Sign tower

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As a signpost storm the events are around the Carinthian village sign dispute referred to in the fall of 1972nd

term

Who exactly invented the expression “town sign tower” cannot be said, but it was certainly largely shaped by the media that reported on the riots under this title. The riot may have been referred to in advance as a "village sign tower". An indication of this could be the interjection from an anonymous gentleman at the annual general meeting of the Carinthian Abwehrkampfbund on April 22, 1972: "Let's try again with a signature campaign, and if that doesn't help, then: people get up - the storm breaks out."

Contemporary historians often point out the parallels to a pogrom . In addition to Martin Fritzl and Peter Gstettner , a number of other contemporary historians also see these connections and compare the conceptual trivialization of “Reichskristallnacht” for the November pogroms with the trivializing effect of the term “town sign tower”.

Previous development

The Carinthian Slovenes demanded the implementation of Article 7.3 of the Austrian State Treaty : The approval of the Slovenian language as a second official language as well as bilingual designations and signs of place names in mixed towns with a Slovenian minority population.

In 1970, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the referendum , the mood around this topic finally began to simmer. From this celebration onwards, there was also increased smear campaigns and strong propaganda from both parties to the dispute. The celebration was organized by a former SS- Oberscharführer, and NS badges were openly worn by participants during the celebrations. Banners with inscriptions like “We demand determination of minorities”, “Equal rights for the majority” and “Tolerance yes - no further gifts” could be seen.

This aggravated the anger of Carinthian Slovenes, and there were again increased attacks and smear actions on their part in the course of 1971. In return, partisan memorials were desecrated by German national Carinthians.

In the course of 1971, the Kreisky government finally decided to set up bilingual place-name signs with the 20 percent clause on the basis of the 1961 census without identifying minorities. This applied to 205 localities in 36 municipalities. However, for example, “the Carinthian Abwehrkampfbund left no doubt that topographical inscriptions could not be recognized in the 205 localities in 36 municipalities provided for by the law, but at best in seven municipalities that existed before the municipal amalgamation in 1961: Zell Radkersburg, Moos, Vellach, Globasniz, Ludmannsdorf and Feistritz ob Bleiburg. ”However, this should not prevent the participants on the approaching tower from dismantling them.

In the spring of 1972 the mood escalated. There was more and more smear campaigns and a flood of leaflets arose. The media agitated against Governor Sima, whose plan, although announced in the press for four months, is still referred to by him as the “Sima secret plan”. So the later assertion that the bilingual place-name signs were set up as a night and fog action cannot be maintained.

At the annual general meeting of the Abwehrkampfbund on April 22nd, the chairman said: “We have entered into a defensive battle again, albeit with intellectual weapons.” The audience shouted, “Let's try again with a collection of signatures, and if that too does not help, then: people get up - storm breaks loose ”was heard. Other threatening statements were also made. The “Kärntner Nachrichten” wrote on March 18: “If Slovenian place-name signs should be set up in Hermagor, Klagenfurt and Völkermarkt, the vast majority of the population will perceive this as a challenge. It is therefore to be expected that these signs would be knocked down by the indignant population (...) and it will not be possible to put a gendarme to every Slovenian place-name sign day and night ”.

Here you can see that there was only talk of "Slovenian", but never of "bilingual" boards. This was certainly partly an attempt to stir up fear of an annexation by the Yugoslav state, but on the other hand the idea certainly suggests that these are not legal symbols of the Austrian state, but something “Slovenian”. On June 10th, the "Kärntner Nachrichten" was once again hounded: "A planned evacuation of all Germans from the mixed-language area is being prepared."

Incidentally, similar statements can still be found in 2001, when Josef Feldner explained in an address broadcast by ORF: "Every additional village signpost is a step towards Slovenian-Carinthia, and we are allowed to and we will not participate."

The riots

September 20 to 21, 1972 First boards are set up. The following night they are smeared or dismantled. At the same time, the first bomb threats against the building of the Carinthian provincial government. Within the next 24 hours the boards were cleaned or put back up. The first "smearers" are also arrested.

