March on Bolzano

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Bronze plaque in memory of Julius Perathoner , formerly at the entrance of the Bozen town hall - Emil Gurschner (1886–1938)
In 2012 a memorial plaque placed in the Bolzano City Hall to commemorate the fascist attack on October 2, 1922

The march on Bolzano from October 1st to 2nd, 1922 was a violent political action by Italian fascists directed against the German ethnic group in South Tyrol .

A direct consequence of the march on Bolzano was the illegal dismissal of Dr. Julius Perathoner , the last German mayor of the then mostly German-speaking city of Bolzano, and the Italian civil commissioner Luigi Credaro .

history

The southern part of Tyrol fell to Italy through the Peace Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye between the victorious powers of World War I and the Republic of Austria . Although this decision contradicted the peoples' right to self-determination , which had been propagated by US President Woodrow Wilson , Italy annexed the area between the Brenner Pass and Salurn, which was mainly populated by German-speaking Tyroleans . Bolzano, as the most important city in southern Tyrol, has played a key role in the recent history of South Tyrol since then.

The Italian nationalists under Ettore Tolomei intended to set up Italian schools in Bolzano in order to prepare for the later violent repression of the German South Tyroleans .

On September 29, 1922, the local branch of the fascist party issued an ultimate request to the Bolzano city administration to make the Empress Elisabeth School in Sparkassenstrasse , at that time the largest and most modern school in the city, available for teaching Italian. In addition, the fascists demanded the resignation of the mayor Julius Perathoner, who refused to bow to the fascist demands.

When the city administration rejected the ultimatum, several hundred fascists from Northern Italy, led by Achille Starace , later General Secretary of the Italian Fascist Party , marched into Bolzano on October 1, 1922 , and occupied the Empress Elisabeth School, which is located in the “Scuola Regina Elena “Was renamed. The 500 German students at the time were refused entry, the teachers and school servants were chased away, and the school for the few dozen Italian children in Bolzano was occupied. The school has remained an Italian-speaking school to this day and is now called "Scuola Dante Alighieri".

The storming of the Bolzano town hall was only prevented by the hastily ordered removal of Mayor Perathoner. In advance obedience, the democratic government of Italy had complied with the fascists' demands and withdrew Perathoner's appointment decree on October 2nd. Nevertheless, in the late afternoon of October 2nd, the fascists occupied the town hall, hoisted the Italian tricolor and proclaimed: "There is only one law and that is Italy!"

The inaction of the Italian security forces strengthened the fascists' conviction that in a coup there would be little resistance from democratic Italy. Historians therefore regard the “March on Bolzano” as a dress rehearsal for the fascist “ March on Rome ” on October 27, 1922, which led to Benito Mussolini's seizure of power . A few weeks later, on October 30, 1922, Mussolini, the leader of the Fascist Party of Italy , was led by King Victor Emmanuel III. entrusted with forming a government.

With the “March on Bolzano” the democratic self-government of the city of Bolzano was abolished. Only after 1945 were democratic municipal council elections held again.

On October 2, 2012, the city of Bolzano commemorated these events for the first time with an official commemoration.

literature

  • Claus Gatterer : In the fight against Rome. Citizens, minorities and autonomies in Italy. Europa Verlag, Vienna et al. 1968.
  • Josef Fontana : Discomfort. South Tyrol under civil administration August 1, 1919-28. October 1922. Volumes 2.1 and 2.2, Athesia, Bozen 2010, ISBN 978-3-7030-0472-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannes Obermair , Sabrina Michielli (ed.): Cultures of remembrance of the 20th century in comparison - Culture della memoria del Novecento a confronto (booklets on the history of Bozen 7). City of Bolzano: Bozen 2014. ISBN 978-88-907060-9-7 . P. 52.
  2. ↑ Alto Adige, April 10, 2011, http://altoadige.gelocal.it/cronaca/2011/04/10/news/la-dante-compie-100-anni-un-secolo-di-scuola-che-racconta -bolzano-3914613 ( memento from July 9, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) , accessed on March 9, 2012
  3. ↑ http://www.gemeinde.bozen.it/cultura_context.jsp?hostmatch=true&area=48&ID_LINK=1476 , accessed on March 9, 2012
  4. ↑ Bozner Nachrichten of October 4, 1922, p. 1.
  5. ↑ Ettore Tolomei : Archivio dell'Alto Adige , born 1922, p. 301ff.
  6. ↑ Claus Gatterer : In the fight against Rome. Citizens, minorities and autonomies in Italy. Europa Verlag, Vienna et al. 1968, p. 416.
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 2, 2012
  8. ↑ Oct. 2, 1922 - Jul. Perathoner u. the March on Bolzano ( Memento of December 16, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 2, 2012