Edda Mussolini

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Edda Mussolini : biography

1 September 1910 – 9 April 1995

Edda Mussolini (1 September 1910 – 9 April 1995) was the eldest child of Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator from 1922 to 1943. Upon her marriage to fascist propagandist and foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano she became Edda Ciano, Countess of Cortellazzo and Buccari. Her husband was executed in January 1944 for dissenting from Mussolini’s rule. She strongly denied her involvement in the National Fascist Party regime and had an affair with a Communist after her father’s execution by the Italian partisans in April 1945.

Sources

  • The Ciano Diaries 1939-1943: The Complete, Unabridged Diaries of Count Galeazzo Ciano, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1936-1943 (2000) ISBN 1-931313-74-1
  • Ciano’s diplomatic papers: being a record of nearly 200 conversations held during the years 1936-42 with Hitler, Mussolini, Franco; together with important memoranda, letters, telegrams etc.; edited by Malcolm Muggeridge; translated by Stuart Hood; London: Odhams Press, (1948)
  • Чиано Галеаццо, Дневник фашиста. 1939-1943, (Москва: Издательство "Плацъ", Серия "Первоисточники новейшей истории", 2010, 676 стр.) ISBN 978-5-903514-02-1
  • Giordano Bruno Guerri – Un amore fascista. Benito, Edda e Galeazzo. (Mondadori, 2005) ISBN 88-04-53467-2
  • Ray Moseley – Mussolini’s Shadow: The Double Life of Count Galeazzo Ciano, (Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0-300-07917-6
  • R.J.B. Bosworth – Mussolini (Hodder Arnold, 2002) ISBN 0-340-73144-3
  • Michael Salter and Lorie Charlesworth – "Ribbentrop and the Ciano Diaries at the Nuremberg Trial" in Journal of International Criminal Justice 2006 4(1):103-127
  • Fabrizio Ciano – Quando il nonno fece fucilare papà ("When Grandpa had Daddy Shot") Milano, Mondadori,. 1991
  • Jasper Ridley – Mussolini, St.Martins Press, 1997

Legacy

It was widely reported at the time that the daughter of Hermann Göring and Emmy Göring (born 2 June 1938) was named Edda after her.

A number of films have been made about Edda’s life, including Mussolini and I (1985) in which she was played by Susan Sarandon.

Her son Fabrizio Ciano wrote a personal memoir entitled Quando il nonno fece fucilare papà ("When Grandpa had Daddy Shot").

Biography

Early life

She was born out of wedlock to Benito Mussolini and Rachele Guidi in Forlì, Romagna. Her parents did not marry until December 1915. In her early years, while her father was editor of Il Popolo d’Italia in Milan, Edda lived with Rachele in Forlì. Her father became Prime Minister of Italy in October 1922 and Dictator after January 1925.

In March 1925, Rachele and Edda with her brothers and sisters, moved from Milan to Carpegna and then to Rome in November 1929 to live with their father. Edda was, herself, a rebellious woman in her youth. Her powerful father made dating difficult, as most young men feared him. She has been described as being opinionated and outspoken. It was while in Rome that she met Galeazzo Ciano, son of Admiral Count Costanzo Ciano, a loyal Fascist and supporter of Benito Mussolini before his March on Rome. They were married on 24 April 1930 in a lavish ceremony attended by 4,000 guests.

Her husband was appointed Italian Consul in Shanghai and it was there their first son, Fabrizio Ciano, was born on 1 October 1931. The couple moved back to Italy in 1932, where Galeazzo took the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs. By many accounts, theirs was an open marriage, and both had lovers. However, her father liked Galeazzo and so his career prospered.

World War II

After the Italian invasion of Albania in June 1939, the city of Santi Quaranta (Sarandë in Albanian) was renamed "Porto Edda" in her honour during the annexation.

In July 1939, she was depicted on the front cover of Time in a feature entitled "Lady of the Axis".