Lower Styria

Lower Styria ( Spodnja Štajerska ) (4) as one of the five historical landscapes in Slovenia.

Lower Styria (Štajerska) divided into several statistical regions of Slovenia

Proposal for federal state-like administrative regions in Slovenia, which has not yet been implemented.

The Stajerska (in the former Slovenian language , the German corresponded , Spodnja Štajerska today slovenska Štajerska or only , Štajerska Croatian Donja Štajerska ) is that part of the former Duchy Steiermark , between the lower Mur and the upper Save is located. It has an area of ​​6050 km². As part of the duchy, the area belonged to the Habsburg hereditary lands from the Middle Ages until 1918 .

From the end of October 1918 it belonged de facto and de jure since the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919 to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , from 1929 to Yugoslavia , until 1941 as a kingdom and from 1945 as the Socialist Federal Republic . Since 1991 it has been part of the new state of Slovenia . Lower Styria is not identical to southern Styria , the southern part of what is now the Austrian state of Styria.

Designations

The designations "Südsteiermark" and "Untersteiermark" cannot always be separated exactly: In the years around 1920 it was discussed whether the "Untersteiermark" should be called "Südsteiermark". Some publications from this time mean Lower Styria by Südsteiermark. It was also put up for discussion whether to designate (only) the part of Lower Styria around the center of Marburg as Südsteiermark . This meant the southeastern parts of the Marburg district , essentially the Drautal ( Podravje ) in present-day Slovenia (in contrast to the areas around Cilli ): These would be the Bachern - Possruck area, the Windischen Bühel , the southern Styrian edge furrow in the south of the Bachern, the Draufeld ( Pettauer Feld) and the Kollos ( Haloze , the strip of area near Sauritsch , east and west of Anchenstein Castle south of the Draufeld).

At that time, the northern border of the district authorities of Marburg, Windischgraz and Luttenberg was seen as the border with Central Styria .

The historian Hans Pirchegger considered using the name “Südsteiermark” instead of “Lower Styria” in one of his works, but he refrained from using the term “Untersteyer” as early as 1557.

The most important cities are Maribor (Marburg an der Drau), Celje (Cilli), Velenje (Wöllan) and Ptuj (Pettau) .

See also : List of German names for Slovenian places

With the reorganization of the Republic of Slovenia for EU purposes in 2005 (but so far without political-administrative significance), part of the Štajerska landscape, namely the town of Slovenj Gradec (Windischgrätz), as well as Radlje ob Dravi (Mahrenberg), Muta (Hohenmauthen) , Mislinja (Missling), Vuzenica (Saldenhofen), Podvelka (Podwölling) and Ribnica na Pohorju (Reifing am Bachern) added to the statistical region Koroška (No. 4) and the remaining part to newly named statistical regions - mainly No. 8: Podravska regija (" Draugegend ”) and no. 10: Savinjska regija (“ Sann area ”) - split so that the name“ Štajerska ” no longer appears in the series of twelve statistical regions of Slovenia .

history

During the Middle Ages, the areas of Lower Styria were owned by various noble families, the most important of which were not vassals of the Styrian dukes, but were imperial free. The county behind the Drauwald around Marburg an der Drau and the county of Cilli were relatively independent . Beginning in the 12th century, the margraves and dukes of Styria acquired more and more properties in Lower Styria. With the extinction of the Counts of Cilli (1456), Emperor Friedrich III. unite their important property with the Duchy of Styria . The expansion of the Lower Styrian cities and the development of an urban bourgeoisie was primarily carried out by the German-speaking population that had lived here since the Middle Ages.

The conception of which area should be understood as “Lower Styria” (or “styria inferior”) changed in the 19th century at the latest. Until the first half of the 19th century, the area south of the line Gleinalm - Frohnleiten - Fischbacher Alps - Alpl - Pfaffen (-sattel) , thus also western and eastern Styria, was seen in literature as "Lower Styria" . The Graz district was shown as the northern part of Lower Styria (see historical map). To the north of it, the Brucker (and Judenburger ) district formed Upper Styria. Central Styria was not shown. Grazer , Marburger Kreis and Cillier Kreis were regarded as Lower Styria. In the middle of the 19th century the term Mittel-Steiermark appeared in official official documents and Lower Styria was restricted to parts of the Marburger Kreis and the Cillier Kreis.

In the last census of the monarchy in 1910, about 15% German-speaking and 85% Slovene-speaking Styrians lived in Lower Styria. 73,148 Lower Styrians named German as their colloquial language. While the German population was mainly located in cities such as Marburg (80% German), Pettau (86% German) and Cilli (67% German), St. Leonhard in Windischbüheln , Luttenberg, Friedau , Windisch-Feistritz , Windischgraz and Pragerhof , the Slovenes lived mainly in the country. There was a German majority in an area in the north along the new state border. It reached across the Drau valley to the ridge of the Windischen Bühel. Likewise the Abstaller Feld and the language island that Marburg formed with some surrounding villages. Nevertheless, before the First World War, the German minority made up the leading strata in business and politics. (The map above about the "main German settlement areas" in Slovenia comes from the time after the First World War. According to the common language in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy , the German-speaking inhabitants of the Danube monarchy were called Germans).

