Carinthian Homeland Service
| Carinthian Homeland Service (KHD) |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| purpose | Non-party patriotic citizens' initiative |
| Chair: | Josef Feldner |
| Establishment date: | January 24, 1957 |
| Number of members: | approx. 20,000 |
| Seat : | Klagenfurt |
| Website: | www.khd.at |
The Carinthian Homeland Service (KHD) is statutorily a " Carinthian patriotic citizens' initiative " that no party is bound. The name should indicate the reference to the KHD . The KHD has been a German national organization since it was re-established in 1957 . He was instrumental in founding the controversial Ulrichsberg Community in 1958. According to its own information, the KHD currently has 20,000 members.
history
Founded in 1957
In 1957 the Carinthian Homeland Service was re-established. Walter Lakomy was elected chairman at the founding meeting. In letters to well-known Carinthian personalities, it was pointed out that the new association, similar to the Carinthian Homeland Service at the time, wanted to represent the interests of the Carinthian homeland on a broad basis.
"The Carinthian Homeland Service ... is politically independent and non-profit ..., the purpose of the Carinthian Homeland Service is to strengthen love and loyalty to the homeland of Carinthia and the fatherland of Austria ..."
For decades, the Carinthian Homeland Service functioned as the umbrella organization of local authorities . The role of the Carinthian Homeland Service in the Carinthian place-name sign dispute is controversial , at the height of which in 1972 bilingual place-name signs were destroyed in the so-called “ place-name tower ”. Repeated assumptions that the Carinthian homeland service was the organizer of the tower of the village signs could not yet be proven.
Since the seventies, the KHD has made no more efforts to win clubs or other legal persons as members. The formation of loose and flexible alliances of convenience to cope with larger tasks turned out to be more effective than a close association with an umbrella organization.
In the following years, the KHD concentrated on advertising for individual members and sponsors, which it received through its newspaper “ Der Kärntner ” (addressed circulation at the beginning of 2009: 35,000) and the newspaper “KHD-Intern”, which was also created in the mid-1990s (circulation: 10,000) successfully.
In this way, around 20,000 members and sponsors were finally won over the course of time. Including several thousand from the other federal states, especially since the KHD area of responsibility has gradually expanded to include the whole of Austria since around 1990.
Carinthian consensus group
Nevertheless, the Carinthian borderland work was still one of the main tasks of the KHD after 1990, although in addition to criticism of statements by Slovenian association officials, especially in the areas of minority schools, the official language and church language, the commitment to peaceful coexistence was given ever greater importance. Despite initially lacking response from the Slovenian associations, the KHD annual general meeting on April 20, 1991 decided - also with the votes of the delegates of the Carinthian Abwehrkampfbund - "a 10-point program unanimously", point 10 of which was entitled "The Path to peaceful coexistence: KHD for dialogue with the Slovenes ”.
It was not until 1997 that the two Slovenian associations finally gave up their resistance to a dialogue with the KHD and agreed to participate in a "round table" initiated by Governor Christof Zernatto . Under the chairmanship of the provincial governor, representatives of the Carinthian home associations met for the first time with representatives of the Slovenian associations and other well-known personalities of the state of Carinthia for detailed discussions.
The result of these discussions was summarized in a "declaration of principles". Eight years later there was a breakthrough: in 2005 a compromise on the place-name sign between the Carinthian Homeland Service, the Central Association of Slovenian Organizations in Carinthia and the community of Carinthian Slovenes ushered in a new era of coexistence. Although the question of place-name signs still remains unsolved, the German-Slovenian dialogue group is working together to create a climate of mutual trust. Josef Feldner (Carinthian Homeland Service) and Marjan Sturm (Central Association of Slovene Organizations) described the way to do this in the book Carinthia: New Thinking - Two Opponents in Dialogue .
criticism
The KHD is accused of having primarily focused on the dispute over the minority rights of Carinthian Slovenes in recent decades . After all, he is accused of right-wing extremism, or at least being close to it. This puts z. B. Susanne Falkenberg in her dissertation: “One of the main concerns of the KHD is the fight against the" Sloveneization "of Carinthia and against the minority rights enshrined in the 1955 State Treaty. Interestingly enough, "representatives of the three parliamentary parties sit next to old and young nationalists, alongside real 'alumni' 'and camouflaged neo-right-wing extremists" on the KHD management committee. "
One of the projects of the Home Service in 2001 was a signature campaign against reparation payments (cf. Washington Treaty of 2003 between Austria and the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims ). In his newsletter, Der Kärntner , warnings include the “multicultural mix of Europe” and an “army of Muslims of millions”.
Awards
The Carinthian Consensus Group received the European Citizens' Prize , which was awarded for the first time in 2009, for its activities and actions aimed at promoting better mutual understanding. The award was presented to the representatives of the Carinthian consensus group on July 2, 2009 in the Arnoldstein Castle by the Vice President of the European Parliament, Miguel Ángel Martínez Martínez .
literature
- Josef Feldner: border region Carinthia . Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 1982, ISBN 3-85366-384-2 .
- Josef Feldner, Marjan Sturm: Rethinking Carinthia - Two opponents in dialogue . Drava and Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2007, ISBN 978-3-85435-525-0 .
- Stefan Karner : Carinthia and the national question . In: Josef Feldner (Hrsg.): Strengthening the forces loyal to home . The Carinthian Homeland Service after the Second World War. Hermagoras, Johannes Heyn, Klagenfurt 2005, ISBN 978-3-7086-0004-8 .
- Martin Fritzl: The Carinthian Homeland Service . Ideology, goals and strategies of a nationalist organization. Drava, Klagenfurt / Celovec 1990, ISBN 3-85435-117-8 (Dissertations and treatises22 / Disertacije in razpreave 22).
- Fritz Schretter: The Slovenes in Carinthia . 2003.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Peter Gstettner : The Carinthian sign tower 30 years ago . A social-psychological analysis of micropolitics and around 1972 in Carinthia. In: Communications from the Alfred Klahr Society . No. 4/2002, 2002 ( HTML [accessed November 19, 2013]).
- ↑ Boris Jezek: On the history of right-wing extremism in Austria . In: Inprekorr . No. 341/2000, February 8, 2000 ( HTML [accessed November 19, 2013]).
- ^ Neo-Nazis for KHD. In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance . September 2001, accessed November 19, 2013 .
- ↑ Susanne Falkenberg: Populism and Populist Moment in Comparison between France, Italy and Austria . Duisburg 1997, p. 86 ( duepublico.uni-duisburg-essen.de [PDF; 758 kB ; accessed on November 19, 2013] dissertation thesis).
- ↑ quoted from Der Kärntner , 69/2004, p. 1; in: "The Carinthian" against "Multicultural Vision". In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. January 2005, accessed November 19, 2013 .
- ↑ European Parliament - Information Office for Austria (ed.): Carinthian Consensus Group receives the "European Citizens' Prize" awarded by the European Parliament for the first time . ( HTML [accessed August 30, 2009]).