Silvius Magnago

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Silvius Magnago (born February 5, 1914 in Meran , Austria-Hungary , † May 25, 2010 in Bozen ) was a lawyer and politician . As South Tyrolean governor of many years (from 1960 to 1989) he contributed to the achievement of the autonomy of South Tyrol .

Life

The house where Silvius Magnago was born at Galileo-Galilei-Strasse 50 in Merano.
Memorial plaque for Silvius Magnago on the house where he was born.

Magnago came from a bilingual family. His father Silvius Magnago sen., Kk higher regional judge in Meran, was an ethnic Italian from Trento , his mother Helene, née Redler (she was the sister of the provincial governor Ferdinand Redler ), came from Vorarlberg .

Silvius Magnago was born in 1914 in the Villa Marchetti in Merano. One year after his birth, the family moved to Bolzano, where he graduated from the Carducci high school in 1936. He was then drafted into the Italian army , attended the reserve officers' school in Palermo until June 1937 and was then reserve lieutenant in the 1st Grenadier Regiment in Rome until May 1938 . At the same time he completed a law degree at the University of Bologna , which he graduated in June 1940. Because of his rejection of Italian fascism , he opted for Germany in 1939 , but initially stayed in South Tyrol, where he worked in Bolzano for a commission to estimate the assets of the optants. In December 1942 Magnago was drafted into the German Wehrmacht as an optant and came to the Eastern Front as a lieutenant in the mountain troops . During a leave from the front on October 18, 1943 in Landeck , he married Sophia Cornelissen from Essen , whom he had met during his time in the Italian military in Rome. A short time later he was seriously wounded on the Eastern Front in a mortar attack on the Dnieper , near the city of Nikopol . As a result of the injuries, one of his legs was amputated; he could only be saved through several operations and remained in various hospitals until 1945.

After the war Magnago returned to South Tyrol and settled with his wife in Bolzano. He initially worked for post-war welfare and later as a savings bank official . In 1947 he was sent to the Bolzano municipal council, which started his political career. The following year, municipal council elections were held for the first time after the war, in which Magnago received the most preferential votes. As a result, he was appointed Vice Mayor of Bolzano. In 1948 he was elected to the regional council of Trentino-South Tyrol for the South Tyrolean People's Party and thus also to the South Tyrolean state parliament, of which he was a member until 1988. During his first three legislative periods until 1960, Magnago acted alternately as regional council and state parliament president.

1957 Magnago was elected chairman of the SVP on May 25th. He then changed the strategic direction of the party and on November 17, 1957, at the large rally in Sigmundskron Castle in front of 35,000 South Tyroleans , proclaimed the famous “Los von Trient” motto. His goal was to demand a politically realistic autonomy for the predominantly German-speaking South Tyrol, after until now the autonomous powers had only been granted to the predominantly Italian-speaking region of Trentino-South Tyrol ruled from Trento . In 1959 he became honorary president of the South Tyrolean War Victims and Frontline Fighters Association.

On December 31, 1960 Magnago became the governor of South Tyrol, replacing Alois Pupp . He held this office without interruption until March 17, 1989 and was able to achieve the most preferential votes in all state elections. For more than 28 years he headed the Magnago I , Magnago II , Magnago III , Magnago IV , Magnago V and Magnago VI cabinets of the state government . During this time he led the negotiations on the so-called "South Tyrol Package" and is therefore considered the "father" of the South Tyrolean regional autonomy . In the politically hot 1960s, Magnago took a determined stand against violence in order to achieve political goals. He rejected the actions of the South Tyrol Liberation Committee , which carried out bomb attacks on electricity pylons and fascist monuments. He tried tirelessly to convince the population, some of which sympathized with the activists, that the road should be peaceful. The pragmatist Magnago finally succeeded in getting the South Tyroleans into the mood: On November 22, 1969, the 137 protective provisions of the autonomous status were adopted at the regional assembly of the South Tyrolean People's Party in Merano with a wafer-thin majority of 52.8%. Then there was the famous handshake with Peter Brugger , the spokesman for the defeated parliamentary group. The package opponents in the SVP had previously rejected autonomy as a political goal and instead advocated reunification with North Tyrol, i.e. H. a connection to Austria, pronounced. However, it was not until 1992 that the creation of a South Tyrolean regional autonomy, largely independent of the region, was recognized as a joint achievement by Austria, Italy and SVP.

