Alcide De Gasperi

Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (Italian: [alˈtʃiːde de ˈɡasperi]; 3 April 1881 – 19 August 1954) was an Italian statesman who founded the Christian Democracy party and served as Prime Minister of Italy in eight successive coalition governments from 1945 to 1953.[1]

Alcide De Gasperi
30th Prime Minister of Italy
In office 10 December 1945 – 17 August 1953
Monarch	Vittorio Emanuele III Umberto II
Lieutenant General	Prince Umberto
President	Enrico De Nicola Luigi Einaudi
Deputy	Luigi Einaudi Randolfo Pacciardi Giuseppe Saragat Attilio Piccioni Giovanni Porzio
Preceded by	Ferruccio Parri
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
President of the Common Assembly
In office 11 May 1954 – 19 August 1954
Preceded by	Paul-Henri Spaak
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 26 July 1951 – 17 August 1953
Preceded by	Carlo Sforza
Succeeded by	Giuseppe Pella
In office 12 December 1944 – 18 October 1946
Prime Minister	Ivanoe Bonomi Ferruccio Parri
Preceded by	Ivanoe Bonomi
Succeeded by	Pietro Nenni
Minister of the Interior
In office 14 July 1946 – 2 February 1947
Preceded by	Giuseppe Romita
Succeeded by	Mario Scelba
Minister of the Italian Africa
In office 10 December 1945 – 19 April 1953
Preceded by	Ferruccio Parri
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Secretary of the Christian Democracy
In office 28 September 1953 – 29 June 1954
Preceded by	Guido Gonella
Succeeded by	Amintore Fanfani
In office 31 July 1944 – 22 September 1946
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Attilio Piccioni
Secretary of the People's Party
In office 20 May 1924 – 14 December 1925
Preceded by	Giovanni Gronchi Giuseppe Spataro Giulio Rodinò
Succeeded by	Antonio Alberti Giovanni Battista Migliori
Member of the Parliament Member of the Chamber of Deputies In office 8 May 1948 – 19 January 1954 Constituency Trento–Bolzano In office 11 June 1921 – 21 January 1929 Constituency Trento Member of the Constituent Assembly In office 25 June 1946 – 31 January 1948 Constituency Trento–Bolzano Member of the Imperial Council In office July 1911 – November 1918 Constituency Tyrol
Personal details
Born	Alcide Amedeo Francesco De Gasperi (1881-04-03)3 April 1881 Pieve Tesino, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary
Died	19 August 1954(1954-08-19) (aged 73) Borgo Valsugana, Trentino, Italy
Political party	UPPT (1906–1920) PPI (1920–1926) DC (1943–1954)
Spouse(s)	Francesca Romani ( m. 1922)
Children	4
Alma mater	University of Innsbruck University of Vienna
Profession	Journalist philologist politician

De Gasperi was the last Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Italy, serving under both Victor Emmanuel III and Umberto II. He was also the first Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, and also briefly served as provisional head of state after the Italian people voted to end the monarchy and establish a republic. His eight-year term in office remains a landmark of political longevity for a leader in modern Italian politics. De Gasperi is the fifth longest-serving Prime Minister since the Italian Unification.

A devout Catholic, he was one of the founding fathers of the European Union along with fellow Italian Altiero Spinelli.

Early years

De Gasperi was born in Pieve Tesino in Tyrol, which at that time belonged to Austria-Hungary, now part of the region of Trentino-Alto Adige in Italy. His father was a local police officer of limited financial means. From 1896 De Gasperi was active in the Social Christian movement. In 1900 he joined the Faculty of Literature and Philosophy in Vienna, where he played an important role in the inception of the Christian student movement. He was very much inspired by the Rerum novarum encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in 1891. In 1904 he took an active part in student demonstrations in favour of an Italian language university. Imprisoned with other protesters during the inauguration of the Italian faculty of law in Innsbruck, he was released after twenty days. In 1905, De Gasperi obtained a degree in philology.

