Fascism theory

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Theories of fascism are scientific theories that attempt to describe and explain the historical phenomenon of fascism in its essential characteristics and causes. Various theoretical approaches have been developed in the history and social sciences, which differ primarily in the assessment of which features of fascist movements are to be regarded as characteristic or paradigmatic , and which social and historical factors have led to the emergence of these movements.

Historical overview

The ideas on which the fascist ideology and the nationalist , collectivist and / or corporate movements were based developed essentially before the First World War ( prefascism ) and began to have an impact in the political arena after it had ended.

Since the early 1920s - parallel to the rise of Italian fascism  - numerous different interpretations and theories about the nature and causes of fascism have been developed. Based on the respective scientific perspective of their authors, these theories have either a sociological, socio-economic or socio-psychological focus. The early theoretical approaches regarded the ideology and politics of Benito Mussolini's party as a defining characteristic of other comparable movements in Europe. Above all , they understood German National Socialism as an extreme form of fascism. While this came to state power only in Italy and Germany, in the years 1920–1940 it produced socially and politically influential movements and parties in many other European countries.

In several resolutions of the Communist International from 1924 to 1935, fascism was defined as the “terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinist and imperialist elements of finance capital” (Georgi Dimitrov). The social fascism , was meant social democracy, has been declared a world political opponent whom it applies primarily to fight.

In the real socialist Eastern Europe of the Eastern Bloc , especially in the GDR , National Socialism in particular , but also other anti-communist , right-wing authoritarian and social democratic movements or parties, were referred to as “fascist” or “fascistoid”. The term Hitler fascism was also used for the ideology and the time of National Socialism , since the term National Socialist includes the word “socialist” and this connotation was to be avoided.

Western European Marxism , too, viewed fascism from a socio-economic point of view as the expression and consequence of a deep crisis in monopoly capitalism . Approaches based on a class analysis varied from an agent theory to the thesis of a middle class radicalizing against the bourgeoisie and the proletariat , also as a result of the dissolution of the traditional class structure, to the thesis that fascism was a new Bonapartism , a gap within itself take advantage of neutralizing class forces.

These early theories of fascism, mostly tending towards a monocausal or reductionist approach, are now considered outdated.

In Germany, explanatory approaches gained weight early on which - beyond Marx - were based on Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in order to a. to explain the amazing ability of fascist movements to mobilize masses (e.g. Wilhelm Reich's "Sexualökonomie" ). Later, the work of the Frankfurt School examined the susceptibility of the petty-bourgeois classes to the mass development of a certain personality structure, the " authoritarian character " and, consequently, to the leader principle . This social character - which arose in Germany mainly during the Imperial Era and the Weimar Republic - was viewed as an essential socio-psychological basis of fascist social structures.

With the rise of National Socialism, political and economic theories of fascism came to the fore. Hermann Heller , Rudolf Hilferding , Richard Löwenthal , Franz Borkenau and others presented studies of fascism that also analyzed the “fascization” of all of Europe in the wake of the National Socialist seizure of power and the subsequent functional change in liberalism . Ernst Fraenkel's thesis of a “ dual state ” and Franz Neumann's thesis of a totalitarian “non-state” were independent .

After 1945, theories of totalitarianism dominated in Western Europe and the USA , which viewed fascism and real socialism as dictatorships of a similar nature. They came to life again in the 1980s in the form of Ernst Nolte's theses (“Fascism in its Epoch”). The theories of totalitarianism endeavored to portray the western, parliamentary systems as desirable forms of society and to present left and right dictatorships as deviations from them in equal measure.

In the West German student movement , neo-Marxist theories of fascism experienced a new heyday in the wake of the Frankfurt School.

Today, comparative sociological approaches are in the foreground in fascism research (see note 1).

Definitions of the term fascism

In general, fascism is used as a historical-political umbrella term for various right-wing, anti-democratic movements or dictatorships, especially after the First World War.

Although there is still no consensus on the more detailed determining characteristics and the conditions for the formation of fascist movements, more recently definitions have been worked out that encompass the essential constitutive components of these movements and their ideological ideas.

In 2004, the American political scientist Matthew Lyons formulated the following definition of fascism :

“Fascism is a form of far-right ideology that glorifies the nation or race as an organic community that transcends all other loyalties. He emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after a period of decline and decay. To this end, fascism calls for a 'spiritual revolution' against signs of moral decline such as individualism and materialism and aims to purify the organic community of 'different' forces and groups that threaten it. Fascism tends to glorify masculinity, youth, mystical unity, and the regenerative power of violence. Often, but not always, he supports teachings of racial superiority, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide . Fascism can at the same time take on a form of internationalism based on either racial or ideological solidarity across national borders. Usually, fascism subscribes to open male supremacy, although sometimes it can also support female solidarity and new opportunities for women of a privileged nation or race. "

In his book The Anatomy of Fascism , published in 2004, the American history professor Robert O. Paxton defines fascism as follows:

“Fascism can be defined as a form of political behavior that is characterized by an obsessive preoccupation with the decline, humiliation or victim role of a community and by compensatory cults of unity, strength and purity, with a mass-based party of determined nationalist activists in the uncomfortable, but Effective cooperation with traditional elites gives up democratic freedoms and pursues goals of internal cleansing and external expansion by means of force that is transfigured as redeeming and without ethical or legal restrictions. "

“ Fascistoid ” refers to properties or attitudes that have fascist traits or are similar to fascism, but mostly appear in a weakened or differentiated form. Individual components of an ideology or a political system are sometimes referred to as "fascistoid". One then speaks of the “fascist tendencies” of the respective system or ideology.

Common features of fascist movements

overview

Any determination of common features must be viewed with a certain degree of caution, as there were not only striking similarities but also more or less significant differences between the individual fascist movements. The topic of similarities and differences between the individual fascist movements is dealt with comprehensively in Wolfgang Wippermann: European Fascism in Comparison (1922–1982). So far, no scientific consensus has been reached on a precise, complete definition.

Fascist movements, however, undoubtedly show a number of features that are common to the individual currents. Fascism researchers often emphasize different characteristics of these characteristics in their definitions and theories and thus come to different emphases.

In the 1990s, the Italian fascism researcher Emilio Gentile developed a ten-point definition of fascism, which assigned its defining characteristics to an organizational , a cultural and an institutional dimension :

“The definition that I propose is based on three interrelated dimensions: the organizational one, which concerns the social composition, structure, lifestyle and methods of struggle of the party, the cultural one, which concerns the conception of mankind and the ideas of crowd and politics, and finally the institutional dimension, which means the complex of structures and relationships from which the fascist regime emerges. "

- Emilio Gentile

In the following, based on the dimensions proposed by Gentile, some typical elements of fascist currents are shown, such as

  • the leader principle ,
  • the totality claim ,
  • the military-oriented party organization ,
  • a culture-inducing , irrational secular substitute religion based on myths, rites and symbols ,
  • a corporate, hierarchical economic organization ,
  • as well as a totalitarian overall model of society , structured in functional hierarchies .

The following presentation is based closely on the essential points of the definition of Gentile, which are each assigned to the three dimensions mentioned. Unless otherwise indicated, the verbatim quotations come from the section "Elements of a definition of fascism" of the text mentioned.

