Abstract
In the mid-1930s the Nazis seemed to go from success to success, while the West European democracies appeared to lurch from crisis to crisis. No wonder that Western European fascists thought they could smell victory ahead. In reality, of course, this picture of fascist successes and democratic failures was largely wishful thinking. After the death of Reich president von Hindenburg in August 1934, Hitler added the powers of the president’s office to those of the Reich chancellor. The Reichswehr and the Neo-Conservatives, grateful for what they perceived as Hitler’s help in beating back the Stormtrooper radicals, readily accepted the former corporal as head of the Reich and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The rulers of the Reich began to move against what they saw as the remaining obstacles to establishing Nazi totalitarianism. Among the prominent targets were the Christian churches and Germany’s Jews. The Nazis were determined to ultimately eliminate the churches as an institutional force in German society. Goebbels wrote in his diary, “Hitting the churches hard. We want to become a church ourselves.”1
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Notes
Joseph Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von joseph Goebbels [hereafter: T gb], ed. Elke Frohlich, (Munich, 1987), II: 455 (7 Aug. 1933).
Ibid., II: 477–78 (10 Nov. 1934); WalterAdolph, GeheimeAufzeichnungen aus den NS-Kirchenkampf, 1935–43, ed. Ulrich von Hehl (Mainz, 1979), pp. 4, 92–93, and 100. For Rosenberg’s rejoinders against his critics see, An die Dunkelmanner unserer Zeit (Munich, 1935), and Protestantische Rompilger (Munich, 1937).
See, Andreas Kranig, “Arbeitnehmer, Arbeitsbeziehungen und Sozialpolitik unter dem Nationalsozialismus,” in Deutschland, 1933–1945 ed. Karl Dietrich Bracher (Düsseldorf, 1992), p. 143.
On the Reichsparteitage see the detailed analysis in, Yvonne Karow, Deutsches Opfer: Kultische Selbstauslosung auf den Reichsparteitagen der NSDAP (Berlin, 1997); and on their impact Saul Friedländer, “Die Fascination des Nationalsozialismus,” in Die Uerfuhrungskraft des Totalitaren, ed. Klaus Dietmar Henke (Dresden, 1997), pp. 26–28.
Gerhard L. Weinberg, “Die deutsche Aussenpolitik und Osterreich 1937/38,” in Osterreich, Deutschland und die Machte, eds. Gerald Stourzh and Birgitta Zaar (Vienna, 1990), pp. 61–74.
Julian Jackson, The Politics of Depression in France, 1932–1936 (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 100ff and 200–01; and Hans-Wilhelm Eckert, Konservative Revolution in Frankreich? Die Nonkonformisten der Jeune Droite und des Ordre Nouveau in der Krise der 30er Jahre (Munich, 2000), p. 15.
J. Saint-Paulien [Maurice-Yvan Sicard], H istoire de la C ollaboration (Paris, 1964), p. 12. See also, Philippe Burrin, L a D erive F asciste: D oriot, D eat, B ergery, 1933–1945 (Paris, 1986), p. 65; and Eckert, Revolution, pp. 164–65.
The quotations are from, Lucien Rebatet, Les Decombres (Paris, 1942), p. 34; and Deat, “Memoires,” XV: 21. For the significance of the Ethiopian issue for France’s right-wing intellectuals see, Andreas Wirsching, “Auf dem Weg zur Kollaborationsideologie: Antibolschewismus, Antisemitismus und Nationalsozialismus im Denken der franzosischen extremen Rechten, 1936–1939,” I/iertelahrshefte fur Zeitgeschichte 41 (Jan., 1993), 31–60.
On the 1936 elections see, Georges Dupeux, Le Front Populaire et les elections de 1936 (Paris, 1959); and Henri Dubief, Le declin de la Troisieme Republique, 1929–1938 (Paris, 1976), p. 178.
