Carinthian Slovenes

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Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians (

Austrian German: Kärntner Slowenen; Italian: Sloveni della Carinzia) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of the minority group is guaranteed in principle by the Constitution of Austria
and under international law, and have seats in the National Ethnic Groups Advisory Council.

History

The Prince's Stone on which Carantanian princes were enthroned

The present-day Slovene-speaking area was initially settled towards the end of the early medieval

Slavic settlement of Eastern Alps). A South Slavic informal language with western Slavonic influence arose. At the end of the migration period, a Slavic proto-state called Carantania, the precursor of the later Duchy of Carinthia, arose; it extended far beyond the present area of the present state and its political center is said to have lain in the Zollfeld
Valley.

In the mid 8th century, the Carantanian Prince

German noble families became gradually prevalent, while the rural population remained Slavic.[citation needed
]

Finally,

Klagenfurt
, at this time a bilingual city with social superior German usage and Slovene-speaking environs, was also a centre of Slovene culture and literature.

Carinthian Plebiscite

Main article:
Carinthian Plebiscite

With the emergence of the

Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
, there was an acceleration in the process of assimilation; at the same time the conflict between national groups became more intense.

1920 voting results for Austria (red) and for Yugoslavia (green)

In the course of the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(mainly in the south).

Initially, the Slovene community in Carinthia enjoyed minority rights like bilingual schools and parishes, Slovene newspapers, associations and representatives in municipal councils and in the Landtag assembly.

Interwar Period

Similar to other European states, German nationalism in Austria grew in the interwar period and ethnic tensions led to an increasing discrimination against Carinthian Slovenes. Promises made were broken, assimilation was forced by dividing the Carinthian Slovenes into "nationalist" Slovenes proper and "Germanophile" Windisch, even by denying that their language – a Slovene dialect with a large number of words borrowed from German – was Slovene at all.

Nazi persecution and anti-Nazi resistance during World War II

The persecution increased with the 1938

Ravensbrück, where the multiple-awarded writer Maja Haderlap's Grandmother was sent to.[2]

Following the Nazi persecution, Slovene minority members – including the awarded writer Maja Haderlap's grandfather and father – joined the only Anti-Nazi military resistance of Austria, i.e. Slovene Partisans. Many returned to Carinthia, including its capital Klagenfurt, as part of Yugoslav Partisans. Families whose members were fighting against Nazis as resistance fighters, were treated as 'homeland traitors' by the Austrian German-speaking neighbors, as described by Maja Haderlap,[2] after the WWII when they were forced by the British to withdraw from Austria.

Austrian State Treaty

As the Nazi rule had strongy reinforced the stigmatization of Slovene language and culture, anti-Slovene sentiments continued after WWII amongst large swaths of the German-speaking population in Carinthia.[3]

On 15 May 1955, the Austrian State Treaty was signed, in Article 7 of which the "rights of the Slovene and Croat minorities" in Austria were regulated. In 1975, the electoral grouping of the Slovene national group (Unity List) only just failed to gain entry to the state assembly. With the argument that in elections the population should vote for the political parties rather than according to their ethnic allegiance, before the next elections in 1979 the originally single electoral district of Carinthia was divided into four constituencies. The area of settlement of Carinthian Slovenes was divided up and these parts were in turn combined with purely German-speaking parts of the province. In the new constituencies, the Slovene-speaking proportion of the population was reduced in such a way that it was no longer possible for the representatives of national minorities to succeed in getting into the state assembly. The Austrian Center for Ethnic Groups and the representatives of Carinthian Slovenes saw in this way of proceeding a successful attempt of gerrymandering in order to reduce the political influence of the Slovene-speaking minority group.

Ludmannsdorf/Bilčovs bilingual place-name sign, one of the few in southern Carinthia

In 1957, the German national Kärntner Heimatdienst (KHD) pressure group was established, by its own admission in order to advocate the interests of "patriotic" Carinthians. In the 1970s, the situation again escalated in a dispute over bilingual place-name signs (Ortstafelstreit), but thereafter became less tense.[4] However, continuing up to the present, individual statements by Slovene politicians are interpreted by parts of the German-speaking population as Slovene territorial claims, and they therefore regard the territorial integrity of Carinthia as still not being guaranteed.[citation needed] This interpretation is rejected both by the Slovene government and by the organizations representing the interests of Carinthian Slovenes. The territorial integrity of Carinthia and its remaining part of Austria are said not to be placed in question at all.

