Carinthian defensive battle
| date | January 5, 1919 to June 6, 1919 |
|---|---|
| place | Carinthia , Austria |
| output | Victory of the state of Carinthia due to the withdrawal of the SHS army from the occupied Carinthian areas |
| consequences | On October 10, 1920, Austria's referendum was successful in Southern Carinthia |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| losses | |
|
150 dead |
200–270 dead, |
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The Carinthian defensive battle ( Slovene Boj za severno mejo / fight for the northern border ) was after the end of the First World War the armed conflict between associations of the provisional Carinthian provincial government and troops of the SHS state over the state affiliation of the areas claimed by the SHS state in the southeast Carinthia , whose population mostly spoke Slovene .
course
Phase 1
After the Carinthian regional committee declared Carinthia to be indivisible on October 25, 1918, troops of the SHS state invaded south-east Carinthia on November 5, 1918, as before in Styria. The SHS police advanced into the Rosen and lower Gail valley . The state of Carinthia was constituted on November 11, 1918 and declared its accession to the Republic of German Austria in its state constitution . On November 19, 1918, the Ferlach Agreement established a demarcation line level with the city of Bleiburg and then following the rivers Drau , Gail and Gailitz to the west .
Already on November 26, 1918, this line has been crossed by Slovenian troops and Ferlach , the north of the Drava located Völkermarkt and located in the southern Lavanttal places Lavamünd and St. Paul in Lavanttal occupied. The Carinthian provincial government moved its seat to Spittal an der Drau in view of this threat .
On December 5, 1918, the provisional Carinthian provincial government under the provincial administrator Arthur Lemisch resolved armed resistance against further advance of the SHS troops, which had been under the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes since December 1 . The occasion was a joint motion by all parties in the state parliament, represented by MPs Fritz Dörflinger ( GDVP ), Florian Gröger ( SDAP ) and Konrad Walcher ( CSP ). The German-Austrian government officially rejected the defensive struggle - the starving country was dependent on food deliveries from the SHS state - but supported Carinthia with material and troop shipments , among other things . The line was taken over by Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig Hülgerth as commander in chief and Lieutenant Hans Steinacher as troop leader.
The liberation struggle, also known as the Carinthian defensive battle , began on December 14, 1918 with the defense against the attack on Klagenfurt near Grafenstein . The southern Lavant valley could be liberated by the end of the year. A major Slovenian attack along the Drava on January 3, 1919 was repulsed. On January 5th, 1919, Arnoldstein was recaptured in the Gailtal, as well as an advance against the Rosental, and on January 8th, Ferlach was recaptured. An armistice was signed on January 14th; an American commission (the so-called “Miles Mission”, named after its head Lt. Col. Sherman Miles ) studied the disputed territorial issues on site.
Phase 2
On April 29, 1919, the Yugoslavs broke the armistice with a major attack in order to conquer Klagenfurt and Villach. After the Yugoslavs were initially able to push back the Carinthian associations, a counterattack was launched. Bleiburg and Eisenkappel were recaptured by May 5th . On May 7th, Carinthian associations reached the old border and advanced to Windischgraz ( Slovenj Gradec ) in Lower Styria . The Viennese government prohibited any further advance in the south-east, as it was feared that this would disadvantage the negotiations in St. Germain . On May 9, 1919, the Carinthian troops therefore withdrew to the old border.
The peace treaty of St. Germain provided for a referendum in southern Carinthia; Without a vote, the Canal Valley Italy and the Mießen Valley , Unterdrauburg and the municipality of Seeland (Kankertal) were added to the SHS Kingdom. You belong to Slovenia today .
Phase 3
After the decision of a referendum, the SHS state tried again to create a fait accompli by force of arms. Regular Yugoslav troops under the command of General Rudolf Maister crossed the border on May 28, 1919 with a five-fold superiority and occupied Klagenfurt on June 6 , which they had to vacate again after a request from the Supreme Council of the Allies in Paris . Italian troops marched in to oversee this new armistice. From then on there was no further fighting. Up to this point in time there had been more than 200 dead and 800 wounded on the Carinthian side alone.
Referendum
The referendum on October 10, 1920 in the southern "Zone A" (with around 70% Slovenian population and occupied by troops of the SHS state) resulted in 22,025 votes (59%) for remaining with Austria and 15,279 (41%) votes against Austria. Almost every second Carinthian eligible to vote with a Slovene mother tongue voted to stay with Carinthia, assuming that all German-speaking residents of the voting area eligible to vote voted to stay with Austria. If “Zone A” had decided to join the SHS Reich, a vote would also have had to be taken in the smaller northern “Zone B” (which also included Klagenfurt), which was occupied by Austrian troops .
In the period after that, the defensive struggle was often controversially discussed or exploited by politics. There were simplifications and distortions, which were also promoted by the festive culture that was establishing itself on October 10th.
literature
- Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld : History of Carinthia 1918–1920. Defensive struggle-referendum-search for identity. Verlag Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2000. ISBN 3-85366-954-9 .
- Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld: Carinthia 1918–1920. In: Stefan Karner , Lorenz Mikoletzky (Ed.): Austria. 90 years of the republic. StudienVerlag, Innsbruck a. a. 2008, ISBN 978-3-7065-4664-5 .
- Andreas Mölzer : corporation students in the Carinthian defensive battle of 1918/19. Einst und Jetzt , Volume 32 (1987), pp. 133-157.
- Wilhelm Neumann : Defensive struggle and referendum in Carinthia 1918–1920. Legends and facts. 3. Edition. Kärntner Landesarchiv, Klagenfurt 1997, ISBN 3-900531-38-2 .
- Wilhelm Neumann: Carinthia 1918–1920. Events - documents - pictures. 2nd Edition. Verlag des Landesmuseum Kärnten, Klagenfurt 1980.
- Hubert Steiner: Klagenfurt in the First World War. Phil. Diss., Graz 1983
Web links
- Entry on Carinthian defensive struggle in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Individual evidence
- ↑ When the border was written in blood . (Essay)
- ↑ Defensive battle in the Lavant valley
- ^ Provisional Carinthian Provincial Assembly. The illegal action of the southern Slavs in Carinthia. In: Free Voices . Klagenfurt December 7, 1918, p. 1 ( onb.ac.at ).
- ^ A b Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld: Carinthia 1918–1920.
- ^ Stone for Hörtendorf. Memories of the first shot in the defensive battle!
- ↑ Without Viktring; was an independent municipality until 1938