Gruppo Veneziano
As Gruppo veneziano , a group of predominantly Venetian financiers, industrialists and politicians was referred to, which under the leadership of Giuseppe Volpi (1877-1947) and Vittorio Cini (1885-1977) to a considerable extent domestic, economic, colonial and foreign policy Influenced Italy between around 1900 and 1945. The exponents of this group profited both before and during the two world wars from the war economy by filling ministerial posts themselves, as well as from the fascists' expansionist efforts and their provision of cheap and docile labor. Overall, men from the rising groups of finance, entrepreneurship and industrialists came together in the group with representatives of the old groups from the nobility, land ownership and trade. The involvement of the main exponents with the fascist regime was not punished after the Second World War , among other things because they had made funds available to the Resistance in good time .
The division of Venice into a petrochemical industrial city ( Marghera ), a workers' residential city ( Mestre ) and a historical center made available for tourism, including the Lido , in which the two main actors of the group lived, goes back to their activities, as well as the backfilling of parts the lagoon , which was also damaged by channel deepening, widening of the access to the Adriatic Sea and by the discharge of sewage, as well as by the entry of species that have since spread to the detriment of local flora and fauna .
prehistory
Giuseppe Volpi, whose family came from Bergamo , had made a fortune in the agricultural goods trade, as an insurance agent and mine owner, Vittorio Cini came from Ferrara and, having inherited his father's company, had his fortune in building materials, in companies of logistics and increased in maritime trade and infrastructure measures.
Volpi came into contact with the Banca Commerciale Italiana in the person of Giuseppe Toeplitz , who managed its branch in Venice from 1900 to 1903. Toeplitz also soon rose to management positions within the main building up to Vice President, and from there operated the industrialization of Italy.
Cini, on the other hand, invested in the naval forces and in the maritime insurance industry during the First World War , so that he gained considerable influence in overseas trade in the Adriatic , Ionian and Levant and at the same time formed a network in government and military circles.
When Volpi and Cini combined their contacts, their financial strength and their political influence, people quickly spoke of the aforementioned Venetian group . Other leading members of this group were Achille Gaggia (1875-1953), who was part of the Volpi entourage from 1905 and became his “right arm”, and who remarked about Toeplitz that he did everything that Volpi told him to do.
The group also included engineers and administrators such as Antonio Pitter, Vincenzo Ferniani and Ottaviano Ghetti, who were jointly responsible for the diversion work on the Piave , Carlo Semenza, the geologist Giorgio Dal Piaz, Guido and Antonio Rossi, the engineers Paolo Milani and Francesco Villabruna , Mario Mainardis, Alessandro Croce, then the entrepreneur Nicolò Spada, the Mayor of Venice Mario Alverà , then the owner of an important Paduan dye works Giovanni Venuti, finally Angelo Sperti, Aurelio Fracca, Silvio Pellas, Alberto Cottica, Vittore Antonello. In addition, there were exponents who worked in the financial and economic sector for the group, such as Antonio Revedin, Nicolò Papadopoli Aldobrandini , Alberto and Mario Treves de 'Bonfili, Piero Foscari , Giancarlo Stucky , Amedeo and Edoardo Corinaldi, Nicola and Tito Braida, Carlo and Enrico Ratti, Gino Toso, “Commendatore” Giuseppe Da Zara, Luigi Ceresa, Mario Nani Mocenigo or Giulio Coen.
Already at the end of the 19th century there was a "gruppo veneto" operating on the Vicenza - Padua - Venice line . This group was mainly represented by Vincenzo Stefano Breda, Alessandro Rossi, Luigi Luzzatti , who also combined finance and industry, credit and politics in order to industrialize the region more strongly. But their network was based on the connection between nobility, landed property and trade. They strove for industrialization without modernization on the basis of conservative paternalism , social stratification and under guarantees from the state. The Banca veneta di depositi e conti correnti , which was founded in Padua in 1871 , was given an essential task . Under the influence of Treves de 'Bonfili , it was moved to Venice - as a result of the takeover of the Stabilimento mercantile and with consideration for the local Jewish community. The Società veneta per imprese e costruzioni pubbliche , also founded in Padua in 1872, was renamed Società veneta per costruzione ed esercizio di ferrovie secondarie or simply Veneta in 1899 , which financed and built railways, infrastructure and public works. The Veneta had already in 1881 a branch office in Venice.
