- Marburg's Bloody Sunday
-
Marburg's Bloody Sunday (German: Marburger Blutsonntag,[1][2] Slovene: Mariborska krvava nedelja) is the name of a massacre that took place on Monday, January 27, 1919 at Maribor (German: Marburg an der Drau) in Slovenia. Soldiers from the army of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (aka Yugoslavia), under the command of Slovene officer Rudolf Maister, killed between 9 and 13 civilians of German ethnic origin, wounding a further 60, during a protest in a city centre square. Estimates of casualties differ between Slovene and Austrian sources.
In November 1918, after the First World War ended, the territories of southern Carinthia and southern Styria, which had been claimed by the Republic of German Austria, were captured by military units under Maister's command.
Maribor was the largest city of southern Styria with a predominately German population. A US delegation led by Sherman Miles visited Maribor on January 27, 1919 as part of a wider mission to resolve territorial disputes. On the same day, German citizens organised a protest proclaiming their desire for Maribor to be incorporated into the Republic of German Austria. The protest was interrupted by Meister's soldiers firing at the people and causing numerous casualties. In response, German Austria launched a military offensive which expelled the Yugoslavs from several small towns in Upper Styria along the Mur River. A ceasefire was agreed under the mediation of France in February 1919. According to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed on September 10, 1919, Maribor and the rest of Lower Styria became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Responsibility for the Maribor massacre was never established.
Contents
Background
The Republic of German Austria was created following the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the First World War and claimed areas with a predominantly German-speaking population within the bounds of the former empire. In addition to the current area of the Republic of Austria, these included parts of South Tyrol and the town of Tarvisio, both now in Italy; southern Carinthia and southern Styria, now in Slovenia; and Sudetenland proper and German Bohemia (later also part of Sudetenland), now in the Czech Republic.
The victorious Allied Powers divided the territories of the former Austria-Hungary between German Austria, Hungary and several other countries. Though the division of territories was conducted through a proclaimed principle of national self-determination, populations of ethnic Germans and Hungarians[3][4][5] remained resident in many of these territories, including Czechoslovakia, Romania and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.[6][7]
Control of the city of Maribor was disputed by Yugoslavia and German Austria. A Federal Act of German Austria, concerning "the Extent, the Borders and the Relations of the State Territories of November 22, 1918", asserted a claim to the region of Lower Styria within which Marburg/Maribor was located, but excluded from its claim the predominantly Slav-populated regions.[8] To resolve the question of the ownership of Carinthia, the greater region of which Lower Styria formed a part, the U.S.-administered Coolidge Mission in Vienna proposed a demographic investigation of the territory. The mission was led by Archibald Cary Coolidge, professor of history at Harvard College, and operated under the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. The mission appointed a delegation to be led by Colonel Sherman Miles and including Lieutenant LeRoy King, professor of Slavic languages at the University of Missouri,[9] and professors Robert Kerner and Lawrence Martin.[10]
On the way to Carinthia, the delegation visited Maribor which, prior to the First World War, had a population comprising 80% Austrian Germans and 20% Slovenes.[11] Most of Maribor's capital and public life was in Austrian German hands and it was known mainly by its German-language name Marburg an der Drau. According to the last Austro-Hungarian census in 1910, the city and its suburbs Studenci (Brunndorf), Pobrežje (Pobersch), Tezno (Thesen), Radvanje (Rothwein), Krčevina (Kartschowin), and Košaki (Leitersberg) housed 31,995 Austrian Germans (including German-speaking Jews), and 6,151 ethnic Slovenes. The surrounding area however was populated almost entirely by Slovenes, although many Austrian Germans lived in smaller towns like Ptuj (Pettau, 79,39%)[11] or Celje (Cilli, 66,80%).[11]
