Guglielmo Oberdan
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Guglielmo Oberdan (this name is an italinization of the original name Wilhelm Oberdank) (1858 - 1882), an Italian nationalist and deserter from the Austrian imperial army, plotted an assassination attempt on the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph in 1882. That year, the Emperor was paying a visit to the city of Trieste, a city which was both a hotbed for Italian irredentists, as well as beholden to the honorific title of urbs fidelissima (faithful city) for its non-participation in the revolutions of the 1840s. After Oberdan's failed attempt caused two innocent victims, the Emperor's notion of the fidelity of Trieste was forever tarnished. Oberdan was sentenced to hang, crying "Viva Italia!" before doing so, and as Italy's honor "hung in the noose" with Oberdan, he instantly became a martyr. Statues of him shortly sprang up in towns and cities throughout unified Italy. The subsequent assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and the revival of irredentism that followed, harked back to Oberdan's earlier attempt.
In Trieste, a piazza carries his name (Piazza Oberdan).
[edit] References
- Jean-Paul Bled, Franz Joseph (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1992), 230.
- S. Cilibrizzi, Storia parlamentari, politica e diplomatica d’Italia, Vol. 2 (Naples: 1939-1952), 259.
- Christopher Seton-Watson. Italy from Liberalism to Fascism (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1967), 115.
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