-Caveat Lector-
Fateful Bonds: The Secret Italo-German
Committee on Racial Questions
by Aaron Gillette
This discussion will explore the similarities and
differences between the Italian and German forms of racism as
elucidated during the first meeting of the secret Italo-German
Committee on Racial Questions, held in Germany in December 1938.
The committee met under the auspices of the National Socialist
Office of Racial Politics and the Italian Office for the Study
of Race. The committee was formed in an attempt to mitigate
tensions between Italy and Germany over racial ideology. Some of
the most important representatives of Italian and German racial
policies were involved with this meeting, including Walter Gross,
Alfred Rosenberg, Heinrich Himmler, and Rudolf Hess. The Italian
representatives were given a tour of the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp and received the German Red Cross for
scientific merit from Hitler. Dr. Guido Landra, the author of a
report on the racial committee, concluded from the meeting that
German racism was veering toward biological determinism due to
the influence of Italian racial ideology. Nevertheless, the two
countries would continue to evince radically different racial
ideologies (a fact as yet largely unappreciated by scholars)
which influenced Mussolini's decision not to aid Germany in its
Final Solution.
Many historians have long assumed that Italian racism, as
adopted by the fascist party in July 1938, was a sign of the
extensive degree to which Mussolini had fallen under the aegis of
Nazi Germany. Indeed, Mussolini had been impressed with the
displays of German military might that he had witnessed during
his visit to Berlin in 1937? It was not long after ? that the
Italian army was forced to adopt the goose step, rebaptised the
"passo romano;" in 1939 ?, Mussolini agreed to an aggressive
military alliance with Hitler that has since become known as the
axis? Thus, it seems only natural to assume that the
anti-Semitic laws and the decrees announcing the existence of the
Aryan Italian race were directly inspired by Nazi models. But
such an assumption would be entirely misleading. This paper will
focus on one important event in particular that highlighted the
often antagonistic relationship between German and Italian
racism: the first meeting of the Italo-German Committee on Racial
issues, held in Germany in December 1938.
It is my contention (which unfortunately cannot be developed
here), that Mussolini adopted racism for entirely domestic
reasons. I believe that he sought to create a set of racist
myths that would allow him to accelerate the creation of the "new
fascist man," one of the as yet unfulfilled core projects of
fascism.
In this use of myth Mussolini was strongly influenced by the
writings of the French political philosopher Georges Sorel.
Sorel believed that myths were the surest means for a leader to
stir up the passions and direct the energy of the masses. These
myths had to be simple, easy to grasp, and connected to the lives
of the people. In the irrational minds of the masses, these
myths could have the force of reality, and lead them to a degree
of committment and willingness to sacrifice themselves for the
sake of the group that would otherwise be unimaginable. Mussolini
decided to elevate anti-Semitism and Italian racial identity to
the status of Sorelian myths. Through them, he hoped to unify
the Italian people and develop in them a new fascist and racist
identity. The Jews were set up as the foil against which the
"good" Italian would be formed.
Mussolini never permanently settled on a racial model for
the gentile Italian. In 1938, still enthralled by the seeming
invincibility of German martial ardor, Mussolini decided to model
the new Italian after his German allies. The modern Germans,
Mussolini believed, retained the tough, steely discipline and
warrior spirit of the Italians' own ancestors, the Romans. The
German or Nordic model, precarious to begin with, would give way
to a more nativist, Mediterranean racial identity some months
later, by February 1938. Even during the "pro-Nordic" phase of
Italian racial identity, from June 1938 to February 1939, the
Italians were acutely conscious of German refusal to take
the new Italian racial identity seriously. Though both sides
sought cooperation on racial issues, German disdain for their
Italian partners, rooted in centuries of anti-Italian
sentiments, continued to resurface.
Most significant in this regard was Dr. Rudolf Frerks' visit
to Rome in October 1938. Frercks was Vice-Director of the Office
of Racial Politics of the Nazi Party (Rassenpolitisches Amt der
NSDAP). Frercks met informally with a number of the leading
government officials who oversaw racial policies, including Dr.
