Stop at the Porzescharte

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Porzescharte
View into the Cadore, with the power line

The attack on the Porzescharte was a terrorist attack on June 25, 1967, in which four Italian soldiers were killed in an explosion on the Porzescharte, on the border between Tyrol ( Austria ) and the Cadore ( Belluno province , Italy ). The authorship of the unsolved attack is controversial. According to official Italian information, they were killed by mines laid by members of the South Tyrol Liberation Committee . The historian and army - Colonel Hubert Speckner , however, contradicted this representation and questioned whether the Italian soldiers were killed at all or all in the Porzescharte area. The historian Michael Gehler assessed the incident as an "extremely devious attack".

The South Tyrol conflict and its development, 1963/64

In the course of the political and international legal disputes about the future of South Tyrol, a region in what is now northern Italy predominantly populated by German-speaking Tyroleans, there was a violent escalation from 1963 onwards. In the struggle for self-determination, autonomy and ethnic survival, there were numerous explosive attacks on the South Tyrolean side from 1964 onwards. The violent conflict, which increasingly had guerrilla warfare- like features, was also characterized by the steadily increasing massive use of secret services, the military and, in some cases, police violence by the Italian government .

Diplomatic efforts by the powers involved in the South Tyrol conflict, Italy and Austria, as well as the governments of South Tyrol and North Tyrol, had not been able to defuse the problem. Solutions were often delayed because Italy was not ready to abandon its claims to power and further assimilate the South Tyrolean population. In addition, false information was used to stir up fear of doom and the infiltration of the German language group was predicted. At the time, hardly anyone was interested in the fact that incorrect figures were assumed for the immigration of Italians after 1945. Rather, it created the basis for activists and sympathizers north and south of the Brenner, who radicalized with increasing escalation and were infiltrated by right-wing extremists especially north of the Brenner.

Escalation from 1963

After numerous attacks and fire attacks by South Tyroleans, a trial took place in Trentino in 1963 against those Carabinieri who were accused of torturing South Tyroleans after the " night of fire " in 1961. The controversial acquittals of these Carabinieri as well as a wave of arrests among South Tyroleans and the numerous convictions in the 1st Milan trial against South Tyrol activists (verdict on July 16, 1964, with some long prison sentences), led to an intensification of the attacks.

The year 1964 brought a number of deaths. The carabiniere Vittorio Tiralongo was shot in Mühlwald in the Puster Valley under circumstances that have not yet been clarified. Shortly afterwards, the South Tyrol activist Luis Amplatz died on the Brunner Mahder Alm near Saltaus at the hands of the Italian agent Christian Kerbler . Amplatz's comrade, Georg Klotz , was able to make his way to Austria despite being seriously injured thanks to the help of the South Tyrolean rural population.

An action by the Italian military , allegedly influenced by the Gladio network, aimed at eliminating the South Tyrolean activist group of the “Pusterer Buam” (Pustertal boys), ended with large raids, with a military failure for Italy and with countless attacks against the military Civilian population not involved in the hamlet of Tesselberg on September 10, 1964. During the last raid , only the intervention of an Italian officer prevented a planned series of killings of South Tyroleans. The years 1965 and 1966 brought more skirmishes, attacks, arrests and deaths.

Increasing secret service and right-wing extremist activities

As a result, the struggle spread to the secret service and right-wing extremist level. Actions by both sides included provocations, infiltration, spying, media-related exposures, arrests, attempted kidnappings, attempted killing and killings. The Italian side successfully tried to pass off their own actions as hostile. To a large extent, Italian, Austrian and many other European media were used for propaganda purposes for the war of opinion, which the South Tyroleans did not even come close to because of a lack of networks and a lack of political support. According to Leopold Steurer, South Tyrol finally became the scene of the confrontation between the “state terror” of Italy staged by political-military forces on the one hand and the terror incited by the radicalized environment of Pan-Germanist and right-wing extremist circles in Austria and Germany on the other.

Porzescharte, June 1967

On June 25, 1967, there was a further escalation after several Carabinieri and Finanzieri (financial police officers) had been shot or killed by explosions in booby traps in 1965/66 . According to Italian investigations and statements by Italian officials, it can now be assumed that these acts of violence were used by Italian forces to promote their own political ends.