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.
It would be highly recommended to assign the following individual sections GENTILE, each with its own Ref to provide (eg. As page numbers), since they are based largely on quotations. At the same time EN for the quoted passages

Organizational dimension

1. “Fascist movements are cross-class mass movements , which initially received mainly men from middle-class and petty-bourgeois circles. Many of them were previously not politically active, but are now organizing themselves in party structures based on the militarist model. They determine their self-image or 'their identity not through social hierarchy or class origin', but through membership of the fascist movement. They see themselves as executing a mission of national renewal , at war with their political opponents; they want the monopoly of political power and employ terrorist measures, parliamentary tactics and compromises with the ruling classes in order to establish a new order that destroys parliamentary democracy. "

Ideological or cultural dimension

2. Fascist movements generate "a culture that is based on mythical thinking (...), (...) on the myth of the youth as a force powerful in history, on the militarization of politics as a model for (...) the organization of society."

Gentile points out that the fascist ideology is "formulated aesthetically rather than theoretically" on the basis of " myths , rites and symbols of a lay religion that serves to shape the masses culturally and socially into a closed religious community, theirs The aim is to create a 'new person' ”. A phase of decadence and degeneration should be replaced by a new or rebirth of society, the state and the ruling culture . Gentile and Griffin refer to this idea of ​​the emergence of a new order as palingenesis .

With its mystical and irrational belief (s. Also Political Religion ) and his blood and consecration rituals (see blood and soil ) represents fascism an anti enlightening program.

A central component of fascist movements are their paramilitary organizations ( squadrists , assault detachments , combat groups, death squads ). Militarization pervades all of public life, including the economy. Military mass marches and large rallies determine the appearance of fascism.

3. Fascist movements follow an “ideology of an anti-ideological and pragmatic character, which proclaims itself as anti-materialist, anti-individualist, anti-liberal, anti-democratic, anti-Marxist.” Fascist ideologies are directed against materialist , liberal , Marxist and conservative worldviews (“fascist negation”).

In particular, the Russian October Revolution and the fear of a further spread of communism to Europe took advantage of fascist leaders to forge alliances with liberals and conservatives.

4. Fascist movements have “a totalitarian conception of the primacy of politics, which (...) is perceived as a permanent revolution; (...) through the totalitarian state the fusion of the individual and the masses in the organic-mystical unity of the nation , which is an ethnic and moral community, is to be achieved, while measures of discrimination and persecution are taken against all those who are known as standing outside this community, be it as enemies of the regime or as members of races that are allegedly inferior or at least dangerous to the integrity of the nation. "

The synchronization of all social forces, especially the media and the education system, combined with radical exclusion and even the murder of all who oppose this synchronization, is a characteristic of fascist regimes.

The nationalism represented by fascist movements has a characteristic form in which a mythical origin thought is expressed. The nation is understood as an organismic unit based on the ancestral habitat and the same ancestry of its own people ( Völkischer Nationalism ) and finds expression in the prevailing "organic metaphors of roots and belonging, of home, soil and origin".

There is the idea of superiority ( superiority ) of members of their own race, origin or nationality over others. In this context, there are anti-Semitism and racism , which were more apparent in German National Socialism than in the Italian and Western European movements.

There is a pronounced dichotomous thinking in the mutually exclusive categories of friend / foe, we / the others, superior / inferior, especially with a view to the interior of society. The internal enemy of fascist society plays at least as important a role as the external enemy. He is identified as a “ pest of the people ”, a threat to one's own “blood”, etc. Above all, their own fiction of "Jews", "Semites" and the other "race" serves this purpose. From them it is important to purify the “ people's body ”.

Since Mussolini's concept of the stato totalitario , the fascist claim permeated all areas of social life right down to private life. The family had to contribute to the growth of the national community by producing children. The Third Reich viewed the family as the "nucleus of the state". Fascism sees democracy, freedom, pluralism and the separation of state, economy and privacy as a threat to this “organic collectivism ”.

5. Fascist movements represent "a civic morality that proceeds from the absolute subordination of the citizen to the state, from the total devotion of the individual to the nation, from discipline, masculinity, camaraderie, the warlike spirit."

The masculine principle in male chauvinism was emphasized , as was youthfulness . The claim was propagated to embody youth and “true” masculinity, and there was a disproportionate number of “young activists”. War and violence were aestheticized and glorified, as was competitive sport, which symbolized devotion to the nation and thus reached into large parts of the otherwise apolitical population.

Institutional dimension

After fascist movements have conquered state power, they can be called fascist regimes . For their politics and state organization are characteristic

6. “a police apparatus that monitors, controls and suppresses dissent and opposition, including with recourse to organized terror”. The authoritarian power structures of the regime are secured by the secret service and the secret police , which also monitor and spy on supporters of their own movement. Intimidation is used to try to nip political opposition in the bud (see also Police State ).

7. “a unity party that has the function of ensuring the armed defense of the regime through its own militia (...); to provide the new leadership cadres and to form a 'command aristocracy'; to organize the masses in the totalitarian state and to draw them into an educational process of permanent religious-emotional mobilization; to promote the realization of the myth of the totalitarian state in institutions, in society, in mentality and in morals within the regime as an organ of the 'ongoing revolution'. "

There is a constant agitation of the whole society. In the service of mass mobilization, public space and the media are brought into line or monopolized for propaganda purposes. The education system is massively influenced with the aim of indoctrination . The legal system is functionalized in accordance with the principles and rules of the fascist system, and attempts are made to subordinate the sciences to fascist ideas.

8. “a political system based on the symbiosis of party and state , ordered by a functional hierarchy that is appointed from above and dominated by the figure of the“ leader ” , who has charismatic sacredness and who is responsible for the activities of the party The regime and the state directs and coordinates and acts as the supreme and unquestionable arbitrator in conflicts between the potentates of the regime ”( Führer principle ).

9. “a corporate economic organization that suppresses trade union freedom and expands the scope of state intervention; According to technocratic principles and based on the ideal of solidarity, workers and peasants are to be included as willing participants under the control of the regime, in order to increase the power of the corporate state, with private property and the division of society into classes remaining a prerequisite. "

10. “a foreign policy which is oriented towards the acquisition of power and the achievement of national greatness and which, in one with imperialist expansion, aims at the creation of a new order”.

