 222 study members, who in turn were divided into different working groups. Most of the political parties came from the DNVP and the NSDAP, other parties were only marginally represented. The Stahlhelm was represented by numerous people from the management level. Most of the members came from the economic sector, as entrepreneurs or functionaries of interest groups in heavy industry and agriculture.

Members included:

Herbert von Bose , employee at the German Overseas Service Theodor Duesterberg , chairman of the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten Franz von Epp , politician Hanns Heinz Ewers , writer Otto Christian Fischer , board member of Reichs-Kredit-Gesellschaft AG Walther Funk , politician and journalist Hermann Göring , politician Max Hahn , Managing Director of the Central European Business Day August Heinrichsbauer , lobbyist of the mining association Friedrich Hielscher , writer Rudolf Kratochwill , board member of Deutscher Ring Lebensversicherung . Arno Kriegsheim , managing director of the German Land Federation Gustav Krukenberg , Managing Director of the Franco-German Study Committee , Hans von und zu Loewenstein , executive board member of the mining association

Erich Lübbert , General Director of the public transport company Friedrich Minoux , industrialist Waldemar Pabst , Executive Chairman; Putschist; Director at Rheinmetall Günther Quandt , industrialist Hans Reupke , publicist Paul Rohde , industrialist Hjalmar Schacht , banker Franz Schauwecker , publicist Otto Schmidt-Hannover , politician Friedrich Reinhart , Spokesman for the Board of Commerzbank Eduard Stadtler , politician Fritz Thyssen , industrialist

literature

• Manfred Wichmann: Waldemar Pabst and the Society for the Study of Fascism (1931-1934) . With 7 documents and 3 illustrations, Berlin 2013.
• Walter Schmidtke: Society for the Study of Fascism (GSF) 1931–1933 . in: Dieter Fricke (Hrsg.): The bourgeois parties in Germany, manual of the history of the bourgeois parties and other bourgeois interest organizations from Vormärz to 1945 . Vol. 2, Leipzig 1968, p. 174 ff.
• Manfred Wichmann: The Society for the Study of Fascism. An anti-democratic network between right-wing conservatism and National Socialism in: Werner Röhr (Ed.): Bulletin for Fascism and World War Research 31/32, Berlin 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manfred Wichmann: Waldemar Pabst and the Society for the Study of Fascism , Berlin 2013, pp. 65–68.
2. ↑ Manfred Wichmann: Waldemar Pabst and the Society for the Study of Fascism , Berlin 2013, pp. 162–167.
3. ↑ See the membership lists compiled in the appendix in: Manfred Wichmann: Waldemar Pabst and the Society for the Study of Fascism , Berlin 2013, pp. 223–242.
4. ↑ Manfred Wichmann: Waldemar Pabst and the Society for the Study of Fascism , Berlin 2013, pp. 88–93.