Carlo Guzzi

Carlo Guzzi (born November 4, 1889 in Milan , † November 3, 1964 in Mandello del Lario ) was an Italian designer and entrepreneur who founded the Moto Guzzi company. He came from a Milanese family and spent a large part of his youth in the workshop of his mentor, the engine fitter Giorgio Ripamonti, where he was already working on two-wheelers.

biography

In 1914 Guzzi was drafted into the Air Force and had aircraft serviced there. He got to know the two pilots Giovanni Ravelli and Giorgio Parodi and became friends with them. Again and again he raved about his ideas of building his own motorcycles . Since both pilots were enthusiastic racing drivers, he was able to get them excited about his ideas. Shortly after the end of the war, Giovanni Ravelli had a fatal accident in his plane. (The later Moto Guzzi company logo is dedicated to him, the outspread eagle wings as a symbol from the common air force era.)

Giorgio's father, Emanuele Vittorio Parodi , a well-known shipowner from Genoa, lent the friends the money to found the "Moto Guzzi Corporation" on March 15, 1921 in the Italian town of Mandello del Lario. The first machine, the GP (Guzzi.Parodi), was built as a prototype with the help of the Mandello blacksmith in the basement of the Guzzi house. In a slimmed-down form, 17 motorcycles were sold as normal models in the year it was founded. These already had the above-mentioned company logo on the tank.

Moto Guzzi employed 21,000 people in the late 1950s and was one of the largest two-wheeler factories in the world. Head office was and still is Mandello del Lario.

Giorgio Parodi died in 1955, Carlo Guzzi in 1964. From the founding generation, only Enrico Parodi, Giorgio's brother, remained.

literature

• Edoardo Borruso: Carlo Guzzi, in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 61, Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, Roma, 2004.