Current developments

Since the 1990s, a growing interest in Slovene on the part of the German-speaking Carinthians has been perceptible, but this could turn out to be too late in view of the increase in the proportion of elderly people. From 1997, Slovene and German traditionalist associations met in regular roundtable discussions to reach a consensus. However, the success of Jörg Haider, former governor of Carinthia from 1999 to 2008, in making again a political issue out of the dispute over bilingual place-name signs showed that the conflict is, as before, still present.[citation needed]

Area of Slovene settlement and proportion of the population

2001 census
2001 census
1971 census
1971 census

At the end of the 19th century, Carinthian Slovenes comprised approximately one quarter to one third of the total population of Carinthia, which then, however, included parts that in the meantime have been ceded. In the course of the 20th century, the numbers declined, especially because of the pressure to assimilate, to an official figure of 2.3% of the total population. As the pressure from German came above all from the west and north, the present area of settlement lies in the south and east of the state, in the valleys known in German as

Klagenfurt, and the lower part of Gailtal / Ziljska dolina (to about as far as Tröpolach). Köstenberg and Diex are approximately the most northerly points of current Slovene settlement. The municipalities with the highest proportion of Carinthian Slovenes are Zell (89%), Globasnitz (42%), and Eisenkappel-Vellach (38%), according to the 2001 special census which inquired about the mother tongue and preferred language. The actual number of Carinthian Slovenes is disputed, as both the representatives of Slovene organizations and the representatives of Carinthian traditional organizations describe the census results as inaccurate. The former point to the, in part, strongly fluctuating census results in individual municipalities, which in their opinion correlate strongly with political tensions in national minority questions. Consequently, the results would underestimate the actual number of Carinthian Slovenes.[citation needed
] The South Carinthian municipality of Gallizien is cited as an example: according to the 1951 census the proportion of Slovene speakers was 80%, whereas in 1961—in absence of any significant migratory movements and with approximately the same population—the proportion dropped to only 11%.

Census results
Year Number of Slovenes
1818 137,000
1848 114,000
1880 85,051
1890 84,667
1900 75,136
1910 66,463
1923 34,650
1934 24,875
1939 43,179
1951 42,095
1961 24,911
1971 20,972
1981 16,552
1991 14,850
2001 13,109

As a further example, the results of the former municipality of Mieger (now in the municipality of Ebental) are cited, which in 1910 and 1923 had a Slovene-speaking population of 96% and 51% respectively, but in 1934 only 3%. After World War II and a relaxation of relations between both population groups, the municipality showed a result of 91.5% in the 1951 census. Ultimately, in 1971 in the run-up to the Carinthian place-name signs dispute, the number of the Slovenes was reduced again to 24%. The representatives of Carinthian Slovenes regard the census results as the absolute lower limit. They refer to an investigation carried out in 1991 in bilingual parishes, in the process of which there was a question about the colloquial language used by members of the parish. The results of this investigation (50,000 members of national minority groups) differed significantly from those of the census that took place in the same year (about 14,000). Carinthian traditional organizations, on the other hand, estimate the actual number of self-declared Slovenes as being 2,000 to 5,000 persons.

