Victory Monument (Bozen)

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The monument from the east (front)
Notice board for the documentation exhibition BZ '18 –'45: one monument, one city, two dictatorships

The Victory Monument ( Italian Monumento alla Vittoria ) on Victory Square ( Italian Piazza della Vittoria ) in Bolzano ( South Tyrol , Italy ) is one of the most important monuments from the time of fascism in South Tyrol. It was built with the participation of important contemporary artists as a symbol of fascism and Italianität in 1920 from the Kingdom of Italy annexed southern Tyrol and as a monument to the Italian dead of the First World War . For decades, the Victory Monument, inaugurated in 1928 - similar to the former fascist party building - was the subject of bitter debates between the various population groups in South Tyrol due to its historical image and its political significance. After the building, which belongs to the Italian state and is under monument protection , was inaccessible for over thirty years, a documentation center on the history of Bolzano and South Tyrol during the fascist and national socialist rule was set up in 2014 in the underground premises of the monument .

Building description

The monument from the west

The victory monument designed by Marcello Piacentini is a 19 m wide, 20.5 m high and 8 m deep triumphal arch made of marble, which is decorated with ancient, fascist and Christian symbolism. Its 14 columns and half-columns were worked out as oversized bundles of lictors . The decorative animal heads above the axes and the helmet-armored heads on the cornice are works by Giovanni Prini .

Inscription on the architrave on the east side

On the eastern front - facing the old town of Bolzano - a goddess of victory created by Arturo Dazzi fires an arrow against the "Germanic north". Below is the following Latin inscription:

“Hic patriae fines siste signa. Hinc ceteros excoluimus lingua legibus artibus. ”

“Set the (field) signs here at the borders of the fatherland. From here we trained the rest through language, laws and arts. "

Originally, the word barbaros (“the barbarians”) was used instead of ceteros (“the rest”) . Despite the more mimicked choice of words, the intended statement remained unmistakable: Fascist Italy, as a culturally, politically and militarily superior power, brings civilization to the inhabitants of the backward peripheral area.

On the west side there are three medallions by Pietro Canonica . The inscription below refers to one of the main functions of the monument:

“In honorem et memoriam fortissimorum virorum qui iustis armis strenue pugnantes hanc patriam sanguine suo paraverunt. Itali omnes aer coll [igerunt]. "

“In honor and in memory of the extremely brave men who resolutely fought with their blood and won this fatherland in legitimate armed arms. All Italians have collected the money for this. "

The monument was also intended to serve as a memorial for the Italian soldiers who died in the First World War in the battle against Austria-Hungary . However, these “legal armed forces” to gain the “fatherland” did not take place in the German-speaking part of Tyrol or even near Bolzano, which gave the worship of the fallen an artificial character at this location.

The north and south sides clearly noted the client of the building:

“Vic. Eman. III rule a. MCMXXVIII ”

“King Victor Emanuel III. in 1928 "

“Ben. Mussolini Ital. Duce a. VI ”

"Italy's Duce Benito Mussolini in the year 6 [of the fascist calendar ]"

The inscription on the south side referring to Mussolini was removed after the fall of fascism.

In the interior of the triumphal arch there is a centrally positioned altar with the figure of the risen Christ by Libero Andreotti . In addition, busts of the irredentist “martyrs” Cesare Battisti , Fabio Filzi and Damiano Chiesa were placed in niches , all of them works by Adolfo Wildt .

Below the monument there is a “ crypt ” designed as a cultic consecration room and other adjoining rooms. The crypt is adorned with two large frescoes by Guido Cadorin depicting The Guardian of History and The Guardian of the Fatherland .

