The Evil Genius of Fascist Design

0:00 Look at this face.

0:03 This was the facade of the Palato Brasi,

0:06 the headquarters of the Italian Fascist Party in Rome.

0:10 It was a billboard erected in support of Benonito

0:12 Mussolini ahead of Italy's last elections in 1934.

0:18 But these elections were not normal.

0:21 In fact, only fascists were allowed on the ballot.

0:25 It was a sham.

0:26 That's because Italy at the time was under

0:29 fascist rule and Mussolini was the dictator in charge.

0:33 The design transformed the building into a kind of temple to obedience,

0:38 a visual mantra repeating itself over and over.

0:42 Yes.

0:43 Yes.

0:44 Yes.

0:46 This facade is an example of fascism's curious relationship with aesthetics.

0:50 In the 1930s, as Europe reeled from one world war and inched closer to another,

0:57 fascist regimes weren't just building armies.

0:59 They were building myths carved into marble,

1:03 projected onto cinema screens, and paraded through city streets.

1:07 To fascist leaders, aesthetics weren't just important, they were everything.

1:13 But why did they care so much about how things looked?

1:17 Well, behind this attitude hit a dark and twisted genius.

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3:00 Let's get back to the video.

3:04 Early in his political career,

3:06 Mussolini declared that fascism was not just an ideology.

3:11 It was a religion.

3:13 Like any religion, it needed a visual language.

3:17 And before long, it had one.

3:20 In the early 20th century,

3:22 two artistic movements helped shape fascism's visual language,

3:26 romanticism and futurism.

3:29 At first glance, these seemed like strange bedfellows.

3:33 The romantic movement contained a longing for the past,

3:37 an obsession with nature, and a focus on the sublime.

3:41 Futurism, by contrast, called for the total annihilation of the past.

3:46 It woripped speed, machines, and violence.

3:50 But together, these two influences gave fascism

3:54 a peculiar ability to look both backward and forward to summon the glory of past

4:00 empires while promising a radical new future.

4:04 Italian futurists like Filipo Tomaso Marineti were

4:08 some of the earliest supporters of Mussolini.

4:11 They believed that Italy needed to shake off its sleepy traditions

4:16 and embrace war and technology to bring about a new order.

4:21 Their manifestos were full of aggressive language,

4:24 and their art rejected softness and nuance in favor of bold lines,

4:29 angular forms, and kinetic energy.

4:32 Mussolini's face on the Palato Brasi embodies that aesthetic.

4:38 The solid stone and harsh lines are unambiguous.

4:42 Fascism's furrowed brows bury into you a deep,

4:45 piercing gaze, and it says, "I am watching.

4:50 Obey." For a time, futurism seemed like a promising accompaniment to fascism.

4:58 It made sense to Mussolini that revolutionary art

5:01 should support what he saw as a revolutionary movement.

5:05 But there was one big problem.

5:08 Futurism failed to support one of fascism's most fundamental aims.

5:14 Fascist leaders didn't just want to look forward.

5:17 They also wanted to look back all the way to ancient times.

5:22 In 1922, Mussolini declared that Rome is

5:26 fascism's quote point of departure and reference.

5:30 It is our symbol or if you wish our myth.

5:34 We dream of a Roman Italy that is wise and strong, disciplined and imperial.

5:40 German dictator Adolf Hitler echoed this sentiment.

5:45 Though some of his Nazi peers wanted to glorify the old Germanic tribes,

5:49 Hitler idolized ancient Rome and Greece.

5:53 Hitler's chief architect, Albert Shpier, recorded him once saying, quote,

5:58 "Why do we call the whole world's attention to the fact that we have no past?

6:03 It's bad enough that Romans were erecting great

6:06 buildings when our forefathers still lived in mud huts.

6:10 All we prove by that is that we were

6:12 still throwing stone hatchets and crouching around open fires

6:16 when Greece and Rome had already reached the highest

6:19 stage of culture." While Mussolini's reference to Rome was nationalistic,

6:24 Hitler's was aspirational.

6:27 But in both cases, it helped build a myth critical

6:30 to fascist ideology that the nation had fallen and required a rebirth.

6:37 To this end, much of fascist architecture incorporated neocclassical styles.

6:43 Both Hitler and Mussolini undertook huge architectural projects to bring

6:48 the aesthetics of ancient Rome to their city streets.

