31 Facts About Adriano Olivetti

Adriano Olivetti was an Italian engineer, entrepreneur, politician, and industrialist.

Adriano Olivetti was known worldwide during his lifetime as the Italian manufacturer of Olivetti brand typewriters, calculators, and computers.

Adriano Olivetti was son of the founder of Olivetti, Camillo Olivetti, and Luisa Revel, the daughter of a prominent Waldensian pastor and scholar.

Adriano Olivetti founded the utopian system of the Community Movement.

The discipline and sobriety the older Adriano Olivetti imposed on his family induced rebellion in the younger Adriano Olivetti's adolescence manifested by a dislike of his father's workplace and by his studying at a polytechnic school of subjects other than the mechanical engineering that his father wanted.

Adriano Olivetti's visit to various plants in the United States, especially Remington, convinced Olivetti that productivity is a function of the organizational system.

Adriano Olivetti shared with his workers the productivity gains by increasing salaries, fringe benefits, and services.

In 1931, he visited the Soviet Union and created an Advertising Department at Adriano Olivetti that worked with artists and designers.

Adriano Olivetti supervised a housing plan for the workers at Ivrea, a small city near Turin, where the Olivetti plant is still located, and a zoning proposal for the adjacent Aosta Valley.

Adriano Olivetti had contacts with representatives of Britain's Special Operations Executive.

Adriano Olivetti shared his time between business pursuits and attempts to practice and spread the utopian ideal of community life.

Adriano Olivetti's belief was that people who respect each other and their environment can avoid war and poverty.

When, in 1920, Camillo decided to suspend the publication of that Canavese weekly, which he considered too provincial and lacking real influence in politics, Adriano Olivetti persuaded his father to transfer the publication to him "and his young friends," but it did not go beyond 1920.

Adriano Olivetti became the director of Olivetti in 1932, the year in which he launched the first portable typewriters called MP1 typewriters, and the president in 1938.

Adriano Olivetti opposed the fascist regime with moments of active militancy.

Adriano Olivetti's anti-fascism had already been expressed immediately after the discovery of Giacomo Matteotti's body in the demonstration he organized, together with his father, at the Giacosa theater in Ivrea in 1924.

Adriano Olivetti participated in the liberation of Filippo Turati with Carlo Rosselli, Ferruccio Parri, Sandro Pertini and others.

Adriano Olivetti stopped for the night at the home of Giuseppe Pero, an executive at Olivetti, and left the next morning in a car driven by Adriano, which reached Savona, where Pertini awaited them.

How Adriano Olivetti managed not to be involved in the fascist investigation that followed Turati's escape is unclear.

Adriano Olivetti was later appointed General Manager and, alongside assuming responsibilities in the Ivrea factory, demonstrated greater caution toward the regime.

Adriano Olivetti then married Paola Levi, Gino's sister, in a civil ceremony.

Adriano Olivetti still had problems with the regime when Gino Levi and Paola Levi's brother, Mario, was stopped at the Swiss border with a car full of Justice and Liberty pamphlets.

Adriano Olivetti managed to escape, but the consequence was that Gino Levi and their father were arrested, remaining in the homeland's prisons for about two months.

Certainly, Adriano was influenced by them; they would be the architects of the new Olivetti and, with Adriano, contributors to the plan for the Aosta Valley.

Adriano Olivetti's consensus weakened until it led him to open anti-fascism.

Adriano Olivetti became a supporter of European federalism after meeting Altiero Spinelli during his exile in Switzerland, initiated by Olivetti in 1944 due to his anti-fascist activities.

Adriano Olivetti became a promoter of a sociological study on the Sassi di Matera and the subsequent realization of the La Martella village La Martella.

In 1955, during the second edition of the Compasso d'Oro Award, Adriano Olivetti was awarded the first "Gran Premio Nazionale," a prestigious recognition for his influence on Italian industry and design.

Meanwhile, Adriano Olivetti had remarried in 1950 to Grazia Galletti, several years after divorcing Paola.

Adriano Olivetti personally funded the revival of the Urbanistica magazine.

Adriano Olivetti's vote was significant for the vote of confidence in the Fanfani government.