This article aims at showing how and why two cultural periodicals, namely the German edition of Tempo, published by Mondadori between 1940 and 1943, and the German magazine Italien, the official periodical of the Deutsch-Italienische Gesellschaft from 1942 to 1944, contributed to shaping the German readership’s idea of contemporary Italian literature. The analysis of the contents of these journals shows a rather diversified cultural offer, promoting authors that would be later associated with the anti-fascist struggle. To this end, the article will particularly focus on the way these periodicals presented Elio Vittorini, who would be heralded as one of the most engaged writers of post-war Italy.
