Claus Gatterer

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Claus Gatterer , originally Klaus Gatterer (born March 27, 1924 in Sexten , † June 28, 1984 in Vienna ), was a journalist , historian , writer and documentary filmmaker from South Tyrol ( Italy ) . As head of department of the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse and editor-in-chief of the ORF series teleobjektiv , he became known to a wide audience in the 1960s and 70s. In his home region, Gatterer is considered the founder of transnational historiography due to extensive historical studies in which he placed the history of South Tyrol in a supra-regional context for the first time . In keeping with its journalistic commitment to the concerns of minorities of all kinds, the Austrian Journalists Club has awarded the Prof. Claus Gatterer Prize for socially committed journalism since 1985 .

Life

Childhood and youth in South Tyrol

Claus Gatterer was born in Sesto, the oldest of nine children of a family of mountain farmers . His childhood and youth were strongly influenced by his father's vivid memories of the First World War and the collapsed Habsburg monarchy, as well as the direct Italianization policy of the Italian fascists. Gatterer processed the memories of this time in the novel Schöne Welt, böse Leut , published in 1969 .

His school career led Gatterer from the Italian elementary school in Sexten to the Vinzentinum episcopal boys' college in Brixen , where he graduated from high school in 1943. During Gatterer's high school days, his family decided not to emigrate to the German Reich in the course of the German-Italian resettlement agreement ( option ) in 1939 , but to continue to farm the farm in Sesto as an Italian citizen. As a result, Gatterer enrolled at the University of Padua in the fall of 1943 as a student of history and philosophy ( lettere e filosofia ), but did not complete this course. For his extensive historical work in the following years, he was awarded the professional title of Professor in Austria in 1970 .

Journalistic career in Austria

At the end of the war in 1945, the 21-year-old Gatterer returned to South Tyrol and worked as a journalist for the newspapers Volksbote and Dolomiten, building up the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP). In January 1948 Gatterer moved to Austria , where he began a journalistic career as editor of the Tiroler Nachrichten in Innsbruck . In 1953 Gatterer joined the Salzburger Nachrichten with the support of journalist Gerd Bacher . The professional collaboration with Bacher promoted Gatterer's career in the following years. In 1957 he moved to Vienna and changed to the editorial office of the Bild-Telegraf newspaper ; at the same time he started working on the monthly cultural and political magazine FORVM (until 1968). In 1958 Gatterer followed Bacher as deputy editor-in-chief of the daily Express . In 1961 he became head of the foreign policy department of the daily newspaper Die Presse .

From 1967 to 1972 Gatterer worked as a freelance writer and journalist. During this time he wrote a. a. his major historical work In the fight against Rome. Citizens, Minorities and Autonomies in Italy (1968) as well as several translations by Italian authors such as Emilio Lussu and Angelo Tasca . As a freelancer he published journalistic articles and comments in numerous magazines, including Die Furche , Die Zukunft (Vienna), Die Zeit (Hamburg) and Il Mondo (Rome). In the early 1970s, Gatterer wrote briefly for the magazines Kurier and Profil .

Gatterer had already made his first experiences in the field of documentary film at the end of the 1960s. In 1972, under the general management of Gerd Bachers , Gatterer became a permanent employee of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). For ten years from 1974 onwards, he headed the teleobjective series , which was dedicated to uncovering social grievances with in-depth background reporting. Public controversies triggered by the program finally led to the discontinuation of the series in 1984, but also to a personal break between Gatterer and Bacher. Gatterer, who at that time was already suffering from severe cancer, died a few weeks after the last issue of teleobjektiv was broadcast in June 1984 in Vienna. At his personal request, he was buried in his home town of Sexten .

reception

During his lifetime

As a journalist, book author and documentary filmmaker, Gatterer was able to achieve a relatively broad response from the media in Austria (partly also in Italy) with his publications in the 1960s and 70s. It ranged from intense approval to open hostility: from 1966, Gatterer received several top-class prizes for his journalistic and historiographical work. The continuous hostility emanating from nationalist circles culminated in 1982 with an open death threat from Austrian neo-Nazis .

Gatterer's journalistic sphere of activity opened up in a first step through the Austrian press landscape. Here Gatterer established himself in the 1950s and 60s as an editor and commentator on foreign policy, focusing specifically on developments in Italy, including the then current South Tyrol issue. At the latest with the publication of his main topic-specific work Im Kampf gegen Rom. Citizens, minorities and autonomies in Italy (1968) he was recognized in Austrian and German expert circles as an Italy expert and temporarily acted as a South Tyrol advisor to leading Austrian state politicians such as the Foreign Minister and later Chancellor Bruno Kreisky .