Theoretician and thought leader of fascism

  • Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) was the founder of Italian fascism in 1919 . Mussolini came from the syndicalist wing of the Italian Socialist Party and was heavily influenced by Georges Sorel , less by - as he initially claimed - Vilfredo Pareto . With La Dottrina Del Fascismo Mussolini published his theoretical elaboration in 1932.
  • Robert Michels (1876–1936) was a German sociologist. Michels came from the SPD and became important as a party sociologist. He moved to Italy, turned to syndicalism and later to fascism. In 1928 Mussolini appointed him a chair at the University of Perugia to further develop the theory of fascism.
  • Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944) was a neo-idealist philosopher. He advocated a radical philosophical tendency called “actualism”, which denied the absolute existence of things and advocated the theory that all appearances were only produced in the “pure act”. Gentile was the fascist education minister in 1922/23 and pushed through a traditionalist school reform, but after 1929 he was increasingly sidelined because of his radical positions.
  • Sergio Panunzio (1886-1944) was a theoretician of syndicalism . After 1922 he developed an important part of the fascist state theory by trying to delimit the relationship between party and state. Panunzio taught at the influential Faculty of Political Science at the University of Perugia.
  • The lawyer Alfredo Rocco (1875–1935) was originally an influential pioneer of the nationalist movement in Italy, which merged with fascism in 1923. During the totalitarian restructuring of the Italian state from 1925, Rocco became the architect of the fascist institutional structure. Among other things, he was also responsible for the tightening of criminal law.
  • Enrico Corradini (1865–1931) was also a nationalist by nature. He represented a determined expansion course for Italy, which as a "proletarian nation" had to fight against the rich nations of the West. This figure of thought, which was later very influential under fascism, was combined with Corradini with a passionate worship of ancient Rome.
  • Julius Evola (1898–1974) was a cultural philosopher and came from a traditional Catholic family in Rome. Later he developed a pagan-racist "traditionalism" oriented towards antiquity. Evola represented a reactionary part of fascism, which repeatedly came into opposition to the modernist wing, which Evola criticized as a degeneracy of fascism. Evola's extreme views always remained a minority position in fascism.
  • Oswald Mosley (1896-1980). Mosley came from a conservative tradition, but no longer considered the system to be reformable. A new order must be created with a new type of men - and women too. The liberal phase in Europe, on the other hand, is doomed. For this purpose, a charismatic people's power, the party and military men's associations were primarily intended, which are dedicated to a Greater Britain .

Marxist theories of fascism

overview

In the context of Marxism numerous and very different theories about fascism arose. Marxist theorists (first in Germany Clara Zetkin , 1923) described fascism as a terrorist form of rule of capital. Some theorists see the economic basis as the only decisive factor and regard fascism as a variant of capitalism in crisis (cf. the Dimitrov thesis and the fascism research of the GDR), in which the fascists are merely puppets of the capitalists (so-called agent theories ) . Stalin goes even further in his thesis of social fascism and counts even social democracy among the henchmen of capital. Thalheimer 's theory of Bonapartism, on the other hand, grants the political power of fascism a certain degree of independence during a special economic situation. The critical theory of the Frankfurt School by Adorno and Horkheimer , in its theory of authoritarian character , reflects on the socio-psychological foundations of fascism, but at the same time refers to the economic basis. This close connection between fascism and capitalism, which Marxists assume, was formulated by Max Horkheimer in 1939 in the apodictic dictum that anyone who does not want to talk about capitalism should keep silent about fascism.

Differentiation of fascism from Bonapartism

In contrast to bourgeois theories of fascism, (neo) Marxism does not include all right-wing dictatorships as fascism. According to the concept founded by Marx , dictatorships without a political mass base - for example the military dictatorships of the 1960s and 1970s in Latin America - are assigned to Bonapartism , in which the bourgeoisie has no direct political influence but is socially favored by the ruler.

Stalin's thesis of social fascism

Josef Stalin's social fascism thesis formulated in 1924 was the official doctrine of the Communist International (Comintern) between 1928 and 1934, until it was replaced by the Dimitrov thesis in 1935 . The experiences from the civil war-like conflicts at the beginning of the Weimar Republic and the increasing intensification of social and political antagonisms led the KPD to understand the social democratic leadership as a useful bludgeon of capital. This ultimately resulted in the designation of the SPD as “social fascist”.

Marxists also accept the petty bourgeoisie as the social basis of fascism , which fear being crushed in the antagonism of the working class and the capitalist class, the main contradiction according to Marx . Through the massive ideological bourgeois manipulation, his fear of the working class and the crisis-related descent into it and the aversion to the overpowering competition of capital turned into a pseudo-anti-capitalist, but objectively anti-working class and thus pro-capitalist movement: fascism. (This coincided with non-Marxist sociological analyzes, such as that of Theodor Geiger .)

The Dimitrov thesis

The definition that has become classic for Marxism-Leninism was provided by Georgi Dimitrov in a resolution of the XIII. Plenary session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International in December 1933, which had been prepared by a similar formulation at the Fifth World Congress in 1924. In it, fascism was defined as the “terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, chauvinist and imperialist elements of finance capital ”. This definition was repeated at the VII World Congress of the Comintern in 1935. This meant that “bourgeois democracy” and fascism were two different forms of capitalism , that these forms of rule would be based on the same economic basis: At the moment when capitalism is threatened - for example by a threatening revolutionary movement, as in the early 1920s in Italy or during the Great Depression in Germany -, the bourgeois democracy will walk (sometimes only as a "pseudo-democratic mask" understood) to the fascist dictatorship that was maintaining with brutal means capital utilization. The fascist dictatorship is particularly aiming to smash the labor movement with all its organizations. In this interpretation, not only the dictatorships in Italy and Germany were fascist, but also the Sanacja regime in Poland , the dictatorship of the Bulgarian king , the government in Yugoslavia , the Austrian corporate state , the supporters of Chiang Kai-shek in China and the Betar , a Zionist youth organization. In 1933, it was not these regimes and movements that were designated as the world political opponent who had to be fought as a matter of priority, but instead social democracy , once again taking up Stalin's thesis of social fascism .

Trotsky's theory of fascism

Trotsky argued against Stalin and Dimitrov that fascism was an organized movement of the desperate petty bourgeoisie in times of crisis , directed in words against the big bourgeoisie and in deeds against the organized working class. From 1929 to 1933 he called on the German Communist Party in ever-urgent appeals to take the special danger of fascism seriously and to build a common front against Hitler with the SPD. His appeals went unheard.

Thalheimer's theory of Bonapartism

In this theory , August Thalheimer emphasizes the balance between the classes, which for him enables the seizure of power by fascism. There is no fascism theory of its own in the work of Marx and Engels; the term was not used in their time. According to some theorists, such as August Thalheimer, such approaches can be found in Marx's account of Bonapartism . According to this, the fascists with their followers of declassed or threatened masses would be in a class-struggle stalemate - similar to Napoléon III. and his ragged proletarian followers after the February Revolution of 1848  - came to power relatively independently of the bourgeoisie, although they objectively represented their interests in preventing a revolution. Thalheimer defined fascism as "the political subjection of all masses, including the bourgeoisie itself, to the fascist state power under the social rule of the big bourgeoisie and the big landowners".

Theory of a radicalization of the middle classes

An expansion / modification of the agent theory was first carried out in 1923 by Luigi Salvatorelli, who viewed the “humanistic petty bourgeoisie” as the basis and engine of fascism, which was endangered by the interwar period, as the basis and engine of fascism. These views were supported by Renzo de Felice and Giocchino Volpe. This definition largely coincides with the analyzes of the liberal sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset , who coined the term " middle extremism " for this phenomenon in the 1950s .

Research on fascism in the GDR

The central theses of GDR fascism research were attached to “the definition of fascism as the result and final stage of a special form of developed and crisis-ridden capitalism.” The simple agent theory was further developed into a more differentiated monopoly group theory , in which the rise of National Socialism either as a victory of the allies with it Monopoly group or as a result of the struggle between different monopoly groups was interpreted. In western countries these declarations were criticized because they reduced Hitler's seizure of power to a “completely monocausal act of purchase” and shortened the conditions within a “capitalist society to the actions and options of the capitalists or the monopoly rulers organized in monopoly groups”.

