Italian Fascism and German Nazism

Altough the two ideologies have similaries and ultimated allied with each other; Italian Fascism and Nazism conflicted disgreed and conflicted on certian issues. German Nazism was a form of racially-oriented fascism, while Italian fascism was state-oriented. The two ideologies almost came to blows over racial issues, as the Nazis claimed that the Fascists had the potential to be a positive force in Italy only if the Fascists worked to purify their party's ranks and the Italian nation itself. Nazis deemed the Italians a polluted race, while the Fascists took this as an insult to their country. Eventually, as Italy became diplomatically isolated, Fascist Italy drew closer to Germany and adopted anti-Semitic and other racially discriminatory policies.

Racism
Nazism differed from Italian fascism in that it had a stronger emphasis on race, in terms of social and economic policies. Though both ideologies denied the significance of the individual, Italian fascism saw the individual as subservient to the state, whereas Nazism saw the individual, as well as the state, as ultimately subservient to the race. But subservience to the Nazi state was also a requirement on the population. Mussolini's Fascism held that cultural factors existed to serve the state, and that it was not necessarily in the state's interest to interfere in cultural aspects of society. The only purpose of government in Mussolini's fascism was to uphold the state as supreme above all else, a concept which can be described as statolatry. Unlike Hitler, Mussolini repeatedly changed his views on the issue of race according to the circumstances of the time.

In 1921, Mussolini promoted the development of the Italian race such as when he said:

Like Hitler, Mussolini publicly declared his support of an eugenics policy to improve the status of Italians in 1926 to the people of Reggio Emilia:

In private, in a conversation with Emil Ludwig in 1932, Mussolini derided the concept of a biologically superior race and denounced racism as being a foolish concept. Mussolini did not believe that race alone was that significant. Mussolini viewed himself as a modern day Roman Emperor, a cultural elite and wished to "Italianise" the parts of the Italian Empire he had desired to build. A cultural superiority of Italians, rather than a view of racialism. Mussolini believed that the development of a race was insignificant in comparison to the development of culture, but did believe that a race could be improved through moral development, but does not say that this will make a superior race:

Mussolini believed that a biologically superior race was not possible, but that a morally superior race was. That being said, he believed that Italian culture and morals were superior to those of other nations, such as African nations. For Mussolini, inclusion of people in a fascist society depended on their loyalty to the state. Meetings between Mussolini and Arab dignitaries from the colony of Libya convinced Mussolini that the Arab population was worthy to be given extensive civil rights, and allowed Muslims to join a Muslim section of the Fascist Party - the Muslim Association of the Lictor. However under pressure from Nazi Germany, the Fascist regime eventually did take on racist ideology, such as promoting the concept of Italy settling Africa to create a white civilization in Africa and handing out five-year criminal sentences for Italians caught in a sexual or marital relationship with native Africans. For those colonial peoples who were not loyal, vicious repression was used, such as in Ethiopia, where in 1937, native Ethiopian settlements were burned to the ground by Italian armed forces. Under Fascism, native Africans were allowed to join the Italian armed forces as colonial forces and appeared in Fascist propaganda.

The Nazi movement, at least in its overt ideology, spoke of class-based society as the enemy, and wanted to unify the racial element above established classes; however, the Italian fascist movement sought to preserve the class system and uphold it as the foundation of established and desirable culture. Nevertheless, the Italian fascists did not reject the concept of social mobility, and a central tenet of the fascist state was meritocracy. Yet, fascism also heavily based itself on corporatism, which was supposed to supersede class conflicts. Despite these differences, Kevin Passmore (2002 p.62) observes:

There are sufficient similarities between Fascism and Nazism to make it worthwhile applying the concept of fascism to both. In Italy and Germany a movement came to power that sought to create national unity through the repression of national enemies and the incorporation of all classes and both genders into a permanently mobilized nation.