Guido Landra, Head of the Office of Racial Studies at the
Ministry of Popular Culture, and the Minister of Popular Culture,
Dino Alfieri. Frercks suggested to Alfieri that further
Italo-German cooperation in racial issues was warranted. In
fact, such contacts had been approved by Mussolini. But Landra
in his discussions with Frercks made it quite obvious that such
talks could only be conducted with the understanding that Italian
racism was absolutely independent of the German variety. As
evidence of this, Landra reminded Frercks that the Roman heritage
of the Italian race, not anti-Semitism, was the cornerstone of
Italian racial policy. The Italians were also upset over
continued German allegations that "Negro blood" was present in
the southern and central Italians. Such lingering racial slights
had to cease between the two nations, Landra remarked. On the
positive side, Landra was looking forward to more Italian racial
scholars studying in Germany, and the possibility that an
Italo-German Academy of Racial Science could eventually be
established.(1)
Landra was instrumental in setting up a forum to realize
these aspirations, in the form of a secret "Italo-German
Committee on Racial Questions."(2) This committee, which met in
Germany from December 13 to 21, 1938, was quite limited in size:
Landra and his Vice-Director Lino Businco represented Italy,
while the German delegation was composed of Dr. Walter Gross,
Head of the Office of Racial Politics of the NSDP, and his
Vice-Director Dr. Frercks. The purpose of this first meeting was
ostensibly "to commence a preliminary examination of the
opportune means to avoid in the respective racial propaganda
those arguments that could harm the amicable spirit between the
two Peoples."
As the declaration above suggests, Mussolini's own white-hot
racial Germanophilia was probably cooling, perhaps as a result of
adverse popular pressure in Italy. Landra, obviously on
instructions from his superiors, took every opportunity to remind
his hosts of the necessity of eliminating from their media the
idea that certain Italian racial elements were not Aryan
(probably referring to the Mediterranean Italians of the south).
He also expressed disgust over some German interpretations of the
Italian Renaissance. (Here Landra is probably referring to
Ludwig Woltmann's book "Die Germanen und die Renaissance in
Italien," which claims that almost all of the Italian Renaissance
notables were Nordic). Nor did the Italian delegates neglect to
criticize German attacks against the concept of Romanita (the
presence in Italian culture of Roman values) and the Catholic
religion. On all of these complaints, the Germans showed
"understanding," almost "compliance." They claimed that such
misconceptions were actually based on a faulty interpretation of
Italian works, perhaps referring to the Italian anthropologist
Giuseppe Sergi's claim that the Mediterranean race originated in
Africa.
Besides addressing these complaints, the Germans were
determined to impress Landra and Businco with the extent and
sophistication of their racial operations. The delegates met
with various representatives of the Nazi elite, including
Heinrich Himmler, Rudolf Hess, the racial theorist Alfred
Rosenberg, and Gunter d'Alquen, director of the Black Corps. The
delegates visited the School of Racial Politics in Babelsberg;
saw the exhibition "Der ewige Jude" in Berlin; attended the
inaugural ceremony of a local Office of Racial Politics in
Reichenberg, Sudetenland; called on the Dresden and Berlin Office
of Racial Politics; examined the concentration camp of
Sachsenhausen near Berlin; and concluded their visit with a short
trip to Munich.
During this visit, Landra showed a strong curiosity about
the radical change then taking place in German racial theory. As
he wrote several days later in his official report: "The
National-Socialist regime did not delay in directly establishing
the uselessness and, under some aspects, the danger, of
entrusting the racial question to theoretical men who conceive of
their charge only as the sterile profession of rash theorists
and, at least, debatable [theories]." Thus the Nazis
circumvented theorists such as Alfred Rosenberg through the
institution of the Office of Racial Politics, which had since
re-directed German racism to more practical, "concrete and very
precise notions." As a consequence of this volte face, the
Office of Racial Politics decided to address the unpopularity of
the Nazi party's emphasis on Nordicism as the most prominent
aspect of German racism, especially among the Austrians and
Sudetenlanders. In its place, the Office substituted a
glorification of the "German race," the product of "a thousand
year process of biological and spiritual fusion." This dramatic
change in policy Landra attributed to his own mentor, Dr. Eugen
Fischer, "the greatest anthropologist in the world."
