German Nazism was inspired and was a follower of the Italian fascism that preceded it. This was the case in ideology, politic, personality and military.
Ideologically, the poet and philosopher Gabriel D'Ancio wrote the constitutional platform adopted by Benito Mussolini. Thomaso Marinetti and the Futurism movement he founded created the fascist subculture that advocated youth, violence, speed, and aviation, whose Nazi counterpart was similar. Giulio Douhet wrote the military theory that advocated relentless bombing of population centers in order to reach a quick decision in the war, which the Nazis adopted.
Politically the Nazi regime was an almost reflection of the Italian fascist regime because of its centralization, reliance on conservative capitalists, recruitment of the population to the needs of the state, aggressive colonialist policies and more. Hitler resembled Mussolini in personality and behavioral characteristics. Both were glorified by their propaganda mechanisms to the rank of almighty leader. Italy also had Italo Balbo, a colorful and enthusiastic air marshal who, like Herman Goering, developed the Air Force into a leading international force.
Like Germany, Italy also used the airplanes it developed and manufactured to create air control that would decide the battle quickly and with relentless force, initially in the colonies it had occupied in Africa and later as a key component in its military might. As in Germany, there was a very considerable gap between planning and reality, which led to the defeat in World War II.
The famous playwright Gabriel D'Ancio, the father of modern Italian plays writing and the father of fascism too, was an avid aviation enthusiast. In World War I he volunteered to be a fighter pilot, a move that made him even more famous. The war strengthened his extremist nationalist views and he publicly demanded Italy's return to a first-class status. In September 1919, because he was furious about the agreement at the Paris Conference to return the port city of Fioma to Serbia, he entered it as the head of two thousand armed militia volunteers and expelled the multinational force stationed there.
The complex ritual system of fascism was formulated by D'Anoncio in Fioma, in which he declared himself a dictator bearing the title of "Duche". It included the balcony speeches of the ruler, who conducted a dramatic and rhetorical dialogue with the disciplined crowd, who responded to him with a fascist salute and organized cheers, combined with street parades and mass demonstrations, using religious symbols in a new secular setting.
On a more practical level, D'Anonzio's "gospel" included the dictatorship government, centralized economy, violent militia, strong hand international policy and immediate response, assassination of political opponents and widespread use of propaganda and political deception. D'Anonzio was a source of inspiration to Mussolini and is known as "the father of Italian fascism" both ideologically and practically.
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that arose in Italy in the early 20th century. It was predominantly Italian, but there were parallel movements in Russia, England and many other countries. D'Anoncio's character inspired it in the beginning. Futurism appealed to the emotions of modern man and his experience in the advanced and rapid means of production, communication and transportation, from the airplane to the telephone, from cinema to fast food. These are expressions of progress that change everyday life and in this way change the artist's mode of expression.
The founder of Futurism and the most prominent figure in it was the Italian writer Filippo Thomaso Marinetti. Marinetti founded the movement with the writing of the "Futurist Manifesto" in 1905. He was soon joined by young Italian artists. Marinetti expressed intense disgust for everything that was old and especially for the political and artistic tradition. Futurists adored speed, technology, youth, and violence. They loved the car, the airplane and the industrial city. All of these represented for them the victory of human technology over nature. They were equally ardent nationalists. They denied the culture of the past and any culture of imitation and praised originality for its sake, even if it was bold and violent.
Marinetti founded, as early as 1918, a Futurist party which only one year later merged with Benito Mussolini's party, making Marinetti one of its first supporters and members. In 1919 he participated in the essay "The Fascist Manifesto", which was the original manifesto of the Italian fascist movement.
Futurists have created in many fields of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, theater, cinema, fashion, literature, music, architecture and gastronomy. Futurists distinguished themselves from the rest of modern art styles by virtue of the desire that influenced their works. They argued that art needs drama, movement and the clash of psychic forces, similar to what happens in nature.
There were many parallel lines between Nazism and Futurism: love of the future and youth, love of modernization, technology, violence, nationalism, war and more. Like the Nazis, Futurists often engaged in technology in general and military technology in particular.
Therefore the practice of aviation gradually became central to the movement, as flight became accessible to more people. The airplane became a major actor in the futuristic drama. Aerial painting is considered the pinnacle of futurism and is typical of the last stage of the movement's development, in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Giulio Douhet [1865-1930] was an Italian general and theorist of air power. He was a key supporter of the bombing strategy from the air as a crucial factor in the war. In 1911, Italy went to war against the Ottoman Empire for control of Libya. In this war the first aerial bombardment in history was carried out on November 1, 1911 by an Italian pilot. Although it was a seemingly marginal war, it was a significant factor in the outbreak of World War I, as the Balkan peoples saw how the Ottoman Empire, which was Italy's enemy in this war, could be easily defeated. Douhet wrote a report on the aviation lessons learned from this war. He recommended high-altitude bombing as the main function of the miliary airplane.
With the outbreak of World War I, Douhet called on the Italian government to begin building significant military air power. He said that: "Air control means making the enemy helpless''. He proposed building a force of 600 bombers that would be capable of dropping 125 tons of bombs every day, but the decision-makers in Italy ignored him. Douhet continued to write about air power, finished novel on the subject and sent memos to government ministers about a huge fleet of airplanes. In 1921 he completed a research paper called "Air Control", which had a huge impact on aerial bombardment theory.
Douhet stated in this essay that aerial power is a revolution, since it operates in the third dimension. Aircraft are capable of flying above the surface, thereby lowering the importance of ground forces to a secondary degree. The vast sky make protection from airplanes almost impossible. For this reason the attack is the epitome of air power. The only good defense is the offense. An air force capable of gaining control of the air through a preemptive strike by the enemy's air force and destroying it, will then decide the entire fate of the enemy state through constant bombardment.
Douhet believed in the moral effects of the aerial bombardment. Air power is capable of breaking the will power of the citizens, through the destruction of the vital centers of the country. Land and sea armies become redundant as the airplane can fly over them and attack vital government, military and industrial centers without being hit.
In 1920 Benito Mussolini took flight lessons. He survived a crash after 18 hours of solo flights. In 1922 he came to power in Italy, after his loyalists marched to Rome. Mussolini soon placed aviation at the top of his regime's priorities. He preached for the construction of a modern air force, hosted air demonstrations and record-breaking flights and promoted the production of advanced airplanes. His aviation minister Italo Balbo, led Italian aviation to international status after leading, in early 1933, a squadron of 25 naval airplanes on a transatlantic flight from Italy to the United States. Mussolini's two sons were bombers pilots, who took part in operational activities throughout the wars of fascist Italy.
