The year 1248 is known as ‘the year of Tirol’s birth’ because it was then that the counties around the Brenner pass unified. Duke Friedrich IV built the castle Schloss Tirol at Meran, and Innsbruck became the capital of all Tirol in 1429. Emperor Maximilian I turned the city into a vibrant, thriving cultural and financial center in the 15th and 16th centuries. He built das Goldene Dachl, a magnificent Renaissance building which is Innsbruck’s most famous landmark.

The Tirol line of the Habsburgs died out in 1665, but Maria Theresa helped the city retain its glory by building more fabulous buildings. Tirol was ceded to Bavaria after Napoleon’s conquest in 1805 and it remained so until 1814, when it was given back to Austria at the Congress of Vienna. After the railway came through the Brenner pass in 1884, Innsbruck, shown at left in 1685, became a vital, prosperous crossroads linking north and south as well as east and west.

As part of their move to prevent any future German or Austrian power, the Allies at Versailles severed German-speaking South Tirol from its historic and cultural roots in Austria. At the Treaty of Saint-Germain of September 10, 1919, Italy was given the ethnic German territories south of the Alpine watershed, including the southern part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Tirol. Some 150,000-200,000 Tirolese German citizens were therefore given to Italy to do with as she saw fit. At the time of the annexation in 1919, the overwhelming majority of the population spoke German.

Italy formally annexed the territories on October 10, 1920 and one of the first orders of the Italian military regime was to seal the border between South Tirol and Austria, the people forbidden to cross the new frontier. This move tore family, friends, businesses and even church parishes in two. The postal service and traditional trade were interrupted and censorship was introduced. On May 15, 1921 the Italian government, although retaining military and police control of the newly created provincial council of the “Provincia di Venezia Tridentina,” did allow the first free democratic elections (the last the people would see until April 18, 1948!). The result was a resounding victory for the Deutscher Verband (German Association), which won close to 90% of the votes and thus sent 4 deputies to Rome. The German-speaking population was largely able to go about their normal business as usual during this short time, however.

However, on Sunday April 24, 1921, as the German population of Bozen participated in a traditional parade honoring spring events, 280 out-of-province Italian fascists arrived by train and, joining forces with 120 local fascists, proceeded to attack the procession with clubs, guns and grenades, injuring 50 people and killing a local artist. Nobody was ever brought to justice for the attack. This was an omen of worse things to come. In October 1922, the Italian government rescinded all protection of linguistic minorities and began an Italianization program which demanded the exclusive use of Italian language in the public offices and the closure of most German schools. It also offered incentives for immigrants from other Italian regions to relocate with the intention of diluting the German majority, and with this goal in mind, a large industrial zone was soon opened in Bolzano to lure workers and their families to the area from other parts of Italy. Public service jobs became an exclusive domain of Italian speakers. As in other areas where the Allies artificially created new populations, the Italian-speaking population grew from 3% in 1910 to over 34%. There would be trouble in days to come.