South Tyrol
South Tyrol (German: Südtirol; Italian: Alto Adige or Sudtirolo; [Adesc Aut or Sudtirol] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help); officially German: Autonome Provinz Bozen - Südtirol; Italian: Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano - Alto Adige; Ladin: Provinzia Autonòma de Balsan - Sudtirol) is an autonomous province of Italy. It is one of the two provinces which make up Italy's region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. South Tyrol's extensive autonomy makes it de facto comparable to an autonomous region of Italy.
The province itself is divided into 116 municipalities.[1] The capital of the province is Bolzano. It has an area of 7,400 km² and a total population of 487,673 (2006). The region is renowned for its mountains, such as the Dolomites, which compose a significant section of the Alps.
Historically the area was under the rule of the bishopric of Brixen and of the counts of Tirol. The wording Haut-Adige (lit. "Upper Adige") was coined according to the French administrative usage under Napoleon in order to erase any reference to the Austrian County of Tyrol, at a time when the Napoleonic troops were fighting the local insurgency led by Andreas Hofer . The area was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the end of World War I, when this majority German-speaking region was annexed by Italy, along with the Italian-speaking province of Trentino to the south.
The red eagle in the provincial coat of arms recalls the coat of arms of the historical region of Tyrol.
History
From the 6th to the 9th century, the region was settled by the Bavarii together with the Langobards and the romanised natives. As part of the Frankish empire and later the Holy Roman Empire the region had a strategic importance as a bridgehead to Italy as the southern part of the duchy of Bavaria. Large parts of the province were donated to the Bishops of Trento and Brixen. After their caretakers, the earls of Tyrol (See Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol) had gathered the province under their command, the region together with the valleys to the north was known as Tyrol. In 1342, the earldom went over to the Bavarian dukes again when Emperor Louis IV voided the first marriage of Countess Margarete Maultasch. But already in 1363 the Wittelsbach released the country to the Habsburgs. They ruled the region almost continuously until 1918.
World War I
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From 1882, Italy was part of the Triple Alliance (German: Dreibund, Italian: Triplice Alleanza), a defensive pact signed with Germany and Austria-Hungary. When Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia in 1914, thus starting World War I, Italy remained neutral, according to the defensive nature of the pact. Austria-Hungary offered some territorial compensations in exchange for Italian neutrality for the whole war. However, in 1915, the Triple Entente reached an agreement with Italy under the terms of the London Pact, which promised territorial gains at Austria-Hungary's expense, including all the territories south of the Alpine water divide, regardless of the ethnic makeup of these regions, as well as large areas on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea.
The front line during WWI followed mostly the border, which ran right through the highest mountains of the Alps. The ensuing front became known as the "War in ice and snow", as troops occupied the highest mountains and glaciers all year long. Twelve metres (40 feet) of snow were a usual occurrence during the winter of 1915–1916 and tens of thousands of soldiers disappeared in avalanches. The remains of these soldiers are still being uncovered today. The Italian Alpini, as well as their Austrian counterparts (Kaiserjäger, Standschützen and Landesschützen) occupied every hill and mountain top and began to carve extensive fortifications and military quarters, even drilling tunnels inside the mountains and deep into glaciers, like at Marmolada. Guns were dragged by hundreds of troops on mountains up to 3,890 m (12,760 ft). Streets, cable cars, mountain railways and walkways through the steepest of walls were built. As dislodging enemy outposts from such locations proved to be almost impossible, both sides turned to extensive usage of explosives and disruptive detonating devices, such as in Col di Lana, Monte Pasubio and Lagazuoi. Climbing and skiing became essential skills for the troops of both sides. Ski battalions and special climbing units were developed.
In 1918, after the Austro-Hungarian defeat in the battle of Vittorio Veneto, Italian troops penetrated deep into Austro-Hungarian territory, but never into the Tyrolean territory.
Austria's futile attempts to retain Southern Tyrol
With the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the Italian-speaking province of Trentino was attached to Italy. Austria, trusting that the United States (who were not partners to the London Pact) would enforce President Woodrow Wilson's explicit rule (the ninth of his Fourteen Points) stating that "readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality", did not seriously object to this annexation but - on the very same grounds- made determined claims to Southern Tyrol which according to the population count of 1910 was inhabited by 92.2% ethnic Germans, 3.8% Ladins and a tiny (2.9%) Italian minority.
