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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
most delicate aspects of social life contrasted with Germany’s
preoccupation with war. The victory over Nazism did not mean a
departure from the concept of the welfare state. With the
support of the Marshall Plan, the concept of a social market
economy has begun to be promoted in many Western European
countries.
3 C
lash of ideologies and social theories
Propaganda in Nazi Germany "presented an image of society
that had successfully manufactured a 'national community' by
transcending social and class divisiveness through a new ethnic
unity based on 'true' German values" (see Welch, 2004: 213).
During the most destructive conflict in human history, Nazi
propaganda also used the concept of the ‘New Order’ in Europe,
which symbolized the Nazi vision of the post-war order in
Europe. Some Euro-sceptics are trying to portray the Nazi “New
Order of Europe” as the precursor of the modern proponents of
European political and economic integration. Regarding the
opinions held by Nazi economists about the "European family of
nations", it is not difficult to spot concepts such as the "European
Economic Community" or "single economy." The German Nazis
tried to present this opinion even when they occupied France. In
reality, however, their goal was to use the French resources for
the German war effort. But as historian Tony Judt points out: "...
there were many of both sides who saw in this later Franco-
German ´collaboration´ the germ of a new European economic
order. Thus Pierre Pucheu, a senior Vichy administrator later to
be executed by the Free French, envisaged a post-war European
order where customs barriers would be eliminated and a single
European economy would encompass the whole continent, with
a single currency. Pucheu's vision-which was shared by Albert
Speer and many others-represented a sort of updating of
Napoleon's Continental System under Hitlerian auspices, and it
appealed to a younger generation of continental bureaucrats and
technicians who had experienced the frustrations of economic
policy making in the 1930s" (Judt, 2010: 154).
Hitler tried to misuse also the concept of the Monroe Doctrine
and he attempted to persuade the American public that the
increasing Nazi influence in Europe is actually a kind of
"Monroe Doctrine for Europe." In February and March 1940
Sumner Welles, President Roosevelt’s envoy to Europe, visited
Italy, Germany, and England to discuss peacemaking proposals.
Nazi leaders in the course of their conversations with Welles
“stated that they sought only a Monroe doctrine for Europe.”
(The Advertiser, 6 March 1940: 19). Already at the beginning of
the war, Hitler accused British politicians of fearing that the
model of German social policy would prevail in Europe: “What
they hate is the Germany which sets a dangerous example for
them, this social Germany. It is the Germany of a social labor
legislation which they already hated before the World War and
which they still hate today. It is the Germany of social welfare,
of social equality, of the elimination of class differences—this is
what they hate!" (Hitler's speech, November 8, 1939; see Patel,
November 2015: 4). Hitler tried to misuse also the concept of the
Monroe Doctrine and he attempted to persuade the American
public that the increasing Nazi influence in Europe is actually a
kind of "Monroe Doctrine for Europe." In February and March
1940 Sumner Welles, President Roosevelt’s envoy to Europe,
visited Italy, Germany, and England to discuss peacemaking
proposals. Nazi leaders in the course of their conversations with
Welles “stated that they sought only a Monroe doctrine for
Europe.” (The Advertiser, 6 March 1940: 19).
The military success of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1940
alongside with the conceptions of the New Order in Europe
pressured British policy-makers to outline a New Order of their
own (Mazower, 1999: 186). The post-war welfare state in
Western Europe was influenced in particular by the report of the
inquiry into the Social Insurance and Allied Services. Even
before the outbreak of World War II, an organization named
Federal Union was established in Great Britain.
It soon attracted
prominent academics and politicians. As early as 1939, some
activities were associated with The Federal Union Research
Institute (FURI). This institute created proposals for a federation
of European democracies. It gained the support of numerous
personages in the public as well as academic spheres. The
official policy statement which the Federal Union released in its
first annual conference in March 1940 announced their intention
to form a Federal Union of Europe headed by Great Britain and
France, allowing for the likely possibility of including a
democratic Germany (together with other post-war European
democracies) in the following years (see Koziak, 2003: 37). The
Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied
Services, chaired by the economist William Beveridge, was
appointed by the British coalition government in 1941 to
undertake a survey of Britain's social services, and The
Beveridge Report gained quite wide admiration in post-war
western Europe.
3.1 The Nazi “New Order of Europe”
The vision of the economy within the New Order was most
clearly outlined in the assertions that the Reich minister of
Economic Affairs Walther Funk made about the economic
reorganization of Europe. His speech delivered in July 1940 is
“regarded as a kind of semi-official blueprint for all the occupied
countries” (North, 2012: 72). The following stood out in this
speech: “A stronger sense of economic community among
European nations must be aroused by collaboration in all spheres
of economic policy (currency, credit, production, trade, etc.).
The economic consolidation of European countries should
improve their bargaining position in dealings with other
economic groups in the world economy. This united Europe will
not submit to political and economic terms dictated to it by any
extra-European body. It will trade on the basis of economic
equality at all times in the knowledge of the weight which it
carries in economic matters.” Funk adds, however, that the main
purpose of this economic reorganization of Europe is to
“guarantee for Greater Germany a maximum of economic
security and for the German nation a maximum consumption of
goods to raise the level of the nation’s well-being” ( Funk, July
25, 1940, in Lipgens, 1985: 71).
The Nazi propaganda tried to conceal the real objectives of
Hitler’s imperial policy behind the "New Order of Europe",
which were based on pseudo-scientific theories of race, the
supremacy of the Aryan race, ethnic discrimination; all of which
lead up to the Holocaust itself. In order to create a new and
thriving culture, the Germans had to dominate the European
continent. The "New Order of Europe" was a profoundly
hegemonic construction. In Hitler’s view, all was allowed in
war, as the vanquishing heroes and their admirers will not judge
the morality of their actions. This belief shaped the Nazi
ideology. He tried to evoke the hope that he can make the
German masses into a kind of Nietzschean Übermensch race.
Nations superior to others had the right to expand at the expense
of racially inferior peoples. However, in the particular era, he
considered establishing colonies as problematic; hence the
concept of Lebensraum which referred to policies aiming to
create more “living space” in Europe.
3.2 Churchill’s coalition government
and the importance of
socio-economic issues
On 10
th
May 1940, Winston Churchill became the new Prime
Minister of Great Britain. The very same day the German
blitzkrieg offensive was launched on the Western front.
4
Only a
few days into the offensive, on 15
th
May, the words that the
French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud addressed to Churchill in a
phone-call were indeed gloomy: “We have been defeated. We
are beaten; we have lost the battle!” (Shirer, 1960: 720). In less
than a month on 14
th
4
Inspired by the success of the German offensive, 10
th
June 1940, Italy declared war
on Britain and France, allying with Nazi Germany.
June, the German army entered Paris
without battle. The new French government lead by the First
World War veteran and hero Philippe Pétain asked Germany for
a humiliating armistice, a step opposed by Charles de Gaulle,
whose speech broadcasted from London appealed to the French
to carry on fighting: “Whatever happens, the flame of French
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