Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies

Cultural Identity Politics in the (Post-)Transitional Societies
Croats and Slovenes, reached back into the 19th century and took shape, the more the
disintegration of the Habsburg Empire became evident at the end of the war. This is not
the place to document the individual steps which led to the building of the Kingdom of
SHS. From an Austrian perspective, borders were crucial (Haas and Stuhlpfarrer, 1977).
Differently from Czechoslovakia, where Austria claimed the Bohemian and Moravian
regions with German-speaking majorities as part of German-Austria, in the case of
the Kingdom of SHS, Austria insisted on maintaining the provincial (crown land)
borders of Carinthia and Styria. Carinthia and Styria showed Slovene minorities, which
represented majorities in the southern parts of the provinces. Slavic populations did
not fit into the self-understanding of German-Austria as the German-speaking remnant
of the monarchy, striving for unification with Germany. Slovene inhabitants were not
considered an obstacle to German-Austria, however. Their culture and identity were
considered to be a rural, traditional one, which would be assimilated into the German
one in the process of modernization, eventually surviving at the level of folklore.
The Kingdom of SHS, referring to the right of (ethnic) self-determination, one of US
President Wilson’s principles for a European post-war order, laid claim to Carniola and
Goerz-Gradisca, Istria and the Trieste region, as well as to the Slovene-speaking regions
of Styria and Carinthia to form the future Slovenia. In the case of Goerz-Gradisca,
Istria and Trieste, the border dispute with Italy was settled in favour of Italy, which also
incorporated Rijeka/Fiume into the Italian state. Carniola was adjudged to the Kingdom
of SHS in Saint-Germain. Styria was divided into a northern part staying with Austria and
a southern part adjudged to Slovenia. Carinthia was heavily disputed between Slovenia
and Austria, as well as Italy, which also obtained some Carinthian regions (e.g. Kanaltal).
Finally a plebiscite in southern Carinthia decided the region to stay part of Austria. As
a result, Slovenes represented a minority in Austria, raising the question of assimilation
versus Slovene minority rights, not settled even today. In the Kingdom of SHS and the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia a German minority survived the new borders.
The Austrian attitude towards Slovenes was characterized by passive assimilation, not
questioning Slovene culture in the villages and in the Church, but insisting on German as
the language of administration and social ascent. The link between Germanization and
social ascent was accepted by many Slovenes when they lost their rural traditions. They
were called “Windische” by the German Carinthians, on the one hand underlining the
success of assimilation, on the other hand maintaining the ethnic difference in spite of
lingual assimilation. Ethnic diversity was no longer seen as an asset, but as a problem,
with assimilation to German as the best solution. “Our” Croats, apart from a minority in
the Burgenland, a former Hungarian province which was attributed to Austria and “our”
Serbs did not pose a problem, because their residential regions did not belong to Austria
any more. While neglecting minority rights in Austria, Austria’s interest was dedicated
to German-Austrian minorities abroad, in this case in the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia,
where the Slavic character of the state was a threat to those minorities which did not belong
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