Editing Brenner Pass (section)

== History ==
=== Roman Empire ===
[[File:Part of Tabula Peutingeriana around Brenner Pass.png|thumb|Brenner and the surrounding Roman road network shown in the ''[[Tabula Peutingeriana]]''. Brenner is between [[Matrei am Brenner|Matreio]] and [[Sterzing|Vepiteno]].]]

The [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] regularised the mountain pass at Brenner, which had already been under frequent use during the prehistoric eras since the most recent Ice Age.<ref>Walter Woodburn Hyde (1935). ''Roman Alpine Routes'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), p. 194: "the use of the major pass-routes has been continuous from prehistoric times down to the present".</ref> The Brenner Pass, however, was not the first trans-Alpine Roman road to become regularised under the Roman Empire.

The first Roman road to cross the Alpine range, [[Via Claudia Augusta]], connected [[Verona]] in northern Italy with [[Augusta Vindelicorum]] (modern-day [[Augsburg]]) in the Roman province of [[Raetia]]. Via Augusta was completed in 46–47 AD; the route took its course along the [[Adige|Adige valley]] to the neighbouring [[Reschen Pass]] (west of the Brenner Pass), then descended into the [[Inn River|Inn valley]] before rising to [[Fern Pass]] towards Augsburg.

The Roman road that physically crossed over the Brenner Pass did not exist until the 2nd century AD. It took the "eastern" route through the [[Puster Valley]] and descended into Veldidena (modern-day [[Wilten]]), where it crossed the [[Inn (river)|Inn]] and into [[Zirl]] and arrived at Augsburg via [[Füssen]].

The [[Alamanni]] (Germanic tribe) crossed the Brenner Pass southward into modern-day Italy in 268 AD, but they were stopped in November of that year at the [[Battle of Lake Benacus]]. The Romans kept control over the mountain pass until the end of their empire in the 5th century.<ref>"Geschichte Schwabens bis zum Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts" by Max Spindler, Christoph Bauer, Andreas Kraus, 3rd edition; publisher: C.H. Beck Verlag 2001, page 80 {{ISBN|3-406-39452-3}}, {{ISBN|978-3-406-39452-2}}</ref>

=== Holy Roman Empire ===
During the [[High Middle Ages]], Brenner Pass was a part of the important ''[[Via Imperii]]'', an [[Reichsstraße (Middle Ages)|imperial road]] linking the [[Kingdom of Germany]] north of the Alps with the Italian [[March of Verona]]. In the [[Carolingian]] ''Divisio Regnorum'' of 806, the Brenner region was called ''per alpes Noricas'', the transit through the [[Noric Alps]].<ref>{{cite book |author1=Martin Bitschnau |author2= Hannes Obermair |year=2009 |title=Tiroler Urkundenbuch, II. Abteilung: Die Urkunden zur Geschichte des Inn-, Eisack- und Pustertals. Vol. 1: Bis zum Jahr 1140 |publisher=Universitätsverlag Wagner |language=de |place=Innsbruck |isbn=978-3-7030-0469-8 |pages=51–52 no. 73}}</ref> From the 12th century, the Brenner Pass was controlled by the [[County of Tyrol|Counts of Tyrol]] within the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. Emperor [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick Barbarossa]] made frequent use of the Brenner Pass to cross the Alps during his imperial expeditions into [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Italy]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Santosuosso |first=Antonio |author-link=Antonio Santosuosso |year=2004 |title=Barbarians, Marauders, and Infidels: The Ways of Medieval Warfare |location=New York |publisher=MJF Books |isbn=978-1-56731-891-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/barbariansmaraud0000sant/page/190 190] |url=https://archive.org/details/barbariansmaraud0000sant/page/190 |url-access=registration }}</ref> The 12th-century Brenner Pass accommodated mule trains and carts.

Modernisation of the Brenner Pass started in 1777, when a carriage road was laid out at the behest of Empress [[Maria Theresa]].

=== Austrian Empire ===
Modernisation further took place under the [[Austrian Empire]] and the [[Brenner Railway]], which was completed in stages from 1853 to 1867. It became the first trans-Alpine railway without a major tunnel and at high altitude (crossing the Brenner Pass at 1,371 m). Completion of the railway enabled the Austrians to move their troops more efficiently; they had hoped to secure their territories of [[Veneto|Venetia]] and [[Lombardy]] (south of the Alps), but lost them to Italy following the [[Second Italian War of Independence]] in 1859 and [[Austro-Prussian War]] in 1866.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

=== Recent history ===
At the end of [[World War I]] in 1918, the control of the Brenner Pass became shared between Italy and Austria under the [[Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919)]]. The [[Treaty of London (1915)]] secretly awarded Italy the territories south of the Brenner Pass for supporting the Entente Powers. Welschtirol/Trentino, along with the southern part of the [[County of Tyrol]] (now [[South Tyrol]]), was transferred to Italy, and Italian troops occupied Tyrol and arrived at the Brenner Pass in 1919 to 20.

[[File:Carbone tedesco per il Brennero.jpg|thumb|German coal entering Italy through the Brenner Pass in the 1930s]]
During [[World War II]], [[Adolf Hitler]] and [[Benito Mussolini]] met at the Brenner Pass to celebrate their [[Pact of Steel]] on 18 March 1940. Later, in 1943, following the [[Armistice of Cassibile|Italian armistice with the Allies]], the Brenner Pass [[Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills|was annexed]] by [[Nazi Germany]], shifting the border with the [[Italian Social Republic]], the Nazi puppet state headed by Mussolini, much further south. In 1945, the area was occupied by the [[United States Armed Forces|US Army]] and returned to Italy after the end of the war. The Brenner Pass was part of the [[Ratlines (World War II)|ratlines]] that were used by senior Nazis fleeing the allies after the German surrender in 1945.

Following World War II, the pass once again formed the border between Italy and the newly independent Republic of Austria, and maintained its importance as a key trade route. On 1 January 1995 the [[Schengen Agreement]] entered into force in Austria, a treaty Italy ratified on 26 October. As a consequence, border checks were abolished in the Brenner Pass for goods and people between the two countries. On 19 November 1995 the border barrier between Italy and Austria at Brenner was officially abolished, with a commemoration attended by Austrian Minister of the Interior Karl Schlögl, Italian Minister of the Interior [[Giorgio Napolitano]], and the governors of [[Innsbruck]] and [[Bolzano]].<ref>Michael Gehler, ''Der Brenner: Vom Ort negativer Erfahrung zum historischen Gedächtnisort oder zur Entstehung und Überwindung einer Grenze in der Mitte Europas (1918-1998)'', in Idem, Andreas Pudlat (a cura di), ''Grenzen in Europa'', Hildesheim-Zurigo-New York, 2009, pp. 145-182.</ref>

{{climate chart|Brenner Pass
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|−4|4|47
|−1|7|69
|4|13|98
|6|16|138
|9|19|137
|9|19|124
|6|15|102
|2|10|81
|−3|3|67
|−6|0|47
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|source=[http://www.zamg.ac.at/fix/klima/oe71-00/klima2000/daten/klimadaten/tir/14801.htm ZAMG]
}}