Examine, compare and contrast Mussolini and Hitler's rise to power

Mussolini and Hitler’s rise to power was around the time when their countries were most vulnerable and broken.  When the ‘would be impossible’ sounded like the norm. Not to say that they weren’t chosen for their promises or leadership characteristics. However, had it not been for the great depression there would’ve been less possibility of the emergence of the two largest and most powerful fascist reigns of Europe.

During the Great Depression, which was you could say the beginning to the introduction of the Nazi Party and Fascism, the populations of both Italy and Germany were frustrated with their government which was seen as ineffective.
At the time, Italy protested that they’re government was being useless and that they were ready for a new government. The Fascist party, which was quite popular at the time, was going to promote itself and force it’s ideology as the new government for Italy by the infamous event called ‘The March of Rome’. As an act by the king of Italy to avoid a civil war, or any conflict that might’ve started, he decided to appoint Mussolini as the Prime Minister of Italy. As Prime Minister he started to get rid of all non-fascist parties, he made all governmental employees fascist, and changed the voting law to the ‘Acerbo Law’, which benefitted his election on purpose. Since his new voting assured his win, it was the start of Mussolini’s ultimate dictatorship. As soon as he was made ‘Duce’ which meant ‘leader’, a man named Giacomo Matteotti spoke against ‘Il Duce’ and his ideology of fascism, and was found to be missing eleven days later, as he was killed by Fascist. Meanwhile in Germany, the Nazi Party’s popularity increased after the Nazi Ideology was slowly suppressing the ineffectiveness of the Weimar republic government at the time. After a voting session, between the socialist and the Nazi’s, due to specific circumstances, Hitler was proclaimed Chancellor by President Hindenburg in January 30, 1933. Hitler and his Nazi Party decided to consolidate their power. They decided to do that, by setting fire to the Reichstag and framing it like communist did it, so that the communist party of Germany would all be eliminated, due to communist followers being seen as a threat. After a re-election without the communist population of Germany, Hitler got the amount of votes that made him somewhat the dictator of Germany. After President Hindenburg died a few days later, the title of ‘President’ was abolished and Hitler was ruler of Germany. As soon as he was proclaimed Dictator, he sent out orders to eliminate all political anti-Nazis, in the infamous event ‘Night of Long Knives’, where at least 85 were killed.  Afterwards, Hitler took it upon himself, to make promises to the people. He told the people of Germany what they wanted to hear to move on. He told the people that he would relieve the Germans of the recent poor lifestyle, that Germany was the victim; the people to blame for everything that happened at that time were the Jews. He gave the German people someone to blame and he promised the German people that he would disregard the Treaty of Versailles and make Germany great again.

A reason Hitler and Mussolini became so powerful was, because they had full, unconditional support of the people. How they were able to gain such massive support is the question. One factor that helped Mussolini alongside his popularity with the Italian people during his rise to power was his alliance with the Vatican. As Mussolini very much knew that the Vatican had a huge impact in Italy, he sought it as best to have the Vatican on his side, as assurance of a large population who were quite religious. As for Germany, religion didn’t quite play as large a role as it did in Italy. However, Hitler did take the churches power and took it upon himself to develop a new religion, which was centered around his ideology. A prominent factor in Hitler and Mussolini’s appeasement to their people was the Treaty of Versailles, which was mainly aimed at hindering Germany’s development in all areas possible, not only angered Germany but also seemed to have angered Italy. A factor that aided in Mussolini and Hitler’s rise to power, was constantly pointing out to their people how the Treaty of Versailles mistreated them. Germany was ‘stabbed in the back’, by the German politicians and military who signed the treaty. Italy was cheated out of the countries and lands they were promised.

Firstly, Hitler’s personal opinion was that Germany’s death was signed in the Treaty of Versailles which was referred to as ‘The Diktat’ that means ‘strict order’. Since it was described as a ‘take it or leave it’ treaty. Hitler’s belief was that under the vision of the German Foreign Minister Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, Germany was cheated, and sold. Despite the fact that the German Foreign Minister Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau stated “you demand from us to confess we were the only guilty party of war; such a confession in my mouth would be a lie’. It seems as though Hitler took aside that quote and referred to those who were involved with the Treaty of Versailles as the ‘November Criminals’. Similarly, Mussolini’s personal opinion on the Treaty of Versailles was that, Italy didn’t receive the lands they were promised, for joining the Allies side in World War I. He felt it unfair, since they deserved it, after all that Italy went through. Mussolini, likewise as Hitler promised to his people that he’d gain back Italy’s power and pride and disregard the Treaty of Versailles.

