Federico Krutwig Sagredo (

Getxo Getxo () is a town located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in Spain. It is part of Greater Bilbao, and has 77,946 inhabitants (2019). Getxo is mostly an affluent residential area, as well as being the ...

, 15 May 1921 –

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, 15 November 1998) was a Spanish

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

writer, philosopher, politician, and author of several books, with ''Vasconia'' standing out in the political domain for its influence in the early stages of

ETA Eta (uppercase , lowercase ; grc, ἦτα ''ē̂ta'' or ell, ήτα ''ita'' ) is the seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the close front unrounded vowel . Originally denoting the voiceless glottal fricative in most dialects, ...

, and as an advocate of classic Labourdin for the standardization of Basque. He distanced from

Sabino Arana Sabino Policarpo Arana Goiri (in Spanish), Sabin Polikarpo Arana Goiri (in Basque), or Arana ta Goiri'taŕ Sabin (self-styled) (26 January 1865 – 25 November 1903), was a Basque writer and the founder of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) ...

's brand of Basque nationalism, emphasizing language instead of race as pivotal for the Basque nation. Along with Felix Likiniano, he tried to create some resistance to Franco's dictatorial regime after the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

. The thought of both authors, melding

Basque nationalism Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation and promotes the poli ...

and anarchism gave birth to a minor political current known as ''Anarko abertzalism'' ( Anarcho-independentism), which eventually merged within the hybrid of

Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...

and Anarchism known as

Autonomism Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tende ...

Biography

Federico Krutwig was born on 15 May 1921 in

, the son of a bourgeois family of German origin. He taught himself the Basque language. He joined the Basque-Language Academy in 1943, where he favoured the standardisation of Basque around the Labourdine dialect of the first printed books in Basque, and with an etymological orthography. However, the Academy preferred the Guipuscoan dialect as the basis of Standard Basque. Krutwig's Basque language standardisation proposal was not to be applied beyond the members of the ''Jakintza Baitha'' ("House of Knowledge") Hellenophile society. In 1952, after rejecting joining the Basque-Language Academy, and after his criticisms of the position of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in reference to the Basque language, he went into exile in France. Once in Donibane-Lohizune he contacted members of the movement . In 1963 he edited the book , in which he questioned part of the traditional Basque nationalism of Sabino Arana and proposed a new

. Krutwig collaborated with ex-militants of EGI and theorized about the use of violence for political purposes. In 1964 he was expelled from France and moved to Brussels, Belgium. Here he made contact with members of

. He elaborated some memoranda for ETA's V at Guethary, and put ETA in contact with the Czech weapon industry.
Federico Krutwig
at the Spanish-language

Auñamendi Encyclopedia The Auñamendi Encyclopedia is the largest encyclopedia of Basque culture and society, with 120,000 articles and more than 67,000 images. History Founded in 1958 by the Estornés Lasa brothers, Bernardo and Mariano. He began publishing in 196 ...

, by Idoia Estornés Zubizarreta and Félix Ibargutxi Otermin.'' In 1975 he abandoned ETA and established his residency back in Spain in Zarauz, to dedicate himself exclusively to literary production. His main writings are: * (1963): Published initially under the pseudonym of ''Fernando Sarrailh de Ihartza'', in which Krutwig describes an ideal Greater Basqueland comprising all the supposedly historical territories, from the

Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – ...

to the

Ebro , name_etymology = , image = Zaragoza shel.JPG , image_size = , image_caption = The Ebro River in Zaragoza , map = SpainEbroBasin.png , map_size = , map_caption = The Ebro ...

rivers. * (''The New Europe'', 1976): In this essay Krutwig extends his ideas on Greater Vasconia to Western Europe, claiming and hoping for an "internal

decolonization Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...

" of the continent and proposing what could be grossly taken as the Europe of the Regions. * (''Garaldea: On the origin of Basques and their relation to Guanches'', 1978): In this, maybe his most scientific and serious essay, Krutwig studies the origins of the Basques and explores a hypothetical (land of "we are" or land of the flame), extending at some time in the past through all Western Europe and the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

basin. In the annexes, he analyzes transcriptions of

Guanche Guanche may refer to: *Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands *Guanche language, an extinct Berber language, spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century *''Conus guanche ''Conus guanche'' is a species of sea snail, a ma ...

(native

Canarian Canary Islanders, or Canarians ( es, canarios), are a Romance people and ethnic group. They reside on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of northwest Africa, and descend from a mixture of European settlers and abo ...

) and

Pictish Pictish is the extinct Brittonic language spoken by the Picts, the people of eastern and northern Scotland from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages. Virtually no direct attestations of Pictish remain, short of a limited number of geographica ...

inscriptions, concluding that their two extinct languages are not just related to Basque but that they are the very same tongue. This daring claim has not been corroborated by anyone so far, and nearly all specialists in the subject consider it erroneous. * (''The New Vasconia'', 1979): a substantially enlarged re-edition of , after the death of Franco. * (1984) He spoke and read several ancient and modern languages. He translated works of

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as tr ...

and

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

into Basque. Krutwig died in Bilbao in 1998.

Influence

The Basque folk group released an album featuring collaborations with Canarian musicians.

References

*
Apuntes sobre la vida de Federico Krutwig Sagredo
' by Maria Agirre *
Computer Shock·a Euskari.a +2001. Urthea
', Basque translation of Krutwig's "Computer Shock Vasconia Año 2001" by Arima −23/11/14 43°19′17′′N 1°59′8′′W

Sources

* Sudupe, Pako 2011: ''50eko hamarkadako euskal literatura I. Hizkuntza eta ideologia eztabaidak'', Donostia, Utriusque Vasconiae. * Sudupe, Pako 2011: ''50eko hamarkadako euskal literatura II. Kazetaritza eta saiakera'', Donostia, Utriusque Vasconiae. * Sudupe, Pako 2012: "Ideologia eztabaidak 50eko hamarkadan" in Alaitz Aizpuru (koord.), ''Euskal Herriko pentsamenduaren gida'', Bilbo, UEU.

External links

Comprehensive bibliography of Federico Krutwig
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krutwig, Federico 1921 births 1998 deaths People from Getxo Spanish people of German descent Basque writers Spanish male writers Basque-language writers Spanish anarchists Spanish revolutionaries ETA (separatist group) activists Male essayists Spanish essayists 20th-century essayists