04:04

Ruth Deutschmann

Benjamin Epp

Wien

2008-06-13

Sylvia Manning - Baumgartner

1920

Also in Innsbruck it was considered unjust; it was a fraud, all those Italian names in South Tyrol were a scam. Because the Americans were so naive they didn't understand. But it was a great loss both for North and South Tyrol. They belong together ? but can't be together. The border was still very tight. All kinds of harassment took place there: passport and visa controls, at customs they checked every letter. It was annoying. I was ten years old at the time and was with the Bruder-Willram-Bund. Brother Willram was a priest, a priest of the world, a South Tyrolean. He taught religion at the teacher's college in Innsbruck, the school I attended. He was also a poet. He wrote really good, beautiful pieces. He also wrote some prose, "A voyage to the Holy Land" ? and founded an association to promote South Tyrol. A boy's choir wearing the Tyrolean national costume. A teacher, a certain Mr. Bator, was the choirmaster. I was a member for one year. We learned songs, typical folk songs, and such and performed them in tourist resorts where we made propaganda for South Tyrol. Why did I start telling you this ..? Besides the Brother Willram alliance there was also the South Tyrolean school club. Money was collected in Austria for private classes in South Tyrol. We went canvassing dressed in the local costume and with a moneybox. A lot of people donated again and again; it went quite well. That's the story of the Bruder-Willram-Bund. But I left it for the congregation (congregatio mariae). It offered more than only singing. We sang there too, there was a play ground, and a big house where you could get or give private lessons - and the theatre. That was real youth work; I stayed there.