The first ventures
In contrast to the “Gruppo Veneto”, the “Gruppo veneziano” aimed from the beginning on the national, even international level. The first step was the “conquest of energy” (“conquista della forza”), that is, the generation of electricity from hydropower. In 1900 and 1905, the Società italiana per l'utilizzazione delle forze idrauliche del Veneto , which became known under the name Cellina , and the Società Adriatica di Elettricità (SADE for short) were founded. From the mere purchaser of existing hydropower plants and the builder of new ones, the latter turned into a holding company for energy companies. 16 and 18% of the share capital of the two companies were in the hands of Banca Commerciale Italiana .
In a second step, tourism and the hotel industry were added, when Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi , or CIGA for short, was founded in 1906 . The Banca Commerciale Italiana held 20%. The focus was on the hotels on the Lido di Venezia , where the Hotels Des Bains and Excelsior in particular acquired a national dimension around 1920, and from 1923 even an international one.
The basis for the large-scale investments was an influx of capital from various sources. Local Venetian investors were joined by those from the return on land, trade and financial networks, and the integration of foreign, Catholic and Jewish assets was also successful. In terms of culture and family, a leadership class consisting of ascended citizens and middle-class nobility emerged, which took over leadership at the national level around 1900.
The SADE expanded beyond Veneto into the Adriatic region, which was understood as the entire area between Friuli and Apulia , and which was intended to be dominated as the "dominio adriatico". With the expansion of ambitions into the eastern Mediterranean, the “Gruppo veneziano” finally went beyond the scope of the “Gruppo Veneto”.
The Balkans
With the expansion towards the Balkans, the group tied into Venetian political traditions. One had both sides of the Adriatic in view. The Banca Commerciale Italiana was also of great importance for the commercial enterprises in this area, as was Piero Foscari (1865–1923), who expanded his influence in Montenegro after marrying Elisabetta Widmann Rezzonico (1897) and later sat in parliament for the fascists . The Società commerciale d'oriente , founded in 1907, became the focal point of the project, it became the Montenegrin branch of the Banca Commerciale Italiana , and the fulcrum of other companies such as the Regia cointeressata dei tabacchi del Montenegro (1903) or the Sindacato italo-montenegrino (1903), but especially the Compagnia di Antivari (1905). Eventually it even became the branch of the Banca Commerciale in Istanbul , where the chief administrator Otto Joel , co-founder of the Banca Commerciale Italiana , made sure that Bernardino Nogara , a friend of Volpi's, became director. What was still missing to give expression to the imperialist hegemony in the Balkans was a railway line and an industrial port, a function for which Antivari was intended.
The head of this strategy is considered to be Volpi, who maintained contacts up to the Ottoman court . There he gave himself the nimbus of a typical representative of the Republic of Venice , namely that of a trader and diplomat, a governor and authorized representative (procuratore), even a doge . When it came to negotiations because of the Libyan War in 1912, Giovanni Giolitti voted for the conference of Ouchy Volpi and Pietro Bertolini . Gaetano Salvemini recognized in Volpi the “principale deus ex machina” of the treaties. Volpi became a diplomat "ad honorem".
Meanwhile, the group intensified its influence, as in the case of the Florentine Society Officine Galileo (Galileo) . She specialized in precision instruments for optical and communication devices. SADE participated in it in 1907 as well as in one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Italy, the steel trust Odero-Orlando , in which it acquired the majority of shares in 1916 until it took over the trust completely in 1923 - as did Veneta , which it took over in 1924.
First World War
With the First World War, the group extended the influence it had already gained to include the state, which now intervened massively in favor of the group. This also paid off economically. Both SADE (200%) and Cellina or Società Idroelettrica Veneta (SIV) (73%) increased their capital enormously. With Achille Gaggia, the group had its own exponent in the Commissione elettrotecnica del Comitato centrale di mobilitazione industriale . He was thus responsible for the plans to secure energy in order to keep the war economy going. In December 1917, Volpi first became a civilian member of the Comitato Veneto , which also received central regional tasks, and then became interim president from March 1918.
The group gained further influence and capital through the establishment of the Società Porto industriale di Venezia , where, in addition to Volpi, Nicolò Papadopoli Aldobrandini , Treves de 'Bonfili, Revedin, Stucky , Ratti and Gino Toso were also active, but also the usual companies, namely SADE, Cellina , Veneta , but then also in the state in the figure of the President of Consiglio Paolo Boselli and the Minister for Public Works Ivanoe Bonomi , or the Municipality of Venice in the figure of the long-time Venetian Mayor Filippo Grimani .