Nazi ideologues such as Alfred Rosenburg were highly sceptical about the Italian race and Fascism but saw an improvement of the Italian race as possible if major changes were made to convert it into an acceptable "Aryan" race, and said that the Italian Fascist movement would only succeed if it purified the Italian race into an Aryan one. Nazi theorists believed that the downfall of the Roman Empire was due to interbreeding of different races which created a "polluted" Italian race which was inferior. Hitler believed this, but saw Mussolini as representing the attempt to revive the pure elements of the former Roman civilization, such as the desire to create a strong and aggressive Italian people, but Hitler was still audacious enough when meeting Mussolini for the first time in 1934 to tell him that all Mediterranean peoples were "tainted" by "Negro blood" and thus in his racist view, they were degenerate.

As relations were initially poor, things grew worse after the assassination of Austria's fascist chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss by Austrian Nazis in 1934. Austria under Dolfuss was a key ally to Mussolini and Mussolini was deeply angered by Hitler's attempt to take over Austria, and angrily mocked Hitler's earlier remark on the impurity of the Italian race by declaring that a "Germanic" race did not exist and notes how Hitler's society's repression of Jews indicates that Germany did not have a pure race:

Mussolini and Hitler were not always allies. While Mussolini wanted the expansion of fascist ideology throughout the world, he did not initially appreciate Hitler and the Nazi party. Hitler was an early admirer of Mussolini and asked for Mussolini's guidance in how the Nazis could pull off their own March on Rome. Mussolini did not respond to Hitler's requests as he did not have much interest in Hitler's movement and regarded Hitler to be somewhat crazy. Mussolini did attempt to read Mein Kampf to find out what Hitler's National Socialist movement was but was immediately disappointed, saying that Mein Kampf was "a boring tome that I have never been able to read" and claimed that Hitler's beliefs were "little more than commonplace clichés."

Mussolini had personal reasons to oppose anti-Semitism: his longtime mistress and Fascist propaganda director, Margherita Sarfatti was Jewish. She had played an important role in the foundation of the Fascist movement in Italy and promoting it to Italians and the world through supporting the arts. However within the Italian Fascist movement, there were a minority who endorsed Hitler's anti-Semitism and wanted anti-Semitism in Italy. These included Roberto Farinacci and Julius Evola, who represented the far-right wing of the Fascist party.

There were also nationalistic reasons why Germany and Italy were not immediate allies. Habsburg Austria (Hitler's birthplace) had an antagonistic relationship with Italy since it was formed, largely because Austria had seized most of the territories once belonging to Italian states such as Venice. Although initially neutral, Italy entered the First World War on the side of the Allies against Germany and Austria-Hungary when promised several territories (Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, Trieste, Istria and Dalmatia). After the War had ended, Italy was rewarded with these territories but in Germany and Austria the annexation of Alto Adige/South Tyrol was controversial as the province was made up of a large majority of German speakers. While Hitler did not pursue this claim, many in the Nazi Party felt differently. In 1939 Mussolini and Hitler agreed on the Alto Adige Option Agreement. However, when Mussolini's government collapsed in 1943 and the Italian Social Republic was created Alto Adige/South Tyrol was annexed to Greater Germany, but restored to Italy after the war.

Foreign Affairs
While the two ideologies had a number of similarities and differences that could be overlooked, one issue that could not be overlooked was the potential of a clash between the Pan-German aims of the Nazis and the Italian nationalist aims of the Fascists, as the Italian region of Tyrol was German populated and part of Austrian Empire for centuries prior, while the Fascists claimed the area, as it had been part of the region of Italy in the Roman Empire. With the collapse of Austria in World War I, an independent Austria was no longer a serious threat to Italy, but the popularity of Pan-German nationalism in both Germany and Austria was a threat. Due to this threat to Italy's territory, the Fascist regime opposed the Nazis expansionist efforts towards Austria and supported Austria's sovereignty and promoted the adoption of fascism in the country.

In the 1920s, Hitler wanted an alliance of the Nazi movement with Mussolini's regime, and recognized that his pan-German nationalism was being seen as a threat by Italy. In Hitler's unpublished sequel to Mein Kampf, Hitler attempts to address concerns among Italian Fascists about Nazism. In the book, Hitler puts aside the issue of Germans in Tyrol by explaining that overall Germany and Italy have more in common than not and that the Tyrol Germans must accept that it is in Germany's interests to be allied with Italy. Hitler claims that Germany, like Italy was subjected to oppression by its neighbours, and he denounces the Austrian Empire as having oppressed Italy from completing national unification just as France oppressed Germany from completing its national unification. Hitler's denunciation of Austria in the book is important as Italian Fascists were skeptical about him he was born in Austria which Italy long considered to be its primary enemy for centuries and saw Germany as being an ally to Austria. By declaring that the Nazi movement was not interested in the territorial legacy of the Austrian Empire, this is a way to assure the Italian Fascists that Hitler, the Nazi movement, and Germany were not enemies of Italy.

