Renzo Ravenna (Ferrara, August 20, 1893 – Ferrara, October 29, 1961) was an Italian lawyer and politician. He belonged to a prominent Jewish family in Ferrara and was, with Enrico Paolo Salem in Trieste, one of only two Fascist mayors of Jewish origin in Italy before the introduction of the racial laws.
He was an interventionist and volunteer during World War I and a friend of Italo Balbo; this made him first approach and then join the National Fascist Party, until he was appointed podestà. He devoted himself to the administration of the city with particular attention to the economic situation, urban reconstruction and cultural initiatives. After his resignation, due to the institution of the anti-Jewish laws (1938) and with the death of Balbo (1940), he definitively distanced himself from Fascism: the persecution of his family by the regime, his flight to Switzerland and his subsequent return to Ferrara when the war was over definitively ended his political career. His figure as a Jewish personality holding posts linked to Fascism makes him the subject, even today, of investigation by historians and members of the cultural and political world.
Biography
Early years, Great War, beginning of forensic career and marriage The son of Tullio Ravenna and Eugenia Pardo, the fifth of six siblings, Renzo was the grandson of Isaia Ravenna, the first Hebrew teacher in the Regio Liceo Ginnasio "L. Ariosto" in Ferrara. By his parents' choice he attended Italian public schools instead of Israelite ones.
For young Renzo, his meeting with Italo Balbo in the Ferrara Gymnasium, at which they were both placed on the student team, proved decisive for his entire life.
In 1912 he joined the army as a volunteer and in 1913 enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ferrara. Ravenna was, in September 1914, among the 25 Ferrara personalities to found an interventionist group, and when the conflict broke out in 1915, he was called to arms and sent to war, first to the Vicenza area and later to Albania. He took a final discharge with the rank of captain in 1919, and in the same year graduated in law. He then began practicing law, initially in an established city firm and later in one of his own. At the same time he began to receive positions in the Public Administration of Justice. In 1921 Ravenna married Lucia Modena.
Adhesion to fascism and beginning of political career
Situation in Ferrara and relations with Italo Balbo
In Ferrara squadrismo, supported by the large landowners who wanted to contain socialist worker and union demands, resulted in various episodes of violence, such as the Minzoni murder. After the first violent years Italo Balbo sought trusted personalities through whom he could change his public image; these included Ravenna, the journalist Nello Quilici and Umberto Klinger, for several years the city's federal secretary. The link between Fascism and the local bourgeoisie was strengthened, even with the Jewish component, and later, to this end, cultural aspects inspired by Ferrara's Este history were enhanced. On the cultural pages of the Corriere Padano, directed by Quilici, wrote Ferrara personalities who later distanced themselves from Fascism; among them were Giorgio Bassani, Michelangelo Antonioni and Lanfranco Caretti. Bassani later, around 1941, joined an antifascist group and was imprisoned.
Fascist Ravenna
Ravenna initially approached Fascism by being attracted to nationalist and irredentist ideas,It was Ravenna himself, a few years earlier, who invited Cesare Battisti to Ferrara for a speech that ended with the audience chanting, "Viva Trento, Viva Trieste!" as was also the case for various members of the Jewish bourgeoisie,Consideration partly corrected by the following: "Recent studies have downplayed the image of a unanimous and convinced adhesion of the Ferrarese Jewish community to early Fascism... Among the first signatories was, for example, Enrico Bassani, the writer's father, and not Renzo Ravenna, the future podestà," and his long-standing friendship and esteem for Balbo, despite the obvious difference between the two, was very influential at this stage. With Balbo and Panunzio he founded a revolutionary action group in the city, and became part, in 1922, of a small circle of the party official's close associates, was a candidate in the local administrative elections at the end of that same year, in a climate of strong political contrast and violence, and became an alderman. In the meantime, he continued to practice his profession as a lawyer, although he devoted less and less time to it. In 1923 his assessorship was directly involved in the early stages of urban planning intervention in the city, particularly with the restoration of the Castello Estense and the Palazzo del Comune. On that occasion he contributed to the decision to rebuild the tower that fell in 1570 at the beginning of the earthquake swarm that struck the city until 1574, also participating with a donation.In the public subscription for the construction of the tower promoted by the Corriere Padano, Balbo and Ravenna appear, who donated 500 and 200 liras respectively. More than 4,000 donations were counted among which appear the names of many members of the local Jewish community.
