Classic English The People and the Enemy

Link 4 · 1848 and 1920

Communism and National Socialism

Two of the most powerful ideas of the last two centuries. Both spoke for "the people". Both named an enemy.

The printed title page of a small German pamphlet from 1848, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
Title page of the first edition of the Communist Manifesto, London, February 1848 · public domain
  1. 2015–2017Modern populism
  2. 2011Occupy Wall Street
  3. 1983Laibach
  4. 1848 · 1920Communism and National Socialism
  5. 1848–2017Closing the loop

Key idea

"The people" against a named enemy. Both movements said they spoke for the people. Both named an enemy. Both used rallies, uniforms and ritual.

In 1941, Slovenia was divided between Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Hungary. From 1945 it was part of communist Yugoslavia. For Laibach's parents and grandparents, both systems were real life.

Tito, in a uniform and plumed cap, stands at a microphone on a balcony while a man holds an umbrella behind him
Tito speaks from the balcony of the University of Ljubljana, 26 May 1945, days after the war ended · Janez Kurent, public domain

Primary sources

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Chapter 1

London, 1848

"Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps…"

The two camps are the bourgeoisie (the owners) and the proletariat (the workers).

Read Chapter 1 (Marxists Internet Archive) →

Program of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (the Nazi Party), the "25 Points"

Munich, 24 February 1920

Point 4 says that only a person of German "blood" can be a citizen, and it names Jews as excluded.

Read the program (German History in Documents and Images) →
Huge blocks of uniformed men fill a vast parade ground below three giant swastika banners
A Nazi Party rally, Nuremberg, September 1934 · Georg Pahl, Bundesarchiv Bild 102-04062A, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Clip: Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, 1937, filmed by Julien Bryan (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)

Why this document is here. We read it to see how propaganda names an enemy. After 1933, the Nazi government turned this idea into law. Jews lost their rights, and then six million were murdered in the Holocaust.

Questions