Despite public attempts of good will by Hitler to Mussolini, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy came close to blows when in 1934, Engelbert Dollfuss, the Austrofascist leader of Austria and ally of Italy, was assassinated by Nazi Brown shirts on Hitler's orders in preparation for a planned Anschluss, which prompted Mussolini to move troops to the Austrian-Italian border in readiness for war against Hitler. Hitler did not want to have a war with Mussolini's Italy, and reluctantly put aside immediate plans to annex Austria. When Hitler and Mussolini first met, Mussolini referred to Hitler as "a silly little monkey" before the Western Allies forced Mussolini into an agreement with Hitler. Mussolini also reportedly asked the Pope to excommunicate Hitler. From 1934 to 1936, Hitler and the Nazi regime continually attempted to woe the support of Italy for Nazi polices, such as by endorsing Italy's occupation of Ethiopia while the international community condemned Italy. With other countries opposing Italy, the Fascist regime had no choice but to draw closer to Nazi Germany to regain a stable bargaining position in international affairs. Germany joined Italy in sending forces and material to the fascist Spanish nationalist forces of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. Later, Germany and Italy signed the Anti-Comintern Pact committing the two regimes to oppose communism. By 1938, Mussolini allowed Austria to be annexed in return for Hitler to officially renounce German claims to Tyrol. After the annexation of Austria and the abdication of claims to Tyrol, Mussolini supported Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland during the Munich agreement talks. In 1939, the Pact of Steel was signed, creating an official alliance of Germany and Italy. The Nazi party's official newspaper the Völkischer Beobachter claimed that the alliance was mutually beneficial and meant for both states to endorse each other's territorial claims while claiming to be striving for peace by saying:
"Firmly bound together through the inner unity of their ideologies and the comprehensive solidarity of their interests, the German and the Italian people are determined also in future to stand side by side and to strive with united effort for the securing of their Lebensraum and the maintenance of peace." Völkischer Beobachter, May 23, 1939.

Hitler and Mussolini recognized commonalities in their politics, and the second part of Hitler's Mein Kampf — "The National Socialist Movement" — (1926) contains this passage:

I conceived the profoundest admiration for the great man south of the Alps, who, full of ardent love for his people, made no pacts with the enemies of Italy, but strove for their annihilation by all ways and means. What will rank Mussolini among the great men of this earth is his determination not to share Italy with the Marxists, but to destroy internationalism and save the fatherland from it. (p. 622)

Both regimes despised countries like France and Yugoslavia. Both the Fascists and the Nazis saw France as an enemy to both their countries as France held territories with Germans and Italians that were claimed by both Germany and Italy. For Hitler, Yugoslavia as a Slavic state was racially degenerate. For Mussolini, Italy had territorial aims on Yugoslav territory, such as Dalmatia, and saw the destruction of Yugoslavia as essential for Italian expansion. Hitler viewed all Yugoslavs as inferior but did not see importance in an immediate invasion of Yugoslavia, as he saw the Soviet Union as more important to focus attention on. Mussolini on the other hand favoured the Croatian extreme nationalist Ustashe, as a useful tool to tear down Yugoslavia, as it was led by a Serbian monarchy which Croatian nationalists despised. In 1941, with the Italian military campaign failing in Greece, Hitler reluctantly began a Balkan campaign by invading Yugoslavia along with Italy. In the aftermath, with the exception of Serbia and Macedonia, most of Yugoslavia was reshaped based on Italian Fascist foreign policy objectives. Mussolini demanded and received Dalmatia from the Croats in exchange for supporting the independence of Croatia. Mussolini's policy of creating an independent Croatia prevailed over Hitler's anti-Slavism and eventually the Nazis and the Ustashe regime of Croatia would develop closer bonds due to the Ustashe's brutal effectiveness at suppressing Serb dissidents.

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