In November 1918, the Slovene major (later general) Rudolf Maister seized the city of Maribor and surrounding areas of Lower Styria in the name of the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, a forerunner of Yugoslavia.[12] On November 23, 1918, Maister and his soldiers disarmed and disbanded the "Green Guard" (German: Schutzwehr, Slovene: Zelena Garda) security force maintained by the Maribor city council.[13] Maister captured several villages and towns north of the Mur river, including Lichendorf, Bad Radkersburg, Mureck and Marenberg.[14][15] On December 31, 1918 Maister's units imprisoned 21 notable Maribor citizens of ethnic German origin.[16]
Massacre
Sources differ on the exact cause and extent of the massacre in Maribor.[17] All agree that on January 27, 1919, the Coolidge Mission's delegation, led by Sherman Miles, visited Maribor[14] and found thousands of citizens of German ethnic origin gathered in the main city square and waving flags of German Austria, many of which also decorated nearby buildings.[18] German Austrian sources indicate that there were 10,000 protesters singing songs and wearing patriotic dress. Twenty soldiers under Maister's command were stationed in front of the city hall, armed with rifles mounted with bayonets.[19]
German-language sources assert that the soldiers began firing into the crowd without provocation, aiming for unarmed civilians. According to these sources the fatalities numbered 13, and a further 60 protesters were wounded.[20]
A Slovene account of the same event asserts that the soldiers began to fire only when an Austrian citizen discharged a revolver in the direction of the Slovene soldiers, striking the bayonet of one.[21] The soldiers then returned fire: according to this account 11 were killed, and an unknown number wounded.[22]
Aftermath
Subsequently, on February 4, 1919, German Austria commenced a military offensive to recover the regions of Upper Styria controlled by Maister's troops.[23] A ceasefire was agreed on February 10, 1919, under French mediation from their military mission located in Maribor.[24] On February 13, 1919, a peace agreement was signed and Maister's troops retreated from Upper Styria.[25]
LeRoy King, one of the members of the Coolidge Mission, wrote in his report that the authorities in Maribor were suspicious of the work of the mission and apparently feared that it had uncovered information they would have preferred to conceal. He argued that there were Slovene populations in Styria who would have preferred the maintenance of Austrian rule.[26]
The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed on September 10, 1919, observed that Maribor was firmly under the control of the Yugoslav army and that, since Slovenes constituted a majority in the region surrounding the city, Maribor should remain, with the rest of Lower Styria, within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Responsibility for the shooting in Maribor was never conclusively established. Austrian sources attributed blame to Rudolf Maister, and referenced him in some accounts as the Butcher of Maribor.[27][28] In Slovenia, by contrast, Maister remains well-regarded; numerous societies[29] institutions and streets[30] are named in his honour and he is commemorated in several monuments.[31][32]
References
- ^ Goldinger, Walter; Dieter A. Binder (1992) (in German). Geschichte der Republik Österreich: 1918-1938. Vienna, Austria: Verlag fur Geschischte und Politik. p. 62. http://books.google.com/books?id=-Q8IRlC56FIC&pg=PA62&dq=Marburger+Blutsonntag&hl=en&ei=KEssTdLBLoSdOumurIIK&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Marburger%20Blutsonntag&f=false. "Marburger Blutsonntag"
- ^ Ude, Lojze (1961). "Boj za Maribor" (in Slovene) (pdf). Slovenia: Zgodovinski časopis. p. 138. http://www.sistory.si/publikacije/pdf/zcasopis/ZGODOVINSKI_CASOPIS_LETO_1961_LETNIK_15.pdf. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Tako je prišlo do demonstracij, ki jih je nacionalistični del nemške publistike zaradi streljanja, do katerega je prišlo na Glavnom Trgu pred Mestno Hišo, še danes oznečuje Der Marburger Bluttag..."
- ^ "Trianon, Treaty of". The Columbia Encyclopedia. 2009. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-TrianonTr.html.
- ^ Macartney, C.A. (1937). Hungary and her successors - The Treaty of Trianon and Its Consequences 1919-1937. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Bernstein, Richard (2003-08-09). "East on the Danube: Hungary's Tragic Century". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E3D91531F93AA3575BC0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2. Retrieved 2008-03-15.
