American Geographical Society

Effects of Boundary Changes in the Author(s): Guido G. Weigend Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Jul., 1950), pp. 364-375 Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/211215 . Accessed: 26/04/2013 05:45

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This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions EFFECTS OF BOUNDARY CHANGES IN THE SOUTH TYROL

GUIDO G. WEIGEND

I N THE thirty years since the boundaryshift of I919 the South Tyrol, has undergone certain basic changes in its economic, political, and social structure which illustrate the thesis that a boundary can produce im- portant and lasting effects on an area passing into new hands.2 In I946, at the conference of foreign ministers in Paris, Austrian hopes for recovery of the South Tyrol were disappointed, and the Austro-Italian agreement of September, I946, which was written into the Treaty of Peace with of I947, left the boundary unchanged. The question of irredentism was of particular interest. The following observations, giving the writer's impres- sions of the South Tyrol, are based on field investigations carried out in the summer and fall of I948. The boundary between Austria and Italy, as it was established in I9I9,3 runs along or near the divide that separates Adriatic and Black Sea drainage. Three times it descends from mountain ridges: at the low passes of Resia (Reschen) and Brenner and at the valley of the Drau (Drava) River. In these places the boundary was superimuposedon a culturally uniform landscape. On both sides settlement types, language, customs, and farm organization were similar or alike. Many farmers owned land on the opposite side, and in normal times difficulties of crossing were not great; farmers in the north- eastern South Tyrol were still able to send their herds to their mountain pastures in Austria. In view of the many centuries of the South Tyrol's political unity with, and ethnic relationship to, the Austrian Tyrol, the close ties with friends and relatives on the other side of the border are not surpris- ing, though contacts became weaker as time passed. During and after World War II visiting permits were curtailed, and contacts were, and still are, very few. The important point, however, is not merely change or uniformity

' The South Tyrol as discussed in this paper is the pre-I948 Italian province of (Alto ), slot the region to which the name "South Tyrol" is usually applied, i.e. the Italian autonomous region (since 1948) of Trentino - Alto Adige (the former Italian department of Venezia Tridentina), which comprises the two Italian provinces of and Bolzano (see below, p. 370). 2 Eric Fischer: On Boundaries, World Politics, Vol. I, I948-I949, pp. I96-222. 3 For further historical background and other details see G. G. Weigend: The Cultural Pattern of South Tyrol (Diss.. Ph.D., University of Chicago; also as Univ. of Chicago Dept. of Geography Research Paper No. 3), Chicago, I949. See also the bibliography, pp. I90-I98.

>. DR. WEIGEND is assistant professor of geography at Rutgers University, New Bruns- wick, N. J.

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X o i-SEEFSLD < 1 I h River ( A U T NSBRUCKR A 47- NOE RENNER PASSr 47 I4UR t>FINSTERMONZN GAP VPT JEG P

~I APASS UNIQN ra

ORINA - 9' --(\.I , j FONO.-'~~~~~ LZANO~~~~ D'AMPEZZO

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o s o RCIO . } ^ rJ|e } ; ,_+.r K 9 TRENTO BELLNNO kl)NG -46

9 -. v v >. O W t g g *--INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARY .:@.> X PROVINCIALBOUNDARY _Lake L / NEW*-PROVINCIAL BOUNDARY 1948 Garda 1 95 10 20 30 40 59

StaM, Wes2 -ERONA 12VENICE

FIG. I-The South Tyrol. along the boundaryitself, but ratherthe changes the boundaryhas brought about in the province as a whole.

