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

2.1% Czech). Incorporated towns: Bazin (29 km 2 ) with 4,809 people (12%
Hungarian, 32.4% German, 54.9% Slovak); Modor (50 km 2 ) with 5,009 people
(6.9% Hungarian, 10.5% German, 82.3% Slovak); Nagyszombat (64 km 2 ) with
15,163 people (30.3% Hungarian, 15% German, 53% Slovak, 1.3%
Czech/Polish); and [Pozsony]Szentgyörgy (32 km 2 ) with 3,458 people (18.5%
Hungarian, 26.5% German, 54.9% Slovak). The seven administrative units:
Pozsony, Dunaszerdahely, Galánta, Malacka, Nagyszombat, Somorja and
Szenc districts. 24
According to our calculations, the total area of the four counties Austria
intended carve out of Hungary totaled 15,039 km 2 , the number of settlements
was 1,197, with two judicial seats (Pozsony, Sopron), as well as eight
incorporated towns (Bazin, Modor, Nagyszombat, [Pozsony]Szentgyörgy;
Kismarton, Ruszt, Kőszeg, Szombathely). The total population of the intended
territory was 1,203,532. The average distribution in the four counties of the two
most populous groups was 46.6% Hungarian and 31.2% German.
As well, the irredentist agitators also voiced a claim to a strip of about
1,000-1,200 km 2 part of Zala County, located in the southwest of Trans-
Danubia, populated by ethnic Magyars. The claim covered, to a lesser or greater
degree, the western parts of the Sümeg, Zalaszentgrót, Zalaegerszeg, Nova,
Alsólendva and Csáktornya districts, citing their key importance. The claim
extended up to the railway line running from Celldömölk – Türje –
Zalaegerszeg – Lenti – Alsólendva – Csáktornya in Zala County. In its entirety,
Hungary’s former ally, Austria – both of who were on the losing side in WWI –
strove to appropriate about 16,000 km 2 of western Hungarian territory.
The Austrian territorial claims set down in mid-November of 1918 appeared
not only at the level of creating and influencing public opinion but was
followed by action. Before the (previously mentioned) Declaration of State by
the Austrian National Council made its official territorial claim, the
Westungarische Kanzlei (Western Hungary Bureau) was created in Vienna. 25
The apparent goal of the Bureau was to organize, seemingly without the
knowledge of the National Council but, in reality, with its support, volunteer
armed forces to occupy Hungarian territories marked for annexation. It can be
supposed that this Bureau is identical with the Westungarische Abteilung
(Western Hungary Department) set up around this time within the Austrian
Interior Affairs Office, which also had a military branch. The Department’s
24 Ibid, p. 74.
25 The political leadership of the Westungarische Kanzlei consisted of: Rep. Neunteufel,
dr. Ernst Wallheim, teacher, as well as Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn (1852–1923), writer
and theater manager. The last named person moved from the souther Hungarian Banate
to Vienna. In his earlier endeavours, he tried to strengthen the consciousness of
Germans living in the Carpathian Basin, while also proclaiming the ideals of a ‘Greater
Germany’ and belonged to the confidential inner circle of the heir to the throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand. In: Gagyi, op. cit., pp. 7–8; Világirodalmi lexikon
[Encyclopedia of world literature] vol. 8. Editor-in-chief Király, István. Budapest,
1982, p. 701. The Westungarische Kanzlei later operated as the Burgenländer League.
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