In South Tyrol, Gatterer's direct influence on regional politics remained relatively small. The most important local daily newspaper, the Dolomites, and the leadership of the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) gave Gatterer's publications little room for mediation. For individual left-liberal-minded regional politicians such as Hans Benedikter and Egmont Jenny, Gatterer was already an important intellectual reference person in his early journalistic years.

With his book publications on the interweaving of the history of Austria with that of Italy (1967 to 1972) Gatterer also created the first regional historical reference points for Italian-speaking South Tyroleans. These references were picked up in the 1980s by the Praxis 3 publishing house in Bozen, which posthumously translated Gatterer's works into Italian. Gatterer's publication on Cesare Battisti also influenced the discourse on regional history in Trentino . With numerous works and translations on diverse socio-cultural marginalized groups such as the Carinthian Slovenes , the Sardinians or the cultures of the coastal areas of the Black Sea , Gatterer was able to set European impulses again and again.

In the 1970s, Gatterer developed into a reference person for the '68 generation both as a journalist and as a historian . With his television magazine teleobjektiv he shaped young ORF journalists and filmmakers such as Robert Dornhelm , Peter Huemer , Kurt Langbein and Elizabeth T. Spira , who were able to pursue successful careers after Gatterer's death. As a historian, Gatterer mainly influenced the alternative movement in South Tyrol ( Alexander Langer , Reinhold Messner , Leopold Steurer , Christoph von Hartungen ), the Gatterer primarily as the founder of a cosmopolitan historiography in South Tyrol, for example on the long-neglected fascist and national socialist past of the country or . on topics of the labor movement .

Posthumously

Library "Claus Gatterer" in Sexten (2015)
Advertising banner for the Claus Gatterer film retrospective 2014 in Bruneck

After Gatterer's death in 1984, the memory of life and work was essentially carried on by the 68 generation from Gatterer's immediate environment. In 1985 , the Austrian Journalists Club in Vienna created the Prof. Claus Gatterer Prize at the suggestion of ORF journalists Hans Preiner and Fred Turnheim , which has since been awarded annually to outstanding journalistic works from Austria and South Tyrol that follow Gatterer's journalistic leitmotifs. In 1991 a symposium on the life and work of Claus Gatterer was organized for the first time on the initiative of the South Tyrolean Michael Gaismair Society ; In 2004 an event at the Institute for Political Science at the University of Innsbruck followed. In the same year, Gatterer's extensive legacy of documents was handed over by the heirs of the Sesto community , which has since kept it in the Claus Gatterer library and made it accessible for research.

With the publication of the first scientific biography of Claus Gatterer by the South Tyrolean journalist Thomas Hanifle, the circle of Gatterer recipients was expanded for the first time in 2005 to include the generation that was no longer personally known to Gatterer.

In June 2014, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Claus Gatterer's death, the Bruneck City Theater organized the three-day Claus Gatterer film retrospective, the most extensive event to date on the life and work of the journalist, historian and documentary filmmaker. For this purpose, Gatterer's cinematic work was prepared for the first time in a sound manner and his professional and personal career was presented in the form of an exhibition. A shortened, two-day program version was organized as Claus Gatterer Filmspecial in December 2014 by the Brenner Archive Research Institute and Leokino Cinematograph in Innsbruck. In autumn 2014, the Urania Meran association published the interactive exhibition project gatterer9030, which was designed for high schools in South Tyrol . The projects Claus Gatterer Film Retrospective and Filmspecial formed the basis for a research project started in 2016 at the Brenner Archive of the University of Innsbruck, which for the first time systematically researches and processes Gatterer's comprehensive oeuvre in cooperation with the municipality of Sexten.

Quotes on the person and meaning of Claus Gatterer

"With him, Austria has lost one of the most important journalists of the Second Republic, and there will be many who will mourn him."

- Bruno Kreisky , former Federal Chancellor of Austria D. on the occasion of the death of Claus Gatterer in 1984

“Claus Gatterer was a wonderful storyteller, he kept telling us about his village, his family, his people. It was very exciting for us, who came from somewhere completely different. The first course when I came to ORF was in his office. There were often a lot of young people sitting there and we all listened to Claus Gatterer and asked for his opinion. For us he was not one, but the authority. "

- Elizabeth T. Spira , former editor for Gatterer's television magazine teleobjektiv

“After his death there was perhaps a well-intentioned obituary in the 'Dolomites' , but it struck me as rather unsuitable and inappropriate. Claus Gatterer, deeply rooted in his homeland, was apostrophized as an uprooted existence, and it was said with an undertone of satisfaction, it seemed to me, that a restless spirit had finally found its rest here. For my part, I would like to close with the wish (...) that the calm spirits, of which there are too many in our still beautiful homeland [South Tyrol], become a little more restless. "

