Mussolinis ‚Drittes Rom‘ in globaler Perspektive: Anmerkungen zu einer Kopie der Kapitolinischen Wölfin in Changchun, China

• Autores: Sven Günther, Hongxia Zhang
• Localización: Gymnasium, ISSN 0342-5231, Vol. 130, Nº. 6, 2023, págs. 547-562
• Idioma: alemán
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• Resumen

  • The article examines the historical context of a copy of the Lupa Capitolina which is housed in a seminar room of the School of History of Culture at Northeast Normal University, Changchun. The study of contemporary newspapers reveals that the statue copy was donated as a diplomatic gift by the fascist-led Italian Economic Mission to Japan to the City of Changchun, then Xinjing/Hsinking in the Japanese-controlled state of Manchukuo on 4 June 1938, and thus should not be dated to 1942, not related to direct diplomatic contacts between the Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and Manchukuo’s Chief Executive, the former and last Chinese Qing Dynasty emperor Puyi, as claimed by the commemorative plate applied to the Changchun Lupa statue. Moreover, the shewolf with twins was an important tessera in the ideologically loaded Romanità-mosaic of Mussolini who used it for his propaganda of a Third Rome in the capital city of his fascist regime, the territory of the former Imperium Romanum the imperial glory of which he wished to restore with all (violent) means, and worldwide, especially in autocratic states that took a friendly stance to his regime. Thus, the copy of the Lupa Capitolina in Changchun, which was found without the twins after WW2 by a Chinese professor of Northeast Normal University, is an important object of cultural memory that reminds of the use and abuse of ancient heritage in the not-so-distant past, and the importance of tracing the exact historical context to not fall into modern traps of framing.