Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari (/ˈtʃɑːnoʊ/ CHAH-noh, Italian: [ɡaleˈattso ˈtʃaːno]; 18 March 1903 – 11 January 1944) was an Italian diplomat and politician who served as Foreign Minister in the government of his father-in-law, Benito Mussolini, from 1936 until 1943. During this period, he was widely seen as Mussolini's most probable successor as head of government.[1][2]
Galeazzo Ciano
Francesco Babuscio Rizzo
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Position established
Benito Mussolini
11 January 1944 (aged 40)
Verona, Veneto, Italian Social Republic
1.79 m (5 ft 10 in)
3
Costanzo Ciano (father)
Carolina Pini (mother)
- Diplomat
- politician
_-_Signature_of_Galeazzo_Ciano.jpg)
He was the son of Admiral Costanzo Ciano, a founding member of the National Fascist Party; father and son both took part in Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922. Ciano saw action in the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36) and was appointed Foreign Minister on his return. Following a series of Axis defeats in the Second World War, Ciano began pushing for Italy's exit, and he was dismissed from his post as a result. He then served as ambassador to the Vatican.
In July 1943, Ciano was among the members of the Grand Council of Fascism that forced Mussolini's ousting and subsequent arrest. Ciano proceeded to flee to Germany but was arrested and handed over to Mussolini's new regime based in Salò, the Italian Social Republic. Mussolini ordered Ciano's death, and in January 1944 he was executed by firing squad.[3]
Ciano wrote and left behind a diary[4] that has been used as a source by several historians, including William Shirer in his The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1960)[5] and in the four-hour HBO documentary-drama Mussolini and I (1985).[6]
Early life[edit]
Gian Galeazzo Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, in 1903. He was the son of Costanzo Ciano and his wife Carolina Pini;[7] his father was an Admiral and World War I hero in the Royal Italian Navy (for which service he was given the aristocratic title of Count by Victor Emmanuel III).[8] The elder Ciano, nicknamed Ganascia ("The Jaw"), was a founding member of the National Fascist Party and re-organizer of the Italian merchant navy in the 1920s. Costanzo Ciano was not above extracting private profit from his public office. He would use his influence to depress the stock of a company, after which he would buy a controlling interest, then increase his wealth after its value rebounded. Among other holdings, Costanzo Ciano owned a newspaper, farmland in Tuscany and other properties worth huge sums of money. As a result, his son Galeazzo was accustomed to living a high-profile and glamorous lifestyle, which he maintained almost until the end of his life. Father and son both took part in Mussolini's 1922 March on Rome.[9]
After studying Philosophy of Law at the University of Rome, Galeazzo Ciano worked briefly as a journalist before choosing a diplomatic career; soon, he served as an attaché in Rio de Janeiro.[10] According Mrs. Milton E. Miles, in the 1920s in Beijing Ciano met Wallis Simpson, later the Duchess of Windsor, had an affair with her, and left her pregnant, leading to a botched abortion that left her infertile. The rumor was later widespread but never substantiated and Ciano's wife, Edda Mussolini, denied it.[11]
On 24 April 1930, when he was 27 years old, Ciano married Benito Mussolini's daughter Edda Mussolini,[3] and they had three children (Fabrizio, Raimonda and Marzio), though he was known to have had several affairs while married.[12] Soon after their marriage, Ciano left for Shanghai to serve as Italian consul, where his wife had an affair with the Chinese warlord Zhang Xueliang.[13]
Political career[edit]
Minister of press and propaganda[edit]
On his return to Italy in 1935, Ciano became the minister of press and propaganda in the government of his father-in-law.[14][15] He volunteered for action in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia (1935–36) as a bomber squadron commander. He received two silver medals of valor and reached the rank of captain. His future opponent Alessandro Pavolini served in the same squadron as a lieutenant.
Foreign minister[edit]
Upon his highly trumpeted return from the war as a "hero" in 1936, he was appointed by Mussolini as replacement Foreign Minister. Ciano began to keep a diary a short time after his appointment and kept it active up to his 1943 dismissal as foreign minister. In 1937, he was allegedly involved in planning the murder of the brothers Carlo and Nello Rosselli, two exiled anti-fascist activists killed in the French spa town of Bagnoles-de-l'Orne on 9 June. Also in 1937, prior to the Italian annexation in 1939, Gian Galeazzo Ciano was named an Honorary Citizen of Tirana, Albania.[16]
Gian Galeazzo and Edda Ciano had three children:
