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Alex Langer, a Man of Peace

Updated: Jul 9



Last Winter, the bright, earnest and tragic figure of Alex Langer came suddenly to my mind, and I realized how Italian media had completely and guiltily forgotten him, shortly after his death, twenty-nine years ago.


Alexander Langer was born on 22nd February 1946 in Vipiteno (Sterzing is its German name), in Alto Adige (also called Südtirol by German-speaking population) which belongs to Bolzano, an autonomous province (the other one is Trento) in the autonomous North-East Italian region called Trentino - Alto Adige.

Born less than a year after the liberation of Italy from the Fascism and the Nazi occupation which ended the Second World War, and some months before the referendum that gave birth to the Republic, Alex Langer was inspired by strong ideals of pacifism, solidarity, environmentalism and internationalism, mixing his Christian beliefs with his Left-wing opinions.

Saint Francis of Assisi was the main model and the biggest inspiration for Langer's pacifist and environmental activism.

People who refuse to be categorized and keep themselves away from fussing and fighting have always been my model, and someone like Alex Langer should be internationally known, remembered and honoured.


Born in a German-speaking family with Austrian, Italian and Jewish origins, the activist, journalist, politician and activist Alexander Langer studied at Italian school and early developed a genuine interest for different people, languages and cultures. Langer always kept himself away from separatist violent tensions and terrorist attacks; moreover, he refused to declare his ethnic group during the 1981 and 1991 censuses in Bolzano because ethnic boundaries were a nonsensical and dangerous ideology which encouraged divisions and conflicts in his beloved Region.

While many young people of his generation were involved in violent and terrorist actions committed by far-right and far-left organizations, Alex Langer, who took part to the Protests of 1968, left Lotta Continua and joined Neue Linke / Nuova Sinistra (New Left) party; he later became a prominent figure in the Verdi (Federation of the Greens) party and also a member of the European Parliament, serving as the President of the Greens/EFA group and as a representative of the European Parliament in many countries: Israel, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Libya, Cyprus, Egypt, Malta and Yugoslavia.

Alexander Langer strongly campaigned for peace in Yugoslavia and he was deeply saddened by the war in the Balkans and Europe indifference and inertia towards the ethnic conflicts in former Yugoslavia: suffering from depression and asthma, he wrote a last article, Europe dies or is reborn in Sarajevo, before committing suicide in Pian dei Giuliari, near Florence, where he lived with his wife and family, on 3rd July 1995. He was forty-nine years old.


I was a school student at that time and the news of Langer's suicide was a shock; but soon the Italian media forgot him.

Nevertheless, a Foundation in memory of Alexander Langer exists since 1997 and I invite you to visit its website (available in Italian, English, French and Deutsch) in order to learn more about this wonderful and so regretted human being, whose Italy should be proud, if only Italy deserved him.





Above, a beautiful and bright portrait of the regretted Alexander "Alex" Langer.

Picture source here (I disagree with the adjective "ratzingeriano" used to describe Langer, who would have certainly disagreed with the embarrassing statements Joseph Ratzinger made during his pontificate as Pope Benedict XVI).




Above, the Italian Federation of the Greens logo, which is a very cherished childhood memory to me.


Below, a picture I took in my Parisian park on Alex Langer's death anniversary day.

May he rest in Peace.



There is another world,
There is a better world...

I wish to dedicate to Alex Langer this photo and also a very moving song by The Smiths (lyrics by Morrissey, music by Marr): Asleep, single recorded in August 1985 and released on 16th September of the same year, as B-side of The Boy with the Thorn in His side.

The Smiths played live this beautiful song only once, on 1st October 1985, during the last gig of their Scottish tour, at Eden Court in Inverness, because a piano was available on stage. The audio recording of this unique live version can be find on YouTube, but the noisy crowd ruins it, unfortunately: I will never undestand how people have to ruin the religious silence a song like this would deserve.

Here you can listen and see a live version by Morrissey, from his concert at Tivoli Vredenburg, in Utrecht (Germany), on 28th October 2014. I hope I will listen to this beautiful song live, one day.


And I do hope Alex Langer have found a better world, somewhere: he surely would be extremely sad to see how Italy and Europe have gone so low, and Italy, Europe and the whole World surely miss so badly a Man of Peace like him.



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