Nazism across Borders The Social Policies of the Third Reich and their Global Appeal

Nazism across Borders argues that Nazi social policies were part of transnational exchanges and processes. Beyond territorial conquest, the Nazis planned to export and internationalize their version of welfare, and promoted a new kind of internationalism, pitched as a superior alternative to its liberal and Communist contenders.

Since the late nineteenth century, the 'German social model' had established itself as a powerful route for escaping from the precarious conditions associated with wage work. The Nazis capitalized on this reputation, continuing some elements, but also added new measures, mainly to pursue their antisemitic, racist, and highly aggressive goals.

The contributions in this collection shed new light on the complex ways in which German and Nazi ideas were received and negotiated by non-German actors and groups around the world before the Second World War. Why were they interested in what was going on in Germany? To what extent did Nazi policies emulate programmes elsewhere (for example, in Fascist Italy), and where did they serve as role models? Nazi social policies, we argue, were a benchmark that societies as diverse as Japan, Norway, and the United States considered in making their own choices.

Nazism across Borders breaks new ground for the history of the Second World War and 'Hitler's empire' in Europe. How did the Nazis export their ideas when they finally occupied large swaths of the continent and what was the role of non-German actors? What were the links to the better-known stories of exploitation of lands, resources, and peoples?

Sandrine Kott, Professor of Modern European History, University of Geneva

Sandrine Kott has been a full Professor of Modern European History at the University of Geneva since 2004. She studied history in Paris, at the University of Bielefeld (FRG), and at Columbia University (New York). She previously held a tenured assistant professorship at the University of Poitiers (France) and was a laureate of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her main fields of expertise are the history of social welfare and labour in Europe since the end of the nineteenth century, and labour (and power) relations in the countries of real socialism, in particular in the German Democratic Republic. She has developed the transnational and global dimensions of each of her fields of expertise by working with the archives and resources of international organizations.

Kiran Klaus Patel is Professor and Chair of European and Global History at Maastricht University where he also serves as head of department. Before joining Maastricht University, he held a professorship at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2007-2011), and an assistant professorship at Humboldt University in Berlin (2002-2007). He has been (inter alia) a visiting fellow/professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales in Paris, the Free University of Berlin, Freiburg University, Harvard University, the London School of Economics, Sciences Po in Paris, and the University of Oxford.

Abbreviations used in Footnotes
Fascist Internationalism: Nazi Social Policy as an Imperial Project-An Introduction, Sandrine Kott and Kiran Klaus Patel
Part I: Paths of Internationalization
1. Competing Internationalisms: The Third Reich and the International Labour Organization (ILO), Sandrine Kott
2. The First Takeover: The Implementation of Social Policy Measures in Austria by the Reich Ministry of Labour after the Anschluss, Ulrike Schulz
3. An Unhappy Return: German Pension Insurance Policy in Alsace, Alexander Klimo
4. A Dilemma of Change and Co-Operation: Labour and Social Policy in Bohemia and Moravia in the 1930s and 1940s, Radka &scaronustrová
Part II: Allies and Models
5. Transferring Radicalization? Social Policy Exchanges between Fascism and National Socialism, Daniela Liebscher
6. The Axis at Work? Towards a Transnational History of Japan's Social and Labour Policy in the 1930s and early 1940s, Daniel Hedinger
7. When Fascism Does Not Keep its Promises: The Ambivalent Relations of Nazi Germany and Francoist Spain in the Field of Social Policy, Amélie Nuq
8. Under the Hard Law of War: Norwegian Social Reforms under German Influence, Mats Ingulstad
9. From the Balkans to Germany and Back: The Croatian Labour Service, 1941-1945, Alexander Korb
Part III: Reception and Alternatives
10. Defining Alternatives: Nazi Social Policies and the New Deal, Jill M. Jensen and Kiran Klaus Patel
11. Labour Policy, Germanness, and Nazi Influence in Brazil, Ursula Prutsch
Part IV: Occupied Countries: Rejection and Hidden Implementation
12. Danish Social Policy in the Shadow of Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, Rasmus Mariager and Klaus Petersen
13. The Nazi Social Order Implemented? The Case of France, Marcel Boldorf and Hervé Joly
14. German Ambitions and Belgian Expectations: Social Insurance and Industrial Relations in Occupied Belgium, 1940-1944, Kenneth Bertrams and Sabine Rudischhauser
Notes on Contributors
Index