San Marino · 200th birthday of Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi was a military leader and politician of the Risorgimento, the movement for the political unification of Italy. Initially working as a sailor, Garibaldi joined the republican movement of Giuseppe Mazzini. After an unsuccessful attempt at insurrection, he went into exile in South America. There, he took part in military conflicts in Brazil and Uruguay and gained experience in leading volunteer units. With his followers, known as the Redshirts (Rothemden), he later became a widely recognized figure in the Italian unification movement.

During the revolutions of 1848 and 1849, Garibaldi fought for the short-lived Roman Republic (Römische Republik). It had been established after Pope Pius IX had fled Rome and the pope’s temporal rule had been abolished. French troops, however, recaptured Rome. Garibaldi then withdrew with his volunteers and, while fleeing Austrian forces, reached San Marino. The republic granted him and his companions refuge in the summer of 1849. Part of his force was disarmed and disbanded there; Garibaldi continued his flight. His wife Anita, who accompanied him, died a few days later near Ravenna.

Garibaldi’s best-known undertaking was the Expedition of the Thousand (Zug der Tausend) in 1860. A volunteer force landed in Sicily and subsequently brought large parts of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Königreich beider Sizilien) under its control. Garibaldi handed the conquered territories over to King Viktor Emanuel II. In doing so, he contributed to the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy the following year, although he himself held republican views. Rome did not become part of the Italian state until later.

San Marino’s choice of Garibaldi can therefore not be explained solely by the round-number anniversary of his birth. It also commemorates the direct connection between the revolutionary and the small republic. His admission in 1849 forms part of the Sammarinese (san-marinesischen) remembrance of its own tradition as a place of refuge for political persecuted persons.