At the end of July 1917, Volpi received what was considered to be his masterpiece, access to Marghera, d. H. The state left all areas already confiscated or still to be confiscated to its company for the construction of an industrial port for Venice. The plan had been pursued primarily by Piero Foscari since at least 1904. For his part, Volpi had already had speculative land purchases made. The profits from these activities amounted to 7.18 million lire .
Marghera
With the defeat of Caporetto in October 1917, SADE lost almost all of its hydroelectric systems, but this did not lead to a fiasco due to its involvement in the financing of war and industrialization. This scenario also includes the Marghera project, which consequently was not so much an idea of Volpi's, but a consistent application of the principles previously used under the pressure of the collapsed electricity production. In order to gain control of the independent commune, it had to become part of Venice and at the same time take on a role similar to that of Marseille for the eastern Mediterranean. The war economy, which made labor and raw materials available extremely cheaply, made it possible to arouse the interest of foreign investors as well.
In September 1917 the Cantieri Navali e Acciaierie di Venezia were created , which started production in 1922. The traditional companies of the Gruppo veneziano , such as SADE, Cellina and Veneta, as well as the usual local partners, large companies such as Ansaldo alla Terni , Alti forni di Piombino , Ferriere piemontesi , Franco Tosi di Legnano or Odero , have now joined forces di Sestri Ponente . The most important people were Max Bondi (1883-1927), Giuseppe Orlando, Rocco Piaggio , Pio Perrone, Eugenio Tosi and Dante Ferraris , the Minister for Industry, appointed in 1919 , who had previously headed the Confederazione generale dell'industria italiana , which later became the Confederazione fascista degli industriali was renamed. Only Ernesto Breda and his industries preferred to enter the Marghera project autonomously.
Most of the infrastructure was created by the Società italiana di costruzioni (Sitaco) and Veneta . In 1920 there was only one plant, in 1922 there were 16, in 1924 there were already 27. In 1928 there were 55 industrial companies with 4,880 employees. 15 of these were companies in the chemical industry, which offered 1,820 jobs, followed by the two construction companies with 880 employees, and finally the petro-industry with four companies and 535 employees.
The Società Alluminio Veneto Anonima (SAVA) was created in 1928 , an offshoot of the Swiss Aluminum-Industrie-Aktiengesellschaft , supported by Alessandro Marco Barnabò. This was followed by the Società Italiana di Alluminio , then the Lavorazione Leghe Leggere (1929), controlled by the SADE, the Società Idroelettrica Piemonte (SIP), the SAVA, Montecatini and the San Marco elettrometallurgica (1931). Funds from SADE, SAVA and SIP flowed into the latter. So until 1935, during the Great Depression , the core of the Italian electrometallurgical industry, which had so strongly characterized the war economy, was in Marghera. In doing so, she offered the fascist regime a promise of self-sufficiency. At the start of the war, 85.9% of the workers were working in the core industries. The Gruppo veneziano dominated SADE by supplying the electricity and its infrastructure, through participation in electrometallurgical companies such as the Lavorazione Leghe Leggere and the San Marco . Add the Montecatini came in the chemicals sector, from which 1936 Industria Nazionale dell'Alluminio arose, then the Ilva alla Breda (both metallurgical and in the construction sector), the Società Idroelettrica Piemonte and the Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (FIAT), the Vetrocoke that Aluminum Industrie Aktiengesellschaft (in electrometallurgy with SAVA) and the Azienda Generale Italiana Petroli ( AGIP ).
Every measure had to be approved by the Porto industriale , the state controlled the development in many cases via the commune and created the legal framework via convenzioni , concessioni , autorizzazioni , sottomissioni , proroghe , modificazioni between 1919 and 1944. In contrast to the announcements that workers would be employed from traditional companies, workers poured into the emerging city from the countryside, with the state again ensuring the availability, internal competition, the lowest possible operating costs and security. The country folk were even preferred because of their "greater physical strength, their endurance at work and their greater sense of discipline". Marghera even became a model for building other industrial zones, such as Bozen or Ferrara.
The main exponents: Volpi and Cini
With the nomination of Vittorio Emanuele Orlando as a member of the section ricostruzione della ricchezza nazionale nelle province invase (Reconstruction of national wealth in the occupied provinces) in the framework of the commissionissima , which Volpi had advocated, he became a negotiator in Versailles and in 1919 he belonged to the Consiglio supremo economico , the Supreme Economic Council. In this role he accompanied decisions about the economy, finances, reparations, communication and transportation.
