History of Vorarlberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coat of arms of Vorarlberg until 1918

The history of Vorarlberg can be traced through archaeological finds up to prehistory and early history.

Vorarlberg did not become an independent country of the Habsburg Monarchy until 1861 - until 1918, however, it was still part of an administrative unit with the " princes of Tyrol ". The name Vorarlberg was already common before that, but at times also included some areas in the Allgäu . Other areas of today's Vorarlberg only came into Habsburg possession at the beginning of the 19th century, and subsequently also to Vorarlberg.

After the collapse of Austria-Hungary , Vorarlberg became a federal state of the Republic of Austria and has existed since then, with one interruption during the time of National Socialism , in which Vorarlberg was incorporated into the Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg.

Prehistory and early history

The current state of Vorarlberg was covered by glaciers until the end of the last ice age . After the great ice melt, they left very humid swamp areas, which z. T. were at sea level. These damp plains in the Rhine Valley were backfilled by the Rhine in the following millennia. Remains of these wetlands are the reed and the Rhine delta area as well as all floodplain areas along the Ill and the Rhine .

Archaeological finds in the upper Rhine valley and in the Walgau region show early settlement activity in Vorarlberg, especially in the Inselberg area near Götzis and Koblach. In 1952, bone remnants were discovered in Koblach at the foot of the Kummenberg , which were traced back to around 7500 BC using the C-14 method in 2006. Were dated.
The hills of Feldkirch and the surroundings of Bregenz and Bludenz were also places of lively settlement activity. In the Dornbirn municipality, the oldest finds of human presence on the Sünser Joch and on the shores of the Sünser See can be dated from 1800 to 1900 m in the Middle Stone Age (8000 to 3000 BC), in the Montafon - mining near Worms (municipality of Bartholomäberg) - 7000 year old traces are documented. Another find, which was discovered in 1971 during excavation work for the new construction of the Achmühler Bridge, was identified as a bronze dagger blade and assigned to the Bronze Age (3000 to 1800 BC). It is the oldest find in the municipality in Dornbirn, which is still inhabited today.

The first larger settlement in Vorarlberg was around 1500 BC. In the area of ​​today's Bregenz. Around 400 BC The Celtic Brigantier tribe settled in what is now Vorarlberg.

Roman Empire

Around 15 BC Today's Vorarlberg was conquered by the Romans and added to the province of Raetia . A number of finds have been preserved from this period. The most important settlement in the area was the city of Brigantium , in the area of ​​today's state capital Bregenz , which at that time had around 1500 inhabitants. The Romans built numerous transit roads and post stations. In 259 AD the city of Brigantium was destroyed by the Alemanni and rebuilt by the local population. This event marks the beginning of the Alemanni immigration.

The Alemannic conquest

Alemannic expansion from the 3rd to the 6th centuries
Map of the Alemannic (red) and Hochburgundian (green) Reichsgaue in the 10th and 11th centuries

As in most parts of Europe, the early Middle Ages were eventful in Vorarlberg. Around 450 the Alemanni began to found settlements in Vorarlberg and to push back the Rhaeto-Romanic population. Between 610 and 612 the Irish missionaries Gallus and Columban worked in Vorarlberg and converted the population to Christianity. In 719 the St. Gallen Monastery was founded, which was also responsible for pastoral care in Vorarlberg and shaped the country for centuries. During this time Vorarlberg came under the rule of the Franks and in 843 it became part of the East Franconian Empire .

middle Ages

Today's Vorarlberg includes the entire Gau Ringowe (corresponds roughly to today's Vorarlberger Unterland and the Bregenz Forest) and the northern part of Churrätien . Even then, today's eastern border on the Arlberg was established. The Gaue were administered by counts. The County of Bregenz later emerged from the Gau Ringowe and was ruled by the Udalrichinger family until the middle of the 12th century . Because of their kinship with the Carolingians, they were able to take possession of the area.

The Counts of Bregenz and the St. Gallen Monastery soon developed into bitter rivals when it came to property issues. These disputes reached their preliminary climax in the 11th century in the context of the Europe-wide investiture dispute . In the context of this dispute, the St. Gallen monastery supported Emperor Heinrich IV , while the Bregenz counts supported the policy of Pope Gregory VII . With the Guelphs , one of the most important Swabian count families also held on to the Pope. When Duke Welf IV made a campaign southwards along the Rhine in 1079, he apparently annexed the possessions of the Sankt Gallen monastery and then distributed them as spoils of war to his house monasteries, the Benedictine abbey Weingarten and the women's monastery at Hofen (today Friedrichshafen). The most important monastery on the territory of the County of Bregenz was the Mehrerau monastery , which had several properties in the Vorarlberger Unterland and in what is now the Bregenz Forest .

Vorarlberg under the Counts of Montfort (13th century)

The Feldkircher Schattenburg was the ancestral seat of the Counts of Montfort-Feldkirch

In 1150, Count Rudolf von Bregenz, the last male member of the udalriching aristocratic family of Bregenz, died. His inheritance was shared by his son-in-law, Count Palatine Hugo I of Tübingen, and a distant relative of the deceased Count named Rudolf von Pfullendorf . The Count Palatine of Tübingen brought in the three-lobed coat of arms, which in the future should stand in different color variations for the various branches of the family resulting from the divisions. When Count Palatine Hugo died in 1182, he bequeathed the title of Count Palatine and all Tübingen possessions to the older of his two sons, Rudolf. His younger son, named Hugo, received goods and rights from the inherited Bregenz inheritance. This Hugo built a castle near Götzis around 1200, which he named Montfort (strong rock, strong castle). From then on he called himself von Montfort .

