Carlo Schanzer

Carlo Schanzer (18 December 1865 – 23 October 1953) was a Vienna-born Italian jurist and politician. He held several cabinet posts from 1906 to 1922.

Carlo Schanzer

Early life and education

Schanzer was born in Vienna on 18 December 1865.^[1] His father was a Polish-born business lawyer, and his mother was a pianist.^[1] Schanzer had three siblings. His brother Ottone was a librettist and the other, Roberto, was an engineer and mathematician while his sister, Alice, married Tancredi Galimberti, a well-known poet and writer.^[1] In the 1870s the family moved to Milan and then to Rome.^[1]

After graduating from a high school in Rome Schanze received a bachelor's degree in law in November 1886.^[1] In 1888 he obtained Italian citizenship.^[1]

Career

Schanzer was a member of the Council of State and then became the director general of the civil administration at the Ministry of the Interior.^[2] He was elected to the Italian Parliament in 1900 and to the Italian Senate in 1919.^[2] He was appointed minister of posts to the third Giolitti cabinet^[3] and was in office in the period 1906–1909.^[2] He served as the minister of treasury and as the minister of finance in the first and second cabinets of Francesco Saverio Nitti between 1919 and 1920.^[2] Schanzer was named as the minister of foreign affairs to the Facta cabinet on 25 February 1922.^[4][5]

During the Fascist rule in Italy Schanzer continued his public activities and was appointed minister of state in December 1928.^[1] Following the end of the Fascist period Carlo Sforza, high commissioner for the sanctions against fascism, proposed Schanzer's forfeiture on 7 August 1944 based on the verdict of the a higher court dated 21 October 1944.^[1] Against the order Schanzer appealed to the Supreme Court of Cassation which annulled the forfeiture on 8 July 1948.^[1]

Personal life and death

Schanzer published several articles in different academic journals, including Current History.^[6] On 20 July 1899 he married Corinna Centurini with whom he had two daughters, Fulvia and Ludovica.^[1]

He died in Rome on 23 October 1953.^[1] His grandson was Carlo Ripa di Meana, an Italian politician and noble, who was the son of Fulvia.^[7]