Writer and linguist, born in 1921 in Getxo (Vizcaya), and died on 13 November 1998 in their hometown. Son of a German father, representative of the German company Krupp, and Italian mother, although of Basque origin, Federico Krutwig was most outstanding driver the study of Basque in a period difficult for the Basque Academy, as it was in the years immediately following the end of the Spanish Civil War. Apart from his outstanding philological contribution, Krutwig was a true scholar, expert in more than twenty languages (especially the classical Greek, but also the Persian and Sanskrit), an atypical intellectual and an excellent novelist, as well as the Chief political ideologist of the Basque independence through his works, whose influence has been extraordinary in the development of such a movement during the 20th century.
Federico Krutwig started studying Euskara at age ten and was done practically in hiding because of parental opposition. As a faithful representative of the social and European position of his family, he studied law at the Paris University of La Sorbonne and the Bonn economics; He retired in both races. Despite this, his interest in Basque not declined and, after his return to the Basque country, locked contact with the President of the Academy of the Basque language, resurrection María de Azkue, which provided the necessary support so that he revitalize the institution. Much of their academic had died in the fratricidal strife, that, despite its prohibition, the vigilant that the headquarters of the Academy was subject prevented resident linguists in the French country meetings. Thanks to the tenacity of Krutwig, meetings began to be held with relative frequency and the number of academics, of which it formed part since the beginning, increased moderately. Precisely because of this extension of members he met René Lafon, one of the most prestigious linguistic authorities of the Basque language.
In relation to the linguistic principles, Krutwig clashed intellectually Academy, since it was shown as a fervent supporter of extending Basque universally to all the Basque territory; but, against the linguistic base defended by the rest of the members, a geographic mix of spoken in Navarra and Guipuzcoa, Krutwig preferred the Lapurdi, hegemonic in the 16th century and which, in the following century, was replaced by the known as Axular. The reason that waged was, preferably, be considered to the Basque Lapurdi as the classic version of the Basque language, influencing its ease of learning that he himself had learned it spontaneously, while the academic choice was imposed at the end. However, and thanks to the contribution of Krutwig, Basque was moving away from the intolerant purism defended by Sabino Arana, which would be one of the most persistent criticism objects in Krutwig throughout his life. All this work of linguistic research came crashing down in 1952, when, at the reception ceremony to scholar Luis Villasante, delivered a speech that was condemned by the Francoist authorities due to its separatist content. Krutwig had to flee, pursued by the police, and was exiled to France. He spent long periods in Biarritz. In the neighboring country its reputation was great, since it was already a member of the Association of scientific research in Athens, but she had to work as a translator of books to make a living. Escape and exile from the Basque intellectual was immortalized in the compositions of other Bilbao, the poet Blas de Otero, who honored him with a sonnet contained in his fiercely human Ángel, published a few months later.
The route of the exile was not easy for the scholar of the Basque language, since he lived in France, Belgium, Italy and Germany. He did not abandon his interest in Philology, as he published a treatise of Comparative Linguistics between Basque and other languages called Garaldea, but in the 60 years of the century XX Federico Krutwig lived with concern the process of independence of the African and Asian countries, which led him to a literary and personal approach to approaches to extreme left. It was at this time when he did translations into various languages (among them, naturally, the Basque of Lapurdi) against the liberalism of Mao Zedong and when was fascinated by Algeria. Indeed, intellectual krutwig restlessness and the influence of ideology Marxist get noticed in a personal confrontation, reflected in his works, settled between his admiration for the classics and the thought of Nietzsche, its first and main influence, and the time Marxist literature, especially the tender attributed to Ernesto Che Guevara, or, already in the 1970s, the classic Jules Debray: strategy for revolution. An example of this are his works written between 1964 and 1975, as Computer shock Vasconia (the most nietszcheana of all of them), or the novels in Basque Belatzen baratza and Ekhaitza of complicated reading because of its intellectual content.
However, his main work dates back to 1963, as it appears to be written in a short stay in Biarritz: Vasconia, actually consisting of Vasconia, new Vasconia and Vasconia trilogy with Peter Shock, year 2001. It was published in Spain signed under the pseudonym of Fernando Sarrailh de Ihartza, and as a result was part of the collective consciousness of the Basque independence movement, ETA founders custom (Euzkadi ta Askatasuna), Txabi Etxebarrieta and Julen Madariaga, who always considered Krutwig as a remarkable flow of political-philosophical ideas. It seems unlikely that its author militara clearly in the Organization, but does record of writing several articles and reports on the occasion of the controversy V Assembly of ETA, which marked an important turning point in the development of the movement.
See ETA.
As in almost all of his work in Vasconia frequent contradictions between the iron will of independence and the opening to horizons of more universal bias, appreciate what can be also explained in the above stated terms of struggle between Nietzsche and Marxist communism. Despite this, the main influences of the political thought of Krutwig are rupture, both with racism proclaimed by Sabino Arana, as with the Catholic and religious vein, faithfully represented by the PNV (Basque nationalist party). To Krutwig, the base of the unit in the Basque country or was into ethnic components nor its realization could be a matter of divine intervention, but it was precisely the language, plural but not too different, fundamental sustenance of the unit in the Basque country. For the realization of independence, it was necessary to understand the terms of struggle and activism based on Marxist dialectic of revolutionary content. To get rid of the contradiction between the Basque uniqueness and universality class and worker of Marxism, Krutwig forced a comparison, somewhat idealistic and feeble, with the primitive society of Euskal Herria, which he considered organized way, rather than communal, Communist. The argument was weak, precisely because it also approached dangerously utopian vision of the primitive joy of Basques sweetened by Sabino Arana, but its propositional validity is unquestionable. To further strengthen its position, Krutwig devoted much of his work Vasconia the legitimization of armed struggle, though, and the point is very important, continuing with the terms of the Marxist revolution. As it seems evident by their plural formation and erudite, Krutwig was never alien to the rest of the social problems as he understood the Marxist universality and the Revolution itself, while at first glance, their arguments may seem excessively violent.
The main influence of his thought was contained just in armed violence, especially in the argument of the spiral accion-represion, line constantly used by ETA in its attacks. The influence of ideology guerrilla Marxist implemented by the Cuban Revolution (Che Guevara, Jules Debray and, even, the own Castro), is palpable in this sense, which served as a spur and model of the Basque movement in time of Franco. After the death of the dictator (1975), Krutwig returned to Bilbao, but in the following years was both very critical with the armed as with their political apparatus, Herri Batasuna (HB) Organization. In various studies and publications of the years 80 and 90, Krutwig complained of the abandonment of the tenets of Marxist revolution by armed Basque independence leaders, but his fiercest criticism again returned to the ambiguity of the PNV, which qualify as "delusional". Despite its rejection of the environment of violence Navy not revolutionary, during the last years of his life Krutwig continued faithful to his ideas of independence, harshly criticizing the disregard of the new European authorities by groups such as the Basque country, Corsica or Ulster children, and also the attitudes of the Spanish and French Governments with regard to currents nationalist of the territories ruled by its institutions. The day before his death, on 12 November 1998, the Basque newspaper Deia published his latest article, containing some acid statements against the President of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar.