ADOLF HITLER IN ROME: MAY 1938
ADOLF HITLER IN ROME: MAY 1938

HITLER VISITS VENICE, ITALY: 1934

The neoteric historiography of World War II pays surprisingly modest attention to the first face-to-face acquaintance between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini back in June 1934. The German associate companion had been chancellor and almost the ultimate ruler in Germany for almost one and half a years before this historical meeting. Hitler was in a position to wait for the death of President Hindenburg for no more than two months. Mussolini, in his turn, was in wait to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the so-called ‘March on Rome’ (28-29 October 1922), yet he was still formally only the second most powerful man in Italy, next after King Victor Emmanuel III. At the very days, when two nominal rulers of Germany and Italy, 86-year-old Paul Von Hindenburg and 64-year-old Victor Emmanuel retrospectively, were spending their vale of years within the residences, Adolf Hitler appreciated the invitation of the Italian part to cross the Alps with the official visit to Italy.

The upcoming journey to Venice, Italy was destined not only to commemorate the personal knowledge of the leader of the Italian fascists (back in the times of the ‘Munich beer hall period’ Hitler had been repeatedly associated with Mussolini, as no less than his German reincarnation) but generally Hitler’s first visit abroad as the German chancellor. His first abroading after the WW1 service. In an extended sense, the upcoming meeting could be hardly appreciated as a state visit as neither Hitler nor Mussolini was the head of the state. Along with that, the German leader had a vision of taking international affairs of the highest importance into his own hands, thus cultivating his image as the ‘Fuhrer’. The ‘Venice encounter’ was not to be revealed to the public beforehand, still, the Italians provided a means to the opposite and on June 11, 1934, three days before the event, the international press was fueled to enlighten the news. 

HITLER VISITS VENICE 1934. hitler in italy
Hitler’s and Mussolini’s first encounter in Venice in 1934

Hitler’s aircraft, Ju-52 (one of the most reliable planes of its time, operated since 1932) with the D-2600 number on board and codenamed ‘Immelmann II’, under the unchanged supervision of his pilot Hans Baur, landed on June 14, 1934, on the SAN NICOLO airfield of the long-drawn Lido island, to the South of the main Venice archipelago. Hitler’s plane was accompanied by another two Ju 52 that brought the delegation mainly originating from the Foreign Ministry. Hans Baur, who piloted the plane from the Oberwiesenfeld airfield in Munich that day, was not a stranger to the place due to his job as a pilot on the regular service between Munich and Rome back in the 1920s. It stands to mention, that Hitler had chosen the plane not so much to show his devotion to modern transport (including the well-known election campaign back in 1932). In 1939 Hauns Baur would accompany his Fuhrer to Warsaw and in 1940 to Paris as well. Indeed, the unstable situation within Austria deprived the German leader of the possibility of crossing the country by train, a formality that would be eliminated in 1938 after the Anschluss of Austria. Over and above, the Italians informally indicated their hope, that the semi-revolutionary Nazi movement in Austria would not lead the acts of provocation during Hitler’s visit to Italy. The security measures in Venice were additionally enforced upon the rumors of the assassination attempt, still, Hitler would be accompanied by some SS safeguards and police detectives, another unobvious means of the tension between the future AXIS. 

It is worth mentioning, that Hitler had previously failed to get an invitation to visit Rome from Mussolini in 1933, soon after his ‘rise to power’ in Germany. Venice at that time was chosen not so much to the specific historical background (except for a Vegetarian image as the ‘supervisor’ over the whole Mediterranean, a sweet spot of the Fascist’s image for Duce) as to a city in northern Italy, a ‘middle point’ between Berlin and Rome. Relatedly, it was Italy to witnessed the first encounter between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, a semi-taboo means to accent Duce’s supremacy as a senior partner. In this vein, the ‘parity’ between two leaders was destined to fail long before the event itself. Nevertheless, Mussolini was ready to take the greatest advantage of the place as the event was his minute of glory in visiting Venice and consolidating the power of his party. For another thing, Hitler’s visit became a means to boost German tourism to the southern neighbor.

Adolf Hitler in Venice 1934
Hitler, dressed in his trench coat, awkwardly climbs into a boat on his way to meet Mussolini 
A modern panoramic view over the St Mark's Campanile
A modern panoramic view over the St Mark’s Campanile and Doge’s Palace

The numerous memoirs and quotations of the participants of that historical visit would later (predominantly after the Second World War) form the general perspective, that Hitler had the look of no more than a junior partner or even a subordinate during his first visit to Italy. His constrained movements, as a contrasting counter to Mussolini’s actor mastery, were not gone noticed either by his entourage, including Konstantin von Neurath (Foreign Minister), Heinrich Hoffmann  (Hitler’s photographer), Hans Baur (pilot), or by Italians. Before the visit, several German officials from the Foreign Ministry were excluded from the delegation agenda due to their forewarnings. Although Hitler would not later appreciate the talks about that 1934 visit to Italy, it was obvious that he had experienced a lack of confidence wearing his open-cut coat on his wool suit. Hitler took the consequences of Mussolini’s fascist greeting and a firm grip with his constrained version of the Nazi saluting. The arising events can be characterized as pretty much in contrast with Hitler’s own words on his committal to ‘face-to-face diplomacy’ he had shared with an American journalist back in April. 