Municipalities Percent of Slovenes 2001 Percent of Slovenes 1951 Percent of Slovenes 1880
Egg/Brdo Part of Hermagor/Šmohor 56.1% 95%
Görtschach/Goriče Part of Hermagor/Šmohor 58.4% 98.5%
St. Stefan im Gailtal/Štefan na Zilji 1.2% N.D. 97.4%
Vorderberg/Blače Part of St. Stefan im Gailtal/Štefan na Zilji 54.8% 99.8%
Hermagor/Šmohor 1.6% N.D N.D
Arnoldstein/Podklošter 2.1% 9.2% 39.7%
Augsdorf/Loga vas Part of Velden am Wörther See/Vrba ob Jezeru 48.2% 93.8%
Feistritz an der Gail/Bistrica na Zilji 7.9% 53.4% 83.9%
Finkenstein/Bekštanj 5.7% 24.2% 96.3%
Hohenthurn/Straja vas 8.3 27.1% 98.9%
Köstenberg/Kostanje Part of Velden am Wörther See/Vrba 40.1% 76.1%
Ledenitzen/Ledince Part of Sankt Jakob im Rosental/Šentjakob v Rožu 37.8% 96.8%
Lind ob Velden/Lipa pri Vrbi Part of Velden am Wörther See/Vrba 15.8% 44.5%
Maria Gail/Marija na Zilji Part of Villach/Beljak 16.7% 95.9%
Nötsch/Čajna 0.6% 3.6% N.D.
Rosegg/Rožek 6.1% 32.4% 96.7%
Sankt Jakob im Rosental/Št. Jakob v Rožu 16.4% 62.7% 99.3%
Velden am Wörther See/Vrba ob Jezeru 2.8% 0.9% 96.3%
Wernberg/Vernberk 1.0% 20.5% 73.2%
Ebental/Žrelec 4.2% 16.4% 62.8%
Feistritz im Rosental/Bistrica v Rožu 13.4% 47.2% 97.7%
Ferlach/Borovlje 8.3% 20.5% 61.4%
Grafenstein/Grabštajn 0.8% 7.6% 95.6%
Keutschach
/Hodiše 		5.6% 60.6% 96.5%
Köttmannsdorf/Kotmara vas 6.4% 45.6% 95.3%
Ludmannsdorf/Bilčovs 28.3% 85.0% 100%
Maria Rain/Žihpolje 3.9% 10.5% 55.1%
Maria Wörth/Otok 1.1% 16.3% 41.9%
Mieger/Medgorje Part of Ebental/Žrelec 91.5% 98.1%
Poggersdorf/Pokrče 1.2% 2.8% 87%
Radsberg/Radiše Part of Ebental/Žrelec 52.0% 100%
Schiefling
/Škofiče 		6.0% 38.4% 98.9%
Sankt Margareten im Rosental/ Šmarjeta v Rožu 11.8% 76.8% 92.4%
Magdalensberg/Štalenska gora 1.5% 3.1% N.D.
Techelsberg
/Teholica 		0.2% 6.7% N.D.
Unterferlach/Medborovnica Part of Ferlach/Borovlje 47.2% 99.7%
Viktring/Vetrinj Part of Klagenfurt/Celovec 3.3% 57.6%
Weizelsdorf/Svetna vas Part of Feistritz im Rosental/Bistrica v Rožu 69.3% 100%
Windisch Bleiberg/Slovenji Plajberk Part of Ferlach/Borovlje 81.3% 91.7%
Zell
/Sele 		89.6% 93.1% 100%
Feistritz ob Bleiburg/Bistrica pri Pliberku 33.2% 82.8% 98.7%
Bleiburg/Pliberk 30.9% 16.7% 15.5%
Diex/Djekše 6.9% 46.1% 95.8%
Eberndorf/Dobrla vas 8.6% 47.4% 90.8%
Eisenkappel
/Železna Kapla 		38.7% 20.1% 48%
Gallizien/Galicija 8.5% 80.1% 99.9%
Globasnitz/Globasnica 42.2% 88.7% 99.5%
Griffen/Grebinj 1.3% 34.1% 83.8%
Haimburg/Vovbre Part of Völkermarkt/Velikovec 19.9% 98.2%
Loibach/Libuče Part of Bleiburg/Pliberk 54.6% 92.1%
Moos/Blato Part of Bleiburg/Pliberk 85.8% 99.8%
Neuhaus/Suha 13.4% 79.6% N.D.
Ruden/Ruda 3.9% 51.7% 93%
Sittersdorf/Žitara vas 19.8% 84.4% 98.2%
Sankt Kanzian am Klopeiner See/Škocijan v Podjuni 13.2% 49.3% 98.4%
Sankt Peter am Wallersberg/Št. Peter na Vašinjah Part of Völkermarkt/Velikovec 62.6% 90.7%
Tainach/Tinje Part of Völkermarkt/Velikovec 11.1% 95.9%
Vellach/Bela Part of Eisenkappel/Železna Kapla 73.8% 94.2%
Völkermarkt/Velikovec 2.6% 8.3% 26.6%
Waisenberg/Važenberk Part of Völkermarkt/Velikovec 21.0% 97.4%
Municipalities Percent of Slovenes 2001 Percent of Slovenes 1951 Percent of Slovenes 1880

Language

Dialects

See also:
Slovenian dialects

The Carinthian group of Slovene dialects extends beyond the present borders of Carinthia. Carinthian Slovene dialects are spoken throughout Slovenian Carinthia and extend into the Pohorje Mountains and along the upper Drava Valley in Slovenian Styria. Additionally, a Carinthian Slovene dialect is spoken in the Upper Carniolan locality of Rateče in Slovenia (close to the border with Italy), whereas in the nearby town of Kranjska Gora, a transitional dialect between Carinthian and Upper Carniolan is spoken.

