TYROL
(Dedicated to a Tyrolean, who is celebrating his 80th BirthDay today!)
„The Holy Land [Tyrol]“ has been Austria’s most catholic region – even in 1959 the land-government was publicly praying to The Holy Virgin for help as “we cannot free ourselves any longer from the hex of immanentism” - and our kind of Vendee (differing in that - as usually in Bavaria&Austria with their lack of a numerous gentry – the peasants played the decisive role): When the revolutionary troops of France (under Napoleon) and those of Bavaria (governed at that time by the “enlightened” v.Montgelas) occupied T., the peasants began (led by Andreas Hofer) a sometimes succeeding crusade (the action perceived as most important was to devote T. to The Most Sacred Heart).
In Germany&Austria an insurgency against Hitler would have been most probable in T., but the Allied weren’t too interested in a reactionary movement led by Hitler’s ArchEnemy CrownPretender Otto (who had been made in the 1930ies HonoraryCitizen in 240 of T.s 270 municipalities, according to the StateDep. 60-70% of the Tyrolians were in 1945 monarchists).
“The first democracy on the continent”: Was now and again alleged by democrats, ignorant of the fact, that neither England nor T. had been democracies before the XIXth century. Nevertheless, T. saw an outstanding democratic element since the MiddleAges:
Especially SouthT. with its VineYards belonged in the MiddleAges (like Carinthia) de iure to lots of south-german dioceses, de facto to their reeves. One of them – probably ruling for the bishop of Chur – built a castle above Meran and named it “Tirol”. A successor – Meinhard II. (1239-1295) – was able to replace his aristocratic competitors. (Marxist historians can cheer, that this was – as in Salzburg – partly caused because of the wealth from mining, what enabled Him and His followers to buy possessions and engage MercenarySoldiers.) In order to counterbalance the aristocratic relicts, the peasants were allowed to elect at the TrialPlaces representatives for the LandTag – what was for centuries uncommon indeed.
“I came one century too late for saving anything and one century too early for rebuilding something” (v.Metternich): Is a not so unAustrian fate, fitting for example also emperor Maximilian I. (1459-1519). “The last cavalier” was a talented MilitaryLeader and very courageous. Free of any utopism - nurtured by Catholicism in a hard realism of this world - Austria’s version of DonQuixote was nonetheless not too capable to deal with the mercenary new era. (His 2 AutoBiographies “Theuerdank” and “Weisskunig” e.g. tried to prolongate the MiddleAges artificially.) As a result He fled from the civilized VienneseCourt more and more to Tyrol’s straightforward NatureBoys (as His successor did during the revolution of 1848), what was the golden era of Tyrol.
One of the privileges He gave the Land was, that it had to defend itself and its soldiers didn’t have to fight abroad, what resulted in a close relationship of the citizens to land&army – enabling Austria’s (modest) version of the holy Vendee!
Needless to say, that the T. has traditionally been the austrian region most critical of centralism, of the “decadent”/”weak”/”Slavic”/”Jewish”/”red” Vienna, that had left them once alone against a Napoleon.
Contrary to EastAustria’s socialism/collectivism with its well-oiled PartyMachineries, T. has been infamous for quarrels – before and after E.Wallnöfer (1963-1987) the dominant ÖVP fell from one internal crisis into another, similar to CSU. Against the commanding FarmersAssociation - before 1993 all PMs came from this faction – particularly the ÖAAB (workers&employees&CivilServants) was revolting, now and again running their own lists, linked with the “normal” ÖVP-list. (Once the ÖAAB-leader Gamper pleased his friend – the FrontMan of KPÖ! – to distribute papers denouncing Innsbruck’s ÖVP-mayor...)
A split ÖVP-“family” nowadays totally common in T.s municipalities, the capital Innsbruck (always since 1945 ÖVP-ran) is ruled by an ÖVP-splinter (“FürInnsbruck”/FI”), added by the “normal” ÖVP, the ÖVP-retirees aso.
Economy:
Historically T. had a highly indebted SubSistence-AgriCulture permanently plagued with SnowSlides or MudFlows and received urgently needed money - similar to Salzburg or Carinthia – from long-distance trading (Italy-Germany) and mining (silver from Schwaz!). The tourists are today’s (silver)mines, so nihil novae sub Jove. Also not new is, that big craft/manufactories/industries don’t play a huge role, only few factories (of some size) can be detected.
Interesting is, that Carinthia or UpperStyria were formerly MiningAreas, too, but have remained deprived concerning morale (once over 50% bastardy) and PartyPolitics – different to T.!