Frankfurt School: Theory of Authoritarian Character

The theory of the authoritarian character of the critical theory of the Frankfurt School by Horkheimer and Adorno deals with the question of why parts of society are susceptible to "fascist propaganda or, more generally, authoritarian opinions". She assumes that receptivity to such opinions depends more on character than on conscious political beliefs or considerations. This insight helped understand how it was historically possible that the support front for fascism did not stop at the working class. Social theory, therefore, if it did not want to ignore the explanation of authoritarianism, referred to psychology. A distinction is made between a weak self and a strong self . According to this, the ability for self-reflection is only slightly developed in the weak ego. It perceives “social conditions projectively ” (Weyand) and thus tends to be prejudiced . This theory is based on Freud's theory: "It assumes something specifically historical, namely the existence of a patriarchal family constellation in which a sadomasochistic instinctual structure develops and consolidates from the conflict between the child and a strong, overpowering father ." Weyand) This also applies to Freudian mass psychology, as it is received by Adorno. According to Adorno, "[t] he fascist agitation has its center in the conception of the Führer (...) because only this psychological image can reawaken the idea of ​​the almighty and threatening forefather."

The weak ego forms the contradicting desire to be part of the authority and the dominant collective as well as to submit to that authority. The "results according to the former view further added that the weak I direct his aggression toward outgroups must , because it is not able to direct it against authority of their own group. In that the weak ego fantasizes about becoming a member of a collective that is powerful in history, it is at the same time agreeing to the authority of its own group. This mechanism explains why the weak ego appears as authoritarian only when it can be certain of the secret or explicit consent of the authority of the ingroup. It rebels, but it rebels conformist. ”(Jan Weyand) An extraordinary narcissistic satisfaction is connected with the conformist rebellion ( narcissism of small differences according to Freud). Against this background, Horkheimer writes that "the prejudice of hate is immovable because it allows the subject to be bad and to consider himself good."

Modernization and anti-modernism

Various theories interpret fascism as a violent attempt to accelerate modernization or, on the contrary, as a revolt against modernity.

The modernization approach goes back to Franz Borkenau , who interpreted fascism in the manner of a development dictatorship as early as 1933 of the belated and hasty development of capitalism in Italy and Germany. For him, fascism is an immanent necessity of the industrial system in order to eliminate existing disturbances - in Italy due to the preponderance and the reactionary role of the proletariat, in Germany due to the influence of the trade unions and the privileges of large-scale agriculture - and the functioning of the state apparatus as well to guarantee industrial progress.

By Ralf Dahrendorf this theory approach was further expanded by the 1945th According to him, National Socialism “carried out the social revolution that was lost in the upheavals of imperial Germany and held back by the turmoil of the Weimar Republic”. Its core is "the brutal break with tradition and a push into modernity", and Hitler brought about the necessary "transformation of German society".

As a result, Dahrendorf's approach to modernization had a strong impact. According to Barrington Moore , economic modernization, state modernization and political modernization (democratization) ran more or less parallel on a democratic-capitalist path, while they took place asynchronously on a reactionary path. Fascism, like communism, combines economic and state-bureaucratic modernization with a dictatorial political system. It should be seen as a conservative-reactionary revolution from above. David Schoenbaum, Michael Prinz, Rainer Zitelmann and Ronald Smelser also attributed an intentional modernization effect to National Socialism. Zitelmann writes: “The experience of National Socialism shows that modernization can also take place in a dictatorial system. [...] In his (note: Hitler's) worldview, highly modern elements are combined with a decided rejection of the democratic-pluralistic social system. "

Umberto Eco and Henry Ashby Turner refer to the contradiction between a merely superficial promotion of technology and modernization with a generally underlying reactionary anti-modernism in fascism . So writes Eco:

“Traditionalism implies the rejection of modernism. Both Fascists and Nazis worshiped technology, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth. The rejection of the modern world was disguised as a rebuttal of the capitalistic way of life, but it mainly concerned the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of 1776, of course). "

“ Traditionalism involves rejecting modernity. Both fascists and Nazis paid homage to technological progress, while traditionalist thinkers usually reject it as a negation of traditional spiritual values. However, even if Nazism prided itself on its industrial achievements, its praise for modernity was only the surface of an ideology based on " blood and soil ". The rejection of the modern world was masked as a rejection of the capitalist way of life, but it was mainly based on the rejection of the Spirit of 1789 (and of course 1776 ). "

Turner also states a modernization through fascism, but interprets this "only as a means to anti-modernist ends". He takes the view that “the National Socialists wanted industrial products, but not an industrial society”. As the essence of fascism he even sees "a revolt against modern industrial society and the attempt to recapture a distant mythical past."

National special routes

Due to the different manifestations of fascist movements in differently constituted countries, many attempts have been made to portray these as incomparable phenomena, which in the end can only be explained from specific national developments compared to an alleged normal course. For example, lines of autocracy and hostility towards freedom from Luther to Frederick the Great and the Romantics to National Socialism were drawn in very rough derivations. Early examples of this are Rohan O'Butler's The Roots of National Socialism from 1941, or William Montgomery McGovern's book From Luther to Hitler - The History of Nazi-Fascist Philosophy from 1946. Helmuth Plessner refers, for example, to the problem of the belated nation-building for Germany ,

Hans-Ulrich Wehler, an advocate of the Sonderweg theory, describes the development of the Prussian- dominated Empire up to the end of the Weimar Republic as a “peculiar tension between tradition and modernity” in the German Empire . He sees the development of National Socialism as a German specific. Fritz Stern and George Mosse see the history of ideas and culture of the 19th century as an essential basis of German fascism. Critics of the Sonderweg thesis are Geoff Eley , David Blackbourn , and Jürgen Kocka .

Historians such as Léon Poliakov , AJP Taylor , and Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier , interpreted National Socialism as the inevitable result of German history, which reflects typical elements of the “German national character”. In contrast, historians such as Friedrich Meinecke , Hans Rothfels , Gerhard Ritter , and Pieter Geyl emphasized that the Nazi era had little relation to previous German history.

Hitlerism

The term “Hitlerism” is to be understood as the personalization of National Socialism and the constitution of a group of guilty parties considered to be small as opposed to a large group of innocent Germans who can be rehabilitated. Occasional personalizing fascism activities focus on the "great individual who directs history", excluding social and political factors. A strong concentration on the person of Hitler can be seen in Karl Dietrich Bracher's conflict of fascism . Bracher speaks of "Hitler's very own, total seizure of power", "Hitler revolution" and "Hitler's war". Joachim Fest also writes that in a “single-handed operation”, Hitler, as the “center of movement of the world”, gave the passage of time a “tremendous acceleration and changed the state of the world”. In his person, "an individual once again demonstrated his stupendous violence over the historical process." For Sebastian Haffner , too , in his book Germany: Jekyll and Hyde from 1940, the person of Hitler is primarily the cause of developments in Germany. Haffner later understood Hitlerism to be the "synthesis of Hitler's specifically anti-Semitic theory and elements of nationalistic thought."

