Ermanno Amicucci

Amicucci (left) as Undersecretary of State in the Guild Ministry during the visit to the sample fair in Milan in April 1942.

Ermanno Amicucci (born January 5, 1890 in Tagliacozzo ; † September 20, 1955 in Rome ) was an Italian journalist , publicist and politician as well as an important theoretical thinker of authoritarian corporatism . With extensive powers entrusted, he was in the era of fascism relevant to the DC circuit in charge of the print media in the country. In addition, he was a member of parliament for nearly 20 years, during which time he held several influential positions on decision-making bodies.

His most important journalistic posts were those as chairman of the fascist press union (1927-1932) and editor-in-chief of the Gazzetta del Popolo (1927-1939) and the Corriere della Sera (1943-1945).

Life

Journalistic career

Training and career beginnings

He worked for the local newspaper La provincia at the age of 17 . After earning a university degree in political science and sociology in Rome , he was initially a senior correspondent from his home region, Abruzzo , for Avanti! , the newspaper of the Partito Socialista Italiano . Although he sympathized with the ideas of the party, he did not join it. A little later he was promoted to full editor under Leonida Bissolati's chief editor and wrote as such for the paper between 1908 and 1910. There he met Benito Mussolini for the first time - back then as a colleague . Amicucci then worked as a Rome correspondent for the daily newspapers La Nazione from Florence and Il Piccolo from Trieste and later for Corriere d'America , which was published in New York City , and also worked for La Saletta d'Aragno .

During the First World War , he reported for La Nazione , Il Mattino and the Turin Gazzetta del Popolo from the front . Among other things, during this time he accompanied General Carlo Petitti di Roreto (1862–1933) in early November 1918 on the ship Audace to Trieste , where he had been appointed governor. For his journalistic services Amicucci was awarded the War Merit Cross during the fighting .

Rise in Fascism

Soon after, in 1921, Amicucci joined Mussolini's fascist movement . He took part in the March on Rome in October 1922 and, following the seizure of power, became one of the country's most influential journalists and the “prototype” of the media representative who was loyal to the line.

In November of the same year he founded the Roman section of the fascist press union Sindacato nazionale fascista dei giornalisti (SNFG) together with Giuseppe Bottai and Roberto Forges Davanzati . This was in personal and ideological competition with the established Federazione nazionale stampa Italiana (FNSI). During the course of 1924, the first considerations regarding the Leggi fascistissime ( German : Fascist exceptional laws ) were in the room. This series of legal acts subsequently ushered in the de facto transformation of the Kingdom of Italy into a fascist regime. After the FNSI protested against the plans in July, Amicucci very quickly developed a package of measures to better control the media landscape. He aimed at the liquidation of the freely organized representation of the professional group and submitted the proposal to Mussolini on July 26, 1924. His plans were presented to the House of Representatives for discussion on December 10th in the Palazzo Montecitorio . The concept included the following points:

• Merger of the SNSFG with the FNSI
• Creation of a register for journalists
• Codification of service contracts in the journalistic profession
• Establishment of a course of study that should enable prospective journalists to practice their profession loyally to the regime

In particular, the register should enable politicians to exert direct influence on the press. The relevant plans stipulated that the exercise of the journalist profession should only be allowed to those who volunteered to be entered in the register - a distinction was made between professional journalists, freelancers and publishers. Another prerequisite was a safety certificate for good (loyal to the line) political leadership, which a regional prefect had to issue. Every newspaper had to have a clearly identified editor-in-chief or owner. Only professional journalists could fill these functions. This aimed in particular at the disclosure of the people behind opposition publications. In addition, the permission of the public prosecutor at the Corte d'appello of the respective district in which it was published would have to be obtained for each print medium before publication . The approval of these prosecutors would also require the appointment of new editors-in-chief. Amicucci's ideas competed with a concept by Colonial Minister Luigi Federzoni and Justice Minister Aldo Oviglio , which was presented on the same day. This mainly provided for a revision and re-coordination of the existing legislation in this area. Ultimately, Mussolini declared that he was willing to “accept all the amendments intended to improve the draft government bills”. For this purpose, a parliamentary commission was convened on December 18, which was charged with examining the drafts. Amicucci was not a member of this body. A few weeks earlier, on November 20, 1924, he had published an article entitled La rivoluzione in marcia , in which he compared the rise of the fascists with the French Revolution and vehemently called for the creation of fascist trade union federations:

“[The Fascist Revolution] is the logical consequence of the French Revolution. [...] [It is necessary] to [establish] an organization of the working class by which the proletariat, which today finds itself in almost the same position vis-à-vis the bourgeoisie as the bourgeoisie before the French Revolution were in favor of the aristocracy of the developments of civilization, on the other hand, is able to get his way and to integrate himself into the state as a new living and active force. "

This commission deleted those passages from the ministerial draft about crimes committed by the press and integrated Amicucci's proposals from the register and the editor-in-chief, who must always be identified. At a board meeting of the FNSI, at which a trend of opinion within the union was to be determined, Oviglio's proposal met with massive criticism on February 10, 1925 and was rejected with 38 votes against. Amicucci's very restrictive idea of ​​the register, on the other hand, did better; It received only 21 rejections out of 19 approvals. About three months later, Amicucci wrote numerous articles in the daily newspaper La Nazione , in which he campaigned for support for new fascist regulations, which, among other things, were directed against Freemasonry . In June 1925, he proposed the introduction of legal protection for journalistic service contracts and submitted the proposal to Justice Minister Alfredo Rocco , who immediately promised to draft a corresponding bill. His anti-democratic stance became particularly clear when he spoke out in November - again in La Nazione - for the campaign to abolish the Senate and the House of Representatives and thus against elections. The law regarding the merger of the SNSFG and FNSI and the creation of the register was finally passed in parliament on December 31, 1925. The Albo generale dei giornalisti professionisti was created .

Amicucci's goal of (involuntary) unionization was achieved on May 26, 1926, when both associations - to the detriment of the FNSI - merged. He himself commented on the efficiency and functions of the association as follows:

"The trade union organization that the regime has endowed Italian journalism must consider itself to be the most solid, complete and perfect among similar institutions of the world."

From December of the same year, the Sindicato belonged to the newly founded, superordinate association Federazione nazionale dei sindacati fascisti intellettuali within the Confederazione nazionale dei sindacati fascisti and on February 27, 1927 Amicucci rose to the chair of the Sindicato. Under his leadership, eleven regional Sindacato associations were founded, all of which were directly subordinate to him. About a month later he wrote an inflammatory article for the newspaper Nazione , in which he sharply attacked the Jewish banking family Rothschild .

During the year, the Sindacato Board of Directors met in Venice to develop a scheme for regulating professional journalism. On October 15, 1927, the union newspaper Bollettino del Sindacato nazionale fascista dei giornalisti was founded , of which Amicucci became editor-in-chief. Less than a month later, on November 16 , the Grand Fascist Council assigned the press an "educational function", which is why management and leadership positions should now only be filled with "trustworthy black shirts ". Amicucci thereupon proposed to intensify the efforts of the media synchronization and the removal of unpleasant journalists from their offices. On November 28th, he sent a telegram to this effect to the regional secretaries of Sindicato, requesting information about anti-fascist journalists still working so that he could release them:

“I ask you, Your Wellborn, to send me an exact list of the anti-fascist journalists who are still in the region's newspapers and who should be removed, in compliance with the declaration of the Grand Fascist Council regarding the problems of the press. I wish to receive this directory no later than December 5th next week. "

In the same month, under pressure from Amicucci, the Great Fascist Council decided to remove the critical editors-in-chief Ugo Ojetti ( Corriere della Sera ), Cesarini Sforza ( Il Resto del Carlino ) and Giuseppe Colli ( La Stampa ). Another important decision was made towards the end of the year when Amicucci was appointed editor-in-chief of the high-circulation Gazzetta del Popolo in Turin on December 17, 1927 ; he held this post - which he held jointly with Giulio De Benedetti until December 1930 - for more than a decade until November 7, 1939.

