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

which, 19,164 voters, were to be found in the eight districts of Sopron and in
Brennbergbánya, considered the 9 th district of Sopron. The minority, 7,905
persons, resided in the surrounding eight villages. Of the total, 24,063 cast
ballots (17,298 in Sopron, 6,765 in the surrounding villages) with a mere 502
spoiled ballots. Of the valid 23,561 ballots cast, 15,334 (65.1%) elected to stay
with Hungary and 8,227 (34.9%) opted for Austria. It is important to note that
the citizenry of Sopron decided referendum results favorable to Hungary:
72.8% of the city’s electorate voted for staying with their ancient homeland,
while only 27.2% voted against it. In the surrounding eight villages, the similar
result was 45.5% for and 54.5% against. 499 As a result of the referendum of
Sopron and the eight villages – Ágfalva, Balf, Bánfalva, Brennbergbánya,
Felsőboz, Fertőrákos, Harka, Kópháza, and Nagycenk – a total of 256.82 km 2
was able to be retained by Hungary. 500
According to the data of the 1920 census, the referendum area had a total
population of 50,021, whose language distribution was: 19,525 (39.0%)
Hungarian, 27,473 (54.9%) German, 2,472 (5.0%) Croat and 551 (1.1%) other.
Of the total population of 50,021, 34,197 spoke Hungarian. Another important
fact to note: of the 35,248 people of Sopron according to the census, 28,467
(80.8%) spoke Hungarian, while the linguistic make up of the city was 17,166
(48.7%) Hungarian, 16,911 (48.0%) German, 733 (2.1%) Croat and 438 (1.2%)
other. 501
In the days following the plebiscite, indeed to this day, Austrian public
opinion asserted a “great fraud” by the Hungarians, when, according to them,
Sopron was “fraudulently stolen” from Austria. The first to state this opinion
was Viktor Miltschinsky, the Austrian referendum delegate, who published a
book in 1922 in Vienna, recounting in detail the circumstances of the voting. In
it, he openly calls the Sopron plebiscite as a crime (Verbrechen) because, in a
perfect vote, according to him, 70-80% would have decided with Austria. He
wrote that, on the day of the referendum, every street in Sopron, indeed every
house, had trusted persons. To prevent disorder, they led groups of citizens to
499 Villani, 1923, op. cit., pp. 32–34.
500 Ibid, p. 87; Horváth, Zoltán: Három ország versengése Nyugat-Magyarországért. A
soproni népszavazás 50. évfordulóján. I. rész [The contest of three countries for
Western Hungary. On the 50 th anniversary of the Sopron plebiscite. Part I]. In: Kisalföld
(Győr), 1971, December 14, p. 6; Part II, December 15, p. 5; Fogarassy, László: A
soproni népszavazás helye Európa korabeli diplomáciai történetében [The position of
the Sopron plebiscite in the diplomatic history of Europe of the day]. In: Soproni
Szemle, 1991, issue 4, pp. 289–315; Mollay, Károly: A soproni népszavazás tanulságai.
1921. dec. 14–1991. dec. 14 [The conclusions of the Sopron plebiscite. Dec. 14, 1921 –
Dec. 14, 1991]. In: Soproni Szemle, 1992, issue 2, pp. 97–105; Boronkai, Szabolcs: Az
1921. évi soproni népszavazás a korabeli sajtó tükrében. I. rész [The 1921 plebiscite in
the mirror of the media of the day. Part I]. In: Soproni Szemle, 2003, issue 1, pp. 3–19;
Part II, 2003, issue 2, pp. 124–142; Ormos, 1990, op. cit., p. 220; „Magyarok
maradtunk” 1921–1996 [We stayed Hungarians 1921-1996]. Sopron, 1996, p. 112.
501 Lőkkös, 2000, op. cit., pp. 358–360.
194