History of South Tyrol
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The History of South Tyrol begins in modern times with the creation of the Italian Province of South Tyrol in 1919. However, it is known that people have lived here since the stone age (see Ötzi), and the region was part of the Roman Empire from 59 BCE until the Migration Period. From the 6th to the 9th century, the region was settled by the Bavarii together with the Langobards and the romanised natives. As part of France and later the Holy Roman Empire the region had a strategic importance as a bridgehead to Italy. Large parts of the province was donated to the Bishops of Trent and Brixen. After their caretakers, the earls of Tyrol (See Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol) had gathered the province under their command, the region together with the valleys to the north was known as Tyrol.
In 1342, the earldom went over to the Bavarian dukes again when Emperor Louis IV voided the first marriage of Countess Margarete Maultasch. But already in 1363 the Wittelsbach released the country for Habsburg.
Habsburg ruled the region almost continuously until 1918. Only in 1805 Austria was defeated by Napoleon and lost Tyrol to Bavaria in the Peace of Pressburg (Bavaria allied itself with Napoleon in the war). Tyrolians, lead by Andreas Hofer, rose in rebellion against Bavarian rule. In 1814 Tyrol is transferred from Bavaria to Austria at the Congress of Vienna.
In 1919, after the First World War, South Tyrol was annexed by Italy. Government officials, soldiers and other settlers brought in by the Italian state, especially the Fascist regime, from all over Italy reached a third of the total population by the early 1950s. Their descendants now make up about a quarter of the population.
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[edit] World War I
Since 1882, Italy was part of the Triple Alliance (German: Dreibund), a defensive pact signed with Germany and Austria-Hungary. When Austria-Hungary, in 1914, declared war against Serbia, thus starting World War I, Italy remained neutral. Austria-Hungary, fearing Italian intervention in war against it, offered some territorial compensations in exchange for Italian neutrality for the whole war. On the other side, Triple Entente signed with Italy the London Pact, which promised territorial gains at expenses of Austria-Hungary, including South Tyrol, in exchange for Italian intervention in war. The frontline followed mostly the South Tyrol- Italian border, which ran right through the highest mountains of the Alps. The ensuing front became known as the "War in ice and snow", as troops occupied the highest mountains and glaciers all year long. 12 meters (40 feet) of snow were a usual occurrence during the winter of 1915/16 and ten thousands of soldiers disappeared in avalanches. The remains of these soldiers are still being uncovered today. The Italian Alpinis, as well as their South Tyrolean counterparts: Kaiserjäger, Standschützen and Landeschützen occupied every hill and mountain top and began to carve whole cities out of the rocks and even drilled deep tunnels and living quarters deep into the ice of glaciers like the Marmolada. Guns were dragged by hundreds of troops on Mountains up to 3,890 m (12,760 feet) high. Streets, cable cars, mountain railroads and walkways through the steepest of walls were built. But whoever had occupied the higher ground first was almost impossible to dislodge, so both sides turned to drilling tunnels under mountain peaks, filling them up with explosives and then detonating the whole mountain to pieces, including its defenders: Col di Lana, Monte Pasubio, Lagazuoi, etc. Climbing and skiing became essential skills for the troops of both sides and soon Ski Battalions and Special Climbing units were formed. In 1918, after Austrian defeat at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, Italian troops ended the war with Austria-Hungary by penetrating deep in South Tyrol. The annexation was confirmed by the Treaty of Saint-Germain. The areas around Trento formed Italian-speaking Trentino. In the north the region around Bolzano were inhabited by ethnic Germans and Ladins (today Ladin is the third official language of South Tyrol, alongside German and Italian).
[edit] Fascist rule and World War II
After the rise of Fascism in 1922 a policy of Italianization was implemented. All places, down to the tiniest hamlet, were given Italian names, and even family names were translated. The process intensified in the 1930s, when the government of Benito Mussolini encouraged thousands of Italians to relocate to the region. Hitler did not claim the German-speaking South Tyrol for his Greater Germany because Mussolini was too important as an ally. In 1939, both dictators agreed to give the German population a choice: the Option in South Tyrol. They could emigrate to neighboring Nazi Germany (or its new territories) or stay in Italy and accept their complete Italianization. It was a difficult choice for the people of South Tyrol between their language and their ancestral homeland. Both solutions likely meant the extinction of their distinct culture. As a consequence, South Tyrolean society was deeply divided. Those who chose to stay (Dableiber) were condemned as traitors; those who left (Optanten) were called Nazis. Because of the outbreak of the World War II, the Mussolini-Hitler agreement was never fully implemented.
In 1943, after the fall of Mussolini and Italy's capitulation to the Allies of World War II, German troops occupied northern and central Italy. South Tyrol became part of the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills, and destined to be annexed (along with some of Italy's northeastern provinces) to Germany at the war's end. Many German-speaking South Tyroleans wanted revenge against Italians whom they saw as foreign settlers. Although the Nazis were able to recruit amongst South Tyrolean youth, they prevented anti-Italian feelings from getting out of hand. Mussolini, who wanted to set up his new pro-German Italian Social Republic in Bolzano, was still a Nazi ally.
