Download Selling a Totalitarian System

Selling a
Totalitarian System
• Nobody really wins WWI
• Everyone loses
• Especially Germany & her Allies
Post War
• Treaty of Versailles
• Germany to pay reparation until
1988
• Clash of Political Philosophies
• Socialists and Communists
–Focus on working class needs
• Fascists
–Parliamentary rule: Weak and
unstable… chaotic
• Marx – left
• Rousseau – left/Center
• Smith – Right/Center
• Hobbes – Right
• Left – Socialism/Communism
• Center – Democracies
• Right – Theocracies, Authoritarian
Fascism
• Define themselves more by what
they’re against
• Strong leader - restore order
• Don’t settle for traditional power
• Go for popular power
• Expand national borders
• Fulfill “historical destiny”
• Get rid of outsiders & undesirables
Conditions in Europe
• Middle class economic
frustrations
• Upper class – fears socialism
• Anti-Parliamentarianism
–Poor economy
• Aggressive Nationalism
–Why?
• Everyone is a victim after WWI
Hyper-Inflation
• England – Prices are 3 times
higher in 1920 than before war
• Germany – 5 times higher
• Austria – 14,000 times
• Hungary – 23,000 times
War Reparations Impact
• 1921 – Allies give Germany the bill
• $33 Billion
• German Currency: 4 marks=$1
• After Bill received: 75 marks=$1
• By 1922: 400 DM = $1
• Germans ask for postponement
• French Refuse
• Germans default on payments
• French occupy Ruhr Valley
lots of industry located there
January 1923
After French Army
Occupation
• Feb. 1923: 18,000dm = $1
• July 1923: 160,000dm = $1
• Aug. 1923: 1,000,000dm = $1
• Nov. 1923: 4,000,000,000dm = $1
Europe ripe for
Communism?
• England – 1% of population
owns 2/3 of national wealth
• 1/10th of 1% owns 1/3 wealth
• Germany – Weimar Republic
–Very weak…
Adolf Hitler
• Born 1889 in Braunau, Austria
• (or perhaps in 1919, Versailles?)
• Teacher Quote
• Quit school – 1905
• Either refused admission or
rejected at Academy of Arts,
Vienna
• Moved to Vienna, listed in city
directory in 1914:
• “painter and architect” (aka
Mass Murderer)
Hitler’s Mommy & Daddy
• Hitler on left (under “x”)
dog is his pet during war: “Fuchsl”
until it was stolen from him
Iron Cross - 1918
• Rare among foot soldiers…
• Lieutenant who recommended
him was Jewish
• Received 5 medals total
• Suffered injury in Chlorine Gas
attack by the British
Munich 1919
• Hitler joins German Workers’
Party
• Next year, became leader
• Renamed it: National Socialist
German Workers’ Party (NAZI)
• Started to call him “Fuhrer” or
leader in this organization
This ain’t no disco
• Nazi’s organized paramilitary
branch: Sturmabteilungen… or
S.A. (Stormtroopers) – 1921
• Led by Ernst Rohm (1887-1934)
Ernst Rohm
1923 – Beer Hall Putsch
• After slamming down a few pints
they attempt to take power
• Seize power in Munich… then
push on to Berlin
• Crushed and imprisoned
• Hitler got 5 years (served less
than 1)
• Wrote book in prison, Mein
Kampf
Left Prison
• On Parole
• Forbidden to speak in public
until 1927
• Faced with possible deportation
back to Austria (he wasn’t a
German citizen)
Anschluss — March 1938
• Hitler works with Austria to allow
for a “union”
• Threatened with war… Austria
agreed
• Austrian Govt taken over by
Austrian Fascists
• Crowds greet Nazi Army with flags
• Anschluss forbidden under Treaty
of Versailles
Anschluss
• Nazis arrest 70,000+
• Vienna crowd beats up Jews
Secret plans for Czech
• Drew up plans to invade Czech
on October 1st
• Sudetenland – 50% german
• Army Leadership shocked… not
willing to invade at first
• Germans – 31 divisions
• Czech – 45 (1 million soldiers)
• France – 100 divisions
Top Brass plans to
arrest Hitler
• Top Generals drew up plan to
try to arrest Hitler…
• Depends on Allied pressure
against Hitler
Neville Chamberlain
(1869-1940)
• Became British
Prime Minister in
1931
• Meets with Hitler
in Sept. 15th 1938
• First time on plane
First Impressions?
• Hitler tells Chamberlain of
German pain in Sudetenland
• Chamberlain asks him to delay
• Chamberlain on Hitler:
“In spite of the hardness and
ruthlessness I thought I saw in
his face, I got the impression
that here was a man who could
be relied upon when he had given
his word.”
Britain and France
agree to give in
• Flew back on Sept. 22nd
• Hitler moves the target – wants
more!
• Meet once more… Sept. 29th
Mussolini, Chamberlain, Hitler,
and Daladier… in Munich
• Sign Munich Agreement on 30th
• German Army can occupy
Sudetenland
Munich Conference
“I have secured Peace”
Meanwhile… Daladier
October 1st 1938
• Nazi Army occupies Sudetenland
• Austria (no fighting) – Anschluss
• Sudetenland – military
occupation… no fighting
• Kick out all non-Germans
“Our enemies are
little worms”
Kristallnacht
• Night of Broken Glass
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
• Comes to power 1922
• Promises Second
Roman Empire
• Mare Nostrum = Med.
Sea… “our lake”
Benito the Bully
• Bully in school
• Quick with fists and
knife
• Once stabbed a
girlfriend
• Brother died in 1931
• Afterwards he said,
“keep your heart a
desert”
marx and Nietzche
• Joined army
• Called himself a socialist
• Became a political journalist
• Protested Italian war in libya
Editor of Avanti
• Italian Socialist Paper
• 1914 – denounced War
• Then, flipped sides on the issue a
few months later
“Only Blood makes the
wheels of History turn”
• He thought Nietzche was a
stronger man than Marx
• Elected to Parliament in 1921
along with other fascists
• Blamed communists for their
problems in Italy
• Violence begins in streets
• Mussolini elected as leader
Il Duce
• Mussolini calls himself this
• Presents himself as protector
of law and order
• “Italy would fulfill its historic
destiny”… he would say (Marx)
King –vs- Coup d’etat
• Mussolini has 40,000 fascists
• They begin to march on Rome
• Want more Fascists on Cabinet
• King gives in… Makes Mussolini
Prime Minister (Oct. 29, 1922)
“Il Duce ha sempre ragione!”
• “Mussolini is always right!”
• Sound familiar?… Animal farm
• Il Duce encouraged people to
use this phrase
• Italian journalists required to
use capitalization of pronouns
when referring to Him… He… His
• Italians, when 18, took oath to
obey him
mixed support
• Those who thought well of him in
the beginning?
–George Bernard Shaw
–Sigmund Freud
–Ezra Pound
–Time Magazine (8 covers)
–The French?…
–Hell no!! Called him,
“Carnival Caesar”
His Pre-war Record
• Economy
• Italian Society
• Literacy? Pathetically low
• In south, 20% of brides could not
even sign their names on
Marriage License (1936)
mistress – C. Petacci