Dino Grandi

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
12 September 1929 – 20 July 1932
Prime MinisterBenito Mussolini
Preceded byBenito Mussolini
Succeeded byBenito Mussolini
Personal details
Born4 June 1895
Mordano, Italy
Died21 May 1988(1988-05-21) (aged 92)
Bologna, Italy
Political partyNational Fascist Party
Height1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Alma materUniversity of Bologna
ProfessionLawyer
politician

Dino Grandi, 1st

parliament
.

Early life

Born at Mordano, province of Bologna, Grandi was a graduate in law and economics at the University of Bologna in 1919 (after serving in World War I). Grandi started a career as a lawyer in Imola. Attracted to the political left, he nonetheless became impressed with Benito Mussolini after the two met in 1914, and became a staunch advocate of Italy's entry into the World War.

He joined the

Chamber of Deputies. Grandi survived an ambush
carried out by leftist militants in 1920, and had his studio devastated on one occasion.

Fascist statesman

Dino Grandi (left) with the British Foreign Secretary John Simon in 1932

After the

Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs (1929) and then as Italy's ambassador to the United Kingdom (1932 to 1939). Grandi was an ally to the most radical and violent groups of fascists, always surrounding himself with members of the Blackshirts. He used his power base to voice criticism of Mussolini's attempt to reach an armistice with left-wingers and was at one point under suspicion for having attempted to replace the latter with the skeptical alleged Mussolini forerunner Gabriele D'Annunzio
.

In 1939, he was recalled to Italy after attempting a pact between his country and Britain to prevent Italy from entering World War II. Under pressure from Hitler, Mussolini removed him from the post of ambassador and appointed him Minister of Justice. As a diplomat, Grandi created a net of connections that were rivaled only by Mussolini's son-in-law,

Greek Front with the other Gerarchi in 1941. As Mussolini's ambassador to London, he had affairs with some of the most influential noblewomen of the time—including Lady Alexandra Curzon, daughter of the Viceroy of India, George Curzon.[2]

Grandi opposed the antisemitic Italian racial laws of 1938,[3] and the country's entry into World War II. He was dropped from the Cabinet in February 1943 for his increasing criticism of the war effort.

Fall of Mussolini and aftermath

Main article: Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy

As the war began to have its devastating effect on Italy after the

Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro), which gave way to the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany
.

While the Allies occupied the south, an alternate Fascist government was established in Northern Italy as the Italian Social Republic. It sentenced Grandi to death in absentia for treason in the Verona trial that took place on 8 to 10 January 1944. Grandi, however, had made sure to flee to Francisco Franco's Spain in August 1943. He lived there, then in Portugal (1943–1948), Argentina,[4] and then São Paulo, Brazil, until he returned to Italy in the 1960s; he died in Bologna. Coincidentally, Grandi died on the same weekend as two post-war Italian Fascist leaders. Like Grandi, Pino Romualdi died on 21 May 1988, and Giorgio Almirante died the following day.[5]

References

  1. ^ Current Biography: Who's News and Why, 1943. H. W. Wilson. 1944. p. 247. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  2. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  3. ^ Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 262.
  4. ^ "Former Mussolini Aide Lands in Argentina," The Modesto Bee, 16 March 1949, p.6
  5. ^ "Obituaries Dino Grandi, 92; rival of Mussolini's," Syracuse Post-Standard, 24 May 1988, p.48

External links

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Political offices
Preceded by
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs

1929–1932 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies

1939–1943 		Succeeded by