Chapter 26

The Futile Search for a New Stability:

Europe Between the Wars,

1919 - 1939

Timeline

Blue Angel (Marlene Dietrich) 1930Wait Line Berlin Bakery 1923

Deutschmark

1923

Germany 1920s

An Uncertain Peace: The Search for SecurityWeaknesses of the League of NationsThe French Policy of Coercion (1919 – 1924)

Desire for strict enforcement the Treaty of VersaillesAllied Reparations Commission, April 1921 $33 billionPaid in annual installments of billion gold marksGermany unable to pay in 1922 -- Hyperinflation!

• 3.25 x 106 percent per month 1923 = prices double every two days• (Hungary post WWII: 4.19 x 1016 % per month = double every 15 hrs)

French occupation of the Ruhr ValleyGerman mark fall to 4.2 trillion to $1, end of November 1923 (60 marks per $1 1921)

• 1924: New currency: 1 Rentenmark = 3 trillion old marks

The Hopeful Years (1924 – 1929)Dawes Plan, 1924: Reparations + $ loanTreaty of Locarno, 1925 guarantee Ger. western bordersKellog-Briand Pact: renunciation of war -- 63 countriesCoexistence with Soviet Union

100,000 Marks = $1

10 Million Mark

50 Million Mark

100 Million Mark500 Million Mark

Breadline Nov. 1923

The Little Entente

The Great Depression

Problems in domestic economies

International financial crisis

Crash of the American stock market, October 1929

Affects European markets

Unemployment

Social Repercussions

Powerlessness of Governments

The Democratic StatesGreat Britain

Labour Party failed to solve problems

Coalition claimed credit for prosperity

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946): Keynesian Economics• Keynes says the government should create jobs

• Obama: Stimulus Package!!!

FranceWas the strongest power in Europe

Could not solved financial problems

Popular Front

The United StatesHerbert Hoover, (1929-1933)

Franklin D. Roosevelt, (1933-1945)• New Deal

• Public works projects

• World War II ends the depression

European States and the World: Colonial Empires

Rising tide of unrest in Asia and AfricaThe Middle East

Division of Ottoman EmpireTurkey

• Colonel Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

IndiaMohandas Gandhi (1869 – 1948) and Civil Disobedience

AfricaBritain and France awarded German coloniesProtest movements

Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian and Totalitarian States

TotalitarianismBy 1939 only France and Great Britain are democracies

The modern totalitarian state -- origins in WWI centralization of the state control

• Active commitment of citizens Individual serves the state

• Mass propaganda techniques -- cultural control• High speed communication -- Radio, Movies (News Reels)

• Led by single leader and single party

• Different forms in different countries

Fascist ItalyImpact of World War I

Italians angry over failure to receive territory after World War I (Trieste + South Tyrol, but not Fiume, Dalmatia)

Birth of FascismBenito Mussolini (1883-1945) -- former socialist

• Unsuccessful Elem. Teacher

Fascio di Combattimento (League of Combat), 1919• Latin fasces (It. fascio): “bundle” or “union” -- bundle of

sticks = symbol of “strength through unity” in Roman EmpireGrowth of the Socialist party

• Political stalemate + industrial & agricultural strikes

Squadristi, armed Fascists -- “the Black Shirts”Fascist movement gains support from industrialists (+ middle classes, upper classes, etc.)

• Formula: Anticommunism, Anti-strike, NationalismMarch on Rome, 1922 -- calculated bluff worksMussolini appointed prime minister, October 29, 1922

Victorious Fascists in Rome, 1922, Burning Socialist Literature

“Il Duce”

Fasces

Mussolini and the Italian Fascist StateFascist GovernmentAll parties outlawed, 1926 – Fascist dictatorship established -- Il Duce “The Leader”Mussolini’s view of a Fascist state

“All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

Young Fascists -- indoctrination!!!Family is the pillar of the state -- women encouraged to have many children & not workNever achieves the degree of totalitarianism like Germany or Soviet Union

Armed Forces, Monarchy still independent

Lateran Accords, February 1929Agreement w/ Church: Mutual recognition -- Italy & Vatican City

7th Anniversary

of Fascism:

Mussolini addresses

Black Shirts

In Rome

Election Poster

“Children Belong

To The State!”Young Fascist Movement

Hitler and Nazi GermanyWeimar Germany

No leadersPaul von Hindenberg elected president, 1925Great Depression

The Emergence of Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler (1889-1945)Vienna

