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Do not fill this in! === Response to World War I and Italian Fascism === During World War I, German sociologist [[Johann Plenge]] spoke of the rise of a "National Socialism" in Germany within what he termed the "[[Spirit of 1914|ideas of 1914]]" that were a declaration of war against the "ideas of 1789" (the [[French Revolution]]).<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006, p. 205"/> According to Plenge, the "ideas of 1789" which included the rights of man, democracy, individualism and liberalism were being rejected in favour of "the ideas of 1914" which included the "German values" of duty, discipline, law and order.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006, p. 205" /> Plenge believed that ethnic solidarity (''[[Volksgemeinschaft]]'') would replace class division and that "racial comrades" would unite to create a socialist society in the struggle of "proletarian" Germany against "capitalist" Britain.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006, p. 205" /> He believed that the "Spirit of 1914" manifested itself in the concept of the "People's League of National Socialism".<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997, p. 92" /> This National Socialism was a form of [[state socialism]] that rejected the "idea of boundless freedom" and promoted an economy that would serve the whole of Germany under the leadership of the state.<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997, p. 92" /> This National Socialism was opposed to capitalism due to the components that were against "the national interest" of Germany, but insisted that National Socialism would strive for greater efficiency in the economy.<ref name="Bernd-Rüdiger Hüppauf 1997, p. 92" /> Plenge advocated an authoritarian, rational ruling elite to develop National Socialism through a hierarchical [[Technocracy|technocratic]] state,<ref name="Thomas Rohkrämer 2007, p. 130" /> and his ideas were part of the basis of Nazism.<ref name="Martin Kitchen 2006, p. 205"/> [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R06610, Oswald Spengler.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Oswald Spengler]], a philosopher of history]] [[Oswald Spengler]], a German cultural philosopher, was a major influence on Nazism, although after 1933 he became alienated from Nazism and was later condemned by the Nazis for criticising Adolf Hitler.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler's conception of national socialism and a number of his political views were shared by the Nazis and the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement]].<ref name=autogenerated7 /> Spengler's views were also popular amongst [[Italian fascism|Italian Fascists]], including [[Benito Mussolini]].<ref name="encyclopedia15"/> Spengler's book ''[[The Decline of the West]]'' (1918), written during the final months of World War I, addressed the supposed [[decadence]] of modern European civilisation, which he claimed was caused by atomising and irreligious individualisation and [[cosmopolitanism]].<ref name=autogenerated16/> Spengler's major thesis was that a law of historical development of cultures existed involving a cycle of birth, maturity, ageing and death when it reaches its final form of civilisation.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Upon reaching the point of civilisation, a culture will lose its creative capacity and succumb to [[decadence]] until the emergence of "[[barbarian]]s" creates a new epoch.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler considered the [[Western world]] as having succumbed to decadence of intellect, money, cosmopolitan urban life, irreligious life, [[wikt:Atomization|atomised]] [[individualism|individualisation]] and believed that it was at the end of its biological and "spiritual" fertility.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> He believed that the "young" German nation as an imperial power would inherit the legacy of [[Ancient Rome]], lead a restoration of value in "[[Bloodline|blood]]" and instinct, while the ideals of rationalism would be revealed as absurd.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler's notions of "Prussian socialism" as described in his book ''[[Preussentum und Sozialismus]]'' ("Prussiandom and Socialism", 1919), influenced Nazism and the [[Conservative Revolutionary movement]].<ref name=autogenerated7/> Spengler wrote: "The meaning of socialism is that life is controlled not by the opposition between rich and poor, but by the rank that achievement and talent bestow. That is ''our'' freedom, freedom from the economic despotism of the individual".<ref name="autogenerated7"/> Spengler adopted the anti-English ideas addressed by Plenge and Sombart during World War I that condemned [[Liberalism in the United Kingdom|English liberalism]] and [[Westminster system|English parliamentarianism]] while advocating a national socialism that was free from [[Marxism]] and that would connect the individual to the state through [[Corporatism|corporatist]] organisation.<ref name="autogenerated16"/> Spengler claimed that socialistic Prussian characteristics existed across Germany, including creativity, discipline, concern for the greater good, productivity and self-sacrifice.<ref name="university17"/> He prescribed war as a necessity by saying: "War is the eternal form of higher human existence and states exist for war: they are the expression of the will to war".<ref name="university18"/> [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1971-091-20, Kapp-Putsch, Marine-Brigade Erhardt.