As in Italy, fascism in Germany did not emerge suddenly, but its foundations were gradually laid. These foundations were established under the government of Bismarck as the first Chancellor of the Reich – in 1871, following his involvement in the suppression of the Paris Commune – which enjoyed the support of conservatives and liberals and enacted the Anti-Socialist Law (1878–1890).
Under this law, all workers’ associations founded by Social Democrats, Socialists, and Communists were banned. Any meetings, memberships, participation in assemblies, and speeches in these associations were prohibited and punished with fines and imprisonment. Bismarck rejected all demands of the labour movement in his name and declared that no trade unions or workers’ parties were needed to enforce these demands, as his government itself would carry out reforms to improve the workers’ situation. Like Mussolini, he also suppressed workers’ demands by providing only health and accident insurance, a pension after the age of 70 (with a life expectancy of 40 years), and laws regarding the elderly, children, and the disabled.
The Socialist Law was repealed in 1890, and the labour movement gained strength. The revolutionary movement in Tsarist Russia had profound effects on the German labour movement. Boycotts, mass strikes, and general strikes became a social issue and entered labour debates, which displeased the trade unions (see the book “Trade Union Movement in Germany”, Farkhonde Taghadossi).
Despite all warnings from the left wing of the Second International about the danger of war, the appeals to workers worldwide and their representatives in parliaments to prevent or quickly end the war, and the strikes to support these warnings, including the demonstration of one and a half million workers on July 30, 1914, the ruling bourgeois reformism at the head of the trade unions and the German Social Democratic Party agreed with the government to support the domestic bourgeoisie against the foreign one. It promised to provide the necessary personnel for the war from among the workers. In return, the government promised to recognize the trade union as the representative of the employees!
Thus, the War Budget Act was passed in parliament, and the German Empire entered the war to redistribute the world and secure resources and raw materials, as it had started with colonialism later than other European countries. This shaped the future of the Social Democratic Party and the trade unions as the left wing of the bourgeoisie in the struggle for nationalism and the fatherland. World War I was a severe test for parties that claimed to fight for the improvement of workers’ living conditions or against capitalism.
By September 1914, as part of the policy of class reconciliation, more than a quarter of union members had been sent to war, most of them unemployed. Economic problems were evident in all sectors of the economy. The standard of living for workers steadily declined. The gains of years of labour struggles were gradually undone. Inflation was rampant.
Opposition within the union and the Social Democratic Party grew. Strikes and workers’ demonstrations increased. The left wing of the party, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, which rejected party politics, split off. The anti-war movement gained strength in many German cities, demanding peace, the demilitarization of factories, the release of all political prisoners, and the democratization of the government. The government subsequently declared the opponents of the war to be traitors to the fatherland.
After the Russian Revolution and its effects on the German labour movement, the workers began questioning the war and the societal system underlying it. In many cities, illegal workers’ and soldiers’ councils were formed. The question of how to overthrow the state apparatus and gain political power through these councils became their daily topic. In January 1918, a massive general strike took place, demanding an immediate end to the war, freedom of the press, assembly, and strikes, the right of association, the release of all political prisoners, the establishment of workers’ councils in workplaces modelled on the Soviet system, as well as the refusal to perform military service or participate in the war.
A million workers in the armaments factories went on strike for weeks under the motto ‘Peace, Freedom, Bread’ – a rare and still unusual scenario worldwide. The domestic and foreign political situation in Germany was extremely unstable. The workers’ and soldiers’ councils spoke of fundamental changes, the Soviet system, the workers’ army, the conversion of private ownership of the means of production into communal property, and the revolution. The monarchy was forced to surrender and was overthrown.
The Social Democratic Party and the Union, who were in power, feared the socialization of the economy and focused solely on national unity, that is, on forming an alliance with the other wing of the bourgeoisie, while the real nation, the millions of workers, supported socialization. As expected, the party turned away from the revolution and collaborated with the Reich government. When the party saw an uprising approaching, it rallied around Prince Max von Baden as an alternative to the workers’ and soldiers’ councils and proposed new elections to send the workers and soldiers home so that the parliamentary elite could continue working. The uprisings were suppressed in various cities from Kiel to Hannover to Berlin was suppressed by the military. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were arrested and murdered; their bodies were thrown into the canal, which returned them to the workers five months later. The workers’ demonstrations against the war continued. After the war, the Social Democratic Party lost 50% of its votes in the 1920 elections, including the workers’ votes.
