2 Euro Proof

Guglielmo Marconi was an Italian physicist, inventor and entrepreneur who advanced wireless telegraphy both technically and economically. From the 1890s onwards, he experimented with the transmission of electromagnetic signals over greater distances. In 1901, he succeeded in receiving a wirelessly transmitted signal across the Atlantic. This demonstrated that radio connections were possible beyond the horizon. His work laid the foundation for later broadcasting and mobile maritime radio. In 1909, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with the German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun.

Marconi’s special connection with the Vatican arose after the founding of Vatican City (Vatikanstadt) through the Lateran Treaties (Lateranverträge) of 1929. Pope Pius XI commissioned him to establish a Vatican radio station. Marconi planned the technical installation and presented it personally. In February 1931, Radio Vatican (Radio Vatikan) began broadcasting. At the opening, Marconi announced the first radio address by a pope; Pius XI addressed listeners in Latin beyond the borders of the small papal state.

Radio technology gave the Holy See (Heiliger Stuhl) a new means of broadcasting papal addresses and church news worldwide. Under Pius XII, who had previously worked closely with Pius XI as Cardinal Secretary of State Eugenio Pacelli, Radio Vatican gained further importance. During the Second World War, the station broadcast not only papal messages but also information about missing persons, prisoners and displaced persons.

Marconi’s connection with both popes thus points not only to his general role in the history of radio technology. Above all, it recalls the establishment of Vatican broadcasting and its use in the following years. The round anniversary gave the Vatican an opportunity to honour an inventor whose work was directly connected with its own communications history.