Liberation Committee South Tyrol

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The Liberation Committee South Tyrol ( BAS ) was a separatist , right-wing terrorist organization that operated in South Tyrol . This was initially done with politically non-violent means, but soon also with attacks on the infrastructure.

The original goal of the BAS, founded by Sepp Kerschbaumer and eight fellow campaigners in the mid-1950s, was the right to self-determination for the South Tyrolean population. In 1969 the organization stopped its activities. According to the state, at least 14 or 15 members of the Italian authorities lost their lives as a result of attacks by activists, with the authorship of the BAS being controversial in several cases; many other military personnel, police officers and civilians were indirectly killed or injured. There were also quite a few casualties and wounded on the part of the South Tyrol activists.

prehistory

After the First World War, South Tyrol was annexed by the Kingdom of Italy and subjected to Italianization , which culminated in the ban on the mother tongue and the compulsory translation of names; the fascist government, which came to power in 1922, further accelerated this development. Even after the Second World War and the first Statute of Autonomy in 1948, the majorization policy was pursued: The non-Italian South Tyroleans, who were mainly active in agriculture , were deprived of their livelihoods, access to work in Italian industrial companies was made difficult and they were denied access to state social housing . The latter were built in large numbers in the 1950s, but only made available to the immigrant Italians. This also led to the emigration of German-speaking South Tyroleans.

After the unsuccessful interventions by the South Tyrolean politicians and against the background of the Italian delaying tactics, the BAS saw no other way out than to resort to explosives .

history

After a few leaflet campaigns (including at Sigmundskron Castle ) organized by Sepp Kerschbaumer, explosives were procured from 1958 , partly from North Tyrol , partly from Italy, and probably also from the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1959/1960 there were disputes between North and South Tyrolean actors about the supremacy in the BAS, whereby the South Tyrolean part was temporarily able to assert itself due to explosives and weapons found among the North Tyroleans. At the beginning of the violent activities, the BAS activists' top priority was to spare human lives at all costs for the time being; However, some activists such as Fritz Molden , Gerd Bacher and Georg Klotz thought early on of waging a partisan war (in contrast to the later very prominent Innsbruck university lecturer Norbert Burger , who initially adhered to the Kerschbaumer line and for the time being regarded guerrilla warfare as unrealistic). The group's attacks were therefore initially directed against property with a symbolic content, such as electricity pylons (which supplied northern Italy's industry with energy), social housing for moving Italians and fascist monuments. Nevertheless, during the so-called night of fire, the road warden Giovanni Postal was killed when he found a misfired bomb and detonated it .

The foundation of the BAS is closely related to the inadequate implementation of the Gruber-De-Gasperi Agreement from 1946, in which the German and Ladin ethnic groups of South Tyrol were granted autonomous basic rights and extensive self-administration by the Italian central government. The state-sponsored ongoing influx of Italian labor migrants, the dwindling trust in the success of a diplomatic solution and a German national sentiment strengthened the numerically small group of the BAS in their plan, with the help of bombings, a detachment of South Tyrol from Italy and a reunification with the Austrian East and East To force North Tyrol . (see History of South Tyrol ).

After the imprisonment of the leading BAS activists as a result of the night of fire, various groups, some with a neo-Nazi background (most of which were intelligence informers and corresponding provocations) carried out significantly more brutal attacks until the late 1980s, claiming several human lives. From 1961 onwards, the Italian authorities had contributed to the escalation of violence. Serious torture of imprisoned BAS activists by Carabinieri was largely unpunished by Italian courts, while some BAS activists were sentenced to long prison terms. As a result of the night of fire, the Italian secret service SIFAR in South Tyrol began to intensify the climate of tension with targeted provocations in order to weaken the negotiating position of the South Tyrolean People's Party during the parallel autonomy negotiations .

1st phase 1956–1961

The first attacks by BAS members took place in September 1956. A second series of attacks was carried out in January 1957.

