The South Tyrol Conflict (1964-1969)

During the fifties and sixties of the last century the South Tyrol problem was one of the most pressing and depressing minority conflicts in Europe. Despite the Gruber-De Gasperi - agreement of 1946 Italy was not prepared to grant autonomy to the South Tyroleans. It took years before with the formation of the Moro/Saragat government in Rome in December 1963 a new and positive chapter began. In December 1964 the two Socialist foreign ministers, Bruno Kreisky and Giuseppe Saragat reached a basic agreement. To the disappointment of Kreisky it was not accepted by the (South-Tyroleans; this "package" was too little to them. In April 1966 the Austrian People`s Party (ÖVP) formed a government without the Socialists. Four years of secret and difficult negotiations followed with the Italians, which must be seen in the context of the uneasy political situation in 1967 and 1968: bombings in Italy, Italy`s veto in 1967 to block Austria`s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), as well as elections and governmental crisis in Italy. Finally at the end of 1969 a solution was found and accepted by all parties: Package plus an "operations calendar", i.e. a timetable specifying deadlines for the implementation of the Package; in the words of Austrian Foreign Minister Kurt Waldheim: "The Package is the train, the operations calendar the time table". Hitherto unknown and inaccessible Austrian, Italian and German documents from national and international archives (Vienna, Innsbruck, Rome, Bolzano, Bonn) serve as a basis for this three volume project: 1964/65: The Kreisky/Saragat Agreement 1966/67: The Road to the "Package" 1968/69: The Road to the "Operations Calendar".