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

The later name of ‘Burgenland,’ denoting the annexed western Hungarian
territory, surfaced in on the front page of a newspaper in Sopron in June of
1919, a month after the acceptance of the Austrian truce terms. A bi-weekly
literary and artistic journal, the Vierburgenland, 85 was begun for the German
speaking population in the four counties marked for annexation by Austria. The
publication’s statement of purpose read: Illustrierte Halbmonatschrift für
Literatur, Kunst, Kritik und Humor. Offizielles Organ de Kulturbundes für
Deutschwestungarn. [Bi-weekly journal of literature, art, critique and humor.
Official journal of the German-Western-Hungarian Cultural Association.] It
was published by the Gauamt Deutschwestungarn, or German-Western-
Hungary Regional Office. The journal, published until March of 1920, had Odo
Röttig as its publisher and editor-in-chief. It was printed by the local Röttig-
Romwalter Press. 86 The newspaper’s name came from a common ending of the
four counties to be annexed (Pozsony/Pressburg, Moson/Wieselburg,
Sopron/Ödenburg, Vas/Eisenburg), ‘burg’ meaning ‘castle’ and ‘land’ meaning
country or province, and ‘Vier’ meaning four in German. After the journal, the
four counties were also referred to as ‘Four-counties’ or ‘Vierburgenland.’
A rather pithy opinion was voiced by a Sopron-born contemporary, Lajos
Krug, well informed of the local circumstances: “From the spineless soil of the
Károlyi regime grew this literary magazine, Vierburgenland, drawing on
unknown financial sources that gave effective support in an unusually attractive
form to continue its destabilizing, almost decisive internal divisive work; filling
its readers with news of its Vierburgenland, until the purloined land did, in fact,
become Burgenland.” 87
After this previous section, we must comment on the birth of a previously
non-existent, new administrative and geographic name: Burgenland. A month
after the signing of the official Austrian peace treaty (officially: Staatsvertrag
or State Treaty), on October 6, 1919, a group of Western Hungary citizens,
living in Viennese and favoring annexation to Austria (Anschluss-supporters),
went to see Chancellor Karl Renner. After paying their respects, they asked the
head of the government to give instructions regarding the name of the newly
created federated Austrian province (Bundesland). In his response, the
chancellor said he was wary of the name Heanzenland and would hold
Dreiburgenland (Three-county) more appropriate – as the Paris Peace
conference did not award Pozsony County to Austria – only the western parts
of Moson, Sopron and Vas counties. One member of the delegation, Sopron-
85 Vierburgenland, 1919, year I, issues 1-12; 1920, year II, issues 1-6. szám.The
Hungarian press of the day objected against the German-Western-Hungary—
Deutschwestungarn name, stressing instead the more legal Western Hungary—
Westungarn. Schwartz, Elemér: A Burgenland név [The Burgenland name]. In: Magyar
Nyelv, 1927, Sept.-Oct., p. 485.
86 Győr-Moson-Sopron megye időszaki sajtójának bibliográfiája (1779–1995)
[Bibliography of the periodicals of Győr-Moson-Sopron County]. Szerk/ed.: Horváth,
József. Győr, 2000, p. 769.
87 Krug, Lajos: Tüzek a végeken [Fires on the frontiers]. Sopron, 1930, p. 38.
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