• Lanz von Liebenfels -- Anti-Semetic & pro-”Aryan” former monk. Ostara radical pro-Aryan publication

Munich

The Rise of the NazisGerman Workers’ PartyNational Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), 1921Sturmabteilung (SA), Storm Troops (aka Brown Shirts)

Hitler, Joseph Göebbels, Münich 1923

Julius Streicher & Nazi Club 1922

Adolph

Hitler

1923

Storm Troopers (SS) Munich, 1923

Hitler and Nazi Germany (cont)The Nazi Seizure of Power

Munich Beer Hall Putsch, November 1923Hitler imprisoned

• Mein Kampf, (My Struggle)• Lebensraum (living space)

Reorganization of the partyNew strategies Nazi party largest in the Reichstag after 1932 electionSupport from right-wing elitesBecomes chancellor, January 30, 1933Reichstag fire, February 27, 1933Successes in 1933 electionEnabling Act, March 23, 1933Gleichschaltung, coordination of all institutions under Nazi controlPresident Paul von Hindenburg dies, August 2, 1934

Site of Beerhall Putsch Planning

Prison 1924

Founding of Party, Munich, 1925

Saluting Hitler & Hindenburg

“Freedom from Misery,

Freedom from Jews!”

1933 Election

“End it Now!”Goebbels Addressing

German Film

Academy, 1934

The Volkswagon

(“People’s Car)

Hitler’s Project

1938Autobahn, 1938

Book Burning May 1933SA Occupies Workers’ Bank, Arrest Employees

“Death to Marxism” 1926

1933: Hitler, Hindenburg, Goering“Hitler Over Germany” 1933

The Nazi State (1933-1939)Parliamentary republic dismantled

Mass demonstrations and spectacles to create collective fellowship

Constant rivalry gives Hitler power

Economics and the drop in unemployment

Heinrich Himmler and the SS

Churches, schools, and universities brought under Nazi control

Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) and Bund deutscher Mädel (League of German Maidens)

Influence of Nazi ideas on working women

Aryan Racial StateNuremberg laws, September 1935

Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938

Restrictions on Jews

Nuremburg, 1938

Nuremburg, 1937, Hitler Youth Day

Nuremburg Rally 1934Hitler Youth, Nuremburg 1936Hitler Youth, 1933Nuremburg, 1936Munich Putsch Flag Ceremony

Berlin 1936

Long Jump Record!Japan’s Naoto Tajima (bronze), American Jesse Owens (gold) & Germany's Luz Long (silver)

Boycott Jewish StoresKristallnacht 10 Nov. 1938 -- Looted Jewish Shops

Kristallnacht:

Burning

Synagogue

Buchenwald: Some of the 30,000

Jews arrested around KristallnachtOld Jews forced to scrub the streets

The Soviet UnionNew Economic Policy (NEP)

Modified capitalism

Union of Socialist Republics established, 1922Revived economy

Lenin suffers strokes, (1922-1924)

DivisionLeon Trotsky -- War Minister, Charismatic

Joseph Stalin -- In background• General Party Secretary

• Used position to build up power base -- appointments

Trotsky ousted 1927 -- exile & assassination 1940

Stalin’s Birthplace Gori, Georgia.

1922

The Stalinist Era, (1929-1939)

First Five Year Plan, 1928Emphasis on industry

Real wages declined -- 43% from 1928-40

Use of propaganda -- Stakhanov Cult & Cult of Personality

Rapid collectivization of agricultureFamine of 1932-1933; 10 million peasants died

Deliberate policy to starve Ukrainians, Kulaks

Political ControlStalin’s dictatorship established, 1929

Political purge, 1936-1938; 8 million arrested• Gulag Archipelago

Stalin Cult 1951

Women on a Collective Farm 1930Lunch during harvest on a Ukrainian Collective, 1936Gulag Arctic SiberiaYoung Communists, May Day Parade

With Honor,

We will Fulfill

and Fulfill again

Stalin’s New

Five-Year Plan!

