The Disputed Austro-Hungarian Border: Agendas, Actors, and Practices in Western Hungary/Burgenland after World War I(36 Austrian and Habsburg Studies)

The collapse of the Habsburg monarchy in the aftermath of World War I marked a foundational shift in the histories of Austria and Hungary. Previously part of the Habsburg’s Austro-Hungarian Empire, this event stripped the two new states of a long-established territorial order, triggering a controversial redrawing of their borders. Whilst scholarship often focuses on the role played by state actors in Vienna and Budapest, The Disputed Austro-Hungarian Border refreshingly re-examines this event through investigating how processes of state and nation-building manifested within the contested region of Western Hungary and Burgenland. In doing so, this book innovatively resituates this border region within the larger context of post-Habsburg historical development taking place across Central Europe.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: The Separation of Austria and Hungary after World War I: A Borderland Perspective Hannes Grandits Part I: Discussing, Implementing and Explaining a New Border (Region) Chapter 1. The Role of Bolshevism and Anti-Bolshevism in the Struggle for Western Hungary and Burgenland Ibolya Murber Chapter 2. The Interallied Commission for the Delimitation of the Boundary between Austria and Hungary, and the New International Order in Austria Michael Burri Chapter 3. Graz Geographers at the Birth of Burgenland: Robert Sieger and Marian Sidaritsch Ferenc Jankó Part II: Surviving during (Post-) World War I Economic Disintegration and the Polarization of Class Chapter 4. Surviving and Resisting the Wartime Order: Black-Market Economy in the Border Region of Wiener Neustadt during and after World War I Sabine Schmitner-Laszakovits Chapter 5. Polarization, Persistence and Political Mobilization of Class Belongings in Western Hungary /Burgenland after World War I (1919-22) Hannes Grandits Part III: Evolution of a New Elite Power Balance Chapter 6. Petite-Bourgeois Local Revolutions? Post-Habsburg Transitions, Democratization, Local Elites, and the Place of Western-Hungary/Burgenland Gábor Egry Chapter 7. The Birth of Burgenland and the End of the Esterházy-Estate Melinda Harlov-Csortán Part IV: Post-Imperial Solidification of Ethnic Categories Chapter 8. From Mosaic to Pigeonhole: Frames, Loyalties, and Policies among the Croatian Speaking Population in Former Western Hungary/Burgenland Katharina Tyran Chapter 9. The Romani and Jewish Population in Burgenland at the Beginning of the Inter-War Period Ursula K. Mindler-Steiner Index

About the Author :
Hannes Grandits is Professor of Southeast European History at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Review :
“[T]his book is an important, significant addition to the current scholarship on empire and post-imperial breakdown and transition, and on the Habsburg/post-Habsburg history of borderlands.” • Marco Bresciani, University of Florence “This is a very convincing edited volume on the transformation of power from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Austrian Republic after the First World War. Looking at one particular region, Burgenland, that was contested between two losers of the War, the book provides insight into macro- and micro-level decision making processes, changes in hierarchies and power relations between social, ethnic, political and religious groups inhabiting this border region.” • Tim Buchen, Technische Universität Dresden