Sepp Kerschbaumer

Sepp Kerschbaumer (9.Nov 1913 - 7.Dec 1964) was a activist for the freedom of South Tyrol as a leading member of the BAS (Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol / Freedom committee South Tyrol).

In 1919, after the WW I, Italy took away South Tyrol from Austria. Then Italy tried for many years to get rid of the austrian culture in South Tyrol and to italianise it. Sepp Kerschbaumer was one of the leaders in the fight against this attemts to suppress the german speaking people. On the 12. June 1961, the so called Feuernacht (night of the fire), the BAS organised a blowing up of 34 electicity pillars that gave power to the industry zone of Bozen, that was build by the italians with and for italian workers only.

As the leading member of BAS Sepp Kerschbaumer on the 16. July 1964 was convicted to 15 years and 11 months for organising this bombing. On the 7.Dec 1964 he died in the prison of Verona of a heart attack. More then 20.000 people attended the funeral on the 9th of december (South Tyrol only has around 400.000 inhabitants)

see also: Feuernacht[?], Option in South Tyrol[?], Katakombenschulen[?]

External links

A biographie of Sepp Kerschbaumer, written by Josef Fontana and Hans Mayr (http://www.schuetzen.com/html/katalog/showquestion.asp?fldAuto=30)