Totalitarianism+in+Germany+and+Italy+paper

In the aftermath of World War I several countries struggled in maintaining stability in the reconstructed Europe. Because of this, more radical governments emerged in some countries, as they were seen as a way to combat communism, which was seen as a major threat. Italy and Germany were two countries where totalitarian governments took over in the 1920s and early 1930s. These governments controlled their countries through violence and censorship, and both had a single, strong leader to run the state. The totalitarian regimes of Germany and Italy between World War I and World War II were similar in their control over the people through means such as censorship of media, but Nazism in Germany placed more of an emphasis in the government on race and extreme nationalism. Italy’s totalitarian state was led by Benito Mussolini who seized power in 1922 through his “March on Rome. 1 ” He led his fascist forces into the city, and King Victor Emmanuel did little to stop them, and days later Mussolini was named Prime Minister. His takeover of the government was technically legal, but he quickly consolidated his power, and began setting up a totalitarian state. 2 This government was run through several tactics that were oppressive towards his people, and would be considered illegal in most democratic countries. From 1922 to 1929, Mussolini sought to do away with the coalition government that Italy had in place, and set up a one-party state, with himself as its sole leader. 3 He began this goal by passing laws that limited other political parties, and his fascist forces, which had formed a police force, used violence and intimidation to secure Mussolini’s place in the government, and defeat any opposition. 4 The leader of the Socialist Party Giacomo Matteotti, Mussolini’s biggest enemy in the government, spoke out against the Fascists in 1924, and was murdered immediately after. 5 These steps were just the initial movements in making Italy a complete totalitarian state. In 1926 a law was created making it illegal to oppose the Fascists, and this, along with other laws limiting the people’s input in the government, gave Mussolini the power he desired. 6 Despite this, he sought to completely control the Italian citizens and their daily lives, so he set out to create a corporate state, introduce new economic reforms, and social policies. His corporate state was a goal to bring all workers of the same type into one confederation. 7 These confederations provided for their workers, but forbade a worker’s strike, thus controlling his people through another means. Mussolini tried to control the economy through other means, but as the 1930s progressed, this proved to be less successful. Another way that Mussolini ran his totalitarian state was through mass censorship. He censored the news, making himself and the Fascists appear more heroic, and he even had the history books rewritten to make him seem more of a national hero, and “Fascist culture” became a required class. 8 Through the schools and youth programs and by only allowing media that praised the Fascist regime to reach the public, Mussolini kept his people under strict totalitarian control. The totalitarian state in Germany in the 1930s was very similar to the one that Mussolini ran in Italy. Just as in Italy, Germany was run by a single, powerful leader, Adolf Hitler. Just as Mussolini did, he came to power through technically legal means, but the tactics he and his followers used to get there relied on violence and terror dispatched by his followers in the streets, similar to Mussolini’s Fascists. 9 He was the leader of the Nazi Party, who were similar to the Fascists in Italy. Once Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany, in 1933, he quickly began consolidating his power, which included limiting the rights of his citizens, and turning Germany into a totalitarian dictatorship. One of his most powerful moves to gain total control was passing the Enabling Act in March 1933. 10 This gave him the power to not only suspend the constitution, but do away with the parliamentary government set up only the previous decade. This action was very similar to steps that Mussolini took in Italy in the mid 1920s, and Hitler’s use of similar tactics proved successful in helping create his dictatorship. Another action that Hitler’s Nazi government took that was similar to the Fascist in Italy was the murders of his political opponents. He ordered the murder of Ernest Rohm and other SA members, as he saw them as threats to his regime. 11 No steps were taken to investigate these murders, which was the same case when Mussolini had his Socialist rivals murdered. A major part of Hitler’s totalitarian state, and a main way he kept his people under his control, was the censorship of all non-Nazi approved media. This move kept his people from being exposed to outside ideas and was the same one that Mussolini employed. The propaganda that the Nazis issued through print and radio helped spread their ideology, and it gained them more supporters. 12 This idea was a main point behind both regimes, and was part of what withheld rebellion in the totalitarian states, as well as an extreme fear of government action, as both dictators had a secret police to carry out their orders. Another similarity that these two states have is the way that Hitler, similar to Mussolini, attempted to organize the workers, in Germany’s case they were trade unions, as Hitler outlawed independent unions, and he organized them into The German Labour Front. 13 Similar to Italy’s confederations, this Labour Front was an attempt by Hitler to take even further control in his state, by limiting the workers freedom. Italy and Germany shared many similarities in how they ran a totalitarian state between the World Wars, but they also had some differences in other areas. Nazi Germany had many radical ideas and laws that were not present in Mussolini’s Fascist Italy. Hitler incorporated an extreme anti-Semitism into his totalitarian government. He created several laws that limited the role that Jews could have in society, such as owning businesses. 14 Hitler’s Gestapo forces had the power to seize people out of their homes and send them to concentration camps without any trial or process. 15 This state of fear that the citizens lived in was a large reason why Hitler remained in power unquestioned for several years. This racism in Germany was not such a factor in Mussolini’s government, as the reasons for it were based on Hitler’s own personal beliefs. Another significant difference between the two regimes was that Germany had a more aggressive foreign policy, which was based upon Hitler’s promotion of extreme nationalism in his own country. Although Italy did attempt some aggressive moves abroad, such as their invasion of Abyssinia, it was much less aggressive and hostile than Hitler’s plans. 16 He invaded neighboring countries to increase the power of his own dictatorship that he alone had complete control over, and he gained support in Germany with propaganda that promoted Germany as the supreme country in the world, and also promoted the Aryan race, which tied in with his racial beliefs that helped govern his oppressive policies. Germany and Italy had very similar totalitarian dictatorships, with the main differences being rooted in the personal beliefs and goals of Adolf Hitler. The fact that they gained power in roughly the same period is part of the reason why the administrations of Hitler and Mussolini were alike. They used similar tactics to keep complete control over their people, through censorship, reorganizing the economy, and through other oppressive policies, with the ones in Germany being based also on race. Despite this control they had, Hitler and Mussolini both lost all their power by becoming too ambitious, as they were both on the losing side of World War II. These parallel states hold unique places in history as some of the most oppressive, and controlling totalitarian states in the last several centuries.

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[11 Wolfson, Robert, and John Laver. //Years of Change: European History 1890-1990//. 3rd ed. London: Hodder Murray, 2001. Print. 166-167 [22 Chung, TK. “Facist Italy.” //The Corner of the World//. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. . 1-2 [33 Wolfson and Laver 168-169 [44 Chung 2-3 [55 Ibid 3 [66 Ibid 3 [77 Ibid 4 [88 Wolfson and Laver 175-176 [99 Nazi Facism and the Modern Totalitarian State.” //Remeber//. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2009. . 2 [1010 Layton, Geoff. //The Third Reich 1933-1945//. 3rd ed. London: Hodder Murray, 2005. Print. 11 [1111 Ibid 18 [1212 “Nazi Fascism and the Modern Totalitarian State” 7 [1313 Ibid 15 [1414 “Nazi Fascism and the Modern Totalitarian State” 4 [1515 Layton 18-19 [1616 Wolfson and Laver 184-185