6:52 In Italy, Mussolini commissioned an enormous sports

6:55 complex which included the stagio de Marmy.

6:58 In English, the stadium of marble as articulated by its chief designer.

7:04 The project was meant to be quote a complex of severe monumentality

7:09 that could be traced back to the greatest monuments of ancient Rome.

7:13 Not only was the stadium huge,

7:15 it was lined with 4 m high statues of nude athletes in classical poses.

7:22 These figures encircled the entire stadium,

7:25 forcing all who trained inside to come face to face

7:28 with the racial and physical ideals lorded by fascist leaders.

7:33 They placed particular emphasis on physical

7:35 primacy because they wanted every citizen

7:38 to be able to serve the state to the greatest of their abilities.

7:42 If they were physically weak or god forbid impaired,

7:46 then they were dead weight at best and liabilities at worst.

7:50 Thus, these statues typified the strong

7:54 ab chiseled masculine bodies that fascism idealized.

7:59 Hundreds of miles away,

8:00 similar forms flanked the new Reich Chancellory in Berlin.

8:05 Produced by Hitler's official state sculptor, Anora,

8:08 the statues known as the army

8:10 and the party observed all who graced the building.

8:13 Like in Rome, these statues weren't just decoration.

8:18 They were ideological tools broadcasting a clear message about the kind

8:22 of body and the kind of citizen fascism sought to produce.

8:28 But when it came to world building,

8:30 it wasn't enough to just have some statues here and there.

8:34 Mussolini Hitler wanted to fully revamp the way people moved through the world.

8:40 In Germany, Hitler spent years drafting plans for Gmania,

8:44 a total redesign of Berlin meant to recall Imperial Rome.

8:49 In Italy, Mussolini actually carried out the construction of the UE district.

8:55 Among its many buildings inspired by Roman

8:57 design was the Palazzo de la Civita Italana, also known as the Square Coliseum.

9:03 The project merged modernist design with ancient influence,

9:07 making tangible the tension between fascism's exaltation

9:11 of the past and its idealization of a fresh future.

9:15 Compared to the Colosseum of ancient Rome,

9:17 the Square Coliseum is stark, geometric, and imposing.

9:22 Everything is harsher, sharper, more intimidating.

9:27 Ornament has been stripped away, replaced by blank marble in empty space.

9:33 While the original coliseum is horizontally dominant,

9:36 the square coliseum towers above passes by.

9:40 Of course, neocclassicism wasn't unique to fascist design.

9:45 Lots of people and places have tried to hearken back to ancient Rome,

9:49 but the manner in which fascists imitated it seems

9:52 to say a lot about what they were trying to be.

9:55 Compare the US capital building to Hitler's proposed folks,

9:59 the centerpiece of his redevelopment plans for Berlin.

10:03 Both drew inspiration from Rome's pantheon.

10:07 Their architects reached for familiar Roman forms, columns, domes, arches.

10:13 But despite using similar architectural vocabularies,

10:17 they have completely different tones.

10:20 In part, this is due to scale.

10:23 Hitler had big ideas for Gmana, literally.

10:27 Every part of the new capital was meant to be big.

10:30 The train station was to be the largest in the world.

10:33 The cinema was designed to seat 6,000 people,

10:37 and the Vhal plaza was supposed to hold 1 million.

10:41 and the folks itself.

10:43 It was supposed to be the largest structure in the whole world.

10:47 Only with its construction did Hitler believe

10:50 that Nazi Germany would finally quote put Rome,

10:54 its only competitor, in the shade.

10:57 If one could stand under a structure like

11:00 this, perhaps they would get a sense of the size,

11:03 scale, and power that these leaders wanted to project.

11:07 not just as leaders of a nation, but as figures that hoped to transcend time.

11:13 These buildings, like many in Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy,

11:17 were designed to be lasting symbols.

11:20 Hitler explicitly intended for the architecture

11:23 of Gmania to last a thousand years.

11:26 Because fascism wasn't just about the domination of the present.

11:31 It was about creating a legacy,

11:33 a grand historical narrative where the state never fails,

11:38 even when the leaders themselves are long gone.

11:42 On this front, Gmania was an utter failure.

11:46 Despite years of planning and building intricate models,

11:49 little construction work ever got underway.

11:52 All that survived World War II were some street lamps and a single chair.

11:58 But fascism's focus on gigantic structures was not accidental.