Abel Bonnard, Les Modérés: Le Drame du Present (Paris, 1936), p. 243 (quotation). See also, J. Mievre, “rEvolution politique d’Abel Bonnard,” Revue d’Histoire de la Deuxieme Guerre Mondiale 27 (Oct., 1977): 8.
For statistical data on anti-Semitic publications see, Ralph Schor, L’Antisemitisme en France pendant les annees trente (Brussels, 1992), p. 28. This is the most comprehensive analysis of French anti-Semitism in the 1930s. See also, Richard Millman, La question juive entre les deuxguerres: Lioues de droite et l’anti-semitisme en France (Paris, 1992), p. 209.
Reinhold Brender, Kollaboration in Frankreich im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Marcel Deat und das Rassemblement national populaire (Munich, 1992), D. 53: Sternhell, Neither, D. 177; and Burrin, Derive, pp. 193ff.
Quoted in, Georges LeFranc, H istoire du F ront P opulaire (1934–1938) (Paris, 1965), p. 97 n.2. On the Croix see, the police analyses in, AN, F 7, 13241/3, and APP, B/A, 1961; and Philippe Machefer, “L’Union des Droites, le P.S.F. et le Front de la Liberte, 1936–37,” Revue d’Histoiremoderne et contemporaine 27 (Jan.–Mar. 1970): 113; and esp. Soucy, Second Wave, pp. 104ff.
See, the documentation cited by Robert Soucy in his review of Michel Winock’s Nationalisme, antisémitisme etfascisme en France, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1990), H-France, Dec. 1999.
Samuel Osgood, “The Front Populaire: Views From The Right,” International Review ofSocial History 9 (1964): pp. 189 and 194.
Robert Brasillach, Notre Avant-Guerre (Paris, 1941), pp. 184–85.
Pascal Ory, Les Collaborateurs, 1940–1945 (Paris, 1976), p. 94.
See, Brasillach, Guerre, pp. 161–62 for a typically negative assessment of organized politics.
Graeff to Limburg Stirum, 15 Sept. 1932, in A.C.D. de Graeff, Voor U persoonlijk.• Brieven... aan Gezant J.P. Graaf van Limburg Stirum, 1933–1937, ed. Wil Klaasen (The Hague, 1986), p. 24. The “influential person” is not identified; it may have been Queen Wilhelmina.
Wichert ten Have, De Nederlandse Unie (Amsterdam, 1999), pp. 41ff and 65; L.M.H. Joosten, Katholieken en Fascisme in Nederland, 1920–1940 (Hilversum/Antwerp, 1964), p. 243; and S.Y.A. Vellenga, Katholiek Zuid Limburg en het fascisme: Een oderzoek naar het kiesgedrag van de Limburger in dejaren dertig (Utrecht, 1975), pp. 33, 38, and 97ff.
Harry Paape, “Die Haltung der Niederlande und ihre Einschatzung der internationalen politischen Entwicklung, 1933–1939,” in An der Schwelle zum Weltkrieg, ed. Klaus Hildebrand et al. (Berlin, 1990), p. 222.
Gerard Groeneveld, Zwaard van de geest—het bruine boek in Nederland, 1921–1945 (Nijmegen, 2001), p. 51.
Among the many national studies see, G.A. Kooy, Het Echec van een “volkse” Beweging: Nazificatie en Denazificatie in Nederland, 1931–1945 (Assen, 1964), pp. 285ff, and 337–41; andA.A. de Jonge, Het Nationaal-Socialisme in Nederland: Voorgeschiedenis, Ontstaan en Ontwikkeling (Den Haag, 1968), p. 101.
J. Meyers, “Mussert in opmars: De beste jaren van de NSB (1932–1935),” M aatstaf, 29 (nos. 8–9, 1981), 161; and C. van Geelkerken, Voor holk en Vaderland: Tien jaren Strijd van NSB der Nederlanden 1931–14 December 1941, 2nd ed. ([Utrecht], 1943), p. 78.
Meyers, “Mussert,” pp. 159 (quotation), and 160; and de Jonge, NS, pp. 106–07.
