Giovanni Gentile
Fascist politician, journalist, and translator of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Giovanni Gentile (29 May 1875 – 15 April 1944) was an Italian pedagogue, philosopher, and politician who, alongside Benedetto Croce, became a leading figure of Italian idealism. He developed his own philosophical system, termed "actual idealism" or "actualism," which has been characterized as the subjective extreme of the idealist tradition. Gentile was described by himself and by Benito Mussolini as the "philosopher of fascism," providing key intellectual foundations for the movement. He authored the 1925 Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals and co-wrote portions of the 1932 "The Doctrine of Fascism" with Mussolini. As Minister for Public Education, he enacted the 1923 Gentile Reform of the Italian educational system, the first major legislation passed by the Fascist government, which remained in effect in some form until 1962. He also co-founded the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia with Giovanni Treccani and served as its first editor. Born in Castelvetrano, Gentile was inspired by Risorgimento thinkers like Mazzini, Rosmini, Gioberti, and Spaventa, and was heavily influenced by German idealism, particularly Hegel, Fichte, and Marx, as well as Nietzsche. He considered himself culturally Catholic and held that God is immanent in the act of thinking, not a separate transcendent entity. He graduated from the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa in 1898 with a dissertation on Rosmini and Gioberti. His academic career included professorships in the history of philosophy at Palermo and Rome, theoretical philosophy at Pisa and Rome, and leadership roles at the Scuola Normale Superiore and Bocconi University. Initially a conservative liberal uninvolved in politics, World War I spurred his active engagement. He supported Italy's intervention after the Battle of Caporetto, viewing the war as a chance to complete the Risorgimento and forge a new, spiritually vigorous Italy. He criticized extreme nationalists, socialists, Catholics, and the liberal political system, and backed Gabriele D'Annunzio's occupation of Fiume. His political influence waned in the late 1920s as Mussolini sought alliance with the Catholic Church, conflicting with Gentile's secularism, but he remained a faithful Fascist. After the 1943 armistice, he followed Mussolini into the Italian Social Republic and was assassinated by partisans in 1944.
- born
- 24 October 1881, Torella dei Lombardi, Italy
- died
- 26 April 1945, Milan, Italy
- field
- Journalism, politics
- nationality
- Italian
- known_for
- Translating The Protocols of the Elders of Zion into Italian, heading the Genera
Verified Timeline
Lore & Background
Preziosi's antisemitism developed after Italy's poor returns from World War I, when he blamed Jewish elements for many of Italy's ills. He argued Jews were incapable of being racially and spiritually Italian due to alleged double loyalties and the growth of Zionism, and believed Jews were behind communism, Freemasonry, capitalism, and democracy. His thought was influenced by Edouard Drumont's *La Libre Parole*, Howell Arthur Gwynne's *The Cause of World Unrest*, and Henry Ford's *The Dearborn Independent*. In 1921, he became the first to translate *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion* into Italian. Although initially Germanophobic—publishing *Germania alla conquista dell'Italia* in 1916—he changed tack from 1933 onward, becoming a strong advocate of close co-operation with Nazi Germany and criticizing Italian fascism for its lack of emphasis on perceived Jewish wrongdoings. His views reached a wider audience after the passing of the Italian Racial Laws.
Reader's Guide
In 1923, Preziosi coadiuvated Italian nationalist Ettore Tolomei in preparing the *Provvedimenti per l'Alto Adige* ('Measures for the Alto Adige'), which became the blueprint for the Italianization of South Tyrol. His growing prestige was rewarded in 1942 when he was made a minister of state. Following the formation of the Italian Social Republic (RSI), Preziosi was initially moved to Nazi Germany to serve as Adolf Hitler's adviser on Italian affairs, contributing to propaganda through a show on Radio Munich that attacked Guido Buffarini Guidi and Alessandro Pavolini as 'Jew-lovers'. He returned to Italy in March 1944 to head the *Ispettorato Generale della Razza* (General Inspectorate of Race), introducing a system based on the Nuremberg Laws to crack down on Jewish elements. During the RSI years, he pursued the extermination of the Jews 'with fanatical fury,' in the words of historian Emilio Gentile. His activities were at times frustrated by Mussolini, who held a long-standing personal distrust of him. On 26 April 1945, after a narrow escape from Italian partisans, Preziosi fled with his wife Valeria to Milan. The next day, they took their own lives by throwing themselves from a fourth-floor window. In his farewell letter, he wrote: 'I have lived my whole life for the greatness of my fatherland. I followed Mussolini because I saw in him the man who could give greatness to the Fatherland. After 25 July I hoped again. Today, when everything collapses, I can do nothing better than not survive. In this act she follows me who has shared all my struggles and all my hopes. One day, our son Romano will be proud of this gesture.'
Did You Know?
- Preziosi was defrocked from the priesthood in 1911 but remained a lifelong adherent of conservative Catholicism.
- He became the first to translate *The Protocols of the Elders of Zion* into Italian in 1921.
- In 1916, he published a book titled *Germania alla conquista dell'Italia* ('Germany's Conquest of Italy'), reflecting his early Germanophobia.
- He coadiuvated Ettore Tolomei in preparing the 1923 *Provvedimenti per l'Alto Adige*, the blueprint for the Italianization of South Tyrol.
- Preziosi and his wife Valeria died by suicide on 26 April 1945, jumping from a fourth-floor window in Milan.
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