2nd phase 1961/62

With the bomb attack on January 31, 1961 in Waidbruck , the BAS made an active appearance for the first time. The equestrian statue of Mussolini , the so-called "Aluminum Duce", in front of the power station there, was blown up by the North Tyrolean BAS members Kurt Welser, Heinrich Klier and the South Tyrolean BAS member Martl Koch.

This was followed by a bomb attack on Ettore Tolomei's house in Montan , a symbol of Italianization, carried out by Josef Fontana.

The highlight was the night of fire on the night of June 11th to 12th, 1961. 42 electricity pylons were blown up in Bolzano and the surrounding area.

During the so-called little fire night on the night of July 12th to 13th, 1961, eight more electricity pylons were blown up to paralyze train traffic.

In the following days Sepp Kerschbaumer and 150 other members of the BAS were arrested. The detainees complained about "brutal methods" by the Italian police and said they had been tortured. On January 7, 1962 - despite the first aid from Josef Sullmann - Anton Gostner died in custody.

The torture was denied by the Italians: It was alleged that the inmates inflicted the injuries on themselves. Ten Carabinieri were charged: eight of them were acquitted by the Higher Regional Court of Trento in 1963, two fell under an amnesty that has since been issued . The process and the verdict were widely criticized.

On November 28, 1961, the UN General Assembly renewed its South Tyrol resolution of October 1960, but not to the extent that the BAS wanted to achieve for South Tyrol.

On July 16, 1964, 35 BAS members were found guilty in the so-called Milan Trial, but 13 of them were immediately pardoned. Another 27 accused BAS members were acquitted.

The judgments, regarded by the Italian side as mild, were made possible because the president of the jury, Gustavo Simonetti, dropped the charges of "attack on the unity of the state" and "attack on the constitution" under pressure from the government of Aldo Moro , and so that of the prosecutor demanded life minimum sentence eluded the foundation; this was also made possible by the fact that Sepp Kerschbaumer abandoned the secession in order to save the political prisoners and presented autonomy as a goal or purpose.

Sepp Kerschbaumer as the leader of the BAS was sentenced to 15 years and 11 months in prison and died prematurely (1964) in Italian custody. Norbert Burger , who ran in Austria in 1981 as a presidential candidate for the Austrian NDP party, which is strongly oriented towards Nazi models , and three other fugitive Austrian defendants were each sentenced to more than 20 years in absentia.

3rd phase 1963-1967

From 1963, and especially in 1964, the conflict escalated considerably. Due to the extensive elimination of the founding generation of the BAS, the increasing Italian repression and rapprochement between the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) and the Aldo Moro government , the remaining members of the BAS resorted to harsher methods. Now, more and more neo-Nazi and pan-Germanist circles appeared who turned the former top priority, the protection of human life, into the opposite and began to target members of the state organs.

After numerous attacks and fights marked by fire attacks in South Tyrol, a trial took place in 1963 in Trento / Trient (Province of Trento - so-called Trentino) against those Carabinieri ( military police ) who were accused of torturing South Tyroleans after the "night of fire" of 1961. By acquittals of the Carabinieri and numerous convictions in the first Milan trial of the South Tyrol activists (sentencing on 16 July 1964 with some long-term imprisonment ), by wounded and numerous arrests of South Tyrolean and Austrians, there was an increase in intensity of the battles from 1964 resulted in a number of deaths: at the beginning of the carabiniere Vittorio Tiralongo in Mühlwald in the Puster Valley on the Italian side, although his death by shooting has not yet been definitively clarified; shortly afterwards the South Tyrol activist Luis Amplatz on the Brunner Mahder-Alm near Saltaus through an attack by the recruited agent Christian Kerbler, which was "finally clarified" by the Italian secret services . An action by the Italian military and police aimed at eliminating the South Tyrolean activist group "Pusterer Buam" ("Pustra Buibm": Pustertaler boys; in Italian: "i quattro bravi ragazzi della valle Aurina") ended with large raids, with a military failure and with countless attacks also against the civilian population who were not militarily involved in the hamlet of Tesselberg (September 10, 1964), the latter only exacerbating the raid due to the intervention of an Italian officer, not a series of killings of South Tyroleans planned by the Italian secret services has been. The years 1965 and 1966 brought more skirmishes, attacks, arrests and deaths.