Vansittartism

According to this view, named after Robert Vansittart , the tendency towards fascism and war lay in the national character of the German people.

structuralism

From the analysis of fascism, theorists of structuralism and poststructuralism developed a critique of philosophies of history, because these philosophies, based on the experience of fascism, do not offer any socially critical perspectives and thus have an affirmative effect. Against this background, the analysis of fascism by these theorists shifts the focus of their analysis to the specific techniques of domination on which fascism is based. The point of view of the investigation is shifting “from the level of the macro powers to that of the micro powers. The focus is on the techniques of disciplining and the discursive practices of domination and their deconstruction . "

totalitarianism

The analysis of Italian fascism was subsequently applied by some theorists as a prototype to other nationalist dictatorships in Europe and Latin America. Although a classification of the theory of totalitarianism into the spectrum of theories of fascism by reference to the original fascism, Italian fascism, appears to be possible in principle, the theory of totalitarianism has developed in scientific practice rather as a delimitation and sharp contrast to the theory of fascism. The reasons for this include the different political positions of their respective representatives. Because both the concepts of fascism and totalitarianism have "[...] a dual character [...] in their use. They are scientific theories and political battle concepts at the same time." This theoretical dualism found concise expression during the Cold War , when the counter-model of totalitarianism developed to stabilize the identity of the liberal western democracies and the concept of fascism, especially in its Marxist-inspired reading, experienced a renewed boom. In contrast to the fascism theory, the totalitarianism theory thematizes structural, methodological and formal-ideological similarities of different dictatorial systems of government, whether they are based on fascist or communist principles.

Hannah Arendt

The totalitarianism thesis, which Hannah Arendt developed in her main political work, Elements and Origins of Total Rule , exclusively portrayed the political systems of National Socialism and Stalinism as totalitarian up to Stalin's death in 1953 Concentrating on the structural and phenomenological comparison of systems, Arendt devoted himself to this analysis of the "elements" as well as researching the "origins", i.e. the emergence of totalitarian regimes. In their opinion, anti-Semitism, imperialism, racism and the emerging mass society were causes for the emergence of the totalitarian reign of terror. Arendt had excluded Italian fascism, as well as Franquism , from this classification. She did not use the term fascism to characterize National Socialism.

Ernst Nolte

In 1963, the historian Ernst Nolte gave new impetus to historical studies with his work The Fascism in its Epoch . Nolte used the term fascism for the first time as an epochal term and thus characterized a group of political movements in Europe between the world wars. Nolte defined fascism as "anti-Marxism, which seeks to destroy the opponent by developing a radically opposed and yet neighboring ideology and using almost identical and yet characteristically re-shaped methods, but always within the impenetrable framework of national self-assertion and autonomy". Nolte thus not only sums up German National Socialism and Italian fascism Mussolini, but also Action française , a right-wing extremist French movement. He was the first bourgeois historian to use a broader concept of fascism. For Nolte, fascism is a hallmark of the era from 1917 to 1945: During this time alone, the need was seen to counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union in its claim to world revolution with fascist means.

Against this theory, which fascism as a political response to the success of Bolshevism understands turned among other Zeev Sternhell with its investigations in advance of the October Revolution geläufigem präfaschistischem ideas .

With Nolte's concept of fascism, which often prevailed in a significantly flattened form, everything was classified under fascism that a non-communist dictatorship aspired to or realized in Europe in the 20th century. In particular, National Socialism was designated as fascist. It finally came about that fascist was used as a polemical term for authoritarian anti-communists.

Fascism as a "Political Religion"

Similar to the theory of totalitarianism, the analytical concept of political religion can only be defined to a limited extent as part of the spectrum of fascism theory, since the concept was not limited to Italian fascism or other movements and regimes described as fascist, but was already used by Eric Voegelin also included Stalinism in the comparative analysis. Due to the system-dualistic premise, which, depending on the point of view, differentiates between secular-liberal society and political religion or between original religion and political religion as a substitute religion or religion , the concept of the theory of totalitarianism is close. In addition, there are approaches to the phenomenological approach in both concepts, which are dedicated to the staging and formal language of the respective regimes. However, the concept of political religion as a whole tends more towards a historical-genetic approach than the totalitarian theory, which is why the relationship between the two scientific analyzes can be described as "complementarity". Despite these restrictions, the concept of political religion is not only relevant to the fascism discourse for Voegelin. Hans Maier also explicitly included Italian fascism in his reflections on the concept of political religions. Emilio Gentile defines fascism more specifically as a " political religion " and as a subgroup of totalitarianism . Afterwards, according to Sven Reichardt about the understanding of Gentile, “the fascists created a belief in the nation, the Duce and the party, whereby this 'political religion' became the basis of the fascist culture. From his point of view, it was a military and revolutionary totalitarianism that represented 'the myths and values ​​of a palingenetic ideology' and 'took on the sacred forms of a political religion' in order to create a new man. Italian fascism was the first to bring this totalitarianism into the world, whereby state and party merged. "

Alfred Müller-Armack (1901–1978) published a study in 1948 in which he interpreted National Socialism in terms of the sociology of religion as a substitute religion in a time of apostasy. However, the classification of National Socialism or other fascisms as a political religion is often viewed critically within research, because it is a deductive concept that would not capture the reality of the respective regime at all. In addition, the theoretical scope of the concept is sometimes questioned. Hans Günter Hockerts has pointed out that the designation as political religion "[is] suitable as an aspect concept, but not as a general concept; it does not hit an Archimedean point" that could justify its use as a superordinate explanatory model.

Newer theories of fascism

Generic term of fascism

In the comparative research on fascism, different, partly contradicting statements are found by different thought leaders and leaders, also within the respective fascist movement. On the other hand, there are numerous identical or similar principles and core statements in the various fascist movements. These core statements and fundamental ideological features of all fascist movements are referred to in research as generic fascism . An attempt is made to find a consensus for the definitions formulated on this basis. Matthew Lyons can already claim a great consensus for his definition of fascist ideology .

As early as 1991, the fascism researcher Roger Griffin , starting from a generic concept of fascism, aimed with his definition at the ideological core of fascism and defined it as a populist-ultra -nationalist ideology oriented towards a new birth . He deliberately excluded peripheral characteristics of individual types of fascism and described an ideal type . According to Griffin, the “utopian drive” of fascism is to want to solve the supposed “problem of decadence” through a “radical renewal of the nation”. The nation is understood as an "organic whole" and as the highest principle. The all-encompassing palingenesis of the nation represents the “mythical core” of the future vision of fascism. Griffin thus comes to see “a political phenomenon as fascist even if it is only in the embryonic state in the mind of an ideologist and without expression in a political party , let alone a mass movement exists. ”Richard Thurlow thinks that with this definition one can speak of a“ new consensus ”in research on fascism.

Among the critics of a generic concept of fascism are above all the representatives of a concept of totalitarianism . The French psychoanalyst Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel and the German social scientist Samuel Salzborn reject the subsumption of the Nazi regime under the concept of fascism, because this would put its essence, namely race politics and the Holocaust , out of focus. In this perspective, the Nazi regime appears to be “a completely banal dictatorship”, nothing different from that in Italy, in Franco's Spain or in Pinochet's Chile . This rationalizes the incomprehensible extermination of the Jews and is ultimately a strategy of refusing to remember and warding off guilt.

