Abstract
In 1928 an expedition by the airship Italia succeeded in reaching the North Pole. The expedition, which was led by the Italian general Umberto Nobile, was seen in some quarters as a "fascist publicity enterprise".
However, scientists also took part in it, among them the Czech physicist František Běhounek.During the return journey the airship crashed on the ice 80 miles from land. During the weeks that followed the world followed the extensive international rescue attempts with bated breath.Nobile was the first to be rescued, by a Swedish aeroplane.
The other survivors were rescued by the icebreaker Krasin. The final balance-sheet of this polar adventure was a tragic one.
Eight men from the crew of the airship and ten members of rescue expeditions died. Among the victims was Roald Amundsen.
His heroic death added further weight to the many critical remarks that he had directed at Nobile after a previous expedition led by Amundsen, Ellsworth, and Nobile. The popular press not only branded Nobile as being undoubtedly responsible for the catastrophe, but wrote about the other crew members as being his victims.
The reputation of fascist Italy was shaken and the subject was used for political propaganda.However, the expedition also inspired various literary and artistic works. References to it can be found in the works of Karel Čapek and Vladimir Mayakovsky.
It is this "second life" of the expedition, and the changes in the ways in which it was viewed within the context of the fluctuating political situation in Czechoslovakia, that is the subject of this article. The media image of the expedition as it changed over time is contrasted with the views of two of those directly involved: František Běhounek and Umberto Nobile.