Food Discourses and Alimentary Policies in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

This article adds to the growing literature on the history of food in the European dictatorships by examining and comparing the alimentary policies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and their application, paying particular attention to the relationship between class, gender, and the nation. It expands our knowledge and understanding of the mechanics of these dictatorships and of the impact of their food policies on their populations in a comparative way. The Fascist regime took initiatives related to food consumption from the mid-1920s, and women were at the centre of their food propaganda; Nazi Germany – in a similar manner to the Fascist regime – between 1933 and 1939, put in place food policies to encourage people to change their eating habits, even before the outbreak of the Second World War. The analysis of alimentary policies and strategies adopted by the Fascist and Nazi regimes, in the first part of their governments, illustrates the similarities in the populist construction of their food discourses and their efforts to galvanize their citizens. With the consolidation of the two regimes, national specific food initiatives, which were culturally bound and linked to economic and political choices emerged and delineated the differences between the two regimes. Through a detailed account of how food consumption was addressed in particular in domestic literature in the two countries, this article examines the uneven impact of food policies on the different social classes in Italy and Germany. It shows, through its comparative approach to the Italian Fascist and Nazi regimes, how food discourses and alimentary policies to control the population were similar in some respects and dissimilar in others.

Dynamics, experiences and political meaning of the black market in Second World War Italy

“…These were two very different ways to approach the wartime economy. The Nazi regime established state control of the market while imposing national food practices aimed at keeping the population united in the effort to adopt a wartime food economy (Sambuco and Pine 2023). It differed from the Fascist regime also in the application of food policies: during the Nazi occupation of Italy, Nazi officials were surprised by the number of Fascist laws regulating food supplies (Helstosky 2006, 108).…”

“…Other publications, such as La donna fascista , the magazine of the women's organisation of the Fascist party, regularly published cookery columns. The food magazine La cucina italiana , first published in 1929, like Ada Boni's book targeted a cosmopolitan and upper-class readership rather than middle-class housewives, as most of the other publications did, bringing Italian cuisine in dialogue with international high cuisine (Sambuco and Pine 2023, 141–142). In this case, cooking with less was not as relevant as the international standing of Italian cuisine.…”