!!!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 Voelkermarkt 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. Huelgerth 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.

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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.

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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, Kaerntner Freiheitskampf, 1921, 1985; H. Lagger, 
Abwehrkampf und Volksabstimmung in Kaernten, 1930; E. Steinboeck, Die 
Volkswehr in Kaernten 1963; H. Steinacher, In Kaerntens 
Freiheitskampf, 1970; W. Neumann, Abwehrkampf und Volksabstimmung in 
Kaernten 1918-1920, %%sup 2/%1985.


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