Speech in Berlin, September 28, 1937

By Benito Mussolini

[Speech of Adolf Hitler: Men and Women! At present we are witnesses of a historic event which is unprecedented in this form and in such magnitude! More than one million people have gathered here for a rally in which 115 million members of two races are participating with fervent emotion, and which hundreds of millions of people in the rest of the world are following as more or less interested listeners! What moves us all first and foremost at this moment is the great joy we share in the knowledge of having as a guest in our midst one of those rare men of the ages whom history does not put to the test, but who themselves makes history! Secondly, we sense that this rally is not merely another of the assemblies that are always taking place elsewhere; instead it is expressing a pledge to shared ideals and shared interests. A pledge being made by two men which a million people are hearing here, but which 115 million are participating and affirming with hearts aglow! And hence this evening is no longer a public assembly, but instead a rally of nations. The most profound purpose of this rally of the nations lies in the sincere desire to guarantee for our countries the peace which is not the reward for the cowardice of resignation, but rather the result of having responsibility secured our volkisch, spiritual and physical—as well as our cultural—characteristics and values. Here, too, we believe that we are best able to serve those interests which, above and beyond our two people, should truly be interests of all of Europe. ... In our country, the ideals of Liberalism and Democracy have not rescued the German nation from the worst violations of history. Therefore, National Socialism has had to establish a new and more effective ideal in order to restore to our Volk those basic human rights which had been denied it for one-and-a-half decades. In that time of bitterest trials—this is something I must state this evening before the German Volk and the entire world—Italy, and especially Fascist Italy, had no part in the humiliation of our people. During those years, it proved itself capable of understanding for a great nation's demands for equal rights, for the bare necessities of life, and not least of all for its honour as a Volk. Thus it filled us with genuine satisfaction that the hour came in which we were able to remember this—and, I believe, we have remembered it! From the mutuality not only of views, but of actions as well. This is fortunate in an age and a world in which the currents of destruction and deformation are visible at every turn. Fascist Italy has become a new imperium by virtue of the brilliant, creative work of a constructive man. You, Benito Mussolini, will have ascertained one thing about the National Socialist State after having seen it with your own eyes, namely, that Germany too, by virtue of its volkisch attitude and its military strength, has become a world power once again. The force of these two empires today constitutes the strongest guarantour of the preservation of a Europe which still possesses a sense of its cultural mission and is not prepared to succumb to the decay caused by destructive elements. For all of you who are gathered here in this hour or are listening in the world must acknowledge that here two autocratic national regimes have found their way to one another and are standing by one another, in a time in which the ideas of a democratic and Marxist International have nothing to show but demonstrations of hatred and hence of disunion. Every attempt to break apart of dissolve such a community of peoples by playing one against the other, by raising suspicions or by imputing false aims will likewise be defeated by the desire of those 115 million who, in this hour, comprise this rally of community, and above all by the will of two men who are standing here before you and speaking to you!]


Speech of Benito Mussolini

Comrades!

My visit to Germany and to its Führer, and the speech that I am about to deliver before you, represents an important event in the life of our two peoples and also in my own life.

The celebrations which I have been met with have profoundly moved me.

My visit to this country must not be judged by the standards of an ordinary diplomatic or political visit. The fact that I have come to Germany today does not mean that I shall be travelling somewhere else tomorrow. I have come not merely as Head of the Italian Government but above all in my capacity as the Head of a National Revolution, which thereby wishes to give a proof of its close connection with your Revolution. Although the course of the two Revolutions may have been different, the objective that they wished to reach and have reached is the same: the unity and greatness of the nation.

Fascism and National Socialism are both expressions of that similarity in historical events in the life of our Nations, who both achieved their unity in the same century and by the same event.

As stated before, there are no ulterior motives hidden behind my visit to Germany. No web of intrigue has been woven to widen the gap between the already sufficiently divided nations of Europe. The ceremonious reaffirmation of the Rome-Berlin Axis is not directed against other states.

We Fascists and National Socialists desire peace and are always willing to work for peace, for a viable and fertile peace. We endeavour to resolve—and not silently ignore—the problems that come about when so many nations live together. In response to the world that is fixing its worried eyes upon Berlin to see whether the result of our meeting will be war or peace, the Führer and I can answer with a loud voice: Peace!

Just as Fascism has for fifteen years given Italy a new outward and spiritual countenance, your Revolution has given Germany a new countenance: new, even if it is formed, as in Italy, according to the most noble and imperishable traditions which can be reconciled with the necessities of modern life.

