Alcide De Gasperi

Alcide De Gasperi
Alcide De Gasperi
44th President of the Council of Ministers of Italy Temporary head of the Italian State from June 12, 1946 to July 1, 1946
In office December 10, 1945 – August 2, 1953
President	Himself Enrico De Nicola Luigi Einaudi
Preceded by	Ferruccio Parri
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office December 12, 1944 – October 10, 1946
Prime Minister	Ivanoe Bonomi Ferruccio Parri Himself
Preceded by	Ivanoe Bonomi
Succeeded by	Pietro Nenni
In office July 26, 1951 – August 2, 1953
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Carlo Sforza
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
Minister of the Interior
In office July 13, 1946 – January 28, 1947
Prime Minister	Himself
Preceded by	Giuseppe Romita
Succeeded by	Mario Scelba
2ndPresident of the European Parliament
In office 1954 – August 19, 1954
Preceded by	Paul Henri Spaak
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
Born	April 3 1881(1881-04-03) Trentino, Austria-Hungary
Died	19 August 1954 (aged 73) Passo Sella, Italy
Political party	Christian Democracy
Spouse	Francesca Romani
Children	Maria Romana De Gasperi other 3 daughters
Alma mater	University of Vienna
Religion	Roman Catholic

Alcide De Gasperi (3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian statesman and politician. He is considered to be one of the Founding fathers of the European Union, along with the Frenchman Robert Schuman and the German Konrad Adenauer. During World War II he was active Italy's anti-Fascist resistance movement and spent 16 months in prison under Benito Mussolini (1926-1929). Serving in Italy's first post-war Cabinet from June 1944, he became Prime Minister December 10 1945 and remained in office for seven years. He was provisional Head of State from June 12 1946 until July I, when Enrico De Nicola became the first President of Italy. He signed the peace treaty between Italy and the [[Allied Powers {World War II)]] in September 1947, then gave moral leadership to the Italian state as it recovered from the war. He did much to shape the post-war Italian state and is credited with leading efforts at reconstruction. Convinced that close ties between the European states would benefit all economically and help to maintain peace, he oversaw Italy's entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization the European Community of Coal and Steel (which later developed into the European Union) and the Council of Europe. He was President of the ECCS from May 1953 and the first President of its Parliamentary Assembly from May 11 1954 until his death. De Gaspari was guided throughout his life by the social and moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, especially encyclical Rerum Novarum. He can be credited with helping to shape post-World War II Europe as well as his homeland. His vision of founding a European army to replace national military forces failed, however but his desire to unite the victors and the vanquished of the war in new, peaceful alliances has been achieved. A passionate advocate of freedom and justice, he stressed Christian values but believed that people of good will of whatever faith could work together. His message of unity was fundamentally humanist at root; a "search for peace, solidarity and friendship between peoples." He wanted to be remembered as a "man of faith" rather than as a "man of power."

Biography

File:Monumento Alcide Degasperi Trento.JPG

De Gasperi memorial in Trento

De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino in Trentino, at that time belonging to Austria-Hungary, now part of the Province of Trento in Italy.

He studied philosophy and literature in Vienna and afterward became a journalist. In 1911 he became a Member of Parliament in the Austrian Reichsrat. His home region was transferred to Italy after the First World War. In 1919 he was one of the founders, with Don Luigi Sturzo, of the Italian Popular Party, or Partito Popolare; starting in 1921 he was an MP for the party. He later became party leader and Secretary-General.

World War II

De Gasperi served a 16-month jail sentence as an anti-fascist. After his release in 1931 he worked in the library of the Vatican; there, in 1943, during the Second World War, he organized the establishment of the first (and at the time, illegal) Christian Democracy party, or Democrazia Cristiana, drawing upon the ideology of the Popular Party. From 1945 to 1953 he was the prime minister of eight successive Christian Democratic governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for one leader in modern Italian politics.