Cult of the

PersonalityFormer Gulag, Pevec, Siberia

Worker &

Kolkhoz

(Collective)

Woman

1937 Let’s Get to Work! 1920

Authoritarianism in Eastern Europe

Conservative Authoritarian GovernmentsEastern Europe

Austria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia adopted parliamentary systemsRomania and Bulgaria gained new parliamentary constitutionsGreece became a republicHungary parliamentary in form; controlled by landed aristocrats

• Adm. Miklós Horthy -- Regent of Hungary1920-1944

ProblemsLittle or no tradition of liberalism and parliamentary formRural and agrarian societyEthnic conflicts

Dictatorship in the Iberian PeninsulaGeneral Miguel Primo de Rivera and the End of Parliamentary Government (1923)The Spanish Civil War

The Popular FrontGeneral Francisco Franco (1892 – 1975)Foreign intervention

• Italy, Germany, USSR -- also Lincoln Brigade (U.S.)

Franco emerges victorious (March 28, 1939)

The Franco RegimeTraditional, conservative, dictatorship

PortugalAntonio Salazar (1889 – 1970)

Guernica, Picasso

Expansion of Mass Culture and Mass Leisure

The Roaring Twenties

Berlin, the entertainment center of Europe

Josephine Baker (1906-1975)

Jazz Age

Jazz Age

Radio and Movies: Mass forms of Communication & Entertainment

RadioNellie Melba, June 16, 1920BBC, 1926

MoviesQuo Vadis; Birth of a Nation

Stars became subjects of adorationMarlene Dietrich

Used for political purposesNazis encourage cheap radiosTriumph of the Will, 1934

The Blue Angel 1930

Mass Leisure

Sports

Tourism

Organized Mass Leisure in Italy and Germany

Dopolavoro in Italy (“After Work”)

Kraft durch Freude in Germany (“Strength Through Joy”)

Cultural & Intellectual Trends in the Interwar Years

Prewar avant-garde culture becomes acceptable

Political, economic, and social insecurities

Radical changes in women’s styles

Theodor van de VeldeIdeal Marriage: Its Physiology and Technique

Nightmares and New Visions: Art and MusicAbstract painting; fascination with the absurd

Dadaism• Tristan Tzara (1896-1945)

Surrealism• Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Functionalism in Modern ArchitectureBauhaus School in Germany

Precedent: Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright & Chicago School

Man

Ray

Dadaism

Marcel Duchamps

The Bride Stripped

Bare by the Bachelors

Man

Ray

Man Ray

Rayogram

Man Ray: TearsMan Ray: Tears

Man Ray

Male

Figure Study

Man Ray

“Cello”

(Kiki of

Montarnasse)

Duchamps

Fontaine

Surrealism

Salvador Dali Corpus Hypercubus

DaliBurningGiraffe

Moholy-Nagy

Jealousy

1927

Nagy: Shadows on Set of Opera Madama Butterfly 1931

Nagy

Stairway,

Seaside

Pavilion

1936

Budapest Retirement House

Budapest

Stairway,

Retirement

Home

Budapest: 1931 House

Budapest

Heart of

Jesus

Church

Dessau

Atelier

(Artists’

Studio)

Van der Rohe

Lakepoint

Towers

1968 (1920)

V.d.R Farnsworth House, Plano, IL

V.d.R. Chairs

Lászlo Moholy-Nagy

Photogram

1922

Moholy-Nagy

Dolls

1926

Bauhaus

Meis Van der Rohe: Lakeshore Apartments

Cultural & Intellectual Trends (cont)

A Popular AudienceKurt Weill, The Threepenny Opera

Art in Totalitarian RegimesArt in service of the state

A New Style in MusicIgor Stravinsky -- beginnings of moder music

Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951) -- atonal music

Literature & Physics Between the WarsThe Search for the Unconscious

James Joyce (1882-1941), Ulysses

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)

Impact of Freud

Carl Jung (1856-1961)

The “Heroic Age of Physics”Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937), atom could be split

Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), “uncertainty principle”

Discussion QuestionsHow would you define fascism? How was fascism different from traditional authoritarianism?What were the strengths and weaknesses of Weimar democracy? Compare and contrast Stalin’s Soviet Union and Hitler’s Germany. What did the two states have in common? What anxieties were reflected in the cultural and intellectual trends of the interwar period?

Web Links

Italian Life under Fascism

The History Place: The Rise of Adolf Hitler

Life in the USSR under Stalin

Joseph Stalin: Biographical Chronicle

The World of Kurt Weill

bauhaus-archiv: Museum of Design