Differentiation from authoritarianism

Closely connected with the generic concept of fascism is the problem of delimitation from other types of movement and regime. In contrast to classical, predominantly Marxist interpretative concepts, a more differentiated concept of fascism has developed in recent research on fascism. The demarcation from authoritarianism in particular plays a decisive role. While, for example, Franquism in Spain and António de Oliveira Salazar's Estado Novo in Portugal have usually been interpreted in the Marxist reading as specific phenomena of general fascism in Europe, recent research has worked out not only similarities but also differences between these and other movements or regimes all as representatives of an “authoritarian nationalism”, but not necessarily also to be classified as fascisms. The Falange was indeed a fascist movement in its origins and it also formed the organizational foundation of the Francoist state party. As a state party, however, it was transformed at an early stage by other currents within the Francoist system of rule and thus at the same time disempowered. Overall, traditional elites from the military , church and large estates played a much more important role for the regime in Spain than the country's fascist movement. Both the “Estado Novo” and Franco's regimes in Spain have features of a military dictatorship and authoritarian corporatism . The aim of this regime was that “the traditional social hierarchy should be preserved”, while fascist groups “advocated overcoming the status quo by mobilizing declassified groups.” However, in the case of Spain, at least for the early phase of the regime until 1945 classification as "semi-fascist" is possible.

literature

Overviews

Emergence

  • Wolfgang Abendroth among other things: How fascism arises and is prevented. Röderberg, Frankfurt / M.
  • Zeev Sternhell et al. a .: The emergence of the fascist ideology. From Sorel to Mussolini. Hamburger Edition 1999, ISBN 3-930908-53-0 .
  • Hans Woller: Rome, October 28, 1922. The fascist challenge. Munich 1999. (From the series “Twenty Days in the 20th Century” - using the example of the fascist “March on Rome”, the rise, success and fall of the fascist movements in Europe between 1918 and 1945 are presented)

Italian theorists

  • Alessandro Campi (Ed.): Che cos'è il fascismo? Rome 2003 (overview)
  • Costanzo Casucci (Ed.): Interpretazioni del fascismo. Bologna 1982.
  • Costanzo Casucci (Ed.): Interpretazioni del fascismo . Bologna 1982 [1961]. Anthology of fascist and anti-fascist interpretations
  • Enzo Collotti : Fascismo, fascismi. Florence 1989.
  • Renzo De Felice : Le interpretazioni del fascismo. 9th edition, Bari 1989.
  • Victoria De Grazia , Sergio Luzzatto (ed.): Dizionario del fascismo. 2 volumes, Turin 2002 (overview)
  • Edda Saccomani : Le interpretazioni sociologiche del fascismo. Turin 1977.
  • Marco Tarchi : Fascismo. Teorie, interpretazioni e modelli. Rome / Bari 2003 (overview)

Marxist theories

GDR

  • Kurt Gossweiler : Big banks, industrial monopolies, the state. Economics and Politics of State Monopoly Capitalism in Germany 1914–1932 . Berlin (East) 1971 (standard work in the GDR)
  • Kurt Pätzold : fascism, racial madness, persecution of the Jews. A study of the political strategy and tactics of fascist German imperialism 1933–1935 . Berlin 1975.
  • Karl Heinz Roth : Historiography of the GDR and problems of fascism research. In: Werner Röhr (ed.): Fascism and Racism. Controversies over ideology and sacrifice. Berlin 1992.
  • Werner Röhr : Research on fascism in the GDR. A sketch of the problem. In: Bulletin for Fascism and World War Research No. 16, 2001.
  • Wolfgang Ruge : The end of Weimar. Monopoly capital and Hitler. Berlin 1983.
  • Hans-Ulrich Thamer: National Socialism and Fascism in the GDR Historiography. In: From Politics and Contemporary History B 13, 1987, pp. 27–37.

Psychoanalytic Approaches

  • Theodor W. Adorno: The Freudian theory and the structure of the fascist propaganda. In Adorno: criticism. Small writings on society, pp. 34–66. Frankfurt / M. (1971)
  • Wilhelm Reich : mass psychology of fascism. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1986, ISBN 3-462-01794-2 (Original: Massenpsychologie des Faschismus. On the sex economy of political reaction and on proletarian sexual politics. Verlag für Sexualpolitik, Copenhagen, 1933).
  • Klaus Theweleit : Male fantasies. Frankfurt am Main / Basel 1977/78 (psychoanalytically oriented study on "fascist consciousness")

Frankfurt School

totalitarianism

"Social Fascism"

  • Siegfried Bahne: 'Social Fascism' in Germany. On the history of a political term. In: International Review of Social History. Vol. X (1965), Assen (Netherlands)
  • Josef Schleifstein : The "social fascism" thesis. About their historical background. Marxist sheets publishing house, Frankfurt 1980.

Social science analyzes

  • Rainer C. Baum : The Holocaust and the German Elite. Genocide and National Suicide in Germany , 1871–1945, Rowman and Littlefield / Croom Helm, Totowa / London 1981.
  • Hans-Gerd Jaschke : Social basis and social function of National Socialism - old questions raised anew. In: Hans-Uwe Otto , Heinz Sünker (Hrsg.): Political formation and social education under National Socialism. Frankfurt / M. 1991.
  • Barrington Moore : Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. The role of landowners and farmers in creating the modern world. 1966. 2nd edition, Frankfurt / M. 1987.
  • Wolfgang Schieder (ed.): Fascism as a social movement. 1st edition. Hoffmann and Kampe, Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-455-09199-7 .

Fascism as a "political religion"

  • Roger Eatwell : The Nature of Fascism: or Essentialism by Another Name? In: Considering - Knowledge - Ethics 15, No. 3, 2004.
  • Emilio Gentile: Fascism: A Definition for Orientation. In: Mittelweg 36 , 2007, no. 1.
  • Emilio Gentile : Le origini dell'ideologia fascista. Bari 1975 (first theory of palingenesis)
  • Emilio Gentile: Fascism as Political Religion. In: JCH 25, 1990.
  • Emilio Gentile: Fascismo. Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Rome 1992.
  • Emilio Gentile: Il culto del littorio. La sacralizzazione della politica nell'Italia fascista. Rome / Bari 1993.
  • Emilio Gentile: Fascismo. Storia e interpretations. Rome / Bari 2002.
  • Aristotle Kallis: Fascist ideology. Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945. London / New York 2000.
  • Walter Laqueur : Fascism. Yesterday Today Tomorrow. Berlin 1996.
  • Hans Maier , Michael Schäfer (ed.): Totalitarianism and political religions, concepts of the comparison of dictatorships. , 3 vol., Paderborn 1996-2003.
  • Michael Mann : Fascists. Cambridge 2004
  • Jürgen Schreiber: Political Religion, Historical Perspectives and Critique of an Interdisciplinary Concept for Researching National Socialism. Marburg 2009.
  • Eric Voegelin: The political religions, edited and with an afterword by Peter J. Opitz. Munich 1993.