- ^ "President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points (1918)". Ourdocuments.gov web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ourdocuments.gov%2Fdoc.php%3Fflash%3Dtrue%26doc%3D62&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "In this January 8, 1918, address to Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proposed a 14-point program for world peace. These points were later taken as the basis for peace negotiations at the end of the war.... Germany quickly found out that Wilson’s blueprint for world peace would not apply to them."
- ^ House, Colonel. "Interpretation of President Wilson's Fourteen Points by Colonel House". Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtholyoke.edu%2Facad%2Fintrel%2Fdoc31.htm&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "10. The people of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity of autonomous development. This proposition no longer holds. Instead we have [today] the following elements: (1) Czechoslovakia. Its territories include at least a million Germans for whom some provision must be made. The independence of Slovakia means the dismemberment of the northwestern countries of Hungary. (3) German Austria. This territory should of right be permitted to join Germany, but there is strong objection in [France] because of the increase of [population] involved."
- ^ Bill by the State Council, Appendix No. 3 PDF
- ^ Ude, Lojze (1961). "Boj za Maribor" (in Slovene) (pdf). Slovenia: Zgodovinski časopis. p. 138. http://www.sistory.si/publikacije/pdf/zcasopis/ZGODOVINSKI_CASOPIS_LETO_1961_LETNIK_15.pdf. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "... por. King, profesor za slovanske jezike na Unverzi v Misuriju"
- ^ "Jänner 1919: Der Bluttag von Marburg a. d. Drau" (in German). Die Presse. January 30, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdiepresse.com%2Fhome%2Fpolitik%2Fzeitgeschichte%2F448662%2FJaenner-1919_Der-Bluttag-von-Marburg-a-d-Drau&date=2011-01-05. Retrieved January 5, 2011. "Sie bestand aus Oberstleutnant Sherman Miles, Leutnant Le Roy King und den Professoren Robert Kerner und Lawrence Martin."
- ^ a b c Osterreicheische statistik Herausgegeben von der K.K. Statistischen Zentralkommission. neue folge 1. band. Ergebnisse der volkszahlung vom 31. dezember 1910. - Wien. aus der kaiserlich-koniglichen hof und staatsdruckerel 1917. in kommission bei karl gerold's sohn
- ^ "Rudolf Maister – simbol neizmernega poguma in neomajnega slovenskega domoljubja.". Slovenia: Slovenska Demokratska Stranka, official web site. November 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.radece.sds.si%2Fnews%2F32615&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "General Rudolf Maister - Vojanov je človek, brez katerega danes Štajerska in Prekmurje verjetno ne bi bila slovenska. S svojimi dejanji in besedami: »Ne priznavam teh točk. Maribor razglašam za jugoslovansko posest in prevzemam v imenu svoje vlade vojaško poveljstvo nad mestom in vso Spodnjo Štajersko,« je postal sinonim za narodno zavednost in pripadnost slovenskemu narodu."
- ^ Burger, Boštjan. "Ljubljana, Spomenik Rudolfu Majsteru, Brdar". Slovenia: Burger.si web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.burger.si%2FLjubljana%2FSpomeniki_Maister.htm&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "... disarmed the Austrian Schutzwehr security service, and disbanded the army of the Austrian city council."
- ^ a b Judson, Pieter M. (2006). Guardians of the nation: activists on the language frontiers of imperial Austria. United States of America: President and Fellows of Harvard College. p. 236. http://books.google.com/books?id=zEl1e3j01LYC&pg=PA237&dq=maribor+bloody+sunday&hl=en&ei=xUIsTZzTLM3H4gakiLmLCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDMQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=maribor%20bloody%20sunday&f=false. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "In the south, Slovene nationalist militia units....occupied three major centers of South Styrian German nationalists politics .. Major Rudolf Maister, a Slovene nationalist and Austrian commander of the militia in Marburg/Maribor, had taken control of all military forces... In late November his units moved northward to occupy the north bank of the Mur/Mura river, including towns of Radkersburg/Radgona and Spielfeld/Spilje"
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hervardi.com%2Frudolf_maister.php&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Maistrovi borci so nato istega dne osvobodili Radgono, Cmurek, Lučane, Radlje (Marenberg) in Muto."