Landra implied that this change in German racial policies
was inspired by the Italian example. "In essence one could say
that the racial politics of the Reich, after years of experience,
is today reaching as a point of arrival a doctrinal position that
for Italy has been instead an original point of departure" he
wrote. Because of this, Landra surmised, the Office of Racial
Politics probably "counts on Italian influence and support to
better concentrate in its hands control over racial politics and
to definitively liberate itself from the influence of those that
were the first spokesmen of German racism."
These "first spokesmen" were represented in the figure of
Alfred Rosenberg. Landra reported that Rosenberg looked to be
"an ailing and weak person effected by a profound melancholy,"
almost an allegory for the current state of Rosenberg's racial
theories in Germany, at least from Landra's perspective.
Rosenberg's spiritualistic, anti-Catholic and anti-Roman racism
was a model for the Italian Nordicist Giulio Cogni but was
strongly resented by Landra and many other Italians. Feeling
which way the wind was blowing, Rosenberg tried to claim that he
had always believed that the Catholic Church in Italy was not an
Asiatic import, but the Italian national religion. He had never
intended to attack the religion of Italy, he told Landra, nor the
concept of Romanità, but only the international Church
which devoted its attention to political matters. Still he saw
fit to advise Landra that the racial question in Italy should not
restrict itself simply to a biological vision, but should also
elevate itself to a vision of ideal spirituality. Landra
coolly retorted that "since the beginning the Italian racial
movement contemplated at once the biological and spiritual
aspects of the problem." Not surprisingly, Rosenberg was
"deeply saddened" to see "already in the official direction of
German racism the first signs of Italian influence," Landra
noted.
Whereas the Office of Racial Politics, under the ultimate
supervision of Rudolf Hess, was moving in a more biological and
scientific direction, according to Landra, Himmler's operation
was drifting in the opposite direction, toward racial
spiritualism. Himmler informed Landra that the S.S. no longer
laid as much stress on choosing men of a particular
anthropological type, but now selected them increasingly for
their spiritual attributes. "Now it depends not so much on the
color of their hair or a given cephalic index," Landra explained,
"but rather if they have the psychological quality belonging to
the ideal and heroic model of the German race."
At the conclusion of the visit, Gross and Landra developed a
series of modest proposals meant to give the meeting some
substance. They endorsed Landra's earlier idea of an
"Italo-German Society or Academy for Racial Studies" which could
facilitate mutual understanding and "increasingly inspire a
greater respect [for racism] precisely in those intellectual
classes that in Germany as well as in Italy are the most
resistant to accept the new ideas." In addition, the Academy
could supervise scientific work and popular publications on race
with an eye to eliminating any themes that could lead to conflict
between the two countries.
Related to the above proposal, Landra and Gross suggested
that the German and Italian racial offices formally consult their
opposite number before allowing publications from the other
country to be translated. This would "avoid the translation and
the diffusion of books that do not respect or at least do not
come close to the orthodox thought of the politics of the two
countries."
Given the quasi-academic nature of the German and Italian
Racial Offices, it is not surprising that the Committee included
among its proposals a suggestion to increase the exchange of
university students interested in racial studies. Germans could
study colonial questions at Italian "Institutes and Museums
already strongly committed to this goal" whereas Italian students
could profit from German expertise on eugenic and hereditary
questions.
The Committee also proposed a basic exchange of data,
consisting of "statistics, photographs, and news of racial
propaganda with reference to the current important problems."