12:03 It was part of a calculated effort to control the people who inhabited them,

12:09 worked in them, and visited them.

12:12 Monumental architecture overwhelmed not to elevate the soul

12:16 but to crush the individual into the crowd and promote conformity.

12:22 Mussolini's planned 86 m statue of himself on one

12:26 of the highest hills in Rome on the Monte

12:28 Mario which would survey the people and dominate

12:31 the landscape is an excellent example of this strategy.

12:36 The Colossus of Mussolini, as it would come to be called,

12:39 would tower over even the Vatican's St.

12:42 Peter's Basilica, communicating fascism superiority

12:46 over the world's largest religion?

12:49 If even your faith in spirituality,

12:51 your most precious refuge in the arms of God,

12:55 was subordinated to fascism, what hope did you have in fighting it?

13:01 But the effort to control people with architecture was

13:04 perhaps nowhere clearer than the Zeppelin field in Nuremberg, Germany.

13:09 As usual, Hitler had big ambitions with this site.

13:14 As his press spokesman put it in 1935, the venue, quote,

13:18 with its unique concepts of architecture and use of space will

13:23 be the highest symbol of national socialist life and national socialist cultura.

13:29 In it, the unique style of national

13:31 socialism will find its strongest expression.

13:36 The parade ground was huge.

13:39 The vast open area allowed up to 250,000 people to march within it.

13:45 At the front stood a main grandstand.

13:49 The stone structure was 396 m long and 24 m high.

13:54 And at its center was a podium for the fura.

13:58 If one stood in a rally here,

14:00 they wouldn't just see Hitler up above on his podium.

14:04 They would see rows and rows of identical uniformed soldiers.

14:08 They wouldn't just feel dwarfed by their leader.

14:10 They would feel surrounded by the state.

14:14 But it wasn't enough for Hitler that individuals feel small and suffocated.

14:19 They also needed to feel connected to something bigger.

14:23 So in 1936, Abach revamped the Zeppelin field.

14:28 He had search lights placed all around the perimeter of the venue.

14:33 Aimed vertically, they formed striking walls of light.

14:37 At night, this display transformed rallies

14:40 into theatrical acts of state worship.

14:44 With the lights, the music, the swastika emlazed flags,

14:47 the field practically became a stage.

14:51 In this context, Hitler may have been the star,

14:54 but everyone in the field played a part in the production.

14:59 As the American scholar James Mayo noted, in rallies,

15:03 the mass of participants may also be seen as part

15:06 of the stage with an interflow of emotional impact between actors and audience.

15:11 The stage may be the focal point,

15:14 but it is expanded to include all participants.

15:18 Everyone is on stage and becomes both actor and part of the scene.

15:23 Though the audience at the Zeppelin field

15:26 had no control over the spectacle itself, they were not passive observers.

15:31 Their presence was vital to the performance.

15:35 They were quite literally part of the stage.

15:39 In their orchestrated uniformity,

15:41 they became an architectural element in a grand theatrical space.

15:45 Their bodies filled the void around the leader,

15:49 giving his image scale and significance.

15:52 Their presence did more than just legitimize his power.

15:56 By participating, even silently,

15:59 they reflected and reinforced to one another a shared

16:01 understanding of who held power and who did not.

16:06 The twisted genius of fascist aesthetics

16:08 is that it subliminally encouraged conformity,

16:12 subservience, and above all belief by making

16:16 the individual feel small and powerless.

16:22 This was the ultimate function of Hitler's rallies.

16:26 As French philosopher Jacquel once wrote,

16:28 "Integration is what makes the effect of propaganda endure.

16:33 for action makes its effects irreversible.

16:36 He who acts in obedience to propaganda can never go back.

16:41 He is now obliged to believe in it because of his past actions.

16:46 The fact that the Zeppelin field came to be known as the Cathedral of Light

16:50 only deepened the impression that the events

16:53 held there were no mere political rallies,

16:56 but sacred rights, reinforcing Mussolini's earlier claim that fascism

17:02 was not just an ideology, but a religion.

17:06 The effort poured into fascist aesthetics underscores how

17:10 seriously its leaders took the power of appearances,

17:14 especially in the case of Mussolini.

17:16 On a personal level, the Italian dictator didn't care much for art.

17:20 Hitler himself remarked how visibly bored

17:23 Mussolini would look inside of art galleries,

17:26 but Mussolini knew a good power play when he saw one.

17:30 And in Italy, art was power.

