You can see the main examples of fascist-era architecture in Mussolini’s EU. The southern suburbs of Rome. (Photo by Rick Steves)
The exposure of terrorism in the topography in Berlin aims to teach visitors and the fall of Nazism. (Photo by Rick Steves)
The fascist movements of the twentieth century have had a radical effect on the world, in a way that is still repercussions today. And travelers have a merit in learning this story: when we see their inheritance in person, we perceive their classes better. Europe is splashed with desirable monuments and hard monuments that were designed conscientiously to bring those courses that give the house. When we stick to the difficulties of democracy on both sides of the Atlantic today, we can see that those who intend to derail democracy read in the same manual.
You can insinuate the roots of fascism in the turbulent consequences of World War I, where masses of other people were built, and their charismatic leaders manipulated that anger. Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany remodeled the Franes movements. of fascist regimes oppressed in totalitarian.
Mussolini the first, governing dictatorially and, for a while, success. He has promoted the economy, created jobs and invested in infrastructure.
Two examples of that infrastructure that you can see today in Rome are the Foro Italico (the site of Rome’s huge Olympic Stadium, north of the Vatican City), and the sterile planned city called E.U.R., just south of the city center.
Part of a sports complex called the Mussolini Forum, the Olympic stadium (still used today) built with the stated aim of selling Rome as a site for long-term Olympic games. But it was also built to advertise physical prowess as a key detail in fascist ideology. The athletes represented the “new fascist man”: willing to believe, obey and fight. You can see it in the 18 descending man appliqué statues that surround the Stadio di Marmi track, right outdoors, the main stadium, and the propaganda messages on the mosaics that raise the front of the stadium.
At the end of the 1930s, Mussolini planned a foreign exhibition, the Universal Exhibition of Rome (E. U. R. ), to show the wonders of its fascist society. While the advent of World War II suspected this celebration, the megaproject ended in the 1950s. Today, it houses apartment buildings, corporate offices and governmental and giant museums rarely visited.
Despite its grim past, E.U.R. (a 10-minute Metro ride from central Rome) is now an upscale district with a mix of businessmen and women at work — and young people enjoying its trendy cafés. Because a few landmark buildings of Italian modernism are located here, E.U.R. is an important destination for architecture buffs. Hiking down the wide, pedestrian-mean boulevards, you see patriotic murals and stern squares decorating the sterile office blocks, and patriotic quotes chiseled into walls. The uniform buildings and rigid grid-plan streets were meant to celebrate order and conformity, while echoing a powerful past and promising a glorious future. These buildings were also meant to intimidate — to make the average person feel small and powerless.
Inspired through Mussolini and supported through the wonderful depression in 1929, Hitler’s similar promises of a more wonderful life gained ground in Germany. For the Nazis, the city that embodied their greatest sense of national unity was Nürnberg. Located at a historical crossroads, and called “the ultimate German of German cities”, it was a favourite of Hitler’s to provide his bomb and his nationalist state, and it is with wonderful meetings here that he encouraged the Germans to come on board.
On the fields of the Rally, a four -seater domain, an 10 -minute tram adventure to the southeast of the old Nürnberg, Hitler made the Zeppelin field that of his great collections. Today, the Stark remains of this Great collection position stimulate reflection. It is also a component of this complex, which looms on a non -violent lake, its great but not infinite congress hall, which now houses the Justo Museum of the Documentation Center. Surviving example of Nazi architecture, modeled this construction from the Roman Colosseum. However, it made it even more colossal. The intermediate documentation traces the evolution of the socialist national movement, focusing on the way in which the German people have energized and terrified.
Another smost sensible for this propaganda display Hitler’s mountain-capped Eagle’s nest. This alpine getaway, south of Munich in Berchtesgaden, used to melt Hitler’s image. A stone tunnel made with fascist precision leads to Hitler’s plush elevator, which takes visitors to the most sensible today.
Berlin is full of sights that let us reflect on these dark times: the Germany History Museum and its powerful propaganda art display; the Reichstag parliament building, which caught fire under mysterious circumstances in 1933, giving Hitler an excuse to frame the communists and grab power for himself; and the Topography of Terror exhibit, which stands on the rubble of what was once the most feared address in the city — the headquarters of the Gestapo secret police and the elite SS force.
Hitler’s life would end in Berlin, deeply underground in a bunker with his capital flowing in ruins. Shortly after, in the spring of 1945, the war in Europe ended. But the consequences will live in the minds of those who live in their path and those who visit.
While visiting remnants of Mussolini and Hitler’s reigns in preparation for my TV special on fascism, I was struck by how entire nations have become mesmerized and led astray by fascist leaders. My best souvenir from that trip — and what I hope viewers will take away from the TV special — is a realization of how fragile democracy is … and how, if you take freedom for granted, you can lose it.