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Old March 2nd, 2014 #4
Alex Linder
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development of fascism in Germany

- brotherhood of man? or different, competing nations?
- figures: herder, la garde, langbehn: what is german/german blood? what makes germany/germans unique among nations?
- napoleon's occupation of germany strengthened rejection of enlightenment liberal universalism
- German nationalism rejected french and english way - but wasn't wholly aggressive-authoritarian
- writer: Wilhelm Marr: The Victory of the Jew Over the German (1873): introduced term anti-semitism
- germany had same problems with loosed jews france did, but citizenship was always tied more closely to blood in germany than in france, which was more universalist
- groups: new in 1900s: Navy League and Pan German League: getting Germany a position on world stage.
- concepts: weltpolitik (world politics); lebensraum - living room/expansion into eastern europe
- context of rapid industrialization; new more agressive groups straining against old-style conservatives
- conservative nationalism: nation as collection of estates: church, landowners, king, et al.
- nationalist nationalism: will of the people
- key insight: emotion, as much as any other thing, is what separates conservatism from right radicalism. pan germanism is romatic or emo-driven movement. it makes conservatives nervous. this parallels hitler's description of the sweaty conservatives speaking tepid jokes with their wimpy "they mean wells" for the communist enemy ready to beat them down, contrasted with his nazi streetfighters guarding his speeches, ready to beat the marxists up
- emotion is for men; reason is for boys. victory lies in the emotional appeal, not in the rational. if the rational is to win, it requires encasing in the iron of emotion, just as the filament which when charged produces light requires wrapping in clear hard glass
- rise of left: SPD (socialists) became largest party for the first time in 1912. felt need to oppose this across the right.
- 1917: creation of first "mass right-wing party," the German Fatherland Party. aggressive war aims, against jewish war profiteers and shirkers - to be Nazi themes. "lack of social radicalism" meant it was not truly fascist.
- war left Germany fractured, and many wanting a renewed "community of blood" admit the dislocations and humiliations