Kroaten#

Croats: At the beginning of the 16th centuries nobles from western Hungary and Austria called Croats, who had fled from the Turks to the north came to settle in the area of what is today Burgenland, then depopulated by wars and epidemics, as well as the adjoining parts of Lower Austria (e.g. the Marchfeld region). The settlers came from various parts of Croatia, ranging from the Dalmatian coast to Slavonia. Today their origins are still reflected in a variety of folk costumes, songs and dialects. Whereas in Lower Austria the number of people speaking Croatian steadily declined in the 19th and 20th centuries, in Burgenland 40,500 people stated that they spoke Croatian in everyday life in 1934 (13% of Burgenland's population). According to the census of 1991 30,000 inhabitants, 19,460 (7.2%) of which were residents of Burgenland; belonged to this ethnic group, 3,003 of them said they spoke Croatian in everyday life and 16,457 of them were bi-lingual and 7,000 in Vienna. Since 1993 the Croats are represented by a Minorities Advisory Council.

While an attempt to establish a Croatian party (Hrvatska stranka) had failed in 1923, a Croatian cultural association (Hrvatsko kulturno drusto) was founded in 1929. It was to be a non-party organisation but was clearly influenced by the Catholic clergy at the beginning. In Vienna there has also been a cultural association of Burgenland Croats since 1934, and since 1948 there has been a club of Croatian university graduates (Hrvatski akademski klub). The newspaper " Hrvatske Novine" has been published since 1910. After the church newspaper "Crikveni Glasnik Gradisca" (founded in 1946), it is the most important Croatian paper. The Croatian press association (Hrvatsko stamparsko drustvo) releases numerous publications and publishes literature by Burgenland-Croatian authors, as well as the calendar "Gradisce".

29 primary schools offer Croatian in their curriculum, in secondary schools (Hauptschule and Gymnasium) students can take Croatian as an elective subject; there is a bilingual Gymnasium in Oberwart and a bilingual Hauptschule in Grosswarasdorf. The provincial schools board of Burgenland has an inspector specifically charged with matters concerning Croatian in schools. Since 1989 Croat has also been an official language of Burgenland.

Literature#