Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of Germany were two leaders of the world who initiated and established an air of totalitarianism in their respective countries. Both of them came into power after WWI. Their tactics and ideologies were more similar than some may think, sharing only few differences. Both Mussolini and Hitler took part in WWI as corporals from their respective homelands and later on when the war ended, established their own national parties. The government in Italy and Germany could not stand against the postwar consequences which brought unemployment, poverty, political instability. These factors led the path for the formation of extreme ideologies in both countries, like that of anti-communism, anti-socialism, anti-democrat and anti-liberalism.
Mussolini founded his National Fascist Party in 1921 whose objective was to promote totalitarianism and reject any proposal concerning community, society or democracy and liberty. Mussolini had the support of landlords and strong business men. Later when Mussolini came into power, the national fascist party emerged as the single party that ruled the entire Italy and thus, Italy became a totalitarian and Fascist state on the whole. Somewhat similar is the case of Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. He established his political party in 1920 by the name of National Socialist German Workers Party. He shared the same ideologies as Mussolini in using violence to gain control, rejecting ideas against self-interest and nationalism. Being a skilled speaker, he came into power within a short time. The Nazis were highly infamous among the masses and they suffered a great blow in the elections until 1929. However, during great depression, they gained the supports of small scale farmers, laborers and peasants. In 1932 NSDAP became the most voted party and Hitler became the Prime Minister of the State. He too, like Mussolini sent the people of the opposing forces who were supporters of democracy and communism, to the prison. In the next general elections, Nazi was the only part which emerged victorious and thus it became the only legal party of the state (Husic, n.d).
The role of women during these times could not be denied. The women in the Fascist Italy were supposed to bore children. According to Mussolini, Italy had less population than she should have had considering its vast area. So, he encouraged marriages and delivering many children for the future Italy. He made it a law that every family should have at least five children. However, his target to achieve a population of sixty million could not be achieved. The Nazi shared another similarity with the Fascist regarding the role of the women in society. Hitler was of the view that Germany might need a large number of well built soldiers, so he encouraged the women to pay attention to this task along with their household chores. He banned the women from becoming slim, smoking, make-up, wearing jeans or trousers proclaiming that these shall brought hindrances in pregnancy and birthing process. Also the illegitimate birthing of a child to an unmarried woman was not considered as immoral. Hitler also sanctioned loans to couples to give birth to as many babies as possible. Females were allowed to marry only a pure race German (an Aryan); specifically to produce pure German soldiers (Wilson, 1996).
Both Fascists and Nazis strived to develop self-dependency by formulation of strict economical policy to reduce imports and increase internal production. However, their main differences were over the issues of Racism and expansion of states. Fascists wanted that a Greater Italy should be built as once the Roman Empire was in all its glory, but they had no prejudices against races or religions. The Italian churches had more opposition power over the Fascists and limited their invasions over other states. Also the Fascist party members turned less fascist with time and as a result, the main objective of the party began to be lost. Nazis on the other hand, raised the slogan of liberating Germany from all the Jews and carried their onslaught of Jews in a large number. Nazis proclaimed that they are Aryans who are creators of culture and ideology, and living with the Jews will brought hindrance in their progress. Thus they forced Jews to migrate to other countries. Unlike the fascists, the Nazis did not face much opposition from the German Churches and they also arranged to wipe out any member within or outside the party who showed slight inclination in against to them. Although Nazis were brought to power by their rural population; they soon realized that they cannot become ultimate power unless they equip themselves with modern technology and gadgets. So they started invested in large scale industrial technology and products and the once favored rural population had to migrate to the urban areas (Bessel, 1996).
References
Bessel, R. (1996). Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: Comparisons and contrasts. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press.
Husic, I. (n.d). Differences and similarities in totalitarian societies of Germany and Italy. Novinar.Me. Retrieved June 29, 2013 from:
<http://novinar.me/index.php/english/item/213-differences-and-similarities-in-totalitaran-societies-of-germany-and-italy>
Willson, P. R. (January 01, 1996). Women in Fascist Italy. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany : Comparison and Contrasts / Edited by Richard Bessel.
