March on Rome
The March on Rome ( Italian Marcia su Roma ) is understood to mean the seizure of power by Mussolini and the fascist movement he led in Italy in October 1922.
Prehistory: Italy 1919 to 1922
After the First World War , Italy was hit by a deep economic, political, and cultural-moral crisis. The country was one of the victorious powers in 1918, but the opinion soon prevailed that the Italian politicians had not adequately represented Italian interests at the peace conferences - the catchphrase of the vittoria mutilata , the "mutilated victory", that of the poet-soldier Gabriele D'Annunzio had shaped, spread. In addition, the agitation of the Third International made itself felt, which, spurred on by the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, propagated a revolutionary transformation of Europe. In the “ Biennio rosso ” (the two years of revolutionary agitation in Italy), numerous tenants and farm workers with their “leagues” and cooperatives rose up against the landowners ( agrari ), some of whom were forcibly expelled and de facto expropriated. From mid-1920 industrial workers began occupying factories and expropriating industrialists. The fascist movement, founded in 1919 but initially unsuccessful, opposed these approaches of a Bolshevik revolution and opposed the “Arditi del Popolo” of the socialists with their “ Fasci di combattimento ”. They expelled the occupiers using force and subsequently invaded the countryside, where they also expelled the occupiers and destroyed the organizations and institutions of the revolutionary workers' movement. Even socialist dominated local administrations were attacked. The government and the executive usually let the fascists have their way because they initially saw them only as allies to maintain order.
In 1921 and 1922 the fascist movement expanded both geographically and numerically and in 1922 it became the strongest mass movement of the liberal Italian state with over 300,000 members. Already at the end of 1921 Mussolini , who was becoming the undisputed head, the Duce , of fascism, had transformed the previously loosely held movement of local squadrons and Fasci di Combattimento into a party, the Partito Nazionale Fascista ("National Fascist Party", PNF) .
The failed general strike of July / August 1922, which the fascist troops in the big cities disbanded by force, can be regarded as the decisive defeat of the socialists, whose party split twice during this period. After this victory, the fascists demanded new elections and threatened a “march on Rome” if this request was not met. The king finally gave in to this urge.
On 1st / 2nd In October 1922 the fascists organized the march on Bozen , which was directed against the German ethnic group in South Tyrol . The inaction of the Italian security forces strengthened the fascists' conviction that in a coup there would be little resistance from democratic Italy. Historians see this as a dress rehearsal for the “March on Rome”.
March on Rome: 27.-31. October 1922
At several large events in September and October 1922, Mussolini gathered the forces of the squadrism and announced the "March on Rome" of his supporters in order to take over the Italian government by force if necessary. When it became increasingly clear that Mussolini would carry out his threat, voices of warning also rose. The Roman military commander Emanuele Pugliese, for example, urged Prime Minister Luigi Facta to declare a state of emergency, but the indecisive Facta refused. It was not until the night of October 27-28, shortly after midnight, when thousands were already getting ready to march and news of occupations of state institutions was arriving from the provinces, that Facta convened the cabinet.
On October 27, the fascist squadre began to occupy the local administrative buildings (prefectures and bursaries, i.e. police stations), transport hubs and barracks and tried to gain access to state arms stores. These attempts were only successful in some parts of northern Italy, especially in Veneto and Friuli ; In a large part of northern and central Italy, however, this military part of the "uprising" failed at the outset. In the south there was often no survey in the first place.
The facta government, which met permanently, decided during the night to declare a state of siege. The emergency decree, which was to enable the army to strike immediately against the fascists, was prepared, and Facta brought it to King Victor Emmanuel III the next morning . whose signature was necessary for the decree to enter into force.
Some of the king's conservative confidants, such as Antonio Salandra , the former Italian prime minister, had advised him not to sign - partly because they then hoped for the resignation of the unpopular liberal facta, partly because they believed that they would hold high offices in a coalition with the fascists to obtain. They took the view that the fascists were outnumbered by the army, that Milan was already in their hands and that Rome could no longer be held, that there would only be unnecessary bloodshed if the decree was signed. When Vittorio Emanuele asked Marshal Armando Diaz , Commander in Chief of the Italian Army in 1917/18, about the reliability of the Army, the latter replied: “Your Majesty, the Army will do its duty, but it would be better not to put it to the test. "
Vittorio Emanuele then refused to sign the decree on the morning of October 28, 1922. The reasons for this sudden decision are still controversial today. The king certainly did not want to risk a civil war, but the fear of usurping his cousin, the Duke of Aosta , known as a sympathizer of the fascists , may have played a role. Facta then resigned and proposed Salandra as the new head of government. After this failed attempt, Salandra herself persuaded the king to appoint Mussolini as the new prime minister. Vittorio Emanuele III. then ordered Mussolini from Milan to Rome on the evening of October 29th.
