South Tyrol
The South Tirol (German: Südtirol or Süd-Tirol) is an ancient Austrian province, today part of the region Trentino-Alto Adige in northern Italy. Despite a century of Italian occupation 70% of the population still speak German as their first language.
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History
South Tirol was removed from Austria and awarded to Italy under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. An overwhelming number of the majority population spoke German and had a deeply Austrian culture, traditions, and architecture. For example, the traditional dress – Dirndl and Lederhosen – are typically also worn in Austria and southern Germany, too. The cuisine is very different from the Italians, with specialties such as Knödel and Sauerkraut, apple juice and beer. When the region was stolen by Italy, it was a purely rural economy. Families lived together in big farms in valleys and on the mountains and was essentially an agricultural economy.
WWI
South Tyrol was part of Austria-Hungary at the time of World War I, and its residents were conscripted into the Austro-Hungarian or k. u. k. Armee. Some German units, like the Alpenkorps, were deployed to the region, but South Tyroleans primarily served under the Austro-Hungarian war flag (k. u. k. Kriegsflagge).
Post-WWI
After 1919, the German population held on to their identity fiercely. They organized the so-called Katakombenschulen (catacomb-schools) where they taught German and Austrian culture in secret. They also protested and tried to make their voices heard, which more than once ended in violent repression from the Italian government.
Following the annexation of South Tyrol by Italy, a law was enacted which made it possible to emigrate to Austria within one year while retaining Austrian citizenship. Those who did not do this, virutally everyone, was thenceforth an Italian citizen. As Italian citizens, male South Tyroleans were subject to conscription. Thus they had to serve in the army and also participated in conflicts such as the war in Abessinia (Ethiopia) and in the Spanish Civil War.
WWII
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the South Tyrolean Freedom Movement and Hitler wanted to bring South Tyrol "home into the Reich", but the alliance with Italy was important and Mussolini was unwilling to concur. After the Anschluss, many South Tyroleans called for liberation. To ease relations between the two countries, the so called "Option" came about. Every German family had to decide until 31 December 1939, if it wanted to remain in South Tyrol and retain Italian citizenship or become German and emigrate to Germany. 166,448 decided for Germany and 63,012 for Italy. Along with opting for Germany about 2,000 men also volunteered to join the German Army, both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS. In May 1940, South Tyrol had the second highest proportion of volunteer Waffen-SS recruits to total population of all German groups, only behind the Baltic Germans.
On the other hand, those who actually emigrated to the German Reich during the war were subject to conscription as German citizens. Meanwhile those who opted for Germany but had not emigrated yet could not be conscripted into the Italian Army because they were now German citizens. Those serving who decided for Germany and were currently serving in the Italian Army were transferred into the German Army.
The rupture of the comradeship in arms between Italy and Germany in World War II occurred on 8 September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies. This led to the German occupation of Italy and the disarmament of the Italian army (Fall Achse). Mussolini established the Italian Social Republic in Northern Italy, South Tyrol was occupied by the Germans. This removed the previous barriers to conscripting the remainders and from 1944 it was even expanded to those who had decided to become (Ladin-speaking) Italian citizens.
South Tyroleans showed a preference to joining mountaineer units (Gebirgsjäger), both in the Wehrmacht and in the Waffen-SS. After fighting broke out in Italy they were also often used there, to ease cooperation with Italian troops. It is estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 German-speaking South Tyroleans served in the German armed forces during World War Two, including up to 5,000 in the Waffen-SS. There is also an estimate of 8,000 fallen soldiers. Meanwhile, the number of South Tyrolean deserters was last estimated at only 400.
Post-WWII
After 1945, the promises of a substantial autonomy for South Tyrol were repeatedly neglected by the Italian government, and the German population began protesting again. Most of these protests were peaceful, but there were more violent groups as well. The BAS organization, for example, organized attacks on electricity poles as a symbolic attack against the government – which many people found was still acting like the former Fascist party in relation to the South Tirol. Thus, they wanted to sabotage the industrial complex which, they felt, had been forcibly imposed on them and had devalued their traditional agricultural work. This is generally remembered as a period of instability. However, it is important to state that these attacks never had people as the targets and also never threatened Italians living in the territory – it targeted places and the Italian State.
When Austria regained its full political independence after the Allied occupation of its territory until 1955, it brought the issue of South Tyrol to the United Nations. Austrian politicians wanted to defend this region that had been a part of the Austrian Empire for centuries, and had not been given substantial autonomy by Italy despite the promises made. The UN ordered Italy and Austria to come up with a new autonomy statute that would ensure the protection of the German language and culture.
This led to various commissions being formed and an agreement was reached in 1970 which gave South Tyrol an economic, political, and linguistic autonomy within Italy. It is now considered one of the best-working autonomies in the world, with experts coming from Elsaß-Lothringen, Aosta, Catalonia, and many other ethnically-contested areas to give advice.
21st century
Today, the region is bilingual. From street signs to city names, from official bureaucratic documents to announcements on public transport. To work in a public office – thus, for the Italian or the provincial government – one must have a language certificate in both languages. The higher the score, the better the pay. There are Italian and German schools. At 18, one must make an official declaration and decide which language group to be a part of. This is necessary because the public workplaces are divided based on an ethnic proportion – Germans have 70% of jobs for them, Italians have 30%.