Around the same time he founded the city of Feldkirch with the construction of the Schattenburg . Hugo's sons, Hugo II and Rudolf, shared the paternal inheritance: while Hugo II received the possessions on the right bank of the Rhine, Rudolf split off with his possessions on the left bank of the Rhine, founded his own ancestral seat near Buchs and later named himself von Werdenberg . Around 1270, the Counts of Montfort split into three lines: Montfort-Feldkirch, Montfort-Bregenz and Montfort- Tettnang . Today's Vorarlberg was dominated by the two branches Montfort-Bregenz and Montfort-Feldkirch. The area of ​​the county of Bregenz belonged to the lords of Montfort-Bregenz and the rest of the area, which roughly corresponded to today's Vorarlberg districts of Feldkirch and Bludenz, was controlled by Montfort-Feldkirch.

In 1338 the Bregenz line of the Counts of Montfort died out. This led to the division of the County of Bregenz under the two remaining lines: the Dornbirn area came together with the rear Bregenzerwald to the Feldkirch rule and the rest to the Tettnang rule. This change of rule caused some turbulence in Dornbirn, especially among the upper class. Some of these Dornbirn citizens, led by Johann Huber (Huober), were committed to joining the Tettnang branch. When Ulrich von Montfort-Feldkirch annexed Dornbirn in 1338, the wealthy citizens had to provide guarantees against fluchsämi (unauthorized moving away). Huber nevertheless went to Count Wilhelm von Montfort-Tettnang, whereupon all his belongings were confiscated. It was not until two years later that an arbitration tribunal lifted these sanctions against Huber.

In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, the Walsers began to colonize the mountainous regions of Vorarlberg. Above all, they shaped the Great and Small Walsertal as well as the Arlberg area .

Vorarlberg becomes Upper Austrian (1375)

In 1337 Rudolf III. and Ulrich II., both from Montfort-Feldkirch, an eternal alliance with the Dukes of Austria , which brought the Montfort-Feldkirch possessions under Habsburg influence over the long term. In 1363, Duke Rudolf IV of Austria was the first Habsburg to gain a foothold in Vorarlberg by buying their castle and dominion from the Knights Thumb von Neuburg . At that time, Count Rudolf IV of Montfort-Feldkirch owned Feldkirch. Since three of his four sons died before him, the fourth son, Count Rudolf V, who was provost of Chur , left the clergy and married Agnes von Matsch in 1369 .

After his father's death on March 13, 1375, he succeeded him. On May 22nd of the same year he sold most of his property to Austria for 30,000 guilders. The last installment of the purchase price was paid in 1379. Therefore, on January 9, 1380, ammen and countrymen of the Bregenzerwald, von Staufen, Langenegg, Dornbirn and the specially mentioned parcel Knüwen (Knie) paid homage to their new sovereign, Duke Leopold III. and swore obedience to him.

In 1394 the Habsburgs acquired the rule of Bludenz with the Montafon and in 1397 the rule of Jagdberg. At the beginning of the 15th century, Vorarlberg got caught up in the turmoil of the Appenzell War , which also led to the great peasant unrest of 1402 in Vorarlberg, especially in the Walgau . At that time, Vorarlberg served the Habsburgs as a deployment area against the Swiss Confederates.

In 1451 the Habsburgs bought half of the county of Bregenz, in 1453 acquired the courts of Tannberg and Mittelberg, in 1474 the county of Sonnenberg (the truchess of Waldburg ) and in 1523 the second half of the county of Bregenz after the last branch of the Montfort family on Vorarlberg soil had died out. Thus the area of ​​today's Vorarlberg was under Habsburg rule, except for the rule of the Knights of Ems , the dominions of Blumenegg and St. Gerold, property of the Weingarten and Einsiedeln monasteries, and the imperial court Lustenau.

The now Habsburg dominions were administered by a bailiff who had his seat in the city of Feldkirch until 1753. Subsequently, the administration of the Vorarlberg areas was exercised until 1804 in Freiburg im Breisgau as part of Upper Austria . The rule of Ems became the imperial county of Hohenems in 1560 .

Reformation, witch trials and the Thirty Years War (approx. 1500 to approx. 1680)

Witch hunt

Like most areas of the Austrian monarchy, Vorarlberg was affected by witch trials. In Vorarlberg there were even relatively many witch hunts for Austrian standards . In 1498 the first witch was captured in Vorarlberg. It was the mother of the later court historian Jakob Mennel. In 1528 the first witch trial took place against Elsa Guotschelckhin from Latz near Nenzing . In the same year, the Feldkircher Stadtmedicus Georg Iserin, father of the scholar Georg Joachim Rheticus , was executed for fraud and witchcraft. In the middle of the 16th century there was a wave of witch persecution, which degenerated so that the landgraves had to intervene. The Bregenzerwald was particularly hard hit . Because of the intervention from Innsbruck , things remained quiet for a while.

Between 1570 and 1615, numerous witch trials took place in Vorarlberg. The persecutions were particularly strong around 1600, when several trials were taking place at the same time. The largest were in Dornbirn in 1604 and in Bregenz in 1609. Most of the executions occurred during the Bregenz Trial in 1609, when 16 people were executed.

During the Thirty Years War , the witch hunt subsided sharply. Only three alleged witches were executed between 1618 and 1648.