HITLER's VISIT to VENICE 1934
While Hitler looked like a civil servant in his coat, Mussolini did his best to create an impression of a state and army leader

In those days Hitler was concerned with the conflict with Ernst Rohm (it was only two weeks before the ‘Knight of the long knives’) and his political agenda was restricted to the issue of the future drawing together Germany and Austria. It was well in advance knowing that the Italian ruler had his emotional attitude to this delicate issue. Once rejecting the professional mastery of the interpreters, Mussolini was now dependent on his creaky German, which would only limit the chances to elaborate on a mutual compromise position within the hours-long one-on-one conversations. Mussolini would later express his dismissive and lordly attitude to the German chancellor, calling him a ‘rude under-philosopher. Hitler spent another two days in Italy before his back flight to Germany on June 16, 1934.

ADolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Venice 1934
Hitler and Mussolini during their work without professional interpreters

He was taken to some historical landmarks of the ‘Mediterranean Pearl’ (Venice), including staying in ‘The Grand Hotel’,  a boat ride across the legendary Grand-Canal, next to Mussolini, visiting ‘Biennale’ (famous art exhibition), the golf club within the Lido island, Basilica of San Marco, and Doge’s Palace. The culmination of that visit with good reasons attributed to the military parade, a show that Mussolini used to make an impression on his German guest within the San Marco main square. Ignoring the fact that up to 70,000 civilians and army men marched in front of the grandstone, Hitler would show interest in his adjutant’s opinion (Fritz Wiedemann) on the indeed military power of Italy. The German fuhrer would receive a biting point of criticism, that parading and making wars are not the same thing. In his memoirs, Hans Baur would later recall that Hitler had not a word on their flight back to Germany. ‘Völkischer Beobachter’ newspaper would later issue an article, covering in detail the semi-mythical flight over the ‘cloud’ South Tyrol, Mussolini’s journey to Venice, and the sugared details of the encounter itself. 

HITLER VISITS VENICE 1934 and MUSSOLINI
Hitler was taken to the rostrum as a listener, San Marco Square. St Mark’s Campanile is in the background
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Venice 1934
Mussolini masterminded the whole event to look dominant next to Hitler
Mussolini and Hitler pictured together during their first meeting in Venice
Another rare photograph of Mussolini and Hitler pictured together at San Marco Square
St Mark's Campanile Venice
I visited Venice in August 2018. St Mark’s Campanile is to the right

 

MUSSOLINI’S VISIT TO GERMANY: 1937

At the forefront of the 10 a.m. on September 25, 1937, the personal train of Benito Mussolini was to finally approach the HAUPTBAHNHOF main train station in Munich, a travel epilogue of a two days-long journey from Rome. The German press would later underline that after two days of heavy rain, the sky over the Third Reich welcomed the guest. Adolf Hitler, this time in the position of a landlord and a host of a quite different Germany (that it had been back in June 1934), was here on the railway platform (according to a tradition, he came the last) with his close entourage on a crouch start to welcome Benito Mussolini. Within the next few hours, two supreme rulers motorcared their way along the streets of Munich, ornamented with both Nazi and Fascist symbolics of the two regimes, greeted with a shout of triumph by hundreds of thousands of people from almost every corner of the state. Shortly after the Italian retinue was accommodated within a local palace, Hitler brought Mussolini to his Munich apartment at Prinzregentenplatz in the Bogenhausen, a former bohemian district. For this once, the Italian dictator was pleased to use the services of the professional interpreter on the German side and his politically intimate dialogue with Hitler was now far more constructive in contrast with the previous hard talkings in Venice in 1934. They spent Apr. one hour with tea and cakes. 

MUSSOLINI VISITS GERMANY 1937 MUNICH
Hitler, now also in a uniform, and Mussolini review the German units at the main train station in Munich

Hitler hungered to have his revenge for the far from a brilliant visit to Venice in 1934 and his poor performance as a German leader and now he was ready to impress Mussolini with the resurrected military power of his army. No later than this very day of September 25, the Duce was invited to attend a grandiose military parade in the heart streets of Munich. The key event of the agenda was attributed to the laying of floral tributes to the ‘EHRENTEMPEL’ memorial, the Nazi pompous monument, and a semi-sacral sarcophagus with columns 7-meter-high devoted to the 16 NSDAP followers, who had died during the so-called ‘Beer Hall Putsch’ in 1923. During the period of the next two days, the rulers of Germany and Italy performed a scheduled journey across the Third Reich, for example, overseeing Wehrmacht military parades in Mecklenburg and Pomerania and visiting the Krupp factory near Essen, as well as traveling across the Essen streets in an open car, greeted by thousands of the citizens and comers. It is worth mentioning, that some of the Italian high officers among Duce’s entourage, indeed fought against the Germans in the Great War two decades before. 

