Architecture of Propaganda, 1989
Efforts to remake Washington DC brought to mind a term paper I wrote evaluating Italian architecture between the two world wars. Mussolini and the Fascists commissioned a number of structures, both in the capital of Rome, in other cities, and in new towns. By and large the architects were Fascists as well.
While the Fascists were building monumental structures in Italy, the Nazis were doing the same in Germany, the Communists in Russia, and the Democrats in the United States. Everyone wanted to demonstrate the power/possibility/potential of the state — in the wake of the Great Depression. The structures, though representing different political systems, were eerily similar.
The Architecture of Propaganda
In the preface to her article "Italian Architects and Fascist Politics”, Diane Ghirardo observes that when dealing with Italian architecture between the two Great Wars, "most historians have ignored the ardent Fascism of the best architects, while others simply avoid the issue altogether and study the buildings as stylistic phenomena. This attitude in part derives from a post-war desire to extricate the best architects and their architecture from a thoroughly discredited political system.” Owing to the reality that many a scholar and historian are left of the political center, that Fascism has been plagued by its association with Hitler and oppression, I can understand how many scholars refute “fascist” architecture. Yet my own analysis reveals that many of the architects of the time were Fascists and that most of the buildings built in Italy between the wars were commissioned by the Fascists. Therefore I think it absurd to not accept the very nature of Fascist architecture.
Cover photo source: https://www.gioielleriadevitis.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/parata-1024x599.jpg.
