Martina Bitunjac
Origins, Development, and Legacy of the Ustaša Movement in a Geopolitical Context
The Croatian Ustaša movement was founded in 1930 by Ante Pavelić while he was in exile in Italy. The proto-fascist movement adopted the nationalistic and racist worldviews of Italian fascism and German Nazism, while also orienting itself towards the nationalistic mindset of the nationalist-conservative Croatian Party of Rights, which had been founded by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik in 1861. When the Ustaša came to power in 1941, the radicalized nationalism they had been propagating was implemented in the independent state of Croatia. My talk deals with the origins, development and legacy of Croatian fascism, a legacy which is present in Croatian society today, though it is perceived as controversial. In addition, I will examine questions of revisionism, myth-building, nationalistic symbolism and rhetoric from a geopolitical perspective.
Martina Bitunjac holds a PhD in Modern History and in the History of Europe from the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Sapienza University of Rome (Cotutelle de thèse). She is a researcher at the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies in Potsdam and is the managing editor of the Journal of Religious and Cultural Studies / Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte. In addition, she is a lecturer at the Department of History at the University of Potsdam. Her academic interests include Holocaust studies, fascist movements in the Balkans, and Jewish history in southeastern Europe. Her most recent publications include: Jüdische Lebenswelten im Osmanischen Reich (2024); Complicated Complicity. European Collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II (2021, edited with Julius H. Schoeps); Lea Deutsch. Ein Kind des Schauspiels, der Musik und des Tanzes (2019); and Verwicklung. Beteiligung. Unrecht. Frauen und die Ustaša-Bewegung (2023).