Burgenland

Burgenland (German pronunciation:

Burgenland is the only Austrian province which has never been part of the Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire, German Confederation nor Austria-Hungary's Cisleithania.

Prehistory and antiquity

From the 4th century BC, the area was dominated by Celts and in the 1st century AD it became part of the Roman Empire. During Roman administration, it was part of the province of Pannonia, and later part of the provinces of Pannonia Superior (in the 2nd century) and Pannonia Prima (in the 3rd century). During the late Roman Empire, Pannonia Prima province was part of larger administrative units, such are Diocese of Pannonia, Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum and Praetorian prefecture of Italy.

Early Germanic states

The first

In 1440 the territory of present-day Burgenland was controlled by the Habsburgs of Austria, and in 1463 the northern part of it (with the town of

In the 16th and 17th centuries German

According to the 1910 census 291,800 people lived on the territory of present-day Burgenland. Among them 217,072 were German-speaking (74%), 43,633 Croatian-speaking (15%) and 26,225 (9%) Hungarian-speaking. Roma people were counted according to their native language.

In December 1918, the Republic of Heinzenland was declared by Austrian politician Hans Suchard with the goal of the territory being annexed by Austria. However, it was taken over within two days by Hungary.

From March to August 1919, Burgenland was part of the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

The area had also been discussed as the site of a

With the help of Italian diplomatic mediation in the Venice Protocol, the crisis was resolved in the autumn of 1921, when Hungary committed to disarm the sharpshooters by 6 November 1921. This was in exchange for a plebiscite on the unification of certain territories, including Ödenburg (Sopron), the designated capital of Burgenland, and eight surrounding villages. The vote took place from 14 to 16 December, and resulted in a clear (but doubted by Austria)^{[citation needed]} vote of the people who inhabited the Sopron district to be part of Hungary. Consequently, the territory was incorporated into Austria, except for the Sopron district which was united with Hungary.^[6][7][8]

In contrast to all the other present Austrian states, which had been part of

On 18 July 1922, the first elections for the parliament of Burgenland took place. Various interim arrangements were required due to the changeover from Hungarian to Austrian jurisdiction. The parliament decided in 1925 on Eisenstadt as the capital of Burgenland, and moved from the various provisional estates throughout the country to the newly built Landhaus in 1929.

The first Austrian census in 1923 registered 285,600 people in Burgenland. The ethnic composition of the province had changed slightly: the percentage of German speakers increased compared to 1910 (227,869 people, 80%) while the percentage of Hungarian speakers rapidly declined (14,931 people, 5%). This was due mainly to the emigration of the Hungarian civil servants and intellectuals after the territory was ceded to Austria.

In 1923, emigration to the United States of America, which started in the late 19th century, reached its climax; in some places up to a quarter of the population went overseas.

After the

In 1944, the Nazis began to build the Südostwall (South-east wall) with the help of mostly Jewish forced labor and collaborating inhabitants. Soviet troops crossed the Hungarian–Austrian border during the Vienna offensive and were only somewhat delayed by the unfinished fortifications. In the last days of the Nazi regime many executions and death marches of Jewish forced laborers took place.

Occupation

As of 1 October 1945 Burgenland was reestablished with Soviet support and given to the Soviet forces in exchange for Styria, which was in turn occupied by the United Kingdom.

Under Soviet occupation, people in Burgenland had to endure a period of serious mistreatment and an extremely slow economic progress, the latter induced by the presence of Soviet troops which discouraged investment. The Soviet occupation ended with the signing of the

Between 1965 and 1971, the minefields were cleared because people were often harmed by them,^[citation needed] even on the Austrian side of the border.

Recent history

Despite Burgenland (especially the area around the

After 1990 Burgenland regained its traditional role as a bridge between the western and eastern parts of Central Europe. In 2003 it joined an Interreg project Centrope. Cross-border links were further strengthened when Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004. All three countries became part of the Schengen zone in late 2007, and border controls ceased to exist in the region.

In 2021, Burgenland grew by about 6,000 m². This was due to the change of flood protection measures along the river Lafnitz, which forms part of the border between Burgenland and Styria, in the late 1970s. As the course of the river changed somewhat along with the change of the flood protection measures, some areas belonging to Styria ended up to the east of the river and some areas belonging to Burgenland ended up to the west of the river. In 2010, it was decided by legislators together with the local councils that the areas to the west of the river would be part of Styria and the areas to the east of the river would be part of Burgenland, reflecting the perceptions and attitudes of the population. This decision was put into law in 2021.^[11]

Geography

Burgenland is the third-smallest of Austria's nine

Burgenland borders the Austrian states of Styria to the southwest and Lower Austria to the northwest. To the east it borders Hungary (Vas County and Győr-Moson-Sopron County). In the extreme north and south there are short borders with Slovakia (Bratislava Region) and Slovenia (Mura Statistical Region) respectively.

Burgenland and Hungary share the

Burgenland's provincial assembly (

for regional elections in Burgenland was reduced to 16 years in 2003.

