South Tyrol - melting-pot of South and North

By

Elisabeth Alber	Natalie Lerchegger

South Tyrol is the "Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen". An Italian province. But still a land with a Tyrolean cultural identity. It certainly is no "isle of the blest", but it is a model of what is possible.

In the province of Bolzano/Bozen there are three language groups representing a multicultural living-together: about seventy per cent of the 450 000 inhabitants belong to the German language group, 26 per cent to the Italian and 4 per cent to the Ladin group.

South Tyrol has been for centuries the melting-pot of Southern and Northern influences: its origins go back to the Celts, Rhaetians and Romans; subsequently enriched by the addition of Goth, Alemannic, Frankish, Bavarian and even Slav elements.

With the disappearing of the Habsburger Empire and Italy's declaration of war at Austria at the beginning of May 1915 a never-ending process began. The South Tyrolean started defending their homeland organizing themselves in so-called "Landsturm" soldiers and "Standschuetzen". In order to avoid a larger conflict with Italy, Austria had already declared at the beginning of May 1915 to be ready to surrender the Trentino to Italy whereby all Ladin and German populated valleys should have remained with Austria. But as we know, it came quite differently.

In October 1918 the representatives of the municipalities of the Ladin and German valleys met in Sterzing in order to set up a programme in which was required the right of an autonomy for South Tyrol.

"We are Tyrolean's and that's what we want remain.", they said. Considerable here is the conviction to be or to want to be independent and equal ethnical group, which should have been granted self-determination after the 14 Wilson points.

By a memorandum of all South Tyrolean's in which the will of the affiliation to Austria was stated and which was sent to Wilson the South Tyrolean's tried to influence their fate which was now being decided in Paris. But it failed.

At the peace treaty of Saint-German 1919 South Tyrol was assigned to Italy. Wilson's important point XI "[...] the Italian boundaries must run clear national differences" was not consulted at all. Also the autonomy for the German and the Ladin language group, promised initially by the Italian government, was not considered. It happened the complete opposite.

The situation worsened when the fascists came to power. A rigorous policy of nationalization began. Their programme of "italianisation" of South Tyrol forced the inhabitants to give up their language and culture.

The fascists government tried to exterminate the South Tyrolean's and to create a new present and future with name Italy. The South Tyrolean's lost their homeland. One of the last "big stupidities" of the fascists to implement their own ideologies in South Tyrol was the "option-question" from 1939.

The Germans and the Ladins had to choose at that time whether they want to be deported to Italy or whether they wanted to emigrate to the German Reich.

The end of the second World War sees the introduction in Italy of a republic and of democracy, but South Tyrol does not obtain the right of self-determination. On the other hand the desire of a return to Austria was still strong among the South Tyrolean's.

This can be seen on one situation happened in August 1945, when on the Tofana (mountain above Cortina) a Tyrolean flag was hoisted and the sky was colored with red-white-red rocket colours, representing the Austrian flag; this Tyrolean identity is still part of the South Tyrolean's' mentality and celebrated in different manifestations; for example the "Andreas Hofer Feier" on the 20th of February.

The treaty of Paris 1946 guarantees South Tyrolean's full equality "within the scope of special measures for the protection of their national character and for the furtherance of their cultural and economic development." But in practice it was and is still a restless political fight, which most important leader is the South Tyrolean party named "Suedtiroler Volkspartei".

The handling of the South Tyrol question before the UNO and numerous explosive impacts, protest demonstrations and protest marches followed.

The so-called "Paket" with those competences which were intended for South Tyrol on different levels and in 1972 the new autonomy statute came into force. It was based on the concept of bilingualism and the "ethnic proportion- system", which considers all these language groups on an equal status; that means politically and economically seen that the members of the different language groups have the same rights considered their population density.

The new autonomy statute has brought many positive elements for South Tyrol, but there is still much to do.

"La coscienza plurietnica sará la norma piú che l'eccezione: l'alternativa é tra l'esclusivismo etnico e convivenza." ¹⁾ With this statement Alexander Langer, a politician from South Tyrol, emphasized the importance of a multicultural society in South Tyrol. We can decide to live together or to promote ethnical expulsion.

South Tyrol is nowadays a country where three cultures live together and try day by day to extend their co-operation.

This doesn’t mean that there will be a "fusion of cultures" in future leading to only one culture characterized by German, Ladin and Italian elements, but three different cultures will live together peacefully conservating and promoting their different uses and traditions.

¹⁾ LANGER, Alexander. Decalogo per la convivenza inter-etnica.