In 1905, he began to work as editor of the newspaper La Voce Cattolica (The Catholic Voice) which was replaced in September 1906 by Il Trentino and after a short time, he became its editor. In his newspaper, he often took positions in favor of a cultural autonomy for Trentino and in defense of Italian culture in Trentino in contrast to the Germanisation plans of the German radical nationalists in Tyrol. However, he never questioned whether Trentino should belong to Austria–Hungary and claimed that in the case of a referendum 90% of the people of Trentino would nevertheless choose the popular Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria over Italy.

In 1911, he became a Member of Parliament for the Popular Political Union of Trentino (UPPT) in the Austrian Reichsrat, a post he held for 6 years. He was politically neutral during World War I, which he spent in Vienna. However, he sympathized with the ultimately unsuccessful efforts of Pope Benedict XV (1914–1922) and Bl. Karl I of Austria to obtain an honorable peace and stop the war and mass killing. When his home region was transferred to Italy in the post-war settlement, he accepted Italian citizenship. He however never tried to hide his love for Austria and German culture and often preferred speaking German to his family, many of whom spoke German as their first language.

Opposition to Fascism

In 1919, he was among of the founders of the Italian People's Party (PPI), with Luigi Sturzo. He served as a deputy in the Italian Parliament from 1921 to 1924, a period marked by the rise of Fascism. He initially supported the participation of the PPI in Benito Mussolini's first government in October 1922.

As Mussolini's hold on the Italian government grew stronger, he soon diverged with the Fascists over constitutional changes to the powers of the executive and to the election system (the Acerbo Law), and to Fascist violence against the constitutional parties, culminating in the murder of Giacomo Matteotti. The PPI split, and De Gasperi became secretary of the remaining anti-Fascist group in May 1924. In November 1926, in a climate of overt violence and intimidation by the Fascists, the PPI was dissolved.

De Gasperi was arrested in March 1927 and sentenced to four years in prison. The Vatican negotiated his release. A year and a half in prison nearly broke De Gasperi's health. After his release in July 1928, he was unemployed and in serious financial hardship, until in 1929 his ecclesiastical contacts secured him a job as a cataloguer in the Vatican Library, where he spent the next fourteen years until the collapse of Fascism in July 1943.

During the 1930s, De Gasperi wrote a regular international column for the review L'Illustrazione Vaticana in which he depicted the chief political battle as one between Communism and Christianity. In 1934, he rejoiced in the defeat of the Austrian Social Democrats, whom he condemned for "de-Christianizing" the country, and in 1937 he declared that the German Church was correct in preferring Nazism to Bolshevism.[2]

Founding Christian Democracy

During World War II, he organised the establishment of the first (and at the time, illegal) Christian Democracy (DC) party, drawing upon the ideology of the PPI. In January 1943, he published "Ideas for Reconstruction" (Italian: Idee ricostruttive), which amounted to a programme for the party. He became the first general secretary of the new party in 1944.

De Gasperi was the undisputed head of the Christian Democrats, the party that dominated Parliament for decades. Although his control of the DC appeared almost complete, he had to carefully balance different factions and interests, especially with regards to relations with the Vatican, social reform, and foreign policy.

When Southern Italy was liberated by the Allies, he became one of the main representatives of DC in the National Liberation Committee. During the government led by Ivanoe Bonomi, De Gasperi was appointed Minister without portfolio and, in Ferruccio Parri's cabinet, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Prime Minister of Italy

De Gasperi as Prime Minister of Italy during the 1950s

From 1945 to 1953, he was the prime minister of eight successive DC-led governments. His eight-year rule remains a landmark of political longevity for one leader in modern Italian politics. During his successive governments, Italy became a Republic (1946), signed a Peace Treaty with the Allies (1947), joined the NATO in 1949 and became an ally of the United States, which helped to revive the Italian economy through the Marshall Plan. During that time, Italy became a member of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which later evolved into the European Union (EU).

