COPIA OMAGGIO • COMPLIMENTARY COPY EDIZIONI PRC

[Luoghi]
Scandal on Capri
Legend has it - and Capri’s legends always have a grain of truth
about them - that one day Kaiser Wilhelm sent a pistol to his loyal
subject and friend, Friedrich Alfred, along with a vaguely sinister
note the ruler had penned himself: “You know how to use it”. Just
a few days later, on 22 November 1902, Krupp did use it. Against
himself. Norman Douglas, a most refined writer who often sang
Capri’s praises, offered this comment: “It was a homicide, not a
suicide”.
He was thinking of the sensationalistic press campaign that
had been aimed at the “king of cannons” for months, dragging
in other well-known members of the German nobility who
sojourned on Capri as well. A newspaper of socialist inspiration,
La Propaganda, had led off with a short article whose title was
unequivocal: “Capri - Sodom”. It wasn’t long before the official
party organ, l’Avanti!, joined in, as well as Vorwarts, the German
socialist newspaper. Orgies, risqué parties, and reckless
homosexual encounters were rumoured to have taken place in
the dark recesses of the Grotto of Fra’ Felice, along Via Krupp.
Much later - and all too late, alas - these stories were shown
to be grossly exaggerated or even outright lies: a set-up, in
any case; a chapter in the annals of the local power struggles
between the mayor in office, the Catholic Serena, a good friend
of Krupp’s, who would end up the victim of the scheme, and the
Morgano family in the ascendant, whose credo was socialism.
The ‘damning evidence’ was an electoral dossier fabricated by
a professor who was peeved with the German industrialist over
his decision to study Italian with another teacher.
Thus ended a brief season of genius, eccentricity, and art. And
a legend was born.
M. MASTRORILLO
costruzione - che peraltro durò appena
due anni - perché la si percorre senza
eccessiva fatica anche in salita. Roberto
Pane, nella sua “Guida di Capri”, la
definisce un’opera d’arte, e ha ragione
perché essa appartiene più alla scultura
che all’edilizia.
Perché quella strada? C’è una risposta
ovvia e minimalista: per arrivare rapidamente
a Marina Piccola. Ce n’è un’altra,
come dire?, imprenditoriale: Krupp
voleva dare lavoro ai capresi e indicare
loro il futuro dell’isola, lo sviluppo del
turismo. A me piace immaginare, invece,
Lunga 1.346 metri,
via Krupp
ha tornanti a 90°.
Via Krupp has hairpin
bonds
and stretches
for 1,346 m.
che avesse pensato al suo sentiero come a
una discesa verso il mare, simile alle tante
che dalle sue navi faceva verso il blu delle
acque intorno all’isola. Del resto, prima
di cominciare la discesa viene spontaneo
guardare verso le trasparenze del mare,
e quando si è arrivati giù viene voglia di
volgere lo sguardo all’insù. Come si fa
quando ci si immerge sotto lo scoglio del
Monacone o nella Grotta Azzurra.
Dopo l’inaugurazione della sua via, Friederich
Alfred Krupp vivrà solo due anni ancora.
L’ultima immersione sarà nel buio della
ragione, nelle tenebre della tragedia.
the tenacity and the supreme effort of building
it - which took under two years - so that the
uphill climb would not be too monstrously
difficult. In his Guide to Capri, Roberto Pane
calls Via Krupp a work of art, and rightly
so: the road is more of a sculpture than a
construction project.
Why build that road at all, however? The
obvious if reductive answer is: to get to
the Marina Piccola faster. There’s another
answer, though, which you might say is of
an ‘entrepreneurial’ nature: Krupp wanted
to provide the inhabitants of Capri with
employment and point them in the direction of
the island’s future: tourism. I myself choose
to believe, instead, that Krupp had designed
his path as a descent to the sea, not unlike
the many diving expeditions he made from his
boats himself, dropping deeper and deeper
into the blue waters around the island. After
all, when you set out down Via Krupp, you do
glance spontaneously over at the surface of the
sea below before you start the descent; and
when you reach the bottom you are seized with
an irresistible urge to look back up to the top.
Which is exactly what happens when you dive
under the rock face at Monacone or beneath
the waters of the Blue Grotto.
After the inauguration of his road, Friedrich
Alfred Krupp lived on only two more years.
His last descent would be into folly, into the
human soul’s most tragic depths.
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