The Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen, also known as South Tyrol, is located in northern Italy, on the Austrian and Swiss borders. Its population of approximately 516,000 is composed of 70% German-speakers, 26% Italian-speakers and 4.5% Ladin-speakers. The large percentage of German-speakers is the result of a redrawing of borders after the First World War, when South Tyrol, until then part of the Habsburg Empire, became part of Italy. After significant social and political tensions, in 1972 South Tyrol received the Second Statute of Autonomy, a complex power-sharing system through which the German-speaking population in South Tyrol enjoys one of the world’s most advanced systems of minority protection.
Critics of the autonomy system point out, however, that because of rigid institutional separation between the three linguistic groups with, among other aspects, separate educational institutions, it has contributed to reinforcing divisions between the groups. Unresolved issues around contested Fascist heritage contribute to ongoing disputes between majority and minority representatives in the region. Socio-cultural, political and economic ties between the German-speaking minority in South Tyrol and the Austrian Land Tyrol are strong, and together with the Trentino, South Tyrol and Tyrol form an integrated border area through the cross-border region “Euregio Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino”.