Italian Fascism exercised a powerful influence upon the imaginations of ultranationalists in the interwar German-speaking world. Recent advances in transnational historiography foreground processes of transfer and ideological entanglement, allowing historians to explore the “travelling potential” of fascism through the appeal of the Italian model, or elements thereof, in international contexts. Building on this trend, this thesis investigates the intellectual reception and use of Fascism in five German-speaking, non-Hitlerian ultranationalist groups: the Gesellschaft zum Studium des Faschismus (GSF); the Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten; the National Bolsheviks, in particular Ernst Niekisch’s Widerstand circle; the Strasser circle; and the Spann circle in Austria. These groups all proved receptive to Italian Fascism and can therefore be said to inhabit the “fascist sphere.”
The ways in which the groups interpreted Italian Fascism — a discursive, subjective exercise by nature — resulted in each of the groups internalising features of Fascist ideology, whether actively or passively. This was achieved through two principal vectors, or “ideological emissaries”: the concept of the “fascist war veteran” and corporatism. The fascist war veteran appealed to broader trends of soldierly nationalism, which had a strong presence in German Conservative Revolutionary circles. Corporatism, the praxis of which emerged by degrees in Italy over the interwar period, likewise had broad intellectual, international precedents. Fascism found fertile ground for entry into the Germanic ultranationalist imagination, and its emissaries interacted in a mutually supportive manner, particularly after years of perceived success of the Fascist system. For example, for the Stahlhelm, enthusiasm for the fascist war veteran encouraged the adoption of corporatism; for the Spann circle, the reverse was true. Thus, through the vehicles of the fascist war veteran and corporatism, the ultranationalist movements became more fascist over time. Perpetuating associations with soldierly nationalism and corporatism with fascism, the groups also contributed to an intellectual synthesis of the concepts, further entrenching associations with fascism as a generalist political ideology.