Giovanni Ponti

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Giovanni Ponti (born January 19, 1896 in Venice , † December 28, 1961 in Padua ) was an Italian resistance fighter , teacher, professor at the University of Zagreb , first tourism minister and from 1945 to 1946 mayor of Venice. In 1951 he was re-elected, but had to do without for health reasons. In 1960 he sat in the European Parliament . In addition, he was President of the Biennale for around twelve years .

Life

youth

Ponti grew up in a Catholic family, so he studied in the Cavanis brothers' school for the poor, then with the Salesians in Mogliano Veneto , and finally in the seminary of the Patriarch of Venice . He enrolled in Padua , but had to interrupt his studies because he was used as a soldier in Friuli during the First World War .

Political career, resistance

Ponti joined the Partito Popolare Italiano in 1919 . From 1920 to 1923 he was a city councilor and assessor in the Giunta Giordano , the last freely elected before the fascists came to power . He also completed his studies. From 1923 to 1925 he was secretary of the Partito Popolare veneziano .

When the fascists came to power, he lost all opportunities for political activity and worked in the diocese . In 1931 the fascists ousted him there too, but he was able to work as a teacher at the Liceo Foscarini . In addition to newspaper articles in Gazzettino , Tempo and Popolo del Veneto , he wrote studies on Benedetto Marcello , Niccolò Manucci and Paolo Sarpi . 1939-1940 he taught Italian at the University of Zagreb , as he had dealt with the Serbian and Croatian language and culture.

From 1943 he was active in the resistance, the Resistenza . He was a member of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN) and one of the founders of the Democrazia Cristiana . He was arrested and tortured in Padua in January 1945. After being sentenced to death, he was released through a prisoner exchange on April 27, 1945. On the night of April 27-28, 1945, partisans occupied public buildings in Venice, including the train station . On the Piazzale Roma near the train station in the west of the old town, there was fighting. The rebels moved to the commandant's office on St. Mark's Square , but the commanding officer threatened to destroy the port and the supply lines for gas, water and electricity if his troops could not withdraw. In the afternoon, after difficult negotiations, it was agreed that the evening would be free.

Mayor, MP, Minister

After World War II, Giovanni Ponti was appointed mayor (sindaco) of Venice by the CLN, an office he held until the first free elections in 1946. Its vice mayor and successor was Giobatta Gianquinto . His secretary Giorgio Longo became mayor himself in 1970.

Screening as part of the film festival in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace , August or September 1947

On June 2, 1946 he became a member of the Democrazia Cristiana with 37,813 votes, 1953 Senatore, then Minister for Tourism, Sport and Spettacolo , which he mainly dealt with major events. With 13,640 votes, he was elected mayor on March 24, 1946.

During this time, the differences within the resistance broke out again and Ponti was a decided anti-communist . In 1948 he was confirmed as a Member of Parliament for Venezia-Treviso with 24,608 votes. From 1946 to 1954 and from 1957 to 1960 he was President of the Biennale di Venezia . He was also Procuratore di San Marco from 1947 to 1955 . In 1953 he was elected to the Senate with 58,552 votes.

On June 11, 1951, Ponti was re-elected mayor, but he declined the election on health grounds. From February 10, 1954 to July 6, 1955, he became the republic's first Minister of Tourism. In 1960 he was elected to the European Parliament.

He died in Padua when he was about to undergo surgery.

Works

  • La poesia religiosa di Benedetto Marcello , in: Ateneo Veneto 1936, pp. 146–152.
  • Niccolò Mannucci veneziano e la storia del Mogol. Aspetti della vita indiana nel volume inedito delle figure , in: Annuario scolastico 1927-1928 del R. Liceo Giannasio Marco Foscarini, pp. 27–34.
  • Paolo Sarpi: 1552-1623 , Paravia, Turin 1938.
  • Giovanni da Pian del Carpine alla scoperta della Mongolia , Paravia, Turin 1946.
  • with Giovanni Gambarin: Nuovi temi di versione in latino proposti agli alunni delle scuole medie superiori. Con appendice dei temi assegnati agli esami di maturità ed abilitazione del Ministero dell'educazione nazionale , A. Rondinella, Naples 1941.
  • with Emilio Zanette: Verso la vita. Antologia italiana , Liviana, Padua 1947.

literature

  • Silvio Tramontin: Giovanni Ponti (1896-1961). Una vita per la Democrazia e per Venezia , Venice 1983.

Web link

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Andreas May: La Biennale di Venezia. Continuity and change in Venetian exhibition politics 1895-1948 , Berlin 2009, p. 4.
  2. ↑ To describe the events, Giovanni Ponit wrote the preface: L'Insurrezione di Venezia April 26-29, 1945. L'opera del Comando Piazza del Corpo Volontari della Libertà. Relazioni e documenti , Collana Storica Veneta, n. 1, Venezia, Mario Fantoni, undated [1947], pp. 52-55.


predecessor Office successor
- Mayor of Venice
1945–1946 		Giobatta Gianquinto
personal data
SURNAME Ponti, Giovanni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian mathematician, university professor, resistance fighter, mayor of Venice
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Venice
DATE OF DEATH December 28, 1961
Place of death Padua