Adoption during the 20th century

 

Adoption during the 20th century

Italy

D'Annunzio, who had written the subtitles for the silent movie epic Cabiria, appropriated the salute when he occupied Fiume in 1919.[37] D'Annunzio has been described as the John the Baptist of Italian Fascism, as virtually the entire ritual of Fascism was invented by D'Annunzio during his occupation of Fiume and his leadership of the "Italian Regency of Carnaro".[39] Besides the Roman salute, these included the balcony address, the cries of "Eia, eia, eia! Alalà!", the dramatic and rhetorical dialogues with the crowd, and the use of religious symbols in new secular settings.

 

Like other neo-Imperial rituals used by D'Annunzio, the salute became part of the Italian fascist movement's symbolic repertoire. On January 31, 1923, the Ministry of Education instituted a ritual honoring the flag in schools using the Roman salute.[37] In 1925, as Mussolini began his fascitization of the state, the salute was gradually adopted by the regime, and by December 1, 1925, all state civil administrators were required to use it.

 

Achille Starace, the Italian Fascist Party secretary, pushed for measures to make the use of the Roman salute generally compulsory, denouncing hand shaking as bourgeois. He further extolled the salute as "more hygienic, more aesthetic, and shorter." He also suggested that the Roman salute did not imply the necessity of taking off the hat unless one was indoors. By 1932, the salute was adopted as the substitute for the handshake. On August 19, 1933, the military was ordered to use the salute whenever an unarmed detachment of soldiers was called on to render military honors for the King or Mussolini.

 

The symbolic value of the gesture grew, and it was felt that the proper salute "had the effect of showing the fascist man's decisive spirit, which was close to that of ancient Rome". The salute was seen to demonstrate the fascist's "decisive spirit, firmness, seriousness, and acknowledgment and acceptance of the regime's hierarchical structure".It was further felt that the correct physical gesture brought forth a change in character. A joke claimed, however, that the Fascist salute used one hand because Italians were tired of raising both hands to surrender during World War I.

 

The handshake was supposed to disappear from the view of Italians and not contaminate their daily life. In 1938, the party abolished handshaking in films and theater, and on November 21, 1938, the Ministry of Popular Culture issued orders banning the publishing of photographs showing people shaking hands. Even official photographs of visiting dignitaries were retouched to remove the image of their handshaking.

 

Germany

In Germany, the salute, sporadically used by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) since 1923, was made compulsory within the movement in 1926.[45] Called the Hitler salute (Hitlergruß), it functioned both as an expression of commitment within the party and as a demonstrative statement to the outside world.Yet in spite of this demand for the outward display of obedience, the drive to gain acceptance did not go unchallenged, even within the movement.[46] Early objections focused on its resemblance to the Roman salute employed by Fascist Italy, and hence on it not being Germanic. In response, efforts were made to establish its pedigree and invent a proper tradition after the fact.

 

The compulsory use of the Hitler salute for all public employees followed a directive issued by Reich Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick on July 13, 1933, one day before the ban on all non-Nazi parties. The Wehrmacht refused to adopt the Hitler salute and was able for a time to maintain its own customs.The military were required to use the Hitler salute only while singing the Horst Wessel Lied and German national anthem, and in non-military encounters such as greeting members of the civilian government. Only after the July 20 Plot in 1944 were the military forces of the Third Reich ordered to replace the standard military salute with the Hitler salute.

 

Similar forms of salutes were adopted by various groups. Its use in France dates back to the revolution. It will be used also by the Jeunesses Patriotes (Patriotic Youth), a movement led by Pierre Taittinger, would give the fascist salute at meetings while shouting "Dictatorship!".[50] Marcel Bucard's Mouvement Franciste, founded in September 1933, adopted the salute as well as donning blue shirts and blue berets. Solidarité Française used the salute as well, though its leaders denied the movement was fascist. By 1937, rivalry amongst French right wing parties sometimes caused confusion over salutes.The Parti Populaire Français, generally regarded as the most pro-Nazi of France's collaborationist parties, adopted a variant of the salute that distinguished itself from others by slightly bending the hand and holding it at face level.

 

In the early 1930s, the salute was used by members of the Estonian nationalist right wing Vaps Movement, as well as the Brazilian Integralist Action, who used to salute by raising one arm. The Brazilian form of the Salute was called "Anauê" – a word used as a salutation and as a cry by the Brazilian indigenous Tupi people, meaning "you are my brother".

 

In Greece in 1936, when Ioannis Metaxas and his 4th of August Regime took power, an almost identical salute was adopted – first by the National Youth Organization and later by the government as well as common people – and used even while fighting against Italy and Germany in WW2.

 

In Spain, in the early 1930s, CEDA, the Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas ("Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Right-wing Groups") adopted a form of the Roman salute. Then, on April 26, 1937, after General Francisco Franco took over the fascist Falange Española de las JONS party and merged it with the Carlist, monarchist, and ultracatholic Traditionalist Communion, creating the FET y de las JONS (Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional Sindicalista, lit. 'Traditionalist Spanish Phalanx of the Councils of the National Syndicalist Offensive"), he formally approved the salute in a decree which made it the official salutation to be used by all except the military, who would continue to use the traditional military salutes. This was repealed in September 1945. When the Franco regime restored "Marcha Real" as the Spanish national anthem in 1942 and established unofficial new lyrics for it, the first stanza referred to the fascist salute: "Alzad los brazos, hijos del pueblo español" ("Raise your arms, sons of the Spanish people"). These lyrics remained part of the Spanish national anthem until 1978.

 

After a meeting with Mussolini, in December 1937, Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Stojadinović and chairman of Yugoslav Radical Union adopted a version of the salute as he took to styling himself as Vođa (Leader).

 

On January 4, 1939, the salute by raising one arm was adopted in Romania under a statute promulgating the National Renaissance Front.[ In Slovakia, the Hlinka Guard's Na stráž! (On guard!) consisted of a half-hearted compromise between a friendly wave and a salute with a straight raised arm.

 

During the Vichy regime in France, the Roman salute was regularly used by members of the Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism and the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne.It was also used by certain collaborationist groups (such as the National Popular Rally) during public events organised by the regime.Pupils of the Chantiers de la jeunesse française, a pro-Vichy youth movement, also used the Roman salute.