On the square in front of the monument, directly at the Talfer Bridge , there are the two figures of the Capitoline Wolf and the Venetian Lion of St. Mark on high columns , which the South Tyrolean sculptor Ignaz Gabloner realized as gilded wooden sculptures for the one planned by Piacentini from 1934, but not completely realized great Victory Forum ( Foro della Vittoria ) in 1938. "The two symbols of rule publicly demonstrated the legitimation of the fascist-Italian dominion in the northern border region and were only renovated by the municipality of Bolzano in 2018, admittedly without any further historicization."

history

The former Kaiserjäger memorial for the war dead from the First World War was built in 1917, never completed and demolished in 1926 to make way for the Italian victory memorial in Bolzano.
Franz Ehrenhöfer's sculpture Loyalty to the soldiers from the former Kaiserjäger memorial (cast)

After Italy's annexation of South Tyrol in 1919/20 as a result of the First World War and the rise of dictator Mussolini to power in 1922, the regime began to clear or destroy Austrian monuments in the new provinces. On February 10, 1926, on Benito Mussolini's personal initiative and with a foreign policy thrust, the decision was made in the Chamber of Deputies to erect a fascist monument in Bolzano , which was already exposed to the repressive measures of Italianization .

Mussolini's original idea was to dedicate this monument to the Italian irredentist Cesare Battisti , who was executed by the Austrians in 1916. This proposal met with great approval from fascist organizations throughout Italy and abroad, although Battisti, together with various Italian politicians , had already spoken in 1915 in favor of a border at the Salurner Klause , i.e. against the annexation of South Tyrol to Italy. The required 3 million lire were collected in a very short time. Industrialists from Lucca donated the marble for the building .

On March 17th, the commission to approve the project met. It consisted of Mussolini, Ettore Tolomei , the State Secretary Giacomo Suardo and the Minister for Public Education Pietro Fedele , who contributed the idea for the inscription on the front.

Mussolini's wish to erect the monument near the Talfer Bridge , where the Austrian administration commissioned the architect Karl Ernstberger and the artist Franz Ehrenhöfer to build a monument for the fallen Kaiserjäger during the First World War , was quickly implemented. The project was entrusted to the architect Marcello Piacentini, who then presented his plans in June.

The unveiling and inauguration of the monument to the “Martyrs of the First World War” took place on July 12, 1928 in the presence of King Victor Emanuel III. and the Bishop of Trent Celestino Endrici . On that day, a counter-demonstration with 10,000 participants took place in Innsbruck am Bergisel .

Since neither Battisti's widow nor his daughter agreed to use the figure of the irredentist from Trento for propaganda purposes, Mussolini decided to dedicate the monument to victory . Battisti's widow was not present at the inauguration. However, a fascist-style ceremony was staged, in which 23 South Tyrolean music bands also took part at official insistence.

In the decades after the Second World War , the Victory Monument was guarded intensively by Carabinieri patrols and high fences, which prevented any access to the building, to prevent possible attacks - as happened in September 1978 .

Renovation work on the monument in 2011

Various structural measures were carried out between 2009 and 2014. First of all, the Victory Monument was completely renovated on behalf of the “ Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali ”. Subsequently, there were selective redesigns that served to set up a documentation center in the underground rooms and to make the above-ground area accessible to the public. The permanent exhibition BZ '18 –'45: a monument, a city, two dictatorships was organized by a scientific commission consisting of Ugo Soragni as representatives of the state, Andrea Di Michele and Christine Roilo as representatives of the state of South Tyrol, Silvia Spada and Hannes Obermair as Representative of the city of Bolzano. In thirteen underground rooms not only the history of the monument is dealt with, but also the history of Bolzano and South Tyrol under fascist and National Socialist rule. Two LED - display panels with tickers and behind the monument have outside attention to the permanent exhibition. The exhibition is open all year round with free admission.

The monument at night, 2018

The new facility was opened on July 21, 2014 in the presence of Governor Arno Kompatscher and Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini . Shortly before the end of his term of office, Austria's Federal President Heinz Fischer paid an official visit to the documentation exhibition in June 2016.

reception

The victory monument, together with the relief carved by Hans Piffrader on the Casa Littoria in Bolzano, has been a conflict issue in South Tyrolean society since the Second World War . The name, the conveyed historical image and the anti-democratic bellicose symbolic power of the monument, particularly manifest in the inscriptions corresponding to the spirit of Italian fascism, were perceived by numerous German-speaking South Tyroleans as a provocation, which culminated in the demand for the building to be “razed”. Conversely, the preservation of the Victory Monument from unauthorized access and its absolute structural integrity were bitterly defended by the Italian-speaking side as a central element of Italian sovereignty in South Tyrol.

