With President Hindenburg’s death on 2 August 1934, Herr Hitler united his chancellorship and the vacant presidency under the title of Fuhrer, or leader. The cult, and the genocide and war which followed, remains a lesson for the ages.
There are two sources for the use of Fuhrer.
First, Georg Ritter von Schönerer. An Austrian, he was a pan-Germanist, opponent of political Catholicism and antisemite. His party addressed him as Fuhrer and used “Heil”. One of his projects, on the back of the much earlier Kulturkampf, Bismarck’s struggle with the Vatican over, among other things, who ran schools, was “Los von Rom!”, or Away from Rome. Under it, Roman Catholic Austrians would convert to Old Catholicism or to Lutheranism.
Secondly, Benito Mussolini. He had become dictator of Italy a decade before and enjoyed hearing “Il Duce”, the Leader. Ironically, he faced his own “Roman Question” with the Church, involving territory and, once again, who ran schools. The question was largely compromised by the 1929 Lateran Pact. The name of the place where a treaty is signed is commonly the name of the treaty, but this one has a special significance. The Domus Laterani was given by the Emperor Constantine to the Bishop of Rome some 1,600 years before.
