Pierpaolo Barbieri

Hitler's Shadow Empire Pierpaolo Barbieri

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.; Pitting fascists and communists in a showdown for supremacy, the Spanish Civil War has long been seen as a grim dress rehearsal for World War II. Francisco Franco's Nationalists prevailed with German and Italian military assistance--a clear instance, it seemed, of like-minded regimes joining forces in the fight against global Bolshevism. In Hitler's Shadow Empire, Pierpaolo Barbieri revises this standard account of Axis intervention in the Spanish Civil War, arguing that economic ambitions--not ideology--drove Hitler's Iberian intervention. The Nazis hoped to establish an economic empire in Europe, and in Spain they tested the tactics intended for future subject territories. The Nazis provided Franco's Nationalists with planes, armaments, and tanks, but behind this largesse was a Faustian bargain. Through weapons and material support, Germany gradually absorbed Spain into an informal empire, extending control over key Spanish resources in order to fuel its own burgeoning war industries. This plan was only possible and profitable because of Hitler's economic czar, Hjalmar Schacht, a 'wizard of international finance.' His policies fostered the interwar German recovery and consolidated Hitler's dictatorship. Though Schacht's economic strategy was eventually abandoned in favor of a very different conception of racial empire, Barbieri argues it was in many ways a more effective strategic option for the Third Reich. Deepening our understanding of the Spanish Civil War by placing it in the context of Nazi imperial ambitions, Hitler's Shadow Empire illuminates a fratricidal tragedy that still reverberates in Spanish life as well as the world war it heralded--Provided by publisher. Brief Description: "Pitting fascists and communists in a showdown for supremacy, the Spanish Civil War has long been seen as a grim dress rehearsal for World War II. Francisco Franco's Nationalists prevailed with German and Italian military assistance--a clear instance, it seemed, of like-minded regimes joining forces in the fight against global Bolshevism. In Hitler's Shadow Empire, Pierpaolo Barbieri revises this standard account of Axis intervention in the Spanish Civil War, arguing that economic ambitions--not ideology--drove Hitler's Iberian intervention. The Nazis hoped to establish an economic empire in Europe, and in Spain they tested the tactics intended for future subject territories. The Nazis provided Franco's Nationalists with planes, armaments, and tanks, but behind this largesse was a Faustian bargain. Through weapons and material support, Germany gradually absorbed Spain into an informal empire, extending control over key Spanish resources in order to fuel its own burgeoning war industries. This plan was only possible and profitable because of Hitler's economic czar, Hjalmar Schacht, a 'wizard of international finance.' His policies fostered the interwar German recovery and consolidated Hitler's dictatorship. Though Schacht's economic strategy was eventually abandoned in favor of a very different conception of racial empire, Barbieri argues it was in many ways a more effective strategic option for the Third Reich. Deepening our understanding of the Spanish Civil War by placing it in the context of Nazi imperial ambitions, Hitler's Shadow Empire illuminates a fratricidal tragedy that still reverberates in Spanish life as well as the world war it heralded"--Provided by publisher. Review Quotes: "Hitler's Shadow Empire" recasts our understanding of the German and Italian interventions in the Spanish Civil War. In this brilliant debut, Barbieri shows that informal imperialism played a more important part than fascist ideology in the way that Berlin looked at the conflict. Barbieri also has a keen ear for the continuing echoes of the Civil War for Spain and indeed for Europe today.--Niall Ferguson, author of "The Ascent of Money""Review Quotes: A fascinating, beautifully written account of a plan for the German economic domination of Europe that was pushed in the 1930s by the Nazis but above all by non-Nazi and more traditionally oriented German economic bureaucrats. Barbieri makes us think again about the relationship between economics and racial policies in the making of Nazi aggression.--Harold James, author of "Making the European Monetary Union"Review Quotes: Since the opening of the Soviet archives in 1991, we have been treated to many new studies of the Stalin-supported Republican side of the Spanish Civil War. In "Hitler s Shadow Empire," Pierpaolo Barbieri reminds us that it was Franco s nationalists who actually prevailed, in a huge and still underappreciated foreign policy triumph for Nazi Germany. This is a fascinating study of a prewar Europe of might-have-been, when Spain was being absorbed into a German informal empire of economic hegemony, overseen by the brilliant Hjalmar Schacht, a project so successful that two centuries of Anglo French dominance of the Iberian economy was overturned in less than three years. As Barbieri shows, it was Hitler s foolish plunge into war and formal empire in 1939 which, paradoxically, destroyed burgeoning German economic hegemony in Spain and Europe. As the world enters a new round of trade and currency wars reminiscent of the 1930s, "Hitler s Shadow Empire" is a timely reminder of the seductive power of economic nationalism and of Germany s capacity for both hegemonic influence and suicidal diplomacy.--Sean McMeekin, author of "The Russian Origins of the First World War""Review Quotes: Nothing reflects the twists and turns of German economic and military policy before 1939 so clearly as German involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Pierpaolo Barbieri has done all historians of this period a major service in providing a clear and convincing account of how informal empire in Spain became a stepping stone to real imperialism in the rest of Europe.--Richard Overy, author of "Why the Allies Won""Review Quotes: This is a fascinating study of a prewar Europe of might-have-been, when Spain was being absorbed into a German informal empire of economic hegemony, overseen by the brilliant Hjalmar Schacht, a project so successful that two centuries of Anglo French dominance of the Iberian economy was overturned in less than three years. As Barbieri shows, it was Hitler s foolish plunge into war and formal empire in 1939 which, paradoxically, destroyed burgeoning German economic hegemony in Spain and Europe. As the world enters a new round of trade and currency wars reminiscent of the 1930s, "Hitler s Shadow Empire" is a timely reminder of the seductive power of economic nationalism and of Germany s capacity for both hegemonic influence and suicidal diplomacy.--Sean McMeekin, author of "The Russian Origins of the First World War""Publisher Marketing: Pitting fascists and communists in a showdown for supremacy, the Spanish Civil War has long been seen as a grim dress rehearsal for World War II. Francisco Franco s Nationalists prevailed with German and Italian military assistance a clear instance, it seemed, of like-minded regimes joining forces in the fight against global Bolshevism. In Hitler s Shadow Empire "Pierpaolo Barbieri revises this standard account of Axis intervention in the Spanish Civil War, arguing that economic ambitions not ideology drove Hitler s Iberian intervention. The Nazis hoped to establish an economic empire in Europe, and in Spain they tested the tactics intended for future subject territories. The Nazis provided Franco s Nationalists with planes, armaments, and tanks, but behind this largesse was a Faustian bargain. Through weapons and material support, Germany gradually absorbed Spain into an informal empire, extending control over key Spanish resources in order to fuel its own burgeoning war industries. This plan was only possible and profitable because of Hitler s economic czar, Hjalmar Schacht, a wizard of international finance. His policies fostered the interwar German recovery and consolidated Hitler s dictatorship. Though Schacht s economic strategy was eventually abandoned in favor of a very different conception of racial empire, Barbieri argues it was in many ways a more effective strategic option for the Third Reich. Deepening our understanding of the Spanish Civil War by placing it in the context of Nazi imperial ambitions, Hitler s Shadow Empire" illuminates a fratricidal tragedy that still reverberates in Spanish life as well as the world war it heralded."

Contributor Bio:  Barbieri, Pierpaolo Pierpaolo Barbieri is executive director at Greenmantle and special advisor at the Institute for New Economic Thinking and the Berggruen Institute on Governance.