In Rapallo and during the conference on issues around the city of Fiume ( Rijeka ), Volpi could, if he wished, be part of the official delegation, and in Belgrade he had good contacts with Foreign Minister Milenko Vesnič .
New markets opened up for SADE in Venezia Giulia , Istria and the Slavic countries. About the division of these areas among the electricity producers of northern Italy, they had concluded a secret treaty in Versailles and Rapallo . It stipulated that the Trentino and South Tyrol were reserved for Edison , with a link with the SIP, while the area between Istria and the Isonzo should be reserved for the SADE .
In December 1920 Volpi was knighted and in July 1921 he was made governor of Tripolitania , a position he held until 1925. Volpi not only acquired more than 2000 hectares of land near Misurata , but in July 1925, at the temporary end of the war operations, he was given the title “di Misurata”, which was attached to the title of nobility.
During the Fiume crisis , in the course of which Gabriele D'Annunzio proclaimed the Italian reign on the Quarnero (1920-1924), Volpi had already supported the fascists with money in 1920, when this party in Venice was still under the control of Piero Marsich . In 1921 and 1922, Volpi was president or vice-president of twenty companies in Italy and Montenegro , the most important of which were SADE, Cellina , SIV, then financial companies such as Credito Industriale , Porto industriale , Compagnia di Antivari , Società nazionale per lo sviluppo delle imprese elettriche (Sviluppo) ; he sat in the Banca Commerciale Italiana , the Assicurazioni Generali , the Unione esercizi elettrici , the Società strade ferrate meridionali , the Officine di Battaglia , then the Veneta.From 1931 he reduced the number of direct supervisory posts, but still sat in 22 companies, including in nine as president or vice-president, eleven as advisor.
On July 13, 1925, Volpi became Minister of Finance . He was now at the center of a close relationship between business and the fascist party . Significant parts of the economy felt challenged by Alberto De 'Stefani's interventions in banking and finance. On October 2nd, in Palazzo Vidoni, the Confederazione generale dell'industria and the Confederazione delle corporazioni fasciste agreed to control the labor market.
Between Volpi and the Secretary of the American Treasury Andrew Mellon , in connection with the Italian war debts with the USA, a conversation took place in Washington in mid-November 1925 in the presence of Alberto Pirelli and Dino Grandi , but also with financial technicians such as Mario Alberti and Alberto Beneduce. The debt, which had grown to $ 2.042 billion , should not only be consolidated by paying off the debt over a period of 62 years at a maximum interest rate of 2%, with which the US waived four fifths of the debt. With Morgan , the New York Bank, Thomas Lamont and Dwight Morrow, there was a "stabilization loan" of 100 million dollars, which grew to 300 million within three years. This in turn benefited the electricity suppliers, including FIAT, Montecatini, Pirelli, the Società di Navigazione Italo-Americana , Terni and Breda. In January 1926, Volpi achieved that Great Britain also waived 85% of its loans.
In November 1934, Volpi became chairman of the Confederazione fascista degli industriali , a position he held until May 1943. In November 1938 he was induced to apply the Italian racial laws ( leggi razziali ) in the economic sector, which also applied to the Aryanization of the largest Jewish insurance company, the Assicurazioni Generali , in which he had been a member since 1915. He himself became the successor of Edgardo Morpurgo in September 1938 , which made him even ahead of the relevant law.
The First World War also meant a qualitative leap for Vittorio Cini . In 1905 he began his ascent in his father's construction company, of which he became director in 1910. From 1910 to 1912 the excavations at the entrance to the port of Chioggia were taken over, whereby the disputes over the price with the Ministry of Labor dragged on until 1920. In May 1917 his father died and Cini rebuilt the company in connection with the Gruppo veneziano and its orientation towards the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean. In May 1919 he became president of Sitaco , which played an essential role in the emerging Marghera. In 1925 Cini sat in 19 companies, he was president or vice-president in four of them and 15 advisors. These were finance and insurance companies ( Porto industriale , Credito Industriale , Sviluppo , Assicurazioni Generali , Lloyd Siciliano ), then he worked in construction, transport and communication companies ( Veneta , Società di navigazione San Marco , Società di navigazione interna , Società di navigazione libera triestina , Lloyd Mediterraneo , Società telefonica delle Venezie [Telve] ), and finally in other companies such as Alti forni e acciaierie della Venezia Giulia , Cantieri Navali e Acciaierie di Venezia , Officine di Battaglia , Officine meccaniche italiane di Reggio Emilia and especially the SADE. The high point of integration came when Cini was involved in 33 companies in 1931, in which he was the president in eight of them and the vice-president in another.
