There have been many special friendships and (in)famous duos throughout the course of history, Lewis and Clark, Bonnie and Clyde, Lloyd and Harry, etc. So in honor of ‘National Best Friends Day’ let’s take a look at Hitler hanging out with his one and only migliore amico, Il Duce. Okay, so maybe this dubious dictator duo weren’t always on the most amicable terms, their relationship was certainly rife with its share of jealousy, rivalry, backstabbing, and conflict, but what relationship isn’t complete without a touch of strife and old fashioned dissension. Yet this pair of BFF’s made certain that any and all outgoing Fascist propaganda to the public created a powerful impression of them as the most preeminent of pals. It is actually quite hard to tell looking at this portfolio of photographs that these two didn’t have a friendship as legendary as Bert & Ernie’s.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

So the hallmark of any great friendship is having a whole lot of shared interests in common. Well unfortunately it seems these two really didn’t have that much in common at all, but hey it looks like this dashing duo definitely found some common ground here – who doesn’t love a parade? Especially if you’re at the center of it all, riding around in a fancy car waving and saluting at gigantic crowds of loyal and adoring minions. The formidable founder of fascism himself the Duce might even be able to take credit for inventing dictator crowd cruising. Shoot I haven’t seen smiles this big since my trip to Disney World in 2007.

Italy State Visit 1934

Venice, the City of Bridges, was to be the site of the first face to face encounter of this tyrannical twosome. Hitler had frustratingly failed to get an invitation to Rome from Mussolini in 1933, but the moment finally arrived to meet his Italian counterpart in the summer of 1934. His plane touched down in Venice the morning of 14 June 1934, a city chosen as a convenient middle meeting point between Berlin and Rome. Unfortunately for Hitler he had made a pretty grandiose rookie dictator faux-pas – not wearing his uniform!! – but this was the perfect occasion to gain mastery on exactly how to emulate the more senior dictator. Up to this moment that had never really gone very well for Hitler, ever since trying to replicate Mussolini’s 1922 ‘March on Rome’ with his botched November 1923 putsch attempt in Munich. But as we shall see the tide will now turn here amongst the coruscating canals of Venice.

Hitler and Mussolini met for the first time during the occasion of the 1934 Venice Biennale. The 19th Venice Biennale was an exhibition of international contemporary art, with 16 participating nations. The expo also highlighted the competition between the capitalist American and socialist Soviet positions. During his visit, Hitler expressed the need to modify the German pavilion according to the new architectural canons of National Socialist architecture and ordered it to be redesigned. The project was entrusted to architect Ernst Haiger and the renovated building was inaugurated in time for the 1938 Venice Biennale. The photos below are of Hitler touring the Germany pavilion at the Venice Biennale on 15 June 1934.

Italy State Visit 1938

So if the 1934 Italy visit got off on the wrong bootless foot so to speak, given Hitler’s forgotten uniform debacle, this trip went resplendently well. Hitler really goose-stepped up his game in May 1938. Over the course of an entire week the citizens of Italy were treated to the grand spectacle of Adolf Hitler being paraded up and down through the swarmed city streets of Rome, Naples and Florence. This prodigious pilgrimage offered up to the world a superb spectacle of flashy Fascist fanaticism replete with an epically profuse portion of propaganda the likes of which had never been previously seen.

Germany State Visit 1937

In late September 1937, Benito Mussolini was received in Berlin by Adolf Hitler with a triumphal procession through the city. Both the German Führer and the Italian Duce had designed this encounter simply to cement the powerful image of the two of the world’s most formidable dictators as the coziest of cronies. The German and Italian governments intended that the pomp and circumstance surrounding the meeting would relieve any lingering feelings of ill will that still lingered amongst the citizens of both countries as a consequence of having fought on opposite sides during the Great War.

One million people packed the May Field at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin to hear German Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini speak on 28 September 1937.

Munich Conference & WWII

The Munich Agreement was yet another treaty in a very long line of treaties meant to appease and contain Hitler, believed to be THE treaty to finally end all treaties. *Spoiler Alert* Hitler violated the Munich Treaty. The beginning of World War II kicked off with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939, when his treaty dissing actions were finally met with the physical force of the other European countries who suddenly realized that treaties wouldn’t contain Hitler anymore than you could dam an avalanche or lasso a landslide. And right by his side, his constant compadre, companion and crony, the yin to his yang, the southern pole to his northern axis, his consistent comrade in arms, was the one and only ride or die Duce.