Consolidation of influence, conflict and resignation from the union presidency

Since the implementation of the register was hesitant, a corte d'appello ordered its use. From then on administered by a committee subordinate to the Ministry of Justice, it came into force on February 26, 1928. On March 5, 1928, Amicucci was responsible for drafting special journalistic employment contracts, which also provided for a pension fund.

One of his most ambitious projects was the opening of the Scuola di giornalismo fascista (Eng .: Fascist School of Journalism ), which, according to him, should guarantee a practical, demanding and ideologically oriented training of young journalists. Graduates of the educational institution should be able to have themselves entered directly in the register, even without having previously completed the internship that is actually required by law. He first outlined a corresponding idea in July 1928 in an article in the quarterly cultural magazine Nuova Antologia .

As union president Amicucci signed on 22 February 1929 an agreement with the trade association Associazione nazionale fascista editori which aimed to create an employment office (a job placement) specifically for the journalistic sector. Amicucci saw this as

“A political instrument subject to fascism that sums up the sum of the spiritual and material values ​​of the state and makes it a clear and definitive task for itself to report and illuminate the major national and international problems, and all the small narrow-minded and unproductive ones Masters and removes matters that hinder the people's path towards their destiny ”.

A few months later he became a member of the Commissione superiore per la stampa (German: High Commission for the Press ) , founded on May 1, under the chairmanship of Mussolini's brother Arnaldo . In the course of the global economic crisis , from October 1929 there were also massive wage cuts among Italian journalists. Amicucci - convinced that even in difficult times he would have to make sacrifices for the success of the fascist idea - commented on the situation succinctly with the words:

"We too must do our duty to serve the regime with knowledge and to contribute with all our might to the campaign that the Duce began."

At the political science faculty of the University of Perugia , he promoted the establishment of chairs for the history of journalism and press law before he and Paolo Orano established the journalism school based in Rome in November 1929 . She was subordinate to Giuseppe Bottai, who had meanwhile risen to become Minister of the Guild . The official opening took place on January 21, 1930.

However, after this success, Amicucci's star began to decline. He came increasingly into conflict with state and corporate institutions. For example, in his ideological zeal he had meanwhile brought the Gazzetta del Popolo on an excessively demagogic course, so that Mussolini - who feared an impairment of the government's work - was forced to intervene a few times personally. On November 23, 1930 Amicucci was first appointed to the Turin Prefect, who should have a moderating effect on him. However, the meeting had little effect and on May 6, 1931, the "Duce" sent another telegram to the prefect, in which he called on him to act:

"Tell Mr. Amicucci - tell him verbatim - to curb the newspaper, which is already on a downward trend [to] [having] mundane nonsense on many of its pages."

In his role as Sindicato chairman, he had a disagreement with Manlio Morgagni (1879-1943), the head of the state-owned news agency Agenzia Stefani, later in 1931 . Morgagni wanted to subordinate the journalistic labor office to the Chamber of Commerce, while Amicucci argued that it should be organized by the press themselves. Ultimately, Mussolini decided in favor of Morgagnis. The establishment of the employment office and the pension fund was finally decided on June 27, 1931 at the third national journalists' congress in Rome, which Amicucci commented as follows:

"The Duce can count on fascist journalism as an instrument of revolution that is as perfect as any possible."

In the same year he found himself entangled in disputes with the publishers regarding the renewal of the journalists' contracts of 1928 and a new legislation that would force the press organs to only hire graduates of the journalism school in future. The contracts were signed in February 1932 and the media were given some freedom in personnel policy. Due to the numerous differences of opinion, Amicucci resigned on December 5, 1932 as Sindacato chairman. The change in personnel may also have been connected with the fact that Mussolini filled numerous fascist leadership positions in those years. In addition, his interest in the thought leaders of corporatism and those who still saw fascism as a necessary means to implement a radical change in the existing economic and social structures - as Amicucci did.