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hervardi.com%2Frudolf_maister.php&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "general Rudolf Maister na Silvestrovo, 31. Grudna 1918, določil enaindvajset uglednih mariborskih Nemcev za talce."
- ^ Ude, Lojze (1961). "Boj za Maribor" (in Slovene) (pdf). Slovenia: Zgodovinski časopis. p. 138. http://www.sistory.si/publikacije/pdf/zcasopis/ZGODOVINSKI_CASOPIS_LETO_1961_LETNIK_15.pdf. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Slovensko in nemška poročila si med seboj in v sebi preveč nasprotujejo"
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi. http://www.hervardi.com/rudolf_maister.php. "Mariborski Nemci so ... z godbo na čelu odkorakali proti centru mesta. ... Pripravili so velike demonstracije... Na Glavni trg so prihajale množice ljudi iz vseh strani."
- ^ Ude, Lojze (1961). "Boj za Maribor" (in Slovene) (pdf). Slovenia: Zgodovinski časopis. p. 138. http://www.sistory.si/publikacije/pdf/zcasopis/ZGODOVINSKI_CASOPIS_LETO_1961_LETNIK_15.pdf. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Stražniki so imeli v rokah puške z nasajenim bajoneti"
- ^ "Jänner 1919: Der Bluttag von Marburg a. d. Drau" (in German). Die Presse. January 30, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdiepresse.com%2Fhome%2Fpolitik%2Fzeitgeschichte%2F448662%2FJaenner-1919_Der-Bluttag-von-Marburg-a-d-Drau&date=2011-01-05. Retrieved January 5, 2011. "Eine Salve nach der anderen feuerten die Soldaten in die nichtsahnende, wehr- und waffenlose Volksmenge, .... 13 Tote und etwa 60 Verwundete..."
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi. http://www.hervardi.com/rudolf_maister.php. "Po pričevanju je iz te množice padel prvi strel iz pištole (pričevanje Maksa Poharja), ki je zadel bajonet na puški enega izmed slovenskih vojakov."
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi. http://www.hervardi.com/rudolf_maister.php. "Po pričevanju je iz te množice padel prvi strel iz pištole (pričevanje Maksa Poharja), ki je zadel bajonet na puški enega izmed slovenskih vojakov. Najbližji demonstranti so nato napadli vojake in jim hoteli iztrgati puške iz rok. Vojaki so zatem brez povelja in v samoobrambi pričeli streljati proti množici. ..... Obležali so mrtvi štirje demonstranti, sedem pa jih je pozneje umrlo v bolnišnici. Število ranjenih ni znano."
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hervardi.com%2Frudolf_maister.php&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Po nemških nasilnih demonstracijah v Mariboru je avstrijska štajerska deželna vlada pripravila napad na slovenske obmejne postojanke. 4. Svečana 1919 so avstrijske sile, ki se jim je pridružilo precej madžarskih prostovoljcev, pod vodstvom nadporočnika Mickla z desetkratno premočjo napadle Radgono,"
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hervardi.com%2Frudolf_maister.php&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "10. Svečana 1919 je prišlo do mirovnih pogajanj med graško deželno vlado in ljubljansko narodno vlado ob posredovanju in sodelovanju francoskega odposlanstva, ki je bilo prav tedaj v Mariboru."
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (in Slovene) (php). Slovenia: Hervardi web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hervardi.com%2Frudolf_maister.php&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Pogajanja so se končala 13. Svečana s sporazumom o trajnem miru na Štajerskem."
