During his youth, Alfons Benedikter experienced the Italian fascist oppression and discrimination policy towards the German national minority in his home village of Schlanders.

Beginning in 1960, Alfons Benedikter lived in Frangart (a frazione of Eppan an der Weinstraße) close to Bolzano, the capital of the province.

In the 1960s, Benedikter repeatedly represented South Tyrol within the UN in New York, when the issue was debated as a major international conflict between Austria and Italy.

Benedikter was involved in the elaboration of the so-called “Package for South Tyrol”, but finally he refused its acceptance as a conflict solution.

At the end of the 1980s, Benedikter returned to his previous scepticism with regard to the “package-solution” and opposed the official final “declaration of conflict conclusion” to be expressed by Austria before the UN.