The Votes Are In! How Borders Can Change

One hundred years ago, the fledgling republic of Austria witnessed a turning point: in October 1920, for the first time in European history, the course of a border was decided by democratic means. Even if such a decision to determine Austrian state territory was achieved only in two cases (Carinthia in 1920 and Burgenland in 1921), these examples show that border conflicts and violence can be resolved peacefully und democratically. As the whole political map of Europe underwent radical transformation after the First World War, people voted on the borders in other regions as well, including Schleswig, Silesia and Prussia. These procedures were laid down in several peace treaties drawn up at the peace conferences between the victorious Allied powers and the defeated states. However, this kind of democratic approach was still an exception after the First World War. In the Peace Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, for instance, Austria was prohibited from forming any kind of union with Germany (a so-called “Anschluss”). A large majority of the Austrian population resented this imposed independence and the peace treaty was therefore often presented in a bad light. When it came to its territories however, the Austrian Republic was granted territories which many people had not expected.

At the end of the First World War in 1918, several new states were founded within a few weeks. The proclamation of the Republic of German-Austria was accompanied by conflicts around its borders with other successor states of the Habsburg Monarchy. The multilingualism in border regions contradicted the assumption that border conflicts could be solved with the principle of the Self-Determination of Peoples. On these grounds, several regions of Austria wanted to secede. For a large majority, an “Anschluss” with Germany seemed an obvious option, since there was little Austrian nationalism while German-nationalism was prevalent in Austria. Furthermore, the assumption that such a small state would not be able to sustain itself determined the political debate. Nevertheless, the Treaty of Saint-Germain in 1919 set out the facts: the “Anschluss” with Germany was prohibited and Austrian borders were fixed. Yet this did not settle all border disputes. The frontiers of the new state would not be finally established until the transfer of Burgenland to Austrian sovereignty in 1921.

In many regions in Europe, border conflicts lingered on and are still relevant today. In Austria, multilingualism is still a determining factor in these conflicts. The reluctance of successive Austrian governments to make concessions to non-German-speaking minorities was responsible for tensions that were only resolved at the end of the century (something especially apparent in the so-called “Road Sign Agreement” in Carinthia).

On 10 September 1919, Austria signed a peace treaty with the victorious powers of the First World War in a suburb of Paris. Like Germany in the preceding Treaty of Versailles, Austria and its allies were ascribed sole guilt for the war. The treaty was part of the new European order—it settled such issues as drawing up borders and protecting minorities, and it prohibited any union between Austria and Germany. In addition, it imposed restrictions on the Austrian armed forces and demanded reparations. From now on, the republic was called Austria rather than German-Austria.

For the Allied powers it was especially difficult to set borders in a neutral way—the theory of the Self-Determination of Peoples came up against the reality of multilingualism. Language use was dependent on many factors such as social status or family background and was not simply determined by place of residence. Furthermore, territories in which one language dominated were not necessarily connected to each other, which hindered the demarcation of borders. This was a problem in many regions of Europe. A national state with a homogenous population remained the theory—and language minorities gained hardly any rights.

This film shows the arrival of the Austrian delegation and the handover of the tentative treaty terms to Austrian delegates in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in May 1919.

_{Silent film produced by the US Army’s Office of the Chief Signal Officer, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, 1919 / US National Archives}

In November 1918, troops from the newly founded State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (the SHS State) moved into multilingual regions of southeastern Carinthia. The subsequent battles between units of the provisional Carinthian state government and what was now the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes are remembered in history as the “Abwehrkampf” (“Carinthian Military Defence”). There were dead and wounded soldiers on both sides. In the end, the Treaty of Saint-Germain stipulated that a referendum should be held in parts of South Carinthia. The Val Canale Valley became part of Italy, and the Mežiška Valley and two municipalities became part of the newly founded Yugoslav kingdom—both without a referendum. The majority of the population, including most Carinthian Slovenes, decided on 10 October 1920 to belong to Austria. To this day, the events that took place between 1918 and 1920 are controversial in Carinthia.

The region of South Styria, with its majority Slovenian population, was claimed by both German-Austria and the SHS State. In late November 1918, the Slovenian major Rudolf Maister brought the region under the control of his troops. There were clashes and violent incidents. Unlike in Carinthia, no referendum was held here. The Treaty of Saint-Germain, signed on 10 September  1919, awarded part of the region—Lower Styria—to the state that would soon become Yugoslavia.