POPULATION CHANGES The population of the South Tyrol consistsof three main ethnic groups, speaking three differentlanguages and with distinctive cultures.The Ladins are descendantsof the earliestknown settlers;they occupy the high valleys of the Dolomites in the southeasternpart of the provinceand have remaineda clearly distinguishableentity. The Germansare the largest and most wide- spreadgroup, a fact that reflectsthe long development of the South Tyrol underGerman leadership and domination.Italians are primarilyconcentrated in counties with urban centers and in rural counties south of the city of Bolzano. Before I9I9 more than go per cent of the population of the South Tyrol

TABLEI-POPULATION OF THE SOUTH TYROL ACCORDINGTO LANGUAGE* In percentage.s of the total

YEAR GERMAN LADIN ITALIAN YEAR GERMAN LADIN ITALIAN

I9IO 93 5 2 I939 72 4 24 I92I 85 5 IO I943 6o 4 36 *Calculatedfrom officialand unofficialAustrian and Italiancensuses. Percentages are approximate for I9IO and I939, becausethe Ladinswere counted as Italiansin I9IO and as Germansin 1939.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 366 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW were Germanand only about 2 per cent Italian(Table I). Populationchanges since then have been striking.The province had become Italy'snorthernmost boundary zone, and the Fascist government believed that its Italianization would prevent any future irredentistclaims on the area. The population, which had been increasing gradually before World War I, thus began to grow markedly (Table II). The Ladins, who adapted themselves to Italian rule as readily as they had done to Germanrule, were not affected. The populationincrease between I92I and I939 was primarilythe result

TABLE 11-POPULATION OF THE SOUTH TYROL, I880-I943*

YEAR POPULATION YEAR POPULATION YEAR POPULATION

I880 I89,288 I921a 235,487 I938 320,I68 I890 I93,987 I93I 269,6IO I939 328,408 I900 205,9I I936a 303,306 1943 272,773 19IOa 233,.69 I937 309,362 *From unpublished documents (mimeographed) of the Amtliche Deutsche Emn-und Riickwan- dererstelle, I939-I942. aFrom official Austrian and Italian censuses. of movements of Italiansfrom the south into the South Tyrol. During the thirties Italy built military highways and fortificationsalong her interna- tional frontier, but the local population were not permitted to participate in the construction.Settlers were brought in from as far away as Sicily and established in both rural and urban areas to work on government and private projects. The chief agency for this resettlement movement was the govern- mental Ente Nazionale per le Tre Venezie, administered locally from Bol- zano. The Ente was authorized to purchase rural and urban property from South Tyrolese and to settle the new Italian population, usually as lessees. It also granted subsidies from its funds to maintain new rural settlers whose farm profits were insufficient for a living and to reinforce the new industries. Italianization of rural areas was in the main a failure. A large percentage of the Italian farmers who settled in the South Tyrol were from southern Italy. They had moved into this alien cultural and physical environment because of the Fascist government's promises. In spite of financial subsidies, many of them failed; for they were not instructed in the farming methods and techniques peculiar to the South Tyrol. They met with hostility from the German farmers, who regarded them as intruders with a different language, strange customs, and "wrong" ways of farming and resented the help and subsidies they received from the Fascist government. In the end, however, the Germans did accept the few who were able to adapt themselves to local ways of life and overcome the handicaps. In urban areas Italianization was more successful. Italians from the south

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BOUNDARY CHANGES IN SOUTH TYROL 367 movedinto the citiesto takeover governmentalpositions and businesses or to work as laborersin newly establishedindustries. The largestinflux came to Bolzano,which was 5 percent Italian in I9IO andbetween 75 and 8o per cent Italian in I948.4 This mushrooming of Italian population in Bolzano began after the establishment of an industrial zone in I934 in the southern part of the city. The suddendecrease in population in the South Tyrol between I939 and 1943 (TableII) and in partthe changein the proportionatestrength of Italians

