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

ecompensed by Hungarian territory (Baranya County and the Vend region/
Medžimurje). This was confirmed when the Supreme Council of the Peace
Conference decided to consider Austria as a new country on May 28-29, whose
current official name of German-Austria (Deutschösterreich) was changed to
the Republic of Austria. The official documents of the Supreme Council refer to
it in French and English as République d’Autriche or Republic of Austria. The
heads of the Peace Conference also decided henceforth to treat Austria
differently from Germany. The terms of the peace treaty were handed to the
Austrian delegation on June 2, 1919, which was sharply protested by the
Austrian National Assembly at its extraordinary meeting of June 7. 108 Next,
numerous notes, submissions and memoranda were written by Austria
regarding the matter of Westungarn – not yet called by its new name,
Burgenland. Most pointed out the dangers threatening the Austrian capital,
Vienna, from “Bolshevik Hungary.” Austria’s position was further improved by
the resignation of the most Anschluss-leaning Austrian politician, Foreign
Minister Otto Bauer. The Chancellor, Renner, then announced a new, Entente
friendly, foreign policy. Austria’s image was further enhanced when a large
demonstration was put down in Vienna on June 15, preventing an attempted
revolt by the Communists. 109
By the date of the Peace Conference, the demands of the representatives of
the transitional Austrian National Assembly who sided with the Greater
Germany concepts have substantially modified their territorial demands first
introduced in October of 1918, i.e.- all of Pozsony, Sopron, Moson and Vas
counties and a western strip of Zala County. By the Spring of 1919, the official
land claim shrank to 5,055 km 2 with a population of 392,000. This claim was,
by now, only one-third of the unofficially claimed 16,000 km 2 with 1,300
settlements and a population of 1.2 million. The Austrian government
demanded to have, first of all, Sopron, as well as the district around
Hegyeshalom–Moson–Magyaróvár, and Kőszeg and Szentgotthárd awarded to
it, on top of the actual award that later became Burgenland. The one-time ally
of Hungary, co-founder of the Dual Monarchy and equal loser of the war,
turned out not to be any less predatory than the Czechs, Romanians or Serbs. 110
Some Austrian sources mentioned a slightly larger claim of 5,379 km 2 . 111 Due
to changes in the foreign policy environment, Austria later gave up any claim to
108 Pozsonyi, Márta: A saint-germaini osztrák békedelegáció és a területi kérdés [The
Austrian peace delegation at Saint-Germain and the territorial question]. In: Történelem
és nemzet. Tanulmánykötet Galántai József professzor tiszteletére. Szerk/ed.: Kiss,
Károly – Lovas, Krisztina. Budapest, 1996, pp. 295–332; Romhányi, Zsófia: A saintgermaini
békekötés és az osztrák sajtó [The peace treaty of Saint-Germain and the
Austrian press]. Ibid, pp. 277–293.
109 Ormos, 1983, op. cit., pp. 286–287.
110 Lőkkös, op. cit., pp. 123, 124. (map)
111 Zsiga, Tibor: Communitas Fidelissima Szentpéterfa. A magyar–osztrák
határmegállapítás 1922–23 [Most loyal town, Szentpéterfa. The Hungarian-Austrian
border settlement 1922-1923]. Szombathely, 1993, p. 10.
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