In the 1960s, the so-called ‘Frankfurt School’ presented a scientific retrospective analysis of the specific conditions that led to the rise of fascism.
The following summary was created using AI (Gemini).
“The Frankfurt School examined fascism not only as a political phenomenon, but as a deep-seated social and psychological aberration of modernity.
In works such as Dialectic of Enlightenment and Studies on Authoritarian Character, theorists (including Horkheimer, Adorno, and Fromm) identified the following main sociological and psychological conditions for the path to fascism:
- The emergence of the ‘authoritarian character’
One of the central concepts is the psychological vulnerability of the individual. According to Erich Fromm and Theodor W. Adorno, an authoritarian character often arises from feelings of powerlessness, isolation and meaninglessness in modern mass society.
- Submission and aggression: These personalities tend to blindly submit to strong authorities, while at the same time developing aggression towards supposedly ‘weaker’ or foreign groups (scapegoat mechanism).
- F-scale: With the ‘fascism scale’ (F-scale), the researchers attempted to make these anti-democratic potentials measurable.
2. The Dialectic of Enlightenment: Instrumental Reason
Horkheimer and Adorno argued that the Enlightenment, which was supposed to liberate humanity, could turn into its opposite.
- Instrumental rationality: When reason serves only to efficiently control nature and humans (‘purpose rationality’), humans themselves become mere objects.
- Technological domination: This purely technical view of the world paves the way for a system that manages people like material – a basic prerequisite for the bureaucratised destruction of fascism.
3. The role of the culture industry
The Frankfurt School saw the modern entertainment industry (‘culture industry’) as a tool for mass manipulation.
- Conformism: Standardised cultural products turn people into passive consumers who no longer think critically about social conditions.
- Manipulation: This passivity makes the masses receptive to political propaganda and charismatic leaders.
4. Economic crises and monopoly capitalism
Sociologically, they also saw fascism as a crisis reaction of capitalism.
- Monopolisation: The transition from free competition to monopoly capitalism led to a fusion of economic and state power.
- Fear of social decline: Economic instability creates existential fears that radical movements can exploit to promise order and national strength.
In summary, the Frankfurt School saw fascism as the result of a society in which critical reason was replaced by technical mastery and individuals sought protection in authoritarian collectives due to their psychological insecurity.“
It is important to apply the criteria described above to the current social situation.