Economy

The province's Gross domestic product (GDP) was 9 billion € in 2018, accounting for 2.3% of Austria's economic output. GDP per capita adjusted for purchasing power was €27,300 or 90% of the EU27 average in the same year. Burgenland is the province with the lowest GDP per capita in Austria.^[13]

Administrative divisions

Burgenland consists of nine districts, two statutory cities and seven rural districts. From north to south:

Statutory cities

These combine the attributes of district and city.

• Eisenstadt
• Rust

Rural districts

• Neusiedl am See (administrative center Neusiedl am See
  )
• Eisenstadt-Umgebung (Eisenstadt
  )
• Mattersburg (Mattersburg
  )
• Oberpullendorf (Oberpullendorf
  )
• Oberwart (Oberwart
  )
• Güssing (Güssing
  )
• Jennersdorf (Jennersdorf
  )

Demographics

Population development

The historical population is given in the following chart:

Minorities

Burgenland has notable Croatian (130,000)^[14] and Hungarian (5,000–15,000) populations.^{[citation needed]}

Croats

Main article: Burgenland Croats

The Croats arrived after the devastating

Keglević, who himself owned large estates in western Slavonia, that the country's population at the Ottoman border was preparing to emigrate.^[15] Their resettlement by estate owners was finished only in 1584. They have preserved their strong Catholic faith and their language until today, and in the 19th century their national identity grew stronger because of the influence of the National Revival in Croatia. Between 1918 and 1921 Croats opposed the planned annexation of West-Hungary to Austria, and in 1923 seven Croatian villages voted for a return to Hungary. The Croatian Cultural Association of Burgenland was established in 1934. In the Nazi era (1938–45) the Croatian language was officially prohibited, and the state pursued an aggressive policy of Germanization. The Austrian State Treaty

of 1955 guaranteed minority rights for every native ethnic minority in Austria but Croats had to fight for the use of their language in schools and offices even in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2000 51 new bilingual village name signs were erected in Burgenland (47 Croatian and 4 Hungarian).

The

Red Book of Endangered Languages

. The Croats of Burgenland belong to the same group as their relatives on the other side of the modern-day border with Hungary.

Hungarians

Hungarians live in the villages of Oberwart/Felsőőr, Unterwart/Alsóőr and Siget in der Wart/Őrisziget. The three villages together are called Upper Őrség (Hun: Felső-Őrség, German: Wart), and they have formed a language island since the 11th century. The other old Hungarian language island in Oberpullendorf/Felsőpulya has almost disappeared today. The Hungarians of Burgenland were "őrök", i.e. guards of the western frontier, and their special dialect is similar to the Székelys in Transylvania. Their cultural centre is Oberwart/Felsőőr. Another distinct Hungarian group were the indentured agricultural workers living on the huge estates north of Neusiedler See. They arrived mainly from the Rábaköz region. After the dissolution of the manors in the mid-20th century this group ceased to exist.

Roma and Jews

In addition to Germans, Croats and Hungarians, Burgenland used to have substantial Roma and Jewish populations, but these were wiped out by the Nazi regime. Before their deportation during 1938, the traditionally very religious Burgenland Jews were concentrated in the famous "Seven Communities" (

haredi neighbourhood of Kiryat Mattersdorf

, reminding of the original name of Mattersburg, once a centre of a famous yeshiva.

Religion

According to 2021 figures of

Roman Catholic, and further 3.4% are adherents of other Christian denominations (mostly Orthodox Christians). Islam is practiced by 2.2%, while 0.7% profess another religion. 16.8% of Burgenland's inhabitants profess no affiliation with any religion or denomination.^[16]

Names

In

Prekmurje dialect

as Gradišče.

As the region was not a territorial entity before 1921, it never had an official name. Until the end of World War I the German-speaking western borderland of the Kingdom of Hungary was sometimes unofficially called Deutsch-Westungarn (German West Hungary). The historical region included the border city of Sopron in Hungary (known as Ödenburg in German).

The name Vierburgenland (Land of Four Castles) was created in 1919 by Odo Rötig, a Viennese resident of Sopron. It was derived from the four vármegye of the Kingdom of Hungary (in German Komitaten, 'counties') known in Hungarian as Pozsony, Moson, Sopron and Vas, or in German as Pressburg, Wieselburg, Ödenburg and Eisenburg. After the town of Pozsony/Pressburg (Bratislava) was assigned to Czechoslovakia, the number vier was to be changed to drei (=three), but after it became clear that none of the Burgen would be part of the Burgenland, the number was dropped completely but the name Burgenland was kept because it was deemed to be appropriate for a region with so many old frontier castles.^[17] The "Burgenland" name was adopted by the first provincial Landtag in 1922.

In Hungarian the German name is generally accepted but there are three modern alternatives used by minor groups. The Hungarian translation of the German name, "Várvidék", was invented by László Juhász, an expert of the region in the 1970s, and it is becoming increasingly popular especially in tourist publications. The other two names "Őrvidék" and "Felső-Őrvidék" are derived from the name of the most important old Magyar language island, the Felső-Őrség. This microregion is around the town Felsőőr/Oberwart, so these new names are a bit misleading; however they are sometimes used.

The Croatian and Slovenian names "Gradišće" and "Gradiščansko" are calques of the German name. The village of Jennersdorf is no more than 5 kilometers from the Slovenian and Hungarian borders (see the United Slovenia movement).

