Tiroler Volksbund

The Tiroler Volksbund was a patriotic and Pan-Germanist association founded on May 5, 1905.

The organization was dedicated to the idea that Tyrol should remain united and defend its centuries-old traditions and languages (German, Italian, and Ladin), and it opposed the separatist movement funded by Italian entities in the Trentino region (Italian Tyrol). It promoted an anti-irredentist program and the revival of the German language in the Germanic communities of southern Tyrol, which had been Italianized at the end of the 18th century.[1][2]

In his 1911 pamphlet Il Trentino veduto da un socialista, Benito Mussolini gives an overview of the situation in Trentino: On the one hand, there are Pan-German organizations such as Volksbund, the Deutscher Schulverein and Süd-Mark, while from other hand you have associations in defense of Italian language and cultural such as the Lega Nazionale e le società Pro Patria.[3][4]

In 1919 it changed its name to the Andreas-Hofer-Bund Tirol. During the 1920s and 1930s it collaborated with Deutscher Schulverein to finance a system of clandestine German schools. The organization was dissolved in 1938, after the Anschluss, by order of the Third Reich.

On August the 15, 1994 the association has been re-founded.

References

  1. ^ Alcide De Gasperi (1964). I cattolici trentini sotto l'Austria. pp. 131–133.
  2. ^ I cattolici trentini fra senso della nazionalità e fedeltà all’impero
  3. ^ Benito Mussolini (1911). Il Trentino, veduto da un socialista : note e notizie. Firenze: La rinascita del libro. pp. 20–34.
  4. ^ Treccati online