The Italian Social Republic (Repubblica Sociale Italiana in Italian), also known as the Republic of Salò, was a fascist puppet state in German-occupied northern Italy.

After the Allied forces invaded southern Italy, and began to advance toward Rome, Benito Mussolini's Grand Fascist Council, with the support of King Vittorio Emmanuele III, overthrew and arrested Mussolini. The new government began peace negotiations with the Allied powers.

Germany, concerned that Italian forces would join the Allied troops, quickly intervened. Germany seized control of northern Italy. Mussolini was rescued by Otto Skorzeny, and brought to the German-occupied area to establish a new regime. Mussolini declared on September 23, 1943, that the coup was over, and that his government was continuing as a republic, with himself as leader.

Mussolini estalished his capital at Salò, a small village on Lake Garda, and began to try to assemble the organs of State. Soon after its establishment, the Republic was forced to cede Trieste, Istria and South Tyrol to Germany, with the understanding that Venice would be taken at some point.

While Mussolini contended that he was in control of the Republic, in practice, it was a largely irrelevant and ineffective puppet of the German forces. The Republic came to an end in 1945 when Allied forces ousted the Germans from Italy.

List of RSI Ministers

• Head of State - Benito Mussolini
• Minister of Foreign Affairs - Benito Mussolini
• Minister of Defence - Rodolfo Graziani
• Ministers of the Interior - Guido Buffarini Guidi from 1943-1945, Valerio Zerbine for 1945
• Ministers of Justice - Antonino Tringali-Casanova for 1943, Pietro Pisenti from 1943-1945
• Minister of Finance - Giampietro Pellegrini from 1943-1945
• Ministers of Industrial Production - Silvio Gai for 1943, Angelo Tarchi from 1943-1945
• Minister of Public Works - Ruggero Romano from 1943-1945
• Minister of Communications - Augusto Liverani from 1943-1945
• Minister of Labour - Giuseppe Spinelli for 1945
• Minister of National Education - Carlo Alberto Biggini from 1943-1945
• Minister of Popular Culture - Fernando Mezzasoma from 1943-1945
• Leader of the Republican Fascist Party - Alessandro Pavolini from 1943-1945

See also

• Blackshirts (MVSN)
• Black Brigades
• Decima Flottiglia MAS
• Italian resistance movement
• Birth of the Italian Republic

Miscellaneous

Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1975 film Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma was set in the Republic of Salò.

External links

• Historical flags of Italy
• War flag of Italian Social Republic