17:34 This was a country that prided itself on its artistic prowess,

17:37 whose cultural legacy was internationally renowned.

17:41 So even if Mussolini wasn't moved by brushstrokes or marble,

17:45 he understood the political math.

17:48 Championing the arts meant tying his regime to the myth of Italian greatness.

17:54 So Mussolini set out to enslave the arts to an exacting fascist bureaucracy.

18:00 By 1927, Italy had its own cultural

18:03 oversight organization stacked with state approved artists.

18:08 Together with regional committees,

18:09 it made sure art inside state institutions was always on message.

18:15 By 1940, there was also a department of contemporary

18:18 art tasked with emphasizing national heritage within artworks

18:22 and explaining their quote useful and educative content

18:26 to the public because that was what mattered to Mussolini.

18:30 He wasn't interested in art for art's sake,

18:34 only its ability to unify, pacify, and glorify.

18:39 Art was only welcome as long as it promised to play nice.

18:44 every known radical, every known for Hitler art was far more precious.

18:50 Sure, it was political, but it was also very personal.

18:53 Before Hitler was FA, he was of course an aspiring artist with firm

18:58 ideas about what he liked and what he did not.

19:01 So when he took power in 1933,

19:04 it wasn't just ideology that shaped Nazi aesthetics.

19:07 It was taste.

19:09 His taste.

19:10 Instead of subjecting art professors in Vienna to his artistic mediocrity,

19:15 he would instead force it on an entire country.

19:18 To Hitler, art was meant to soothe the soul, not challenge it.

19:24 There should be no pain, no mess, no modernism.

19:27 He despised the chaos of futurism,

19:30 the abstraction of cubism, and the emotional swirl of expressionism.

19:35 He wanted neocclassicism, straightforward realism, and nothing else.

19:42 In 1937, his definition of degenerate art was formalized

19:46 with a decree banning any work that quote insulted

19:50 German feeling or destroyed or confused natural forms or simply

19:55 revealed an absence of adequate manual and artistic skill.

20:00 Artists who didn't tow the line were barred from teaching,

20:04 exhibiting, even painting.

20:07 Art that had already been created was seized.

20:10 In total, 17,000 so-called degenerate works from 1,400

20:16 artists were taken and either sold abroad, traded for old masters, or burned.

20:23 Unsurprisingly, Hitler wanted any hint of individualism,

20:27 abstraction, or subversion to be extinguished.

20:30 Aware perhaps that enemy ideologies could hide even in the most familiar forms.

20:37 A Roman column isn't always just a column.

20:40 Change how it's scaled, spaced, or lit,

20:43 and suddenly it can suggest democracy or dictatorship.

20:46 It can make you feel welcomed and contemplative or it can make you feel small

20:51 and speechless and by the time you

20:54 notice the architecture has already done its job.

20:58 So to return to the question,

21:01 why did fascist regimes care so much about how things looked?

21:04 Well, because aesthetics are a form of control.

21:08 They shape how people see the world,

21:10 how they see each other, and how they see themselves.

21:13 A field isn't just a field.

21:15 It's a stage.

21:16 A government building isn't just a workplace.

21:19 It's a monument to power.

21:22 A face on a billboard isn't just a portrait.

21:25 It's a god.

21:27 Fascist aesthetics created a visual reality in which the state was ever present,

21:32 always powerful, always sacred.

21:36 Art and architecture weren't just decoration.

21:39 They were immersive tools of mythmaking.

21:42 And myths were fundamental to fascism because they gave people the feeling

21:47 of revolution or of glory without the burden of actual change.

21:52 Fascist leaders didn't have to deliver a new better world.

21:55 They just had to sell the fantasy.

21:58 This is why philosopher Walter Benjamin famously wrote, quote,

22:02 "The logical result of fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into political

22:06 life." Mussolini and Hitler gave the masses only performance and spectacle,

22:12 not real power or prosperity.

22:15 Their rituals gave them the illusion

22:18 of participation while denying them real political agency.

22:22 Fascist design did much the same.

22:25 Like Hitler wanted it to.

22:27 It created a world that soothed you.

22:30 Art and architecture flattered your image of the state and gave rise to pride.

22:37 if you were of a patriotic persuasion.

22:40 If you were not, fascist design intimidated, threatened,

22:45 and constantly reminded you of just how

22:48 very small and powerless you really were.

22:57 [Music]