MUSSOLINI VISITS GERMANY 1937
This time, three years after Venice, Hitler staged himself to be at least equal to Duce

On September 27 two special trains, one for Hitler and one for Mussolini respectively entered Berlin (on the way from Essen) according to the advanced scenario. The German capital was massively decorated and converted for the nonce of Duce’s visit. All key city landmarks were forwardly ornamented with the symbols of two regimes and some pylons and flagstaffs had been erected to demonstrate banners. In summation, more than 1 million Berliners and guests of the capital came out to the streets to welcome the two VIPs. The following day was also scheduled to commemorate the Italian political boss, Years from that day on September 28, 1937, the historiography would attribute Mussolini’s speech to his still weak German, in the pouring rain at the Olympic stadium (the very same arena, which had accepted the 1936 Olympic Games) as a culmination of the whole visit with the audience of 65 000 people.

Finally making his last steps on the railway platform of the Berlin station on September 29, soon after another military parade, Mussolini was delighted with all the arrangements of his visit, as well Hitler was gratified with the events of the past days. In contrast with the pomposity of all the occurrences, Mussolini and Hitler did not take advantage of these five days together in an issue of Austria. Nevertheless, six months later Germany annexed its neighbor with the approval of Italy and Duce’s sympathy. Hitler would take his gratitude to Mussolini and a kind of personal loyalty through the years up to the ‘Fall of the Gods’ (a well-known euphemism, attributed to the fall of the two regimes) in 1945. 

MUSSOLINI IN GERMANY 1937
The two dictators review the army parade

 

THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE SPRING OF 1938

The four years, which draw a line between Hitler’s 1934 and 1938 visits to Italy, had witnessed several political and military occasions, which were destined to plunge millions of people into a new World War. With the non-precedential ignorance of the clauses of the Versailles Treaty, Hitler initiated a large-scale rearmament program of reshaping the strength of the German army which was now free of the humiliating (due to the Nazi logic) restrictions of the past war. On June 18, 1935, Germany and England signed an ‘Anglo-German Naval Agreement’, establishing new quotas applicable to the size of the German fleet in correspondence with the English one. Early the same year (January 1935) the plebiscite within the Saar region (Saarbeckengebiet) encapsulated its affiliation to the Third Reich. No later than March 7, 1936, the German armed forces invaded the demilitarized Rhineland, that way effectively defying the basics of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which aimed not to allow any new European wars. Two months from that day, Mussolini made his pompous speech on the triumph of the Italian forces in Abyssinia as well as on the restitution of the Roman Empire. On October 25 of the same year, Germany and Italy signed a treaty, which would make its way into world history as the ‘Rome-Berlin Axis’

In under a year after October 1936, Italy would put the political signature under the ‘Anti-Comintern Pact’, thus expanding the alliance up to the Germany-Italy-Japan triumvirate. No later than December 11, 1937, Italy made a demonstrative withdrawal from the ‘League of Nations’. To that moment, Germany had been already beyond the organization for more than four years since October 1933 and its demarch against the ‘League’. In the years to come other totalitarian regimes, including Japan, the USSR, and Spain would leave or withdraw (USSR) either. In March 1938, only two months before his second visit to Italy, the German Fuhrer had completed another ‘dream of his life’ with the Anschluss of Austria. Hitler was now indebted to Mussolini due to Duce’s non-intervention in the issue, which would be on Hitler’s agenda until the end of 1945. In anticipation of the 1938 visit to Italy, Hitler had already been in-minded about the idea of taking the ‘Sudetenland’ and as late as April 21, 1938, he discussed with his military command the issue of possible conflict with Czechoslovakia. He had decided to postpone the sophisticated involvement in the issue until he visited Mussolini in early May. 

THE POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT IN SPRING 1938
German police unit march down a street in the Tyrolean town of Imst during the Anschluss of Austria, March 1938

 

HITLER’S VISIT TO ROME: 1938

Having already enjoyed the privilege of being a mighty host back in 1934, Mussolini was now fascinated and amazed by the image of a new Germany, which opened to his eyes in the September days of 1937. Even in the teeth of the driving rain, which had turned his speech notes into a soaked piece of paper at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin facing the multi-thousand auditorium, Duce was the key man and the front-line player of the most pompous reception of a foreign guest in world history. The sophisticatedly planned agenda of his visit to Germany left him a poor choice of being under the impression of the resurrected military might of his neighbor, new grandiose architecture, and mobilization of the masses of people. In contrast to the semi-sneering attitude toward Hitler and a new course of Germany evident back in 1934, Mussolini was now in envy of the German ruler, who seemed to overshadow all the victories of the Italian regime over the last fifteen years in a matter of only four. The talking on the resurrected mighty of the Roman Empire was now to be proved by the scale of the regime to outshine the neighbor (Hitler), who had already become the key military and political leader of his time. 

In a way that Austria was a primary on Hitler’s agenda during the 1934 and 1937 face-to-face meetings, now a part of the Third Reich, the thoughts of the German fuhrer were overtaken by the possible confrontation with Czechoslovakia. On the day of his 49th birthday on April 20, 1938, Hitler came to Berlin. He spent the early hours of the day in a meeting with some manufacturers, including Ferdinand Porsche, then he oversaw a military parade in one’s honor and invested the later hours in visiting the ‘OLYMPIA’ premiere, a documentary movie by Leni Riefenstahl (the author of the ‘Triumpf of the will‘), premiered specifically on the occasion of Hitler’s birthday. Later on, Hitler made his way to the Berghof residence near Berchtesgaden until his next visit to Berlin on May 1, 1938, to take part in the celebrations of the ‘Tag der Arbeit’ (Labor Day). In these last days of April Hitler suffered gastric colic, cured by Doctor Morrell. 

