Kärntner Abwehrkampf

Carinthian Resistance Movement (1918/1919), Carinthian militias offered resistance to Yugoslav troops, who after World War I, laid claims to southern and southeastern Carinthian border territories including the towns of Klagenfurt and Villach. On November 5, 1918 Slovene troops invaded southeastern Carinthia and the Yugoslav police advanced towards the Rosental Valley and the lower Gail Valley. The towns of Ferlach and Völkermarkt situated north of the River Drau/Drava were occupied. Without the federal government´s advice the Carinthian provisional constituent assembly decided on December 5, 1918 to defend the threatened territories by use of arms. In early 1919 militias were formed by Carinthian civilians; lieutenant colonel L. Hülgerth was appointed commander-in-chief and lieutenant H. Steinacher was made commander of the militia troops and propagandist. Throughout the conflict the Carinthian Slovenes supported Austria.

The liberation struggle began in the Gail Valley with the recapture of Arnoldstein on January 5, 1919, an advance towards the Rosental Valley and the seizure of the town of Ferlach. On January 14 the opposing parties agreed upon an armistice; an official US commission came to Carinthia to investigate the territories in question. On April 29 Yugoslavia broke the truce but did not succeed in winning any territories back. By May 7 all territories stipulated in the armistice agreement as part of Carinthia were liberated. A plebiscite had been considered in the peace conference but the southern frontier was again threatened by a Yugoslav invasion in May, 1919. Yugoslav troops entered Carinthia on May 28 and occupied Klagenfurt on June 6. By order of the Supreme Council of the Allied Forces in Paris, Yugoslavia was forced to leave Klagenfurt and this saw the end of all fights, in which more than 200 Carinthians had been killed and 800 had been injured.

In the Treaty of Saint-Germain a plebiscite was prescribed in the occupied border territories. Abstimmungsgebiete (Carinthian Plebiscite). Until then the southern "zone A" was occupied by Yugoslav troops and the northern "zone B" by Austrian troops.

Literature: M. Wutte, Kärntner Freiheitskampf, 1921, 1985; H. Lagger, Abwehrkampf und Volksabstimmung in Kärnten, 1930; E. Steinböck, Die Volkswehr in Kärnten 1963; H. Steinacher, In Kärntens Freiheitskampf, 1970; W. Neumann, Abwehrkampf und Volksabstimmung in Kärnten 1918-1920, ²1985.