2024-04-09 00:49:16
Between the 19th and 20th centuries, the political situation in the Bolzano area, seen in broad terms, attributed a liberal and secular tendency to the current capital municipality, while its current offshoots of Dodiciville and Gries were autonomous municipalities with an agricultural and Catholic. So conservative. There “People’s Newspaper” instead, at the time it was a newspaper of social democratic inspiration which began its publications in 1892 and interpreted the requests of a growing segment of workers, who found employment in the progressive birth of new industries.
It was therefore considered a “red” newspaper. It was May 4, 1907, three days after Labor Day, when the newspaper published a curious article relating to a meeting of the Christian-social party in Laives. Official speaker was a certain Rienzl, candidate in upcoming elections for the renewal of the tourist offices, who at the end of his speech invited the room to raise a “Hurray” to the emperor. “Hoch soll er leben” (“long live”) thundered those present. On the wave of enthusiasm the orator then decided to propose equal treatment for the Pope, who at the time was Pius all his own: “Und dick soll er werden” (“and let him gain weight”).
The voice, the newspaper specified, was that of the master shoemaker, an absolutely bona fide person, who had not realized the gaffe. Some laughed under their breath while most, embarrassed, directed their gazes at the author of “such an outrage”. Evidently refusing to intervene, while the shoemaker remained in his place imperturbable with a smug smile of his own: it was evident that he did not realize the inopportuneness of his exit. At this point it was the parish priest who shouted his disapproval at him: no one – according to him – in the devout Laives had ever allowed himself to insult the Holy Father, and he shouted that the shoemaker should be immediately kicked out of the room. No one moved, neither the shoemaker nor anyone else among the bystanders. The priest then turned to a “single person, well identified, so that he could proceed as needed”. But he too lowered his head and pretended not to have heard.
Luckily – commented the “Volkszeitung” – the shoemaker was an esteemed and well-liked person, and so the evening did not end with episodes of violence. In the same issue of the “Volkszeitung” he reports on another Social Democratic meeting held successfully in Twelveville, while in Gries it was a fiasco, and the speaker – always the same – had to give up. There is also space for a booklet published by two Jesuits who had asked the bishop of Trier what obligations an employer has towards his employees. This is the answer: it must ensure that its workers do not indulge in bad speeches, do not spread writings with negative content or even contribute with other means to corrupting right-thinking people by inducing them to lose faith, to work against the purity of customs and above all to orient themselves towards social democracy.
A further curiosity: censored news appears frequently. They are distinguished by the writing “beschlagnahmt” (seized) which reduces the texts on which the censor has intervened.
2024-04-09 00:49:16