Guido Romanelli

Who is Guido Romanelli?

Guido Romanelli was an Italian army officer.

At the end of the First World War, Colonel Guido Romanelli became chef of the Italian Military Mission to Hungary from May to November 1919. At this time he was the only official representative of the Entente in Budapest and he intervened forcefully against the reprisals of the revolutionary government of Béla Kun, intervening to save the lives of cadets of the military academy of Lodovika who rebelled against the Bolshevik regime.

His activities brought him the recognition and devotion of the Hungarian people. Following advance of the Romanian forces toward the Hungarian capital, Romanelli guaranteed and managed the escape from the country of some of the major leaders of the regime and their families, acting as mediator between the foreign occupying forces and the new Government after the occupation of Budapest. For his activities, in 1922 he was awarded with the Hungarian Decoration of the Sword of Honour. In subsequent years, Romanelli served as Consul of Italy in Spain and President of the Italian-Hungarian Commercial Bank.