Italian Fascism vs. German Nazism
By Christina Dixon
HIS306: Twentieth-Century Europe (BPI1434A)
Instructor: Max Fassnacht
May 4, 2015

Fascism and Nazism came during a time when there was an economic crisis that was sweeping through Europe. Fascism and Nazism was two familiar totalitarian regimes that was able to arise from Germany and Italy. In Germany, the National socialist party was conducted by Adolf Hitler, while Benito Mussolini conducted the fascist party in Italy. Italy and Germany’s future was based on the education in the schools, since education played an important role between these two nations. The people’s image of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as two leaders was profoundly the important factors to their popularity. The most essential tool that was allowed in both countries and played a very important role in both political parties was propaganda, which gave both parties the ability to influence the perspectives of the people to their partiality. Italy and Germany are two natural allies, but however they are both different from each other and can be connected in many salutations. “Largo ai Giovani”, Italian for "make way for the young" (Clayton, 2009) was just one of the mottos that was used by Benito Mussolini’s regime. Mussolini’s saying highlights one of the most important aspects during the Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany’s education system. The education system in both countries was not just used for learning but also was the key element to creating their future soldiers. The education system had another important element and that was the presence of the after school movements that went on among the youth. The role of females are another interesting aspect in the education system when under dictatorships. Therefore, Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany were both identical when it came to the educational system. The two political parties that were known to be extremists were Italy’s Fascism and Germany’s Nazism, although they both came about during the 1930’s and correspondingly had many of the same qualities. Both Fascism and Nazism became subjective during the fear from communism, the intensification of nationalism, the dissatisfaction of how World War I ended and the catastrophe involving the economic system. Both parties were manifested by a cult of the dictator, the use of rejection and violence of both communism and democracy although both Hitler and Mussolini copied several tactics from the communism country of Russia including the strict hierarchy and cell system, during which time Mussolini used corporatist theory and he rejected individualism as the Soviet economic system had done in the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, “Mussolini and Hitler are something of a diabolical double act: aggressive right-wing dictators who rose to power in similar circumstances, shared a similar ideology, fought side by side in World War Two, and died violently at the end of the conflict in 1945” (Tarr, 2009). Fascism and Nazism had several eight vital differences between the two. The most important difference between the Fascism ideology and Nazism is: the rejection in the concept of anti-Semitism and race. The concept of race was never fully developed into Mussolini’s incorporated doctrine. Benito Mussolini believed in territorial expansion and in creating an ethnically clean Italian state. Nazism is defined to be a lot like Fascism although Nazism segregated themselves from the perception of ethnic inferiority in addition to superiority. “The Nazi doctrine states that the races were classified as superior and inferior with the Germanic or Aryan race on the top and the blacks and Jews on the bottom of the racial pyramid” (Hutton, 2010). The major difference that compares Nazism and Fascism was how they came to power, since the Fascist Party came about and earned power around the year 1922, while during this time Adolf Hitler’s revolution in Germany was motivated via Italy’s Benito Mussolini’s protest on Italy’s capital which became a failure. The most major factors that allowed both Mussolini and Hitler to rise to power was caused by the economic and political system. The factor that allowed Fascism to rise in Italy was because of superiority and authoritarianism, whereas Germany had rose into a power called Nazi’s even as military rule. The German Nazism was becoming dominant since they were having propaganda campaigns and Hitler was showing excellent speaking skills and intelligence towards the Nazi policies, they began receiving support from the criticism involving the Weimar system and from big enterprises. Nazism also rose to power since they were feeling the after effects of World War I. “The political and economic situations in Germany stabilized considerably for five years after 1924, but the Great Depression brought new misery to Germany and paved the way for Hitler's rise to power” (Shubert, 2012). The most important factor to the rise of a Fascist Italy was because “Mussolini's ideology was a rather vague blend of anticommunism, Italian nationalism, promises of social reform, and appeals to the revival of Italy's past role from the Roman Empire as the dominant power in the Mediterranean Sea” (Shubert, 2012). The crucial goal for the Italian Fascism was in fact to hold dominancy or to rule the entire world or have the Roman Empire to rule the entire world. The Italian’s wanted the glories of the Roman Empire to be sustained and to get rid of the chaos that surrounded totalitarianism and anti-democracy, whereas the ultimate goal of the Nazism in Germany was take out all those that was not from German heritage and have only Germans being at the peak of humanity. Therefore, Adolf Hitler’s primary goal was to create dependence and ethnic purification, than wage a war itself. The women in Italy had to follow tradition whereas German women were brought forward to work together to achieve expectations while the men were away. In Germany before World War II, the women were not able to receive the same equal rights as man since the women were believed to only get married and set at home and take care of their husbands. During World War II, German women had to take part in the war by transporting the medicine to the army and they even held guns. After World War II, the German women ended up earning equal employment and opportunity programs since there was a shortage of German men after the war ended. While in Italy they were experiencing a financial catastrophe due to their war efforts, so therefore this caused Italian women to go to work so that they could survive. If it was not for Adolf Hitler and his philosophies then Germany would not have rose as a Nazism state between 1920’s to the 1940’s, since before Fascism and Nazism was created Germany was insecure economically, politically, and socially whereas the Fascist economy was one of the largest users of propaganda in the regime, and was what Benito Mussolini took a personal interest in. Both Hitler and Mussolini struggled to keep their country and practices dominant, although Italy was exceptionally subjective by Germany’s military strength.

References
Baldoli, C. (2003). Exporting fascism [electronic resource]: Italian fascists and Britain's Italians in the 1930s / Claudia Baldoli. New York, N.Y.: Berg, 2003. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Databases.
Clayton, T. (2009). Introducing Giovanni Gentile, the ‘Philosopher of Fascism’. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 41(6), 640-660. doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00497.x
Herzog, D. (2014). Nazism. The New York Times Book Review, 38. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Database.
Hutton, C. (2010). Nazi Race Theory and Belief in an "Aryan Race": A Profound Failure of Interdisciplinary Communication. International Journal of Science in Society, 1(4), 149-155. Retrieved from EBSCOhost Database.
Shubert, A. & Goldstein, R.J. (2012). Twentieth-century Europe. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Tarr, R. (2009). THE FOREIGN POLICIES OF HITLER AND MUSSOLINI. History Review, (65), 44. MasterFILE Premier Database.