However, the Italian ultranationalist (and would-be Fascist) Ettore Tolomei presented President Wilson and his envoys, who were totally unfamiliar with the actual ethnic situation as well as with the entire concept of nationalism, with a crudely forged "document" that convinced the unprepared Americans that the area was basically Italian. (Wilson soon recognized that he had been misled, and publicly regretted it [citation needed].) Italy then annexed this Southern part of the province of Tyrol as well, claiming the entire territorial reward for its changing sides in the war according to the London Pact. This appropriation was confirmed by the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919, although Tyrol was so desperate to maintain its unity that at one point it even suggested secession from Austria and formation of a neutral (but unified) Free State, with extensive economic and military concessions to Italy.
Fascist rule and World War II
After the rise of Fascism, starting from 1926 a policy of Italianisation was implemented. All the toponyms, even the minor ones, were given in the Italian version. Even many family names were translated. The process intensified in the 1930s, when the government of Benito Mussolini encouraged thousands of ethnic Italians to relocate to the region. The proportion of the Italian-speaking population thus grew significantly from 3% before World War I (census of 1910) to over 34% in 1961[citation needed]. Adolf Hitler never claimed back the German-speaking South Tyrol for his Third Reich, because Benito Mussolini was too important an ally. In 1939, both dictators agreed to give the German-speaking population a choice: they could emigrate to Germany (or its new territories, annexed Austria) or stay in Italy and accept their complete Italianisation. It was a difficult choice for the people of South Tyrol: between their language or the landscape where their ancestors had lived for far longer than thousand years. Both solutions meant the breakdown of their culture. As a consequence, South Tyrolean society was deeply riven. Those who wanted to stay (Dableiber), were condemned as traitors, those who left (Optanten) were defamed as Nazis. Because of the outbreak of World War II, this agreement between Mussolini and Hitler was never fully consumed, but the emigration of the Optanten (who settled in Western Poland, only to be massacred or expelled after the war) further weakened the ethnic-German element.
In 1943, Mussolini was deposed and Italy surrendered to the Allies, who had invaded southern Italy via Sicily. German troops promptly invaded northern Italy and South Tyrol became part of the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills, annexed to the Greater Germany. Many German-speaking South Tyroleans, after years of linguistic oppression and discrimination by Fascist Italy, wanted revenge upon ethnic Italians living in the area (particularly in the larger cities) but were mostly prevented from doing so by the occupying (northern) German Nazis, who still considered Mussolini head of the Italian Social Republic and wanted to preserve good relations with the Italian Fascists still supporting Mussolini and his combat against the Allies.
The region largely escaped fighting during the war, and its mountainous remoteness proved useful to the Nazis as a refuge for items looted from across Europe. When the 88th Infantry Division occupied South Tyrol from May 2 to May 8 1945, and after the total unconditional surrender of Germany (May 9 1945), it found vast amounts of precious items and looted treasures of art. Among the items reportedly found were railway wagons filled with gold bars, hundreds of thousands of metres of silk, the Italian crown jewels, King Victor Emmanuel's personal collection of rare coins, and scores of works of art looted from art galleries such as the Uffizi in Florence. It was feared that the Germans might use the region as a last-ditch stronghold to fight to the bitter end and from there direct Werwolf activities in Allied-controlled territories, but this possibility was rendered moot by the suicide of Hitler, the disintegration and chaos of the Nazi apparatus and the rapid Nazi German surrender thereafter. (The Times, London, 25 May 1945)
In 1945 the South Tyrolean People's Party (Südtiroler Volkspartei) was founded, above all by Dableiber – people who had chosen to stay in Italy after the agreement between Hitler and Mussolini. A party founded by the Optanten would not have been acceptable for the occupying Americans, owing to the Optants' apparently close relationship to the Nazis and their ideology. The support of the Dableiber also proved useful as a means of deflecting renewed future Austrian claims for the return of South Tyrol into the Austrian state.