TABLE III-POPULATION (ITALIAN CITIZENS) OF THE CITY OF BOLZANO ACCORDING TO LANGUAGE*

YEAR ITALIAN GERMAN TOTAL YEAR ITALIAN GERMAN TOTAL GERMAN GERMAN

I92I0 7,675 I7,6I4 25,289 I939 36,050 22,084 58,134 I936 ...... 45,505 I943 50,730 I3,803 64,533

*From official and unofficial census statistics. The 1936 census was not broken down by nationalities. alncludes the former city of Gries, incorporated into Bolzano in I925. and Germans (Tables I and III) stemmed from the Hitler-Mussolini pact of I939. In that year Hitler publicly confirmed the Brenner frontier and agreed with Mussolini that the South Tyrolese minority problem was to be solved either by complete assimilation of the German-speaking minority or by their emigration to, and resettlement in, Germany. Any danger of strife between Greater Germany and Italy on the ground of minority demands was thus to be removed. The German and Ladin populations of the South Tyrol and adjacent areas were given the option of voting for German or Italian citizenship. Out of a total of about 230,000 Germans and Ladins in the province (Bolzano), or 250,000 if adjacent areas are included, I78,000 and i89,000 respectively, or about 77 per cent, chose to accept German citizenship and emigrate to Germany beifore the end of I942.' Since war broke out shortly after the plan went into effect, only about 70,000 Germans from the province and 75,000 from the entire area (and very few if any Ladins) moved into Germany within the period specified. The movement stopped completely in I943. After World War II there arose the serious problem of citizenship for South Tyrolese who had opted to go to Germanyunder the I939 agreement, both those who had left and now wanted to return and those who had remained because the war made migration impossible. Of the South Tyrolese

4 The Austrian census of I9I0 and interview with officials of the Bolzano Chamber of Commerce. 5Interview with officials of the Sidtiroler Volkspartei, Bolzano, and unpublished documents (I946) of the Austrian Landesstelle fur Statistik und Landeskunde, Innsbruck. There is some variation in figures. For an Italian source, see M. K. G.: The South Tirol and Its Future, The World Today, Vol. I (N.S.), 1945, pp. 270-280; reference on p. 276 and footnote.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 368 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW displacedpersons, about two-thirds of them in Austriaand the rest in Germany, many have applied to Italian con- sulatesfor permissionto re-enterthe SouthTyrol and become Italianciti- zens.The Italiangovern- mentis reluctantto grant this permission,because U-.k jobs andproperty left by displaced persons have beentaken over by other inhabitants.A decisionis given in each individual case,and proceedings are consequentlyslow. After

FIG. 2-The village of Brennero in the , showing the war thesepeople had railroad yards. littlechoice of status,be- cause Austria refused them citizenship and the InternationalRefugee Organization did not con- sider them displaced persons under its statutes.The residentsof the South Tyrol who lost their Italiancitizenship because they intended to emigrate to Germany will undoubtedly regain it in due time.

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CHANGES Political and social changes after the boundary adjustment were as significant as population movements. In the first years under Italian sover- eignty the South Tyrol fared well. The peace treaty had been accompanied by officialItalian promises concerning respectof culturalrights and autono- mous administration,and Italy observedthese agreements.6 When the Fascists came into power, however, the autonomy was nullified, and a policy was inauguratedthat had been stated by an Italianspokesman during the peace negotiations in I919: "A nation has the right to the frontierswhich nature has clearly indicated for her. If elements of foreign nationality live within these limits, it is naturalthat they must become assimilated."7In accordance

6 E. Reut-Nicolussi: National Minorities in Europe: The Germans of South Tirol, SlavonicRev., Vol. I6, 1937-I938. pp. 370-385. 7 "Austria'sIrredenta-South Tyrol," The Nation, Vol. 10, I920, pp. 406-410.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BOUNDARY CHANGES IN SOUTH TYROL 369 with this attitude, Ital- ianization policies were begun in I923 that sup- pressed and terrorized the population both politically and socially. Italians replaced Ger- mans in all public serv- N ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A- ices and in key govern- mental and economic zc, positions, and laws were passedthat affectedevery aspect of the life and customs of the popula- tion. For example, Ger- mans were forbidden to wear traditional cos- tumes, to be christened with Germanfirst names, FIG. 3-Ladmn village of Pescosta in a high valley of the or to belong to social Dolomites and political groups.8 One of the long-establishedlaws, the law of primogeniture,accepted and complied with by many farmersin the province, was abolishedin- 193 I.9 This act put the South Tyrol on a par with the rest of Italy, where property is divided among family members when the head of the family dies. Land- tenure systems, layout of farms, and farm economy would have changed drasticallyhad not most farmers clung to their tradition by willing their property undivided to one member of the family. Members of a family did sometimes take advantage of the nonexistence of the law and attempt to break the will and receive their portion of the inheritance. Such practices became more widespreadafter World War II, when inflation gripped the country and cash paymentswere not so attractiveas the securityafforded by land, no matter how little. After the end of the Fascistregime the South Tyrol regainedconsiderable self-determination.In I948 the South Tyrol (i.e. Bolzano Province) and

