Amb. Beltrame, D’Annunzio was a kind of spin doctor – Trentino AA/S


At Palazzo Metternich the leaflets launched in 1918 in Vienna


(ANSA) – BOLZANO, NOVEMBER 30 – Gabriele D’Annunzio is back in Vienna. The original flyers launched in 1918 at a Military History Conference on the Great War organized by the Italian Embassy are on display in Palazzo Metternich, the historic headquarters of the Italian embassy. Also exhibited are some Italian and Austrian military uniforms from Solferino to the Great War.

“Exhibiting the original flyers that Gabriele D’Annunzio launched in his famous flight over Vienna in 1918 at Palazzo Metternich is an initiative with a certain emotional impact”, declared Ambassador Stefano Beltrame, opening the proceedings of the Conference on Italian military history and Austrian dedicated to the Great War. “If we wanted to explain the meaning of that operation to young people today, we should say that D’Annunzio was then a kind of spin doctor who fought to win ‘the minds and hearts’ not only of the Italian soldiers, but also of the Viennese people in addressed directly and with great respect for civilians”. “Today Italy and Austria – continued Beltrame – are allied and friendly nations. Mature nations able to talk about their past conflicts with the serenity that history, the historicization of the past, allows. Unfortunately, war returns to our times to knock on Europe’s doors with the unjustified Russian aggression against Ukraine, but the fact that today Austria and Italy are reassuring neighbors, allies and friends makes us optimistic about the future. In 2022 we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Autonomy of South Tyrol-South Tyrol.

Italy and Austria have followed a path and coexistence that does us credit in Europe and in the world”.

The conference was organized in cooperation with the Austrian Foreign Ministry, with Stefan Rest of the Militaria Verlag in Vienna, with the directors of the two Military Museums in Vienna and Rovereto Christian Ortner and Francesco Frizzera. Davide Zendri and Michael Hochedlinger also spoke, who in his report recalled all the Italian generals who have met in history for the Habsburgs. (HANDLE).

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