Fascism Waves

Yağmur ÇİFTCİ 1659101

FASCISM'S WAVES

Fascism is an ideology which creates prototype by using the society's similarities and considers collectivity superior than individual. It uses an instrument to bring people together such as nationality or religion. When people believe in one goal and come together around it, they start to exchange their sense of individuality to the sense of unity and belonging. In Die Welle, it is shown to us how easy to manipulate masses and create a unification of them by eliminating the desires of an individual. Moreover, it is seen that people can easily be a part of it with the desire of acceptance and the power of discipline while the idea seems to them as irrational.

The experiment which is carried out by the anarchist teacher Rainer Wegner is the starting point of the movie. Wegner starts an experiment between the students who are confused about the establishment of Nazism and do not have enough knowledge to clarify it. After taking the charge of fascist class, he starts to put some acts in practice such as giving them a collective name and dress code which lead the group to lose their sense of individuality for a sense of belonging. The sense of belonging is the most important thing about fascism to examine. The need of belonging to something, someone, or somewhere is being manipulated and used to capture people by fascism. It brings people together by giving them a purpose to live, making them to be a part of the group which they can be loyal and feel belong to. The different characteristics of people are not barriers to this unification as long as they can be come together under one goal or instrument. For example, in Die Welle, the Turkish student Sinan, Dennis who was born in East Germany, and Tim who considers himself as an outsider are part of the fascist class despite that all differences they have. Day by day, they feel more belong to Die Welle and see themselves as a part of it. It is shown to us how fascism works; it brings people together, commit them each other with various similarities, ensure the obedience of them by taking some rules and intimidate them with the fear of the possibility of losing the sense of belonging. The non-individualistic acts strengthen the bond between people and the sense of belonging. The situation and conditions before the Second World War caused people to feel insecure and triggered the need of belonging to rise, so fascism spread easily.

The movie pays attention to the sense of belonging excessively and the other important tools of fascism such as nationality and a powerful leader/dictator figure are overlooked. The rise of the fascist group in the movie is happening without a leader, Wegner's only contribution to the group's becoming popular and powerful is bringing them together. However, it can be seen