Italian Prime Minister

In 1946, when Italy became a Republic, he was elected Capo Provvisorio dello Stato (Provisional Head of State) Pro-Tempore and Regnante Reggente. He is the only man to have become President of the Council, Republic and Regent. He was strong supporter of the Marshall Plan despite opposition from the Italian Communist Party

=Honors

In 1952 he received the Karlspreis (engl.: International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen), an Award by the German city of Aachen to people who contributed to the European idea and European peace. That same year he vetoed a coalition with former fascists and monarchists for the city of Rome elections advocated by some ecclesiastical circles (the so-called operazione Sturzo); Democrazia Cristiana won, but the governmental block lost some 11%.

In 1951 he was awarded the LL.D. by the University of Ottawa.

Death

San Lorenzo, Gasperi's tomb

De Gasperi died in Sella di Valsugana, in Trentino. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome.

Legacy

The Alcide De Gasperi Foundation was named in his honor. The Foundation describes him as "father of the democratic reconstruction of Italy, advocate of European unity and of peace in security among nations" and aims to promote "strengthen democracy" and to "spread freedom."

There is a Rue Alcide de Gasperi in Luxembourg and a Via Alcide De Gasperi in Rome. There is also a 23 storied Alcide De Gasperi Building in Kirchberg, North East of Luxuebourg. There is a memorial in his honor in Trento, Italy. Declared a "Servant of God" by the Roman Catholic Church he is considered as a candidate for beatification. His legacy is especially invoked by those who stress that Christian and humanist values informed the original vision of a unified Europe and beyond that of a unfiied world. His vision, though, was neither dogmatic nor exclusive but open and inclusive of all people.

See also

• Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
• Alcide de Gasperi Building

Bibliography

• Craveri, Piero De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006 ISBN 9788815114181
• Keyserlingk, Robert Wendelin. 1972. Fathers of Europe: patriots of peace. Montreal: Palm Publishers ISBN 9780919366183
• Prati, Giulia. 2006. Italian foreign policy, 1947-1951: Alcide De Gasperi and Carlo Sforza between Atlanticism and Europeanism. Göttingen: V&R Unipress ISBN 9783899713015
• Samuels, Richard J. 2003. Machiavelli's children: leaders and their legacies in Italy and Japan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press 9780801434921ISBN
• Sassi, Salvatore, and Adolfo Sassi. 2007. Alcide De Gasperi e il periodo asburgico. Saggistica Aracne, 76. Roma: Aracne ISBN 9788854811386
• Venneri, G. 2008. "Man of faith and political commitment: Alcide De Gasperi in the history of Europe." JOURNAL OF MODERN ITALIAN STUDIES. 13 (1): 89-92, ISSN 1354-571X

External links

• Alcide De Gasperi - one of the EU's founding fathers Page from the Italian presidency of the EU showing how Alcide De Gasperi fits into the European Union history.
• Alcide De Gasperi Foundation
• photographs of De Gasperi from the private archive of Mrs Maria Romana De Gasperi
• biography at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

publication by the European People's Party containing three speeches by De Gasperi

• Article on De Gasperi's idea of Europe

Political offices
Preceded by: Ivanoe Bonomi	Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 1944–1946	Succeeded by: Pietro Nenni
Preceded by: Ferruccio Parri	Prime Minister of Italy 1945–1953	Succeeded by: Giuseppe Pella
Preceded by: Giuseppe Romita	Italian Minister of the Interior 1946–1947	Succeeded by: Mario Scelba
Preceded by: Carlo Sforza	Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 1951–1953	Succeeded by: Giuseppe Pella
Preceded by: Paul Henri Spaak	President of the European Parliament 1954	Succeeded by: Giuseppe Pella
Party Political Offices
Preceded by: none	Secretary of the Italian Christian Democracy 1944-1946	Succeeded by: Attilio Piccioni
Preceded by: Guido Gonella	Secretary of the Italian Christian Democracy 1953-1954	Succeeded by: Arnaldo Forlani

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