In March 1921, Cini was a member of the directorate of Ilva , which, however, was almost bankrupt. As a first step, Cini noted that the debt stood at Lire 285 million; he obtained a moratorium from the lenders , then a reduction in debt to the state from 118 to 12 million lire. After further restructuring successes, Cini was offered the presidency, but he turned it down in order to act as vice-president, which gave him more leeway, because a president was not even appointed. With Giolitti's support , the renovation was carried out by December 1922. The selection criteria according to which the state intervened in favor of companies were opaque, because while Rome stood up for Ansaldo and the Banco di Roma , it failed to do so in the case of the Banca italiana di sconto . Cini took over the vice-presidency again in April 1930, but this time Giuseppe Toeplitz became president. He was followed by Oscar Sinigaglia in April 1933 . In 1935, Cini himself took over this position, which he held until 1939. He directed the Ilva under the supervision of the state Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI).
Since September 1927, Cini Commissario straordinario per la Bonifica integrale nella Provincia di Ferrara and thus responsible for bonuses and above all for the food supply. In order to strengthen control over the soil and, above all, the labor force that was not yet sufficiently integrated in the eyes of Rome, Cini carried out a "bonifica integrale" which preceded the later law of 1928. In reality, it was a forced resettlement program that was supposed to open up new agricultural areas, such as deportation to Sardinia .
In 1932, Cini arranged for six shipping companies to be merged into a single one, so that the Compagnia adriatica di navigazione could take control of the merchant and navy in the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean. In December 1936, when Finmare was founded, the IRI's financier, Cini did not miss the opportunity to liquidate the Compagnia adriatica through its national debt and to found the new Adriatica di navigazione , of which he became president.
With the Credito Industriale founded in October 1918, as Holding was the group Cini took over the presidency between 1931 and 1943. Given the all too numerous investments they have been reduced, the integration with the companies of Gruppo compacted. Cini became the representative of the group's financial directives.
In January 1934 Cini was senator, in May 1940 Conte with the title "di Monselice". In a speech he attributed only short and targeted interventions to the state, but he was responsible for "discipline", for maintaining social balance, reducing costs and the corporatist system of fascism, which is best for the common good take care of the interests of producers and savers (risparmaiatori).
In October 1936, Cini came into discussion as the successor to Alberto Beneduce in the presidential chair of the IRI. But in December, immediately after the founding of the Ente Esposizione Universale di Roma (EUR), Cini took over the post of general commissioner for the World's Fair , which was scheduled for 1942. In addition to the propaganda revival of Rome as the "head of the world", a new metropolis was also to emerge. Under the direction of Marcello Piacentini , architects and town planners were to design this new city; a corresponding plan was presented in March 1938.
In June 1939, Cini stayed in the USA on the occasion of the world exhibition in New York . There he met with President Roosevelt , where he came to the conclusion that the United States was not prepared for war and that they might opt for economic means.
The economic historian Gino Luzzatto , who submitted an assessment in September 1945 for the questioning of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Regionale Veneto , qualified Cini as a man of business (“uomo degli affari”), but who was also to be counted among the top Italian financiers .
Other actors
Achille Gaggia (1875–1953) from Feltre was considered trustworthy by the group. In August 1939 he was promoted to senator. Gaggia was part of the Volpi entourage as early as 1905. He was Vice President of SADE from 1925 to 1942, then again from December 1943 to September 1945 and finally from 1947 to 1953. From 1925 to 1930 he was President of the group's house bank , Credito Industriale . Like the undisputed leaders of the group, Gaggia was involved in numerous companies. In 1931 he acted in 66 companies, in 25 of them he was president or vice-president. In addition to SADE, he sat in Cellina , SIV, but then also in San Marco , Galileo , Veneta , Compagnia generale degli acquedotti d'Italia (Cogea), Telve and in the real estate company CIGA. He was a consultant in 41 companies. He was president of the Veneta from 1924 to 1944, in the CIGA ("la sua figlia prediletta") he was president from 1925 to 1944, after the war again from 1945 to 1953 - as Volpi's successor.