Some examples:

  • September 3, 1964, Mühlwald near Taufers: The carabiniere Vittorio Tiralongo is shot.
  • September 9, 1964, Antholz : 5 soldiers are seriously injured in an attack .
  • August 26, 1965, Sexten : The Carabinieri Palmerio Ariu and Luigi de Gennaro are shot from behind with 33 bullets from a distance of 3 meters.
  • May 24, 1966, Pfitscher-Joch-Haus : The customs officer Bruno Bolognese is killed by a booby trap attached to the entrance door of the shelter on the Pfitscher Joch .
  • July 25, 1966, St. Martin im Gsieser Tal : Customs officers Salvatore Gabitta and Giuseppe D'Ignoti are shot.
  • September 9, 1966, Steinalm : Carabiniere Herbert Volgger and customs officers Martino Cossu and Franco Petrucci are killed in a bomb attack.
  • June 25, 1967, Porzescharte (Passo di Cima Vallona) in the Carnic Alps (transition to Cadore, Belluno province , on the border with Austria): A power pole on the Porzescharte is blown up, the Alpini and Carabinieri coming to the attack site may step on mines whose origin has not yet been clarified. Four soldiers die, one survives with serious injuries.

4th phase 1967–1969

As a result of the events in the Porzescharte area, there were again hard arguments and one last riot among the South Tyrol activists.

September 30, 1967, Trento train station : The railway police officers Filippo Foti and Edoardo Martini die in an attack on the Innsbruck – Trento train.

The activities of the BAS ended in 1969. Even before the South Tyrol package was concluded , most of the activists gave up because the pressure from the Austrian side was too great. The activists were persecuted in Italy and Austria without consideration, which was not the case in Austria in the early days (1961–1963).

A total of at least 15 executive organs were killed directly, although in a number of cases the authorship could not be clarified or, based on various indications, appears to be questionable.

Due to his political stance and his ideational collaboration with the Liberation Committee of South Tyrol, the Tyrolean Provincial Councilor and Austrian National Councilor Aloys Oberhammer was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment in Italy in the second Milan trial in 1966. The lecturers at the University of Innsbruck Helmut Heuberger and Günther Andergassen were also convicted.

For the attack on the Porzescharte , Peter Kienesberger and two other co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy in their absence in the Florentine Porzescharte trial . Several trials in Austria ended in acquittals after an initial conviction after being retried before jury courts.

Members

In 1956 Sepp Kerschbaumer founded the BAS with Karl Tietscher from Bruneck and Josef Crepaz from Val Gardena .

Later members were:

Balance sheet

In the 32 years of unrest from September 20, 1956 to October 30, 1988, 361 attacks were carried out. At least 21 deaths (15 law enforcement officers, 2 civilians and 4 activists) and 57 injured (24 Italian law enforcement officers, 33 civilians) were reported. The attacks of the 1980s are not on the BAS, but initially z. This can be traced back partly to a “Tirol Group”, to some Italian neo-fascist organizations, later (from around 1986) to the “ Ein Tirol ” group controlled by Italian intelligence services and the DIGOS secret police .

The Italian judiciary sentenced 157 people: 103 South Tyroleans, 40 Austrians and 14 Germans. On April 20, 1966, the verdicts were pronounced against 36 defendants of the South Tyrol Liberation Committee in the so-called second Milan trial.