The second fascist decade

Amicucci's journalism school project was short-lived. At the behest of the new Sindicato chairman Aldo Valores , it ceased operations on June 23, 1933. Nevertheless, Amicucci had created a model for numerous similar institutions in many countries. For example, the German Reich Press School , which 750 students graduated from 1935 to 1939, was founded under the influence of the Italian idea.

Amicucci in conversation with Prince Viktor Emanuel of Savoy-Aosta (April 1942)

In the 1930s a certain accumulation of offices came to light at Amicucci: he served for ten years as president of the Istituto di previdenza dei giornalisti , established on March 25, 1926 , and was vice-president of the Corporazione carta e stampa , which was established on February 5, 1934 one of the initiators of the establishment of the Ente nazionale per la cellulosa e la carta (ENCC) on June 13, 1935 and was appointed to the Commissione per la bonifica libraria on September 13, 1938 alongside Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Alessandro Pavolini and others . In addition, the media landscape in Italy in the 1930s was marked by a conflict between the Turin and Milan newspapers over the manner in which ideological attack journalism could develop. At the beginning of November 1939, Amicucci resigned as editor-in-chief of the Gazzetta del Popolo - which, under his long-term aegis , had risen to become the second most important daily newspaper in the country after the Corriere della Sera - in order to be able to transfer to the guild ministry as undersecretary without conflicts of interest and double burdens. His successor was Eugenio Bertuetti .

Immediately after the loss of power and the arrest of Benito Mussolini , the Federazione nazionale stampa Italiana (FNSI) was re-established on July 27, 1943. During the brief epoch of the Italian social republic, Amicucci was appointed editor-in-chief of the Corriere della Sera , published in Milan, on September 27, 1943 by the Council of Ministers ( Italian : Consiglio dei ministri ) - the highest state organ . He took office on October 5th. The publication of the newspaper was temporarily suspended during the political upheavals in the summer. In particular, Karl Wolff, in his role as the “highest SS and police leader” in Italy , had insisted that pressure be resumed. He was supported in this request by Roberto Farinacci and the Milanese prefect Piero Parini (1894-1993). However, numerous journalists had meanwhile left the editorial office and Milan. Those who did not report back should be arrested and prosecuted. For this purpose, the Provincial Prefect Oscar Uccelli instructed Amicucci on October 25, 1943, to hand over the relevant editorial directories with their addresses. However, the relevant documents were unknown to the editor-in-chief. On the contrary, he even helped journalist Arturo Lanocita , for example , to revoke his arrest warrant. Lanocita then managed to escape to Switzerland . A total of 16 previous editors no longer worked on the new edition of Corriere , among them Indro Montanelli . Dino Buzzati was one of those who went back to work .

In January 1944, Amicucci hired Luigi Romersa as a war correspondent. The day-to-day organization of the journalistic business turned out to be difficult because of the increasing economic problems. At times the newspaper appeared with only a few pages. Nonetheless, a circulation of almost 900,000 copies was achieved. With this range and Amicucci's ideological orientation, the Corriere della Sera quickly developed into the unofficial organ of the government. However, the fact that an article by Giovanni Gentile was published annoyed the fascist hardliners. The close ties to the leadership elite are also evident in the fact that Mussolini himself wrote articles for the Corriere under the pseudonym "Il Giramondo" . These were initially politically extremely heterodox articles in which he emphasized the socialist roots of fascism. On March 13, 1944, Amicucci sent a report to the Prefect Parini in which he expressed his perplexity regarding the content of the articles. In a further series of articles between June 24 and July 1944, Mussolini highlighted the highlights and achievements of the Italian state over the past two decades. Originally he had the title Storia non romanzata dall'ottobre 1942 al September 1943 in mind, but Amicucci convinced him of the shorter and more catchy proposal Storia di un anno . The contributions were collected in a book that was published on August 10, 1944 under the title Il tempo del bastone e della carota. Storia di un anno (October 1942 – September 1943) was added as a supplement to the newspaper.

Ermanno Amicucci remained active as editor-in-chief of the Corriere della Sera until the end of the Italian social republic on April 25, 1945 .

