Ida Dalser
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Ida Irene Dalser (20 August 1880 – 3 December 1937) was the first wife of Italian
fascist Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural soci ...
dictator
Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...
.


Early life

Ida Dalser was born in Sopramonte, a village near
Trento Trento ( or ; Ladin language, Ladin and ; ; ; ; ; ), also known in English as Trent, is a city on the Adige, Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the Trentino, autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th ...
(Trient), which was then within the borders of the
County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an Imperial State, estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with th ...
in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The daughter of the town mayor, she was sent to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
to study cosmetic medicine. When she returned, she moved to
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
, where she opened a French-style beauty salon.


Marriage and motherhood

It is unclear whether Ida Dalser first met young Benito Mussolini in Trento, where he had found his first job as a journalist in 1909, or in Milan, where he had moved soon afterwards. The two started a relationship, and when Mussolini was refused work on the basis of his fervent
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
political activity, she financed him with the revenues of her beautician job. According to some sources, they married in 1914, and in 1915 she had a son, Benito Albino Mussolini. Though Fascist agents sought to erase all traces of the relationship, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to "his wife Ida Dalser" and their child was overlooked.


Persecution and death

In 1917, Mussolini came back from the war. His political career accelerated, and in 1919, he went on to found the Fasci italiani di combattimento. In 1921, it became the
National Fascist Party The National Fascist Party (, PNF) was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of It ...
, and in the same year, he was also elected to the
Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...
. With the 1922
March on Rome The March on Rome () was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party (, PNF) ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march ...
, Mussolini seized power and became a dictator who was officially recognised by the reigning
House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...
. Once Mussolini was in power, Ida Dalser and her son were placed under surveillance by the police, and paper evidence of their relationship was tracked down to be destroyed by government agents. She persisted in continuing to claim her role as the dictator's wife and even publicly denounced Mussolini as a traitor. She said that during his years in Milan, he had accepted a bribe from the French government, in exchange for political campaigning in support of the involvement of neutral Italy in the war on the side of France. Eventually, she was transferred to the island of San Clemente in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, where she died in 1937. The cause of her death was officially given as a "
brain hemorrhage The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...
".


Fate of Benito Albino

Benito Albino Mussolini was abducted by government agents and was told that his mother was dead. In 1931, he was adopted as an orphan at 15 by the fascist ex-police chief of Sopramonte. Initially educated at a Barnabite college in Moncalieri, he enrolled in the Italian Royal Navy and always remained under close surveillance by the fascist government. Nevertheless, he persisted in stating that Benito Mussolini was his father and eventually, he was forcibly interned in an asylum in Mombello,
Province of Milan The province of Milan () was a province in the Lombardy region of Italy. Its capital was the city of Milan. The area of the former province is highly urbanized, with more than 2,000 inhabitants/km2, the third-highest population density among Ital ...
, where he died on 26 August 1942 after he was repeatedly given
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to Nociception, respond normally to Pain, painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal Circadian rhythm, sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate ...
-inducing injections, at the age of 26. Ida and Benito were officially described as “a danger to themselves and others” but hospital records show that both of them were lucid.


In films

The story of Benito Mussolini's first marriage was suppressed during the fascist era and generally, it remained unknown for years afterward. In 2005, it was resurrected by the Italian journalist Marco Zeni and it was made public in a documentary which was broadcast on RAI state television as well as in two books (''L'ultimo filò'' and ''La moglie di Mussolini''). '' Vincere'', a biopic about Dalser's life that was directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Giovanna Mezzogiorno, was screened at the 2009 American Film Institute Festival and it was in competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.


References


Further reading

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External links

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Il segreto di Mussolini
published by RAI {{DEFAULTSORT:Dalser, Ida 1880 births 1937 deaths People from Trento Mussolini family