Later developments

In 1964 the carabiniere Vittorio Tiralongo was shot in Mühlwald near Taufers. The act was attributed to the four "Puschtra Buibm" ("Pusterer boys": Siegfried Steger , Josef Forer , Heinrich Oberleiter ) who were later sentenced to life imprisonment for other offenses in absentia. The testimony of a former colleague of the victim later exonerated the “Puster boys”. The so-called new witness, however, claims to have put this on record as early as 1964, without this being taken into account by the investigating authorities. As a result of these findings, the Bolzano Public Prosecutor's Office started new investigations in 2009, so far without any result. Politicians are also calling for complete clarification and a restart of the proceedings.

There is speculation that the murder of Tiralongo is said to have served the then commanding general of the Carabinieri, Giovanni De Lorenzo , as a pretext to eliminate one or two South Tyrol activists. Three days after the Tiralongo murder, the activist Luis Amplatz was shot dead by the alleged secret agent Christian Kerbler and Georg Klotz was seriously injured.

Permanent exhibition

In 2018, exponents of the patriotic scene set up a permanent exhibition on the history of BAS under the Bozner Lauben under the title BAS - Sacrifice for Freedom , for which a catalog was also published. In 2019, the historian Margareth Lun took over the management of the exhibition.

See also

literature

  • Piero Agostini: La "Rosa dei Venti" ha spine in Alto Adige? In: Tempi e cronache. April 1975. And in: “ Lotta continua ”, February 8, 1977.
  • Antony Evelyn Alcock: History of the South Tyrol Question. South Tyrol since the package. 1970-1980 . Vienna 1982.
  • Giulio Andreotti : Degasperi e il suo tempo . Milano / Milan 1956.
  • Giulio Andreotti: Degasperi visto da vicino . Milano / Milan 1986.
  • James Byrnes: Speaking frankly . New York London 1947.
  • Niccolò Carandini: La verità sull'Alto Adige . Reprint from: Il Mondo . Roma 1957.
  • Umberto Corsini: Il colloquio Degasperi - Sonnino. I cattolici trentini e la questione nazionale . Trento 1975.
  • Umberto Corsini: La politica interna italiana per l'Alto Adige negli anni 1945–1946 . Reprint from: Studi Trentini di Scienze Storiche. Rivista LXVII, Sezione I, Numero 4. Trento / Trient 1988.
  • Giuseppe De Lutiis: Storia dei servizi segreti in Italia . Roma / Rome 1991.
  • Peter Disertori: Dolomiti di piombo. Gli anni neri del terrorismo in Alto Adige . Verona 2007.
  • Manuel Fasser: One Tyrol - two worlds. The political legacy of the South Tyrolean night of fire in 1961 . StudienVerlag , Innsbruck 2009. ISBN 978-3-7065-4783-3
  • Claus Gatterer : South Tyrol and right-wing extremism , in: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance (ed.): Right-wing extremism in Austria after 1945, Bundesverlag, Vienna 1979, pp. 336–353.
  • Michael Gehler : Obstructed Autonomy: Austria and the South Tyrol Question from 1945 to 1956 . In: Ingrid Böhler, Rolf Steininger (Eds.): Österreichischer Zeitgeschichtag 1993, May 24-27, 1993 in Innsbruck. Innsbruck Vienna 1995. pp. 107-124.
  • Michael Gehler: Playful self-determination? The South Tyrol question in 1945/46 in US intelligence reports and Austrian files. A documentation . Innsbruck 1996 (= Schlern-Schriften; Vol. 302).
  • Helmut Golowitsch: No sacrifice too heavy for home. Torture - death - humiliation . OO 2009 (2nd edition, o. O. 2013).
  • Helmut Golowitsch, Walter Fierlinger: Capitulation in Paris 1946. History and background of the Paris Agreement between Degasperi and Gruber of September 5, 1946 . Nuremberg Graz 1989.
  • Helmut Golowitsch, Bruno Hosp , Sepp Mitterhofer, Roland Lang, Winfried Matuella, Reinhard Olt , Hubert Speckner, Hartmuth Staffler: BAS - Sacrifice for Freedom: Exhibition Catalog. Effect GmbH. Publisher: Neumarkt an der Etsch 2018.
  • Eva Klotz : Georg Klotz. Freedom fighter for the unity of Tyrol. A biography . Vienna 2002.