8 See also E. R. v. Kuehnelt-Leddihn:Where Three Countries Meet: The Region of Nauders, Geogr.Rev;., Vol. 35, 1945, pp. 239-256; referenceon p. 248. 9 Primogeniturehad been traditionalbut became a law in I9oo. Farmershad to declarewhether or not they accepted the law; if they did accept it, they had to follow it until its nullification. Under the law the eldest son inherited the property and the other children were given cash payments.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 370 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW the adjoining province of Trento became an autonomous region,'0 and certain counties of Trento with a German-speakingpopulation were in- corporatedinto the South Tyrol. The region (Trentino-Alto Adige) has a Council in Trento, the regional capital,which has broad legislativepowers. Each province has as its local governing body a diet, empowered to enact laws in fields of activity with local significance.Although the officiallanguage remains Italian,use of the is permitted in public offices, and all signs may appearin both Germanand Italian,though never in German alone. Schools remain under national control, as in Fascist days, but the province has a voice in school administrationand supervision.Furthermore, teachingis permittedin the mother tongue of the studentsby a teacherhaving the same mother tongue. A certain amount of Italian in the curriculumis required in the German-languageschools. Also, the population has again been allowed to resume old and establishedcustoms that the Fascistsat- tempted to eradicate. The autonomy statute has thus restoredto the population of the South Tyrol, particularlythe Germans,a degree of politicaland social freedom that they have not had since the advent of the Fascists.The period of Fascist domination was a political and social void, but the process of economic integrationinto Italy has been continuous and in the end beneficial.

CHANGES IN THE ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION The transferof the South Tyrol from the Austro-HungarianEmpire to Italy destroyedthe economic equilibriumof the province. However, even if it had remainedwithin the new Republic of Austria,its economy would still have sufferedheavily, becauseof the dismembermentof the old empire. The marketingof fruit and wine, chief commercialproducts of the province, had been no problem before World War I, when there was an almost unlimited market for them in parts of the empire to the north. The new Brenlner frontier seemed at first a formidablebarrier, on account of the competition with other Italianfruit and wines. The problem was solved by improving the quality of the local productsand thus increasingtheir desirabilityon foreign and domestic mnarkets.Before World War II about four-fifths of the fruit and nearly all the wine were exported, chiefly to Central Europe."

10Regionalism is "an integral part of the new Italian Constitution." See B. C.: Regionalism in Italy: An Experiment in Decentralization, The World Today, Vol. _, I949, pp. 8I-92; reference on p. 8I. Other regions with special autonomy are Sicily, Sardinia, Valle d'Aosta, and -Venezia Giulia. II Export figuresare availablefrom 1932 to 194i for fruiit, and 1934 to 1939 for wine. See Weigend, Op. cit., pp. I46 and I47.

