Gabriele D'Annunzio

Gabriele D'Annunzio (12 March 1863 – 1 March 1938) was an Italian poet, writer, novelist, dramatist, daredevil and war hero, who went on to have a controversial role in politics as a precursor of the fascist movement.

Politics

D'Annunzio is often seen as a precursor of the ideals and techniques of Italian fascism. His own explicit political ideals emerged in Fiume when he coauthored with anarcho-syndicalist Alceste de Ambris the Carta del Carnaro, a Constitution of Fiume. De Ambris provided the legal and political framework, to which D'Annunzio added his skills as a poet. De Ambris was the leader of a group of Italian seamen who had mutinied and then given their vessel to the service of D'Annunzio. The constitution established a corporatist state, with nine corporations to represent the different sectors of the economy (workers, employers, professionals), and a tenth (D'Annunzio's invention) to represent the "superior" human beings (heroes, poets, prophets, supermen). The Carta also declared that music was the fundamental principle of the state.

Related Topics:
Anarcho-syndicalist - Alceste de Ambris - Constitution of Fiume - Music

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It was rather the culture of dictatorship that Benito Mussolini imitated and learned from D'Annunzio; his method of government in Fiume, the economics of the corporate state; stage tricks; large emotive nationalistic public rituals; the Roman salute; rhetorical questions to the crowd; blackshirted followers, the Arditi, with their disciplined, bestial responses and strongarm repression of dissent. (1)

Related Topics:
Benito Mussolini - Arditi

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D'Annunzio was said to have originated the practice of forcibly dosing opponents with large amounts of castor oil to humiliate, disable or kill them. This practice became a common tool of Mussolini's blackshirts.

Related Topics:
Castor oil - Blackshirts

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D'Annunzio advocated an expansionist Italian foreign policy and applauded the invasion of Ethiopia.

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