- Paul Flora , 1991 on the occasion of the first symposium on the life and work of Claus Gatterer

“On the evening of his funeral in July 1984, I went up from the cemetery in Sexten to the Gatterer farm. He had often told me about this farm as if this place was still the center of his life. It was probably him. It seemed a long time to go up there, and I understood in my heart what up until then only my head had known: How infinitely long the way had been that Claus Gatterer had to cover before we could meet him. "

- Peter Huemer , former editor for Gatterer's television magazine teleobjektiv

"He [Gatterer] was extremely important to me in shaping my understanding of responsible, fair and committed journalism."

- Kurt Langbein , former editor for Gatterer's television magazine teleobjektiv

“Precisely because Gatterer was deeply convinced that political mistakes in the South Tyrol of the present were not least the result of historical ignorance and illiteracy, for him the concern with the nationality problems of old Austria, but above all with the dispute about the autonomy of Trentino in 1848 –1914, the necessary prerequisite for developing a viable model of autonomy today. To put it in his own words: 'The present must - for the sake of the future - repair what the past has ruined and messed up.' "

- Leopold Steurer , South Tyrolean regional historian

“His commitment to the Carinthian Slovenes was crucial. (...) That shouldn't be underestimated. Back then [1972] we were in a situation where the Carinthian Slovenes thought they would be deported again as part of the tower of the village signs and fear and horror were spread and suddenly a person from South Tyrol (...) comes and says: 'How can I help you?' You have to understand that that was something that nobody expected, then the film came out, Gatterer received death threats, etc., but the Slovenes knew they were not alone. (...) That's why Claus Gatterer was a hero to us in a certain way. "

- Sabina Zwitter-Grilc , ORF journalist and Gatterer Prize winner 2014

"Claus Gatterer (...) dall'osservatorio della sua valle, crocevia di lingue e culture, ci ha raccontato il formarsi del nostro stato nazionale e il primo germogliare del federalismo europeo più e meglio di quanto non abbiano fatto she di studiosi nostrani. [From the observation perspective of his valley, a crossroads of languages ​​and cultures, Claus Gatterer told us about the emergence of our nation state and the first emergence of European federalism, more extensively and better than multitudes of our researchers managed to do.] "

- Vincenzo Calì, Trentino regional historian

“ Gatterer once wrote in his studbook of one of his great role models, the Sardinian Emilio Lussu , that he was an 'forever tomorrow'. Today the term explains the timeless topicality of the author at the time: As a seeker and mediator of the essential, Gatterer was a constant wanderer between times and as such remains accessible to those who will only know him today and tomorrow from hearsay. "

- Joachim Gatterer, curator of the Claus Gatterer Film Retrospective 2014

Awards

Works

Books
  • Austria was under his gallows. Cesare Battisti - portrait of a "traitor" , Europa Verlag , Vienna / Frankfurt / Zurich 1967.
  • In the fight against Rome. Citizens, minorities and autonomies in Italy , Europa Verlag, Vienna / Frankfurt / Zurich 1968.
  • Beautiful world, bad people . Childhood in South Tyrol , Fritz Molden Verlag , Vienna / Munich 1969.
  • Hereditary enmity between Italy and Austria , Europa Verlag, Vienna / Frankfurt / Zurich. 1972.
Translated into German by Claus Gatterer and partly commented on
Gatterer's books in Italian translation
  • Cesare Battisti. Ritratto di un "alto traditore" . La Nuova Italia, Florence 1975 (own translation with additions to the content).
  • Italiani maledetti, maledetti austriaci: l'inimicizia ereditaria , Praxis 3, Bozen 1986 (translated by Umberto Gandini ).
  • Bel paese, grossa gente. Romanzo autobiografico dentro le tensioni di una regione europea di confine , Praxis 3, Bozen 1989 (translated by Pinuccia di Gesaro).
  • In lotta contro Roma. Cittadini, minoranze e autonomie in Italia , Praxis 3, Bozen (translated by Umberto Gandini).
  • Impiccate il traditore. Cesare Battisti, a novant'anni dalla morte , Praxis 3, Bozen 2006 (revised version of Gatterer's own translation from 1975, edited by Vincenzo Calì, Pinuccia di Gesaro and Luigi Sardi).
Posthumously published texts by Claus Gatterer
Documentary films with a significant contribution from Claus Gatterer
  • 1969 - People and Contracts. South Tyrol: 50 years after Saint Germain , ORF (with Albert Quendler ).
  • 1969 - The South Tyrol Package , ORF, series: Report.
  • 1970 - New Earth - Old Humanity. The world 25 years after Hitler and Hiroshima , ORF, series: Report - Das Zeitgeschehen (with Wulf Flemming)
  • 1972 - do you know the country? Encounter with the Italy of crises , ORF (with Wulf Flemming; Ernst Grissemann and Xaver Schwarzenberger ).
  • 1972 - The Slovenes in Carinthia , ORF, series: Cross sections .
  • 1973 - Keraban the stubborn . A trip to Jules Verne through red Biedermeier and third world , ORF, series: People and Continents (with Robert Dornhelm and Karl Kofler).
  • 1974 - Maramures . Pictures from a world we bury , ORF / RTV, (with Robert Dornhelm and Karl Kofler).
  • 1975 - No reason to be pessimistic. From the Moscow Declaration on the State Treaty , ORF, series: teleobjektiv (with Peter Huemer and Helmut Qualtinger ).
  • 1978 - The Doctor. A television documentary on the 60th anniversary of Victor Adler's death , ORF.
  • 1979 - South Tyrol. New self-confidence, new crises , ORF, series: telephoto lens.
  • 1980 - Witnesses to the downfall. Austria-Hungary's last war , ORF (with Albert Quendler).
  • 1981 - Stalin's second death. From Hungary 1956 to Poland 1981 , ORF, series: telephoto lens.
  • 1983 - The playful democracy. The elimination of the National Council in 1933 , ORF, series: telephoto lens.
  • 1984 - straight to war. Seen from outside in 1938 , ORF, series: teleobjektiv (produced 1978).
  • 1985 - The fall of an empire: Austria-Hungary 1848–1918 , ORF / RAI , four parts (until 1984 collaboration on the screenplay by Claudio Bondì )