The union’s wage policy also did not align with rising prices and high inflation. A large number of workers, disappointed with the party and the union, left the union. In the West, the weekly working hours reached 48 hours over 6 days per week on November 1919 and 22. A year later, the daily working hours were changed to 10 hours. Workers’ struggles often failed, and the employers were successful, so no achievements were made. The Free State of Bavaria played an important role in the emergence of the extreme right – fascism – in Germany. The NSDAP was founded in 1919 in Munich. This party received support from parts of the civil service, the police, and the population, but it was banned in Germany as a whole, except for Bavaria. The members of the party elected Hitler as Führer.
On November 9, 1923, the party attempted to overthrow the Reich government, which, however, failed, but the Bavarian judiciary sentenced Hitler to a short prison term. The global economic crisis of 1929 led to massive unemployment, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 34% in 1930. The parliament increased farmers’ taxes to finance spending and reduced unemployment insurance paid to the jobless. In Berlin, employers succeeded in generally lowering wages. Due to these changes and restrictions, the despair and alienation of workers and peasants from the official parties and trade unions reached its peak. For this reason, a large portion of them turned to the NSDAP, which, deceivingly, bore the name National Socialist German Workers’ Party, so that it gained a majority, namely two-thirds of the seats, in the parliamentary elections and came to power on January 30, 1933. The parliament appointed Hitler as Chancellor and thus as head of government.
On March 7, he immediately banned the Communist Party and raised the alarm against fascism. The federation recognized Hitler’s government on March 21, only two months after National Socialism came to power, because it preferred to preserve the organization. In the same year, the NSDAP founded the German Labor Front, which became a mass organization with 20 million members. May 1 was renamed Labor Day, which is still used today. The union called on workers to participate in the celebration of the National Socialist Union, but on May 2, all union’s canters were occupied by Hitler’s troops, and there were mass arrests of workers, the bodies of many of them were discovered a year later. Resistance efforts by some workers were suppressed throughout Germany.
By the end of the war in 1937, a total of 225,000 political prisoners had been sentenced to 600,000 years of imprisonment, 90 percent of them workers. The Gestapo was busy suppressing dissidents, particularly workers of the Resistance Front. In 1934, all rights regarding workers’ participation in workplace decision-making were revoked, and a strict hierarchical class system was introduced. In 1939, according to a Gestapo report, 112,500 people were in concentration camps and 27,500 people in detention facilities. These were the first anti-fascist attempts, which later evolved into international brigades. The Role of Schools and the Education System in German Fascism, as always, the ruling class uses the education system to transform its thinking and ideology into the thinking and ideology of society, to instil from a young age what it wants. During the Nazi era, they began carefully planning leisure, recreation, and educational methods for the indoctrination that matched their goals. Children and adolescents played a central role in the future objectives of the Nazi regime. Due to this role, they received special training based on the goals of the regime. From the age of ten, they were spontaneously and forcibly enrolled in a youth organization, which was separate for girls and boys and had a different education system. Their free time was accompanied by sports, music, theatre, political education, and propaganda. In advance, teachers were retrained and prepared for these objectives in order to educate children obediently and in accordance with the goals of National Socialism and to prepare children and adolescents to go to war under full control. Despite these efforts, there was still resistance against the regime among the youth and teachers.
During this period, children and adolescents were involved in the organization mainly because of their age and interests, while they were victims of this type of encounter, but they were very active in favour of the regime, except for those who were sick, weak or disabled, many of whom were later sent to crematoria. In 1939, the Nazi Youth had 9 million active members, including boys between the ages of 10 and 14 and girls between the ages of 14 and 18. All these young people had a special uniform and a special program was organized for them on the weekends. They were made to believe that they were as hard as Krupp steel, as fast as hunting dogs and tough as leather.
They received combat exercises as games, accompanied by military discipline, and the child did not feel its objectives because of the play. They learned poems that one must sacrifice one’s life to defend one’s homeland, and that the enemy is evil and the Germans are good. From the age of 12, they were trained in shooting and then in handling tanks, and were taught that they had to help Germany win and defend it.
They were trained to fight for the victory and defence of Germany to the last man and to obey the commanders. To love the commanders and be aware of their duty to defend. In 1944, the Volk Sturm militia was formed to fight until the final victory. Tens of thousands of these 14- to 16-year-old youths were killed in the war.
Summary:
– The conditions for the emergence of fascism in Germany were laid during the Weimar Republic (1919-33).
– The German bourgeoisie demanded its share in the division of the world, as it had entered relatively late compared to other European colonial powers. The government and parliament entered World War I on its behalf.
– Ban on communist, socialist, and social-democratic associations, and establishment of penalties for participation.
– Adoption of an anti-socialist law.
– The role of the Social Democratic Party and trade unions in class reconciliation.
– Influence of the Russian Revolution on the German labour movement.
– Workers’ and mass strikes.