Cultural Relations in the «New Order»: Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain

Abstract

The article analyzes the role that culture played in German-Spanish relations during National-Socialism. This is a relevant historiographical question for two main reasons. The first, that we still lack an overall approach on the cultural relations between the two countries in that period. The second, that when the national-socialists came to power in 1933, culture had already become for a long time an essential part of foreign politics of the most important European powers, and consequently also of Germany. The article explains the motivations for intensifying cultural relations for both countries. Its ultimate objective is to get a clearer idea about the affinities between Nazi Germany and the Francoist regime. We base the analysis in our own research in archives as well as in the already existing literature on partial aspects of the cultural relations between the two countries. We conclude that the tensions between the different political sectors which looked for hegemony inside the francoist regime were not the decisive factor to explain the variations in the intensity of the cultural relations between the two countries. The decisive element was the negative evolution of the Second World War for Germany. Finally, the research proves that the ideological coincidences between the two regimes and the level of fascistization of Franco’s dictatorship in its first stages should not be underestimated.