Heedless of the fact that Hans Baur, Hitler’s personal pilot would later recall his own opinion, that the decision to travel to Italy by train had resulted from the skeptical weather forecast to use the aircraft in the early days of May 1938, the agenda of the visit had been initially pompous and fore-planned. Hitler’s special train, as well as the trains with his entourage, were determined to complete no less than a tour of one and a half-day long through the lands of Southern Germany and Northern Italy. The historical delicacy was attributed to South Tirol, a region with a century-go majority of the German-speaking population, which had been given to Italy following the end of the Great War (World War One). Hitler had already given his assurance that the region was beyond his ambition to become a part of the Reich at the expanse of the Italian ally. Along with that, Paul Schmidt, Hitler’s interpreter would later memoir, that the people from South Tyrol greeted the German delegation with restrained feelings with only a few banners. 

On May 2, 1938, Adolf Hitler was once again the center of the universe for tens of thousands of Berliners, who had previously taken the pavement of the streets to greet the German Fuhrer within his cortege procession. The motorcade finally reached the ‘ANHALTER STATION’, the railway station of Berlin, which would be later severely damaged as a result of the Allied air raids and later abandoned in GDR (East Germany). Hitler’s railway cortege was made of three special trains, assigned to accommodate an extensive entourage of 500 people. This diplomatic procession enlisted the VIP share of the Reich government, as well as the high-ranking officers from Wehrmacht, diplomats, security guards, journalists, doctors, caretaking personnel, interpreters, and wives of some of them, frau Ribbentrop (a lady of the Foreign Minister) in particular. 

HITLER GOES ROME MAY 2, 1938
Adolf Hitler and Herman Goering at the Anhalter Train Station on May 2, 1938

Each member of the narrow circle of the German VIPs was granted their own compartment as well as the necessity to stay close to the pre-planned etiquette procedures and to change the civilian clothing for the military uniform and Vice Versa. Hermann Goering was the senior man among the top echelon of the German political elite to be left as a temporary replacement for Fuhrer and as well as the highest-ranking man in the Nazi hierarchy (after Hitler) to be present at the Anhalter Bahnhof in Berlin. That very day had additional historical significance, as Hitler had written one of the well-known versions of his political last will, pointing to Goering as his possible successor if it came to the worst scenario with Hitler’s death. This ‘Goering-related’ regulation would later become a stumbling stone between two men with Goering’s interpretation in the Spring of 1945 (He would try to use the clause to take power, while Hitler was in a siege in Berlin).

In the context of the same testament, Hitler instructed (in the case of one’s death) to bury him under the ‘Felfhernhalle’ in Munich (the nazi shrine with the graves of 16 dead participants of the ‘Beer Hall Putsch’). The German Fuhrer also left instructions on paying the monthly aid to Eva Braun and his two sisters, Paula and Angela, 1000 marks each, with one huge 60 000 single payment to his brother Alois and fewer amounts of money to the servants and security officers. The payments were to be executed from Hitler’s income as the author of ‘Main Kampf’. Within the same hours of May 2, Eva Braun had accompanied the Morrell and Brandt families to make her way from Munich to Rome too, making her only abroad journey. History does not give us arguments, that Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun had any arrangements in Italy. 

HITLER GOES ROME. Hitler's state visit to rome
During their train journey, Hitler’s entourage was next to their boss

While leaving Goering as his temporal deputy in Germany, Hitler was surrounded by a member of his intimate circle as well as by the members of the government. Weeks before Hitler’s 1938 visit to Italy, The Foreign Ministry of Italy had compiled a sophisticatedly detailed schedule of all the upcoming arrangements with the list of all participants and agenda for every day, including the dress code for any of the guests at any moment. Hitler was the final decision-maker to accept the eye-catching garments, which he had appraised as a means to outstand the look of his entourage and to place emphasis on his casualty. The German dress code was to be attributed as luxuriant costumes, rather than penguin suits, generally accepted within the diplomatic environment. The delegation included Doctor Joseph Goebbels, the author of biting comments about the Italian king and the throne. Hitler was also accompanied by his unchanged ‘Sancho Panza’ Rudolf Hess, the party deputy, Hans Frank (former lawyer of Hitler and later the General-governor in Poland), Heinrich Himmler, General Wilhelm Keitel, Heinrich Hofmann (Hitler’s personal photographer), doctor Lammers (Chief of the Reich Chancellery) and Joseph Goebbels. The Germans were constantly making their cynical comments about the Italians, which all were later brought to the King’s notice, and this arrogance left behind the anecdotes on the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II back in 1888. 

