Brenner Pass part of County of Tyrol (now South Tyrol), was transferred to Italy, and Italian troops occupied Tyrol and arrived at Brenner Pass in 1919 to 20. During World War II, German Führer Adolf Hitler and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini met at Brenner Pass to celebrate their Pact of Steel on 18 March 1940. Brenner Pass was part of the ratlines that were used by some fleeing Nazis after the German surrender in 1945. The motorway E45 (European designation; in Italy A22, in Austria A13), Brenner Autobahn/Autostrada del Brennero, begins in Innsbruck, runs through Brenner Pass, Bozen/Bolzano, Verona and finishes outside
Brenner railway station had been destroyed to make room for a new area, long, for the station building and other rail infrastructure. The arrival of railway opened a new era for the village: it confirmed Brenner Pass, which has already been a major trans-Alpine crossing from the ancient Roman times, as the principal mountain pass for travellers and merchants. Moreover, the railway enabled more efficient movement of troops for the Austrian Empire to secure its southern regions of modern-day Veneto and Lombardy. On 26 April 1915, the Treaty of London promised Italy the territory south of the Brenner Pass (now known as South