In December 1945, he became Prime Minister for the first time, succeeding Ferruccio Parri and leading a coalition government that included both Italian Communist Party (PCI) and Italian Socialist Party (PSI), along with other minor parties like Italian Republican Party (PRI), Italian Liberal Party (PLI) and Action Party (PdA). Communist leader Palmiro Togliatti acted as Deputy Prime Minister. He tried to soften the terms of the pending Allied peace treaty with Italy and secured financial and economic aid through the European Recovery Program (Marshal Plan) – which was opposed by the Communists.

In June 1946, Italy held the Constitutional Referendum to decide whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic; the republicans won with 54% of the vote. De Gasperi was appointed Provisional Head of State from 18 to 28 June, when the Constituent Assembly elected the Liberal Enrico De Nicola as provisional Head of State.

As chief of the Italian delegation at the World War II peace conference in Paris, De Gasperi harshly criticised the sanctions imposed on Italy, but obtained concessions from the Allies that guaranteed Italian sovereignty. Under the Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947, the eastern border area was lost to Yugoslavia and the free territory of Trieste was divided between the two states.

De Gasperi during the first session of the Constituent Assembly

One of his most striking achievements in foreign policy was the Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement with Austria in September 1946, that established his home region, South Tyrol, as an autonomous region.

American support

De Gasperi enjoyed considerable support in the US, where he was considered able to oppose the rising tide of Communism – in particular the PCI, which was the biggest communist party in a Western European democracy. In January 1947 he visited the US. The chief goals of the trip were to soften the terms of the pending peace treaty with Italy and to obtain immediate economic assistance. His ten-day tour, engineered by media mogul Henry Luce – the owner of Time magazine – and his wife, Clare Boothe Luce - the future ambassador to Rome - was viewed as a media "triumph," prompting positive comments of a wide section of the American press.[3]

During his meetings in the United States, De Gasperi managed to secure a financially modest but politically significant US$100 million Eximbank loan to Italy. According to De Gasperi, public opinion would view the loan as a vote of confidence in the Italian Government and strengthen his position versus the PCI in the context of the emerging Cold War. The positive results strengthened De Gasperi’s reputation in Italy. He also came back with useful information on the incipient change in American foreign policy that would lead to the Cold War and in Italy, the break with the PCI and left-wing PSI and their removal from the government in the May 1947 crisis.[4]

In May 1947, United States President Harry Truman ordered to De Gasperi of creating a new government without the support of Communists and Socialists; he refused and a new cabinet was formed with the (centrist) Italian Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI) of Giuseppe Saragat, the PLI of Luigi Einaudi and the PRI of Randolfo Pacciardi; the three leaders of the minor parties were appointed Deputy Prime Ministers.

General election in 1948

Main articles: 1948 Italian general election and CIA activities in Italy

De Gasperi during a rally of Christian Democracy

The general elections in April 1948 were heavily influenced by the cold-war confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the left-wing coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded PCI would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.

In the United States, a campaign was launched to prevent a victory of the Communist-dominated Popular Democratic Front (FDP). Italian Americans were encouraged to write letters to their relatives in Italy. The popular Italian-American singer Frank Sinatra made a Voice of America radio broadcast. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funneled "black bag" contributions to anti-communist candidates with the approval of the National Security Council and President Truman. Joseph P. Kennedy and Clare Booth Luce helped to raise US$2 million for the Christian Democracy party.[5] Time magazine backed the campaign and featured De Gasperi on its 19 April 1948 issue’s cover and in its lead story.[6] (He would appear on a Time cover again on 25 May 1953, during the campaign for that year's election, with an extensive biography.[7])

The election campaign remains unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's history on both sides. The election was between two competing visions of the future of Italian society. On the one hand, a Roman Catholic, conservative and capitalist Italy, represented by the governing Christian Democrats of De Gasperi; on the other, a secular, revolutionary and socialist society, represented by the Popular Democratic Front. The Christian Democrat campaign claimed that, in communist countries, "children send parents to jail", "children are owned by the state", "people eat their own children", and assured voters that disaster would strike Italy if the Left were to take power.[8][9] Another slogan was, "In the secrecy of the polling booth, God sees you - Stalin doesn't."[10]

The PCI were de facto leading the Popular Democratic Front, and had effectively marginalized the PSI, which eventually suffered because of this in these elections, in terms of parliamentary seats and political power;[11] The Socialists also had been hurt by the secession of a social-democratic faction led by Giuseppe Saragat, which contested the election with the concurrent list of Socialist Unity.

