Gib,
Interesting question. I have here in my hands a book, "Fascism, Past, Present and Future" by a Walter Laqueur and in nearly 300 pages the writer dances all over the place, makes some interesting points, but comes no where near a definition and even manages to miss the bigger picture, I think. This is the third such similarly titled work I have come across over the years.
If you consider the Nazis and their peers around the world, you can say that there existed a couple of primary characteristics. One is an extreme ultranationalism that was part of every facet of public life. The other is a complete rejection of and contempt for democratic processes of all sorts. In addition, and this is especially true for the best known but least understood fascists, the Nazis, if there had been no October Revolution in Russia the Nazis would have never arisen. OTOH they have been labeled "reactionary" and I think this is a complete mistake as they had little desire to restore the aristocracy, the church or the Kaiser and were in many ways ultramoderns.
Another very important aspect of the Nazis was this overpowering sense of urgency, the idea that they must achieve almost miraculous success in a very limited time span. I think there are a couple of reasons for this; first are the very well know personal peculiarities and phobias of their leader, as Hitler thought he had a limited time to accomplish his aims. The OTHER aspect is not well know or understood and is really at the root of the whole Nazi phenomenon and is the real reason for their final rise to power.
The Reichswehr, the Weimar German military, had been literally "joined at the hip" to the Red Army from the very beginning. First, Germany had defeated the Red Army and Trotsky had signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk accepting the terms put forward by Lundendorf. Later, in an attempt to escape the limits placed on the Germany by Versailles German officers kept open lines of communication with their defeated fellow officers of the Red Army. Then, as the Reichswehr leaders intended to circumvent Versailles and preserve a maximum amount of the military prowess of Imperial German Army, especially after the initial conflicts with the disarmament treaty inspectors; coincidentally the Red Army, fighting for its life during the intervention and during the civil war, and desperately needing technology that the Germans were capable of supplying, the two former foes made common cause. Thus began a secret collaboration between the Reichswehr and the Red Army that lasted way into the 1930's. As the Red Army, at least until the purges had a great number of Czarist officers and reactionaries within its ranks, this is not as strange as it may sound.
Anyway, this very extensive surreptitous linkage provided the Reichswehr with a unique insight into the Bolshevik inner circles and practically alone in the world, they were aware of the rise of the Stalin clique and what this represented and the danger it presented, especially to Germany, and indeed the whole world. So informed and greatly alarmed, especially after the Stalinists began to rapidly implement their program, which would soon produce the worlds most powerful military, the Reichswher leadership began to lend their support to the Nazis, primarily because they believed that the Nazis would form the most capable war government, for the war they were certain was coming with the USSR.
Slagle
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