Borrowing from Mussolini: Nazi Germany's Colonial Aspirations in the Shadow of Italian Expansionism

Abstract

Few topics have sparked more debate than the question of how colonialism related to Nazism. While the mainstream historiography on Nazi Germany for many years has denied the existence of any serious links between Hitler's expansionist policies and Germany's short-lived colonial empire, with the rise of postcolonial studies this view has come under massive attack. As scholars like Benjamin Madley and Jürgen Zimmerer have argued, the colonial crimes committed especially in Southwest Africa have to be seen as a sort of mental blueprint for the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe. Astonishingly, this debate has remained stuck in the national paradigm. This paper offers a different, a more European perspective. It illuminates how the colonialism of Mussolini's Italy, Europe's first fascist dictatorship, was an inspirational force that appealed to Germany's postcolonial society as well as to Hitler himself. As will be argued, the Italian example was important mainly in three respects: first, Mussolini's policy of conquest was a significant driver of colonial desires within German society. Second, for Hitler enthusiasm for Italian colonialism was a means of consolidating his rule and legitimising his plans for the brutal conquest of Eastern Europe. Third, Fascist Italy's colonial empire served as a model when the Nazis started to develop far-reaching plans for a future German colonial empire in Africa. Thus it is argued that the history of Nazi Germany has to be understood in a transnational and imperial perspective.

Notes

1 Dispatch of the German Consul General in Addis Ababa, Gustav Strohm, 22 Nov. 1938 (copy), 1, National Archives Berlin (hereafter BArch), series Reichskolonialamt (R 1001), 9714.

2 Bernhard, ‘Die Kolonialachse’.

3 For more on this discussion, see Baranowski, Nazi Empire; Stone, Histories of the Holocaust, ch. 5.

4 For the US, see Alpers, Dictators. For Latin America, see Finchelstein, Transatlantic Fascism. For the UK, see Stone, Responses. For Portugal, see Saraiva, ‘Fascist Labscapes’. For the Asian world, see, among others, Delfs, Hindu-Nationalismus; Hoffmann, The Fascist Reflection.

5 Bauerkämper, ‘Interwar Fascism’.

6 On the reception of Fascist family policy in Austria, see Weindling, ‘A City Regenerated’; Walter, Frauenpolitik.

7 For Spain's and Germany's interest in fascist policing, see Ivani, Esportare il fascismo; Bernhard, ‘Konzertierte Gegnerbekämpfung’.

8 Bernhard, ‘Metropolen auf Achse’.

9 Liebscher, Freude und Arbeit.

10 For the link between pronatalism and colonial expansion, see Ben-Ghiat, Fascist Modernities, 20.

11 Ipsen, Dictating Demography; Quine, Italy's Social Revolution.

12 Dogliani, Il fascismo, 103; Mantovani, Rigenerare la società.

13 See especially Pergher, Tale of Two Borders, 293.

14 Rodogno, Fascism's European Empire.

15 Smith, Mussolini, 170.

16 Valli, Il Diritto. On Valli, see briefly Gregor, Mussolini's Intellectuals, 38.

17 Salerno, Vital Crossroads, 105–06.

18 See Horn, ‘Constructing the Sterile City’; Osterhammel, Die Verwandlung der Welt, 531–23.

19 See Pergher, Tale of Two Borders, 465–70.

20 Russell, ‘Agricultural Colonization’.

21 Sterling Frost, ‘The Reclamation’, 595.

22 See the memo ‘Colonization of Libya’ by the military attaché of the British Embassy in Rome, 15 June 1939, Public Record Office (hereafter PRO)/The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), series Foreign Office (hereafter FO), 371, 23391.

23 Indeed, as the latest research has made clear, the age of empire was to wane only in the second half of the twentieth century. See Osterhammel, Die Verwandlung, 606.

24 On Knecht, see Wegmann, ‘Kokospalme mit Hakenkreuz’.

25 ‘24 Jahre in Abessinien’, evening edition of the Freiburger Stadtanzeiger, 24 Oct. 1935.

26 Bernhard, ‘Kulturachse München-Verona’.

27 For the complete list of lectures given, see http://www.freiburg-postkolonial.de/Seiten/uni-va.htm (accessed 17 May 2012).

28 ‘Chronik der Deutsche-Italienischen Gesellshaft’, 156, 283.