After the Thirty Years' War up to around 1677, several trials took place: in 1651 the last eight witches were executed in the Feldkirch area. In the same year, a woman died in Bregenz from the tortures she suffered during a witch trial. The last witch trial in Vorarlberg's territory took place in 1656/57 and ended with an acquittal for all defendants. In the County of Hohenems, which at that time did not belong to Vorarlberg, 24 people were executed as witches in 1649 and 1653. The last witch trial in the county of Hohenems was in 1677. After these trials, attempts were often made to initiate witch trials. However, this failed due to the authorities, which were then controlled from Innsbruck. It is believed that between 1528 and 1677 at least 166 people were executed as a result of a witch trial in Vorarlberg. 80 percent of them were female.

Reformation time

The turmoil caused by the Reformation began at the same time. The two brothers Bartholomäus and Johannes Bernardi from Schlins were closely connected to the Reformation . The two were working in Wittenberg at the time and were pupils of Martin Luther . Bartholomew triggered a dispute as early as 1516 because he defended Luther's theses and also became the first Protestant priest to break celibacy . He married in 1521, four years earlier than Luther.

In Vorarlberg itself, a large number of lay people as well as theologians professed Protestant teaching and had to leave the country as a result. They were given asylum in Protestant countries. At that time it was strictly forbidden in Vorarlberg to acquire the Reformed doctrine. It was not even allowed to take a job with a Protestant abroad.

In 1617/18 there was persecution of Anabaptists in the Bregenz Forest , which mainly concentrated on Au .

Thirty Years' War

In comparison to other areas, Vorarlberg was only marginally affected by the Thirty Years' War . It is believed that around 5 to 10 percent of the population perished in the chaos of war.

Vorarlberg played a particularly important role in the border war against Graubünden. Vorarlberg troops penetrated over the mountains into the Prättigau and caused enormous devastation there. The ruthless Counter-Reformation attempts that followed after the invasion, which were carried out mainly by Capuchins , led to resistance from the Graubünden. After they had defeated the Vorarlberg troops on the Fläscherberg in 1622, they undertook several raids in the summer of the same year, which led them to the Montafon, among other places, where they were particularly brutal: They looted a number of houses, looted hundreds of cattle and extorted pillage. Several invasions followed from Vorarlberg. An invasion of the Austrian troops in Graubünden ended the raids. Austria then controlled Graubünden until 1624 and from 1629 to 1631.

In the late 20s and 30s, the plague raged particularly badly in Vorarlberg in Dornbirn , where more than 50 percent of the population died. Bludenz , which was spared the plague, burned down in 1638.

In the 1630s, the theaters of war shifted from the south of the country to the north. The villages north of Bregenz were particularly hard hit, especially the Leiblachtal and the Allgäu areas, which at that time belonged to Vorarlberg. At the beginning of January 1647, Swedish troops conquered Bregenz and from there undertook several raids that took them into the Bregenz Forest and as far as Bludenz. However, due to the changed political situation, they soon had to leave.

Vorarlberg and the Jews

In 1617 the first Jews settled in Hohenems , where the only permanent Jewish community arose on Vorarlberg soil that existed until the Second World War .

Elsewhere, the stay of exiled Jews was short-lived: Between 1637 and 1644, some Jews settled in the Blumenegg estate and in some communities in the Rhine Valley, but left the country after a short time. However, the Jewish settlement in Sulz , which was established in 1677 by Jews in exile, lasted longer . Most of the Sulz Jews soon left the country, but the three richest of them stayed and founded the Jewish community of Sulz, which existed until 1744.

Enlightenment, revolts, upheavals and the Napoleonic Wars (1680 to 1861)

Revolt of the "common man" and wars of succession

After the turmoil of the wars of religion, which affected Vorarlberg to a greater or lesser extent and which caused the decline of the middle class in particular, there was now an unequal distribution of power in favor of the rich. This led to the common man's revolution at the beginning of the 18th century , which began in the Montafon . The result of this revolution was that there was a more just tax system in 1707 and that everyone had to declare their property under oath and have it taxed. Furthermore, it was stipulated in many community ordinances that the officials were no longer allowed to be related to each other.

These changes particularly affected the elites and were welcomed by the population. However, when a tax on the export of yarn was introduced at the same time, which mainly hit the lower classes, there were more serious unrest: in Dornbirn the tax collector was attacked by angry women and in Bregenz the senior official was forced by demonstrators to pay the levy to renounce. He was then expelled to Lindau . This resulted in military intervention that restored the old situation. This should remain one of the few revolutionary movements in Vorarlberg.

Vorarlberg was only indirectly affected by the wars of succession that raged in the first half of the 18th century. They made themselves felt mainly through the stationing of troops in the country.

Enlightenment, Theresian and Josephine reforms

Several reforms took place under Empress Maria Theresa . The administrative reform that led to the relocation of the administration from Innsbruck to Constance had a special impact on Vorarlberg . In 1763 the Habsburgs received the County of Hohenems after the male line there died out.

For the Vorarlberg Jews as well as for other religious groups in the monarchy, times were anything but rosy: In 1744 the Jews of Sulz were forcibly expelled. In 1750, Maria Theresa, the sovereign, banned the Jews from Vorarlberg for all eternity and forbade them to trade in Vorarlberg. This decree was preceded by years of anti-Jewish policies by the Vorarlberg estates. In 1769, the landlady issued an ordinance that limited the Jews' sphere of activity to the communities of Hohenems and Lustenau .

