The Fate of Western Hungary 1918-1921 - Corvinus Library ...

they expressed their thanks for our forceful action.” 312
While these events were unfolding, units of the Héjjas rebels ripped up
sections of railway tracks in several places around Sopron so that traffic
between Sopron-Wiener Neustadt, Sopron-Kismarton (Eisenstadt) and Sopron-
Ebenfurth was halted. These events did not surprise either the Entente generals
or the Austrian government, since intelligence agencies and the press have both
been reporting it as an expected action.
The Austrian government only mobilized smaller gendarme units and a
somewhat larger number of government clerks and functionaries to assume
control of the area. The majority of the latter group belonged to a unique ethnic
group, the Wiener Tscheche or Viennese Czechs, who worked earlier as central
administrators in the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and who did not
return to their homeland, the newly formed Czechoslovakia. The Viennese
government justified the dispatch of the slight occupation force by saying it did
not wish to alarm the Christian-spirited peasants of Western Hungary, clinging
to the old state of affairs, by sending in units of the Volkswehr, with its
reputation for being “Red.” The Austrian gendarmerie began their march into
Western Hungary on the morning of August 28 – in eleven columns of 200 men
each, accompanied by [Austrian] revenue officers – from the district
headquarters barracks of Wiener Neustadt, Fürstenfeld and Graz. The
Hungarian rebels pasted mild-toned posters in the border villages, on which
they warned the foreign armed forces not to step on Hungarian soil “because
they were playing with their lives (…) the reception could not be called
enthusiastic anywhere,” with the exception of four mountain communities
around Gyanafalva. “To the great surprise of the Austrians, they were received
not only with indifference but with frosty welcomes.” 313 The Austrian military
crossed the millennial border near Kismarton in the north, Felsőőr in the center
and Szentelek in the south, to establish the administrative Németújvár
administrative district in the latter two areas.
The Western Hungary insurrection broke out on August 28 when about onethird
of Héjjas’ force of 120, or about 40 rebels, gave battle at Ágfalva to the
Austrian forces marching in. 314 The first casualty of the fire fight was a young
man from Kecskemét, László Baracsi. 315 Units of Gyula Ostenburg disarmed
the rebels taking part in this action and then the major called on them to join his
battalion. The majority of the rebels refused, leading to their expulsion from
Sopron by Ostenburg’s men. “The increase in the unit’s strength by the rebels
had a less than wonderful result. Of the couple of hundred individuals arrested
312 Ibid, pp. 255–256.
313 Ibid, 1264. csomó. 1921–XLII–6959. szám, p. 4.
314 Fogarassy, László: Lajtabánság [Lajta-Banate]. In: Legújabbkori Múzeumi
Közlemények, 1967, issue 1–2, pp. 66–77; Zsiga, Tibor: A nyugat-magyarországi
felkelés és Vas megye 1921 [The Western Hungary insurrection and Vas County 1921].
In: Savaria. A Vas megyei Múzeumok Értesítője. Vol. 15. 1981. Szombathely, 1985,
pp. 409–448.
315 Héjjas J., op. cit., pp. 15–17.
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