 

ROMA OSTIENSE TRAIN STATION

As an epilogue to a day-long journey through Germany and Northern Italy and some pompous manifestations, in particular in Brenner Pass (the Alpine border between Austria, at that time two months affiliated to Germany and Italy) and the city of Verona, Hitler’s railway cortege finalized in Rome. As a sweat-unobvious addition to the issue of national prestige and lightening the political mood after the Anschluss of Austria, Hitler had always dreamed of visiting Rome and Florence and experiencing the historical landmarks with his own eyes. Year after that 1938 visit the German Fuhrer would share his expatiative thoughts (with his intimate entourage) on the fact, that he had always had an idea to visit Italy being an uncelebrated young artist, beyond the public consideration. Hitler’s train was now scheduled to arrive at the cozy ROMA OSTIENSE train station, in large part reconstructed before his visit. The more evident TERMINI station, the main transport hub of the Italian capital, was semi-accessible in the Spring of 1938 due to an ambitious modernization, which had turned the railway arteria into a huge construction site with breaks and dust. Along with that, the German-Italian delegation would use the Termini to go to Naples and later to Florence

Roma Ostiense train station in Rome. Hitler in Italy 1938
One of the platforms of the Roma Ostiense train station during my visit in the early morning of 2018

It was the time after sunset when the cortege of the German Fuhrer made his destination stop at the railway platform of the Roman station. Hitler had scrutinized the agenda and the protocols from the Italians, being openly indiscreet about Victor Emmanuel III, the King of Italy was nominally the host of all the arrangements, leaving behind Benito Mussolini, de facto the rule of the state and Hitler’s desired partner. Well short of the arrival, Hitler disingenuously called the King not other than a short man and encouraged his entourage not to laugh openly, neither the temptation would be. Three top-echelon persons in Italy greeted the German guest. It was King Victor Emmanuel III of indeed low stature that Hitler had smilingly leaned forward to shake his hand after hos had greeted the guest with a military salute, and not the fascist one. The King was accompanied by Benito Mussolini, standing in place next to the monarch and later to the left of Hitler. Finally, Count Ciano, the Foreign Minister of Italy and Mussolini’s trusted son-in-law. 

ROMA OSTIENSE TRAIN STATION. HITLER, MUSSOLINI, CIANO, VICTOR EMMANUEL
Victor Emmanuel III (left, of short stature), Count Ciano (back), Aold Hitler, and Benito Mussolini at Roma Ostiense

For years before the decision to turn a small station for technical stops into railway gates for Adolf Hitler, OSTIENSE had been a mediocre transport junction within the Roman district of the same name, located outside the borders of the ancient city center. The whole surrounding site, assigned to be reshaped and expanded had been previously in ownership of ‘Collegio del Verbo Divino’ and was brought into a requisition to fulfill the construction plans, including a new square. Limited time left no space for the large station to be built and the authorities chose a draft of a building 110 meters long with two rows of columns. Only 45 days, from March to Early May 1938, were scheduled to be taken in total to erect a new station building, a square, and a roadway. It would take another two years until the full-fledged opening of the station no sooner than 1940. Back in the evening hours of May 3, 1938, the marble columns Hitler witnessed were no more than covered with white limestone. The renewed OSTIENSE was attributed to welcoming hundreds of thousands of people to the upcoming 1942 ‘International Exposition of Art and Technology in Modern Life’ (best known for the Paris 1937 Fair), which would never happen after World War Two. 

ROMA OSTIENSE TRAIN STATION
The 110 meters long terminal building was an imposing erection
Roma Ostienze station Rome Hitler
I was on the site around 7 a.m.

In Mussolini’s vision, the first hours of Adolf Hitler in Rome were to overshadow his visit to Germany last September. The four-horse carriages were brought to the station entrance and Hitler was now to take his place next to Victor Emmanuel III and not to Duce. Along with that, the King insisted on having conversations with Hitler in French, the language the guest detested and was weak in. Hitler had to go through his disdain for the King as well as the monarchy as a historical anachronism. The German ruler would later tell Hans Baur that he was soreheaded with the fact, that he had to take a prehistoric horse carriage instead of an automobile. The 5 km route from the train station to the royal palace was planned as a part of the presentation. The planned traffic direction had been beforehandly decorated with the swastika banners, erected pylons with fire, and the projectors, as well as thousands of Romans, had made their way to the streets to greet both their own sovereign and a German guest.

The first meters of the route were made along a street, then-recent named no less than ‘VIA ADOLF HITLER’ (The street of Adolf Hitler). Soon after the passing of Porta San Paolo, the cortege was now accompanied by the major of Rome and the procession proceeded next to Circus Maximus, an illuminated Coliseum up to the Piazza Venezia and further to Palazzo Quirinale, the royal residence. While Hitler, the King, and Duce were in focus, the entourage of the leaders was also driven to the palace in carriages, with the VIP pairs such as Ciano-Ribbentrop (two ministers of Foreign affairs) and Alfieri-Goebbels (Minister of People’s culture and Minister of Propaganda retrospectively). While Hitler’s safeguards were frustrated with the open blades of the traditional daggers, raised in the Fascist salute across the platform, up to 10 000 people had been previously put into custody as ‘suspicious elements’. 