In the Treaty of Saint-Germain, the majority German-speaking areas of the Hungarian counties of Bratislava, Mosonmagyaróvár, Sopron and Vasvár were awarded to Austria. According to the Treaty of Trianon, Burgenland was to be transferred to Austria in late August 1921. Hungarian irregular troops resisted the transfer with force. After the withdrawal of the Hungarian army, the area was occupied by the Austrian Federal Army until December 1921. In order to end the conflict, the governments of Hungary and Austria agreed to hold a referendum on the question of which state Sopron should be part of. In December 1921, the majority opted for Hungary. The boundaries of the state of Burgenland, which was due to be transferred to Austria, had to be redrawn.

This Pathé Gazette newsreel shows British troops taking part in the ceremonial handing over of Sopron to Hungary. The British report is clearly sympathetic to Hungary since the title reads “Delivered From Austrian Yoke”.

_{Silent film, production: British Pathé, 1922 / British Pathé}

The peace treaties of Versailles and Saint-Germain prohibited the merging of the Republic of German-Austria with Germany, which had been planned in 1918. The word “German” was therefore also removed from the name of the state. Nonetheless, political movements campaigning for union (a so-called “Anschluss”) with neigbouring states were formed in Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In March 1920, campaigners collected over 100,000 declarations of support for a referendum on unifying Tyrol with Germany. In April 1921, more than 98% came out in favour of the union. The following month, over 99% of the citizens of Salzburg voted the same way. But because an “Anschluss” was prohibited, none of these results had any political effects.

At the war’s end, Italian troops occupied the Brenner Pass region. This was in accordance with the pledge Italy had managed to obtain from the Allies in the Treaty of London in 1915. While Italy’s war aims in the Adriatic Sea had been thwarted by rivalry with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, gaining full control of South Tyrol was to be expected. Tyrol and Austria attempted to negotiate but, ultimately, ceding South Tyrol and Trentino to Italy was part of the peace terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain. Many Tyroleans joined movements to campaign for a “reunification” of Tyrol with the majority German-speaking South Tyrol. But the South Tyroleans, now under Italian government, became Italian citizens in late 1920.

You can find more information on the conflict in South Tyrol in our Encyclopedia.

The founding of German-Austria led to the separation of Vorarlberg from Tyrol: Vorarlberg became a federal state in its own right. Despite pledging allegiance to the new state of Austria, regional politicians in Vorarlberg were reticent on the subject of an “Anschluss” with Germany. The fear of a soviet republic of the kind that had emerged in Bavaria led to the founding of a “Voluntary Vorarlberg People’s Militia”. At the same time, there was growing hostility in the general population towards the remote “Jewish” or “Red” Vienna, and growing enthusiasm in favour of a union between Vorarlberg and prosperous Switzerland. Over the past century, the people of Vorarlberg have repeatedly toyed with the idea of becoming part of Switzerland.

After the first World War, it was not only the borders of the former Austrian Empire that were redrawn: borders in all of Europe (and beyond) underwent radical change. Entirely new states were born with some people seeing themselves as losers and others as winners. Like the Treaty of Saint-Germain, other treaties such as those signed in Versailles with Germany, in Trianon with Hungary or in Sèvres with the Ottoman Empire, determined the borders in various parts of Europe. The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that two referendums should be held to determine the border between Denmark and Germany in the contested region of the former Duchy of Schleswig. In these referendums, the northern “Zone I” decided to join Denmark and the southern “Zone II” opted for Germany. Referendums were also held in the border regions between Germany and Poland—Upper Silesia as well as East and West Prussia. In these referendums a majority voted for Germany. The Danish-German border remains the same to this day while the borders between Germany and Poland shifted after the Second World War. All of these examples show that borders are constructed, that they always change, and that they can be changed by democratic means.

Editors: Stefan Benedik, Markus Fösl, Dominik Ivancic, Martin Preinesberger

Contributions: Katharina Kraus, Antonia Plessing

Research: Sophie Gerber, Birgit Johler

Translations: Erica Doucette, Martin Preinesberger, Paul Richards

Copy-editing: Joanna White

Academic advisors: Alfred Pfoser, Heidemarie Uhl

Management of usage rights: Birgit Mollik

Image editing: Fuhrer, Wien