Headquarter of the “Corriere della Sera”
The newspaper “Corriere della Sera” was a tool of propaganda of the regime, as well as center of opposition during the strikes of March 1944.
In 1904 the «Corriere della Sera» moved its headquarter to a building belonging to the architect Luca Beltrami, who was the managing editor of the newspaper in 1896. Liberty facade, branches of laurel, decorative protrusions: the building in via Solferino 28 reflected the sense of authority of the newspaper. The printing room was equipped with four new Hoe rotary presses, which arrived directly from the United States and whose technology allowed the issues to go from 6 to eight pages.
The “Corriere” soon became Italy’s most important newspaper, both for its state of the art technology, and for the spotless organization of work. It was expression of the interests of the productive bourgeois, interpreted by the editor Luigi Albertini, who made the newspaper take a stand against Giolitti’s policies and in favor of the war in Libya and the intervention in the world war.
After the war, the “Corriere” denounced the horror of the conservative bourgeois for the strikes and occupation of the places of production. Socialists and anarchists were frequently defined “subversive”, while it showed understanding for the fascists, who also broke the law with their assaults and the armed expeditions against the Case del Popolo, the headquarters of socialist newspapers and the municipalities administered by socialists.
The peak was reached in August 1922, with the attack to Palazzo Marino, headquarter of the City Council of Milan with Filippetti’s democratically-elected government, about which the “Corriere” remained silent and remained so also the following day, when 200 fascists armed with bombs and machine guns attacked the headquarter of the “Avanti!” in via Settala.
It’s only after Matteotti’s murder that the regime and the newspaper broke their alliance, with the newspaper repeatedly seized until the end of 1925, when fascism forced the owner to fire Albertini and, like every other newspaper, to put it under the rule of the regime.
On 14th February 1943, the headquarter in via Solferino was bombed and part of the printing room was moved elsewhere. After 8th September and the nazi occupation of Milan, several editors, among whom were Montanelli and Afeltra, stopped showing up at the office.
The big strike of March 1944 involved the printers of the “Corriere” as well, preventing the newspaper from printing the afternoon issue.
Like all strategic places in the city, the printing room of the “Corriere” in via Solferino was occupied in the morning of 25th Aprile by a group of communist partisans and used to release an extraordinary issue of “L’Unità” bearing the news the upheaval.
For a few weeks, “L’Unità” and “Avanti!” were printed in via Solferino, while the “Corriere della Sera” was suspended by decision of the CLN. It resumed its activities on 21st May as “Corriere d’Informazione”, and in 1946 as “Nuovo Corriere della Sera”.
Guido Lorenzetti