The South Tyrol and the Principle of Self-Determination: An Analysis of a Minority Problem

For almost three quarters of a century the South Tyroleans had fought for the preservation of their ethnic identity. The idea of self-determination introduced by Woodrow Wilson in 1918 legitimized their quest for protection of their ethnicity and language. Yet, the peace of Paris of 1919 denied the South Tyrolens\u27 the right to self-determination and incorporated the German-speaking territory of the South Tyrol into Italy. During the following two decades Italian fascism eliminated the South Tyroleans\u27 right to struggle for their cultural identity. Mussolini\u27s ideology pursued the Italianization of the South Tyrol. The German-speaking minority in Italy could not even hope for help from the German national socialists in the north who during the 1930\u27s renounced the South Tyrol for an alliance with Italy. During the fascist era minorities were not a problem for the dictatorial states. Minority rights were simply ignored. Only the peace conference in 1945/46 gave the European minorities a new chance to fight for their protection. The South Tyroleans hoped again that the peacemakers would allow a return of the South Tyrol to Austria. During the peace negotiations, however, political realities in Europe changed and the rising conflict between East and West urged the Western powers to confirm the decision of 1919 and to maintain the South Tyrol within Italy. Although the Allied powers recognized the ethnic difference of the South Tyroleans from the Italian people, they also explicitly forbade the application of self-determination to the German-speaking minority on Italy\u27s northern frontier. Consequently the decision of 1946 confronted the South Tyroleans with the need to negotiate for a different kind of self-determination, for a determination of their fate within the Italian state. The Italian government now expressed its goodwill to come to satisfying terms with its German-speaking minority in the north. Yet, Italy\u27s treatment of the South Tyrol question after the Peace Conference in 1946, reverted to opposite measures. Italy tired to obstruct the implementation of the guarantees given in a bilateral agreement between Italy and Austria in 1946. Thus, the Italian government opened the way to the endless discussions that only ended in 1993. During this time, however, the South Tyrolean representatives achieved an autonomy for the German-speaking people on Italy\u27s northern frontier. During these decades the South Tyroleans had the chance to adapt the autonomy to present-day needs and ultimately achieved an autonomy that protected the uniqueness of their people much better than neither an agreement in 1919 nor in 1945 could have anticipated. Today, the South Tyroleans are among the best protected minorities in Europe. They determine their own political future and administer their province by themselves. Although sometimes Italian-speaking and German-speaking inhabitants guard each other with suspicion the tendencies to live together, rather than to live side by side, increase steadily. The South Tyrolean autonomy which provides the German-speaking minority in Italy with the possibility of self-government and ethnic protection, could indeed become an example to many other European minorities. Their case could help solve the various problems arising in post-cold war Europe where many minorities, whose rights had been suppressed for decades, now demand protection of their ethnicity and self-determination