Generic and ideal typical theories of fascism

  • Roger Eatwell : On the Nature of 'Generic Fascism' - The 'Fascist Minimum' and the 'Fascist Matrix'. In: Uwe Backes (Ed.): Right-wing extremist ideology in past and present. Cologne 2003; English-language original ( memento from September 2, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
  • Roger Griffin, The Controversial Concept of Fascism - Interview in DISS-Journal 13, 2004, pp. 10–13 (PDF; 2.68 MB)
  • Roger Griffin : The Nature of Fascism. New York 1991.
  • Roger Griffin: (Ed.): International Fascism. Theories, Causes, and the New Consensus. London 1998.
  • Roger Griffin (Ed.): Fascism. Critical Concepts in Political Science. Five volumes. London / New York 2004.
  • Roger Griffin: The Primacy of Culture: The Current Growth (or Manufacture) of Consensus within Fascist Studies. In: JCH 37, No. 1, 2002 (German debate on this in: Erwägen - Wissen - Ethik 15, No. 3, 2004)
  • Roger Griffin, Werner Loh, Andreas Umland (Eds.): Fascism: Past and Present, West and East. An International Debate on Concepts and Cases in the Comparative Study of the Extreme Right. Stuttgart 2006.
  • Roger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalism as a pioneer and continuer of fascism: An Anglo-Saxon view of a not only German phenomenon. In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn and Jobst Paul (eds.): Völkische Bande. Decadence and Rebirth - Analyzes of Right Ideology. Unrast, Münster 2006 ( introduction )
  • George L. Mosse : The Genesis of Fascism. In: JCH 1, 1966 (formulates for the first time the ideologue typical of fascism, the »myth of the new man«)
  • George L. Mosse: The fascist revolution. Toward a general theory of fascism. New York 1999.
  • Stanley Payne : Fascism. Comparison and Definition. Madison 1980.
  • Stanley Payne: Historical Fascism and the Radical Right. In: JCH 35, 2000.
  • Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Berlin 2001 (English title: A History of Fascism. 1995)
  • Richard Thurlow : Fascism. Cambridge 1999.