According to the historian Andrea Di Michele, the potential for conflict about the Victory Monument resulted from its polyvalence, the aspects of which would be partially faded out depending on political needs. The building contains three levels of meaning, it is at the same time (1) a “temple of fascism and the Italianity of the border area”, which, through clear statements and unmistakable symbolism, emphasizes the supposed fate of Italy as ruler and civilization leader, (2) a monument for the Italian dead of the First World War, who were completely appropriated by the fascist rulers for their own purposes, and (3) a work of art that was created with the participation of major contemporary artists.

“Chi in passato ne proponeva l'abbattimento sorvolava su quest'ultimo elemento, il valore artistico del manufatto, alla cui realizzazione parteciparono alcuni tra i più significativi artisti italiani dell'epoca. Chi ancora oggi, al contrario, lo considera invece intoccabile, insiste sul secondo aspetto, facendo finta che si tratti di un neutro altare dedicato alla memoria dei caduti, magari anche di coloro che combatterono dall'altra parte. In realtà, per leggere adeguatamente i significati del Monumento alla Vittoria bisogna considerare tutte tre le sue facce ”

“Anyone who proposed demolition in the past ignored the latter part of the whole, namely the artistic value of the building, which some of the most important Italian artists of the era helped to create. Those who still consider it untouchable today, however, insist on the second aspect, simply pretending to be a neutral altar dedicated to the remembrance of the dead, which may even take into account those who fought on the other side. In fact, if the levels of meaning of the Victory Memorial are to be properly read, one must consider all three sides. "

- Andrea Di Michele : “Una sorta di cavallo di Troia” . In: ff - South Tyrolean weekly magazine . No. 30, July 24, 2014, p. 16.

On November 4th, the anniversary of the end of the First World War and thus of the Italian victory over Austria, which also included South Tyrol, the victory memorial served for many years as a place for wreaths to be laid by representatives of state institutions. This practice caused regular outrage among German-speaking South Tyroleans, especially among the South Tyrolean Schützenbund .

Siegesplatz, former Friedensplatz

It was not until the 21st century that concrete efforts were made to symbolically defuse or historicize it. In 2002 the city of Bolzano renamed Victory Square to "Peace Square" ( Italian: Piazza della Pace ). However, in a referendum held shortly afterwards, the majority of the inhabitants of the city of Bolzano (around 73% Italian and 26% German-speaking) voted in favor of the old name of Siegesplatz, which the square has been using again since then.

On February 22, 2005, the representatives of the Bolzano community unveiled plaques in front of the memorial commemorating the suffering of the population and the crimes of the fascists at that time. However, due to the strong resistance of the Italian right-wing parties, these could only be erected about 50 m away from the monument. As a compromise, their size had to be limited to approx. 25 × 25 cm. The four panels show the following text in the three national languages ​​Italian, German, Ladin and in English:

The small signs of the municipality from 2004 50 m away from the Victory Monument in the three national languages ​​Italian, German, Ladin and English

“City of Bolzano - This monument was erected by the fascist regime to celebrate Italy's victory in World War I. This brought about the division of Tyrol and the separation of the population of this country from the fatherland Austria. The city of Bolzano freely and democratically condemns the disputes and discrimination of the past and every form of nationalism and is committed to promoting the culture of peace and coexistence in the European spirit - 2004. "

On January 26, 2011, the Italian minister of education, Sandro Bondi , promised to stop the ongoing renovation and only to resume it as soon as an amicable solution for the future purpose was found with the state of South Tyrol and the municipality of Bolzano. This happened in the course of the negotiations on the voting behavior of SVP parliamentarians in the no-confidence vote against Bondi.