In 1770–1772 a synagogue was built in Hohenems for the local Jewish community. Today this building can be seen as the forerunner of the tolerance patent from 1781 issued by Josef II , which abolished serfdom and introduced the tolerance of non-Catholic religious practice.

Map of the provinces of the Tyrolean Oberamt Bregenz from 1783

The 1780s were eventful due to the reforms of Joseph II : On behalf of the emperor, as in the entire Austrian monarchy, the monasteries of contemplative orders were closed and monastery buildings were razed, 22 church holidays were abolished and one was established in 1786 state civil service that regulated many areas of public life. Processions, pilgrimages and other customs (bonfires, carnival, weathermen) were banned or severely restricted. In addition, as in the other Austrian hereditary lands , customary law was largely replaced by written law. Courts were only allowed to be filled with trained lawyers. These reforms also led to great resistance in Vorarlberg and in 1790 to the drafting of a complaint catalog by the Vorarlberg state parliament. Parts of the reform had to be repealed by Joseph's successor Leopold II, who came to the throne in 1790 because of the great resistance.

In 1783, due to the Josephine reforms, the establishment of a diocese based in Bregenz was discussed. At that time Vorarlberg was still ecclesiastically divided between the three dioceses of Constance , Chur and Augsburg . However, the foundation failed due to the resistance of the bishops. It would take until 1968 for the diocese of Feldkirch to emerge.

With the establishment of the Tyrolean district office of Vorarlberg in 1786, at the time for the Habsburg dominions of Bregenz and Hohenems, the state appeared as a closed area for the first time.

In 1804 the acquisition of the dominions Blumenegg and St. Gerold , formerly owned by the Weingarten and Einsiedeln monasteries , and finally in 1814 the former imperial court Lustenau rounded off the territory.

The Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars ( coalition wars ) that began after the French Revolution made themselves felt as early as 1795 through the arrival of French refugees and the stationing of soldiers. In 1796 the French advanced via Bregenz to Götzis . Although they could be driven out by the national defense, they caused enormous damage.

After the French occupied Switzerland in 1798, the Vorarlberg cities were fortified.

On 22./23. March 1799 there was a battle in Tosters near Feldkirch , where the Vorarlberg national defense under the leadership of Josef Sigmund Nachbauer and Bernhard Riedmiller as well as the Croatian general Jellachich crushed the French general André Masséna , who had advanced three times superiority. The passing troops of the allied Russian general Suworow plundered the country due to insufficient supplies, so that Vorarlberg faced a famine in October 1799.

The fortunes of war itself also quickly turned in France's favor: in the spring of 1800, the Austrian troops in southwest Germany had to give way to the French. This resulted in the occupation of Bregenz on May 11th and the conquest of Feldkirch on July 14th.

Soon after, the Peace of Campoformio came about , which was confirmed in the Peace of Lunéville of February 9, 1801 and meant enormous territorial losses for Austria.

In 1804, due to the dissolution of the ecclesiastical principalities and imperial cities (see Reichsdeputationshauptschluss 1803), the dominions of Blumenegg and St. Gerold came to Vorarlberg. In addition, in 1804 the imperial city of Lindau came to Vorarlberg for a short time due to an exchange contract signed with Karl August von Bretzenheim in 1803 .

After the Battle of the Three Emperors of Austerlitz on December 2nd, 1805, had a positive outcome for Napoleon, Austria had to cede Vorarlberg and Tyrol to Bavaria, allied with France, in the Peace of Preßburg .

Vorarlberg under Bavaria

Vorarlberg at the Kgr.Bavaria, 1808

As agreed in the Peace of Pressburg between Napoleon and Austria, Vorarlberg was annexed by Bavaria in March 1806 and incorporated into the Illerkreis with its administrative seat in Kempten. Bavaria recorded enormous territorial gains through the successful war on Napoleon's side, which made the reorganization of the kingdom inevitable. These reforms were even more far-reaching than those of Emperor Josef II: In addition to the razing of the last monasteries, the closure of some churches and chapels and the prohibition of many customs, Bavaria also introduced general conscription. The general conscription outraged the population so much that there was a women's uprising in Krumbach in 1807 : the women stole the recruitment data of their sons from the office of the responsible official.

Parallel to the unrest in Tyrol and the renewed war between France and Austria (Austro-French War), there was also a popular uprising in Vorarlberg in 1809 , which was led by Anton Schneider . The Vorarlberg troops were able to drive the Bavarians out of Vorarlberg, but were defeated after they had conquered the city of Lindau under the leadership of Bernhard Riedmiller , were able to advance across the lake to Constance and besieged this city too. However, the survey collapsed again in July of the same year. During this time, attempts were made to occupy the Bavarian Illerkreis capital, Kempten, but this failed. The Vorarlberg side had suffered great losses in fighting, as the Vorarlberg graves testify.

After the defeat of the Vorarlbergs, Napoleon demanded the shooting of Anton Schneider. However, this was not followed up. After the uprising, the situation eased again because the reforms were implemented in a much more humane manner and the country was governed in a much more federal way. At that time Bavaria abolished the old courts, introduced the social districts and created a modern judiciary. In 1810 an important census was held, the Montgelas census . In addition, in 1813 Jews were almost legally equated with Christians and were given a surname for the first time in Vorarlberg's history.