The PCI had difficulties in restraining its more militant members, who, in the period immediately after the war, had engaged in violent acts of reprisals. The areas affected by the violence (the so-called "Red Triangle" of Emilia, or parts of Liguria around Genoa and Savona, for instance) had previously seen episodes of brutality committed by the Fascists during Benito Mussolini's regime and the Italian Resistance during the Allies' gradual advance through Italy.

The Christian Democrats won a resounding victory with 48.5% of the vote (their best result ever) and strong majorities in both the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The Communists received only half of the votes they had in 1946. With absolute majorities in both chambers, De Gasperi could have formed an exclusively Christian Democratic government. Instead, he formed a "centrist" coalition with the Liberals, Republicans and Social Democrats. De Gasperi formed three ministries, the second in 1950 after the defection of the Liberals, who hoped for more rightist policies, and the third in 1951 after the defection of the Social Democrats, who hoped for more left-wing policies. He ruled for five more years, helming four additional coalitions. "De Gasperi’s policy is patience," according to the foreign news correspondent for The New York Times, Anne McCormick. "He seems to be feeling his way among the explosive problems he has to deal with, but perhaps this wary mine-detecting method is the stabilising force that holds the country in balance."[12]

Social security reforms

In domestic policy, a number of social security reforms were carried out by various ministers of De Gasperi's cabinets in the areas of rents and social housing, unemployment insurance and pensions.

De Gasperi in his office in Palazzo Chigi

On 9 January 1946, the government reorganised the health insurance system for sharecroppers, tenant farmers and agricultural workers, with a flat-rate daily indemnity of Lit.28 for women and Lit.60 for men (i.e. 3% and 7% of the average gross industrial wage for 1947) for a maximum of 180 days a year and free medical and hospital assistance provided through INAM.;[13] on 19 April 1946 the government reorganised the health insurance system for industrial employees, with a daily sickness indemnity equal to 50% of earnings, for a maximum of 180 days a year, a flat-rate maternity indemnity equal to a lump sum of Lit.1000 for 120 days (1% of average gross for industrial wage in 1947), a funeral allowance and free medical, hospital, and pharmaceutical assistance through INAM. On 31 October 1947 the Italian Parliament approved a bill that reorganised the health insurance system for service employees (e.g. banking and commerce), with a daily sickness indemnity equal to 50% of earnings for a maximum of 180 days a year, a flat-rate maternity payment, funeral allowance, and free hospital, medical, and pharmaceutical assistance through INAM.[13]

On 28 February 1949, De Gasperi launched a seven-year plan for social housing to increase the stock of economic housing by means of construction or purchase of economic accommodation. The law also established a special housing fund (INA-Casa) within the National Institute for Insurance (Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni, or INA).[13] Moreover, on 29 July 1947 the government established a Fund For Social Solidarity within INPS in order to pay graduated supplementary allowances to all pensions, compensating for inflation.[13]

De Gasperi addressed the crowd in Bologna, 1951

A law of 29 April 1949 introduced new provisions for unemployment insurance and labor policy. A Central Commission for Work Training and Assistance for the Unemployed was set up with the task of monitoring the state of the labor market and the conditions of the unemployed, while regulations concerning the replacement of the unemployed into the labor market (collocamento) were introduced. Provincial offices for Labour and Full Employment were also established, with local sections, which organized waiting lists, training courses, and the allocation of available jobs, amongst other services. Unemployment indemnity was increased to Lit. 200 per day (approximately 17% of the average gross industrial wage for 1949) and its duration was extended from 120 t 180 days. Unemployment insurance was extended to agricultural workers, and a special unemployment benefit (sussidio straordinario di disoccupazione) was introduced, paid under exceptional circumstances; flat-rate benefit with ad hoc determined level for 90 to 180 days. Vocational training and professional qualification programmes for the unemployed were also introduced, along with a Fund for Professional Training of Workers.[13]