  • Vittorio Lojacono: Alto Adige South Tyrol. Dal pangermanismo al terrorismo . Milano / Milan 1968.
  • Sepp Mitterhofer, Günther Obwegs: "... There was no other way ...". Contemporary witness reports and documents from the South Tyrolean struggle for freedom. Except 2000.
  • Birgit Mosser-Schuöcker, Gerhard Jelinek: Heart of Jesus fire night. South Tyrol 1961. The attacks. The tortures. The processes. The role of Austria . Tyrolia Verlag , Innsbruck 2011, ISBN 978-3-7022-3132-3
  • Günther Obwegs: Friend, you can still see the sun ... Luis Amplatz. A life for Tyrol . Bolzano 2004.
  • Günther Pallaver : The pacification of the South Tyrolean terrorism . In: ders. (Ed.): Politika , 11th year book for politics / Annuario di politica / Anuer de pulitica, Edition Raetia , Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-88-7283-388-9 , pp. 427–455.
  • Hans Karl Peterlini : Second hand bombs. Between Gladio and Stasi: South Tyrol's abused terrorism . Bolzano 1992.
  • Hans Karl Peterlini: The discomfort in history . In: Günther Pallaver (ed.): Politika , 11th year book for politics / Annuario di politica / Anuer de pulitica, Edition Raetia, Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-88-7283-388-9 , pp. 397-426.
  • Hans Karl Peterlini: South Tyrolean bomb years. From blood and tears to a happy ending? , Edition Raetia, Bozen 2005, ISBN 88-7283-241-1 .
  • Hans Karl Peterlini: Fire night. South Tyrol's bomb years. Backgrounds, fates, reviews . 2nd edition, Bozen 2016.
  • Karl Heinz Ritschel: Diplomacy around South Tyrol. Political Background of a European Failure . (First shown due to the secret files.) Seewald Verlag, Stuttgart-Degerloch 1966.
  • Otto Scrinzi (Ed.): Chronicle of South Tyrol 1959–1969. From the colony of Alto Adige to the Autonomous Province of Bolzano . Graz Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-7020-0761-X
  • Hubert Speckner : From the "Fire Night" to the "Porzescharte"…. The "South Tyrol Problem" of the 1960s in the Austrian security files . Gra & Wis Verlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902455-23-9 .
  • Hubert Speckner: Between Porze and Roßkarspitz…. The "incident" of June 25, 1967 in the Austrian security files . Gra & Wis, Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-902455-21-5 .
  • Viktoria Stadlmayer : No change in the country charter. South Tyrol, Trieste and Alcide Degasperi 1945/1946 . Innsbruck 2002 (= Schlern-Schriften; Vol. 320), ISBN 3-7030-0364-2
  • Siegfried Steger: The Puschtra Buibm. Escape without returning home . 2nd edition, Bozen 2014.
  • Rolf Steininger : South Tyrol between diplomacy and terror . 3 volumes, Athesia , Bozen 1999 (= publications of the South Tyrolean Provincial Archives; Vols 7,8,9), ISBN 978-88-7014-997-5
  • Leopold Steurer : South Tyrolean publications on the bomb years between critical analysis, apology and trivialization . In: Günther Pallaver (Hrsg.): Politika , 11th year book for politics / Annuario di politica / Anuer de pulitica, Edition Raetia, Bozen 2011, ISBN 978-88-7283-388-9 , pp. 367-396.
  • Leopold Steurer: Propaganda in the "liberation struggle" . In: Hannes Obermair et al. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion - Cittadini inanzi tutto. Festschrift for / Scritti in onore di Hans Heiss , Vienna-Bozen 2012, ISBN 978-3-85256-618-4 , p. 387ff.
  • Martha Stocker : Our story. South Tyrol 1914–1992 in the highlights . Athesia VA, Bozen 2007, ISBN 978-88-8266-490-9 .
  • Mario Toscano: Storia diplomatica della questione dell 'Alto Adige . Bari 1967
  • Max Walla: The desecration of human dignity in South Tyrol. A documentary about the torture of South Tyrolean political prisoners by the Italian police . Unchanged reprint. Nuremberg undated (= series of publications by the Mondsee Working Group; Vol. 3)
  • Franz Widmann : Things weren't going well in South Tyrol. 1945–1972. From resignation to assertion. Records of the political change . Bolzano 1998