literature

Film adaptations

Radio reports (podcast)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Also Gatterer, Böhm on the death list , in: Volksstimme (Vienna), March 31, 1982.
  2. ↑ Joachim Gatterer: "Give everything, expect nothing!" The Communist Party of Italy in the province . In: Hannes Obermair u. a. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion. Festschrift for Hans Heiss (=  Cittadini innanzi tutto ). Folio Verlag, Vienna-Bozen 2012, ISBN 978-3-85256-618-4 , p. 301-324, here: p. 302 .
  3. ↑ Project page “The complete journalistic works of Claus Gatterer” on the website of the Brenner Archive Research Institute at the University of Innsbruck
  4. ↑ Bruno Kreisky in the ORF news program "Zeit im Bild 2" on June 28, 1984.
  5. ↑ Elizabeth T. Spira: Claus Gatterer . In: Claus Gatterer. The person, the journalist, the historian. A symposium. Bolzano 1993, p. 12.
  6. ↑ Paul Flora: My only merit is curiosity. In: Claus Gatterer. The person, the journalist, the historian. A symposium. Bolzano 1993, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Peter Huemer: A victory in failure. Remembering Claus Gatterer. In: ders .: Heimat. Lying. Literature. Texts on the current state of mind. Vienna 2006, p. 6.
  8. ↑ Kurt Langbein in conversation with Susanne Barta on the occasion of the Claus Gatterer film retrospective 2014 in the Stadttheater Bruneck (video recording of the conversation between Kurt Langbein and Susanne Barta on the occasion of the Claus Gatterer film retrospective 2014 in the Stadttheater Bruneck)
  9. ^ Leopold Steurer: Claus Gatterer and the South Tyrol of today. In: Claus Gatterer. The person, the journalist, the historian. A symposium. Bolzano 1993, p. 60 f.
  10. ↑ Sabina Zwitter-Grilc in an interview with Susanne Barta for the radio show Studio 3 , broadcast on June 25, 2014 via RAI Südtirol.
  11. ↑ Gatterer, i Sudtirolesi e Battisti , in: Alto Adige , June 16, 2014, p. 1. https://archive.today/20140625121920/http://ricerca.gelocal.it/altoadige/archivio/altoadige/2014/ 06/16 / NZ_01_10.html
  12. ^ Joachim Gatterer: Claus Gatterer 1924–1984–2014. In: Claus Gatterer film retrospective. Bruneck / Vienna 2014, p. 5.
  13. ↑ Overview of works taken from Joachim Gatterer (ed.): Claus Gatterer Filmretrospektiven. 19. – 21. June 2014 , Stadttheater Bruneck / Österreichischer Journalisten Club , Bruneck / Vienna 2014, pp. 17-19.
personal data
SURNAME Gatterer, Claus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gatterer, Klaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian journalist (South Tyrol)
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Sexten , South Tyrol
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1984
Place of death Vienna