On 29 April 1949, it was approved a law that introduced new provisions for unemployment insurance and labor policy. A Central Commission for Work Training and Assistance for the Unemployed was established with the task of monitoring the state of the labor market and the conditions of the unemployed.[13]

On 23 March 1948, the National Institute for Assistance of the Orphans of Italian Workers and the National Institute for Italian Pensioners were established, providing benefits and services for needy pensioners.[13] On 26 August 1950, the government introduced various regulations covering maternity insurance for all female employees.[13]

In 1952, the party overwhelmingly endorsed his authority over the government and over the party. However, it was also the start of his decline. He came under increasing criticism from the emerging left wing in the party. Their main accusations were that he was too cautious in social and economic reform, that he stifled debate and that he subordinated the party to the interests of government.

1953 general election and decline

Main article: 1953 Italian general election

De Gasperi during his last years in power

The 1953 general election was characterised by changes in the electoral law. Even if the general structure remained uncorrupted, the government introduced a superbonus of two thirds of seats in the House for the coalition which would obtain at-large the absolute majority of votes. The change was strongly opposed by the opposition parties as well as DC's smaller coalition partners, who had no realistic chance of success under this system. The new law was called the Scam Law by its detractors,[14] including some dissidents of minor government parties who founded special opposition groups to deny the artificial landslide to Christian Democracy.

The Holy See actively supported Christian Democracy, declaring that it would be a mortal sin for a Catholic to vote for the PCI and excommunicating all its supporters. In practice, however, many Communists remained religious: Emilia was known to be an area where people were both religious and communists. Giovannino Guareschi wrote his novels about Don Camillo describing a village, Brescello, whose inhabitants are at the same time loyal to priest Camillo and Communist mayor Peppone, who are fierce rivals.

The campaign of the opposition to the "Scam Law" achieved its goal. The government coalition (DC, PSDI, PLI, PRI, South Tyrolean People's Party and Sardinian Action Party) won 49.9% of national vote, just a few thousand votes of the threshold for a supermajority, resulting in an ordinary proportional distribution of the seats. Minor dissident parties determined the final result, especially the short-lived National Democratic Alliance. The leading party Christian Democracy did not repeat the extraordinary result of five years earlier, which had been obtained under special conditions linked to the Cold War, and lost a lot of votes to the right, including resurgent fascist politicians particularly in Southern Italy.

De Gasperi with UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill

Technically, the government won the election, winning a clear working majority of seats in both houses. But frustration with the failure to win a supermajority caused significant tensions in the leading coalition. De Gasperi was forced to resign by the Parliament on 2 August: De Gasperi consequently retired and died twelve months later.[15] The legislature continued with weak governments, with minor parties refusing institutional responsibilities. Giuseppe Pella rose to power, but fell after only five months, following heated disputes about the status of the Free Territory of Trieste which Pella was claiming. Amintore Fanfani's succeeding first ministry failed to receive a vote of confidence in Parliament, whilst Mario Scelba and Antonio Segni followed with more traditional centrist coalitions supported by Social Democrats and Liberals: under the administration of Scelba, the problem of Trieste was settled by ceding Koper/Capodistria to Yugoslavia. The parliamentary term was seen out by the minority government chaired by Adone Zoli, finishing a legislature which hugely weakened the office of the Prime Minister, held by six different leaders.