Law enforcement and professional activity after World War II

After the capitulation of the social republic and the associated final end of fascist rule, Amicucci first met a convoy of the party elite in Como , but was arrested a little later. During the trial in front of the Assisenhof in Milan , Amicucci repeatedly claimed that he "always believed in the Germans and that he had equated the interests of his homeland with those of Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's." On May 30, 1945, he was convicted of collaboration with the National Socialists - So with the enemy from the point of view of the new rulers - to death . The sentence was to be carried out by firing squad . However, a special chamber of the Roman Corte Suprema di Cassazione revised the decision on June 18, 1945 due to inadequate grounds ("mancanza di motivazione"). Therefore, between September 11th and 25th of the same year, there was a new trial at the extraordinary court of assis in Brescia . While prosecutor Castellano demanded a prison sentence of only 24 years, this time the court waived the death penalty, but sentenced the accused to 30 years imprisonment.

An interview with Ante Pavelić was Amicucci's last journalistic exclamation point.

As part of the extensive amnesty initiated by Justice Minister Palmiro Togliatti on June 22, 1946 - with which numerous crimes during the fascist dictatorship were made punishable - Amicucci was also released prematurely from prison on February 26, 1947. The reason was: "Because of the sparse number of articles published and because of their content - civil in form and moderate in intention - he did not use a clearly efficient medium to provide help to the enemy." Meanwhile, the high commission for the cleaning up (it .: Alto Commissariato per l'epurazione ) and the police headquarters in L'Aquila the high and costly lifestyle ( "regime di vita elevato e dispendioso") of the Amicucci family over property and land in Rome and in Tuscany decreed , subjected to a closer examination. However, the investigations had no consequences.

Even in the new democracy, Amicucci did not lose his fascist sentiments. The clearest sign of this is that he joined the Movimento Sociale Italiano . He managed to resume his journalistic activities and he worked, for example, as a special correspondent from Argentina - where he had briefly emigrated - for the Roman Il Tempo and the Neapolitan Tempo illustrato . At the turn of 1949/1950 Amicucci drew attention to himself again: During a flight over the Atlantic he recognized Ante Pavelić in the row of seats behind him in the plane , who had been the dictator of the Independent State of Croatia during the National Socialist era . He was considered to have gone into hiding since the end of the war - there were also suspicions that Josip Broz Tito had him murdered. Amicucci received an interview lasting several hours that Il Tempo published in February 1950.

Political career

After joining the fascist movement, Amicucci was elected as a member of the Camera dei in the parliamentary elections on April 6, 1924 via the Lista Nazionale - the collection list of the Partito Nazionale Fascista , which in addition to fascists also included liberals, Catholics, conservatives and nationalists deputati del Regno d'Italia (the House of Representatives; one of the two chambers of the legislature of the Kingdom of Italy alongside the Senato del Regno ). He retained his seat for a period of four terms until August 2, 1943, the temporary end of Mussolini's rule. It should be noted that the elections in 1929, 1934 and 1939 were no longer democratic and the House of Representatives was converted into the so-called Chamber of Associations and Guilds (Italian: Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni ) before the 1939 election .

Immediately after moving into the House of Representatives, he tried to work out regulations that were to regulate the press landscape in depth. His campaign intensified after Mussolini's famous speech on January 3, 1925 regarding the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti , after which government policy changed to a much more restrictive, radical and ultimately dictatorial exercise of power. Between May 1, 1929 and January 19, 1934 Amicucci acted as secretary of the electoral examination commission (it .: Giunta delle elezioni ) and from May 2, 1934 to March 2, 1939 he was a member of the commission for the examination of the balance sheets and the reports ( Italian : Commissione per l'esame dei bilanci e dei rendiconti consuntivi ).

