Luis Amplatz

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Luis Amplatz as a lieutenant in the rifle company “Mjr. Josef Eisensteck “Gries around 1959
The grave of Luis Amplatz in the Bolzano-Oberau cemetery

Luis Amplatz (born August 28, 1926 in Gries, Bozen ; † September 7, 1964 near Saltaus in Passeier ) campaigned for the autonomy of South Tyrol and the annexation to Austria in the 1950s and 1960s . He saw himself as a freedom fighter , in Italy it was in 1964 because of terrorist sentenced in absentia to 25 years in prison.

In 1959, Amplatz, together with Sepp Kerschbaumer and Georg Klotz, was a founding member of the South Tyrol Liberation Committee , which attempted to force the "liberation" of South Tyrol , i.e. the separation from Italy, with attacks . He was involved in the so-called night of fire and in numerous subsequent bomb attacks against institutions of the Italian state, the infrastructure and fascist monuments, as well as in armed attacks on Carabinieri . To escape arrest, he fled to Austria, but secretly returned to South Tyrol with Georg Klotz in 1964. Klotz and Amplatz were accompanied by an Austrian named Christian Kerbler , who, as far as we know today, was an agent of the Italian military secret service SISMI .

When the three of them spent the night in the “Brunner Mahder” hay hut above Saltaus in Passeier, Kerbler shot Amplatz in his sleep and struck Klotz with two bullets, but Klotz managed to walk with a bullet in his chest and a wound on his face to flee back to Austria. The murderer Christian Kerbler was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an Italian jury in Perugia on May 7, 1969 for murder and attempted murder, but has not yet been caught, although he was arrested for shoplifting in London in 1976.

As a founding member of the rifle company "Major Josef Eisenzüge" Gries when it was re-established in 1959, Luis Amplatz was one of the driving forces behind the rebuilding of the club in Gries near Bozen.

Luis Amplatz was buried in the Oberau cemetery in Bolzano, and over 20,000 people came to Bolzano for the funeral. His motto is written on his grave: "Friend, who can still see the sun, say hello to my home, which I loved more than my life."

In 1965, the “Luis Amplatz Donation” association was formed in the Federal Republic of Germany .

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Neuhauser, Dr. Jochen Becher: "The Italians stole our land". Interview with the South Tyrolean partisan leader Luis Amplatz . In: Der Spiegel . No. 10 , 1964, pp. 79-85 ( online - 4 March 1964 ).
  2. ↑ Question in the Austrian Parliament of March 31, 2009 .
  3. ^ Association "Luis Amplatz Donation" - Lexicon: Eduard Widmoser "Südtirol AZ" Volume 1, Südtirol-Verlag Herbert Neuner, Innsbruck, Munich 1982, keyword "Luis Amplatz" page 56
  4. ^ Association "Luis-Amplatz-Spende" - magazine: Der Tiroler 1979 and subsequent years, publisher Kameradschaft der Former South Tyrolean freedom fighters, co-editor association: "Luis-Amplatz-Spende, Bonn"

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Amplatz, Luis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian South Tyrol activist
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Gries near Bozen
DATE OF DEATH September 7, 1964
Place of death Saltaus , Passeier