Born in Sterzing/Vipiteno in South Tyrol on 22.2.1946. His father Artur (1900-1974), a doctor, was born and raised in Vienna before moving to Bolzano in 1914. His mother, Elisabeth Kofler (1909-1983), from Tyrol in Sterzing, was a pharmacist. Two younger brothers: Martin and Peter. He attended German-language elementary schools in Vipiteno and, from 1956/57, middle school and private gymnasium of the Franciscan fathers in Bolzano.

After graduating, in 1963/64, he studied in Florence where he frequented the emerging Catholic dissent movements. There he met Valeria Malcontenti whom he married in 1985. He maintained close contacts with South Tyrolean reality, during a period of terrorist complications in the ethnic conflict. He graduated with Paolo Barile on 18.7.68, 110 cum laude/110, in Law at the University of Florence, with a thesis on "Provincial autonomy of Bolzano within the framework of regional autonomy of Trentino Alto Adige and its reform prospects." And on 5.7.72, 110/110, in Sociology at Trento with a thesis written together with Bruno Lovera "Analysis of classes and social contradictions in South Tyrol." He founded in 1967, with other young South Tyrolean intellectuals, the monthly "Die Brucke," which was published until spring 1969. He taught in Bolzano and Merano from February 68 to June 72.

From June 72 to September 73 he served in the military as a mountain artillery soldier. Then he was a scholarship recipient in West Germany where he worked among immigrants and studied the emerging peace and international solidarity movements. He collaborated with the daily newspaper Lotta Continua and briefly became its editor-in-chief. From 1975/76 to 77/78 he taught history and philosophy at the XXIII Scientific High School in Rome.

He returned to South Tyrol and was elected on 18.11.1978 as regional councilor for Neue Linke/New Left, on a list supported by the Radical Party. He refused ethnic nominal registration in the 1981 census together with thousands of conscientious objectors. With this he lost his teaching position which was later restored to him by a Constitutional Court ruling. He resigned by rotation on 17.12.1981, resumed translation work, was assigned to the University of Trento, with collaborations also in Urbino and Klagenfurt. In November 1983 he was re-elected regional councilor in the Alternative List for the other South Tyrol/Das andere Südtirol, supported by climber Reinhold Messner, and then, in 1988, in the Green Alternative List/Lista Verde Alternativa.

In the 1980s he was among the promoters of the Green political movement in Italy and Europe, as an innovative and transversal force. He participated in an intense research dialogue with left-wing culture, the radical area, Christian and religious commitment, new spiritualities, non-conformist and original areas that also emerged among conservatives and on the right, or from movements not included in the canonical arc of politics.

In 1984 he was tasked with giving the introductory report at the first national assembly of green lists in Florence in December 84. He served as guarantor for the 1987 parliamentary elections but his proposal to "dissolve the green lists" after the vote and not ghettoize a promising movement in a small self-referential party was in the minority.

He then resumed weaving new threads of relationship with the archipelago of civic initiatives and associations: in cross-border movements like "SOS-Transit," "Pro vita alpina," "Arge-Alp," "Alpe Adria"; with associations and movements for the ecological conversion of society and economy like the "Fair of concrete utopias in Città di Castello," the "GAB - Group for attention to biotechnology," the "Dobbiaco Colloquia" and the "South Tyrol Eco-institute," the "Climate Alliance" network, "S.O.S Dolomites," "Greenpeace," "WWF," "Legambiente," "Italia Nostra," the "Promoting Committee for an International Environmental Tribunal," the new international network of "eco-sensitive trade unionists."

Elected deputy to the European Parliament in 1989 in the North-East constituency, he became the first president of the newly established European Green Group. He sought to creatively exploit the strong economic privileges linked to the mandate and, in the midst of "tangentopoli," decided to periodically make public the accounts of his income and expenses.

He collaborated and wrote for various newspapers and magazines and participated in numerous meetings and debates, avoiding parades and favoring small research groups with strong ethical commitment.
Langer believed little in the ecology of filters and limit values (without neglecting, however, the battle for both) and considered himself committed to an ecological conversion of society, with preference for conscious self-limitation, valorization of the local and community dimension, conviviality.

He committed to and supported international solidarity movements and initiatives such as the "North-South Campaign" and numerous NGOs like CRIC, Terra Nuova, Crocevia, the "Campaign for the return of lands to the Xavantes Indians," "Kairos Europa," "Quart Monde," "Terre des hommes," the emerging network of ethical banks, critical consumption, World Shops. The European Parliament approved his report and resolution on fair and solidarity trade.

From South Tyrol or Brussels it was difficult to dialogue with Italian politics. He wrote in numerous newspapers and magazines always on specific or current issues. He continuously maintained for eleven years, from 1984 to 1995, a monthly observatory, "Brief aus Italien - Letter from Italy" for the Frankfurt magazine "Kommune."

He ran for the Senate, in a Bolzano constituency, in the 1992 elections. He was not elected. He refused a "safe" seat in Florence for the progressive coalition and, after much doubt, accepted to run again in the European elections of June 94. He was elected with 42,000 preferences in the North-East constituency, of which 18,800 in South Tyrol alone, with a percentage close to 9%.

From January 91 he was president of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. Author of various reports and resolutions approved by Parliament: opening to Albania, civilian reconversion of the Comiso missile base, transit agreement with Austria and cooperation with Slovenia, relations between the European Union and Albania. He promoted the "Committee of solidarity with Albania" during the country's most serious crisis period. He carried out various official missions for the EP, e.g. to Sarajevo, Helsinki II Conference, Conference for stability in Europe, then to Israel, Georgia, Egypt, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Lebanon, Cyprus, Malta.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, his commitment to countering growing nationalisms gradually increased, supporting forces of interethnic conciliation in the territories of former Yugoslavia. The European Parliament approved his report and proposal for the establishment of an International Tribunal for crimes against humanity in former Yugoslavia and one on "East-West relations and security policy." He was a member of the "European Action Council for Peace in the Balkans" and co-founder, with Austrian parliamentarian Marijana Grandits, of the "Verona Forum for peace and reconciliation in former Yugoslavia" which offered a dialogue table to hundreds of coexistence militants who met in Verona, Vienna, Paris, Tuzla, Zagreb, Skopje. 

He collaborated with this priority with groups committed to peace, human rights and minority ethnicities, such as "CONFEMILI," the "Gesellschaft für Bedrohte Volker - Association for Threatened Peoples," the "Helsinki Citizens' Assembly," "Amnesty International," the "Blessed Peacemakers," the "Women in Black" movement, the "Peace Association," the "Nonviolent Movement," "Pax Christi," the "F.E.R.L - European Federation of Free Radios."

At the beginning of the war he supported the "Anti-war Campaign Center" in Zagreb, the "Center for Nonviolence" in Ljubljana, the "Anti-war Center" in Belgrade. He participated in the two Peace Caravans to Kosovo and in the territories of former Yugoslavia in 1991. From January 1992 he was an alternate member of the EP delegation for relations with the Republics of former Yugoslavia. On June 26 he went to Cannes with other parliamentarians to bring to heads of state and government a dramatic appeal: "Europe dies or is reborn in Sarajevo."

In the 1981 and 1991 censuses Alexander Langer, who had always declared himself to be of German mother tongue, refused to adhere to the nominal registration that reinforced the policy of ethnic division. With this pretext in May '95 he was excluded, without too much scandal, from candidacy as Mayor of Bolzano, his city.

He decided to end his life on July 3, 1995, at the age of 49. He rests in the small cemetery of Telves/Telfes (BZ), next to his parents.

Edi Rabini