Fascism and the Cult of Nation

In his chapter "Art, Propaganda and Fascism," Clark explores the core values of a
political and social movement which is not limited to Germany, Italy, and Spain
during the 1930s and 1940s. As I hope to suggest here, we can see resonances of
fascism in a number of socially conservative cultural contexts. Despite its
appearances of modernity, fascism looks towards the past for inspiration, and builds
on the values of a mythical past to unite different classes under a shared banner of
"nationality and race" (47). Fascism plays on sentiments of nationalism, loyalty, and
an appeal to the "people"; it intensifies social bonds through militarism and
movement towards war. Its goal is the "reintegration" of the individual with "the
collective soul of the nation."
Fascism--and its propaganda--is anti-rationalist in its approach. Appeals to emotion,
references to cultural myths, loyalty, the national spirit and its glorious past, all
circumvent rational analysis in those who want to believe. It is a "cult of action and
passion free of doctrinal rules" (47). The term Weltanschauung refers to an "all-
embracing vision of a spiritually unified and morally regenerated society created by
the will of the people as embodied in their leader"(47). Both Hitler and Mussolini
built their empires on a cult of personality with themselves at the centre. In Leni
Riefenstahl's 1934 film of the Nuremberg rally Triumph of the Will, Hitler
proclaims to the assembled masses, "Ein Volk, Ein Fürhrer, Ein Reich!" Under
Hitler's leadership, the German fascists added an additional rallying cry--
Volksgemeinschaft: a racially pure community purged of decadence. This appeal to
the unity of the folk is at the heart of the fascist concept of nation. It conjures up a
utopian image of rebirth and regeneration.
To reach a wider social spectrum, German fascism directed different messages to
different audiences: the middle class were told that communism and the Bolsheviks
threatened German financial security; the working class were promised jobs and
manual labour was elevated to the heroic. This sustained propaganda effort required
a complex and coordinated bureaucratic machine--what Ellul calls an "apparat"--
with full control of the mass media. (According to Ellul, there would be no modern
propaganda without mass media and technology.) The Nazis availed themselves of
public address systems, radio, cinema, print, and large public spaces (such as sports
stadiums) to promote their vision of a regenerated German people. In effect, their
approach was to create the propagandistic equivalent of the total work of art
(Gesamtkunstwerk) in which drama, spectacle, music, choreography, and
architecture combine into an emotionally gripping experience--not unlike a rock
concert, Broadway musical, or football game.
The literary critic Walter Benjamin called fascism "the aestheticization of politics"--
politics as aesthetics, or style (52). The cultish spirit of fascism combines politics,
religion, and myths of the glorious past with contemporary events. Archaism--
making reference to the distant past--suggests that history is not linear but rather a
cycle of rebirth and regeneration, making a return to the values of a golden age
possible. Visual references to Hellenic Greece, imperial Rome, and later
neoclassical revivals evoke continuity with the past and thus provide a source of
legitimacy and sense of destiny. Medieval art provided a model for the cult of the
warrior, the crusader, and the orderly social hierarchies of feudalism. Similarly, in
Japan in the 1920s, the Kokuhonsha organization was formed to promote the racial
supremacy of the Japanese in the Pacific region. The medieval samurai became the
model for a new fascist warrior.
Fascist archaism has to reconcile an inherent contradiction towards modernity: on
the one hand, it seeks the rebirth of past values; on the other, it embraces
industrialization. Using the example of architecture, Clark suggests that the
neoclassical style provides a veneer of stability and grandeur over a structure of
modernist functionalism (58). The Greek or Roman or neoclassical architectural
motifs of fascist buildings were confined to their public face; inside, they were
designed with the efficiency of a modern machine. The same might be said for the
structure of the fascist state.