Culture:
Naturally T. is not a HotBed of HighCulture, although the Tyroleans are not at all uninterested in the arts (and according to EthnoLogists mountaineer have generally more fantasy).
The NewsPapers of the parties passed away after 1945 and TeleVision was for a long period not normal, giving the only daily - the “Tiroler TagesZeitung/TT” (a semi-quality) – a monopol. The TT is officially independent, but - as can be expected – was not hostile to ÖVP (often concealing the scandals and intrigues within ÖVP), only relatively strong competition from VdU (1949+1953) or SPÖ (1970) checking them; these days it’s a normal NewsPaper, i.e. most journalists are green-red-darkred (or at least anti-FPÖ).
Administration:
Unsurprisingly ÖVP controls the CivilServants, more precisely the ÖAAB.
SPÖ received for example in 1964 at least 21.8%, in 1982 only 6.6%.
SPÖ even lost in 1984 the “ArbeiterKammer”, the chamber, which represents all workers&employees&CivilServants. The unitary TradeUnion “ÖsterreichischerGewerkschaftsBund/ÖGB” is their only fortress.
As all JuniorPartners SPÖ (and FPÖ) suffered once, that they participated in government (“Proporz”) without having much to say against a ÖVP with an OverallMajority; since 1999 the Proporz is abolished, but opposition is difficult in A.s regions, as they have so little competences in so “unsexy” areas. 1970-1989, for example, 88.5% of all laws were enacted unanimously.
At least Wallnöfer had an informal alliance with FPÖ in basic issues for decades.
LandTag-ElectionResults from the monarchy (thus including SouthT. and “WelschTirol” [=Trentino]):
1921:
The NationalSocialism was very weak in the poor&remote cath.&cons. EastTyrol and the UpperValley of the Inn (=westernNorthT.), stronger in the lower parts (tourism, some industry) and strongest in InnsbruckCity (being after all a non-industrial town) with 2.000 members already in 1932 (only outnumbered by KlagenfurtCity) – in the election for half of the CityCouncil 1933 the NSDAP got 41.2%! (According to S.Falch 50% came from new&non-voters, 30% from the GermanNationals, 15% from the SocialDemocrats, 5% from the ChristianSocials).
Apart from the towns Innsbruck and Hall the AverageAge in the NSDAP was 1932 31 years (!), not more than 54% had been born in T., paltry 3.6% worked in AgriCulture (TyrolAverage: 47.1%),
49% in trade&industry (T.: 23.3%), especially in trade/traffic/tourism and as FreeLancers. (The numbers are thankfully taken from A.Meixner, “Zwischen Legalität und Illegalität”, p.151+156.)
LandTag-ElectionResults:
VoteStreams, according to...
...SORA:
www.sora.at/themen/wahlverhalten/wahlanalysen/ltw-tir03.htmlwww.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2008_ltw-tir_wahltagsbefragung_wahlanalyse.pdfwww.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2013_ltw-tir_wahlanalyse.pdfwww.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2013_ltw-tir_wahlanalyse-grafiken.pdf...PeterHajek:
www.peterhajek.com/media/pdf/Wahlanalyse_LTW%20Tirol%202008.pdfwww.peterhajek.com/media/pdf/Analyse_Landtagswahl%20Tirol%202013.pdfThe deviations from AustrianAverage in FederalElections (EuropeanParliamentElections in italics):
As You see, ÖVP and SPÖ aren’t so far above/below as formerly (what is to a certain extent no surprise, because the deviations of medium-sized parties are smaller than those of a big ones).
Compulsory voting was abolished in the 1990ies.
FPÖ overperformed so strongly 1995+1996, because T. was suffering economically and A. joined the EC in that time and support in the EC-referendum was in T. only 56% (A.: 66%), due to the small farmers and those tormented by TransitTraffic. (If we trust in SORA, Tyrol’s women were the only group opposing the EC-entry with 52%; YES:NO:-/? was among ÖVP-voters 56:24:20, SPÖ-voters 55:30:15, FPÖ-voters 44:42:14 [only!], GREENS-voters 12:44:44, Non-voters 12:45:43.)
Comparison of the LandTag-elections 1989 and 2013:
First (lightblue = “VorwärtsTirol”, mostly an ÖVP-splinter):
Participation:
Parties:
Comparison of LandTag-election 2013 and NationalRat-election 2017:
Mayors 2010 and 2016:
