Giovanni Gentile

National Fascist Party (PNF) Fascists and Nazis 1875–1944 ✕ Killed by partisans

Idealist philosopher and self-styled “philosopher of fascism” who reformed the schools and co-wrote The Doctrine of Fascism

Born in Castelvetrano, Sicily, he led Italian idealism alongside Benedetto Croce and called his own system “actual idealism”. After the March on Rome he became education minister in Mussolini's cabinet, introduced the Gentile Reform in 1923 and joined the National Fascist Party the same year. He wrote the 1925 Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals, directed the Italian Encyclopedia and co-wrote The Doctrine of Fascism with Mussolini in 1932. His influence waned as Mussolini courted the Church, but he followed Mussolini into the Italian Social Republic after the 1943 armistice. In April 1944 members of the communist partisan Gruppi di Azione Patriottica shot him in Florence.