The Romanity and Italianity of Alto Adige (South Tyrol)

Written by an unknown author

South Tyrol: Land of Italy

South Tyrol, a region which is politically, geographically and historically Italian, today is inhabited by more than two-thirds of German-speakers. In ancient times this region was subject to Rome: traces of the Roman era are widespread everywhere. The region remained part of Italy with Odoacer and Theodoric, and still remained part of Italy even with the Longobards. In the eighth century, it was incorporated by the Franks into the Kingdom of Italy.

The German invaders began to penetrate the area in the Middle Ages, first Germanizing the Val Pusteria and the area of Merano, and then some of the other valleys north of Salorno. The area between Bolzano and the Brenner was Germanized in the seventeenth century, suppressing Ladin. In the fourteenth century the Germanization of Silandro, Ortisei and Chiusa made little progress, while in the fifteenth century the valleys of Gardena, Tires, Eores and Gudon were still Ladin. Over the centuries South Tyrol suffered periodic works of intense Germanization and de-Italianization. In the eighteenth century Maria Theresa of Austria eliminated many Italian characteristics of the region; as a result, the percentage of Italians progressively declined. However, the bonds (both geographical and otherwise) between South Tyrol and the rest of Italy continued to be felt.

After the secularization of the episcopal principalities of Trento and Bressanone in 1803, the "Department of Alto Adige" in 1805 was annexed to the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. In 1814 the region unfortunately came under Austrian rule, which fueled a vast process of forced Germanization, unsuccessfully attempting to hide or eliminate the true Latin soul of the region.

In 1861 Carlo de Zellinger of Bolzano, Vice-Captain of the Tyrolean Diet, argued that North and South Tyrol were two different regions, while South Tyrol and Italian Tyrol (Trentino) form a single region:

"The two regions separated by the Brenner are entirely different in culture, development and everything else; the interests of German South Tyrol are identical to those of Italian Tyrol."

The Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce of Bolzano, Dr. Angerer, went even further, arguing in 1864 that the region south of the Brenner should be aggregated to Venice.

After the year 1866, Venezia Tridentina remained divided from the rest of the peninsula. From then onward the Imperial Government of Vienna, the provincial government of Innsbruck and the Pan-Germanist organizations developed an intense program of Germanization. The condition of the Italians deteriorated. The 1869 census showed that Italians were 8.7% in South Tyrol, which declined to 7.8% in 1880, but then rose to 9.1% in 1890. In 1918 the borders of Italy were brought to its natural watershed along the Brenner (including a rather small transalpine area near Dobbiaco) and this border has remained unchanged ever since.

Germanization of the Val Venosta

The Val Venosta is bordered on the west by the Swiss Engadina, where they still speak Romansh, a Ladin language similar to Friulian.

Walking through Val Venosta today, one might think that it is a land that has always been German-speaking. On the contrary, under the rule of the Habsburgs, the use of Ladin was banned, thus Germanizing the valley. This was done in order to stifle the growth of Protestantism among the Ladins in Val Venosta, who might be religiously influenced by their Romansh brothers of Engadina. The result was a genuine forced linguistic genocide:

"Until the early nineteenth century especially in the Upper Val Venosta the language of the population was still Romansh and close cultural exchanges took place between Venosta and the Swiss valleys of Monastero and Engadina, where they spoke the same language. However, the inhabitants of these Swiss valleys had converted to Protestantism and this caused the Habsburg government to implement the forced Germanization of Venosta as part of their Counter-Reformation policy. The Ladin heritage of the valley is still reflected in many words of the local dialect, place names and surnames."

Changing the Surnames

The forced changing of surnames is a sore point of our recent history.

Before the unification of Italy, the Austrian government had carried out a work of Germanization and Slavicization in the territories of Istria, Julian Venetia and South Tyrol. The supposedly democratic, tolerant and efficient Austrians were the first to adopt the policy of denationalization: Maria Theresa started a rapid and dramatic work of denationalization of Latin and Ladin surnames, place names and languages. She said that:

"These valleys where there are strong traces of Latin and Ladin culture must be eliminated, because they are impeding a fair and healthy Germanization."

Following the unification of Italy, the Italian government wanted to find a remedy to the problem of Italian surnames that had been changed to German and Slavic, and wanted to restore the original surnames to Italian families. The Fascist Regime energetically sought to re-italianize the surnames in these territories. To this end, laws and decrees were issued in 1926, 1927 and 1928 which allowed families, whose surnames had been forcibly Germanized, to recover the original surnames.