From the Congress of Vienna to the foundation of the state in 1861

After the end of the Napoleonic wars, Vorarlberg came back to Austria on July 7, 1814 , albeit without the Westallgäu , which had been an independent empire since 1804 . Austria no longer established the old constitution in full, which caused displeasure in the state parliament in particular. The Metternich system of state policy caused domestic lack of influence of subjects , police repression of all opposition, of spies and censorship in the tension of the citizens between this situation into account nehmendem Biedermeier hinarbeitendem and to changes Vormärz .

The year without a summer 1816 and the following year 1817 also brought a great famine over Vorarlberg. 1817 came Vorarlberg intervention of Emperor Franz I. for the diocese Brixen . A vicar general was sent to Feldkirch from Brixen to manage the property. From 1845 to 1847 the potato blight raged in Vorarlberg as in all of Western Europe , which led to enormous famines and a great wave of emigration overseas; a second wave followed from 1850 to 1854.

The March Revolution that broke out in Vienna in 1848, which shook the old order, finally reached Vorarlberg on April 18, 1848, when liberal citizens and factory workers blew up the state parliament in Feldkirch and forced a democratic election. In this choice, which was made immediately, the former imperial direct areas of Lustenau, Blumenegg and St. Gerold were also taken into account, which only fell to Austria at the beginning of the 19th century. The main demands of the demonstrators were the introduction of freedom of the press , the right to vote for men and, above all, the separation from Tyrol . The revolution ended with the restoration of the old balance of power on March 4, 1849; Vorarlberg only became an independent state in 1861. Until the decree of the Austrian December constitution of 1867, neo-absolutism prevailed in Vorarlberg as in the rest of Austria . From 1868 onwards, the ideological camps - Catholic conservatives, liberals, and later also Social Democrats - began to organize themselves politically in associations and to form parties.

On July 5, 1852, the customs treaty between Austria and the Principality of Liechtenstein was concluded , regulating the free movement of goods, post, rail and road. Liechtenstein also used the Austrian currency ( guilder , from 1892 kroner ). This treaty was terminated by Liechtenstein in 1919 and concluded in a similar form with Switzerland in 1923. However, the customs treaty is still effective today: the railway line in the Principality of Liechtenstein is operated by ÖBB , as it was at the time by the kk Staatsbahnen , and the Feldkirch State Hospital was co-financed by the Principality.

State of Vorarlberg: Industrialization and World War I (1861 to 1918)

Vorarlberg was christened in its present form in 1861. With the imperial patent of February 26, 1861, the constitution for the entire monarchy called February patent , Vorarlberg became a state with its own state parliament and state committee (= state government) in Bregenz as well as its own state laws; it represented one of the 17 crown lands of old Austria until 1918 (see here for size comparison of the crown lands ). From an administrative point of view, however, it remained in an administrative unit with the Fürsteten Grafschaft Tirol until 1918 . The total State Administration for Vorarlberg and the supervision of the autonomous state bodies were incumbent of kk Lieutenancy for Tyrol and Vorarlberg in Innsbruck, which represented the Emperor and the Imperial Government in Vienna.

The Austrian Alpine Club was founded in Vienna in 1862 . This was the beginning of organized alpine tourism, which was promoted by the development of the alpine regions by rail lines and roads.

In 1867 the February patent was replaced by the December constitution , which was in force in the kingdoms and countries represented in the Imperial Council until 1918. Citizens of all mother tongues and of all denominations were now equal. Since Jewish Austrians were now allowed to live anywhere, this meant the end of rural Jewry and encouraged the emigration of Jews to the cities. For the Jewish community in Hohenems this meant an enormous bloodletting: in the 1850s it still had over 500 members, in 1890 there were only 118 and in 1934 only 18. The last Jews were then murdered by the National Socialists.

Opening of the EBDL in Dornbirn on November 30, 1902

In the 1870s the textile industry began to settle on a large scale, which gave the country an enormous boom. In 1872 the Lindau – Bludenz railway was opened, connecting the country to the German and via the St. Margrethen – Lauterach branch to the Swiss railway network. In 1884 Vorarlberg was connected to the rest of the monarchy with the Arlberg Railway via Austrian territory. The centuries-old dependency on the Swabian markets for grain and meat supplies was thus ended.

Due to the geographical situation of the Kleinwalsertal , which cannot be reached by road from Austrian territory, and the tightened import and export regulations to Bavaria since 1878 , the treaty between Austria-Hungary and the German Empire of December 2, 1890 on the connection of the Vorarlberg Mittelberg municipality to the German customs association , which came into force in 1891. Its provisions are still valid today, unless they have become obsolete due to EU regulations.

After two severe floods in 1888 and 1890, plans were made to regulate the Rhine . To this end, Austria concluded an agreement with Switzerland in 1892. In 1900 the first of the two punctures, the so-called Fußacher puncture , was opened. In 1923 the Diepoldsauer Durchstich was completed. In this way, the Vorarlberg Rhine Valley was largely secured against flooding.

Around 1900 Vorarlberg's industry was in full bloom, which led to large immigration, especially of families from the Italian areas of the monarchy (e.g. from Trentino ). In the Bregenz area at that time the proportion of Italian Austrians was more than 20 percent of the total population. The construction of the first power stations further promoted this trend.

The Bregenzerwaldbahn and the tram called Elektro Bahn Dornbirn – Lustenau (EBDL) were opened in 1902, mainly due to strong support from industry. In 1905 the Bludenz – Schruns railway was put into operation. The electric tram between Dornbirn and Lustenau was discontinued in 1938 and the Bregenzerwaldbahn was replaced by buses in 1980 after landslides had relocated the route. The Bludenz – Schruns railway line is still operated as a private railway today.