ROMA OSTIENSE TRAIN STATION 1938 Station pavilion in Rome for the arrival of Adolf Hitler in May 1938.
This is what the station terminal pavilion looked like during Hitler’s visit. Take notice of the German Eagle
ROMA OSTIENSE TRAIN STATION. King and Hitler
Hitler had poor regard for the King but he was to follow the protocol of the welcoming side
Porta San Paolo
Porta San Paolo Gate around 1940. The cortege passed next to this ancient entrance to Rome

 

PALAZZO QUIRINALE 

In the act of this settled theatrical performance of a journey along the streets of Rome, there was nothing left for Hitler other than playing the role of an appreciative guest. While the major share of the 500-people German delegation was accommodated in the Grand Hotel Plaza in the Northern part of the city, Hitler and his close accompanies were to be taken to PALAZZO QUIRINALE, the royal residence of  110,500 square meters. The guests were to experience not only spacious chambers but also to take part in a kind of gala dinner scheduled for the very evening of May 3, 1938. The pretentiousness of the royal residence firmed up Hitler’s frustration with his status as a guest of a royal family, rather than a partner of Benito Mussolini, the indeed ruler of the state. The German Fuhrer would later share his thoughts on the QUIRINALE PALACE as no more than a museum. Heinrich Himmler would also snatch an opportunity to draw a comparison between the royal palace and an antique museum (on the same hours of May 3, 1938, a new concentration camp in Flossenburg was to be opened, a contrasting event to the festivities in Rome and the shopping time of the wives of Himmler and Ribbentrop during the Italian trip). 

PALAZZO QUIRINALE ROME 1938
The horse cortege arrives at Palazzo Quirinale in the late hours of May 3, 1938
Palazzo del Quirinale 1926
A rare photograph of Palazzo del Quirinale from the 1920s
QUIRINALE PALACE Rome
My journey to Rome was mostly cloudy which did not ruin my plans to visit all the planned locations, including WWII-related

The historiography has preserved some photos originating from the dinner party in Quirinale Palace, one of which depicted Hitler accompanying Queen Elena, a woman, he would not later say a word to, even sitting next to her at the table. Hitler was indeed frustrated with the fact, that Benito Mussolini was assigned far from being at the head of the dinner table he was to sit in the faraway corner, removed further than even the youngest princess of the royal family. In somewhat reflecting the feeling of his boss, Joseph Goebbels would later make a notice in his diary, that the majority of people at the table (he meant, of course, the Italians) were good only for being taken outside and shot. The growing Hitler’s antagonism to the monarchical superstitions was encharged with a scene when people went on their knees to kiss the border of the Queen’s dress. The German Fuhrer was also certain in his confidence, that the Queen arrayed herself with a huge crucifixion to annoy Hitler personally. Photographer Heinrich Hofmann would later recall, that Hitler Had asked him to retouch all the photos to put away the members of the royal family. Hofmann had not fulfilled the appeal. On the days when Hitler was accommodated within Palazzo Quirinale, Eva Braun spent her Italy period in Hotel Excelsior, apart from Hitler’s entourage. 

PALAZZO QUIRINALE HITLER 1938. Hitler in Italy
Hitler accompanying Queen Elena at Quirinale Palace
PALAZZO QUIRINALE HITLER AND MUSSOLINI
The two dictators on the evening of May 3, 1938

 

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER (PIAZZA VENEZIA)

After a humiliating (for Hitler) night at the royal residence, May 4, 1938, was, to a lesser or greater degree, in compliance with Hitler’s expectations on his visit to Italy. The agenda for that May Wednesday was to include some festivities with both Mussolini and Hitler as the main protagonists. No later than 10 a.m. now (to Greatest great delight) an automobile cortege formed a ceremonial procession along the streets of Rome, which was greeted by tens of thousands of Romans and guests from both Italy and Germany. This VIP column covered a part of the previous evening route and reached the first landmark of the day’s agenda: Piazza Venezia. 

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER (PIAZZA VENEZIA)
A rare photograph of the gathering of Italien soldiers while greeting Mussolini and Hitler, on May 4, 1938
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Rome
An imposing Il Monumento nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II at Piazza Venezia Square during my 2018 visit to Rome

This transport arteria ever since the height of the Roman Empire (parallels so delighted to Mussolini) has been historically located beneath Capitol Hill, next to the Roman Forum, and at arm’s length from the Coliseum. Before the arrival of the central figures, the square had already been crowded with the Italian soldiers facing their helmeted heads to the main architectural components of the square: the Vittoriano monument, or Victor Emmanuel II National Monument (Monumento Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele II). The imposing complex had shaped the sight as late as 1935, only three years before Hitler’s visit. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini took their VIP roles in a traditional (for the diplomatic visits of the era) ceremony of laying flowers to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier, a symbol of the casualties of the Great War, a conflict between Germany and Italy on opposite sides of the barricades. The preserved photos depicted Hitler and Mussolini, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Rudolf Heß, Heinrich Himmler, and Joseph Goebbels

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER (PIAZZA VENEZIA) HITLER AND MUSSOLINI
Hitler and Mussolini during the ceremony of laying flowers to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier
TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER (PIAZZA VENEZIA) HITLER
In front of the Monument, their entourage and thousands of Italian soldiers
Victor Emmanuel II monument Rome
The monument in 1945 after the death of both dictators
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Rome today
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorated the lost lives of those who perished in the First World War

