Teaching about Fascism(s). The relationship between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in Italian, West German, and East German textbooks, 1950-60.

Autor/in	Weiner, Daniela R.P.
Titel	Teaching about Fascism(s). The relationship between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in Italian, West German, and East German textbooks, 1950-60.
Quelle	In: Journal of contemporary history, 58 (2023) 1, S. 136-151 PDF als Volltext Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1461-7250
DOI	10.1177/00220094211063097
Schlagwörter	Deutschland; Faschismus; Geschichtsunterricht; Italien; Nationalsozialismus; Schulbuch; Vergangenheitsbewältigung; Unterricht; Nachkriegszeit; Schulbuch; Unterricht; Geschichte (Histor); Geschichtsunterricht; Vergangenheitsbewältigung; Faschismus; Nationalsozialismus; Nachkriegszeit; Deutschland; Italien
Abstract	The parallels and interconnections between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany are not merely a matter of contemporary scholarly interest, but also were and still are a charged political and societal question. Through an analysis of discourse in school history textbooks, this article analyzes how scholars, students, teachers and state authorities perceived these parallels and interconnections during the immediate postwar period. The article investigates how the earliest history textbooks - published in the post-fascist successor states of Italy, West Germany, and East Germany between 1950 and 1960 - evaluated the relationship between Mussolini's Italy and Hitler's Germany during the 1930s. The 1930s are key because they began with Mussolini as the senior fascist dictator; over the course of the decade - with the war in Ethiopia, the Spanish Civil War, the passage of antisemitic racial laws, and the creation of the Pact of Steel - Hitler's Germany eclipsed Mussolini's Italy as the preeminent fascist power. By looking at postwar textbooks' representations of the Fascist Italy-Nazi Germany relationship during the 1930s, we can see that the postwar post-fascist states often blamed each other for the emergence of the especially imperialist, racist and violent elements of fascism. Thus, this article illustrates how educational materials marshalled deflection strategies during the long process of Vergangenheitsbewältigung.
Erfasst von	Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsmedien \| Georg-Eckert-Institut (GEI), Braunschweig
Update	2023/1