The conjunction of nationalism with a cult of the people is demonstrated through
the proliferation of kitsch: art specifically styled for mass consumption. Kitsch
merges fine art with mass culture using "two related strategies: first, the mass-
reproduction of paintings and sculptures in films, posters, postcards,
advertisements, and magazines, which shift the sites of reception and confer a sense
of common ownership over the image; and second, by stylistic adaptation of art to
the visual codes of popular culture--by making a painting look like a movie poster
or pornographic pin-up, for example" (60). It is indeed a little disturbing to realize
how closely the strategies of post-modern art in our time conform to this definition
of kitsch.
If you were a propagandist, what popular imagery would you use to mobilize the
masses of Canada?
Aesthetics under German fascism were promoted by the National Chamber of
Culture (Reichskulturekammer), maybe something akin to the Canada Council or
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in the U.S. If there is to be national unity,
there must be a national style, or at least art which promotes a set of values
esteemed by the nation.
For German fascists, Expressionism provided something of a dilemma at first.
Expressionism was a product of German culture, and valorized passion and physical
sensation over the intellect...similar the Nazi cult of action. It expressed a romantic
view of primitive life and thus was seen as a celebration of volkische culture. Since
the late 19th C. Germany had seen a revival of hiking, camping, and nudism--all
celebrations of nature and physical beauty simpatico with Expressionism. However,
the style of Expressionism--its distortion of the ideal human form and references to
African art forms--eventually led it into disfavour with the Nazi cultural managers.
It was labeled "degenerate" and came to suggest genetic deformity and the decay of
civilization to the racial purists. The Degenerate Art exhibition (1937) was staged
by the Nazis as a propaganda event to continue their campaign against a sick,
infected, and disordered society that needed to be cleansed of political and racial
impurities.
The cult of nation and its folk was instead promoted through ideals of physical
beauty: as in Saliger's The Judgement of Paris (1939) or Riefenstahl's Olympiad
(1936). In both examples, the Nazi mythos of racial purity and physical beauty are
synthesized with Hellenic archaism to create the body as a model of the state. The
modern career woman or the ideal mother recall Nordic female warriors. We see
strains of this body worship in our own time in the cults of physical fitness, and the
idolization of physical health and beauty in all forms of popular culture, including
reality TV.

Designing Modernity
In the commentary above, you might notice me drifting towards a certain point-of-
view: that fascism is not confined to the usual suspects--Germany, Italy, and Spain.
There is, I suspect, a kind of proto-fascism in those cultures which espouse
nationalism, the virtues of the people, a glorious past, the need for regeneration, and
militarism. It's instructive, I think, to look for signs of this proto-fascism in the
popular art of the past century.
An excellent resource for making this comparison is the The Wolfsonian Museum
of Modern Art and Design at Florida International University. It was Wendy
Kaplan's book Designing Modernity: The Arts of Reform and Persuasion, 1885-
1945 which first introduced me to the Wolfsonian Collection and guided me to look
at the propagandistic arts in comparative ways. What surprised me reading through
this text was the strong appeal of the Nordic material arts--furniture, architecture,
painting--and the kind of unease I felt as I saw how these material arts evolved into
the iconography of fascism. Equally fascinating was to see how the United States
had adapted that same aesthetic into many of its promotional and propaganda
campaigns. For just a taste of what the Wolfsonian has to offer by way of insight,
compare the images down the right hand side of the screen. If you cursor over the
images, you'll discover text tags that describe the images. The descriptions below
are excerpted from the Wolfsonian website for your convenience; however, I urge
you to visit for yourself: www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu/

Commentary Excerpted from the Wolfsonian Collection

Arbeit Siegt (Work Triumphs)
The first half of the 20th century was a tumultuous time - with two world wars, the
rise of fascism and communism, and the Great Depression. Design was used by all
nations involved in these occurrences - including the United States and European
nations - to advance new political systems, rally public support for war programs,
and to promote often-hateful governmental policies.
Work to Keep Free!, 1943
Posters such as this demonstrated the importance of factory production as a patriotic
effort and enticed the unemployed, including women and minorities, to join the
labor force....This poster was produced by the U.S. Division of Information, Office
for Emergency Management as part of the national campaign to focus attention on
the need for production. The strong graphic image carries the message using bold,
simplified images. A worker's hand clenches a symbol of manual labor - a hammer.