After World War II
Renewed Austrian attempts to regain South Tyrol after World War II again came to nothing, but with the Treaty of Gruber-De Gasperi (1946) the German-speaking people were granted special rights. But the statutory order was implemented by De Gasperi for the whole region (South Tyrol and Trentino), where Italians were in the majority, making real self-government for the German-speaking South Tyroleans impossible. Even the implementation of this "First statutory order" was delayed repeatedly, while more and more Italians were encouraged to relocate to South Tyrol, with the aim of creating an Italian majority.
As a consequence of delaying implementation of the statutory order, the late 1950s saw the rise of an anti-Italian popular insurgency in South Tyrol. Until December 1960 the organizing committee included reputed Austrian conservatives with an active anti-Nazi resistance record, such as the journalists Fritz Molden (who went on to become an important publisher) and Gerd Bacher (later to become head of the Austrian state television, ORF). Following the withdrawal of these moderate personalities, the insurgency soon resorted to violence which at the beginning was targeted only against Italian infrastructure.
The 1960s brought some formal progress towards the establishment of self-government for the South Tyroleans. In consequence, only the most fanatical of the insurgents wanted to continue their fight for an Austrian South Tyrol by violent means. Moreover, the resistance movement was increasingly infiltrated by far-right activists from Austria and Germany. Insurgents carried out 361 attacks with explosives, guns and landmines between 1956 and as late as 1988. Although the great majority of these acts were not primarily intended to kill, they resulted in 21 deaths (four of which were insurgents killed by their own prematurely exploding devices). The wounded amounted to 57.
Eventually, the pressure of insurgency caused the Italian central government to consider a "Second statutory order", primarily for South Tyrol.
Today
Today, South Tyrol enjoys a high degree of autonomy, and relations with North and East Tyrol — the two portions of the old state retained by Austria — are lively, especially since Austria's 1995 entry into the European Union, which led to a common currency and a de facto disappearance of the borders. Today, the whole historic region Tyrol, consisting of the Austrian state Tyrol (North and East Tyrol), South Tyrol and the Trentino forms a Euroregion, a region of intensified cross-border cooperation within the EU, called "Tirol-Südtirol/Alto Adige-Trentino" which, albeit having only limited competences, led to a joint Tyrolean parliament . The South Tyrolean People's Party, or Südtiroler Volkspartei, has been consistently in power in South Tyrol since its founding in 1945.
However, South Tyrolean society is still to some extent segmented across ethnic lines: each resident must declare his or her language group at the census (choosing amongst Italian, German or Ladin). According to the 2001 census more than two-thirds of the population is German-speaking (69%); the second most used language is Italian (26,5%), followed by Ladin (4%). Places today have two (Italian and German) or even three (with Ladin) names on the road signs. German is the majority language of 103 of 116 municipalities, with the remaining 13 divided between Ladin (8) and Italian (5). However, the two largest cities, Bolzano (Bozen) and Meran (Merano), both now have sizeable Italian-speaking populations (73% and 48.01% respectively).
Public jobs are assigned by ethnic quotas, and require proficiency in both Italian and German, with the effect of protecting the local labour market from immigration. Notwithstanding this imperfect cohabitation, since the 1980s there has been an increased call, especially amongst the youth, for superseding ethnic divisions. One famous advocate of this novel movement was Alexander Langer (1946–1995), MEP for the Greens group.
Independence controversy
In May 2006, former Italian president Francesco Cossiga, and senator for life in the Italian Senate, brought in a bill that would allow the region to hold a referendum, where voters could decide whether to stay with Italy, return to Austria, or become fully independent.[2] The proposed bill was immediately rejected in the Italian parliament, and also the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) rejected the proposal, saying this would just create ethnic tensions again. An unofficial opinion poll, done in September 2005, showed that only 54% of the German-speaking population (and therefore 37% of the overall population) prefers a reunification with Austria.[3]
However Austria does see itself somewhat of a "protector" for the German-speaking population of this region. For example, German-speaking South Tyroleans were freely allowed access to Austrian universities and are handled as if possessing Austrian citizenship. Some young German South Tyroleans as a result choose to study in Innsbruck or Vienna.
Most German-speaking South Tyroleans see themselves neither as purely Austrian, German or Italian, but as South Tyroleans who happen to speak the German language as Italian citizens, similar to the identities in multi-lingual neighbouring Switzerland. There, German-speaking Swiss are not referred to as "Germans", or French-speaking Swiss as "French" either. The question of the identity of the inhabitants of South Tyrol remains the focus of debate and controversy.