Also Alessandro Marco Barnabò (1886-1971) his rise began by construction and transport companies and used, as in Tripoli in 1912, the possibilities of the new colony Libya. But it wasn't until the mid-1920s that he appeared on an international level through contacts with English financiers. This led to contacts with the Swiss Aluminum Industrie Aktiengesellschaft (AIAG), the largest aluminum producer in Europe alongside the German United Aluminum Works . They needed hydropower plants for their electricity-intensive industries, which were built in Bellunese and Trentino, or by the Società Forze Idrauliche Alto Cadore and the Società idroelettrica Val Cismon (Val Cismon). In December 1926 SAVA was founded, which started producing aluminum in Marghera from 1928. Up to 34% of Italian aluminum was produced there, and together with the Società Italiana di Alluminio , which was owned by Montecatini, their share exceeded the 50% mark. This made Marghera the center of the electrochemical and metallurgical industry. Since aluminum was considered central to the regime's self-sufficiency policy, its production was strongly promoted.
Entanglement with the regime, impunity
After the occupation of Slovenia by Italy, Volpi became head of the Commissione economica italo-croata , a central position from which the economic penetration of the Balkans via the satellite state of Croatia could be advanced. But Volpi had to show consideration for Hitler's Germany. Nevertheless, Volpi managed to secure a core role for the Banca Commerciale Italiana , the Assicurazioni Generali and the SADE. While Volpi was minister at the beginning of the war, Cini took on such a post towards the end of the regime. In February 1943, Cini took over the post of Minister of Communications. But in December 1942 he had already spoken out about the dangers and the need for a radical change of direction on the part of the government. In retrospect, Cini tried to justify taking over the ministry as an action against the disastrous state of the country. Despite increasing distance from the regime, attempts were made to “salvare il salvabile”, that is, to “save what could be saved”. In March 1943, at a meeting with Hermann Göring , Cini made allegations about "promises that the Germans had never kept", and in April he expressed the need to distance himself from Germany and to negotiate with England. After the bombing of Rome on July 19, 1943, he said, “Mussolini era pazzo”, and that it now “bisognava avere il coraggio di mandarlo via”, so it required the courage to send the mad Mussolini away. Cini resigned on June 24, but this resignation was not accepted until July 23, two days before the regime was overthrown.
Cini had already made contact with the party's internal resistance, above all with Justice Minister Dino Grandi and Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano , also with the Vatican and the King. Volpi, however, had not moved.
Some of the exponents of the Italian economy continued to collaborate after the fall of Mussolini and the German occupation of the country. At the same time, they maintained contacts with the Resistance and tried to protect themselves on both sides. In Italy this is known as "gioco dei due fronti", as a 'game of two fronts'. Some tried to secure the continuity of business or the integrity of the companies, others wanted to win the confidence of the occupiers, and still others believed that they could also secure their position in post-war Italy. Some also tried to make contact with allies through secret talks in Switzerland . The best known, the FIAT case, was that of Giovanni Agnelli , Vittorio Valletta and Giancarlo Camerana , who donated 55 to 56 million lire to the Resistance. Gaggia, President of SADE from December 1943, operated until April 1945 and provided the Comitato di liberazione nazionale regional Veneto with 10 to 13 million lire.
Volpi was arrested by the SS in Rome on September 24, 1943 , then went to a clinic and was released in February 1944 - at the instigation of leading exponents of the fascist government installed by Germany, such as Guido Buffarini Guidi (he was executed on July 10, 1945) and Rodolfo Graziani (who was never held accountable for his atrocities in Libya and Ethiopia) - and appeared in Switzerland in July. After he had been acquitted of complicity in various contexts in January 1947, he returned in October 1947. He died in December. Volpi supported Resistan with 20 million from Switzerland and sold his shares in Società editoriale San Marco , which Il Gazzettino published, at the beginning of 1945 . This share went to Pietro Mentasti , one of the most important exponents of the Democrazia Cristiana , with whom he had already contacted in the summer of the previous year. In doing so, he relied on the only institution with an expected continuity, the Catholic Church, so that his last change of front was also successful.
Cini was also captured by the SS on September 24th in Rome. However, he was taken to the Dachau concentration camp . At the instigation of Joseph Goebbels , who admired his economic achievements and his "cultural awareness", he was first taken to a clinic and allowed to escape, an escape that his son Giorgio had organized. In the summer of 1944 he stayed in Padua, made contact with the president of the Veneto Resistance Association, Egidio Meneghetti , and offered money. He himself fled to Switzerland in September 1944 and donated a total of 60 million lire to the Resistance. In December 1946, he returned to Italy, even though various courts attested that he had actively collaborated with the fascist regime and that he had made a significant contribution to maintaining that regime. But as early as March 1946, the President of the Consiglio dei ministri Alcide De Gasperi and the President of the Consulta Carlo Sforza were particularly interested in him. In addition to the courts before which Giorgio Cini obtained full discharge , the investigative commission headed by Gino Luzzatto also declared the perfetta sincerità dell'atteggiamento politico and the “volontà di partecipare intensamente con gravi sacrifici finanziari e con più gravi rischi della persona alla lotta contro i tedeschi ". This made Cini a credible resistance fighter who took part in the fight against the Germans at great financial sacrifice and at risk for himself. In connection with Volpi it was also alleged that he was an opponent of the war and against the regime.
