Falangism, National-Socialism and the Hitler myth in Spain (1931-1945)

Authors

  • Xosé M. Núñez Seixas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.169.01

Keywords:

National socialism, fascism, falangism, francoism, II World War

Abstract

Fascism has been defined as a transnational phenomenon. However, the exchanges among different Fascist movements still remain a mostly unexplored topic. This article focuses on the influence of German National-Socialism on Spanish Fascist organisations, particularly on Falange, as well as on the diffusion of an image of Nazi Germany among Spanish Catholic and pro-Falangist public opinion until 1945. Sources include the Spanish press and German diplomatic records, as well as the several Spanish monographs on Nazi Germany, and the dozens of letters written by ordinary Francoists to Hitler kept at the German archives. Although «Nationalist» Spain was profoundly and increasingly pro-German, the ideological contents of National-Socialism were hardly assimilated, the mirror of Nazism being used as a projection of the main tenets of both radical Falangism and Catholic Traditionalism.

Issue

Section

ARTICLES