In 1988 Magnago did not run for regional council elections for health reasons and in 1989 he handed over the office of governor to Luis Durnwalder . He remained chairman of the SVP until 1992, before ending his 34-year term in office. From 1989 to 1994 Silvius Magnago was a member of the 6th Commission that negotiated the implementing provisions for the new Statute of Autonomy with Rome . He was also one of the masterminds of the Europe of the Regions .

Because of his advanced Parkinson's disease , he rarely appeared in public in recent years, but continued to live in the old town of Bolzano. In 2003 he became a widower when his wife Sophia died. On May 16, 2010, Magnago fell out of his wheelchair, breaking his collarbone. After his condition worsened, he was admitted to the Bolzano hospital on May 21, 2010, where he died on May 25, 2010 of complications from pneumonia at the age of 96. Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann and his deputy Josef Pröll attended his funeral at the Bolzano cemetery .

Magnago's estate has been in the South Tyrolean Provincial Archives since 2011 .

Political offices

  • 1947: His political career begins at the first SVP state assembly, he becomes a member of the party committee.
  • 1947: SVP representative in the Bolzano municipal council, which was still appointed at the time
  • 1948–1952: Vice Mayor of Bolzano
  • 1948–1988: Member of the South Tyrolean Parliament and the Regional Council of Trentino-South Tyrol
  • 1948–1960: in the years 1948–1950, 1952–1954 and 1956–1958 President of the State Parliament, in the following two years Vice President of the State Parliament
  • 1948–1960: President of the Regional Council in the years 1950–1952, 1954–1956 and 1958–1960, Vice-President of the Regional Council in the previous two years
  • 1957–1960: Group spokesman in the Bolzano municipal council
  • 1957–1991: Chairman of the South Tyrolean People's Party
  • 1960–1989: Governor of South Tyrol
  • 1991–2010 (until death): Honorary Chairman of the South Tyrolean People's Party

honors and awards

Magnago was a recipient of high awards, including the states of Tyrol , Carinthia , Styria , Bavaria , the Federal Republic of Germany and the University of Innsbruck , as well as an honorary citizen of numerous communities and an honorary member of many clubs (e.g. various sports shooting clubs ).

literature

Completed and updated edition: Athesia, Bozen 2010, ISBN 978-88-8266-285-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Karl Peterlini: Silvius Magnago. The legacy. Confessions of a political legend. Edition Raetia, Bozen 2007, page 10
  2. ↑ OTS.at: “Old LH Magnago shaped an era in South Tyrol” - broadcast by Vorarlberg Governor Herbert Sausgruber on May 25, 2010
  3. ↑ Florian Felder: Former governor Silvius Magnago a Franciscan student? In: Fränzi Forum . No. 1/2011 . Bolzano 2011, p. 8 .
  4. ^ Press office of the South Tyrolean provincial government: Curriculum vitae of Silvius Magnago , press release from May 25, 2010
  5. ^ Silvius Magnago Academy: On the person of Silvius Magnago
  6. ^ Leopold Steurer : Propaganda in the "liberation struggle". In: Hannes Obermair et al. (Ed.): Regional civil society in motion - Cittadini innanzi tutto. Festschrift for / Scritti in onore di Hans Heiss. Folio Verlag, Vienna / Bozen 2012, pp. 391–392.
  7. ↑ Magnago's life in retrospect. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010 ; accessed on March 12, 2018 .
  8. ^ ORF Tirol: Alt-LH Silvius Magnago died (from May 25, 2010)
  9. ^ South Tyrolean People's Party: "Most important personality of the South Tyrolean post-war period" , by Siegfried Brugger (from May 25, 2010)
  10. ↑ Former Governor Magnago solemnly buried. Archived from the original on May 29, 2010 ; accessed on March 12, 2018 .
  11. ^ Magnago estate in the state archive. Press release of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano - South Tyrol, May 19, 2011, accessed on January 13, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Magnago, Silvius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian politician and governor (South Tyrol)
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Merano , Italy
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 2010
Place of death Bolzano