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Government
During the closing months of World War II, South Tyrol was involved in negotiations with the Austrian provisional government to come up with a plan to hand the land back over to Austria. However, the Allied Powers did not allow this plan to continue in a decision made in the fall of 1945. While a referendum and protests were held inside South Tyrol and in Austria to support the merger with Austria, the plan was finally defeated the following year. This opened the door for the Italian and Austrian governments to allow autonomy for the province. Owing to the Paris Agreement between Italy and Austria, South Tyrol was promised legislative and executive power by the Italian government. The details of these powers were laid out in the Autonomous Statute, an agreement that was passed by the Italian Constituent Assembly on 31 January 1948.
The province is divided into eight districts (Italian: comprensorio, German: Bezirksgemeinschaft), with one of them being the capital city of Bolzano. The other seven districts encompass a portion of the various communes and the people who are located in those communes. Each district is headed by a president and two bodies called the district committee and the district council. The districts are responsible for intercommunal disputes, roads, schools and social services such as retirement homes.[4] The districts are:
- Bolzano
- Burggrafenamt (Burgraviato)
- Eisacktal (Valle Isarco)
- Pustertal (Val Pusteria)
- Salten-Schlern (Salto-Sciliar)
- Überetsch-Unterland (Oltradige-Bassa Atesina)
- Vinschgau (Val Venosta)
- Wipptal (Alta Valle Isarco)
Economy
Out of the 487,673 residents of the province, 223,300 of them are employed (2005). Most of these employees are working in the fields of agriculture, handicrafts, industry, commerce, tourism, self-employed professionals and the service industry. The unemployment level in 2005 was roughly 2.8%, which is lower than the national Italian average of 8.6%, or the Austrian average of 6%. The handicraft industry is dominated by cabinet making, construction, painting, plumbing, meat preparation, and baking. South Tyrol also acts as a bridge between the northern European and Italian markets, and hotel stays in the province count for 8 percent of the money Italy earns from hotels and other lodging.[5]
Geography
South Tyrol is located at the northernmost point in Italy. The province is bordered by Austria to the east and north and by Switzerland to the west. Italian provinces that border South Tyrol are Belluno to the southeast, Trentino to the south and Sondrio to the southwest. The landscape itself is mostly cultivated with different types of shrubs and forests.[6][7]
Mountains
Mountains dot many parts of the South Tyrol landscape. Many of these mountains belong to the Alps, which extend through many Central European nations. In this mountain chain, there is a smaller group called the Ortler Alps. In this group, which is considered the centre of the Italian Alps, there is a mountain called the Ortler, which rises 3 905 m above sea level, and is the highest peak in the Ortler Alps. Another group of mountains located in South Tyrol are the Dolomites. The Dolomites are a section of the main alpine chain, of which equal parts are located in the South Tyrol and in neighbouring Italian provinces. The mountain Sciliar (2 563 m) is part of the Dolomite chain. Other mountains located in South Tyrol are:
Notable natives
Artists:
- Gilbert and George, visual artists
- Giorgio Moroder, composer
- Luis Trenker, film director
- Walther von der Vogelweide, minnesinger (minstrel)
- Oswald von Wolkenstein, composer
Inventors and scientists:
- Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, historical investigator
- Max Valier, rocketry pioneer
Political activists:
- Lilli Gruber, journalist and politician
- Andreas Hofer, freedom fighter
- Sepp Kerschbaumer, political activist
- Alexander Langer, politician
Religious leaders:
- Arbeo of Freising, bishop
- Joseph Freinademetz, missionary and saint
- Jacob Hutter, founder of the Hutterites
Sports people:
- Armando Aste, mountaineer
- Klaus Dibiasi, diver
- Peter Fill, champion ski racer
- Hans Kammerlander, mountaineer and skier
- Carolina Kostner, figure skater
- Isolde Kostner, alpine skier
- Reinhold Messner, mountaineer
- Gustav Thöni, Alpine skier
- Armin Zöggeler, luger
- Gerda Weissensteiner, bobbist
References
See also
External links
- Official tourist site for the Province of Bolzano
- Official provincial website
- Details of the autonomy statute
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