Their techniques as shown, for rising to power were largely different. Mussolini used force, and alliance with The Vatican to get himself to ‘Il Duce’. Meanwhile, Hitler worked his way up from the inside which probably explains why his 12 years of reign went smoothly and were more successful than Mussolini’s 18 years. Mussolini and Hitler, who led two quite different yet similar types of fascist reigns, showed an exemplary amount of power that managed to bewitch Italy for 18 years, Germany for 12 years and also succeeded in igniting a World War II.

In what way did World War one impact the role of women in any two European countries?

The impact of WWI on the roles of women was a drastic change for women, men and governments at that time. Women’s jobs changed, from cleaning up after people, staying at home and taking care of the kids to nursing, engineering, factory workers, truck drivers etc. Their usefulness, as well as their value and role to society saw an upwards transformation, the government was asking women for help after years of thinking that they were useless nuisances in the workforce. Seeing them as unable to do jobs that required strength or brains. The introduction of women through WW1 highlighted the fact that Women could do men’s work as well, in fact maybe even better than the men themselves. Therefore, the governments encouraged women, watching their progress and began to value their input with pride.

All countries involved in WWI excluding Germany felt the need for help and support from women. During WWI, Germany refused to involve women in the war, which could be seen as a reason why they lost the war. Germany saw the entry of women into the workforce not as support, but as a way of undercutting men’s jobs. German philosophy of women has been summarized in 3 words, “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche” (children, kitchen, church). A few members of the German High Command believed that it was necessary to include women into the workforce due to the necessities of war, however those with this belief were in the minority and could not prevail against the other members. However, despite their resistance against including women in the workforce, a few women volunteered. Poor encouragement from the government, lead to a smaller number of female volunteers in the workforce than Germany’s opponents. Germany lacked large support from their industries at home due to lower number in their workforce, especially as all men and young boys between the age 17 and 60 who worked in the factories were taken to the front. Production of machines and replacement parts etc was in decline because they neglected to utilize women in their industry. Germany therefore lacked manpower on the home front with production. Although they didn’t utilize the female workforce at home unlike Britain, Russia, France, and Austria, Germany used women in their occupied territories.

In contrast to Germany’s lack of belief in their women, Britain as well as Russia, France, and Austria did not hesitate to encourage and welcome their women going from being housewives, household helpers, unemployed or child care givers to loading and unloading coal, driving trucks and trolley cars, working in the factories to make ammunition, bombs, gases etc. It was such a huge opportunity for women, such a preeminent chance that most women weren’t hesitant to make themselves available. In Britain two million women volunteered and started doing men’s jobs, in Russia the amount of women working in factories went from 26% to 43%, in France, the percentage of working women increased by 20%, and in Austria one million women started working. It goes without say that women volunteering varied by country and within the countries by regions, as well.

Despite the skill shown by women while the men were away, when the war was over women were expected to leave their jobs and return to care for their families and resume their "rightful “place in society. For that reason, when the men returned, thousands of women voluntarily left their jobs, to care for demobilized husbands and sons, even if they didn’t want to. Women during that short period of time, working felt independent, acquired confidence this could be seen in their changed behavior such as going out un-chaperoned or drinking in public. This newly gained confidence lead to women everywhere demanding for their rights to vote, rights to divorce, rights to be educated further than primary education, rights to own property and the right to keep their children after divorcing. Slowly governments decided they would accept a couple of their demands. Even though Germany didn’t involve women in the workforce, the women’s right movements reached them. In Germany women were breaking the Kinder, Kuche, Kirche philosophy and they succeeded during the Weimar Republic. They ended up achieving secondary education rights, the right for women over 21 to vote, women were allowed to become nurses, teachers and civil servants. Sadly, the rights German women acquired were quickly overturned by the rise of the Nazi party. In Britain, their government gave women over 30 the right to vote, they also gave the right for married women to work. Even with the effort the government attempted to put forth, women who lost their husbands were furious with the outcome of married women only being allowed to work. They believed that since those women were married, they shouldn’t be given that right because they need to care for their wounded husbands and children. The act of banning married women from jobs open to female civil servants was passed in 1921 but didn’t last long. Alongside the rights for women to vote, in 1919 the Sex Disqualification Act, a law stating that it was technically illegal to refuse employment to women who applied to do men’s jobs was enforced, however it wasn’t fully implemented. Britain’s government also gave women the right to work in higher professions than before; doctors, dentists, own their own properties and study at universities.

The way women were looked at after the war, changed. Women were no longer seen as window dressing, adornments or homemakers but were seen as capable supports to their men and the society in which they lived. Without their volunteering in the workforce, giving into women’s demands would have been seen as ridiculous and would have been avoided. However, because of World War 1 and their need of women, the changes were aloud and women’s roles kept improving, leading up to now.