Alternatively, the Serbs, Czechs and Slovaks call the western shores of the

ethnic German or Hungarian

cultures over four centuries.

The province has a long history of Slavic, as well Austrian-German and Hungarian-Magyar settlement. The province's easternmost portion (the shores of the Neusiedler See) carried its own topographical term Seewinkel in Austrian-German. This is the area least influenced by Austrian-German since the Hungarian and Slovak borders are less than 10 kilometers away.

Symbols

Heraldic description of the coat-of-arms of Burgenland:

Or, standing upon a rock sable, an eagle regardant, wings displayed gules, langued of the same, crowned and armed of the first, on his breast an escutcheon paly of four, of the third and white fur, fimbriated of the field, and in dexter and sinister cantons two crosslets paty sable.

The arms were introduced in 1922 after the new province was created. They were composed from the arms of the two most important medieval noble families of the region, the counts of Nagymarton and Fraknó (Mattersdorf-Forchtenstein, eagle on the rock) and the counts of Németújvár (Güssing, three bars of red and white fur).^[18]

The flag of the province shows two stripes of red and gold, the colours of the coat-of-arms. It was officially confirmed in 1971.

Culture

The cultural offerings are diverse and especially in the summer famous for the Seefestspiele Mörbisch and the Nova Rock Festival with numerous international rockbands.

The permanent exhibition at

national anthem of Germany.^[19]

There are also cultural events organized by the minorities such as Croatian or Hungarian folk evenings.

The dialect spoken in Burgenland is called Hianzisch.

People from Burgenland tend to be the butt of a

joke cycle by people from other regions of Austria, similar to the German East Frisian jokes. These jokes portray people from Burgenland as dumb or slow on the uptake.^[20][21][22]

Media

Radio

• Radio OP (2009)

References

1. ^ "Basisdaten Bundesländer" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-10-09. Retrieved 2023-09-01.
2. ^ "Sub-national HDI – Area Database – Global Data Lab". hdi.globaldatalab.org. Retrieved 2018-09-13.
3. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on April 10, 2023. Retrieved July 30, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
4. ISBN 978-1-4567-4365-9
   .
5. ^ Landeschronik Niederösterreich: 3000 Jahre in Daten, Dokumenten und Bildern, Seite 104, Karl Gutkas, C. Brandstätter, 1990.
6. ISBN 978-3-531-94304-6
   .
7. ISBN 978-0-19-967717-7
   .
8. ISBN 978-3-7065-5882-2
   .
9. ^ Zalmon, Milka (2003). "Forced Emigration of the Jews of Burgenland" (PDF). Yad Vashem Studies. XXXI: 287–324. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2005-03-30.
10. ^ Linke, Reinhard (2019-06-27). "27. Juni 1989: Ein Foto verändert Europa". noe.ORF.at (in German). Archived from the original on 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
11. ^ "Burgenland ist größer geworden (in German)". burgenland.ORF.at (in German). 2021-08-09. Archived from the original on 2021-08-09. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
12. ISBN 978-3-89794-221-9
    .
13. ^ "Regional GDP per capita ranged from 30% to 263% of the EU average in 2018". Eurostat. Archived from the original on 2020-04-17.
14. ^ "Natuknica" (in Croatian).
15. ^ Kölner geographische Arbeiten, Ausgaben 15–18, Seite 69, Geographisches Institut der Universität zu Köln, 1963
16. ^ "Bevölkerung 2021 nach ausgewählter Religion bzw. Kirche und Religionsgesellschaft und Bundesland" (ODS) (in German). Statistics Austria. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
17. ^ "Von den "vier Burgen" blieb nur eine". Die Presse (in German). 2011-11-11. Archived from the original on 2021-01-12. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
18. ^ "Címerhatározó/Burgenland címere – Wikikönyvek". hu.wikibooks.org.
19. ^ Slavonic and East European review, Volume 34, page 2, University of London. School of Slavonic and East European Studies, Committee of American Scholars, Sir Bernard Pares, Robert William Seton-Watson, Harold Williams, Norman Brooke Jopson, Published by the Modern Humanities Research Association for the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, 1955.
20. ^ Die lustigsten Burgenländer-Witze. oe24.at, retrieved 22 March 2023.
21. ^ Burgenländer-Witze – Hier findest du die lustigsten! witze.tv, retrieved 22 March 2023.
22. ^ Burgenländer-Witze. witze.at, retrieved 22 March 2023.

Sources

• History of Burgenland (archived link)

Further reading

• Imre, Joseph. "Burgenland and the Austria-Hungary Border Dispute in International Perspective, 1918–22." Region: Regional Studies of Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia 4.2 (2015): 219–246.
• Swanson, John C. "The Sopron plebiscite of 1921: A success story." East European Quarterly 34.1 (2000): 81+ link.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Burgenland.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Burgenland.

• Official website (in German)
• Burgenland Tourism
• Burgenland-Croatian Center
• The Burgenland Bunch Genealogy Group

47°30′N 16°25′E / 47.500°N 16.417°E / 47.500; 16.417