Houses and fields buried in Vandans after the “flood of the century” in June 1910

In 1906/07 the general, equal, direct and secret male suffrage was decided in the Reichsrat , the national parliament, after the poorer men had been allowed to vote in parliament since 1896, albeit with a lower voting weight. The House of Representatives of the Reichsrat now comprised 516 members, four of whom were to be elected in the state of Vorarlberg. Due to its population, Vorarlberg was the crown land with the smallest number of representatives. Reichsrat elections under the new electoral law took place in 1907 and 1911.

The Montafon, the Inner Walgau, the Klostertal, Feldkirch and its surroundings and the Inner Bregenzerwald were hardest hit by a flood disaster in June 1910. Half of the Montafonerbahn route was more or less destroyed.

The parliament elected in 1911 was in office, adjourned from 1914 to 1917, until November 12, 1918. Its German deputies met on October 21, 1918 as the Provisional National Assembly for German Austria and elected the Christian- social Vorarlberg Reichsrat member Jodok Fink as one of the three equal presidents of the National Assembly . Fink resigned from this position before the second meeting.

On October 30, 1918, this new parliament elected the first non-monarchical government through the Council of State it formed on the same day ; the monarchy was in complete disintegration . On November 11, 1918, Emperor Karl I renounced any share in state affairs . On November 12th, German Austria declared itself a republic and part of the German republic . Around 5,000 Vorarlberg soldiers were killed in World War I, many more were wounded, and the civilian population suffered from malnutrition and the war economy.

Between the wars: First republic and corporate state dictatorship

Advertising poster of the Komitées Pro Vorarlberg 1919/20 ( Jules Courvoisier )

On November 3, 1918, the provisional state assembly was formed in Bregenz and decided on the same day: Vorarlberg is an independent state within the framework of the German-Austrian state . Doubts about the viability of this new small state, however, led to a strong movement for the connection of Vorarlberg to Switzerland . After a citizens' initiative founded by Ferdinand Riedmann from Lustenau was able to demonstrate the support of 70% of those in Vorarlberg who were eligible to vote by February 1919, a referendum was held on May 11, 1919 to initiate negotiations on the country's accession to Switzerland . Approx. 80 percent of those in Vorarlberg who are entitled to vote voted “for the initiation of negotiations”.

From November 1919 to June 1920, a private initiative committee in Switzerland obtained 29,336 signatures to initiate a (Swiss) constitutional initiative for the connection of Vorarlberg. The reasons for the failure of the Vorarlberg Anschluss movement and the Swiss Action Pro Vorarlberg are judged differently by historians on both sides of the (Alpine) Rhine. One of the main factors was that the accession of the German-speaking, Catholic Vorarlberg to Switzerland would have changed the balance between language groups and denominations, which they had struggled to achieve.

During this secessionist movement in Vorarlberg, the respected Vorarlberg politician Jodok Fink acted from March 1919 to July 1920 as Vice Chancellor of the grand coalition state governments Renner I and Renner II in Vienna.

In the 1920s, large numbers of tourists came to Vorarlberg for the first time.

In 1918 the Christian social politician Otto Ender was elected governor and remained so until 1930. In 1930/31 he was Federal Chancellor for about half a year until he was succeeded by Governor Karl Buresch of Lower Austria as head of government, and then returned as governor until 1934 ; thereafter he was President of the Court of Auditors until 1938 and was then banned from staying in Vorarlberg by the Nazi regime.

The Christian-conservative Vorarlberg was completely spared the civil war of 1934 . It was the only federal state that did not declare a state of emergency at the time . Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss , who was already ruling dictatorially, commissioned his party colleague Ender to draft the constitution for the following corporate state , which was undemocratically put into effect in 1934 as the May constitution . The Nazis found in Vorarlberg 1934-1938 "illegal" pendant (the NSDAP was officially banned).

"Connection" to the German Reich and World War II

Immediately after the German troops marched into Vorarlberg on March 12, 1938, the Secret State Police (Gestapo) began nationwide "purges". In most cases, public abuse was followed by imprisonment. Seven of those arrested were a few days after the takeover of the Nazis in concentration camps transported: Hugo Lunardon , Gendarmerie Commander in Dornbirn, Paul Hunter, Deputy Security Director, Kaplan George Schelling , Editor of the Vorarlberg people sheet , Alfred Kothbauer, former spies of the security authorities, Anton Blum, Heimwehr commander from Dornbirn-Hatlerdorf, Emil Hercher, businessman in Bregenz, and Anton Häfele from Hard. Lunardon and Häfele perished in the concentration camp, Schelling and Kothbauer were interned until liberation by Allied troops in 1945, Jäger and Hercher were released after several years in prison, Anton Blum managed to escape to Switzerland.

After the annexation to National Socialist Germany, Vorarlberg was attached to the Gau Tirol-Vorarlberg and the Kleine Walsertal to the Gau Swabia and administered from Innsbruck and Augsburg respectively. In the early 1940s, 11,000 South Tyrolean optanten were settled in quickly erected buildings in Vorarlberg . Vorarlberg had the highest density of NSDAP members of the Austrian federal states . Lustenau was allegedly called Braunau am Rhein at this time .

In 1938, 45 Jews were still living in Vorarlberg. Those who did not flee to nearby Switzerland were forcibly resettled to Vienna or directly deported to concentration camps; the Jewish community in Hohenems was forcibly dissolved. 263 people from Vorarlberg fell victim to euthanasia .