In 1954, De Gasperi also had to give up the leadership of the party,[16] when Amintore Fanfani was appointed new Secretary of the Christian Democracy in June.[17]

Death and legacy

De Gasperi in his library during his last years

On 19 August 1954, De Gasperi died in Sella di Valsugana, in his beloved Trentino. It is said that he had to be given a State funeral as he had died with almost no means of his own - a jaw-dropping fact in a country where, even then, politicians were expected to do well for themselves. He is buried in the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a basilica in Rome. The process for his beatification was opened in 1993.[18]

"De Gasperi was against exacerbating conflict," according to his former secretary and former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. "He taught us to search for compromise, to mediate."[19]

He is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the European Union. From the very beginning of European integration, De Gasperi, Robert Schuman and Konrad Adenauer met regularly.[20] He helped to organize the Council of Europe and supported the Schuman Declaration, which in 1951 led to the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) – a forerunner in the process of European integration. He was named president of the Community in 1954, and although the project was eventually transformed to the current project of the European Union, De Gasperi helped to develop the idea of the common European defence policy.[21] In 1952, he received the Karlspreis (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. The 1954–1955 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour.

Personal life

On 14 June 1922, De Gasperi married Francesca Romani (30 August 1894 – 20 August 1998)[22][23][24] and had four daughters, Maria Romana, Lucia, Cecilia and Paola.

Electoral history

Election	House	Constituency	Party		Votes	Result
1911	Imperial Council	Tyrol		UPPT	N/A	Y Elected
1921	Chamber of Deputies	Trento		PPI	N/A	Y Elected
1924	Chamber of Deputies	Trento		PPI	N/A	Y Elected
1946	Constituent Assembly	Trento–Bolzano		DC	17,206	Y Elected
1948	Chamber of Deputies	Trento–Bolzano		DC	49,666	Y Elected
1953	Chamber of Deputies	Trento–Bolzano		DC	63,762	Y Elected

In the Florestano Vancini's film The Assassination of Matteotti (1973), De Gasperi is played by Ezio Marano.

See also

• Alcide de Gasperi Building

Notes

1. Alcide De Gasperi (Italian statesman). britannica.com
2. Ginsborg, Paul (2003). A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943-1988. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 49.
3. De Gasperi through American Eyes: Media and Public Opinion, 1945–53, by Steven F. White, in Italian Politics and Society, No.61 Fall/Winter 2005
4. The Italian Stabilization of 1947: Domestic and International Factors, by Juan Carlos Martinez Oliva, Institute of European Studies, 2007
5. The Cold War Begins, Frank Eugene Smitha
6. How to Hang On, Time magazine, 19 April 1948
7. Man from the Mountains, Time magazine, 25 May 1953
8. "Show of Force", TIME Magazine, 12 April 1948
9. "How to Hang On", TIME Magazine, 19 April 1948
10. "Fertility vote galvanises Vatican", BBC News, 13 June 2005
11. The Communist party gained more than the two-thirds of the seats won by the joint list. ("Number of MPs for each political group during the First Legislature", Italian Chamber of Deputies website.
12. New York Times, 16 February 1949, quoted in De Gasperi through American Eyes: Media and Public Opinion, 1945–53, by Steven F. White, in: Italian Politics and Society, No.61 Fall/Winter 2005
13. Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II Volume 4 edited by Peter Flora
14. Also its parliamentarian exam had a disruptive effect: "Among the iron pots of political forces that faced in the Cold War, Senate cracked as earthenware pot": Buonomo, Giampiero (2014). "Come il Senato si scoprì vaso di coccio". L'Ago e Il Filo.  – via Questia (subscription required)
15. (in Italian) Come il Senato si scoprì vaso di coccio, in L’Ago e il filo, 2014.
16. Cabinet Maker, Time, 27 July 1953
17. De Gasperi's Fall, Time, 10 August 1953
18. (in Italian) Servo di Dio Alcide De Gasperi, Santi beati
19. All the prime minister's men, by Alexander Stille, The Independent, 24 September 1995
20. Alcide De Gasperi's humanist and European message, European People's Party
21. In the beginning was De Gasperi Archived 12 June 2012 at the Wayback Machine, The Florentine, 4 October 2007
22. "Se ne va a più di cent' anni la moglie di Alcide de Gasperi - la Repubblica.it".
23. "Famiglia Cristiana n.18 del 7-5-2000 - DE GASPERI, mio padre".
24. "Francesca Romani".