Carinthian Slovenes traditionally speak four dialects, all of them belonging to the Carinthian dialect group. These are the Jaun Valley dialect, the Rosen Valley dialect, the Gail Valley dialect, and the Ebriach dialect. The former, which is influenced by the Upper Carniolan dialect, can also be regarded as a subgroup of the Jaun Valley dialect. The Carinthian dialects are particularly unadulterated. In the present German-speaking areas, the Slavic basis of place and pasture names as far as into the upper part of the Möll Valley can be demonstrated. German and Slovene have in any case exercised a reciprocal influence in tone and vocabulary on each other in the course of the centuries.

Windisch

The historic description Windisch was applied in the German-speaking area to all Slavic languages (confer Wends in Germania Slavica) and in particular to the Slovene spoken in southern Austria until the 19th century. The term is still used in part (predominantly by German nationalist circles) as an overall term for Slovene dialects spoken in Carinthia. However, because of the historical associations of the term, "a German word with pejorative overtones",[5] it is rejected by a large part of the Carinthian Slovene population. According to linguistic standards, the assumption of a Windisch language or an eponymous Slovene dialect (as distinct from the Carinthian dialect group) is not sustainable.

For political reasons, Windisch is sometimes counted in addition to Slovene as a separate language category or as a

Catechismus in der windischen Sprach, the first printed book in Slovene published in 1550, and still common during the Protestant Reformation, as noted by scholar Jernej Kopitar
(1780–1844).

Literature after the Second World War

In early 1981, the novel Der Zögling Tjaž by

National Socialism – the Carinthian minority – Carinthian Slovenes as one of the non-Jewish Holocaust
's victims.

Educational system

Federal Gymnasium for Slovenes

In 1848, the Ministry of Education decreed that compulsory school pupils should be taught in their respective native language. The efforts of German nationalist forces in Carinthia to change this regulation were unsuccessful until the end of the 1860s. Between 1855 and 1869, the Slovene compulsory school system lay in the hands of the Roman

Germanization".[7]

On 3 October 1945, a new law on schools that envisaged a bilingual education for all children in the traditional area of settlement of the Carinthian Slovenes, regardless of the ethnic group to which they belonged, was passed.

Austrian Freedom Party) that envisaged a far-reaching separation on the basis of classes of primary school pupils into those taught bilingually and those taught only in German. The issue of whether headteachers of bilingual schools must be able to produce a bilingual qualification remains controversial.[6]

An extension of what is being offered by schools is faced with the general development in the bilingual education system that has been described and that is viewed critically by Slovene organizations In 1957, the federal grammar school and federal secondary school for the Slovenes (Bundesgymnasium and Bundesrealgymnasium für Slowenen/Zvezna gimnazija in Zvezna realna gimnazija za Slovence) was founded, in whose building the bilingual federal commercial school (Zweisprachige Bundeshandelsakademie/Dvojezična zvezna trgovska akademija) has also been accommodated since 1991. Since 1989, there has been a secondary school (Höhere Lehranstalt) operated by the Roman Catholic Church in St Peter in Rosental (municipality of St Jakob). Following a decision by the Constitutional Court, school pupils in Klagenfurt are able to attend a public-funded bilingual primary school, in addition to the one operated by the Church.[6] As a result of a private initiative, the Slovene music school (Kärntner Musikschule/Glasbena šola na Koroškem) was founded in 1984 and has received public funds since 1998 when a co-operation agreement was concluded with the State of Carinthia. However, the amount of this financial support (in relation to the number of pupils) contravenes the law on equality of treatment in the view of the Austrian National Minorities Center, as the other operator in the Carinthian music school system, the Musikschulwerk, receives, on a per capita basis, a higher amount.[9] The Glasbena šola is able to continue its operations, however, with the help of contributions from the Republic of Slovenia.