 

HITLER AND MUSSOLINI IN THE PANTHEON

After the ‘flower’ ceremony at Piazza Venezia, the column proceeded to the hieratic landmark of the time of Roman Empire glory, the Pantheon. Hitler had been reading about the architecture of the European cities for decades, including his distanced admiration of Paris and Rome, visualizing, among others, the visit to the Pantheon, an ancient mortuary sanctuary. Upon their arrival, Hitler and Mussolini lay floral tributes to the graves of two Italian Kings. First of all, Victor Emmanuel II, a monument to this king they had visited half an hour before, and Umberto I, the grandfather and father of the living King (Victor Emmanuel III) respectively. Hitler claimed a few minutes to be left alone with his thoughts, which he would spend admiring meditation under the famous dome. Back in 1936, Hitler and Albert Speer visualized the upcoming (never to be finished) erections of grandiose ambitions in the center of Berlin, including a giant assembly hall, assigned to welcome up to 180 000 guests under a dome, overshadowing exponentially the one in Rome. 

PANTHEON IN ROME 1938 HITLER VISITS ITALY
A unique photograph of Hitler and Mussolini leaving the Pantheon building
Pantheon in Rome
Hitler had always wanted to overshadow the Roman Pantheon
Pantheon building Rome today
I was pleased to get inside the iconic place
Pantheon shrine in Rome
A shrine of one of the Italian Kings

 

HITLER’S SPEECH AT MAXENTIUS BASILIKA

Another vitally important public appearance of Hitler in Rome on that day May 4, next to Mussolini, was attributed to his speech to ‘Italiendeutschen’ (Italian citizens with German origins), scheduled at 6 pm at the Basilica di Massenzio (the Basilica of Maxentius) within the Roman forum. The largest erection within the whole complex was built back in 312 A.D. and no more than a northern part of the building, yet with excellent acoustics, had survived the centuries and several devastating earthquakes. The century-go devastations freed space of 80 in length and 35 meters in width, now a site to accept 6500 attendees on the evening of May 4, 1938. The permissions for attendance had been beforehandly issued by the ‘Auslands-Organisation Landesgruppe Italien’, nominally an Italian philia of NSDAP, assigned to deal with the ‘Italiendeutschen’. 

MAXENTIUS BASILIKA 1938
Maxentius Basilica in 1938
MAXENTIUS BASILIKA ROME MAy 6 1938
The evening of May 4, 1938, at Mazentius Basilica

A great portion of the permitted ‘Italiendeutschen’ attendees came from different regions of Italy, particularly from Südtirol (South Tyrol), a German area before WW1. Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the new Italian authorities issued a ban on teaching German, while South Tyrol had been a part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire for centuries and its ethnography had not much in common with Italy before 1918. Years went by and the situation had its remission. Looking further forward to Hitler’s visit in May 1938, the citizens of Südtirol would be given a delicate choice: to leave the heartlands to move to Germany or to preserve the paper identity in Italy. as it had been for the last twenty years. Hitler would make his brief rhetoric with easeful words, that the ‘Italiendeutschen’ were the lucky ones to live in such a great state as Italy. Summing up, at the times when the Third Reich had been fulfilling its ambition to perform the annexations in Europe, a friendship with Mussolini imposed some obvious taboo obligations. 

Basilica di Massenzio 1860
One of the earliest photographs of Basilica di Massenzio was made around 1860
Constantine Temple Roman forum
A rare photograph of the location and how it looked in the 1940s
MAXENTIUS BASILIKA
I took this panoramic photo of the Basilica from one of the hills at the Roman Forum
MAXENTIUS BASILIKA in ITAly
When you stand close to the ruins, they still make an impression

 

TWO DICTATORS AT COLISEUM

After coming back from Naples and soon after the grandiose military parade on May 6, 1938, Hitler was delighted to attend some historical landmarks of the Roman Empire, next to Mussolini and without the annoying presence of the King. In the early hours of May 7, the ceremonial procession took time at Borghese Gallery, one of the largest collections of art in Italy. Soon after, the cortege proceeded to the Coliseum, a historical pearl of Rome. The initial nominal Hitler’s acquaintance with the landmark had been accomplished four days before while the horse carriage was moving along the Arch of Constantine and Coliseum, illuminated with pylons and projectors. This second May 7 visit was scheduled for the daytime and included insight into the erection and a walk within the ancient arena. The photos depicted Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini at the steadily marching site, as well as Joachim von Ribbentrop, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler, and Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli, an Italian archeologist, historian, and fine arts expert, who led improvised excursion. 

