South Tyrol Option Agreement
Encyclopedia
Ladin
Ladin is a language consisting of a group of dialects spoken in the Dolomite Mountains in Northern Italy in the border regions of the provinces Trentino, South Tyrol and Belluno...
speaking people in South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
and three communes in the province of Belluno were given the "option" of either emigrating
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
to neighboring Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
(of which Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
was a part after the 1938 Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
) or remaining in Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
and being forcibly integrated into the mainstream Italian culture, losing their language and cultural heritage. Over 80% opted to move to Germany.
Background
The southern part of Tyrol, renamed "Province of Bolzano", had been a part of Italy since the end of World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. After the rise of fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
in 1922, a policy of Italianization in the area
Italianization of South Tyrol
In 1919, at the time of its annexation, the southern part of Tyrol was inhabited by almost 90% German speakers. Under the 1939 South Tyrol Option Agreement, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini determined the status of the German people living in the province...
was implemented ruthlessly. 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
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
encouraged thousands of southern Italians to relocate to the region, in a deliberate attempt at reducing the indigenous German-speaking population to minority status.
Between 1928 and 1939 various resistance groups formed in the province to fight the fascist Italian regime
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
and its policy of suppressing the German language. Children were taught the prohibited German language in clandestine catacombe schools and Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
media and associations resisted the forced integration under the protection of the Vatican
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. The underground resistance movement, the Völkischer Kampfring Südtirols, was formed by a Nazi party member, Peter Hofer.
Option for Germany
On 21 October 1939, Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
and Mussolini reached agreement on the assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...
of the ethnic German
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
and Ladin-speaking minorities in the province. The members of these two language communities had until 31 December 1939 to choose between remaining in Italy and losing all minority rights, or emigrating to the Nazi Germany, the so called "Option für Deutschland" (option for Germany).
85%-90% of the population opted for emigration; they were called Optanten and banded together in the Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Optanten für Deutschland (Association of optants for Germany). Those who chose to stay, called Dableiber, mainly banded together around local Catholic priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
s. The Dableiber were condemned as traitors, while the Optanten were defamed as Nazis. The Option destroyed many families and the development of the economy of the province was set back for many years. The first families left their homeland in 1939, and until 1943 a total of around 75,000 South Tyroleans emigrated, of which 50,000 returned after the war.
The Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Optanten für Deutschland (ADO) (German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
for "Association of optants for Germany") was an association for German-speakers who had chosen to emigrate to Germany rather than stay in South Tyrol
South Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
. The association was founded on 30 January 1940. Peter Hofer took leadership of the Association.
German occupation
In September 1943 the WehrmachtWehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
occupied the province and on 10 September 1943 the Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills was established. The ADO was dissolved and joined with the Deutsche Volksgruppe. Peter Hofer was chosen as the Volksgruppenführer. Some members of the ADO joined with the South Tyrolean Volunteer Corps and were involved in the annihilation of the Jewish population in Meran. They also attempted to arrest fleeing Italian soldiers and attacked those who had chosen to remain, even though this had been expressly forbidden by the Third Reich authority. The relocation of people and the complete Italianization of the area was never fully accomplished.
Aftermath
The majority of the people who had emigrated returned to the area in 1945. Despite Austrian efforts, South TyrolSouth Tyrol
South Tyrol , also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two autonomous provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of and a total population of more than 500,000 inhabitants...
remained part of Italy after World War II, and many chose to take up Italian citizenship after the Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement
The Gruber-De Gasperi Agreement, named after the foreign ministers of Austria and Italy , of September 1946, allowed Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol to remain part of Italy, but ensured its autonomy....
. Those who returned had to register themselves and their children, and they had to prove, by means of a birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
, that they had the right to Italian citizenship.
After 1945 none of the ADO leaders was tried for their crimes (Peter Hofer was killed by an Allied bombing raid). Only recently have historians started to look in to this dark period in the history of South Tyrol.
According to the 2001 census, more than two-thirds (69.4%) of the population of the province speak German, 26.3% Italian and 4.3% Ladin as their mother language.
Sources
- C. F. Latour: "Germany, Italy and South Tyrol, 1938-45", The Historical Journal, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1965), pp. 95-111
- Klaus Eisterer, Rolf Steininger (ed.): "Die Option. Südtirol zwischen Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus", Innsbrucker Forschungen zur Zeitgeschichte, Vol. 5 (1989), Haymon Verlag, Innsbruck
- Reinhold MessnerReinhold MessnerReinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...
(ed.): "Die Option. 1939 stimmten 86% der Südtiroler für das Aufgeben ihrer Heimat. Warum?", Serie Piper, ISBN 3-492-12133-0 - Rolf Steininger: "23. Juni 1939 - Gehen oder bleiben? Die Option in Südtirol", Österreich im 20. Jahrhundert, Vol. 2, pp. 217-257