According to the reports that are still unclear today, the South Tyrol activists and founding members of the Austrian NPD Peter Kienesberger , Erhard Hartung and the Austrian Armed Forces member Egon Kufner from the Obertilliacher Tal (Dorfer Tal) in the area of ​​the Klapfalm, roughly in the area of ​​today's Alpine hut at Klapfsee, to the Lower Rosskar. What happened next has not yet been clarified in some details.

Allegedly they wanted to evacuate a wounded activist from South Tyrol via this route. Years later, this was the main line of defense in the Vienna Porzescharte Trial, but was later denied by Kienesberger to the historical researcher Hubert Speckner.

From the Italian side it is said to this day that the South Tyrol activists climbed from the Klapfalm to the Porzescharte, crossed over to the Cadore side and laid two mines as booby traps there in a very short time, as well as a mast located directly on the state border Explosives, watch and detonator provided. Said mast 119 on the Lienz - Pelos or Lienz - Soverzène line was severely damaged in an explosion a few hours later. According to Speckner, today's analysis reveals considerable discrepancies between the officially represented Italian claim and the subsequent assessment that can be proven by various path / time analyzes.

According to official reports from the Republic of Italy, Armando Piva stepped on a mine on June 25, 1967 as part of the investigation into the demolition of mast 119 of the Alpino (mountain troops) of the Italian army (battalion “Val Cismon”) . This resulted in his serious wounding and, soon after, his death. As a result, a four-man patrol was deployed by the Italian anti-terrorist unit, which consisted of officers and NCOs of the "Paratrooper Carabinieri Battalion" and the "Paratrooper Saboteur Battalion".

According to the Italian statement, three members of the Italian special forces were killed in an explosion because one of the paratroopers stepped on a second mine. Two Italian officers (Captain Francesco Gentile and Lieutenant Mario di Lecce) were thrown 40 and 50 m away - south down the slope - and NCOs Olivo Dordi and Marcello Fagnani were victims right next to mine crater No. 2, Fagnani being the only one Survived the attack, seriously injured

As a political consequence of the attack, there was a serious crisis between Italy and Austria; According to Foreign Minister Lujo Tončić-Sorinj , relations between Vienna and Rome reached their lowest point since 1945.

Judgments

In the first instance, the three alleged assassins in the (fourth) Vienna Trial were sentenced to prison terms in December 1968:

Peter Kienesberger received 8 years imprisonment (with a quarterly fast day ), Erhard Hartung received 1 year imprisonment (with a quarterly fast day), Egon Kufner received 1 year imprisonment (with a quarterly fast day). All three convicts had to symbolically pay one shilling to the surviving dependents of the victims.

Numerous orders for expert opinions and revision procedures followed. According to Speckner, the defendants were pardoned in the third instance, after the public prosecutor's complaint regarding the acquittal at second instance and after the requested and meanwhile submitted reports had proven to be exonerating, by an act by the Austrian Federal President ("abolition without compensation"). According to historian Leopold Steurer, the three defendants were acquitted when the trial was resumed in 1971, but the appeals court appealed against the acquittal because of the jury's guidance. A third trial was scheduled for 1972, which Kienesberger and Hartung evaded by fleeing to Germany and applying for political asylum. The third procedure never came about.

In the South Tyrol trial of Florence on the Porzescharte case, the following verdicts were passed on May 14, 1970:

  • Norbert Burger (planning), Peter Kienesberger, Erhard Foltin, Erhard Hartung, Heinrich Oberleiter each for life ;
  • Hans Christian Genck (Osnabrück, Federal Republic of Germany) 17 years 8 months;
  • Hansjürg Humer (Schörding, Austria) 16 years 4 months;
  • Egon Kufner (apparently Linz - not Lienz, as incorrectly stated by Peterlini according to the note below) 24 years;
  • Helmuth Moritz (Innsbruck) 26 years;
  • Gottfried Tschaikner (Telmas) 22 years 4 months;
  • Karl Schafferer (Innsbruck) 19 years 4 months; Peter Matern (Innsbruck) 15 years 8 months;
  • Kate Dahl-Schafferer (Innsbruck) 4 years;
  • Dietrich and Rolf Eibl as well as Albert Schafferer (Innsbruck) each 2 years;
  • Herwig Nachtmann (Innsbruck), Gerhard Watschinger and Rudolf Watschinger (Fritzens) each 1 year 4 months.
  • Acquittals: Dieter Schartinger (Linz), Gerhard Tautermann (Linz), Rolf Teschner (Solbad Hall), Werner Weitze (Linz), Helmut Golowitsch (Linz), Heinz Hauffe (Innsbruck), Erich Klinger (Steyr), Maya Mayr (Bozen, South Tyrol), Franz Neubauer (Linz), Harald Nimeth (Innsbruck), Werner Piehl (Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany), Dietmar Ritzberger (Innsbruck).

