Federico Krutwig was born on 15 May 1921 in Getxo, 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 BaithaHellenophile society. In 1952, after rejecting Luis Villasante joining the Basque-Language Academy, and after his criticisms of the position of the Catholic Church in reference to the Basque language, he went into exile in France. Once in Donibane-Lohitzune he contacted members of the movement Jagi-Jagi. In 1963 he edited the book Vasconia, in which he questioned part of the traditional Basque nationalism of Sabino Arana and proposed a new Basque nationalism. 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. Here he made contact with members of ETA. He elaborated some memoranda for ETA's V at Guethary, and put ETA in contact with the Czech weapon industry. 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:
Vasconia : 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 to the Ebro rivers. It was inspired by the Algerian independentism and anti-colonialism and proposes armed combat against Spain and France, taking Basque nationalism beyond the traditional views of Sabino Arana. Vasconia was clandestinely published with a limited circulation. The Francoist police believed that it was an inspiration for ETA, which was not the case, but police questioning stirred the interest of many members and sympathizers of the armed group, giving some fame to Krutwig. The intellectual and former ETA member Jon Juaristi said that, during reminiscences, fellow member Juan María Bandrés once commented "So you are the one who actually read it!".
La Nueva Europa : In this essay Krutwig extends his ideas on Greater Vasconia to Western Europe, claiming and hoping for an "internal decolonization" of the continent and proposing what could be grossly taken as the Europe of the Regions.
Garaldea: Sobre el origen de los vascos y su relación con los guanches : In this, maybe his most scientific and serious essay, Krutwig studies the origins of the Basques and explores a hypothetical Garaldea, extending at some time in the past through all Western Europe and the Mediterranean basin. In the annexes, he analyzes transcriptions of Guanche and Pictish 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.
La Nueva Vasconia : a substantially enlarged re-edition of Vasconia, after the death of Franco.
Computer Shock Vasconia Año 2001
He spoke and read several ancient and modern languages. He translated works of Goethe and Mao Zedong into Basque. Krutwig died in Bilbao in 1998.
Influence
The Basque folk groupOskorri released an album Garaldea featuring collaborations with Canarian musicians.