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-~~~~~- I

FIG. 4-Farmhouse in the village of Resia. FIG. 7-Newer section of Bolzano, con- with community well in foreground. structed after I9I9. FIG. 5-A farmer of the upper Sarentino FIG. 8-A farmer carries his harvest load from valley and his wife in Sunday dress. Rocks on field to barn on a high valley farm. roof of farmhouseweight shingles. FIG. 9-Gorge in one of the valleys tributary FIG. 6-Cornedo Castle, near Bolzano. to the Isarco, with highway hewn oat of cliffs.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 372 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW In rural areas other than the fruit belt farm economy adjustedto the needs of the Po Plain, wherever practical. For example, there is a con- the Po ... stant demand in .. k -h D Dz ~~~~~~~~~~~.: S.e ~ Plain for seed potatoes and Swiss brown cattle, which cannot be bred there. Farmers in the South Tyrol therefore began to raise, success- fully, seed potatoes im- ported from northeast- ern Germany"2 and brown cattle imported FIG. io-Winding highway connecting Merano and Vipiteno, from Switzerland. looking northeast from Giovo Pass. The South Tyrol had been far from self-suffi- cient as a part of the AustrianTyrol, but it could draw on the rest of the empire for such suppliesas meats, fats, vegetables,and wheat, none of which Austria was able to furnish. With the boundary change the South Tyrol became wholly or partly dependent on Italy for these and other necessities. Under Fascistrule all purchasesand sales throughout the country had to be made through the Consorzio Agrario, a quasi-governmental wholesale organizationobligatory in all provinces, which kept strict controls over the buying and selling of agriculturalproducts. Now other agriculturalorgani- zations also exist and membershipis entirely voluntary, but the Tyrolese tie with Italianeconomy and the dependency on it remain. Industriallythe South Tyrol was little advanced until it became a part of Italy. Before World War I most manufacturingwas strictly of the work- shop type, and much of the hydroelectric-power potential had not been harnessed.After the war electric-power companies were foundedI3 which undertook to utilize that vital resource. With some exceptions large-scale

-2 Importationof seed potatoes from East Prussiastopped during the war and has not been resumed. Since the war all potatoes have been raisedlocally. '3 A comparisonof power-productionfigures before and after World War I is given in "The Italo- AustrianFrontier and Annexes Thereto," an unpublisheddocument presentedby the Italiangovernment (Ministerodegli Affari Esteri) to the Council of Foreign Ministers,June, 1946, pp. IO-I2.

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BOUNDARY CHANGES IN SOUTH TYROL 373 manufacturing was not begun until the estab- lishment of an industrial zone in the city of Bol- zano in I934.

...... Capital from the ...... r great metropolitan cen- ters of northernItaly and r~~~~~~pre labor from northernand _ ~ ~~~...... ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ southern Italy were im- ported into the province for construction and FIG.~ i-eto fBian nutilZn w ith steel mil operationof power proj- inforeground ects and industries.The local Germanpopulation was excluded from all these activities, and for that reason many Ger- FIG. IIi-Section of BolzanoIndustrial Zone, with steelmills in foreground. man-speaking,and some Italian-speaking,residents interviewed in the South Tyrol expressed the conviction that the IndustrialZone had been located in Bolzano not for the ostensiblepurpose of utilizing local hydro-electricpower and lumber in the battle for national self-sufficiencybut to acceleratethe FascistItalianization of the South Tyrol. Table III lends supportto that conviction. Many of the companies in the zone, however, were planned to fil a definite gap in the Italian economy. For example, the IndustriaNazionale Alluminio contributes roughly one-third of Italy's aluminum production, and the Societa Anonima IndustriaMagnesio e Leghe di Magnesi is reported to manufactureItaly's entire supply of magnesium and magnesium alloys. In I948 an estimated 5500 workers were employed in the IndustrialZone, nearly all of whom were immigrantsfrom other Italianprovinces. The generally most profitablesource of income for the S:authTyrol, the tourist trade, sufferedmost and recovered slowest after the incorporationof the province into Italy. Hotels, farms, transportation,entertainment, and res- taurantswere affected.Before World War I touristsfrom within the empire and from countriesto the north came to the South Tyrol the year round to enjoy the sceneryand the pleasantclimate. After the war border restrictions, financial difficulties,and other effects of the war reduced the number of foreign tourists.The number of touristsfrom other parts of Italy increased,

This content downloaded from 80.243.100.172 on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 05:45:17 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 374 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW but theirseason was for the most partcrowded into a little more thantwo weeks in Augustand a shorterperiod in July. Furthermore,marked paths in the mountainsand mountainrefLiges were not maintainedso well by Italiantourist organizations as they hadbeen by Germanclubs, because most Italiantourists in the provincepreferred to stayclose to theirhotels. Other effortswere made to attracttourists and rejuvenatethe trade,such as the constructionof aerialcable cars and chair lifts, whichtook touristsor skiers from the valleyfloor to high mountainousterrain in a fiw minutes.Existing