Conclusion according to Speckner

In his work on contemporary history, Speckner comes to the following assumptions:

  • There were attacks or accidents that resulted in several deaths.
  • It may be that several accidents did not take place in the Porzescharte area, but then their location was moved there for reasons of problems that had to be concealed and for reasons of greater Italian reasons of state. Or the accidents happened in the Porzescharte area, but happened differently.
  • The named South Tyrol activists Peter Kienesberger, Erhard Hartung and Egon Kufner could not have been the perpetrators due to earlier police and expert reports and today's way / time analyzes. Likewise, their possibility of having laid the mines was never given in the real sense. Therefore, the action suggests Italian intelligence activities.
  • Although it can be ruled out with certainty, Kienesberger, Hartung and Kufner are still considered “perpetrators” in Italy today. Regardless of the fact that it was possible to quantify and realistically calculate why they were not involved, the Republic of Italy has maintained this misrepresentation to this day for political reasons, which is understandable as it would cause a scandal, even if the slightest contrary details officially admitted.

literature

  • Sepp Mitterhofer, Günther Obwegs (ed.): "... There was no other way ...". Contemporary witness reports and documents from the South Tyrolean struggle for freedom. Without publisher, o. O., 2nd, revised edition, o. D. (around 2000), ISBN 88-8300-008-0
  • Birgit Mosser-Schuöcker: “You never forget that”. Contemporary witnesses report on the South Tyrol conflict. Effekt! -Buchverlag, o. O. 2013, ISBN 978-88-97053-22-4
  • Günther Obwegs: Friend, you can still see the sun ... Luis Amplatz. A life for Tyrol. With a contribution by Bruno Hosp. (Ed .: Südtiroler Heimatbund ). Athesia AG publishing house, Bozen 2004, ISBN 88-8266-326-4
  • Hans Karl Peterlini : South Tyrolean bomb years. From blood and tears to a happy ending? Edition Raetia, Bozen 2005, ISBN 88-7283-241-1
  • Carl Schulze (arr.): Booby traps. Current safety information. Barett Verlag, Solingen 1994, ISBN 3-924753-55-5
  • Otto Scrinzi (Ed.): Chronicle of South Tyrol 1959–1969. From the Colony of Alto Adige to the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7020-0761-X
  • Hubert Speckner : "Between Porze and Roßkarspitz ...". The "incident" of June 25, 1967 in the Austrian security files. With a contribution by Reinhart Olt and a foreword by Michael Gehler . Verlag Gra & Wis, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902455-21-5
  • Hubert Speckner: From the “Fire Night” to the “Porzescharte”… The “South Tyrol Problem” of the 1960s in Austrian security files. Verlag Gra & Wis, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902455-23-9
  • Leopold Steurer : Propaganda in the "liberation struggle". In: Hannes Obermair et al. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion - Cittadini innanzi tutto. Festschrift for / Scritti in onore di Hans Heiss. Folio Verlag, Vienna / Bozen 2012, ISBN 978-3-85256-618-4 , pp. 386-400.
  • Leopold Steurer: South Tyrol and right-wing extremism: About “primeval fear” politics, historical revisionism and right-wing clans. In: Günther Pallaver, Giorgio Mezzalira (Ed.): The Identitarian Rush: Right-Wing Extremism in South Tyrol. Ubriacatura identitaria: L'estrema destra in Alto Adige. Edition Raetia, Bozen 2019 ISBN 978-88-7283-709-2