Such an exchange, Landra promised, would enable Italy to justify
its "natural aspirations" to German people, through "the far
reaching German racial organizations."
The final proposal hammered home the original purpose of
Landra's visit by declaring "the necessity of producing a
concrete study that fixes in an accord the themes which must be
avoided in the racial field that would otherwise have unpleasant
consequences for the amicable feelings between the two Peoples."
In line with a meeting that was more style than substance,
Adolf Hitler himself awarded Landra the Order of the German Red
Cross first class, and Businco the same decoration second class,
thus symbolizing the Furher's appreciation for the work the
Italians had done in spreading the gospel of racism. Before
Landra left Germany, he agreed with Hess that the next meeting of
the Italo-German Committee would occur in Italy in the middle of
February, 1939. Though both governments approved the accords
reached in this meeting, the second was destined never to take
place.(3)
On February 15, less than a month after his triumphant visit
to Germany, Landra was removed from the direction of the Racial
Office and replaced by Sabato Visco, a committed Mediterraneanist
and one of Landra's opponents. Landra was allowed to stay on at
the Office only as a technical consultant.(4) Several years
later Landra would complain that he was never told why he had
been removed from his post.(5) We might surmise, however, that
his dismissal was a product of Mussolini's growing alienation
from any hint of reliance on German racial models, or the
"Nordic-Aryan" orientation of Italian racism once so proudly
declared by the Ministry of Popular Culture.(6) Landra's close
connection to Eugen Fischer, and the zeal he had shown in
establishing formal links with the Germans in matters of racial
policy, probably compromised Landra too much in Mussolini's eyes
to allow him to remain as head of the Racial Office. His
replacement by the well-respected Mediterraneanist Sabato Visco
was probably meant to quiet those who objected to the racial
alliance with Germany. It is also suggestive that when Landra
spoke on "The Scientific and Political Problem of Race in Italy"
at the University of Berlin only little more than a week after he
was demoted, his speech was noteworthy because of its
denunciation of the concept of Nordic superiority and its
assertion that the Italians were no less a superior race than
were the Germans.(7)
Thus we see that even during their most collegial phase,
Italian and German racism had irreconcilable differences. The
Italians never asserted as virulent an anti-Semitism as did their
Nazi allies. Furthermore, the fascist ideology concerning the
racial identity of the Italians was more oriented toward ancient
Roman and native Italian models than it was the Aryan and Nordic
ideals evinced by the Germans. These differences were further
exacerbated by important anti-Nordic ideologues in Italy's
government and intelligentsia. This faction would attempt to
sabotage any further attempts to reconcile Italian and German
racism. Indeed, the fierce polemics that swirled around the
Italian concepts of race would help to turn Italian fascists
against one another, and so aid in the collapse of the fascist
regime in July, 1943.
NOTES:
(1) Michaelis, "Mussolini and the Jews, pp. 176-179.
(2) Landra Papers, MCP, Ufficio Razza, "Attivita' del prof.
Guido Landra presso il Ministero della Cultura Popolare."
(3) The above account is based on Landra Papers, MCP,
Gabinetto, Ufficio Razza, Guido Landra, "Appunto per S.E. il
Ministero," Roma, 31 dicembre 1938/XVII, "Prima riunione del
comitato Italo-Tedesco per le questioni razziali, relazione:
Berlino-Monaco, 13-21 dicembre 1938/XVII."
(4)Landra Papers, MCP, Ufficio Razza, Memorandum, Sabato Visco,
16 April 1940.
(5) ACS, SPD (CO) 183.506, "Dott. Guido Landra," letter, Guido
Landra to Benito Mussolini, 27 September 27 1940.
(6) For other evidence of Mussolini's shifting racist
allegiances, see Raspanti, "I razzismi del fascismo," p. 78.
(7) Michaelis, "Mussolini and the Jews," p. 220; Landra Papers,
letter, Hellmuth Schwarz to Guido Landra, 25 March 25 1939
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