29 Laak, Imperiale Infrastruktur, 289. On the booming book market, see Börsenblätter, 48.

30 Bartikowski, ‘Italy’s Abyssinian Campaign', 39; Hoffend, Zwischen Kultur-Achse und Kulturkampf, 194.

31 See Katalog der Bibliothek. The author has counted the books on Italian colonialism in German listed under the category ‘Fremde Kolonialpolitik’ and complemented it with similar publications catagorised as ‘Allgemeine Kolonialgeschichte’.

32 Thierfelder, Englischer Kulturimperialismus.

33 Gadow, Seeräuberstaat England.

34 Henner, Sie raubten.

35 Springborn, Über Lügen.

36 Herrmann, Abessinien.

37 Von zur Mühlen, ‘Abessinien als zukünftiges Kolonialland’.

38 See Grühl, Die Wiedergeburt des Imperiums; Mayer, Imperium–Fascismus.

39 For more detail, see Dipper, Traditionen.

40 Diel, Sieh unser neues Land; in English, Behold our New Empire.

41 Schieder, ‘Audienz bei Mussolini’, 127.

42 Lindequist, Die Entwicklung.

43 See, in particular, Dülffer, ‘Kolonialismus ohne Kolonien’.

44 Kundrus, ‘German Colonialism’, 31.

45 Gentile, ‘Wehrmacht’.

46 Similarly Graml, Hitler und England, 14, who points out that Hitler understood the British Empire only superficially.

47 See, for instance, Kay, Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder, 80.

48 Entry of 17–18 Sept. 1941, Adolf Hitler: Monologe, 62.

49 See the almost identical insights of Stone, Histories of the Holocaust, 225.

50 As stated by Hitler in a speech during a party reunion in Munich on the 30 March 1927. Hitler: Reden, vol. 2, 221–25.

51 Woller, Rom, 28 Oktober 1922, 192–93.

52 Hitler: Reden, vol. 2A, 137.

53 As stated by Hitler during a speech during a Führertagung in Bamberg on 14 Feb. 1926. See ibid., vol. 1, 294.

54 As stated by Hitler on 12 Feb. 1926. See ibid., vol. 1, 280.

55 Ibid., vol. 2A, 138–39.

56 Ibid, vol. 1, 270. Almost identical is Hitler's article ‘Warum mußte ein 8. November kommen?’ of April 1924. See Hitler: Sämtliche Aufzeichnungen, 1226.

57 Hitler: Reden, vol. 2A, 180.

58 As stated by Hitler in a speech in Munich on 13 April 1927. See ibid., vol. 2, 277.

59 Ibid., vol. 2A, 139.

60 Entry of 21–22 July 1941, Adolf Hitler, Monologe, 43–44.

61 Entry of 5 Aug. 1942, ibid., 328.

62 Entry of 12 Nov. 1941, ibid., 62.

63 Entry of 5 Sept. 1942, ibid., 333.

64 Gordon, ‘Race’.

65 Entry of 17 Feb. 1942, Adolf Hitler, Monologe, 278; see the very similar entry of 31 Jan. 1942, ibid., 244–48.

66 Entry of 5 Aug. 1942, ibid., 328.

67 Hildebrand, Vom Reich zum Weltreich, 236.

68 Bauer, Kolonien im Dritten Reich, 59.

69 Valli, Il Diritto. In German under the title Das Recht. Michels, ‘Prolegomena’.

70 Bahr, Volk jenseits der Grenzen, 447.

71 For the visit, see Pätzold and Weissbecker, Rudolf Heß, 184.

72 Haushofer, Deutsche Kulturpolitik, 38. For other examples, see Lengauer, Wir rufen Europa; Westermanns Monatshefe 159 (1935): 67.

73 Volk und Führer, 189. For the textbook, see Pine, Education in Nazi Germany, 68.

74 Der Deutsche Erzieher 7 (1940): 218.

75 Bernhard, ‘Behind the Battle Lines’.

76 Mattioli, ‘Entgrenzte Kriegsgewalt’.

77 De Grand, ‘Mussolini’s Follies'.

78 Mattioli, Experimentierfeld der Gewalt.

79 De Bono, Die Vorbereitungen; Badoglio, Der abessinische Krieg.

80 Badoglio, 137–38.

81 Schmieder and Wilhelmy, Die faschistische Kolonisation, 8–12.

82 Vöchting, ‘Italienische Siedelung in Libyen’, 145.

83 Klein, Warum Krieg in Abessinien, 73.

84 Herrmann, Italiens Weg, 85.

85 Von Xylander had been member of the Society for Italo-German Reconciliation, a forerunner of the Italo-German Cultural Society, since the early 1930s. See Newsletter No. 10 of the Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Italienische Verständigung, 5 Dec. 1932, City Archive of Munich (hereafter StA München), B., Bürgermeister und Rat, 1173.