An increased interest by people in South Carinthia in bilingual education has been generally perceptible since the 1990s. In the 2007/08 school year, 41% of the pupils in primary schools in the area in which the minority school system applied were registered for bilingual teaching – the proportion of children without previous knowledge of Slovene amounted to over 50%.[10]

Civil society institutions

The Slovene minority in Carinthia has a well-developed network of

left-wing and liberal policies. The main political association is the Carinthian Unity List
(Kärntner Einheitsliste), a joint political platform that runs at local elections. Other important organizations include:

Flag of the Carinthian Slovenes adopted by the National Council of Carinthian Slovenes
  • Krščanska kulturna zveza (Christlicher Kulturverband) – Christian Cultural Association
  • Slovenska prosvetna zveza (Slowenischer Kulturverband) – Slovene Cultural Association
  • Slovenska gospodarska zveza (Slowenischer Wirtschaftsverband) – Slovene Economic Organization
  • Skupnost južnokoroških kmetov (Gemeinschaft der Südkärntner Bauern) – Community of South Carinthian Farmers
  • Slovenska planinska Družba (Alpenverein der Kärntner Slowenen) – Alpine Climbing Club of Carinthian Slovenes
  • Slovenski atletski klub (Slowenischer Athletikklub) – Slovene Athletic Club
  • Koroška dijaška zveza (Slowenischer Studenten Verband) – Slovene Students' Association

Media

  • Nedelja – Slovene-language weekly newspaper of the diocese of Gurk
  • Novice – Slovene-language weekly news-sheet
  • Mohorjeva družba-Hermagoras – Catholic bilingual publisher (Klagenfurt)
  • Drava Verlag – bilingual publisher (Klagenfurt)

Lobbying

The Christian cultural association and the National Council have endowed an annual award, the Einspieler Prize (named after the founder of the Hermagoras Society Publishing House, Andrej Einspieler), to individuals who have rendered outstanding services to the cause of co-existence. The prize has been awarded to, among others, the industrialist Herbert Liaunig, the governor of South Tyrol Luis Durnwalder, and professor of general and diachronic linguistics at the University of Klagenfurt Heinz Dieter Pohl, scholar and professor at the Central European University Anton Pelinka Roman Catholic prelate Egon Kapellari, Austrian politician Rudolf Kirchschläger and others.

Notable personalities of Slovene ethnicity from Carinthia

See also

Sources

  • (in German) Amt der Kärntner Landesregierung – Volksgruppenbüro (Hrsg.), Die Kärntner Slowenen, 2003
  • (in German) Heinz Dieter Pohl, Die ethnisch-sprachlichen Voraussetzungen der Volksabstimmung
  • Bratt Paulston and D. Peckham (eds.) ‘'Linguistic Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe'’, 1998, p. 32 ff., Clevedon (UK), Multilingual Matters,
    ISBN 1-85359-416-4
    .
  • (in German) Bericht des Österreichischen Volksgruppenzentrums zur Durchführung des Europäischen Rahmenübereinkommens zum Schutz nationaler Minderheiten in der Republik Österreich Teil II (Accessed on 3 August 2006)
  • (in German) Volksgruppenarchiv des ORF Kärnten (Accessed on 3 August 2006)

Literature

Politics

Culture and history

Notes

  1. ^ Werner Besch et al. (Hrsg.), Sprachgeschichte. Ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und ihrer Erforschung. Band 4 (Berlin 2004) p. 3370.
  2. ^ a b Angel pozabe je postal moja pripoved (in Slovene; Angel of Forgetting has become my narrative), Delo's Pogledi Magazin, 2011, Ljubljana
  3. ^ Salloum, Diana (2020). TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE IN AUSTRIA: FROM OSTMARK TO THE SECOND REPUBLIC AND THE ROLE OF THE "FIRST VICTIM THEORY" LEGEND 1943-1955 (docx). Zouk Mosbeh: Notre-Dame University Louaize. pp. 28–29.
  4. ^ ""Will Carinthia Remain German?"". Archived from the original on 13 February 2007. Retrieved 2 April 2007.
  5. ISBN 0-7475-3118-8
    , p. 567
  6. ^ a b c d e (in German) Amt der Kärntner Landesregierung – Volksgruppenbüro (Hrsg.), Die Kärntner Slowenen, 2003
  7. ^ a b (in German) Heinz Dieter Pohl, Die ethnisch-sprachlichen Voraussetzungen der Volksabstimmung (Accessed on 3 August 2006)
  8. ^
    ISBN 1-85359-416-4
  9. ^ (in German) Bericht des Österreichischen Volksgruppenzentrums zur Durchführung des Europäischen Rahmenübereinkommens zum Schutz nationaler Minderheiten in der Republik Österreich Teil II (Accessed on 3 August 2006)
  10. ^ (in German) Bilingual education is booming Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed on 13 October 2007)
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