Franz Widmann

Franz Widmann (born May 14, 1921 in Bolzano ; † August 29, 2012 there ) was a politician of the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP), a supporter of Silvius Magnago and an important player in South Tyrol's post-war history.

Life

Widmann was born in 1921 as the fourth of twelve children on a farm in Quirein . His father Josef, a confidante of Canon Michael Gamper , had various contacts with the South Tyrolean political and economic elite. Growing up under the totalitarian regimes of fascism and national socialism , he began to become politically active in the South Tyrolean People's Party during the restless post-war period after South Tyrol remained in Italy .

Widmann gained first notoriety through a rousing speech at the SVP state assembly in 1956. Together with Hans Dietl , he was one of the masterminds of the turnaround of 1957, when the leadership of the SVP was voted out and replaced by a new generation of politicians, led by Silvius Magnago , which took a much more confrontational course to the ruling Christian Democrats in Rome and Trent . Widmann, from now on a member of the party committee, always remained in the background, but was considered a skilled networker and "kingmaker". In the crucial years before the South Tyrol package was concluded, he ensured Magnago's backing and implemented a tough line with regard to the demands for the greatest possible autonomy for South Tyrol .

Like Dietl, Widmann maintained contacts with members of the underground organization Liberation Committee South Tyrol , which wanted to enforce self-determination in South Tyrol by violent means, such as Sepp Kerschbaumer , Wolfgang Pfaundler , Heinrich Klier and Helmut Heuberger .

In the vote at the SVP state assembly in 1969, Widmann, loyal to Magnago's side, endorsed the conclusion of the package negotiations, and after this success withdrew from politics.

His son Thomas Widmann is also an SVP politician.

publication

In 1998, Widmann published his memories of the years from 1945 to 1972, which he had written down at the encouragement of his political companion Friedl Volgger . His critical lighting of the role of Alcide Degasperis for the South Tyrolean post-war period attracted particular attention .

• Things were not going well in South Tyrol . Edition Raetia, Bozen 1998, ISBN 88-7283-117-2 .

literature

• Hans Karl Peterlini : The mild finish of a sharp . In: ff - South Tyrolean weekly magazine . No. 36 , September 6, 2012, p. 64-69 .

Web links

• Franz Widmann's death picture on sterbebilder.schwemberger.at