Mussolini and Hitler in Rome’s Galleria Borghese
In Rome’s Galleria Borghese in front of Canova’s statue of Pauline Bonaparte. Hitler’s admiring appreciation contrasts with Mussolini’s grim and bored expression
A panorama over Coliseum
A panorama over the Coliseum and the surrounding historical area
COLISEUM HITLER
A unique photograph of Hitler while walking inside the Coliseum
COLISEUM 1938 HITLER AND MUSSOLINI
The German dictator was pleased to take part in a tour led by Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli
Colliseum Rome
One of the busiest places in Rome when it comes to the number of tourists: is the Coliseum
Coliseum in 1945 Rome
Coliseum in 1945
Coliseum in Rome nowadays
I took this photo in the hot Roman midday in October 2018

 

ON THE BALCONY OF PALAZZO VENEZIA

In the later hours of the same day, May 7 the hosts and the guest took part in another ceremonial dinner, this time within the luxurious Palazzo Venezia. The famous square was once named after this building. Hitler had already experienced a brief image of the palace on his carriage and later automobile corteges within the previous days. Three days before Hitler and Mussolini had already given a floral tribute to the Monument of the Unknown Soldier just in front of the Palazzo Venezia. A palace, which had been initially built with the construction parts from the Coliseum, had been the Pope’s residence as well as the embassy of the Venetian Republic and later Austria. Mussolini appreciated the place with an unobvious personal devotion, now acting as a host in the context of the absence of the King. Starting from September 1929 Duce had been using Sala del Mappamondo, one of the spacious rooms of the palace as no less than his office. The room was constantly illuminated 24 hours a day to underline the euphemism, that the fascist government never stops working for the benefit of Italy. 

PALAZZO VENEZIA 1938 Hitler
Hitler and Mussolini at the balcony of Palazzo Venezia in the late hours of May 7, 1938
PALAZZO VENEZIA balcony Hitler and Mussolini
The two dictators review the crowds beneath the balcony
Palazzo Venecia Rome balcony Mussolini
The same balcony in 1945

On that very evening of May 7, Mussolini and Hitler made an appearance on the balcony of Palazzo Venezia, a part of the building that had its sacral meaning for Duce. It was here he proclaimed the Italian Colonial Empire on May 9, 1936, two years before Hitler visited Rome. He would later use the same balcony on June 10, 1940, to take militant rhetoric against England and France, thus proclaiming war on the ‘Western plutocracies’. Along with the effective show on the balcony, the evening witnessed a few more important political occasions. For the first time since Hitler’s arrival on May 3, two supreme rulers now had time to discuss the burning issues and the mutual alliance, including the partner position against Czechoslovakia (indeed Mussolini agreed with Hitler’s military ambitions). Hitler also made a speech, which finally melted the ice of the straining of the first days of the visit. Count Ciano would write that Hitler’s rhetoric made a good impression on the Italians. The German Fuhrer voiced the future of the ‘Italiendeutschen’ in South Tyrol, an issue that had been in the air for months. 

Palazzo Venezia Rome
Palazzo Venezia in 2018
PALAZZO VENEZIA today
The balcony from the previous photos

 

THE KEY TAKEAWAYS OF HITLER’S VISIT TO ITALY

Along with the sites in Rome, I have highlighted above, that the geography of Hitler’s 1938 to Italy between May 3 and 10 was far more extensive. Speaking only about Rome, Hitler was a guest of several military parades, including the visit to Aeroporto di Centocelle (May 4), the first airport in Italy, later a base for the Luftwaffe. On May 6 the delegation with King Emmanuel in head viewed the military parade at Via Dei Trionfi Street, attended, by various estimates, 35 000 up to 50 000 army men and members of the fascist party. Except for the mentioned Borghese Gallery, the delegation visited Capitol Hill, used the Termini station on their back from Naples and to Florence, attended the Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan Peace) on the bank of Tiber, and the Baths of Diocletian. As soon as May 5, the mutual procession went to Naples to oversee the naval maneuvers, and on May 9 Hitler and Mussolini visited some landmarks in Florence. 

THE KEY TAKEAWAYS OF THE VISIT
A cortege with Hitler and Mussolini on the streets of Rome
Adolf Hitler in Rome 1938
A rare color photograph of two dictators during Hitler’s visit to Italy in May 1938
Hitler and Duce in Rome, May 4, 1938
Seven years from that day, both usurpers would be dead

Regardless of the growing political tension, spectacle expectations of the Italian press, an upstage attitude of the royal family, and disdain of the Germans, the visit had become a diplomatic triumph for Hitler and the Third Reich. He not merely prepossessed the Italians, but also underlined some delicate issues and gained the support of Mussolini in the upcoming conflict against Czechoslovakia. The printed memorandum of the German Foreign Ministry acclaimed the visit to Italy precisely as a great success. Along with that Hitler liberally shared his disrespectful commentaries on the monarchy and proved his belief that only the madmen could speak on the restoration of Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany even nominally on paper. Hitler was also impressed with the historical and architectural grandiosity of both Rome and Florence and he would invest great enthusiasm into the mutual plans with Albert Speer on making Berlin a new capital of Europe, as well as Linz, a city of his youth, into a cultural center of the continent, aimed to overshadow the Italian cities. 

Hitler visits Italy May 1938
Hitler’s journey was an important page in the book of relations between the two dictators

 

I am very grateful to war archives, museums, libraries, private collections, and writers for the historical photos in this article. To the extent that some author or a copyright owner may not want some of the above black-and-white photos to be used for educational purposes here, please contact me for adding credits or deleting the pictures from the article.