Alexander Langer (22 February 1946 – 3 July 1995) was an Italian

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

activist,

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, and

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Biography

Born on 22 February 1946 in Sterzing,

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

, a province of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

inhabited by a German-speaking population, he became involved early on in local political issues, which at the time centered on the interethnic relations in the region, which after two world wars and decades of tensions and terrorism were very tense. In the early 1970s he was active in Lotta Continua, a left-wing political organization in Italy. Later, he joined the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

South Tyrol it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol , settlement_type = Autonomous province , image_skyline = , image_alt ...

, and became a member of the regional council for Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in 1978. Ever resistant to imposed ethnic boundaries, he refused twice to declare his ethnic group during the 1981 and 1991 census in Bolzano. (This is a mandatory choice in the province, to protect the ethnic ''status quo''.) This choice made him ineligible to stand for local elections. During the 1980s he rose in the ranks of the Green Party, first at the national level, and then in Europe, eventually becoming

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

and president of the Greens/EFA Group in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

in 1989. He later became deeply involved in peace initiatives in Europe and the Middle East, and in fostering the dialog between the alternative left parties, the

Radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

, left-wing Christians and other pro-peace, environmentalist and fringe political groups at European level. He served as representative of the European Parliament in Israel, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Libya, Egypt, Cyprus, Malta, and was particularly involved in campaigning for peace in the former Yugoslavia, during the ethnic wars of the 1990s. On June 26, 1995 Langer took part in the protests in Cannes against Europe's inertia in the face of the war in the Balkans and on the same day he wrote his latest article, also on Bosnia, entitled Europe dies or is reborn in Sarajevo. Shocked by the drama of the war, suffering from asthma and depression,Famiglia Cristiana: molte morti non trovano un perché
/ref> on 3 July 1995 Langer committed suicide in Pian dei Giullari, near Florence, by hanging himself from an apricot tree; he left three notes to his family and friends, one of which was written in German to his friends, explaining the gesture and also quoting a sentence from the Gospel of Matthew.

Alexander Langer Award

Pisciadoi de Pedroc troi Alexander Langer Gherdëina

Beginning in 1997, the Alexander Langer Foundation has given an annual award to an activist in Langer's honor. As of 2012, the award carries a 10,000-euro honorarium.

References

External links

Alexander Langer Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Langer, Alexander 1946 births 1995 deaths 1995 suicides People from Sterzing Germanophone Italian people Italian anti-war activists Italian ecologists 20th-century Italian journalists Italian politicians who committed suicide Suicides by hanging in Italy Federation of the Greens MEPs MEPs for Italy 1984–1989 MEPs for Italy 1989–1994 20th-century Italian translators Italian political party founders

Biography

Alexander Langer Award

See also

References

External links