Comparative research and research reviews

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A good overview of the more recent theoretical developments in research on fascism can be found in: Sven Reichardt , New Paths in Comparative Fascism Research , Mittelweg 36, 2007, issue 1.
  2. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica Online: collectivism . ("Collectivism has found varying degrees of expression in the 20th century in such movements as socialism, communism, and fascism.")
  3. ^ Walter Laqueur : Fascism. Past, present, future . P. 22.
  4. ↑ Roger Eatwell: http://staff.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/FascismaHistory%20-%20New%20Intro.htm ( Memento from January 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Fascism. A history .
  5. ^ Stanley Payne : History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaeen, Berlin 2001, p. 356 ff.
  6. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaeen, Berlin 2001, pp. 537-540.
  7. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 592.
  8. ^ Matthew N. Lyons: What is Fascism? Some General Ideological Features . January 12, 2004; Translation by Alfred Schober. In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn, Jobst Paul (eds.): Völkische Bande. Decadence and rebirth. Münster 2006. Introduction
  9. ↑ See also the interview with Roger Griffin: The controversial concept of fascism in DISS-Journal 13, 2004, pp. 10-13 ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ Robert O. Paxton : Anatomy of Fascism . DVA, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-421-05913-6 , p. 319.
  11. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 13.
  12. ^ Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, 3rd edition 1991, ISBN 3-518-11245-7 . A very good summary of this book can be found here
  13. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 538.
  14. ↑ Sven Reichardt: New ways of comparative research on fascism. In: Mittelweg 36, 2007, no. 1.
  15. ^ Emilio Gentile: The Fascism: A Definition for Orientation In: Mittelweg 36 , 2007, H. 1 ( Memento of March 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ a b Ernst Nolte : The crisis of the liberal system and the fascist movements . Piper, Munich 1968, p. 385; quoted from Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 13.
  17. ^ Emilio Gentile: The Fascism: A Definition for Orientation In: Mittelweg 36, 2007, H. 1, quoted from the version published on the Internet by Eurozine ( Memento of March 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus als Wegbereiter ... p. 26 and 28.
  19. ^ Zeev Sternhell : Neither Right nor Left. Fascist ideology in France . Princeton University Press, 1996, p. 213f ("They all shared a common hatred of money, speculation and bourgeois values, and condemned the exclusion of the proletariat from intellectual and cultural life [...].").
  20. ↑ Roger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus as a pioneer and continuer of fascism ; P. 25.
  21. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 21 f.
  22. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaeen, Berlin 2001, p. 24; Roger Griffin : The Nature of Fascism . Taylor & Francis Ltd., 1993, p. 198.
  23. ↑ Sven Reichardt: Fascist combat leagues. Violence and community in Italian squadrism and in the German SA . Böhlau, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-41213101-6 . Review: Kiran Klaus Patel at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation / Archive for Social History.
  24. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement. Propylaea, Berlin 2001, p. 25.
  25. ^ Arnd Krüger : Strength through joy. The culture of consent under fascism, Nazism and Francoism . In: the same and James Riordan (eds.): The International Politics of Sport in the 20th Century. Routledge, London 1999, pp. 67-89. ( online ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ))
  26. ^ R. Griffin (2005): Völkischer Nationalismus als Wegbereiter ..., pp. 26, 27.
  27. ↑ Clara Zetkin : The fight against fascism . June 20, 1923.
  28. ^ Wolfgang Wippermann : Theories of fascism. On the status of the current discussion . Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, pp. 21 ff. And 58.
  29. ↑ August Thalheimer : About fascism . 1928.
  30. ^ Giocchino Volpe: History of the Fascist Movement . P. 54.
  31. ↑ Sven Reichardt: New ways of comparative research on fascism . In: Mittelweg 36 , 2007, no. 1 (special issue “Fascism” with contributions by Emilio Gentile, Michael Mann, Robert O. Paxton, Sven Reichardt). P. 10.
  32. ^ Henry Ashby Turner , The Big Entrepreneurs and the Rise of Hitler . Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1985, p. 418.
  33. ↑ Eike Hennig , Industry and Fascism. Notes on the Soviet Marxist interpretation . In: Neue Politische Literatur, 15 (1970), p. 439.
  34. ↑ Eike Hennig, materials for the discussion of the monopoly group theory. Notes on Kurt Goßweiler's 'Big Banks, Industrial Monopolies and State' . In: Neue Politische Literatur 18 (1973), p. 191.
  35. ↑ Jan Weyand: On the topicality of the theory of the authoritarian character . In: jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): Theory of Fascism - Critique of Society. Unrast, Münster 2000, pp. 56-57.
  36. ^ Theodor W. Adorno: The Freudian theory and the structure of fascist propaganda . P. 45. In Adorno: Critique. Small writings on society , pp. 34–66. Frankfurt / M. (1971).
  37. ↑ a b Jan Weyand: On the topicality of the theory of the authoritarian character . S. 57. In: jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): Theory of fascism - criticism of society. Unrast, Münster 2000
  38. ↑ Cf. Sigmund Freud: Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , p. 243, in study edition, Vol. 9, pp. 191–286. Frankfurt / M. (1982).
  39. ↑ Max Horkheimer: About the prejudice , p. 198, collected writings, vol. 8
    Jan Weyand: On the topicality of the theory of authoritarian character , p. 57. In: jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): Theory of fascism - criticism of society . Unrast, Münster 2000. Quotes from Jan Weyand ibid.
  40. ↑ Klaus Fritzsche: Fascism Theory - Critique and Perspective , in: Franz Neumann (Hrsg.): Handbuch Politischer Theorien und Ideorien , Rowohlt, Hamburg 1979, p. 475.
  41. ^ Ralf Dahrendorf: Society and Democracy in Germany , 1965, p. 432.
  42. ↑ Ralf Dahrendorf: Society and Democracy in Germany , 1965, p. 442.
  43. ^ Barrington Moore: Social Origins of Dictatorship an Democracy - Lord and peasant in the making of the modern world , 1967, pp. 227 ff.
  44. ↑ Rainer Zitelmann: The totalitarian side of modernity . In Michael Prinz, Rainer Zitelmann: National Socialism , pp. 9 and 16.
  45. ^ Umberto Eco: Ur-Fascism . In: The New York Review of Books, June 22, 1995, p. 6 ( online )
  46. ^ Henry Ashby Turner: Fascism and Capitalism in Germany , 1972, pp. 171, 178 and 181.
  47. ↑ Klaus Fritzsche: Fascism Theory - Critique and Perspective , in: Franz Neumann (Ed.): Handbuch Politischer Theorien und Ideorien , Rowohlt, Hamburg 1979, pp. 473 and 474.
  48. ^ Ian Kershaw: The Nazi Dictatorship Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation , 2000, p. 8.
  49. ↑ Helmuth Plessner: The belated nation - About the political seducibility of the bourgeois spirit . 1959.
  50. ↑ Heidrun Kämper: victims - perpetrators - non-perpetrators, a dictionary on school discourse 1945–1955 . 2007, p. 202.
  51. ^ Karl Dietrich Bracher: Controversies of contemporary history about fascism, totalitarianism, democracy . Munich 1984, pp. 88, 91, and 79
    Klaus Fritzsche: Fascism Theory - Critique and Perspective . In: Franz Neumann (Ed.): Handbook of Political Theories and Ideologies , Rowohlt, Hamburg 1979, pp. 472 and 473.
  52. ↑ Joachim Fest: Hitler - A Biography . 1973, pp. 17, 22, 655 ff., 1024 ff.
  53. ^ Sebastian Haffner: Zur Zeitgeschichte , Berlin, 1982, p. 109.
  54. ↑ jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): Theory of Fascism - Critique of Society . P. 9.
  55. ↑ Wolfgang Wippermann: Theories of Totalitarism, The Development of Discussion from the Beginnings to Today, Darmstadt 1997.
  56. ↑ Hannah Arendt: Elements and origins of total rule, anti-Semitism, imperialism, total rule, 9th edition, Munich 2003.
  57. ↑ Ernst Nolte: Fascism in its epoch , p. 51.
  58. ↑ Zeev Sternhell: From Enlightenment to Fascism and Nazism. Reflections on the fate of ideas in the 20th century . In: jour fixe initiative berlin (ed.): History after Auschwitz . Münster 2002, ISBN 3-89771-409-4 , pp. 61-94.
  59. ↑ Eric Voegelin, The political religions, edited and with an afterword by Peter J. Opitz, Munich 1993.
  60. ↑ Jürgen Schreiber, Political Religion, Historical Perspectives and Critique of an Interdisciplinary Concept for Researching National Socialism, Marburg 2009, pp. 65–72.
  61. ↑ Eric Voegelin, The political religions, edited and with an afterword by Peter J. Opitz, Munich 1993, pp. 56–57.
  62. ↑ Hans Maier, "Political Religions" - Possibilities and Limits of a Concept, in: Hans Maier, Michael Schäfer (ed.): Totalitarismus und Politische Religionen, Concepts des Dictatorship Comparison, Vol. II, Paderborn 1997, pp. 299-310.
  63. ↑ Sven Reichardt: New ways of comparative research on fascism . In: Mittelweg 36 , 1/2007, p. 16. On the definition of "political religion" also cf. Emilio Gentile: Il culto del littorio. La sacralizzazione della politica nell'Italia fascista . Rom / Bari 1993, esp. Pp. 5-38; Emilio Gentile, "Fascism as Political Religion", in: JCH 25, 1990, pp. 229-251.
  64. ↑ The Century Without God. On the cultural sociology of our time . Regensberg, Münster 1948; Schmitt, Siegburg 2004, ISBN 3-87710-324-3 .
  65. ↑ Jürgen Schreiber, Political Religion, Historical Perspectives and Critique of an Interdisciplinary Concept for Researching National Socialism, Marburg 2009, pp. 95–96.
  66. ↑ Hans Günter Hockerts: Was National Socialism a Political Religion ?, About Chances and Limits of an Explanatory Model, in: Klaus Hildebrand (ed.): Between Politics and Religion, Munich 2003, pp. 45–71, here p. 71
  67. ↑ Generic terms or object names arise from the abstraction of common features and properties from many different terms or objects by focusing on their commonalities.
  68. ↑ Cf. Roger Griffin: Völkischer Nationalismus as a trailblazer and continuator of fascism: An Anglo-Saxon view of a not only German phenomenon. In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn and Jobst Paul, ed .: Völkische Bande. Decadence and Rebirth - Analyzes of Right Ideology. Münter 2005 as well as the editor's foreword. Literature to which special reference is made in this context: The debate about the consensus in: Considering - Knowledge - Ethics 15, No. 3, 2004. There also the contribution by: Roger Eatwell: The Nature of Fascism: or Essentialism by Another Name ? Also Roger Griffin: The Primacy of Culture: The Current Growth (or Manufacture) of Consensus within Fascist Studies . In: JCH 37, No. 1, 2002.
  69. ↑ Griffin: The Nature of Fascism , London 1993, p. 26
  70. ↑ Roger Griffin (2005): Völkischer Nationalismus as a pioneer and continuer of fascism: An Anglo-Saxon view of a not only German phenomenon. In: Heiko Kauffmann, Helmut Kellershohn, Jobst Paul (eds.): Völkische Bande. Decadence and Rebirth - Analyzes of Right Ideology. Münster: Restlessness.
  71. ^ Richard Thurlow, Fascism. Cambridge 1999, pp. 5f
  72. ↑ On progress in comparative research on fascism see also: Aristotle Kallis, Fascist ideology. Territory and Expansionism in Italy and Germany, 1922-1945. London / New York 2000.
  73. ^ Samuel Salzborn: Global anti-Semitism. A search for traces in the abyss of modernity. Beltz Juventa, Weinheim 2018, p. 175 f.
  74. ↑ Juan Linz: Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regime, edited by Raimund Krämer, 3rd, revised. and additional edition, Potsdam 2009.
  75. ^ Stanley Payne: History of Fascism. The rise and fall of a European movement, Vienna 2006.
  76. ↑ Ernst Nolte: Fascism in its epoch, 5th edition, Munich 2000, pp. 40–42.
  77. ↑ Arnd Bauerkämper, Fascism in Europe 1918–1945, Stuttgart 2006, p. 31.
  78. ↑ Arnd Bauerkämper, Fascism in Europe 1918–1945, Stuttgart 2006, p. 133.
  79. ↑ especially on the relationship between Nazi politics and business circles
  80. ↑ Review