Later, his extraneousness to the acts of squadrismo that marked the rise of Fascism in Ferrara,: Italo Balbo at that time was looking for honest and prepared personalities, as well as those loyal to him, to ward off from himself and fascism the negative repercussions associated with the Minzoni murder, his secular position and the professional esteem he enjoyed prompted Balbo to propose him as the leader of Fascism in Ferrara, with a formal invitation to join the National Fascist Party (PNF), in 1924.The Ravenna affair should be included in a more precise analysis of the Jewish presence in Ferrara. "The First World War, in which the Jews of Ferrara, as well as those of the rest of the peninsula, had participated in great numbers, ended up representing the first real official recognition of belonging to the Italian nation." To this it should be added that many Jews in the Ferrarese community, belonging to the landowning bourgeoisie, later chose fascism to defend their interests and to oppose socialism, Here it should be pointed out that the Ravenna family were merchants, not landowners. Ravenna then began heading the PNF's Ferrarese Federal Secretariat and then followed Balbo to Rome, when the latter was appointed undersecretary of the National Economy. This experience, however, was short-lived, partly for personal reasons. Toward the end of 1926, when the Fascist laws came into effect, he was appointed extraordinary commissioner to head the Municipality of Ferrara. These provisions, in particular Law No. 237/1926, replaced with government-appointed authority all municipal and provincial administrations that had hitherto been elective.
Podestà of Ferrara
City administrator
Renzo Ravenna was appointed Podestà of Ferrara on December 16, 1926, by royal decree and received a telegram of congratulatory good wishes from his friend Italo Balbo,Personal archives of the mayor of Ferrara Renzo Ravenna, b.I, fasc. Balbo who had personally committed himself to this result. He thus began his activity as the city's first administrator and, in that role, demonstrated that he possessed, in addition to personal honesty, the skills required by the important function,: in full compliance with Fascist directives.An example of the loyalty cited in the actions of the podestà can also be identified in his full adherence to the population policy, with the opening in Ferrara in 1927 of a section of the OMNI. Renzo Ravenna was a member by right, and operated in line with national indications, Ferrara State Archives, Prefecture, Cabinet, b.169, fasc.5; letter from prefect Cesare Bertini to the Ministry of the Interior, October 8, 1926.Ravenna in particular gave his full support to the Fascist demographic policy by organizing a section of the OMNI in Ferrara in 1927. Renzo Ravenna was a member by right, and he operated faithfully following the regime's directives.
Beginning of activity as podestà One of his first and significant political acts was to confirm in their roles several valuable technicians from the previous administration, even though they were known anti-fascists; in particular, among others, Girolamo Savonuzzi and Arturo Torboli, who were later killed in 1943, as later reported. The problems he immediately faced mainly concerned the situation of the municipality's finances, widespread unemployment and the destitution of many of his fellow citizens. He received numerous requests for aid throughout his tenure, to which he always responded.
Not infrequently then, he intervened not only as an administrator but also personally contributed economically in favor of some in need.Cases in which he personally supported the cost of university studies of some young people without means were not uncommon, as happened in the case of future historian Carlo Zaghi, He also established soup kitchens, active especially in the winter period, which remained in operation until his resignation. His commitment to the city's administration reduced the time he devoted to his professional practice, which nevertheless continued its activity, thanks in part to his collaborators.:
Urban intervention
Since before his tenure at the helm of Ferrara (still as an assessor) he participated in the important urban renewal work later called Addizione Novecentista. The administration involved, in successive times, various architects and engineers with the task of redesigning the face of the city, which, in new buildings, almost always followed the new dictates of rationalism: Adamo Boari, Angiolo Mazzoni, Virgilio Coltro, Giorgio Gandini, Filippo Galassi, Girolamo Savonuzzi (chief engineer of the municipality) and his brother Carlo Savonuzzi were among the main architects of this renewal.
Interventions were put in place in many parts of the city, in addition to the already mentioned Castello Estense and Palazzo del Comune. Road and sewer networks were fixed, public lighting was extended, and various school buildings and social housing were built. The following date from this period of intense activity: the Post Office building, the aqueduct, the fruit and vegetable market, the Pastrengo barracks, the Air Force building, the Casa del Fascio, the Museum of Natural History, the Girolamo Frescobaldi Conservatory, the Boldini complex, and the relocation of the city's main hospital was realized. This amount of work required substantial financing, which only in part drew on the current expenses of the municipality.The activity of fascism in the civic administration during the decade 1923-1932, Ferrara 1933, pp. XIII-XIV Loans of up to 20 years were activated with public credit institutions, and part of the funds came directly from the government, both by Balbo's precise intervention and by general political choice at the national level.