Keywords

• After the Habsburg defeat in the First World War
• South Tyrol was forcefully
• included in the Italian territory. The last liberal Italian governments failed in their attempt to establishment a peaceful balance between the German and the Italian civilizations. After Mussoliniâ€
• ™
• s rise to power
• the Fascist Regime scientifically acted to dismantle the identity of the German speaking South Tyroleans. This minority reacted to the forced Italianization with a recall to the German language and tradition. This essay analyzed the role played by the German culture in the safeguard of the South Tyrolean identity between the two world wars. For the South Tyroleans the German language became a crucial factor for their cultural and ethnical survival. Given that
• the research presented in this paper shows that the South Tyroleans did not passively adapt to the inputs coming from the German world. After Hitlerâ€
• ™
• s rise to power
• in Germany
• the Tyrolean leading elite refused to follow Nazism. They increased their hostile isolation against the Italian Regime and increased
• their distance from Germany. This essays is based on the main primary and secondary sources on the issue. It gives a new and articulated picture of the relation between German culture and the South Tyrolean minority
• going beyond the old and stereotyped presentation of the South Tyroleans as passive â€
• œ
• consumersâ€
• 
• of the German language and culture