There were no major fighting in Vorarlberg during the entire war. On October 1, 1943, the war came to the country for the first time: When the US Air Force attacked the Feldkirch target of opportunity - after the bombers had not previously found the planned target, the Messerschmitt works in Augsburg - there were 168 victims. A hospital was hit during the bombing , killing 100 soldiers.

On May 1, 1945, the French advanced on Bregenz, which was partly set on fire. By the end of the war on May 8th, the French had all of Vorarlberg under control.

post war period

Ilg era: French occupation and reconstruction (1945 to 1964)

French occupation

After the surrender of the Wehrmacht and the institutional collapse of the Greater German Reich , Vorarlberg was re-established. In September 1945 the Kleinwalsertal came back to Vorarlberg.

The first governor of Vorarlberg in occupied post-war Austria was Ulrich Ilg . On May 24, 1945, he was appointed President of the Vorarlberg State Committee by the French . On November 25, 1945, he was elected governor in the first free state elections, then ruled the state for several legislative periods until October 18, 1964 and was instrumental in building the state.

In 1945 and 1946, 3200 Vorarlbergers were interned and every tenth was brought before the public prosecutor. The French tried to use it to arrest war criminals.

In the first years after the war, in addition to the civilian population, more than 65,000 war refugees and displaced persons had to be cared for. France managed to do this more badly than well because of the devastation in their own country. They were only able to get this situation under control with the help of the Americans and UNRRA .

At the beginning of the 1950s one had to assume that more than 7,000 Vorarlberg soldiers died as soldiers on the German side during the Second World War .

The French occupation was mostly perceived by the population as not as stressful as the British or Soviet occupation in other federal states of Austria. The relationship was generally good.

Due to the lack of financial strength of the French occupiers, more and more Swiss companies took on construction aid work in Vorarlberg. This led to the conclusion of the so-called cross-border commuter contract, the amended version of which is still valid today. As a result of these measures, Vorarlberg's economic resurgence happened faster than in the rest of Austria.

In 1953 the French had to evacuate Vorarlberg for a short time for financial reasons. After that, the country was no longer completely occupied. After the conclusion of the State Treaty , the last foreign occupying soldier left Austria on October 26, 1955.

Economic miracle

After the war the economy faced the difficulties of the post-war period. This led to a number of new companies being founded.

In addition to the founding of companies, a number of events such as the Bregenz Festival in 1945 and the Dornbirn Fair in 1949 went into operation. In 2005 the festival celebrated its 60th anniversary. The Dornbirn trade fair was, however, the flagship of the textile industry, which set the tone in Vorarlberg's economy from the end of the 1940s until the global economic crisis in 1981: as early as 1951, 50% of employees were working in the textile industry. The good profits in the textile industry resulted in further expansion and a labor shortage, which was, however, also brought about by the low wages.

This subsequently led to a large amount of immigration. The first immigrants came from Carinthia and Styria. Guest workers came later, mostly from Yugoslavia and Turkey.

The avalanche disaster of 1954 , with a total of 125 deaths , brought a setback, but also an impulse for the expansion of the hinterland .

Economic boom and revolts (1964 to around 1985)

In 1964 there was an affair when a ship was christened in Fußach . The christening was preceded by a long dispute over the name of the Bodensee ship Vorarlberg , against the background of a trial of strength between the conservatively ruled Vorarlberg and the social democratically led federal government.

Ulrich Ilg handed the official business over to Herbert Keßler on October 18 , who was governor of the state government until 1987.

On October 7, 1968, a treaty was signed between the Republic of Austria and the Holy See, which made it possible to establish a separate diocese for Vorarlberg, the diocese of Feldkirch. The canonical establishment took place on December 15, 1968. Vorarlberg had been under the control of the diocese of Brixen since 1817, from where it was administered by a vicar general.

In 1972 the Lake Constance Conference was held for the first time. The purpose of the Lake Constance Conference was and is the cooperation between the countries bordering Lake Constance. In addition to Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and the cantons of Thurgau, St. Gallen and Schaffhausen, the state of Vorarlberg was a founding member of today's International Lake Constance Conference  (IBK) , later the area around Appenzell Inner- and Outer Rhodes (1995) as well as Zurich and Liechtenstein (1998) expanded.

In the 1970s, several successful anti-nuclear protests took place against the Rüthi nuclear power plant , which was to be built in Switzerland on the border with Austria. Partly because of this, 80 percent of Vorarlbergers voted against the commissioning of the Zwentendorf nuclear power plant in 1978 . You thus tip the scales. Without Vorarlberg there would have been a tight “yes” to commissioning across Austria.

In the same year the Arlberg road tunnel was opened. Thus Vorarlberg received a reliable road connection over Austrian territory.

The textile industry developed splendidly until the Great Depression. This led to the immigration of many guest workers, who mainly settled in the Dornbirn-Bregenz area. At that time, up to 60 percent of employees worked in the textile industry.

In a landslide-like election success in 1983, an alliance of Green groups managed to achieve over 13 percent in the state election. As a result, a fourth club status was achieved alongside the three established parties . Space problems in the country house were the result because the newly built complex had only been designed for three state parliament clubs.

In 1983 Hohenems received town charter and thus became the fifth town in Vorarlberg.

