Sursum Corda was an Italian student movement organized with irredentist purposes before 1914. It may be considered one of the precursors of
fascist
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
organizations in Italy and seems to have its origins in the Italian youth organisations from the first years of the 20th century such as the ''battaglioni studenteschi'' founded in 1906 (or so) in Milan. The model were the German
Burschenschaft
A Burschenschaft (; sometimes abbreviated in the German ''Burschenschaft'' jargon; plural: ) is one of the traditional (student associations) of Germany, Austria, and Chile (the latter due to German cultural influence).
Burschenschaften were fo ...
en.
Their Fiuman member was
Nino Host Venturi, According to Host Venturi, he already in 1913 organised a ''Battaglione studenti volontari "Sursum Corda"'' in
Brescia
Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...
with students and expats from Austria-Hungary. They trained during weekends in the surrounding hills with the support from Italian regular army officers.
In spring 1919 they had already a battalion-strength formation in Trieste.
Nino Host Venturi kept the contacts with
Gabriele D'Annunzio and organised his arrival in
Fiume
Rijeka (;
Fiume ( �fjuːme in Italian and in Fiuman Venetian) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia. It is located in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Kvarner Bay, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea and in 2021 had a po ...
.
Leo Negrelli from
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital and largest city of the Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, as well as of the Province of Trieste, ...
was another affiliate of the “Sursum Corda.”
[Nella notte del 12 settembre 50 volontari della "Sursum corda" ben armati con 15 ufficiali al comando del cap. Leo Negrelli passarono la barra di Cantrida, in CHIURCO GIORGIO ALBERTO, ''Storia della rivoluzione fascista 1919-1922'', I vol, Firenze, Vallecchi, 1929.]
References
Youth organisations based in Italy
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