The German Question, Part One Hundred Ten

The Rise of Hitler and The Nazis" Part Two/B-1
"Hitler & The Nazis March Toward Power"

Benito Mussolini is important to Hitler's rise simply because his Italian Fascist Party, which was very similar to the German Nazi Party, came to power in Italy in the early 1920s. Mussolini had been a member of the Socialist Party earlier in his life, but he began to alter his thinking on socialist concepts, moving toward a more "collectivist" idea of people from all walks of life having to join together for the good of the "state;" that is, the nation. So, nationalism trumps individual rights and self interest. In the post-World War One era, this basic concept was a growing view among many people in various parts of the world. The Bolshevik take over in Russia sent shock waves throughout Europe. Similar communist movements quickly developed in many countries, including Italy and Germany, scaring the absolute hell out of the upper classes, industrialists, and many middle class people. In those times, many of these people were willing to accept left-leaning programs to keep far more radical ideas from taking hold, especially things like confiscation of private property and major forced restructuring of societal wealth. In Italy, Mussolini and his paramilitary forces came to be seen by middle and upper class people as their defenders against the Communists, even though there were socialist-like elements in their program. These ideas and the appeal to Italian nationalism brought many working class and lower class people into the fold, as nationalism trumped self-interest.*

In Germany, the Nazi Party gained ground with the upper classes and business people, who also began to see the Nazis as a counter-balance to the communists. Gradually these people began to give money to the Nazis. This helped Hitler to promote the movement, and also to take on even more paramilitary forces to combat German Communist Party paramilitaries in the streets of German cities. Nazi leaders, like Hermann Göring, only reinforced the notion to middle and upper class people that the Nazis were a party of heroes who would stand up to the Communists.** This notion would only grow stronger.

Next..."A Beer Hall in Munich; the Beer Hall Putsch"

*Once in power, Mussolini naturally began to implement policies according to his beliefs, implementing "corporatism," as it was called, but it is a subject beyond these articles. The main thing to remember is, Italian fascism did provide a certain blueprint for fascist groups in other countries, including Germany and Austria, where a Nazi movement also took hold. ("Corporatism" was/is the collective organization of segments of society that are then "managed" by the state.)  

**Göring was a genuine hero as a pilot in World War One. He was highly decorated, and in fact, he became the commander of the same unit of the famous Baron von Richthofen, popularly known as "The Red Baron" ("der Rote Baron," in German), not long after the Baron's death. His name was quite familiar to the German public. There's no question that Göring's joining the Nazi Party gave it a certain credibility.

WORD HISTORY:
Marshal (mare + shalk) Part Two-The word "shalk," obviously not a word in common modern English usage, goes back to Old Germanic "skalkaz," which meant "servant." Indo European likely provided the root for this word, but what that root was, I do not know. The Old Germanic form gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "scealc," also meaning "servant," and which later became "shalk." Now, some people believe Germanic already had the compound which has become modern "marshal," which is simply the combination of "mare" + "shalk;" and which originally meant "a servant who tended horses, a groom." It "seems," however, that while English had the two component words, it hadn't put them together into a word. If there was such an Old English word, it apparently died out. Meanwhile on the Continent, Old High German had put the two words together as "marahscale," with the general meaning of "servant who tended horses," and this is one of the reasons some believe Germanic already had the compound, BUT Old High German essentially developed AFTER the dialects that became English had left the mainland. Old Saxon, very closely related to Old English,  also had a compound, "marahscalc." Old Saxon was the Germanic dialect of the Saxons who remained in what is now northern Germany, after a large number of their kin migrated to Britain and helped to found England. Most believe "marshal" came to English via the French dialect brought to England by the Normans when they invaded, and then ruled, England, which had "marescal." This dialect had gotten the word from Old French, "marescal," which had inherited the basic word from Latin "mariscalus," which had borrowed the word from Frankish (a Germanic dialect) "mahrskalk/marhskalk." It had come to mean more than just "horse servant" in Latin and its offspring Old French. Horses were extremely important, and the word came to be applied to a man "in charge" of horse care; a "commander" of sorts. This eventually came to be extended to also mean "a military commander," a meaning also carried to England by the Normans. The word begins to show up in English in the 1200s. Of course later on, it came to be used as "field marshal," and, especially in America, as "a leading law enforcement officer." The word also gained a verb form in the 1500s, as in "we will marshal our forces;" that is, "our forces will be commanded to a particular location and be readied for battle."