Michael Gamper

Canon Michael Gamper (1885–1956) was an Austrian priest seen as a hero of the Tyrol between the world wars.

He was born on 7 April 1885 in Tisens in the southern Alps, the eldest son of Michael Anton Gamper, a blacksmith and his wife Elisabeth Sulzer.

He thereafter was ordained in 1908 and worked as a priest in several small communities: Girlan, Altrei, Laives and Barbian.

Here he met Aemilian Creator who asked him to become editor of a new newspaper the Südtiroler Volksbote (South Tyrolean People's Messenger).

Critically he just desired autonomy and recognition of the remote German-speaking regions without kowtowing to the German nation.

Other issues arose from the Nazi regime and Gamper began speaking out against the German euthanasia policy being adopted against disabled children (Action T4).

[1] In 1939 South Tyroleans were forced to take an "option": either to emigrate to the German Reich, or stay and become fully Italian.

[5] His niece Martha Flies and her husband Toni Ebner took his place as editor of Dolomiten and his publishing house Athesia.

[6] Numerous streets are named after Gamper in the South Tyrol, including Bolzano, Klobenstein, Laives, Ritten and Lienz.