On 9 July 1898, he was born in Trento, which at the time was part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father, named
Giuseppe, was an
Italian irredentist and director of the liberal newspaper "
Alto Adige" (active from the year 1906 to 1914), whilst his mother, Maria Ranzi, was the cousin of
Guglielmo Ranzi, the inventor of the . His older brother was also called Giuseppe after his father. He had 4 younger siblings,
Rachele Stefenelli (1899–1981),
Giuseppe Stefenelli (1900–1984),
Pietro Stefenelli (1909–1983) and
Manlio Stefenelli (1910–1986). As soon as he started
middle school, to avoid repression from the
Austro-Hungarian police, he left his hometown alongside his family, transferring to the
Kingdom of Italy, where his father was employed as a civic affairs official in the command of the
Regio Esercito in
Florence. He would marry at a young age with
poetry writer Noemi degli Alessandrini Stefenelli (1905–1970). During World War I, Ferruccio enlisted voluntarily in the army, and after having studied in the
Military Academy of Modena, he was assigned to the battalion "
Moncenisio" of the
3rd Alpini regiment on the frontline, being assigned the war name "Giuseppe Gennari". He was enlisted despite the prohibition given by the
Ministry of War to Italian irredentists after the historic sacrifice of
Cesare Battisti. During the assault on
Ortigara on 19 June 1917, Ferruccio was injured and subsequently awarded the Silver Medal of Military Valor. He was sent to a
military hospital for two months before being sent to the frontlines once again to fight on
Mount Tomba, where on 28 November 1917, he was also be awarded the Bronze Medal of Military Valor. A few days later, on 16 December 1917, during a battle in
Col Caprile he was once again injured and even captured as a
POW. He was healed up by the military hospital of
Primolano, Pergine Valsugana, and Trento, and was transferred to the internment camp of
Veľký Meder, in the
lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen , and he was later liberated at the end of the conflict. During the entirety of his detention, he was able to hide his own identity. If his identity had been discovered by the Austro-Hungarian authorities, due to being an irredentist, he'd likely have faced the
death penalty by
hanging. He would continue to work in the military up until 1927, when, upon using the law which permitted war heroes to pursue any consular job to war heroes, he began his diplomatic career, which would lead him to have important roles in
Africa,
Oceania, and
Asia as vice-consul, consul, general consul, and ambassador of Italy. During his tenure in China, he was a strong believer of Italian neutrality during his diplomatic career, up until the
Italian entry into World War II. He also considered himself neutral on the
Second Sino-Japanese War. He was the last fascist
podestà of the Italian concession of Tientsin in China from 1938 up until the
Japanese-Italian War on 10 September 1943. During the assault on the concession, he hid in the
Caserma Ermanno Carlotto alongside the Italian and Chinese civilians within the colony. Upon being arrested, he was one of the 170 Italians who swore loyalty to the Italian Social Republic, sparing him from being sent to an internment camp. He did to guarantee that the remaining non-interned Italian civilians would be protected by some kind of
diplomatic and consular protection after ambassador
Francesco Maria Taliani's arrest on 8 September 1943. In October 1943 he sent a telegram from
Nanjing to the
Italian Embassy in Berlin complaining that "despite" the Italians' "declarations of loyalty to the Fascist Government, Japanese and Chinese authorities have taken drastic and humiliating measures against Italian institutions and citizens". He then complained about the embassy's funds being seized and asked the Italian Social Republic to intervene to reinstate Fascist Consuls as to protect Italian civilians. He was the only person during the Japanese-Italian War to represent the Italians in occupied
China,
Korea and Japan effectively. On 14 July 1944, the Italian Social Republic and the Wang Jingwei regime firmed a series of agreements, which led to Ferruccio Stefenelli being nominated second-class
consul general in
Shanghai. He would also become the Consul General of Italy in
Australia,
Sydney, visiting various Australian cities such as
Ayr. His last diplomatic mission would be in the
Republic of Ghana, before retiring in 1964. He died in Mezzolombardo on 11 May 1980. == Awards ==