In the summer of 1938, Amicucci was one of the signatories of the “ Manifesto della razza ” (German: Manifesto of the Race ) printed on July 14th in the Roman daily newspaper Il Giornale d'Italia , in order to quickly adopt the Leggi razziali fasciste (German: Fascist Racial laws ). These anti - Semitic laws made clear the influence that Hitler had on Mussolini since Italy became an ally of the German Reich . The laws deprived the Jews of their Italian citizenship, which resulted in their dismissal from state jobs and most other professions - this measure is perhaps most comparable to the law on the restoration of the civil service . The Leggi razziali fasciste were finally decided in November of the same year.

In 1939, Amicucci was National Councilor ( it . : Consigliere nazionale ) of the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni and served between November 4, 1939 and July 25, 1943 as Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Guilds (it: Ministero delle Corporazioni ).

Awards

• 1918: War Merit Cross
• 1929: Honorary doctorate from the University of Perugia
• 1939: Literature Prize of the City of Cervia for Nice e l'Italia

Publications

• With Francesco Trombadori ( Ill. ): Piccolo mondo dannunziano . Enrico Voghera Editore, Rome, 1914.
• Nice e l'Italia . Arnoldo Mondadori Editore , Milan , 1939.
• I 600 giorni di Mussolini . Editrice Faro, Rome, 1948.

literature

• Eugenio Gallavotti: La scuola fascista di giornalismo (1930-1933) . SugarCo Edizioni, Milan , 1982.
• Mauro Forno: Fascismo e information. Ermano Amicucci e la rivoluzione giornalistica incompiuta (1922–1945) . Edizioni dell''Orso, Alessandria , 2003, ISBN 978-8-876-94718-6 .
• S. Durante: Fascism and information. Ermanno Amicucci and the unfinished journalistic revolution . In: Archivio Storico Italiano , Vol. 163, № 606, 2005, pages 832-833.
• La parabola di un giornalista. Ermanno Amicucci e la fascistizzazione della stampa italiana . In: Franco Salvatori ( ed. ): Tagliacozzo e la Marsica dall'Unità alla nascita della Repubblica. Aspetti di vita artistica, civile e religiosa. Seminario di ricerca . Proceedings , Abilgraph, Rome, 2006, pages 53-72.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mirko Riazzoli: Ermanno Amicucci . ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 1. Retrieved from alterhistory.altervista.org on October 9, 2016. 
2. ↑ Emma Moriconi: Ermanno Amicucci, "La rivoluzione in marcia". From ilgiornaleditalia.org ( Internet newspaper Il Giornale d'Italia ) on December 18, 2013. Accessed October 9, 2016.
3. ^ ^{A b} Giancarlo Bo: La storia del Sindacato veneto . ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved from sindacatogiornalistiveneto.it on October 9, 2016. 
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Mirko Riazzoli: Ermanno Amicucci . ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 2. Retrieved from alterhistory.altervista.org on October 9, 2016. 
5. ^ Mauro Forno: La stampa del ventennio. Strutture e trasformazioni nello stato totalitario . Rubbettino Editore, Soveria Mannelli , 2005, ISBN 978-8-84981-227-5 , pages 87-88.
6. ^ Vincenzo Pinto: Fascismo e informazione. Intorno alla recente biografia politica di Ermanno Amicucci . In: L'Acropoli , Vol. 6, № 3, 2005, pages 341-344.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Mirko Riazzoli: Ermanno Amicucci . ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 3. Retrieved from alterhistory.altervista.org on October 9, 2016. 
8. ↑ Mauro Forno: Aspetti dell'esperienza totalitaria fascista. Limiti e contraddizioni nella gestione del "Quarto potere" . In: Studi Storici , Vol. 47, № 3, 2006, pages 781-817.
9. ↑ ^{a b c} Mirko Riazzoli: Ermanno Amicucci . ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 4. Retrieved from alterhistory.altervista.org on October 9, 2016. 
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Mirko Riazzoli: Ermanno Amicucci . ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Page 5. Retrieved from alterhistory.altervista.org on October 9, 2016. 
11. ↑ "Detected" . In: Der Spiegel , issue 8/1950, February 23, 1950, page 16. Retrieved from spiegel.de ( Spiegel Online ) on October 9, 2016.