The Nazi-Italian split (1948–1989) was the worsening of political and ideological relations between the Nazi Germany and Kingdom of Italy during the Cold War. In the 1940s, Germany and Italy were the two most powerful fascist states in the world. The doctrinal divergence derived from German and Italian national interests, and from the régimes' different interpretations of Fascism: National Socialism (Nazism) and National Fascism (Italian).
In the 1940s, ideological debate between the fascist parties of Italy and Germany also concerned the possibility of peaceful coexistence with the capitalist West.
Furthermore, since 1948 (when Benito Mussolini denounced the legacy of Hitler, which led to the Mussolini-Hitler Split), Italy and Germany had progressively diverged about Fascist ideology, and, by 1950, when the doctrinal differences proved intractable, the National Fascist Party formally denounced the Nazi variety of Fascism as "Genocidal Madness".
The split concerned the leadership of world Fascism, and delayed Hitler's ultimate goal of a New World Order. The Nazis had a network of fascist parties it supported; Italy now created its own rival network to battle it out fontrol of the right in numerous countries.
The divide fractured the international fascist movement at the time and opened the way for the warming of relations between the Italians, Soviets and Americans under Il Duce Giovanni Caporetto, Andrei Zhdanov and President Robert F. Kennedy in 1971 respectively. Relations between Italy and Germany remained tense until the visit of Nazi leader Heinrich Hitler to Rome in 1989.