Further reading

• Bigaran, Mariapia. "Alcide De Gasperi: the apprenticeship of a political leader," Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 415–30
• Carrillo, Elisa. Alcide De Gasperi: The Long Apprenticeship. University of Notre Dame Press, 1965.
• Cau, Maurizio. "Alcide De Gasperi: a political thinker or a thinking politician?" Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 431–45
• Duggan, Christopher. Force of Destiny: A History of Italy Since 1796 (2008) ch 27–28
• Ginsborg, Paul. A history of contemporary Italy: society and politics, 1943-1988 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
• Lorenzini, Sara. "The roots of a 'statesman': De Gasperi's foreign policy," Modern Italy Nov 2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 473–84
• Pombeni, Paolo, and Giuliana Nobili Schiera. "Alcide de Gasperi: 1881-1954-a political life in a troubled century," Modern Italy Nov2009, Vol. 14 Issue 4, pp 379–401.
• White, Steven. "In search of Alcide De Gasperi: innovations in Italian scholarship since 2003." Journal of Modern Italian Studies 15#3 (2010): 462-470. Historiography
• Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp 77–83.

In Italian

• (in Italian) Pietro Scoppola, La proposta politica di De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1977.
• (in Italian) Giulio Andreotti, Intervista su De Gasperi; a cura di Antonio Gambino, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 1977.
• (in Italian) Giulio Andreotti, De Gasperi visto da vicino, Milano, Rizzoli, 1986.
• (in Italian) Nico Perrone, De Gasperi e l'America, Palermo, Sellerio, 1995.
• (in Italian) Alcide De Gasperi: un percorso europeo, a cura di Eckart Conze, Gustavo Corni, Paolo Pombeni, Bologna, Il mulino, 2004.
• (in Italian) Piero Craveri, De Gasperi, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2006. ISBN 978-8815-25946-2
• (in Italian) Nico Perrone, La svolta occidentale. De Gasperi e il nuovo ruolo internazionale dell’Italia, Roma, Castelvecchi, 2017. ISBN 978-88-6944-810-2

External links

• Works by or about Alcide De Gasperi at Internet Archive
• Man from the Mountains, biography in Time magazine, 25 May 1953
• Alcide De Gasperi and his age: A chronology of the Statesman's life and works, Alcide De Gasperi Foundation
• Alcide De Gasperi (1881–1954) by Pier Luigi Ballini, Alcide De Gasperi in the history of Europe
• Alcide De Gasperi Foundation
• The private papers of Alcide De Gasperi are deposited at the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence
• (in Italian) De Gasperi: un politico europeo venuto dal futuro, Centro Studi Malfatti
• Newspaper clippings about Alcide De Gasperi in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW

Cabinet offices
Preceded by Ivanoe Bonomi	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1944–1946	Succeeded by Pietro Nenni
Preceded by Ferruccio Parri	Minister of the Italian Africa Acting 1945–1953	Position abolished
Preceded by Giuseppe Romita	Minister of the Interior Acting 1946–1947	Succeeded by Mario Scelba
Preceded by Carlo Sforza	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1951–1953	Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella
Political offices
Preceded by Ferruccio Parri	Prime Minister of Italy 1945–1953	Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella
Preceded by Umberto II as King of Italy	Provisional Head of State of Italy Acting 1946	Succeeded by Enrico De Nicola
Preceded by Paul-Henri Spaak	President of the Common Assembly 1954	Succeeded by Giuseppe Pella
Party political offices
Position established	Secretary of the Christian Democracy 1944–1946	Succeeded by Attilio Piccioni
	President of the Christian Democracy 1946–1954	Succeeded by Adone Zoli
Preceded by Guido Gonella	Secretary of the Christian Democracy 1953–1954	Succeeded by Amintore Fanfani