The Gaggia case was not even investigated; on the contrary, its support for the Resistance was emphasized. In this way, all exponents of the Gruppo veneziano , who were closely interwoven with Mussolini's system, could return.
While Egidio Meneghetti assigned SADE not only an economic role but also political responsibility in July 1945, he was soon contradicted, so that barely a year later some members of the Comitato di Liberazione demanded that they refrain from further investigations because of the financial support. Mario Mainardis, the chairman, had apologized, but it was enough to emphasize that before September 8, 1943, volunteers had supported the patriots. This nonsensical claim was backed up by the fact that the company was instrumental in receiving the Allies. The electricity supplier was also needed for the reconstruction.
In 1948 electricity production was 43% above the level before the war, in 1953 it was 90.7%. The sistema elettrico veneto , which could be traced back almost entirely to the SADE, produced 26.5% of the electricity, where it was only 21% in 1938. By 1953 this proportion rose to 31.5%. SADE thus remained the economic core of the Gruppo veneziano , which now passed into the hands of the only heir after Volpi died in 1947 and Gaggia died in 1953. The electrical industry remained an oligopoly that lasted at least until the late 1950s.
On October 9, 1963, tsunami-like flooding destroyed the Vajont dam , before the construction of which had been warned of the risks of such a structure, which had now cost the lives of 2,000 people. The first trials ended eight years later, others stretched over 40 years. For SADE, the process ended on March 16, 1963, when the company was transferred to ENEL . Cini, who wanted to make amends, which was presented as an aid to the general public, was prevented from doing so, as it could have looked like an admission of guilt. ENEL and Montedison, who had a substantial stake in SADE, also went largely unpunished because they were too close to government and law enforcement agencies.
Venice
Except for Volpi, none of the group came from Venice, but for all of them the city was the seat of the group. In fact, their structure had a massive influence on the structures of the Gruppo veneziano with its focus on revitalizing the city, on the division of labor between luxury tourism here and proletarian mass settlements there, between the Orient and a historical task. Volpi left his parents' house on Campo dei Frari and moved to Palazzo Pisani in San Beneto near Rialto in 1917 ; Cini settled in the Palazzo Loredan in S. Vio near the Accademia in 1919 ; Gaggia did not buy a 19th century palazzetto near San Moisè until 1938 . In the Venetian tradition, villas were added on the mainland, such as the Villa Barbaro , built by Andrea Palladio , frescoed by Paolo Veronese , then the Villa Morosini Gatterburg in Marocco for Volpi; the Ca 'Marcello in Monselice , connected to Ezzelino da Romano , the Carraresi , and the Villa Duodo Balbi Venier, which Vincenzo Scamozzi had built and which now belonged to Cini; finally for Gaggia the Villa Pagani in Socchieva .
The city of Venice itself became a gigantic project through the Gruppo veneziano , the consequences of which the city has to suffer more than ever. The city should again play an appropriate role in culture, but also in the economy. In order to preserve it at its core, and at the same time to be able to profit from the hotel industry, the ugly industry and the social question should be relegated to the mainland. The integration of the industrial zone into the city never succeeded. On the contrary, the old core of Venice became an economic object that was connected to the road network in 1933. In order to be able to achieve all of this, the plan of a Greater Venice was drafted, which included large-scale incorporations, first in the lagoon , then on the mainland. Bridges were also added over the Grand Canal , and the boat routes were pushed back further, as Mussolini promoted private transport, not public transport. Ghettos arose on the mainland under the euphemistic names Ca 'Emiliani, Ca' Sabbioni or Ca 'Brentelle. At the same time, the most economically active parts of the population were forced to work on the mainland.