Opening of borders and reorientation of the economy (1984 to today)

On 9 July 1987 sparked Martin Purtscher the Governor Herbert Kessler from. Martin Purtscher was replaced by Herbert Sausgruber on April 2, 1997 , who in turn was inherited by Markus Wallner on December 7, 2011 .

From 1981 the Vorarlberg textile industry experienced its decline. In the 1980s, a number of large companies had to close their doors forever. The textile industry has now been replaced by the metal, electronics and food industries, which now make up the majority of the workforce. In addition, the service industry, especially tourism, has developed well since the 1970s. Today, every fourth euro in Vorarlberg is earned through tourism. Today the country is one of the most stable economic areas in Europe.

The EU enlargement in 1995 had an extremely positive effect on Vorarlberg's economy. Just like the other federal states of Austria, Vorarlberg has now finally developed into a transit country, which has led to enormous increases in road traffic. In addition, the high value of the Swiss franc and the low diesel taxation promoted real tank tourism, which is now having a bad effect on the CO 2 balance.

Severe floods occurred in May 1999 and August 2005 , during which large parts of the country were inundated.

literature

  • Markus Barnay: Vorarlberg. From the First World War to the present. Haymon-Verlag Innsbruck-Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-85218-861-4 .
  • Benedikt Bilgeri: History of Vorarlberg. Vol. 1-5. Böhlau-Verlag, Vienna 1971–1987.
  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: History of Vorarlberg. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 4th edition, Vienna 1998 (History of the Austrian Federal States series), ISBN 3-7028-0357-2 .
  • Franz Mathis, Wolfgang Weber: History of the Austrian federal states since 1945. Vorarlberg. Böhlau-Verlag, Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2000, ISBN 3-205-98790-X .
  • Alois Niederstätter: Vorarlberg in the Middle Ages. History of Vorarlberg Vol. 1, Wagner University Press, Innsbruck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7030-0819-1 .
  • Alois Niederstätter: Vorarlberg 1523 to 1871. On the way to the country. History of Vorarlberg Vol. 2, Wagner University Press, Innsbruck 2015, ISBN 978-3-7030-0864-1 .
  • Meinrad Pichler: Das Land Vorarlberg 1861 to 2015. History of Vorarlberg Vol. 3, Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2015, ISBN 978-3-7030-0865-8 .
  • Meinrad Pichler: Switzerland or Swabia. Vorarlberg attempts to reorient the state. In: Border Crossing. The Alemannic space - unity despite the borders? ed. by Wolfgang Homburger, Wolfgang Kramer, R. Johanna Regnath and Jörg Stadelbauer, Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 978-3-7995-0773-8 , pp. 63–72.

historical:

  • Ignatz de Luca: Vorlande: Vorarlberg. In: Geographisches Handbuch von dem Oestreichischen Staats. 2. Volume The countries in the Austrian district. Verlag Johannes Paul Krauß, Vienna 1790, pp. 593–600 ( Google eBook, full view ).

Web links

Commons : History of Vorarlberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sensational find in Koblach (March 19, 2006)
  2. ↑ South Tyrolean "Ötzi" has competitors: Vorarlberg's "Götzi" (March 27, 2006)
  3. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister : Georg Joachim Rhetikus. Herald of the Copernican worldview , in: Alemannisches Jahrbuch 1968/69 , pp. 18–37, here p. 21.
  4. ^ Johann Jacob Staffler: Tyrol and Vorarlberg. Volume 1 (Tyrol and Vorarlberg, statistical) , Verlag Rauch, 1839, Fifth Section State Administration , Chapter District Offices , p. 460 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. ↑ Reinhold Bernhard: Vorarlberg in the focus of political and intellectual change 1789–1801. (= Vorarlberg in the past and present volume 1) Vorarlberger Verlagsanstalt, Dornbirn 1984, ISBN 3-85430-035-2 , p. 266.
  6. ^ Alois Niederstätter : The popular uprising of 1809 . In: Land Vorarlberg (Ed.): Vorarlberg Chronik .
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Scheffknecht: Bernhard Riedmiller (1757-1832) . In: Land Vorarlberg (Ed.): Vorarlberg Chronik .
  8. ↑ Kgl. Bavarian census 1809/10. Data in: Kurt Klein  (edit.): Historisches Ortslexikon . Statistical documentation on population and settlement history. Ed .: Vienna Institute of Demography [VID] d. Austrian Academy of Sciences . Vorarlberg , entries under 1910 , p. ff ( online document , explanations . Suppl . ; both PDF - oD [updated]). Special references:  Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Ed.): Manuscript collection . Cgm 6845/10, p.
     18-22 .
  9. ↑ RGBl. No. 41/1891 (= p. 57)
  10. ↑ Lustenauer Wiki: Flood
  11. ↑ The water disaster in Vorarlberg in 1910 (PDF; 360 kB)
  12. ^ Karl Heinz Burmeister: History of Vorarlberg. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-7028-0357-2 , p. 175.
  13. ↑ a b Website Jewish Museum Hohenems, permanent exhibition: Present - from 1938 to today. Retrieved July 9, 2010
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Paterno: “Am the victim of hateful people” , section Triumph of the perpetrators , in: News magazine profil , Vienna, No. 29, July 16, 2012, p. 67
  15. ^ Wolfgang Weber , Franz Mathis: Vorarlberg. Between Fußach and Flint, Alemannicism and cosmopolitanism. Series of publications of the research institute for political-historical studies of the Dr.-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek 6/4, Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-98701-2 , p. 55. , here Vorarlberger Nachrichten (PDF; 5.5 MB)