Die Europakonzeptionen von Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus (1939-1943)

Abstract

The article explores the plans for a New Europe developed by the Italian Fascist Regime after 1939 as well as its later modifications according to the situation at the front. At the eve of the Second World War, Giuseppe Bottai, at the time minister for education, called upon the cultural elite to think about the cultural foundations of the New Europe. This future entity was supposed to exhibit a clear hierarchy between smaller and larger states and be part of a gigantic Euro-Asiatic-African area dominated by the imperialist powers Italy, Japan and the German Reich. This project was much discussed in Italy, which resulted in German suspicions. Conflict between the "Axis" partners erupted in 1942, when Italy - despite devastating defeats - attempted to claim intellectual leadership of future Europe - clearly distancing itself from the Nazi Regime which only relied on violence and the Race Myth, while the Fascists founded their superiority on Christianity and the tradition of Ancient Rome. In Spring 1943, the Fascist leadership dissociated itself from such hybrid plans. They now launched the idea of a "Europe of the Nations", even though it was clear that this would strongly strain cooperation with the German Reich. The collapse of the Fascist Regime in 1943 ended these intellectual games: The New Europe would only come about under National Socialist auspices - or not at all. © Oldenbourg 2010.