American Geographical Society Effects of Boundary Changes in the South Tyrol 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 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Geographical Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Geographical Review. http://www.jstor.org 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 Italy 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 Bolzano (Alto Adige), 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 Trento 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. 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 365 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 '. \0wR1 CLE S E S vy 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.