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Germanization (Excerpts)
by Matjaz Klemencic
Excerpted from Rodna Gruda, English Section December 1985
The mid-19th century represents a very important turning-point
in the development of the Germanization processes in Eastern
and Central Europe. This period was also the time when statistical
methods were introduced, including the first population censuses
on the basis of nationality/ethnic structure. At the same time,
this was a period in which, with the development of the capitalistic,
social relations among the Slavic peoples, the Slavs became
conscious of their existence and consequently became more sensitive
to the Germanization processes.
The first population census in which language affiliation of
the population was determined in the Slovene ethnic territory
was introduced in Styria only in 1830. According to the data
of this population census, in the whole land of Styria there
were 342,013 Slovenes, or 38.72% of the population were Slovenes.
This population census determined that there were only 200 Germans
in the Celje District (Styria was then divided into districts;
however, in such a way that only the Celje District constituted
a wholly Slovene ethnic territory).
With the development of industrial society from the 19th century
on the processes of Germanization continued to accelerate at
a fast pace. We may follow these processes during this period
first of all on the basis of official statistics. The first
population >>census<< in which ethnic affiliation
was determined in the Hapsburg Monarchy was introduced in 1846
for the western half of the Monarchy, and in 1851 for the eastern
half of the Monarchy. Czoering's >>ethnographic statistics<<
were in fact not a census in the true meaning of the word, but
rather merely a poll in which the mayors of individual municipalities
determined the ethnic character of individual settlements. Only
after the calculation of the numbers provided by the population
censuses of the years 1857 and 1869 did they get the absolute
numbers for this population census according to individual administrative
units.
The Slovenes and the Germans encountered one another on the
Slovene ethnic territory at the bordering Slovene and German
ethnic territories in Carinthia and Styria. At that time, in
all of Styria they counted 640,332 or 63.84% German population
and 362,742 or 36.16% Slovene population; and in Carinthia there
were 223,033 or 70% Germans and 95,544 or 30% Slovenes. On the
Slovene ethnic territory the Germanization processes expanded
tremendously: from the year 1846 to 1910 the portion of Slovene
population fell on the Slovene ethnic territory in Styria from
approximately 96% in 1846, 85.5% in 1880, 84.6% in 1890 and
87.3% in 1900 to 81.7% in 1910. Furthermore, on the Slovene
ethnic territory of Carinthia this portion fell from 95% in
1846, 70% in 1880, 64% in 1890, and 56% in 1900 to 45% in 1910.
We may follow the processes in this period in detail also in
the eastern areas of the German Reich, as well as in Galicia
and Bukovina, where this matter is somewhat more complicated,
for Czoering's poll takes into account also Yiddish as a language
category, while it was not included in the population censuses
according to language of communication from the year 1880 to
1910.
in the Austrian Monarchy the population censuses according
to language of communication were, with their system of organization
and implementation of individual population censuses, with their
use of language of communication as the criteria as well as
the results of the population censuses based on language of
communication to solve the question of nationality/ethnicity,
a means of pressure on the non-German peoples, especially in
the ethnically mixed areas in the Austrian half of the Monarchy.
The unreality of the results of the population censuses according
to language of communication may be seen by a comparison of
the detailed results of the population censuses made in each
decade at the level of settlements and political municipalities;
on the basis of comparison of the results of the individual
population censuses containing school statistics on the mother
tongue of the schoolchildren; and the data of the school statistics
on the knowledge of languages of the schoolchildren; on the
basis of the church data on the language structure of the parishes;
and on the basis of official data on the ethnic origin of the
population in individual regions.
About the populations census of 1900 there was much written
in the Lower Styrian German periodical Marburger Zeitung. On
November 29, 1900, for instance, the following statement appears
in the above-mentioned periodical: >>The Population Census
according to Language of Communication is not a population census
according to nationality, and therefore the Slovene servants
and girls who work for German landlords should be counted in
the German language category<<. The Marburger Zeitung
points out further that the results of the Population Census
according to language of communication within a period of ten
years - that is, until the next population census - will be
the measure for determining which would be the official language
of the administration and the courts. The newspaper warns the
Germans of Lower Styria that the Slovenes will attempt to have
the Population Census show results which would reveal that the
German communities had a mixture of languages, meaning Slovene.
The population censuses in the areas along the ethnic borders
(Italian, German, Slovene-German, Czechoslovakian-German, Polish-Ukranian-German)
had the character of elections. I have prepared a statistical
analysis of the state and develop'ment of ethnicity (nationality)
at the level of political municipalities for Slovenian Styria.
As is evident from the map, the change in the language composition
of the population in Slovene Styria in this period was very
interesting. The black shaded areas represent those municipalities
in which the portion of the German population grew by more than
30% in a decade. Only in the first decade of the 20th century
the portion of Slovene population fell by more than 30 % in
seven political municipalities of Slovene Styria. The portion
of population with Slovene as the language of communication
according to the data supplied by the Population Censuses of
1900 and 1910 in the political municipality of Zenkovci in the
Radgona Triangle fell 85% (from 100% to 15%). This drop in the
portion of population with Slovene as the language of communication
may be noted as a world record in (statistical) alteration in
language structure of any territory without the sword. In this
decade the Austrian Bureau of Statistics obviously purposely
attempted - at least statistically to exterminate the Slovenes
in the Radgona Triangle (today on the Austrian side of the triangle,
between the Austrian-Hungarian-Yugoslav border).
Excerpted from Rodna Gruda, English Section April 1986
If we compare the official Austrian statistical data of all
three of the postwar population censuses with the Nazi census
of 1939 and with the data on schoolchildren in the year 1954/55,
and attempt to ascertain the changes in the language composition
of the population in the three above-mentioned municipalities,
if we were not aware of the political background of the censuses,
we could conclude that Austrian Carinthia - with its nationality/ethnic
composition of the population is a unique demographic phenomenon
unparalleled in the world. For we get, according to the logic
of these manipulated statistical data on the language structure
of the population, the impression that the Slovene ethnic community
died-out in this municipality in one decade, only to be re-incarnated
in the next decade by a new population census. On the basis
of the example of St. Stephan an der Gail we could conclude
that the Carinthian Slovenes in 1939 were in the majority, while
in the 12-year period up to the first postwar official population
census in 1951 they completely vanished, only to be reborn four
years later as the children of the Carinthian Slovenes. In the
municipality of Egg an der Gail apparently three-quarters of
the population was German in 1951; but only three years later
in 1954 three-quarters of the children were Slovene. In the
municipality of Mieger, where in 1951 the majority were Slovene-speaking,
in a period of ten years the so-called "Windisch"
almost completely disappeared. They had not even existed in
the population census of 1951, but in the census of 1961 constituted
the majority, only to die out again in 1971.
The statistical data on the language of communication of the
population according to the Carinthian municipalities give the
impression in the censuses of 1951 and 1961 that in the provincial
municipalities of Austrian Carinthia the number of Germans doubled,
in some places even tripled, while the number of Slovenes is
everywhere lower, and in some places increased. In none of the
population censuses from the 19th century up to the present
day in Carinthia has there been any intention to determine the
actual number of Slovenes in Carinthia. Only of them, that is
the Nazi Census of 1939 had the task of determining the settlement
cores of the Slovene population in Carinthia with the aim of
forcibly transporting the Slovenes with less difficulty; it
also determined other demographic characteristics of the population
and thus served only as a determinant of the ethnic structure.
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