1936 treaty between Italy and Germany
On 23 October 1936, a nine-point protocol was signed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in Berlin. It was the first concrete expression of the Italo-German "rapprochement" that began earlier that year. It was signed by the foreign ministers Galeazzo Ciano and Konstantin von Neurath. On the same day in Berlin, the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan was initialed by Ambassador-at-Large Joachim von Ribbentrop and Ambassador Kintomo Mushanokoji.
Ciano's visit to Germany was his first trip abroad as foreign minister. He met von Neurath on 21 October and the two conferred over the next two days. Following the signing of the protocol, Ciano met German "Führer" Adolf Hitler at his retreat in Berchtesgaden on the Austrian border. He gave Hitler stolen British cabinet correspondence in an effort to turn Hitler against the British. Hitler confirmed the Mediterranean as Italy's sphere of influence and told Ciano that Germany would be ready for war in three years.
The protocol was drawn up in German and Italian in parallel columns, each being equally authoritative. The only difference between the versions was that the Italian date included the Roman numeral XIV, indicating the year of the Fascist era. The contents of the protocol were not publicly revealed at the time. The main focus of discussions was on the Spanish Civil War, the only area in which Germany and Italy were actively cooperating. (This cooperation had only recently begun, through talks between Mario Roatta and Wilhelm Canaris on 28 August.) In the protocol, the two sides agreed to resist the renewal of the Locarno Treaties, to align their attitudes towards the League of Nations (of which only Italy was a member) and to pursue economic cooperation in the Danube basin. Germany agreed to recognize Italy's conquest of Ethiopia and Italy agreed to support the restoration of Germany's colonies, lost in the First World War. Italy also accepted the Austro-German Accord of 11 July 1936, which normalized relations between Germany and Austria.
In their public statements, both the German and Italian governments presented Ciano's diplomatic visit and the understanding reached as a challenge to Western hegemony in Europe. The "Völkischer Beobachter", the newspaper of the ruling Nazi Party in Germany, stressed the breaking with traditional diplomatic practice, citing Ciano's speech to some Hitler Youth. On 1 November, in a speech in the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini referred to the Italo-German relationship as an "Axis" for the first time: "The Berlin encounters have resulted in an agreement between both countries on specific problems which are particularly acute these days. But this agreement ... this vertical axis Berlin–Rome is not a diaphragm, but rather an axis with which all European states animated by the will to collaborate and to peace can collaborate." The protocol has been seen as "a joint declaration of war on the status quo", mainly represented by the opposition of Britain and France to German and Italian expansion.
Text.
The following is the English translation published by the United States Government Printing Office, with a few tweaks to formatting:
The treaties and agreements necessary for the implementation of the points enumerated above shall be concluded as soon as possible. The negotiations thereon shall be entrusted to the German and Italian Government Committees for the settlement of German Italian economic relations; these Committees shall hold their next joint session as soon as possible.
References.
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