Luigi Albertini

Luigi Albertini (19 October 1871 – 29 December 1941) was an influential Italian newspaper editor, Member of Parliament, and historian of the First World War.

As editor of one of Italy's best-known newspapers, Corriere della Sera of Milan, he was a champion of liberalism. He was a vigorous opponent of socialism and clericalism, and of Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti who was willing to compromise with those forces. Albertini's opposition to the Fascist regime forced the owners to fire him in 1925.

Albertini was an outspoken antifascist, even though at one time he did support the National Fascist Party in their opposition to the Left. From 1914 until Benito Mussolini's March on Rome in 1922, he was a member of parliament in the Italian Senate, where he was a key intellectual and moderating force.

Albertini was born in Ancona, Italy. After reading law at the University of Turin, in 1894 he moved to London, where he was foreign correspondent for La Stampa of Turin. While in London he investigated labour conditions and studied the organization of The Times newspaper. In 1898 he joined the Milan newspaper, Corriere della Sera as an editorial assistant, working under Eugenio Torelli Viollier and then Domenico Oliva. In the spring of 1900, Viollier died and Albertini took his position as managing editor, and a few weeks later director. He also invested in the paper. He installed modern equipment and updated the paper’s technical services. Under Albertini's direction, Corriere della Sera became the most widely read and respected daily paper in Italy. But, in November 1925 the paper's owners, the Crespi family, sacked him because of his public stance against the Fascist government. His last editorial was included in the 29 November 1925 edition.

After that, Albertini withdrew from public life and retired to his model estate at Torrimpietra near Rome. There, he dedicated his time to managing the estate and reclaiming land on it. He also extensively researched Italy's role in the First and Second World Wars. He wrote his memoirs and had just completed his three-volume seminal work on the origins of the First World War when he died on 29 December 1941 in Rome.

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