Sepp Kerschbaumer

Sepp Kerschbaumer (born 9 November 1913 in Frangart, South Tyrol, † December 7, 1964 in Verona ) was a South Tyrol activist and leader of the Liberation Committee Südtirol ( BAS).

Life

Sepp Kerschbaumer was born as the son of the merchant Josef born ( from Ritten ) and Louise Zelger ( from Aldein ) in Frangart at Bolzano. As Kerschbaumer was four years old, his father fell on the Dolomite front; when he was nine years old, his mother died.

After his training in Rainerum Bolzano and Neustift Monastery, he graduated in 1927, the commercial prep school in Brixen.

In 1933 he was drafted into the Italian army.

In the fall of 1934 Kerschbaumer was sentenced to two years' exile in Potenza for participating in a banned political event. After pardon by Benito Mussolini in the fall of 1935 he returned to South Tyrol.

Then Kerschbaumer was handed over by his guardian parental grocery business.

  • Seppl (* April 27, 1937, † 1969)
  • Maria Luisa ( born March 5, 1939)
  • Mali ( born March 26, 1940)
  • Helga ( born June 25, 1942)
  • Franz ( born December 1, 1949)
  • Christl (born 6 January 1957)

As OptAnt Kerschbaumer decided for himself and his family in 1939 in the German Reich to emigrate and to muster support for this decision, because he, like many of his compatriots wanted to develop culturally and linguistically according to his ethnicity again. But over time, he realized that in Germany no help was to be expected. He became a resolute opponent of National Socialism. He was drafted during the German occupation in 1944 the Wehrmacht in Bolzano.

After the war, the South Tyrolean People's Party was founded, he joined her soon in was local chairman, group chief and council of Frangart and devoted himself to local politics.

However, in the early 1950s came to criticism on the conciliatory attitude of the SVP. Kerschbaumer was one of those critics and started to gather like-minded people. The resulting organization was called Liberation Committee South Tyrol short BAS. In September 1956 made ​​the first attacks of the BAS. A second series of attacks were carried out in January 1957.

In the same year, the moderate voices in the party leadership of the SVP displaced by more radical. As the new chairman Silvius Magnago on November 17, 1957 at the so-called mass rally of Castle Sigmundskron the motto: Los coined by Trent Kerschbaumer was present and distributed an unsigned pamphlet, in which he demanded a free South Tyrol and justified this as follows: " German we want to stay and are not slaves of a people, which has occupied by treachery and fraud our country without a fight and for 40 years of exploitation and colonization operates a system that is worse than the former colonial methods in Central Africa. "

After the assassination wave of bonfire night Kerschbaumer and 150 other BAS members was arrested and tortured in custody by the police. The severe ill-treatment of Kerschbaumer and his fellow prisoners, of which Anton Gostner and Franz Hoefler died, contributed to a further escalation.

Was condemned Sepp Kerschbaumer as leader of the BAS to 15 years and 11 months imprisonment on 16 July 1964. He escaped, like all co-defendants, a looming sentenced to two life terms, as the President of the Circuit Court, Gustavo Simonetti, under pressure from the government, Aldo Moro, the charges " attack on the unity of the state " and dropped " attack on the constitution". On 7 December the same year, he suffered a heart attack in prison and died.

The funeral was for a demonstration: More than 15,000 people came to the funeral.

Historical role Kerschbaumers

Kerschbaumer had shown with the establishment of the BAS and the actions of the international public that it required an accelerated solution of the South Tyrol problem. That Kerschbaumer did not receive the maximum penalties possible for his crimes in the first Milan trial, he owed both to the intervention of the newly sworn center-left coalition led by Aldo Moro to the Court, as well as a full confession of his actions and the acceptance of the tactics of the defense with the statement that the goal is not the autonomy and self-determination have been (which did not meet his true intentions ).

Whether the attacks have done more harm or used, has long been controversial among historians. Today it is believed that the attacks have primarily used the Italian side, since it was discredited the possibility of a South Tyrolean self-determination, which should lead to the attacks, yes. For no South Tyrolean politicians wanted or was able to publicly agree with the deeds of the terrorists and thus their goals. Despite a tense situation in South Tyrol, including massive military presence, managed the political representatives of the State and the local area, to maintain a peaceful dialogue to resolve the problem. With the nine tens Commission, the SVP was a concrete way for negotiations that eventually led to South Tyrol package and are based on today's pacified situation.

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