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

proclaimed their separation from Hungary in Sopron and declared an
independent republic called Heanzenland. 35
Also on December 5, an Austrian detachment sent to the Nagymarton
district center reached its destination and handed over 300 rifles and about
50,000 rounds of ammunition to the local Austria-friendly home guard. The
creation of the Heanzenland Republic was officially proclaimed in the town on
the following day, whose armed units began the occupation of the surrounding
area. Units were sent out to the neighboring settlements of Márcfalva and
Borbolya. All communication with the county center, Sopron, was severed.
However, residents of Nagymarton were able to notify the Sopron authorities of
the armed attack. The Heanzenland Republic was in existence for only one day
because an armored train arrived from Sopron the following day with a
machine gun detachment. At their appearance, the local irregulars, made up of
Austrian-leaning ethnic-German Hungarian citizens, put down their weapons
without a fight. 36 The leaders of the Austrian detachment were arrested and
criminal charges laid. However, at the instruction of the Károlyi government,
they soon received a general amnesty. Their cautionary punishment would have
had a dampening effect on the treasonous, Austria-friendly attempts.
With the elimination of Heanzenland, a company of soldiers was sent to
each of Lajtaszentmiklós and Lajtaújfalu, the latter an important railway station
next to the Austrian town of Ebenfurth. It was done because the Austrian
lieutenant confessed that shortly an armored train was going to attack,
supported by a Volkswehr (National Guard) battalion. The Austrian National
Council, of course, officially denied that it had a hand in the Austrian incursion
into Western Hungary, as well as the proclamation of Heanzenland, again
attributing the military attacks to individual over-eagerness.
In this time period, from the Fall of 1918 to the middle of April, 1919, the
200 km. stretch of the Hungarian-Austrian border from the Danube to the Mura
rivers was guarded by an insignificant Hungarian military force. Its security, as
well as border inspection, was organized and manned by the 18 th brigade of
Vas-Sopron County, set up on March 31, 1919, whose strength on April 16 was
a mere 1,622 men. The unit was headquartered in Szombathely and was
organized into four battalions. Over and above, four machine gun companies
were also created. Company 3, with a mixed battalion, was stationed in the
strategic Vas County settlement of Köpcsény, on the right bank of the Danube,
across from Pozsony, which was then under Czechoslovak occupation. The
Köpcsény defensive sector, from Dévény to Oroszvár and on to Rajka, was held
by the following forces: 862 soldiers, 47 officers, 178 horses, 20 machineguns
and 12 artillery pieces. 37
35 Gagyi, op. cit., p. 7.
36 Fogarassy, 1971. Op. cit., pp.291–292.
37 Fogarassy, László: Sopron és az 1919-es hadszíntér [Sopron and the 1919
battlefield]. In: Soproni Szemle, 1961, issue 1, p. 75; Fogarassy, László: A Magyar
Tanácsköztársaság vörös hadseregének köpcsényi védőszaka [The Köpcsény defensive
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