Burgenland

Burgenland (Hungarian ?rvidék, Lajtabánság, Fels??rvidék, Croatian Gradi??e, Slovenian Gradi??ansko) is the easternmost federal state or Bundesland of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte (towns with a charter) and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east (only 5 km wide at Sieggraben).

History of Burgenland

Between Hungary and Austria

The first inhabitation of Burgenland dates back to the Stone Age. During the Roman Empire it formed the core of the province of Pannonia. After the battle at Augsburg (955), German settlers started to inhabit the area. In 1043 a peace treaty between Kaiser Henry III and King Aba Sámuel of Hungary fixed the western border of Hungary along the Leitha river. The territory of the present-day Burgenland became the western border-zone of Hungary until 1920, but the majority of the population was always German.

Related Topics:
Stone Age - Roman Empire - Pannonia - Augsburg - 955 - Henry III - Aba Sámuel of Hungary

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After 1440 Burgenland was occupied by the Habsburgs of Austria, and in 1463 the northern part of it (with the town of K?szeg) became a mortgage-territory according to the peace treaty of Wiener Neustadt. In 1477 King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary reoccupied, but in 1491 it was mortgaged again by King Ulászló II of Hungary to Kaiser Maximilian I. In 1647 Kaiser Ferdinand II returned it to Hungary. Until the end of the First World War the area was sometimes called German West Hungary (Deutsch-Westungarn). The name "Burgenland" comes from "Vierburgenland" (Land of Four Castles), derived from the name of the four Hungarian counties known as Pozsony, Moson, Sopron, and Vas, in German Pressburg, Wieselburg, Ödenburg und Eisenburg.

Related Topics:
1463 - Matthias Corvinus - Ulászló II of Hungary - Maximilian I - Ferdinand II - First World War - Pozsony - Moson - Sopron - Vas

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After the demise of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, the German inhabitants of Burgenland intended to join Austria. The decision was fixed in the peace treaties of Saint Germain and the Trianon. Despite diplomatic efforts by Hungary, the victorious parties of World War I set the date of Burgenland's official unification with Austria as August 28 1921. In fact, the occupation by the Austrian police and customs was stopped on the same day, hindered by sharpshooters who offered armed resistance with the support of Hungary.

Related Topics:
Austrian-Hungarian monarchy - 1918 - Saint Germain - Trianon - Hungary - August 28 - 1921

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1921: The seventh province of Austria

With the help of Italian diplomatic mediation, the crisis was almost resolved in the autumn of 1921, when Hungary committed to disarm the sharpshooters by November 6 1921, with the caveat of a poll about the unification of certain territories, including Ödenburg (Sopron), the designated capital of Burgenland, and eight other communities. The poll took place from the 14th to the 16 December, and resulted in a clear (but doubted by Austria) vote of the people for Hungary.

Related Topics:
1921 - November 6 - Sopron - 14th - 16 December

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

Related Topics:
July 18 - 1922 - 1925 - Eisenstadt - 1929

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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.

Related Topics:
1923 - United States of America

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After the Nazi Anschluss of Austria, the administrative unit Burgenland was dissolved and integrated into the districts of Niederdonau (Lower Danube) and Steiermark (Styria).

Related Topics:
Nazi - Anschluss - Steiermark

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In addition to the oppression of the Jews, the ethnic groups Roma and Sinti also suffered from the people's xenophobic delusion; despite the fact that the Indian origin of these ethnics actually made them, according to the Nazi logic, "Aryan".

Related Topics:
Roma and Sinti - Ethnics - Nazi - Aryan

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The Nazis began, with the help of mostly Jewish forced labour and committed inhabitants, to build the Ostwall (Eastern Rampart), which showed itself utterly useless at the time Soviet troops crossed the Hungarian-Austrian border and began to invade Austria. In the last days of the Nazi regime a lot of executions and death-marches of the Jewish forced labourers took place.

Related Topics:
Ostwall - Invade Austria

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Mine fields 1945 - 1970

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

Related Topics:
October 1 - 1945 - Steiermark - United Kingdom

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Under the Soviet occupation, people in Burgenland had to stand a time of serious mistreatment and an extremely slow economical progression, the latter induced by investor-discouraging presence of the Soviet troops. The Soviet occupation ended with the signing of the Austrian Independence Treaty of Vienna in 1955 by the Occupying Forces.

Related Topics:
Austrian Independence Treaty - Vienna - 1955

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The brutally defeated Hungarian Revolution on October 23 1956 resulted in a shockwave of Hungarian refugees at the Hungarian-Austrian border, especially at the Bridge of Andau (Brücke von Andau), who were received by the inhabitants of Burgenland with an overwhelming amount of hospitality.

Related Topics:
Hungarian Revolution - October 23 - 1956 - Brücke von Andau

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In 1957, the construction of the "anti-Fascist Protective Barrier" resulted in a complete bulkheading of the area under Soviet influence from the rest of the world, rendering the Hungarian-Austrian border next to Burgenland a deadly zone of mine fields (on the Hungarian border) and barbed wire, referred to as the Iron Curtain. Even during the era of the Iron Curtain, local trains between the north and south of Burgenland operated as "Corridor trains" (Korridorzüge) – they had their doors locked as they traversed Hungarian territory.

Related Topics:
1957 - Iron Curtain

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Starting in 1965 and finishing in 1971, the mine fields were cleansed because people were often harmed by them, even on the Austrian side of the border. This could well be taken as a sign of the Soviet Union towards opening the borders to the Western countries, starting in the late seventies.

Related Topics:
1965 - 1971

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Wine and Iron Curtain

Despite Burgenland (especially the area around Neusiedler See) always producing excellent wine, some vintagers in Burgenland added illegal substances to their wine in the mid-1980es. When this was revealed, the wine export of Austria broke down completely. After recovering from that scandal, vintagers in Austria, not only in Burgenland, started focussing on quality and mostly dropped the production of poor quality wine.

Related Topics:
Neusiedler See - Austria

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On July 27 1989, the Foreign ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, cut the Iron Curtain (in German: "Eiserner Vorhang") in the village of Klingenbach in a symbolic act with far-reaching consequences. Thousands of East Germans used this possibility to flee to the West. Again, the inhabitants of Burgenland received them with great hospitality. Later, this was often referred to as the starting shot of the German reunification.

Related Topics:
July 27 - 1989 - Foreign minister - Alois Mock - Gyula Horn - Iron Curtain - German - Klingenbach - East Germans - German reunification

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With the year 2004, the complete opening of the borders in conjunction with Hungary joining the European Union will bring back the historical denotation of Burgenland being a bridge between the western and the eastern territories in Central Europe.

Related Topics:
2004 - Hungary - European Union - Central Europe

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