In 1945 the South Tyrolean People's Party was founded, above all by Catholic Dableiber. A party founded by the Optanten would not have been acceptable for the occupying Americans, due to their compromises with the Nazis.
[edit] After World War II
In 1946 Italy and Austria accepted a compromise solution, the Gruber-De Gasperi agreement so named after the Austrian minister for foreign affairs and the Italian prime minister. However, instead of setting up a separate province for the German- and Ladin-speaking population, De Gasperi diluted minority self-government by granting an "Autonomy Statute" to a single Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region (originally called in German Trentino-Tiroler Etschland) in which Italian speakers were in the majority. Real self-government for the South Tyroleans was thus made impossible. Even what little was granted was not fully and quickly implemented. Many South Tyroleans began to suspect that the democratic Italian Republic was trying to do in more peaceful ways what Italian Fascists had failed to do by force, namely Italianise the province. In fact, completion of local infrastructural development (hydro power and steel plants) saw more and more Italians moving to the South Tyrol to live in state-built housing and employed in state bureaucracy and state-encouraged businesses. No wonder many saw this as a policy whose aim was to create an irreversible Italian majority. Some went so far as to believe that indigenous South Tyroleans were on a "Todesmarsch", a death march into oblivion.
As consequence of delayed local autonomy, anti-Italian terrorism in South Tyrol emerged in the late 1950s and especially in the 1960s. At the beginning the terrorist campaign targeted only infrastructures, but people were hurt as well.
The late 1960s saw some progress made towards self-government for South Tyroleans even if the more fanatical of the terrorists wanted to continue their fight for annnexation to Austria. Terrorists carried out 361 attacks with explosives, guns and land mines, between 1956 and 1988. Acts were mainly against infrastructures, so human casualties were very few considered the time span involved. However, 21 people were killed, among them four terrorists who died when their own explosive devices blew up, and 57 wounded. The terrorists were eventually discredited by their association with neo-Nazi circles in Austria and Germany.
Eventually, the pressure of terrorism, international (especially Austrian) public opinion and domestic consideration led the Italian central government to negotiate a "package" of reforms that produced the "Autonomy Statute", that virtually delinked the mostly German speaking province of Bolzano from the Trentino. Even then, it still took another 20 years for the reforms to be fully implemented.
[edit] Today
Today, South Tyrol enjoys a high degree of autonomy, and relations with North and East Tyrol—the two portions of the old state retained by Austria—are lively, especially since Austria joined the European Union. The South Tyrolean People's Party, or Südtiroler Volkspartei, has been consistently in power since its founding in 1945.
However, South Tyrolean society is still to some extent segmented across ethnic lines: each resident must declare his or her ethnic group at the census (choosing amongst Italian, German or Ladin). According to the 2001 census more than two-thirds of the population is German speaking (68%); the second most used language is Italian (28%), followed by Ladin (4%). Places today have two (German/Italian) or even three (Ladin/German/Italian) names.
Public jobs are assigned by ethnic quotas, and require proficiency in both Italian and German, with the effect of protecting the local labor market from immigration. Notwithstanding this imperfect cohabitation, starting in the 1980's there has been an increased call, especially amongst the youth, of superseding ethnic divisions. One famous advocate of this novel movement was Alexander Langer (1946–1995), MEP for the Greens group.
Furthermore, the increased permeability of European borders (e.g., with Austria) following the Schengen Treaty has further undermined the rationale of ethnic separation and of the special autonomy of the region. As a result, the future of the ethnic policies that served the region during the past 40 years is not clear. Amongst the Italian-speaking populace the term "Alto Adige" for the region is starting to make way back towards the more historic "Sudtirolo" or "Tirolo del Sud". This can be seen as a sign of the Italian-speaking population becoming more comfortable in their identity as an integral part of the region.
[edit] Independence controversy
In May 2006, former Italian president Francesco Cossiga, senator for life in the Italian Senate, brought in a bill that would allow the region to hold a referendum, where voters could decide whether to stay with Italy, return to Austria, or become fully independent [2]. While the proposed bill was immediately rejected in the Italian parliament, the political repercussions in the region and Austria were quite large. The South Tyrolean People's party (SVP) rejected the proposal, saying this would just create ethnic tensions again. Cossiga made similar remarks again in 2006, calling for a solution by letting South Tyrol rejoin Austria. The fact remains that Austria does see itself somewhat of a "protector" for the German-speaking population. For example, German-speaking South Tyroleans were freely allowed access to Austrian universities and are handled as if possessing Austrian citizenship. Many young South Tyroleans as a result choose to study in Innsbruck or Vienna.
Most German-speaking South Tyroleans see themselves neither as purely Austrian, German or Italian, but as South Tyrolese who happen to speak the German language as Italian citizens, similar to the identities in multi-lingual neighbouring Switzerland. There, German-speaking Swiss are not referred to as "Germans", or French-speaking Swiss as "French" either. If the idea of full autonomy or even independence does result in a free state (Freistaat) one day remains open. The question of the identity of the inhabitants of South Tyrol remains the focus of debate and controversy [1].
