Die Feste der Macht und die Macht der Feste Fest und Diktatur – zur Einleitung

Abstract

Festivals of the Power and the Power of Festivals Festivals and Dictatorship – Introduction

In their own time dictatorships and festivals were often seen as intricately intertwined. Many observers later followed this line of interpretation. According to historians, the mass festivals in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and the Eastern European «people's democracies» encapsulate the mobilizing character of 20th century dictatorships. This article provides an overview of these approaches and sketches the areas of research most active today. It views celebrations both as displays representing the political regimes and as instruments used to forge the participants into new persons. On the one hand festivals communicated cultural norms, on the other they were meant to instill the regime's regulations via repetitive, ritualized performance. The article further focuses on the mechanisms of festival production, including the apparatus and historical actors involved. It shows that festivals never conformed entirely to the propagandists’ blueprints but rather were the result of cultural interaction, producing a hybrid festival culture. In conclusion the article touches on questions of cross-cultural comparison and the transfer of festival styles and know-how between different dictatorial regimes.