The light ring attached to one of the pillars of the monument in 2014 with the ticker referring to the permanent exhibition

As a result, it was agreed to build a documentation center on the history of Bolzano and South Tyrol during the fascist and national socialist rule in the “crypt” and the adjoining rooms below the building. The historian Hannes Obermair commented on the content-related value of the project to supplement the Victory Monument with a permanent documentation exhibition on totalitarian forms of rule , as well as the decision to keep the fascist elements:

“ BZ '18 –'45 makes a naive reading of the monument and its totalitarian content absolutely impossible. As a historicized memorial, the monument has become an impressive narrative and representation of how everything began and what happened in this land of former discord, the victims and the perpetrators - including the victims who became perpetrators and the perpetrators who became victims . Nobody can charge it for nationalist purposes or confrontationally without exposing themselves to ridicule. […] The authoritarian society project that has become stone has failed catastrophically. The historical vision of the monument has cost the lives of millions of people. His original intentions failed so utterly that the caricature embodied by the monument offers nothing but terrific illustrative material for dealing with burdened and stressful history. "

- Hannes Obermair : "It took a long time" . In: ff - South Tyrolean weekly magazine. No. 30, July 24, 2014, p. 20.

In April 2016, the Bozen documentation exhibition was awarded the special commendation of the European Museum of the Year Award . The reason stated that the exhibition had "made a controversial monument that had caused political, cultural and identity disputes accessible again for a long time and thus promoted the values ​​of humanism, tolerance and democracy in a very courageous and professional manner".

literature

  • Thomas Pardatscher: The victory monument in Bolzano. Origin - symbolism - reception. Bolzano: Athesia 2002. ISBN 978-88-8266-151-9
  • Aram Mattioli , Gerald Steinacher : Building for Fascism. Architecture and urban development in Mussolini's Italy. Orell Füssli, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-280-06115-2 (= Culture - Philosophy - History. Series of the Lucerne Institute for Cultural Studies, Volume 7)
  • Sabrina Michielli, Hannes Obermair (Red.): BZ '18 –'45: one monument, one city, two dictatorships. Accompanying volume for the documentation exhibition in the Bolzano Victory Monument. Vienna-Bozen: Folio Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-85256-713-6
  • Adina Guarnieri: On the reception history of the Bolzano victory monument after 1945. In: Geschichte und Region / Storia e regione , 26, 2017, no. 2, pp. 135–154.
  • Håkan Hökerberg: The Monument to Victory in Bolzano: desacralization of a fascist relic . In: International Journal of Heritage Studies 23, 2017, pp. 1–16.
  • Malcolm Angelucci, Stefano Kerschbamer: One Monument, One Town, Two Ideologies: The Monument to the Victory of Bolzano-Bozen . In: Public History Review 24, 2017, pp. 54–75.
  • Hannes Obermair: Monuments and the City — an almost inextricable entanglement . In: Matthias Fink et al. (Ed.): Multiple identities in a "glocal world" - Identità multiple in un "mondo glocale" - Multiple identities in a "glocal world" . Eurac Research , Bozen 2018, ISBN 978-88-98857-35-7 , p. 88-99 (English).
  • Carl Kraus , Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Schloss Tirol, Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 .
  • Wolfgang Strobl: tu regere imperio populos, novels, memento… On the reception of Virgil and Horace in Italian fascism using the example of the Siegesplatz in Bozen: Antike und Abendland 58, 2012, pp. 143–166; in a slightly expanded Italian version: tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento… La ricezione di Virgilio e Orazio nell'Italia fascista: il caso di Piazza della Vittoria a Bolzano: Quaderni di storia 39, 2013, n ° 78, p. 87-135.
  • Wolfgang Strobl: “Paleofascism in Bozen”. The philosopher and politician Guido Calogero on fascist monuments in Bozen (1961) - Part I: Der Schlern 89, 2015, issue 1, pp. 44–57.
  • Wolfgang Strobl: “Paleofascism in Bozen”. The philosopher and politician Guido Calogero on fascist monuments in Bozen (1961) - Part II The reception of the article: Der Schlern 89, 2015, issue 10, pp. 56–64.
  • Wolfgang Strobl: "Culto della romanità" in a border region of fascist Italy. The (special) case Südtirol / Alto Adige: Historische Zeitschrift 306, 2018, issue 3, pp. 685–720.
  • Wolfgang Strobl: In honorem et memoriam fortissimorum virorum… On the pre-fascist and fascist biography of a Roman inscription; in: H. Lamers-B. Reitz Joosse-V. Zanzotta edd., Studies in the Latin Literature and Epigraphy of Italian Fascism, Leuven 2020 (= Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia 46), pp. 143–174.