86 Von Xylander, Die Eroberung Abessiniens 1935/36.

87 Foley, ‘From Volkskrieg to Vernichtungskreig’; Kuß, ‘Von der Vernichtungsschlacht’.

88 Schedule of lectures for the year 1940 of the Auslandswissenschaftlichen Fakultät, University of Berlin, BArch, R 1501, 127190, 160.

89 Geographische Zeitschrift 44 (1938): 180–81.

90 Lebensraumfragen europdïscher Völker, vol. 2.

91 See Bernhard, ‘Lebensraumwissenschaft’.

92 Balakrishnan, The Enemy.

93 Schmitt, Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung, 59.

94 Majer, ‘Fremdvölkische’ im Dritten Reich.

95 Even though these plans have attracted much scholarly attention, Italy's role as a model has been almost totally neglected. For the most recent account, see Linne, Deutschland jenseits des Äquators?.

96 Baranowski, Nazi Empire, 257.

97 Confidential memo of Oberjustizrat Cusen, Reich's Ministry of Justice, on the Organization of the Protectorates. Guidelines for German Colonial Legislation, Dec. 1938, BArch, R 3001, 22364, 145.

98 Fritz Tiebel, head of the Reichsbeamtenbund, in a conversation with Colonel Osti, secretary of the Italian Ministry for Africa Italiana. See letter of Bernardo Attolico to Foreign Minister Ciano, 19 Nov. 1938, in I Documenti, vol. 10, 460.

99 Walter had toured Libya in 1939. See his report on the 8th International Congress of Tropical and Sub-Tropical Agriculture in Tripoli [probably March 1939], BArch Berlin, R 1001, 8680, 84.

100 Memo No. 1972/40 of the Reichsforschungsstelle für Raumplanung, March 1940, BArch Berlin, series Reichsstelle für Raumordnung (R 113), 1586, 13.

101 Report on the special meeting of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft für Raumforschung, 13 April 1940, ibid., 27–28.

102 See also Bernhard, ‘Lebensraumwissenschaft’, 354–56.

103 Adolf Hitler, Monologe, 90.

104 Laak, ‘Ist je ein Reich’.

105 For the important role played by roads for the Fascists, see Baxa, Roads.

106 Macksey, Guderian, Panzer General, 72; Habeck, Storm of Steel.

107 Tischgespräche, 435.

108 Linne, ‘Weiße Arbeiterführer’, 396.

109 Zeller, Driving Germany, 48.

110 Akten der Reichskanzlei, vol. 1, 560.

111 Fuller, Moderns Abroad.

112 Fuller, ‘Oases of Ambiguity’.

113 Memo of the Colonial Office of the NSDAP regarding the creation of cultural centers in the colonies, 14 July 1942, BArch, NS 52, 42.

114 Kundrus, ‘Von Windhoek nach Nürnberg?’, 120–26.

115 Bernhard. ‘Konzertierte Gegnerbekämpfung’.

116 Confidential report of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt regarding the colonial intelligence service of Maraffa, the chief of the Italian colonial police, 23 March 1941, BArch, RSHA Film D, 750, fol. 70001–03.

117 Schreiber, ‘Die politische und militärische Entwicklung’, 258. Cf. the letter of Daluege, chief of the Ordnungspolizei, 13 Jan. 1942, Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv (BayHStA), Reichsstatthalter Epp, 362, 2.

118 See his notes on the meeting in Rome, 7 June 1939, 1, BArch, R 1001, 9714.

119 Dominioni, Lo sfascio dell imperio.

120 Guidelines for the colonial police ordinance, 30 April 1940, BArch, R 1001, 9759.

121 Hildebrand, Vom Reich zum Weltreich.

122 Kershaw, ‘Hitler’.

123 Wirsching, Vom Weltkrieg zum Bürgerkrieg?, 348–49.