  • Franz Watschinger: Bombs and Justice. The first Graz South Tyrol Trial in 1961. Innsbruck 2003 (= Innsbruck research on contemporary history; vol. 20)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Karl Peterlini: South Tyrolean bomb years. From blood and tears to a happy ending? Bozen 2005, p. 308 ff.
  2. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. passim; especially p. 214 ff., 295 ff., 339 ff. See also: Hubert Speckner: From the “Fire Night” to the “Porzescharte”. P. 384 ff. (With additional documents and new knowledge compared to the previous book)
  3. ↑ Michael Gehler : Austria's Foreign Policy of the Second Republic. From the Allied occupation to Europe of the 21st century (= Volume 1 ). Studies Verlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 978-3-7065-4876-2 , p. 338 .
  4. ↑ Hans Karl Peterlini: South Tyrolean bomb years. Pp. 7 ff., 11 ff., 21 ff.
  5. ^ Siegfried Steger
  6. ↑ Hans Karl Peterlini: South Tyrolean bomb years. Pp. 204 ff, 219 ff., 231 ff., 245 ff.
  7. ↑ Leopold Steurer: South Tyrol and right-wing extremism: About "primal fear" policy, historical revisionism and right-wing clans. Pp. 117-122
  8. ^ Leopold Steurer: Propaganda in the "liberation struggle". Pp. 386-388
  9. ↑ Sepp Mitterhofer / Günter Obwegs: "... There was no other way ...". Pp. 65 ff, 107 ff., 143 ff., 161 ff., 301 ff. Birgit Mosser-Schuöcker: “You never forget that”. P. 91 ff., 111 ff. Otto Scrinzi (Ed.): Chronik. P. 337 f.
  10. ^ Otto Scrinzi: Chronicle. P. 361 ff., 378 ff., 387 ff.
  11. ↑ Budroni: In: Mosser-Schuöcker: "You never forget that ...". P. 115 ff.
  12. ↑ Numerous references, u. a. from Otto Scrinzi (ed.): Chronicle. Pp. 359 ff., 398 ff., 413 ff.
  13. ↑ Eva Klotz : Georg Klotz. Bolzano 2010, p. 118 ff.
  14. ↑ Advice from Speckner: Fire night. P. 217 ff. Otto Scrinzi (Ed.): Chronicle. P. 418 ff.
  15. ^ Otto Scrinzi: Chronicle. P. 421 ff.
  16. ↑ Hubert Speckner: Fire night. Pp. 230-339
  17. ↑ Hubert Speckner: Fire night. P. 179 ff.
  18. ^ Leopold Steurer: Propaganda in the "liberation struggle". P. 398
  19. ↑ See as an example: Otto Scrinzi: Chronik. Pp. 250, 403 ff.
  20. ↑ Leopold Steurer: South Tyrol and right-wing extremism: About "primal fear" policy, historical revisionism and right-wing clans. Pp. 122-123
  21. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. P. 248 ff. (Official version alleged in court); P. 306 f. (new version; conversation between Hubert Speckner and Peter Kienesberger and Erhard Hartung on November 6, 2012)
  22. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. P. 295 ff.
  23. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. Pp. 25, 36 ff., 110 ff., 221 ff., 258 ff., 283 ff., 300 ff.
  24. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. Pp. 25, 37 ff., 57 ff., 112 ff., 165 ff., 187 ff., 210, 216, 222 ff., 257 ff., 282 ff. (And many other places, see list of names)
  25. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. Pp. 25, 38, 40, 57 ff., 112 ff., 165 ff., 222 ff., 257 ff, 282 ff. (And many other places, see list of names)
  26. ↑ Michael Gehler : Austria's Foreign Policy of the Second Republic. From the Allied occupation to Europe of the 21st century (= Volume 1 ). Studies Verlag, Innsbruck 2005, ISBN 978-3-7065-4876-2 , p. 338 .
  27. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. P. 238 f.
  28. ^ Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz. P. 271
  29. ↑ Leopold Steurer: South Tyrol and right-wing extremism: About "primal fear" policy, historical revisionism and right-wing clans. P. 122
  30. ↑ All dates and names of the Florentine Trial according to Hans Karl Peterlini: Südtiroler Bombenjahre. P. 383 f. (quoted in Peterlini's timetable)

Coordinates: 46 ° 39 ′ 15.8 "  N , 12 ° 33 ′ 34.2"  E