Web links

Commons : Siegesdenkmal Bozen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Pulled the tooth of the monument". salto.bz , July 21, 2014, accessed July 21, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b Harald Dunajtschik, Aram Mattioli : Conquest through architecture: The fascist redesign and redesign projects in Bozen. In: Petra Terhoeven (Ed.): Italy, Views. New perspectives on Italian history in the 19th and 20th centuries. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010. ISBN 978-3-525-55785-3 , pp. 87-106.
  3. ↑ The inscription erroneously shows aer (air) instead of aes (ore, ie money); on this Sabrina Michielli, Hannes Obermair (Red.): BZ '18 –'45: one monument, one city, two dictatorships. Accompanying volume for the documentation exhibition in the Bolzano Victory Monument. Vienna-Bozen: Folio Verlag 2016. ISBN 978-3-85256-713-6 , p. 98.
  4. ↑ Carl Kraus, Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Castle Tyrol, Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 , p. 61 .
  5. ↑ Laurence Cole: “Land divided and tales divided. Cultures of remembrance of the First World War in the successor regions of the Crown Land of Tyrol ». In: Hannes Obermair u. a. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion - Cittadini innanzi tutto. Festschrift for Hans Heiss . Vienna-Bozen: Folio Verlag 2012. ISBN 978-3-85256-618-4 , pp. 502–531, reference p. 513. According to this, the erection of the monument was also a reaction of Mussolini to the protest speech given by the Bavarian Prime Minister Heinrich Held on February 5 1925, in which he sharply denounced the oppression of the South Tyroleans.
  6. ↑ Marilena Pinzger: Stone symbol of the empire. Fascist monument architecture in South Tyrol using the example of the victory monument in Bolzano . (PDF) University of Vienna , diploma thesis 2011, pp. 22–25.
  7. ↑ Antonio Scottà (ed.): La Conferenza di pace di Parigi fra ieri e domani (1919-1920) . Soveria Mannelli 2003, Google books , January 25, 2011
  8. ↑ The Victory Monument in Bolzano. On the occasion of the unveiling today. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 22925/1928, July 12, 1928, p. 1. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  9. ^ "Südtiroler Volkszeitung", October 6, 1978, pp. 1–2 ( "New wave of terror?" ) .
  10. ^ Announcement in the Austrian radio dated November 23, 2009
  11. ^ "Pulled the tooth of the monument". salto.bz, July 21, 2014, accessed on July 21, 2014 (Interview by Christine Helfer with Hannes Obermair).
  12. ↑ Homepage of the documentation center
  13. ↑ Bolzano volta pagina. salto.bz, July 21, 2014, accessed July 21, 2014 .
  14. ↑ Gabriele Di Luca: "An expressive monument". salto.bz, June 25, 2014, accessed June 26, 2016 .
  15. ↑ Article. ( Memento of January 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) News portal Stol.it; accessed on January 28, 2011
  16. ↑ Victory Monument: A Documentation Exhibition. City of Bolzano, accessed on February 17, 2015 .
  17. ^ Website of the European Museum of the Year Award: EMYA 2016 Judging Panel Special Commendations , accessed on April 11, 2016.
  18. ↑ Article. News portal Salto.bz, April 11, 2016

Coordinates: 46 ° 30 ′ 1.8 ″  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 42.1 ″  E