I wanted to see for myself the countenance of this New Germany. And, upon seeing it, I am now more than ever convinced that this New Germany—in her strength, her justified pride and her desire for peace—is a basic element of European life.

I believe that the reason for much misunderstanding and distrust between nations is that those responsible are not aware of the new reality which is emerging. The life of nations, like that of individuals, is not something that is fixed once for all, but is subject to a constant process of change. To judge a nation on the basis of figures and descriptions or on outdated literature from twenty or fifty years ago is a mistake which can be fatal. This mistake is frequently committed against Italy. If the National Revolutions of Germany and Italy were better known, many prejudices would disappear and many points of conflict would lose their justification.

We have in common many elements of our Weltanschauung.

Not only do Fascism and National Socialism have everywhere the same enemies who serve the same master—the Third International—but they have many conceptions of life and history in common. Both believe in will as the determining power in the life of nations and the driving force of their history, and therefore they reject the teachings of so-called historical materialism and its political and philosophical by-products. Both glorify labour, in all its innumerable forms, as the sign of human nobility. Both are based on the youth, whom we train in the virtues of discipline, courage, resistance, love of the Fatherland and contempt for comfortable living.

The resurrected Roman Empire is the product of this new spirit with which Italy is inspired. The German rebirth is equally the work of a spiritual force, of faith in an idea, in which at first only one man believed—then a handful of pioneers and martyrs, then a minority, and finally an entire Nation.

Germany and Italy follow the same goal in the sphere of economic autarchy. Without economic independence the political independence of a Nation can not be guaranteed, and even a people of great military power can become the victim of an economic blockade. We experienced this danger in all its immediacy when fifty-two states, assembled in Geneva, decided to impose criminal economic sanctions against Italy. Those sanctions were carried out with extreme rigor, but completely failed to attain their objective. Indeed, it even gave Fascist Italy the opportunity to prove its power of resistance to the world.

In spite of all the international pressure put upon her, Germany did not take part in these sanctions against Italy. We shall never forget this.

On precisely that occasion there appeared for the first time, and in the clearest manner, the existence of a necessary solidarity between Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany. What the world now knows as the Rome-Berlin Axis was born in the autumn of 1935. And in the course of the last two years, it has magnificently served to ever strengthen the rapprochement between our two peoples, and has rendered more effective the policy of peace in Europe.

Fascism has its ethics, to which it intends to remain true, and these ethics are identical with my own moral code: to speak clearly and openly and, when one has a friend, to march with him to the end.

All of the arguments advanced against us by our enemies are untrue. Neither in Germany nor in Italy is there a dictatorship, but rather organizations and forces which serve the people. No government, in any part of the world, has the approval of the people to the same extent as the governments of Germany and Italy. The greatest and the most authentic democracies in the world today are the German and Italian. In other countries, under the guise of the "inviolable rights of man", politics are dominated by the forces of money, of capital, of secret societies, and of political groups in competition with one another.

In Germany and Italy no private force can in any way influence the policy of the State. This community of Italo-German ideas has found its expression in the fight against Bolshevism, a modern form of the most ferocious Byzantine tyranny, an unprecedented exploitation of popular credulity, a regime of slavery, famine and blood. This form of human degeneration—which lives on lies—was fought in Italy after the war and with extreme energy by Fascism: we fought with words and with weapons. Because when words no longer suffice and circumstances necessitate it, one must take up arms.

This was the case in Spain where thousands of Italian Fascist volunteers died in defense of Western civilization, which may still be salvaged if we abandon the lying, false gods of Geneva and Moscow, and turn towards the luminous truths of our Revolution.

Comrades!

My speech is nearly finished. We and you make no propaganda in the banal sense of the word outside our own frontiers in search of new adherents. We believe that truth itself possesses enough power to penetrate everywhere and that it will ultimately be victorious. The Europe of tomorrow will be Fascist by the logical force of events, and not by our propaganda.

It has been twenty years since your great Führer shouted to the masses the rousing cry which was to become the war cry of the entire German people: "Germany, awake!" Germany has awoken. The Third Reich is here.

I know not if and when Europe will awaken, as was debated at the Party Congress of Nuremberg. Because secret forces—though well known to us—are working to bring about a world war. What is important is that our two great peoples—who form an imposing and ever-growing mass of 115 million souls—stand together as one in a single, unshakeable determination.

The proof of this is today's gigantic demonstration.