The Italian Poet Gabriele D’annunzio occupied 100 years ago, the Croatian port city of Rijeka. Why this was not political, but rather the continuation of poetry, explains author Kersten Knipp.
Gabriele D’annunzio (right, with cane) in Fiume in October 1919
After the First world war Croatia in Italy were due to the London agreement of 1915, and parts as one of the victorious powers. Rijeka, at the time, Italian Fiume called, was not one of them. Gabriele D’annunzio but, futurist Poet, political activist and war hero who stood up to the later fascist dictator Benito Mussolini politically and personally close to, was of the opinion that Rijeka/Fiume should, of course, belong to Italy. 12. September, 1919, he marched with his supporters in the city, and proclaimed the “Republic of Fiume”. He was enthusiastically welcomed by many living there, Italians.
To 100. The anniversary of the invasion, we spoke with Kersten Knipp, of the events of that time in his book, “The commune of the fascists. Gabriele D’annunzio, the Republic of Fiume, and the Extreme of the 20th century. Century” thoroughly analyzed.
Deutsche Welle: Mr. Knipp, like the idea of being in Fiume invade and the town of Italy was born?
Kersten Knipp
Kersten Knipp:The government in Rome had wanted to Fiume no interest at all, but a lot of nationalists that the city belongs to Italy. Fiume had developed for you to a kind of Symbol. Gabriele D’annunzio had marked for this desire a private word, namely, “vittoria mutilata”, “the mutilated victory”.
That is, if Fiume would not become part of Italy, would have been the victory completely useless, and hundreds of thousands of Italians died in vain. A bizarre idea of course, but one that took place among the nationalists, also in the case of Mussolini and the then slowly emerging fascists, the big appeal.
It is important to know that every day of the First world war, 6000 people died. Day-to-day for over four years. Almost every family in Europe had to mourn the victims and you wanted to put a sense in this Die. And a sense of purpose was: “at Least we enlarge our territory.”
Another reason is perhaps, that very many of the former soldiers who had joined a large number of Gabriele D’annunzio, fell after the war, from the social implications. They fought, they were violent in the usual way. It was difficult for them, in the civilization to come back. Fiume was an attempt to continue to live in a non-civil space, where something New is created, something Utopian, politically, but completely pointless.
D’annunzio was an enthusiastic soldier in the First world war and often as a Pilot in the use of
The man she led, and was then ultimately as a great Savior on the balcony of the Governor’s Palace in Rijeka stand, Gabriele D’annunzio, a dazzling figure…
He is one of the first literary Superstars in Italy, but also in Europe. He has struggled from the start, to be famous.
He was very well educated, has always known, the latest European literature, especially the French. He was a well-known Journalist and Poet. After the turn of the century, he joined the emerging futurism. And the theme of violence was quite large. Violence as a way to leave the past behind.
Italy, it saw the futurists, was lost in the past, in the ancient heritage of Rome to the Renaissance. You saw Italy basically as a Museum, a memory of the past.
The blind eye was to the recognition characteristic of D’annunzio
They developed a cult of violence, of a blow could break the old Italy. And this is then passed into a culture of war. The futurists were for the war, D’annunzio, and the war continued.
D’annunzio was sitting very much on the plane, lost in one of these flights, the light in one eye. The authenticity was a sign of a hero. He is literary a Star, and he is a war hero and inasmuch as he is suitable from the point of view of all those who wanted to start this company, of Fiume, to take the lead and say: “We are here!”
Was to get this project, of Fiume to Italy, more of an artistic or a political project?
D’annunzio saw it as a political project. My Thesis is, however, that it had to do from the beginning, nothing to do with politics. Because of the policy, you must demand that you act realistic. And the project Fiume was unrealistic from the outset. For D’annunzio was said that the continuation of poetry with political means, or pseudo-political means, better.
The project, however, was from the outset unpromising. Mussolini realized this, and very early for this project to be adopted. D’annunzio wanted to know nothing about it. So he started to organize marches, Speeches from the balcony, there was a lot of music, you wore uniforms… it’s a cult of Masculinity, the military cult was established there. They have designed their own badge, its own coin.