Such plans continued almost without interruption after the end of the war. Cini, the actress Lyda Borelli had married, it was an enthusiastic promoter of culture, and the core city has received international exhibitions, such as the Festival della musica contemporanea , the Festival del teatro, and most importantly, for the first time worldwide, a Esposizione d'arte cinematografica from which resulted in the Mostra internazionale d'arte cinematografica . Volpi himself was President of the Biennale. Cini believed to the last that he had not helped Venice to "rebirth" through actions and words. To work on the city's culture, he founded the Fondazione Giorgio Cini on San Giorgio Maggiore after the death of his son .
However, under his presidency, SADE implemented another industrial zone in Marghera, which went hand in hand with an enormous reduction in the size of the lagoon and a deepening and widening of the canals. When this plan was partially implemented, the decision-making power was already with the Montecatini, whose main shareholders had been men like Cini himself.
The main exponents of the group have left neither heirs nor successors. Only Cini's son Giorgio seemed to have a similar development as president of the Società italiana di armamento and as financier of the Credito Industriale and the Cotonificio Veneziano . But he died at the age of 31 in a plane crash in 1949. Even though Volpi became a late father, his son Giovanni preferred to stay in Lausanne and do other things. Mario Valeri Manera, who married Gaggia's daughter Maria Vittoria, became President of the Associations of the Industrialists of Venice and Veneto, Vice-President of Confindustria , but he too preferred other occupations, in this case more of an administrative nature .
literature
- Martin Petsch: The architecture of rationalism and fascism in “Großvenedig” of the 1930s , disserta, Hamburg 2015, v. a. Chapter VI: A Fascist Modern Age: The Fascist Ideology in Rationalism using the Example of Venice , 79ff., And in the summary on pp. 108–112.
- Fabrizio Sarazani: L'ultimo doge. Vita di Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata , Edizioni del Borghese, 1972.
- Maurizio Reberschak: Gli uomini capitali: II "gruppo veneziano" (Volpi, Cini e gli altri) , in: Storia di Venezia dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima , vol. 9.1: Stuart Woolf (ed.): L'Ottocento 1797–1918 , Rome 2002, pp. 1255-1311.
Web links
- Maurizio Reberschak: Storia di Venezia. L'ottocento e il novecento , part 2: Gli uomini capitali: il "gruppo veneziano" .
Remarks
- ↑ Gaggia, Achille , Dizionario biografico.
- ↑ On the initiative of the engineer Antonio Pitter, the Società italiana per la utilizzazione delle forze idrauliche del Veneto was founded in 1900 ( Il Veneto nell'età giolittiana (1903–1913): aspetti economici, sociali, politici, culturali , published by the Comitato provinciale dell'Istituto per la storia del Risorgimento, 1991, p. 3).
- ↑ Vincenzo Fontana: Il nuovo paesaggio dell'Italia giolittiana , Laterza, Bari 1981, p. 129.
- ↑ One of the huts was named after the hydraulic engineer Semenza (1893–1961), who was primarily responsible for the construction of hydropower plants , but who also founded a section of the Italian Alpine Club , namely the Rifugio Carlo e Massimo Semenza , which was inaugurated in 1963 .
- ↑ Spada emerged in 1911 with a project that was never realized, namely the construction of a 3.6 km long tunnel from San Marco, more precisely the Giardinetti Reali , to the Lido ( Nicolò Spada e la metropolitana ).
- ↑ Not to be confused with the director of the Comunione Israelitica di Padova ( Regolamento della comunione israelitica della provincia di Padova , Padua 1829, p. 57 ( digitized version )).
- ↑ He was president of the Società di Navigazione Adriatica e della Carrozzeria Calore (Francesco Piva: Lotte contadine e origini del fascismo. Padova-Venezia 1919-1922 , Marsilio, 1977, pp. 80 f.).
- ↑ The members of the Consiglio di amministrazione can be found here , in the archive of the Mediobanca, the legal successor, on p. 20 f.
- ↑ As Giuseppe Fusinato put it in 1917: "Venice [...] has an outstanding role because it is consecrated by nature and history to the undisputed mistress of the Adriatic" ("Venezia [...] ha una parte preponderante, perché consacrata dalla natura e dalla storia a signora indiscussa dell'Adriatico ”).
- ↑ Wakako Nakamura: Altri edifici eccellenti , in: Raffaele Lemme (ed.): Le Case degli Italiani , Vol. 3: Gli edifici della cultura e dell'arte. La civiltà e il progresso dell'Italia unita , Gangemi, Rome 2011, pp. 129–141, here p. 136.
- ^ Tiziana Plebani: Storia di Venezia città delle donne , Marsilio, 2008, p. 175.