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|The [[Marinebrigade Erhardt]] during the [[Kapp Putsch]] in Berlin, 1920<ref>German Federal Archive image description</ref> (The Marinebrigade Erhardt used the [[swastika]] as its symbol, as seen on their helmets and on the truck, which inspired the Nazi Party to adopt it as the movement's symbol.)]] Spengler's definition of socialism did not advocate a change to property relations.<ref name=autogenerated7/> He denounced Marxism for seeking to train the proletariat to "expropriate the expropriator", the capitalist and then to let them live a life of leisure on this expropriation.<ref name="H. Stuart Hughes 1992, p. 108"/> He claimed that "Marxism is the capitalism of the working class" and not true socialism.<ref name="H. Stuart Hughes 1992, p. 108"/> According to Spengler, true socialism would be in the form of corporatism, stating that "local corporate bodies organised according to the importance of each occupation to the people as a whole; higher representation in stages up to a supreme council of the state; mandates revocable at any time; no organised parties, no professional politicians, no periodic elections".<ref name="transaction"/> [[File:Das Dritte Reich.jpg|thumb|upright|The book ''[[Das Dritte Reich]]'' (1923), translated as "The Third Reich", by [[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]]]] [[Wilhelm Stapel]], an antisemitic German intellectual, used Spengler's thesis on the cultural confrontation between Jews as whom Spengler described as a [[Magi]]an people versus [[Europeans]] as a [[Faust]]ian people.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan">{{cite book |first=Mordecai M. |last=Kaplan |title=Judaism as a Civilization: Toward a Reconstruction of American-Jewish Life |page=73}}</ref> Stapel described Jews as a landless nomadic people in pursuit of an international culture whereby they can integrate into Western civilisation.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan"/> As such, Stapel claims that Jews have been attracted to "international" versions of socialism, pacifism or capitalism because as a landless people the Jews have transgressed various national cultural boundaries.<ref name="MordecaiKaplan"/> For all of Spengler's influence on the movement, he was opposed to its antisemitism. He wrote in his personal papers "[H]ow much envy of the capability of other people in view of one's lack of it lies hidden in anti-Semitism!" as well as "[W]hen one would rather destroy business and scholarship than see Jews in them, one is an ideologue, i.e., a danger for the nation. Idiotic."<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Farrenkopf |title=Prophet of Decline: Spengler on World History and Politics|date=June 2001 |pages=237–238|publisher=LSU Press |isbn=9780807127278}}</ref> [[Arthur Moeller van den Bruck]] was initially the dominant figure of the Conservative Revolutionaries influenced Nazism.<ref name="university19"/> He rejected [[reactionary]] conservatism while proposing a new state that he coined the "Third Reich", which would unite all classes under [[authoritarian]] rule.<ref name="macmillan"/> Van den Bruck advocated a combination of the nationalism of the right and the socialism of the left.<ref name="millennial"/> [[Fascism]] was a major influence on Nazism. The seizure of power by Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini in the [[March on Rome]] in 1922 drew admiration by Hitler, who less than a month later had begun to model himself and the [[Nazi Party]] upon Mussolini and the Fascists.{{sfn|Kershaw|1999|p=182}} Hitler presented the Nazis as a form of German fascism.<ref name="Fulda, Bernhard 2009, p. 65"/><ref name="Carlsten, F. L. 1982, p. 80"/> In November 1923, the Nazis attempted a "March on Berlin" modelled after the March on Rome, which resulted in the failed [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in [[Munich]].<ref name="dissolution"/> Hitler spoke of Nazism being indebted to the success of Fascism's rise to power in Italy.<ref name="Hugh R. Trevor-Roper 2008. p10">Hugh R. Trevor-Roper (ed.), Gerhard L. Weinberg (ed.). Hitler's Table Talk 1941–1944: Secret Conversations. Enigma Books, 2008. p. 10</ref> In a private conversation in 1941, Hitler said that "the brown shirt would probably not have existed without the black shirt", the "brown shirt" referring to the [[Sturmabteilung|Nazi militia]] and the "black shirt" referring to the [[Blackshirts|Fascist militia]].<ref name="Hugh R. Trevor-Roper 2008. p10"/> He also said in regards to the 1920s: "If Mussolini had been outdistanced by Marxism, I don't know whether we could have succeeded in holding out. At that period National Socialism was a very fragile growth".<ref name="Hugh R. Trevor-Roper 2008. p10"/> Other Nazis—especially those at the time associated with the party's more radical wing such as [[Gregor Strasser]], Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler—rejected [[Italian fascism|Italian Fascism]], accusing it of being too conservative or capitalist.<ref name="university21"/> [[Alfred Rosenberg]] condemned Italian Fascism for being racially confused and having influences from [[Philo-Semitism|philosemitism]].<ref name="stanley"/> Strasser criticised the policy of {{Lang|de|[[Führerprinzip]]}} as being created by Mussolini and considered its presence in Nazism as a foreign imported idea.<ref name="Stanley G. Payne 1995, p. 464"/> Throughout the relationship between Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, a number of lower-ranking Nazis scornfully viewed fascism as a conservative movement that lacked a full revolutionary potential.<ref name="Stanley G. Payne 1995, p. 464"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page