It stands on the Drusus Bridge over the Talferbach, and many holidaymakers in South Tyrol probably know the building with the distinctive tower without knowing what is happening here.

It was built for the fascist youth movement Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), more precisely for the girls organized in this movement.

In an exposed urban location, it shines as a landmark in historically correct Pompeian red.

Twenty years ago, an extension was built in which the Graz architect Klaus Kada combined contemporary standards and historical building fabric in an exemplary manner without touching the latter.

You don't see the heavy wear and tear on the inside of the building either, it's obviously being handled with care.

Hannes Hintermeier

Feuilleton correspondent for Bavaria and Austria.

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The former GIL house is the headquarters of the European Academy for Applied Research and Advanced Training in Bozen, or Eurac Research for short.

It is celebrating its thirtieth birthday this year, as it was founded in 1992 as a private association, with the then governor Luis Durnwalder at the head of the founding team.

The German Max Planck Society was one of the role models.

The academy started work in early 1993, at that time still in the old town.

The twelve employees who started out have now grown to six hundred, doing research in eleven institutes.

The basic funding of currently twenty-six million euros comes from the Autonomous Province of Bozen, with a high proportion of third-party funding of fifty-three percent, the current budget totals fifty-five million euros.

Around half of the scientists now work in the laboratories of the NOI technology park in the south of the city, the headquarters houses administration, the Audimax and the humanities and law departments.

The library resides generously in the former gymnasium.

Among other things, research is carried out on the development of the Alpine region, biomedicine, regional development, mountain rescue, renewable energies, earth observation, but also applied linguistics, minority rights and federalism.

A flagship is the Institute for Mummy Research, which is headed by Albert Zink from Munich: Ever since the discovery of the ice man Ötzi, Boen has been a world capital of mummy research, and Zink is a sought-after expert.

processing of the national history

In the early years, only Italians and Germans worked here, today the researchers come from forty-six countries.

In this respect, says Hannes Obermair, the Eurac is also proof of how “a region has emancipated itself”.

Obermair, born in Bolzano in 1961, is a historian, archivist and curator.

As an advisor, his word also carries weight in state politics, and he was involved in the conception of the documentation center under the fascist victory monument.

As a philosopher-in-residence at Eurac, he is in demand for interdisciplinary issues.

He also knows from long experience how much catching up there is in terms of processing and contextualization in South Tyrol as well as in Italy.