Giovanni Agnelli was born on August 13, 1866, and died on December 16, 1945. He was an important Italian business leader and helped start Fiat S.p.A. in 1899. During his time leading Fiat, the company became a key part of Italy's car industry and helped the country's industry grow a lot in the early 1900s. Agnelli also worked as a Senator from 1923 until 1944.

Early life

Edoardo Agnelli was born in 1866 in Villar Perosa, a small town near Pinerolo in Piedmont, Italy. He was the son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti, who came from a family that owned land and was deeply involved in business, entrepreneurship, and finance in Turin during the time before the city became industrialized. His father, who was the mayor of Villar Perosa, died when Agnelli was five years old, at the age of 40. Agnelli studied at the Collegio San Giuseppe in Turin and later began a career in the military.

In 1893, Agnelli returned to Villar Perosa. He became mayor in 1895, a position he held until his death in 1945. After his death, his grandson Gianni Agnelli took over the role. Gianni Agnelli was cared for by Edoardo Agnelli after his own son, Edoardo Agnelli, died in a plane crash in 1935.

During the late 1800s, Agnelli learned about a new invention called the "horseless carriage." He recognized the chance to use his skills in engineering and business. In 1898, he met Count Emanuele Cacherano di Bricherasio, who was seeking investors for his horseless carriage project. Agnelli saw the opportunity, and in 1899, the company Fiat was founded.

Agnelli married Clara Boselli, and together they had two children: Aniceta Caterina (1889–1928) and Edoardo (1892–1935). By the year 2000, more than seventy descendants, including children, nephews, and spouses, had come from Agnelli and Boselli.

Career

On July 11, 1899, Agnelli joined the group that started Fiat S.p.A., a company named Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino. He paid $400 for his share. One year later, he became the managing director of the new company and was chairman in 1920. The first Fiat plant opened in 1900 with 35 workers who made 24 cars. The company was known for the skill and creativity of its engineers. By 1903, Fiat made a small profit and produced 135 cars, increasing to 1,149 cars by 1906. The company then sold shares through the Milan stock exchange. Agnelli began buying as many shares as possible to increase his ownership. During this time, he faced problems with workers and scandals, such as the Biennio Rosso. He asked Giovanni Giolitti to use military force to resolve issues at Fiat’s factories; Giolitti refused. After the conflict ended and workers handed him the keys to the factories after failing to manage them themselves, he did not punish them. Instead, he offered workers a new contract that tied wages to productivity during a time of economic difficulty.

During World War I, Agnelli worked with financier Riccardo Gualino to transport aid from the United States to Europe in 1917. They invested in two American companies: the Marine & Commerce Corporation of America exported coal, and the International Shipbuilding Company built motorized ships. These companies failed after the war ended because they were designed for wartime needs and had returned large profits to their owners. In early 1918, Agnelli and Gualino tried to take control of the bank Credito Italiano but failed. They later joined the bank’s board of directors. Agnelli was vice-president of Gualino’s SNIA S.p.A. from 1917 to 1926. In the early 1920s, SNIA began making artificial textile fibers. Facing debt, Agnelli offered help to Gualino in exchange for Fiat shares, and by 1927, he became the largest shareholder of Fiat.

In 1920, Gualino and Agnelli helped recapitalize the private bank Jean de Fernex and purchased a third of the shares of Alfredo Frassati, who published the newspaper La Stampa. They also worked on plans to connect Milan, Genoa, and Turin with a high-speed railway and participated in projects related to cement and automobiles. Their partnership ended around 1926 because Gualino invested in the French automobile industry.

After World War I, Fiat rose from 30th to third place among Italian industrial companies. Four years after Fiat was founded, the first Ford Motor Company factory opened. In 1906, the first Fiat car dealer in the United States was established on Broadway in Manhattan. Agnelli supported a political group that focused on modernizing, internationalist capitalism and opposed both the left and the right. He supported Giolitti and was tempted to join the Economic Party for the 1919 Italian general election before joining the National List in 1924. Between the two world wars, he held several important positions and helped make Fiat a global company.

Agnelli and fascism

Agnelli became friends with Benito Mussolini in 1914. In 1923, Mussolini appointed Agnelli as a senator for the National Fascist Party. His newspaper, La Stampa, kept its distance from Mussolini. Because of Agnelli’s connections with the House of Savoy, he was able to maintain independence from the Italian fascist government. For example, he hired Curzio Malaparte, who was disliked by Mussolini, as the director of La Stampa. He also hired Franco Antonicelli, a liberal anti-fascist, as a private tutor for his grandson. Additionally, Agnelli allowed his nephews to be taught by Augusto Monti, an anti-fascist, and hired Massimo Mila, another anti-fascist, as their musicologist. Agnelli also hired Vittorio Valletta as his accountant. Valletta was known for his social democratic ideas, membership in Freemasonry, and secret links to exiled anti-fascists in France, including Giuseppe Saragat. Mussolini once said Agnelli was too old to be a fascist. The regime suspected Agnelli of supporting the anti-fascist group Giustizia e Libertà in the 1930s.

In 1927, Mussolini warned his superiors, as historian Valerio Castronovo noted, about the "serious and absurd danger" that Fiat might come to see itself as an institution as important to the state as the royal family, the church, or the regime. From 1932, Mussolini required Agnelli to wear the Fascist symbol, the cimice all’occhiello. The Fascist secret police monitored Agnelli closely. One report mentioned a meeting between Agnelli and Cesare Pavese, who introduced Massimo Mila to him. When Pavese told Agnelli that Mila was an anti-fascist, Agnelli reportedly said, "Better yet…" Agnelli also tried to help Augusto Monti after Monti was arrested. After Monti was released, he found a note from Agnelli praising him for being a "real man" and a "true Piedmontese." Castronovo explained that Agnelli’s identity as a Piedmontese combined traditions of the Savoy royal family, a strong sense of discipline, and a desire to achieve great things. He was educated in the style of the Piedmontese nobility, though this elite group initially rejected him, seeing him as someone from the provinces. Agnelli’s Piedmontism also included admiration for American ideas and a vision for a better future.

When asked if Agnelli was an anti-fascist, Castronovo said no. He explained that Agnelli still believed fascism was the system that ensured "effective labor discipline" and that it was necessary to work with it for the sake of his business. However, Agnelli remained separate from the corrupt practices of powerful fascist leaders. Regarding Agnelli’s defense of La Stampa, Marziano Bernardi was often called by Curzio Malaparte, who once said, "I’m stunned! Colli and Senator Agnelli behave like anti-fascists, and I think they are…" Castronovo noted that Agnelli’s efforts to keep Fiat independent from fascist control created a kind of uneasy support between Agnelli and Fiat workers. He said, "Perhaps solidarity is a strong word. But it is certain that Agnelli’s opposition to fascism and the workers’ resistance prevented fascism from taking hold in Turin. This is why Mussolini criticized Turin as the 'dirty city.'"

Later life and death

At the start of World War II, Agnelli remained active in his work with Fiat. After the war ended, he was accused along with Valletta and Giancarlo Camerana by a group from the National Liberation Committee of working with the Fascist regime. As a result, he temporarily lost ownership of his companies. Although Fiat and the Fascist regime benefited from war-related orders, Fiat kept its independence from the regime's goals. In a book about the Italian resistance, Sergio Favretto writes that Fiat supported the resistance by providing vehicles, fuel, and money, and by helping to disrupt war production in its factories. Agnelli was later found not guilty and died shortly after on 16 December 1945 at the age of 79.

Honours

• Received the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy on 15 December 1932. Appointed as Grand Officer of the same order on 1 February 1920. Became a Knight of the order on 8 December 1898.
• Received the Knight of the Order of Labour on 30 May 1907.
• Appointed as Grand Officer of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus on 6 February 1921.
• Inducted into the European Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001.
• Inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.