Inge Feltrinelli

Inge Feltrinelli, née Schönthal (born November 24, 1930 in Essen) is a German-born Italian photographer and director with her son Carlo (b. 1962) of the Italian publishing house Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Editore.

Inge Schönthal was born to Jewish immigrants from Spain.

She began her career as photographer in Hamburg. In 1952 during a long stay in New York City she was able to photograph Greta Garbo, Elia Kazan, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Winston Churchill. She also made friends with Erwin Blumenfeld. Among her most celebrated photos are those of writers Ernest Hemingway, Edoardo Sanguineti, Allen Ginsberg, Günter Grass, Nadine Gordimer and artists Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

In 1958 she met Italian left-wing publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli whom she later married in Mexico and followed to Milan (he had two previous marriages). She took charge of international relations for the publishing house. She eventually became the de facto head of the publishing house as Feltrinelli a few years later embraced the “struggle for the revolution against imperialism”.

In 1969 she was named vice-president in a company restructure decided by Feltrinelli (who remained President in name only) in anticipation of his transition to clandestine activities.

In 1972, when Feltrinelli died, during an attempted terrorist attack on the Milan electricity network, she became president of the company, which she led together with her son Carlo.

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