Background
Gian Galeazzo Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, and later became Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.
Gian Galeazzo Ciano was born in Livorno, Italy, and later became Benito Mussolini's son-in-law.
Young Ciano took part in the Fascist March on Rome in 1922 and then studied law at the University of Rome.
Like his father, Galeazzo took part in the Fascist march on Rome in October 1922. With a little newspaper experience, in 1925 he entered the diplomatic service, serving first in Brazil and later in Shanghai.
After 1930, when he married Benito Mussolini's daughter Edda, he became one of the leading figures of the Fascist regime and received special attention for his aerial feats during the Ethiopian war.
On the whole, Ciano was the executor of Mussolini's personal policy and always remained under the spell of his father-in-law's personality, but he had some views and feelings of his own, which differed, at least in emphasis, from those of his chief. His distrust of the Germans was far deeper, and he heartily disliked the Nazi foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop; nor was Ciano attracted by some of the theatrical aspects of Mussolini's regime. But Mussolini's aims toward expansion, especially in the Balkans, were always shared by Ciano, who therefore never opposed the Axis alliance too strongly.
From June 9, 1936, to Feb. 5, 1943, Ciano was minister of foreign affairs. During this period he spent much time augmenting the large inheritance left him by his father, and in 1939 his fortune was estimated at $60,000,000.
It was above all during the period of Italy's wartime indecision (September 1939-March 1940) that Ciano seemed to have a policy of his own--an illusion that faded when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany.
In the closing months of 1942 when the war took a disastrous turn for Italy, Ciano began to move away from Mussolini. In February 1943 he left the foreign ministry to become ambassador to the Holy See. Ciano then joined the group in the Grand Council of Fascism that was working against Mussolini's war policies, and he voted against the Duce at the dramatic session of the Council on July 24, 1943. This was the first step in the coup that unexpectedly ended the Fascist regime the next day, when the king seized this opportunity to dismiss and imprison Mussolini.
Caught by surprise, Ciano narrowly escaped arrest by Mussolini's successors by seeking refuge in Germany. This was his fatal error, for the Germans considered him, with some reason, a traitor. When Mussolini was freed by the Germans and placed at the head of a puppet government in North Italy, they insisted that Ciano be tried for treason and shot. He was accordingly executed by a German firing squad at Verona on Jan. 11, 1944.
His wife escaped to Switzerland, carrying with her Ciano's diary and notes, which were published after the war. They offer a first-hand source for the diplomatic history of the Axis. They tend to show Ciano as fatuous and vain but endowed with a certain amount of political good sense. Unfortunately for him, it was impossible to pursue a policy of imperialism without tying Italy to the Third Reich.
Gian Galeazzo and Edda Ciano had three offspring:
Oldest child, Fabrizio Ciano, 3º Conte di Cortellazzo e Buccari (Shanghai, 1 October 1931 – San José, Costa Rica, 8 April 2008), married to Beatriz Uzcategui Jahn, without issue. Wrote a personal memoir entitled Quando il nonno fece fucilare papà ("When Grandpa had Daddy Shot").
Middle child, Raimonda Ciano (Rome, 12 December 1933 – Rome, 24 May 1998), married to Nobile Alessandro Giunta (1929 -), son of Nobile Francesco Giunta (Piero, 1887–1971) and wife (m. Rome, 1924) Zenaida del Gallo Marchesa di Roccagiovine (Rome, 1902 – São Paulo, Brazil, 1988)
Youngest child, Marzio Ciano, (Rome, 18 December 1937 – 11 April 1974), married Gloria Lucchesi