What was the relationship between Nationalism and Fascism?

 

Fascism as an ideology began in the twentieth century. It’s origins lie partly in nationalism. Fascist ideology can be totalitarian and expansionist. As Payne said fascism is “A form of revolutionary ultra-nationalism.” Different factions of fascism understood it differently. That is Hitler’s Nazi regime differs from Peron’s Argentina or Mussolini’s Italy, though each one was fascist.

 

All Fascists agree though that fascism is partly created by a desire for Nationalism. Fascist doctrine confers a specific role for emotion and will within fascism. Mussolini tethered this to nationalism “The Nation is created by the state which gives to the people unconscious of their own moral unity, a will, and therefore an effective moral existence.” In contrast to the nation creating the state, Hitler believed that “the state is only a vessel, and the race is what it contains. The Vessel can have meaning only if it preserves and safeguards the contents”

 

Hitler’s Nazi party has been the most notorious Fascist party ever. It was very nationalistic. The Nazi form of Fascist ideology grew from Social Darwinism and ethnic nationalism, both of which overlap. Nazi racial theory suggests that those who are not part of the Aryan race are biologically inferior. Elsewhere racial segregation has been based on religious or biological beliefs. The Nazi ethnic nationalism bought about a belief that the Jews in particular were biologically inferior. This anti-Semitism saw the Aryan race as the master race (‘Heerenvolk’). The Jews were biologically inferior and therefore could be used as a scapegoat for Germany’s ailing economy, the loss of World War 1 and the harshness of the Treaty of Versailles. By eradicating the Jews in an eventual genocide after the ‘final solution’ (started in 1941 by Heinrich Himmler), racial purification could be sought. A pure Aryan race would be the result.

 

Fascist Nationalism in Nazi Germany under National Socialism saw the world as a struggle for dominance. The Jews were seen as the forces of evil and the Germans as the forces of good. The systematic persecution of the Jews was embellished in Nationalism. For example the removal of citizenship from all Jews and the adding of the name Sara to the first name of every Jewish female evoked ethnic nationalism. The Germans began to understand themselves as the

‘Heerenvolk’. This ethnic nationalism also sparked civic nationalism in that Germany became pure with those who are not ‘pure’ having their citizenship removed. Similarly the persecution of the Jews evoked an ethnic nationalism in the Jews as the persecuted minority. This continued from the removal of certain civil rights (before citizenship was stripped) to Kristallnacht (‘Night of broken glass’ in which Jewish shops windows were broken, looted and painted with a star of David) to the Final Solution of the death camps of the like of Auschwitz Dachau and Bergen Belsen.

 

Hitler saw the classes of the world as three forces (as opposed to the Communist view of the Proletariat and the Bourgeois). At the top of the Hierarchy was the German Aryan race. Next were those who were ‘bearers of culture’. That is, those who could appreciate the German creativity, art, inventions etc but could not capable of creating the same. At the bottom there were the Jews who were termed by Hitler the ‘destroyers of culture.’ By placing the German people with such great importance and superiority the Fascists were able to evoke a great ethnic nationalism in the Germans.

 

This was bought about by militant nationalism. Fascism is invigorated in a sense of chauvinistic and expansionist nationalism. For example the Nazi militant push to the east was aimed at creating ‘Lebensraum’ (Living room) for the German people and at reuniting German speaking people to German rule. For example Romania has a population of over 250,000 Germans and in a population of 30,000,000 in Poland, 10,000,000 aren’t Polish (most of which are German). Hitler himself was born in Austria which contains a large German population. The Nazi party wanted to re-unify Germans and German speakers across Europe in their desire for ethnic nationalism.

 

Fascist Nationalism does not preach respect for distinctive national traditions or cultural identity. It preaches the superiority of one race over all others. It seeks to establish an intense militant sense of national identity. Fascist nationalism seeks to establish a belief of a rebirth of national pride from a fanatical mission of national regeneration. It promises to build greatness from deep troubles. It creates the idea of a ‘new’ man. In practicality though, regeneration comes about by expansionism, coercion and imperialism.

