page_title: History of South Tyrol
section_title: Italianization
hierarchical_section_title: History of South Tyrol / Rise of fascism / Italianization
caption_attribution_description: English: Südtiroler Platz in Innsbruck, commemorating the separation of the County of Tyrol after World War I
context_page_description: Modern-day South Tyrol, an autonomous Italian province created in 1948, was part of the Austro-Hungarian County of Tyrol until 1918. It was annexed by Italy following the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I. It has been part of a cross-border joint entity, the Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino, since 2001.
context_section_description: In October 1922, the new Fascist government rescinded all the special dispensations that protected linguistic minorities.
  The Italianization program had been started, and the Fascist regime charged Achille Starace and Ettore Tolomei (a nationalist from Rovereto) to drive it.
  Tolomei's "program in 23 points" was adopted. Among other things it decreed:
  exclusive use of Italian in the public offices;
  closure of the majority of the German schools;
  incentives for immigrants from other Italian regions.
  The first forms of opposition to the regime appeared in 1925: a priest, Michael Gamper, opened the first "Katakombenschulen", clandestine schools where teachers taught in German.
  In 1926 the ancient institution of communal autonomy was abolished. Throughout Italy the "podestà", appointed by the government, replaced the mayors and had to report to the "prefetti".
  A large industrial zone in Bolzano opened in 1935. It was followed by the immigration of many workers and their families from other parts of Italy (mainly from Veneto).
  In this period of oppression, National Socialist propaganda became more and more successful among young South Tyroleans.
caption: Street sign in Innsbruck, North Tyrol, commemorating the separation of South Tyrol, set up in 1923 in response to the prohibition of the original southern Tyrolean place names
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