The "Duce" of the fascist movement boarded a night train from Milan to Rome that same evening and arrived at Roma Termini station on the morning of October 30, 1922 . He then went first to the hotel and then in the black shirt, the squadist uniform, to the king, to whom he is said to have addressed the words first: "Your Majesty, I have come from the battlefield", which would not have been entirely true to the facts. The "battlefield" were the fields a few dozen kilometers from the gates of Rome, softened by the autumn rain, on which several tens of thousands of fascists had now arrived in three large groups. Contemporary figures vary between 50,000 and more than 70,000, and in the end it is likely that between 40,000 and 50,000 men arrived near the capital on foot or in special trains that were partially hijacked.
After Mussolini's appointment as head of government, he gave the instruction to set the fascist associations on the march, which then held a parade on October 31, 1922 in Rome. Then - as in the previous days - there were attacks on socialist and communist press offices and acts of violence against their supporters.
Consequences and Effects
The fascists had seized the opportunity and, by appearing accordingly, gave the impression of extreme determination, which was perhaps justified, but would hardly have withstood resolute intervention by the army due to the poor equipment of the squadrists.
In the following years, especially from 1925 onwards, the fascists established a totalitarian dictatorship with Mussolini at its head . The “National Fascist Party” ( Partito Nazionale Fascista , founded in November 1921) became a unity party, newspapers critical of the regime were banned, and opponents of the fascists were persecuted with the repressive measures of an expanded police state .
Soon after 1922, Adolf Hitler , leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP), saw Mussolini as a role model and planned a "March on Berlin" that would bring him to power. However, the coup known as the " Hitler putsch " failed in its beginnings, namely in Munich with the march to the Munich Feldherrnhalle on November 9, 1923. Hitler then abandoned the strategy of violent conquest of power and began the legal rise of his after the re-establishment of the NSDAP Movement that finally led to success with his appointment as Chancellor on January 30, 1933 .
Fascism, which was founded and shaped by Mussolini, quickly became a model throughout Europe; Italy quickly advanced to become the model of fascist rule and the “center of gravity” (Hans Woller) of those movements in Europe that invoked the example of Italian fascism, but were themselves unable to conquer power.
See also
literature
Fascist representations:
- Italo Balbo: The March on Rome. Diary of the 1922 revolution . With a foreword from Prime Minister Hermann Göring . Leipzig undated [1933].
- Giorgio Alberto Chiurco: Storia della Rivoluzione fascista . 5 volumes. Firenze 1929.
- Roberto Farinacci: Storia della Rivoluzione fascista . 3 volumes. Cremona 1939.
Scientific works:
- Roger Eatwell: Fascism. A history . New York et al. a. 1995.
- Mario Isnenghi: La marcia su Roma. In: ders. (Ed.): I luoghi della memoria . Volume III: Strutture ed eventi dell'Italia unita . Roma / Bari 1997, pp. 311–329.
- Emilio Lussu : March on Rome and the surrounding area. Europaverlag, Vienna / Zurich 1991
- Adrian Lyttelton: The seizure of power. Fascism in Italy 1919–1929 . London 1973.
- Antonino Répaci: La Marcia su Roma. Nuova edizione riveduta e accresciuta con altri documenti inediti . Milano 1972.
- Angelo Tasca: Believe, Fight, Obey. Rise of Fascism in Italy. Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-900478-12-0 .
- Hans-Ulrich Thamer : The March on Rome - a model for the National Socialist seizure of power . In: Wolfgang Michalka (Hrsg.): The National Socialist seizure of power . Paderborn u. a. 1984, pp. 245-260. (= Uni-Taschenbücher, 1329)
- Hans Woller : Rome, October 28, 1922. The fascist challenge . Munich 1999.