The Count is quoted in, M.P. Bruinsma, “M.V.E.H.J.M. graaf de Marchant et d’Ansembourg: Rooms-katholiek en NSB’er (MA thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1997), p. 28. See also, Louis de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog: Vol. I: Voorspel (The Hague, 1969), pp. 367–68.
L.J. Rogier, “Mussert bij Mussolini en Pacelli,” Annales van het Thijmgenootschap 43 (May, 1955): 99–107; and de Jonge, NS, p. 113.
NSB, Raad van Katholieken, ed., Wit-Geel Boek der NSB: De Houding van de NSB ten opzicht van de R.K. Kerk (Utrecht, 1936), pp. 4, 9, and 18.
Charles Bloch, Le IIIè Reich et le monde (Paris, 1986), p. 219. Goebbels ordered the German press to praise Le Matin’s positive comments on the German plebiscite that “legitimized” Hitler’s assumption of the president’s powers. (Presseanw., II: 310 [14 Aug. 1934]).
Karl Epting, Frankreich im Widerspruch (Hamburg, 1943), pp. 58ff.
Pierre Drieu de la Rochelle, Journal, 1939–1945, ed., Julien Hervier (Paris, 1992), p. 101, note 1.
Philippe Randa, ed., Dictionnaire Commente de la Colloboration française (Paris, 1997), P. 440.
Fernand de Brinon, Mémoires (Paris, 1949), p. 213. Daladier concluded they were all “defeatists.” See, Edouard Daladier, Prison Journal, 1940–1945, compiled by Jean Daladier and Jean Davidan, trans. Arthur Greenspan (Boulder, CO, 1995), p. 42 (15 Dec. 1940).
Paul Stoop, “Hitlers gezant in Den Haag: Julius Graf Zech,” Intermediair 22, no. 46 (1987): 41–45.
Paul Stoop, Niederlandische Presse unter Druck: Deutsche auswartige Pressepolitik und die Niederlande, 1933–1940 (Munich, 1987), pp. 242–43, 252, and 362ff.
On the DNG see the detailed analysis in, Madelon de Keizer, Appeasement en aanpassing: Het Nederlandse bedrijfsleven en de Deutsch-Niederlandische Gesellschaft, 1936–1942 (The Hague, 1984).
Helmut Otto, Die flämischen Nationalbewegungen: Ibre staatspolitischen Ziele nach dem Weltkriege (Leipzig, 1936), p. 75.
Marcel Laloire, Nouvelle Allemagne: Reformes Sociales et Economiques (Brussels [1935]), pp. 75–77 and 144.
Thomas Koebner, “‘À Berlin! A Berlin!’: Deutschlandreisen franzosischer Schriftsteller,” in Entre Locarno et Vichy: Les relations culturelles francoallemandes dans les annees 1930 (Paris, 1993), ed. Hans Manfred Bock, et al., II:266–67; RMPV, Presseanw., III:101–02 (23 March 1935); and Laloire, Allemagne, pp. 205ff and 272.
Jean-Pierre Maxence, Histoire de dix ans, 1927–1938 (Paris, 1939), p. 304; and Sternhell, Neither Right Nor Left, pp. 258–59. See also, the analysis of the evolving treatment of Germany by Je suis partout in, Pierre-Marie Dioudonnat, Je suis partout, 1930–1944: Les Maurassiens devant la tentation fasciste (Paris, 1973), pp. 76ff.
Lucien Rebatet, Les Décombres (Paris, 1942), pp. 34–35.
Paul Jankowski, Communism and Collaboration: Simon Sabiani and Politics in Marseille, 1919–1944 (New Haven, CT, 1989), p. 50.
Jacques Benoist-Mechin, Am Rande des Krieges 1938: Die Sudetenkrise, trans. Hans Berenbrok (Munich, 1967), p. 85.
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© 2009 Dietrich Orlow
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Orlow, D. (2009). Europe Will be a Fascist Europe: July 1934–May 1936. In: The Lure of Fascism in Western Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617926_4
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