At the end of the First World War , in November 1918, the Slovenian major of the Austro-Hungarian army and later Yugoslav general Rudolf Maister and 4,000 Slovenian volunteers brought the mostly Slovenian-settled Lower Styria as well as the predominantly German Marburg under his control. The regional assembly of the Duchy of Styria took note on November 6th, 1918, without the Slovenian delegates from Lower Styria, that the other tribe , which had been settled in the previous crown land, now wanted to live outside of German-Austrian Styria.

When more than 10,000 pro-Austrian Lower Styrians gathered on January 27, 1919 on the occasion of upcoming negotiations between a US delegation under Lieutenant Colonel Sherman Miles and General Maister about the future border on the main square in Marburg, Slovenian soldiers opened fire. The Marburg's Bloody Sunday claimed 13 dead and 60 wounded.

On this historical map from around 1800 the surroundings of Graz, West and East Styria are referred to as the "northern part of Lower Styria"; this does not correspond to the current term around 1900.

On the basis of the Treaty of St. Germain , Lower Styria was definitively incorporated into the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes , later Yugoslavia . The German-speaking civil servants were dismissed and the German-speaking schools were converted to Slovene as the language of instruction. These measures were presented by the Yugoslav side as a response to the forced Germanization of the Slovenes in the areas of Carinthia that remained with Austria . Thousands of Lower Styrians left the country after 1918, partly voluntarily, partly forced through indirect measures or politically deported. All German-speaking schools and associations were forcibly dissolved or confiscated. In the census in 1921, the proportion of German-speaking Lower Styrians fell to 22,531, and in 1931 only 12,410 stated German as their mother tongue. When looking at the results of the censuses, one must take into account that they are based on information provided by the population, which means that the respective dominant ethnic group automatically received more and more mentions.

With the attack of the Third Reich on Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, the region was occupied by the Wehrmacht and administered as the Lower Styria CdZ area until 1945 . The National Socialists pursued a policy of systematic Germanization. In a speech in Marburg an der Drau after taking the city, Adolf Hitler ordered his officers: "Make this country German again!" Administrative posts as well as teaching positions were filled either with civil servants from the German Reich or members of the local German minority ( ethnic Germans ). The lessons at the schools were only held in German . Slovenes were forcibly recruited for service in the Wehrmacht and sent to the Eastern Front, where many perished. A large number eluded by joining the Tito partisans .

For the settlement of around 11,200 German Gottscheers who left the Lower Carniola annexed by Italy , around 36,100 Slovenes from the areas of Gurkfeld / Krško , Rann / Brežice , Lichtenwald / Sevnica and Ratschach / Radeče were forcibly resettled and placed in camps of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VoMi) deported in the German Reich.

On the basis of the AVNOJ resolutions of November 21, 1944, the members of the German-speaking minority were expropriated by the Yugoslav authorities without compensation after the defeat of the Wehrmacht in 1945 (movable and immovable property), lost their civil rights and were expelled . Many people declared as ethnic Germans perished in internment camps .

From 1945 Lower Styria was again part of Yugoslavia and now belongs to Slovenia, which became independent in 1991. The German-speaking ethnic group has shrunk to small remnants and is not recognized by Slovenia as a minority.

Lower Styria in the historic Duchy of Styria

• 
• Upper Styria
• Central Styria
• 
• Lower Styria (4).
• 

  Historic Styria comprised areas in what is now Slovenia and Austria.

Structure of the Duchy of Styria in Austria-Hungary :

1. Upper Styria (Slovenian Zgornja Štajerska)

   The border between Upper and Central Styria is formed by the Styrian Rand Mountains ( Stubalpe , Gleinalpe , Hochalpe and Fischbacher Alps ).

2. Central Styria(Slovenian Srednja Štajerska)

   2a. Weststeiermark (west of the Mur, formerly also West Central Styria )

   2 B. Oststeiermark (east of the Mur, formerly also East Central Styria )

   Furthermore, the southern parts of West and East Styria are now known as southern Styria . To the north, this is roughly delimited from the rest of Central Styria by the Deutschlandsberg - Wildon - Bad Gleichenberg line .

   The border between Central and Lower Styria is formed by Poßruck , the northernmost part of the Windischen Bühel and the Mur .