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manuel Fasser: One Tyrol - two worlds. The political legacy of the South Tyrolean night of fire in 1961 . Studienverlag, Innsbruck 2009, ISBN 978-3-7065-4783-3 , p. 37 .
  2. ↑ Hubert Speckner: From the "Fire Night" to the "Porzescharte" ... the "South Tyrol problem" of the 1960s in the Austrian security files . Verlag Gra & Wis, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-902455-23-9 .
  3. ↑ Martha Stocker: Our story - South Tyrol 1914–1992 in Streiflichtern . Athesia publishing house
  4. ^ Spiegel Online on March 10, 2013: Sixties: Former SS members formed their own intelligence service (last checked on March 10, 2013)
  5. ↑ A process of anachronisms . In: Die Zeit , No. 50/1963
  6. ^ Image of the "Aluminum-Duce" (destroyed by BAS in 1961) in the Italian-language Wikipedia
  7. ^ Max Walla: The desecration of human dignity in South Tyrol. A documentary about the torture of South Tyrolean political prisoners by the Italian police. Ed .: Series of publications by the Mondsee Working Group. tape 3 , p. 5 f .
  8. ↑ Helmut Golowitsch: No sacrifice too heavy for home. Torture - death - humiliation . 2009, p. 79 ff., 266 ff., 285 ff., 323 ff .
  9. ↑ “It was just a beating.” The “Carabinieri trial” in Trento has dire consequences . In: Die Zeit , No. 36/1963, p. 6.
  10. ↑ radiosuedtirol.eu (PDF) as of October 10, 2010
  11. ^ United Nations, Resolution 1661; The Status of German-Speaking Element in the Province of Bolzano (Bozen)
  12. ↑ a b carabinieri.it
  13. ↑ Hubert Speckner: "Between Porze and Roßkarspitz ..." The "incident" of June 25, 1967 in the Austrian security files. Vienna 2013.
  14. ↑ Hans Karl Peterlini: South Tyrolean bomb years . Raetia Edition, Bozen 2003
  15. ↑ Claus Gatterer: The police kept precise records . In: Die Zeit , No. 19/1966
  16. ↑ Rolf Steininger: The Fire Night and what then? Bolzano 2011
  17. ↑ Christian Granbacher: New South debate . ( Memento of July 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) In: ECHO ONLINE , accessed on June 11, 2011
  18. ↑ Deutschlandfunk April 20, 2016 Second Milan Trial With bomb violence to the free South Tyrol By Peter Hölzle
  19. ↑ Report of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation from September 8th, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / tirol.orf.at  
  20. ↑ a b stol.it ( Memento from December 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  21. ↑ DNA trace could solve Carabiniere's murder. (No longer available online.) In: tirol.orf.at. September 8, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved November 20, 2016 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / tirol.orf.at  
  22. ↑ Bas.Tirol website , accessed on August 16, 2019.
  23. ↑ Helmut Golowitsch u. a .: BAS - Sacrifice for Freedom: Exhibition Catalog. Neumarkt an der Etsch 2018.
  24. ↑ BAS exhibition under new management , web portal Unsertirol.com, October 3, 2019