Welcome readers to todays offering from The Philatelist. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. We have an interesting story to tell. A story of fascists on the run, Austrian sailors mistaken for Turkish pirates, and an everlasting old ass.
The stamp today is Italian. It is gummed but also possesses a cancellation. From 1944, it is too early to be a Mincus farm out stamp. There was a philatelic conference in Venice in 1945 that included overprints of this issue, so it may have to do with that. Any clarification on this from the commenters is welcome.
This is issue A10, a 25 centesimo stamp issued by the Italian social republic on December 6th, 1944. It is worth 55 cents in its cancelled state according to the Scott catalog. The stamp is part of a three stamp issue commemorating the 100th anniversary of the execution of the Bandiero brothers in 1844. This was the last stamp issue of the Italian social republic.
The Italian social republic was formed in late 1943 in the part if Italy that was controlled by Germany after the Allied invasion of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel had removed Mussolini from power after the invasion and intended to turn him over to the Allies. In the mean time, he was held under arrest at a hotel. The Germans pulled off a daring glider raid on the hotel and took custody of Mussolini. Hitler then appointed him a figure head of the German occupied area of Italy. The social republic ended in late April 1945 when Mussolini, his mistress, and some loyalists were captured by Communist rebels while making for Switzerland. They had hoped to be able to fly to Franco’s Spain and sanctuary. Instead they were shot, then hung, and then had their corpses desecrated.
Enough about this strange postal region of Italy. The two people depicted on this stamp are Atillio and Emilio Bandiera. Sons of an Austrian admiral, the brothers were themselves Austrian sailors who became enthralled by the idea of Italian unification. At this time, around 1840, Italy was a collection of city states with no central government. At the time the Austria Hungarian Navy was staffed almost entirely by ethnic Italians. This makes more sense if you remember that today Austria and Hungary are landlocked countries and the ports they controlled then are in present day Italy.
As the Bandiera brothers began working for Italian unification, they were banished to Corfu. While there, they began corresponding with Giuseppe Mazzini. He was another leader in the unification movement who was in exile in London. Mazzini was anti communist, pro religion, and believed rights had to be earned through deeds. Prince Metternich described him as the most influential revolutionary in Europe. On the other hand, Karl Marx thought him an everlasting old ass.
Either or both ways, the Bandiera brothers were inspired to put together a team of 20 men, make for Cozenza, free political prisoners there, and issue political demands. This all went wrong. The political prisoners proved hard to find and they were turned over to police by locals who mistook them for Turkish pirates. Eight of the group including the Bandiera brothers were executed. There were rumors the group was betrayed by one of their own or that British intelligence was reading Mazzini’s mail in London and let Austria Hungary in on the plot. In any case, the execution where they shouted vive Italia as they fell, became a rallying cry for Italian unification that happened a generation later. As the Mussolini share of Italy shrunk as the Allies made their way up the Italian boot, it is perhaps understandable for the social republic of Italy to hijack the Bandiera brothers story to argue for a new unification under them.
Well, my drink is empty so it is time to open the conversation in the below comment section. How is the Italian social republic remembered in Italy? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.