3. Lower Styria ( Slovenian Spodnja Štajerska )

literature

• Janez Cvirn: "The fortress triangle ". On the political orientation of the Germans in Lower Styria (1861-1914). In: Research on the historical regional studies of Styria, Vol. 76. Ed .: Historical regional commission for Styria . (Translation of the work Trdnjavski trikotnik , published in Slovene : Politična orientacija Nemcev na Spodnjem Štajerskem (1861-1914). Maribor, 1997 ). With an afterword by Martin Moll. ISBN 978-3-643-50757-0 . LIT publishing house; Berlin / Münster / Vienna 2017.
• Joachim Hösler: From Carniola to Slovenia: the beginnings of the national differentiation processes in Carniola and Lower Styria from the Enlightenment to the Revolution from 1768 to 1848 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-486-57885-0 (Habilitation University of Marburg 2004, 414 pages).
• Gerhard Jochem, Georg Seiderer (ed.): Disenfranchisement, expulsion, murder . Nazi injustice in Slovenia and its traces in Bavaria 1941–1945. Metropol Verlag , Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-936411-65-4
• Harald Heppner (Ed.): Slovenes and Germans in Common Space: New Research on a Complex Topic . Conference of the Southeast German Historical Commission (Maribor), September 2001. Oldenbourg, Munich 2002.
• Stefan Karner (Ed.): The staff meetings of the NS civil administration in Lower Styria 1941–1944, Leykam, Graz 1996, ISBN 3-7011-7302-8
• Manfred Straka: Lower Styria Unforgotten Home (= Eckart-Schriften. Issue 76). Vienna 1980
• Hans Hermann Frensing: The resettlement of the Gottscheer Germans . Oldenbourg, Munich 1970, DNB 456659072 (Dissertation FU Berlin)
• Hans Pirchegger: Lower Styria in the history of their dominions and guilds, cities and markets . R. Oldenbourg publishing house, Munich, 1962.
• Ragimund Reimesch : Lower Styria . Alpenland bookstore Südmark, Graz 1944.
• Wilhelm Sattler: Lower Styria . A presentation of the population policy and economic fundamentals. The Joanneum No. 8, Steirische Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1942.
• H. Volkmar: Lower Styria, the German Southeast Mark. Wilhelm Sima, Deutschlandsberg 1934.

Web links

Commons : Štajerska  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Commons : Untersteiermark  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Pavelhaus.at: The Germans in Slovenia 1918–1941 . The article deals in particular with the situation in Lower Styria and the takeover of military power in Marburg by Rudolf Maister .
• South Styrian Post . Newspaper published in Marburg twice a week from 1881 to 1900.
• Marburg Newspaper . Official organ of the Styrian Heimatbund. Newspaper published three times a week in Marburg from 1871 to 1945 (1870: Tagesbote für Untersteiermark, 1862–1864: Correspondent for Untersteiermark). ZDB ID 2799043-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ January 1919: The Blood Day of Marburg ad Drau. The press , accessed November 13, 2013 . 
2. ^ Tragedy in the southern Slavic settlement area. Young Freedom , accessed November 13, 2013 . 
3. ↑ The German Lower Styrians. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013 ; Retrieved November 13, 2013 . 
4. ^ Robert Sieger : The landscape structure of the lowlands. In: Franz Hausmann (Ed.): Südsteiermark. A memorial book. Verlag Ulrich Moser (J. Mayerhoff), Graz 1925. pp. 28-37.
5. ↑ Hans Pirchegger: The Lower Styria in the history of their dominions and Gülten. Book series of the Southeast German Historical Commission. Volume 10. Oldenbourg, Munich 1962. ISSN  0562-5270 , ZDB -ID 541487-8 . P. 259.
6. ↑ Johann Jacob Heinrich Czikann, Franz Gräffer: Oesterreichische National-Encyklopädie or alphabetical presentation of the most remarkable peculiarities of the Austrian Empire with regard to nature, life and institutions, industry and commerce, public and private institutions, education and science, literature and art, geography and statistics, history, genealogy and biography, as well as all the main objects of its civilization relations. Especially the new and the newest times. Processed in a spirit of impartiality. In commission of the F. Beck'schen Universitäts-Buchhandlung, Vienna 1836. In six volumes. Fifth volume Seeauer - V, Steyermark II - Geography and Statistics. S. 200. Czikann, National-Encyclopedia 1836. in the Google book search
7. ↑ Joseph Baptist Schütz: General geography for thinking and educated readers or, description of all countries of the five parts of the world, their location, their climate, their natural products, national culture, most remarkable cities, most beautiful areas, most interesting works of art, ruins and monuments, then their inhabitants, theirs Lifestyle, clothing, trade, arts, sciences, religion and the state constitution Volume 12. Verlag A. Doll. Vienna 1808. S. 172. Schütz, Allgemeine Erdkunde 1808. in the Google book search
8. ↑ Decree of the Ministry of the Interior of August 23, 1849, Reichsgesetzblatt No. 373/1849, p. 664.
9. ^ Stefan Karner: Styria in the Third Reich. Leykam, Graz 1986. ISBN 3-7011-7171-8 . P. 124
10. ^ Stefan Karner: Styria in the Third Reich. Leykam, Graz 1986. ISBN 3-7011-7171-8 . P. 125
11. ^ Stefan Karner: The German-speaking ethnic group in Slovenia. Hermagoras, Klagenfurt 1998. ISBN 3-85013-592-6 . P. 25