South Tyrol: language use in public space

South Tyrol is an autonomous province, which belongs to the Italian Republic. Its territory is specific for several reasons. This is caused by the historical development and also by the fact that South Tyrol is a crossroad where the Germanic culture and language meets the Romanesque one. The citizens are usually bilingual. The language issue offers a large number of topics, which can be further examined. This thesis is focused on language use in the public sector nowadays. First, the historical context of the South Tyrolean question will be explained with focus on language because the current state results from past events. Second, I will explore three following areas of the public sector: communication with public administration, politicians and at school. The main emphasis will be again placed on language. Next, I will deal with the language model of South Tyrol. My goal is to try to answer this question: Is the described model functional, stable and possibly transferable?