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

territory along the Raba River, with Szentgotthárd as its center, all the way to
the Styrian border. According to Patry’s suggestion, essentially the western
portion of Trans-Danubia, with a population of approx. 900,000 (of which only
38.3% or 345,000 were Germans), would have been transferred to German-
Austrian rule. For this, Hungary would have received, in exchange, Bosnia-
Herzegovina and the southern part of Dalmatia, with about 2.2 million South
Slav subjects. 5
Patry’s article did not find wide support in Austria. The newspaper that
originally ran Patry’s piece in 1906, the Viennese Altdeutsches Tagblatt, also
reprinted it in the form of a flyer, titled Westungarn zu Deutschösterreich
[Western Hungary to German-Austria], and distributed it in Hungary. On its
front page, it demanded the annexation of Western Hungary to a not-yetexisting
German-Austria that was still a part of the German Empire. Around
this time, the Croats petitioned to have Dalmatia annexed to Croatia. The flyer
seized this opportunity to foment dissension with Hungary, which – as it stated
– “the weak emperor allowed to grow in size at the expense of its loyal
nations.” It proclaimed that the non-Hungarian speaking people of Hungary
awaited their liberation from a forcible Hungarian rule. It graciously allowed
the annexation of Dalmatia to Croatia, under the aegis of the Hungarian Holy
Crown but, in that case, Austria is entitled to compensation by the Hungarian
territory between the Danube and Raba rivers, which was partially populated by
Germans. The flyer also added demands over and above the original article and
went on to lay claim to the cities of Pozsony for reason of it being partly
German, Győr for economic reasons, Komárom for military reasons, then laid
claim to the purely Hungarian island of Csallóköz (Žitný ostrov) and Szigetköz
for its rich agricultural lands. This contagion was carefully planted in Austrian
society, and it made its way to Western Hungary, as well. As but one minor
example, Dr. János Wurditsch of Szentmargitbánya, who received his degree at
the medical school of the University of Vienna, for years, infected the minds of
his sick and healthy patients with this. 6 In the matter of the dissemination of the
German-language flyer, at the February 22, 1908 meeting of the Hungarian
Diet, Hugo Laehne, member for the Kőszeg riding, addressed a question to the
prime minister, Sándor Wekerle (1848-1921). He suggested that Patry’s flyer
be officially confiscated and banning its dissemination in the country, 7 as well
as curbing the Greater Germany sympathies. (Patry’s circular appeared again in
5 The ideas of Josef Patry and similar ones by Austrian politicians are covered in more
detail by Schlag, Gerald: Aus Trümmern geboren… Burgenland 1918-1921 [Born from
the rubble… Burgenland 1918-1921]. Eisenstadt, 2001, pp. 38–48.
6 Sopronyi-Thurner, Mihály: A magyar igazság kálváriája [The Calvary of Hungarian
truth]. In: Sopron és Sopronvármegye ismertetője 1914–1934 [Sopron and Sopron
County Review]. Összeáll. Horváth László, Madarász Gyula, Zsadányi Oszkár. Sopron,
1934, pp. 38–39. (Hereafter referred to as: Sopron and …, 1934.)
7 Nagy, Iván dr. vitéz: Nyugatmagyarország Ausztriában [Western Hungary in Austria].
Pécs, 1937, p. 23.
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