September 24 and 25, 1972 The actions continue. The local gendarmerie receive support from other federal states, but the existing place-name signs will continue to be dismantled almost unhindered. Furthermore, threats have been received at several gendarmerie posts that high-voltage pylons will be blown up if the gendarmerie continues to take action against the strikers.

October 5, 1972 100 people work in St. Kanzian and another 90 people in 35 cars in St. Primus. On the 6th and 7th, another 120 people in 42 cars will march through Lower Carinthia.

Main storm:

October 9, 1972 In the evening hours, a number of people move directly from the celebration of “52 years of defensive struggle and referendum” to dismantle. 200 cars drive from Ferlach to the Rosental. Another train of 100 cars is forming between Köttmannsdorf and Ludmannsdorf. The two vehicle columns meet at around 10:30 p.m. Some of them drive in front of the state government, where all the tablets are unloaded and a KHD functionary announces: “Gentlemen, our task has now been completed; Thank you again for those who took part. ”Around 100 people still drive to Governor Sima's apartment and sang Carinthian folk songs there until 2 am. There were also riots that night in St. Margarethen (120 people) and Völkermarkt (100 cars). On the morning of October 10th there was no longer a bilingual signpost in Carinthia.

October 14, 1972 The road administration puts up dismantled boards again.

October 25, 1972 In the evening hours a column formed in St. Kanzian with 300 people in 150 vehicles. The mayor of Sankt Kanzian, Vitus Jesse ( SPÖ ), was recognized by the gendarmerie as the leader of the activists.

Smaller actions of this kind continued until the end of the year. Small groups mostly dismantled all of the place-name signs that were re-erected the following night. The actions only ebbed “through the efforts of the politicians to set up commissions and to pacify the conflict at the negotiating level.” These actions by the politicians had to be taken, as the interest of foreigners, especially the Yugoslav government, grew. Foreign media also addressed the failed minority policy of Carinthia. It was the only time so far that a law in the Second Republic could not be enforced due to massive public pressure, protests and riots.

organization

The great unresolved controversy surrounding the fact that, as Peter Gstettner put it, a federal law could not be enforced "because a small minority of intolerant chauvinists committed criminal acts against the executive" is the question of whether an organizer can be identified. For Gstettner there is no question that there was a main organizer with various delegates, but, presumably for legal reasons, does not directly name the Carinthian Home Service as the organizing association. What is certain, however, is that the tower of the town signs was an event attended by KHD members and KHD sympathizers. After viewing the press photos, many of the participants could identify as members of the KHD and / or its sub-organizations.

Whether one can speak of a targeted organizational structure has not yet been clarified and is proving to be extremely difficult. The position of the Carinthian Homeland Service as an organizer has often been discussed, but cannot be proven.

Terror or popular anger

The second big question is whether the tower of the town signs is a planned terrorist action or a popular uprising against an undemocratic dictation from Vienna. The political myth of a spontaneous uprising was shaped primarily by the media. The Kleine Zeitung , for example, wrote: “It must be said with the necessary emphasis that the victims of the violence were exclusively place-name signs.” Andreas Mölzer also affirmed in 1990 that there were no riots during the place-sign tower. These statements invalidate the severity and willingness to use violence with which the strikers proceeded. The gendarmerie records, however, show a different picture: in addition to the bomb threats mentioned above, partisan memorials were desecrated, gendarmes were physically attacked and the car tires of Governor Sima were stabbed. It was even reported that they knew "about a farmer's wife who had his horse hung up in the stable on the night of October 10th."