TABLE IV-TOURIST TRADE IN THE SOUTH TYROL, 1933 1948*

YEAR ITALIANS FOREIGNERS TOTAL NUMBER TA

1933 I34,086 I50,206 53 284,292 1934 I90,638 i81,587 49 372,225 I935 212,767 200,925 49 4I3,692 1936 2I8,539 231,605 52 450,144 I937 241,773 322,814 57 564,587 I938 265,40I 316,344 54 581,745 1939 272.o64 I83,976 40 456,040 I945 77,4I0 31,7I7 29 109,127 1946 I5i,696 I5,414 9 i67,II0 1947 I92,025 28,I73 13 220,198 1948 i89,688 38,555 I7 228,243

*Mitteiiungen der Handels- Industrie- ind LandvirtschafiskammerBozen, Vol. 2, I949, P. 34. highwayswere improved,new roadswere constructed,and railroadswere electrified.Nevertheless, the total numberof touristsdecreased from more than one million annuallybefore World War 114 to 284,000 in I93 3 -a result not only of the boundary shift but of the general economic instability. Hardest hit were the cities of Bolzano and Merano. Gries, a section of Bolzano, and Merano had capitalized on their protected locations and high percentage of winter sunshine to become resort towns and meeting places for the high society of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The drastic postwar changes in the social system of the former empire and of Germany dimin- ished the clientele of nobility and commoners alike who could afford to stay in luxurious hotels. Gries was eliminated as a resort in the middle thirties when the Industrial Zone was established in Bolzano and reduced the city's touristic desirability. Merano, however, made an attempt to regain its former status. A race track was built within the city limits, but races increased the number of visitors for only very short periods; for regular racing schedules Merano was too far from the large Italian cities. A gambling casino was like- wise a futile attempt to attract tourists, and World War II added to the city's predicament, not because of destruction but because of depreciation and loss as a result of Italian, German, and Allied military occupation.

14 Fritz Dc5rrenhaus: Das deutsche Land an der Etsch, Vienna, 1933, pp. I39140.

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From I933 until World War II tourist trade in the South Tyrol improved continuously. Although it did not become a year-round business, it was well on the way to recovery. The war brought another setback, but in I948 and I949 many border restrictions between Italy and other nations were lifted; barring international political complications, the way to full rehabilitation of the trade was thus opened.

THE PRESENT OUTLOOK

Since establishment of the new boundary in I9I9, South Tyrolese econ- omy has become adjusted to, and integrated with, the economy of Italy. The German-speaking inhabitants, even though culturally bound to their neighbors in the north, in general feel that economic adjustment and integra- tion have gone so far that a revision of the boundary would be a shattering blow. There are a few who agitate actively for annexation to Austria, but they are mainly those who remember the South Tyrol as part of the glorious Austro-Hungarian Empire and think that their position could become as favorable again. Most of the Germans, and also the Ladins, are satisfied with their present political and economic status. They have a regional autonomy, which means that they have a voice in their local government and that their cultural heritage is being respected. Some of the younger people interviewed stressed the futility of irredentist movements from within or without the South Tyrol and mostly they are from without. Even the program of the largest political party, the German Siidtiroler Volkspartei, drawn up in November, I947, states that "the aim of the Siidtiroler Volkspartei is to ensure and promote, within the bounds cf the Italian state, the individuality of the ethnic, economic, and cultural life of the people of the South Tyrol, and to restore or create the necessary bases for such a program."'5 Certainly Austria's impoverished economy would profit from the restora- tion of the South Tyrol. Fruit, wine, manufactured products, and, particu- larly, the tourist trade would enrich the depleted finances of the country and make possible a somewhat better economic balance. Recent talk of boundary revisions has been based principally on such considerations and on emotional grounds. The Brenner boundary has in effect tied the South Tyrol to the rest of Italy by orienting the flow of hydroelectric power and industrial and agricultural products to the south; at the same time a lucrative export business is sending goods to the north. In other words, the Brenner Pass has become a connecting link between Italy and Austria rather than a divide.

'5 "Programm der Siidtiroler Volkspartei." (Typewritten document in the files of the Siidtiroler Volkspartei, Bolzano.)

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