History 309 – CONTEMPORARY EUROPE – October 3, 2005  

FASCISM’S APPEAL  

For a time, in the 1930s, it seemed that Fascism was the wave of the future.  Mussolini had created Italian Fascism in 1919, and had come to power in 1922, but for the next decade or so, Fascism seemed just an Italian oddity.  But after the Great Depression hit, in 1929, suddenly, Fascists were everywhere.  In 1933, Hitler and his German Fascists – the Nazis – came to power.  In 1934, French Fascists almost – but not quite – came to power during the Stavisky riots.  In 1936, General Franco, supported by Spanish Fascists, staged a coup and triggered a brutal civil war in Spain (1936-39), which Franco won.  Meantime, in England and Ireland, Rumanian and Hungary, in Argentina and in the USA, Fascist and Fascist-like movements were on the march.  In Asia, Japan’s military dictatorship took on, in the 1930s, a decidedly Fascist quality.  

Today’s readings provide a host of clues about the appeal of Fascism.  Today we’ll view a set of propaganda images from Nazi Germany, in an attempt to understand the nature of fascism.  

View each image, and then jot down what you think is interesting about that image.

 

1. _______________________________                    11. _________________________________

 

2. _______________________________                    12. _________________________________

 

3. _______________________________                    13. _________________________________

 

4. _______________________________                    14. _________________________________

 

5. _______________________________                    15. _________________________________

 

6. _______________________________                    16. _________________________________

 

7. _______________________________                    17. _________________________________

 

8. _______________________________                    18. _________________________________

 

9. _______________________________                    19. _________________________________

 

10. _______________________________                  20. _________________________________  

 

NOW: BASED ON THESE CLUES, complete the following:  “What strikes me most about Fascism, at least as suggested by a review of Nazi propaganda, is …”

 

 

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Modified by:  H.  Kamerling