See also

literature

  • Elke Fertschey: Storm in the country on the border. In: Norbert Sternad (ed.): Carinthian month. October 2002.
  • Martin Fritzl: The Carinthian Homeland Service. Ideology, goals and strategies of a nationalist organization. Dissertations and treatises22 / Disertacije in razpreave 22. Drava, Klagenfurt 1990, ISBN 3-85435-117-8
  • Peter Gstettner : The local sign tower 30 years ago. A movement against law and order. An analysis of micropolitics around 1972 in Carinthia. In: Razprave in Gradivo 41 / Treaties and Documents 41. Institut za narodnostna vpasanja / Institute for Ethnic Studies, Ljubljana / Laibach 2002, pp. 68–65
  • Peter Gstettner: “... where all power comes from the people”. A lasting prevention. On the micropolitics around the "Ortstafelsturm" in Carinthia. In: Austrian Journal for Political Science. 33, 2004, pp. 81-94
  • Hans Haas, Karl Stuhlpfarrer: Austria and its Slovenes. Löcker & Wögenstein, Vienna 1977
  • Local sign tower: Documentation by the Carinthian state government. (unpublished) Klagenfurt undated
  • Martin Pandel, Miroslav Polzer, Mirjam Polzer-Srienz, Reginal Vospernik, (eds.): Conflict of town signs in Carinthia - crisis or opportunity? Braumüller, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7003-1479-5
  • Borut Sommeregger: Carinthia: a village on the border? Naš Tednik, Klagenfurt 1983

Movie

  • Thomas Korschil and Eva Simmler: Article 7 Our Right! - Pravica Naša! člen 7. 2005

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ortstafelsturm: Documentation by the Carinthian regional government. (unpublished) Klagenfurt o. JS 47.
    The quote comes from a patriotic poem (1813) by Theodor Körner and is notorious because it was used in Goebbels' sports palace speech (“Do you want the total war ?”).
  2. ↑ klahrgesellschaft.at as well as in the essays Peter Gstettner: “… where all power comes from the people”. A lasting prevention. On the micropolitics around the "Ortstafelsturm" in Carinthia. In: Austrian Journal for Political Science . 33 (2004), pp. 81–94 and Peter Gstettner: The local sign tower 30 years ago - a movement against law and order. An analysis of micropolitics around 1972 in Carinthia. In: Razprave in Gradivo 41 / Treaties and Documents 41. Institut za narodnostna vpasanja / Institute for Ethnic Studies. Ljubljana / Laibach 2002, pp. 68–65
  3. ↑ Austrian State Treaty #Teil I - Political and territorial provisions on Wikisource
    See: BGBl.Nr. 152/1955 Article 7 (3)
  4. ↑ Quoted from: Peter Gstettner: The local sign tower 30 years ago - A movement against law and order. An analysis of micropolitics around 1972 in Carinthia. In: Razprave in Gradivo / Treaties and Documents. Institut za narodnostna vpasanja / Institute for Ethnic Studies. Ljubljana / Laibach 2002. p. 82
  5. ↑ Hans Haas, Karl Stuhlpfarrer: Austria and his Slovenes. Vienna 1977. p. 105
  6. ↑ Quoted from: Ortstafelsturm: Documentation. P. 47
  7. ↑ Kärntner Nachrichten , March 18, 1972. Quoted from: Peter Gstettner: The local sign tower 30 years ago. P. 84
  8. ↑ Quoted from: Thomas Korschil, Eva Simmler: Člen 7 - Pravica Naša! / Article 7 - Our right. Navigator Film 2005. 0:30:18 to 0:30:27
  9. ↑ Peter Gstettner: “… where all power emanates from the people”. A lasting prevention. On the micropolitics around the "Ortstafelsturm" in Carinthia. In: Austrian Journal for Political Science. 33 (2004). P. 83
  10. ↑ Kleine Zeitung October 6, 1992, quoted from: Peter Gstettner: Der Ortstafelsturm 30 years ago. P. 78
  11. ↑ Vladimir Wakounig, quoted from: Thomas Korschil, Eva Simmler: Člen 7 - Pravica Naša! / Article 7 - Our right. Navigator film 2005, 0: 38: 02-0: 38.12
  12. ^ Website of the film Article 7 Our right! - Pravica Naša! člen 7.