 

To capture the nationalist support for fascism, fascists use coercion. Through dictatorships of totalitarian states, fascism seeks to control the thoughts and actions of the people. Fascist governments control the media to exert influence over the public. They also control a highly coercive policing force (i.e. Hitler’s Storms Arbteilung-SA) which threatens those who do not accept and adopt the fascist agenda. For example the SA in March 1934 systematically murdered many of Hitler’s political enemies in what became known as ‘The Night of Long Knives.’ That same year Hitler’s ‘Enabling Act’ made Germany a single party state. Benito Mussolini did the same in Italy. After being elected Prime Minister in 1922, he made Italy a single party state in 1926. He also took control over the mass media and formed a highly aggressive Police force to control those who opposed his regime.

 

Fascist states almost invariably produce forms of dictatorship or totalitarianism. Totalitarianism appeals to the creation of the ‘fascist man.’ It’s values call for followers who will put the nation above the individual. In that, fascism creates a strong sense of national identity (and thus ethnic nationalism). The strong state control of media, police etc helped create this nationalism as the ideals of the government become the ideals of the people through coercion and persuasion.

 

Outside Italy and Germany Lithuania became a fascist dictatorship in 1926 after a political coup. The new regime there was a fascist nationalist party. It’s support stemmed from the then recent independence of the country. Lithuania had grown to mistrust and despise Communist Russia and her allies in the Baltic’s. After gaining independence it’s backbite was to want to sever ties with other countries. Fascists believe in severing foreign ties as far as possible for a cause of self-sufficiency. For example the Lithuanian fascists rejected foreign ties and ended immigration and started repatriation. The BNP have pledged to do the same in the UK if elected along with leaving the Common Market. The British Nationalist Party is the largest Fascist party in the UK over the National Front. Both are very unpopular with the mass population.

 

The Nationalist victory in the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) resulted in a Fascist government (Franco). Other Nationalist Fascist regimes have

taken office in Imperial Japan and in Argentina under Evita Peron. It must not be assumed though that Fascists agree on everything. Fascism is a fluid concept which can be hard to define as it has few core values. It has grown in the midst of two world wars as a reaction to them.

 

Italian Fascist Nationalism sought to evoke national pride in the modernisation of industry and technology. It openly embraced the modernisation of society and changing of zeitgeist. Nazism differed in that it rejected the route of national pride in modernisation as a route to nationalism. Instead it placed emphasis on pastoral nationalism. It looked at first to ideals such as self-sufficiency. The likes of Walter Darre (Nazi minister for agriculture) saw life in overcrowded urban cities as unhealthy for the German spirit and undermining the racial stock. He put in place ‘Blood and Soil’ ideas that put Germans back towards their true identity as a peasant people suited to a simple existence. However his ideas were soon lost as expansionism required industrialisation.

 

To conclude, Fascism and Nationalism are inexorably linked. Fascism shows what exaggerated nationalism can become. Very strong nationalistic views can attract fascist ideals of racial and ethnic superiority, expansionism and ultimately war and annihilation of those deemed inferior. Fascism is a twentieth century phenomena which has arose largely out of crisis’ from states trying to become nation states or trying to increase the sense of nationalism. Fascism’s national chauvinism which confers a perceived superiority on it’s followers creates ethnic nationalism by discriminating against others as inferior. Fascism however does not confer civic nationalism because it has no communal ties which can include those who are not ‘pure’ (i.e. Nazism discriminated against non-Aryans). However, the links between Fascism and Nationalism are deteriorating. For example the Italian Nationalist party , Gianfranco Fini’s ‘Movimento Sociale of Social Italiano (MSI) attempted to draw away from it’s fascist image by changing it’s name to Alleanza Nationale and adopting a post-fascist agenda. The World has grown hatred of fascism and cannot accept it. The taboo of fascist ideology can now destroy political ambitions. It has been seen to have failed in countries like Italy, Germany and currently in Serbia. Whilst the world remembers the atrocities which

are synonomous with Fascism such as the last World War, Fascism cannot recover. Nationalists are drawing themselves away from the dirty word of fascism. In time, if the world can ever forget the crimes of fascim, things may change. For now though, that time looks to be far far away.

 

 

Bibliography

 

Political Ideologies-Andrew Heywood

Nationalism: It’s meaning and history-Khon

Nationalism and the Nation State-Course book