Behind it the shadow of the Statue of Liberty's hand holds the emblem of
democracy - the torch of liberty. The poster focuses on the importance of work and
production to assure an Allied victory and thus a democratic way of life. The colors
- red, white and blue - underscore the patriotic intent of the poster.
Germany's Modern Architecture
This poster was intended to publicize the Nazi ideals of monumental classicism and
its associated messages of power and control to other nations. Note that this poster
is in English, and was probably intended for a U.S. or British audience. The same
poster was produced in other languages.
The images in this montage are of buildings constructed during the nazi era. The
row of columns at the base is a wing of the House of German Art, the museum
designed by Paul Ludwig Troost, Hitler's first personal architect. Troost was
succeeded by Albert Speer, who later became the Nazi Minister for Armaments and
Munitions. From Speer's Reich party Congress Grounds in Nuremberg comes the
eagle-topped pedestal that dominates the poster. The curving colonnade is from the
1936 Olympic Stadium, which was used by Hitler to promote Aryan physical
superiority.
The swastika emblem is the most potent example of the Nazis' complete mastery of
modern marketing strategies. Using mass production and mass communication, the
Nazis turned the swastika into a brand identity. The swastika appeared everywhere.
It was carved in stone on state buildings, embroidered on party uniforms, pressed or
printed on ceramics and other domestic products, and reproduced on millions of
pieces of printed ephemera. Despite its original meaning as a symbol of good
fortune and well being, it remains to this day a potent emblem of anti-Semitism and
violent intolerance in general.
Italian Art of the 10th & 20th Centuries
Propaganda material, such as this poster, often used motifs and symbols inspired by
classical Roman art. This practice was part of Romanità-the intense belief that
Fascism was the continuation of the glorious Roman Empire. By referring to the
power of the Roman civilization, the artist elevates not only the importance of
Italy's cultural heritage but also the legitimacy of Mussolini's Fascist government.
The central figure here depicts the Greek goddess Minerva, shown as the helmeted
goddess of war. She is also presented in her second role as patroness of learning and
the arts, indicated by the owl that adorns the helmet. Another ancient icon is placed
behind Minerva-the fasces, a bundle of reeds tied together with an ax. Originally,
the fasces was carried by Roman officials to signify their authority. In 1926
Mussolini adopted the fasces as the official emblem of his Fascist regime.
Women in the War: We Can't Win Without Them
"Women must be induced to change their customary life pattern of school, a few
years of work, marriage and children. Some must remain in jobs, others must go to
work." As increasing numbers of men joined the armed forces, vital manufacturing
jobs were left empty. Campaigns were conducted by the U. S. Government to
convince women to support the war effort by leaving their homes to work in the
factories. Posters such as this were strong, positive calls to action that were printed
in the thousands and placed in every conceivable public locale from hospitals to
banks. The woman here uses an electric rivet gun to make a bomb casing....After
the war, similar campaigns were launched prompting women to leave their jobs and
return home in order to make room for the returning war veterans.
Neues Volke 1938 (New People)
The concept of a pure Germanic race was the basis of Nazi culture and permeated
every aspect of German life. Here, an advertisement for a calendar promotes the
Neues Volk, or New People, published by the Racial Policy Office of the Nazi
party. Designer Ludwig Hohlwein portrays a "model" Aryan family that illustrates
this group's principal characteristics: blond hair, fair complexion, chiseled features.
The figures' hierarchy reflects each person's role within the family and in Nazi
society. The male is in the dominant position, standing protectively over the group.
The female figure carries a child identifying her as a mother. Indeed, the roles of
women of pure Aryan blood were strictly defined as tied to the home and family.
Aryan women were to be mothers and primarily responsible for increasing the
German population, an activity the Nazis saw as "appropriate to their nature". The
state used numerous measures to encourage large Aryan families, including closing
birth control centers, providing tax credits for children, and outlawing abortion.