Ferdinando Mezzasoma

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Ferdinando "Fernando" Mezzasoma (born August 3, 1907 in Rome ; died April 28, 1945 in Dongo ) was an Italian journalist and fascist politician. From 1943 to 1945 he was Minister for Popular Culture of the Italian Social Republic .

Life

Mezzasoma grew up in Perugia and attended school there. His father worked as a caretaker in a bank in Perugia. After his father died unexpectedly in 1919, he had to support the family financially in addition to studying business administration at the University of Perugia . Among other things, he worked in the secretariat of the MP of the National Fascist Party (PNF) Amedeo Fani . In the early 1930s he completed his studies with the Laurea .

Working with Fani opened the gates for him to the fascist party. When Fani was appointed Undersecretary of State in the Foreign Ministry in September 1929 to succeed Dino Grandi , who had been appointed Foreign Minister, Mezzasoma followed him to Rome. In Rome he joined the fascist youth organizations and soon made a career there. He was particularly active in the fascist student association Gruppi universitari fascisti (GUF). Together with Vittorio Mussolini and others, he supported the fascist elite school Scuola di mistica fascista in Milan , founded by Nicolò Giani in 1930 , of which he became vice-president.

In 1932 he returned to Perugia and became chairman of the local section of the GUF, which he headed until 1935. At the same time he was active in the local party leadership of the PNF and was director of the fascist fight magazine in Umbria L'Assalto ( Italian for The attack ). His activities in Umbria soon made him a candidate for higher assignments. In 1935 he took over the office of vice secretary of the GUF and was thus the second man in the GUF after Achille Starace , who as party secretary of the fascist party also chaired the fascist student union.

As Vice Secretary, he devoted himself particularly to press work. In the past he had already worked as a journalist for numerous newspapers and magazines of the regime, mostly under the pseudonym Diogenes . He saw the university press as a suitable tool to advertise the fascist student union, but in his opinion it should also make an important contribution to the creation of the new fascist man.

From January 1937 he was a member of the national board of the PNF. From 1939 he was a member of the Camera dei Fasci e delle Corporazioni . From 1939 to April 1943 he was the vice secretary of party secretaries Achille Starace, Ettore Muti , Adelchi Serena and, most recently, Aldo Vidussoni .

After the Italian entry into the war in June 1940, Mezzasoma volunteered for military service on the French front . He spent his military service, which lasted only a few months, behind the front, which is why doubts later arose as to whether the bronze medal for bravery was justified.

In March 1942 he was appointed General Director of the Press Office in the Ministry of Popular Culture. He held the post until Mussolini was overthrown in July 1943. After that he retired from public life and moved with his family to the province of Terni . However, he did not use his time with his family to critically examine fascism; on the contrary, he shared the opinion of other staunch fascists such as Alessandro Pavolini , Roberto Farinacci and Giovanni Preziosi , who viewed the overthrow of the fascist government as the result of a treacherous conspiracy. After Mussolini's liberation in September 1943, he returned to politics and supported Mussolini in building the Republican Fascist Party (PFR) and the Italian Social Republic (RSI), for which he was appointed Minister-designate for Popular Culture by Mussolini on September 23, 1943.

After the ministry moved to Salò on Lake Garda , he was busy redesigning his ministry. Centralization and streamlining were the central points of his decrees, signed in November 1943, with which he wanted to make the ministry more efficient. In the RSI puppet state, which is characterized by internal intrigues and conflicts, his efforts showed little success; on the contrary, he could not stop the inefficiency and the increasing disintegration. In addition, the areas, some of which were under German supervision, such as the content of radio programs, largely restricted the ministry's competencies. In the spring of 1944, Mezzasoma made a final attempt to reform the ministry according to his ideas. He exchanged numerous leading employees, including appointing Giorgio Almirante as head of cabinet and setting up an advisory committee for propaganda work, which included important fascist journalists such as the anti-Semite Telesio Interlandi .

Until the end of the war he belonged to the inner circle of Benito Mussolini and fled in his entourage at the end of the war, first to Milan and from there on April 25, 1945 towards Lake Como . Mezzasoma was picked up on the afternoon of April 27, 1945 in Dongo by partisans in the same column of cars that Mussolini was in. After he was arrested, he was brought before a firing squad and shot the next day. On April 29, Mezzasoma's body was exhibited along with the bodies of the other people executed in Dongo in Milan in Piazzale Loreto .

literature

Web links

Commons : Ferdinando Mezzasoma  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Maddalena Carli:  Ferdinando Mezzasoma. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI).
personal data
SURNAME Mezzasoma, Ferdinando
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mezzasoma, Fernando
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian fascist politician, member of the Camera dei deputati
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1945
Place of death Dongo