Benito Albino Mussolini
| Ida Dalser | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Ida Irene Dalser 20 August 1880 Sopramonte, Tyrol, Austro-Hungarian Empire |
| Died | 3 December 1937 (aged 57) Venice, Italy |
| Spouse(s) | Benito Mussolini |
| Children | Benito Albino Mussolini |
Ida Irene Dalser (20 August 1880 – 3 December 1937) was the first wife of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.
Ida Dalser was born in Sopramonte, a village near Trento (Trient), the capital of the ethnically Italian Trentino region, at that time within the borders of the State of the Tyrol in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The daughter of the village mayor, she was sent to Paris to study cosmetic medicine, and when she came back she moved to Milan, where she opened a French-style beauty salon.
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 political activity, she financed him with the revenues of her beautician job. According to some sources, they married in 1914, and in 1915 she bore him his first child, Benito Albino Mussolini. Though the records of this marriage were destroyed by Mussolini's government, an edict from the city of Milan ordering Mussolini to make maintenance payments to “his wife Ida Dalser” and their child was overlooked.
The reasons why Mussolini and Dalser grew estranged at some time between their presumptive marriage and the birth of their son remain unclear, although his affair with another woman, Rachele Guidi, may have played a role. When World War I broke out, Mussolini decided to enlist. On December 17, 1915, while an inpatient at a hospital in Treviglio, Mussolini married Rachele Guidi. When this became known to Ida Dalser, a legal dispute began between her and the new couple.
Immediately after his second marriage, Mussolini left to the frontier to fight in the First World War. While he was on service, the Kingdom of Italy regularly paid Dalser a war pension, and when Mussolini was injured by a mortar shot in 1917, she received a visit from the Carabinieri notifying her that her husband was wounded in action.
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