- ^ "Report number 22 of Lieutenant LeRoy King to Professor A. C. Coolidge". Studia Croatica. April 8, 1919. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.studiacroatica.org%2Fjcs%2F01%2F0108.htm%23_ftn8&date=2011-01-05. Retrieved January 5, 2011. "Jugo-Slav authorities in Marburg [Maribor] still look with suspicion on the work of Colonel Miles' commission in Carinthia. He sums up their attitude by saying that he thinks they are afraid the Americans found out too much. He also says that it is indisputable that in Styria, at least, there are Slovenes who want to remain under Austrian rule."
- ^ "Jänner 1919: Der Bluttag von Marburg a. d. Drau" (in German). Die Presse. January 30, 2009. Archived from the original on January 5, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdiepresse.com%2Fhome%2Fpolitik%2Fzeitgeschichte%2F448662%2FJaenner-1919_Der-Bluttag-von-Marburg-a-d-Drau&date=2011-01-05. Retrieved January 5, 2011. "Er war der Sohn einer ethnisch gemischten Familie in der Steiermark, wurde von seiner slowenischen Mutter zu einem glühenden Nationalisten erzogen und ging als „Schlächter von Marburg“"
- ^ HANS WERNER SCHEIDL (October 8, 2010). "Kärntner Volksabstimmung: Kampf um die Herzen am Fuß der Karawanken" (in German). Die Presse. http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/600762/Kampf-um-die-Herzen-am-Fuss-der-Karawanken. Retrieved January 5, 2011. "„Schlächter von Marburg“"
- ^ "Prleško društvo Generala Maistra" (in Slovene). Slovenia: Turistično društvo Kog, v sodelovanju z Zgodovinskim društvom Ormož,. August 2006. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsun.gfm-ljutomer.si%2Fmaister%2FStrani%2FObvestilo07.htm&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ "Rudolf Maister" (doc). Kamnik, Slovenia: Šolski center Rudolfa Maistra. April 2005. http://janez.sc-rm.net/inf/rudolfmaister.doc. Retrieved January 11. 2011. "KAJ VSE JE POSVEČENO RUDOLFU MAISTRU: Seznam objektov po krajih: Maribor: Spomeniki, Relief, Kipi, Osnovne šole, Razstava; Kamnik: Spomenik, Srednja šola; Ljubljana: Spomenik,Ulice."
- ^ "Otvoritev parka generala Rudolfa Maistra v Ljutomeru" (in Slovene). Slovenia: Prlekija-on.net. June 23, 2010. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prlekija-on.net%2Fgalerija%2F293%2Fotvoritev-parka-generala-rudolfa-maistra%2F11960%2Fspomenik-rudolf-maister-vojanov.html&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011.
- ^ "Maistrov Spomenik" (in Slovene). Maribor-pohorje.si web site. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http%3A%2F%2Fmaribor-pohorje.si%2Fmaistrov-spomenik.aspx&date=2011-01-11. Retrieved January 11, 2011. "Spomenik generala Rudolfa Maistra stoji na današnjem Trgu generala Maistra od leta 1987. Rudolf Maister sodi zaradi svojih zaslug pri oblikovanju slovenske severne državne meje med izjemno pomembne Mariborčane."
External links
- Newspaper article about Marburg's Bloody Sunday, published in Die Neue Zeitung on January 28, 1919
- Article about Marburg's Bloody Sunday, published in Pester Lloyd on January 28, 1919
- Article about Marburg's Bloody Sunday, published in Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung on January 28, 1919
- Article about Marburg's Bloody Sunday, published in Reichspost on January 29, 1919
- Text about Rudolf Maister and description of the Marburg's Bloody Sunday on Hervardi web site
- Text about Rudolf Maister on the web site of Kamnik municipality
- Generalova krvava nedelja (General's Bloody Sunday), Mladina magazine, March 2007. Author: Tomica Šuljić
- Marburg's Bloody Sunday in the article published by Die Presse web site on January 30, 2009
Categories:- 1919 in Austria
- 1919 in Slovenia
- 1919 in Yugoslavia
- Aftermath of World War I
- Massacres in Slovenia
- Maribor
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