Early Life
Enrico Mattei was born in Acqualagna, in the province of Pesaro and Urbino, Marche, as the second of five children of Antonio Mattei (a carabiniere – a member of the Italian national gendarmerie) and Angela Galvani. In 1923 he became an apprentice in the tannery industry in Matelica. His career was rapid; from factory hand he quickly moved on to become a chemical assistant and then to laboratory chief at the age of 21. After his military service he became the tannery owner’s chief assistant. However, the economic crisis at the end of the 1920s made business going from bad to worse until the tannery closed.
Mattei moved to Milan where he worked as a sales representative for foreign companies in tanning dyes and solvents. In 1931 he became a member of the National Fascist Party (Italian: Partito Nazionale Fascista) created by Benito Mussolini but was not active in politics. Subsequently he set up a factory producing oil-based emulsifiers for the tanning and textile industries with his brother and sister. In 1934 he founded Industria Chimica Lombarda and two years later, in 1936, he married Greta Paulas, in Vienna. After acquiring an accountancy qualification, he enrolled at the Catholic University in Milan.
In May 1943 he met the Christian Democrat leader Giuseppe Spataro, who introduced him into anti-Fascist circles in Milan against the Fascist regime of Mussolini. After July 25, 1943, when Mussolini was forced to resign, Mattei joined a partisan group of the Italian resistance movement in the mountains around Matelica, supplying them with weapons. He was able to join the resistance, despite suspicion over his former membership of the Fascist Party. His role was rather marginal, concentrating mainly on administering and organising activities. After a number of roundups he escaped to Milan.
Impressed by his organisational and military skills, the Christian Democrats put him in command of their partisan forces. On October 26, 1944 he was captured in Milan, along with others, at the Christian Democrats’ secret headquarters in Milan. Detained at the military barracks in Como, he was able to escape on December 3, 1944, taking advantage of a confusion caused by a short circuit which he himself may have engineered. Mattei participated in the North Italian military command of the National Liberation Committee (Italian: Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale - CLN) on behalf of the Christian Democrats. He was decorated by the United States with the Silver Star.
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