Christian Goeschel. Mussolini and Hitler

On April 28, 1945, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, the Duce, was shot dead by partisans in the small town of Dongo on the shores of the Lake Como. On the following day, he and his mistress Clara Petacci were hanged upside down in Milan. Angry Italians mutilated the corpses. The news of the Duce’s death confirmed Adolf Hitler in his intention to commit suicide. Hitler’s death on April 30,1945, finally sealed the fate of the long-standing Axis alliance. It had been characterized by cooperation and collaboration, but also by misunderstandings, incomprehension, tensions, and open rivalry. As Christian Goeschel argues in his book Mussolini and Hitler: The Forging of the Fascist Alliance, the personal relationship between Hitler and Mussolini played a crucial role in the pact. More particularly, the staging of their numerous meetings between June 14, 1934, and July 20, 1944, created a political momentum that had a profound impact on the development of the unequal and uneasy Italo-German relationship. At the same time, performance and representation in the encounters reflected the contingent development of the Axis that was based on a bilateral treaty of October 25, 1936.

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