All of the being exercised over a number of months, mainly to keep the people happy. You have to do anything. And lived for 15 months, day for day, a pseudo-political activism.
There are also many women are there, the Whole thing has very much to do with Sex, to do with debauched sexuality. There are drugs in the game, even homosexuality – all of that which gives life an intensity that is practiced there.
Politically it is represented everything. Aesthetically pleasing, but not directly political, is the anticipation of fascism. It also socialists, but because, anarchists, all political currents. This shows that it was never to actually reach the target politically by a mass movement, as it did Mussolini then. But everything is possible, and where everything is possible, it is, ultimately, nothing really political.
Mussolini and D’annunzio, 1936 – friends even after the project Fiume
Many people liked the good, the found the liberal, what is possible there. You have no great reason to say anything against D’annunzio because he is not a dictator, as Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin. He makes everything happen and people like it. This makes the specific spell from the outside. And it is also an anticipation of 1968 (meaning of the student movement of ‘ 68, note. d. Red.).
The title of your book is “commune of the fascists”. But the occupiers of Fiume were not fascists in the sense that we understand it today?
D’annunzio and Mussolini have met before, you initially agreed on the project of Fiume. They had marked a certain proximity to each other, by the war.
D’annunzio and his followers were a war-savvy society, and had Mussolini as well. His black shirts come from the same war-like Milieu. There is a cult of brutality prevailed. D’annunzio himself was not brutal, he was a subtle Poet. But the trailer part already.
And then there was also the question of Aesthetics. D’annunzio has distanced itself very clearly from Mussolini’s fascism. They remained friends, but politically, he has created a distance. He said that if this continues, there will come a day that they burn books. Because he did not want to participate as a Poet.
But everything else, the cult of violence and the devotion to great aesthetic forms, the butt up and the like, which has been developed for the first Time in Fiume, and, later, the Mussolini inspired. He has seen that this works in Fiume, also, the Talk and the enchantment of the crowd, the mass psychological Moment, and it has subsequently taken over and refined.
Parade in Uniform: D’annunzio (front center) established a military cult in Fiume
To what extent was Fiume, a “Practice” for what in the later 20. Century happened?
Over large parts of the 20th century. Century, we had this mass politics old-style, especially visible in the totalitarian regimes of communism, fascism and Nazism. This huge organized masses were on the squares, which were carefully orchestrated to each other. Fiume was taking an aesthetic anticipation of the.
You can also see, as in Fiume, and various life-worlds, however, under different circumstances, have been constructed, and how this is a political We-feeling, or, as in the case of D’annunzio, a pseudo-political We-feeling arises.
And you don’t see, of course, what was only for the totalitarian regimes of that time that is important, but today again, albeit under different circumstances: a certain amount of political hysteria, the absolute Faith the Right thing. You can see that today, Europe and Germany are divided. This can be seen especially on the issue of Migration. The bearings have moved in the question; the sober political dialogue has become more difficult.
It’s been a tremendous emotionality prevails. “We” against “them.” The dialogue is on both sides a bit as indelicate, because there are absolute questions. There is only right or wrong. Something in between, or the compromise no longer exists today.
And this compromise was also the case of D’annunzio and his followers present. You can see them very nice, as political communities. This is a Prefiguration of the 20th century. and 21. Century.
D’annunzio held for 15 months in Fiume. The pressure from the international community, which rejected the Republic, grew up. 12. October 1920, received Rijeka by the border Treaty of Rappallo the Status of an independent state. D’annunzio settled down after that, on the Garda lake, was financed by the Italian government, and as the Superstar celebrated. The Poet died on 1. March 1938, in his Villa at Gardone Riviera, which was to be explained has been during his lifetime by the Italian government to the national memorial.
The Journalist and author Kersten Knipp works as the political editor for various ARD broadcasters, including Deutsche Welle. His book, “The commune of the fascists. Gabriele D’annunzio, the Republic of Fiume, and the Extreme of the 20th century. Century” appeared in March 2019.
The conversation Zoran Arbutina led.