The Complex History Of Hungarian-Austrian Relations

Austria and Hungary have a long shared history, with the ruling dynasty of Austria, the Habsburgs, inheriting the Hungarian throne in the 16th century. Both countries were part of the now-defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918, which was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe. The empire was geographically the second-largest country in Europe and the third most populous. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1921, after their separation.

Hungarians in Austria are estimated to number around 25,884 according to the 2001 Census, with the majority living in Vienna and Burgenland. Burgenland Hungarians are the descendants of frontier guards sent during the 11th century to protect the Kingdom of Hungary. Hungarian aristocrats, such as the Esterházys and Batthyanys, kept their vast estates in Austria even after their Hungarian estates were expropriated in 1945.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, tens of thousands of Hungarian refugees fled to Austria, and today, some 27,000 Hungarians live in Vienna. The two countries share a 366-kilometre border, which can be crossed anywhere without control due to the Schengen Agreement.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire existed from 1867 to 1918

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, also known as the Dual Monarchy, existed from 1867 to 1918. It was a multinational constitutional monarchy in Central Europe, consisting of two sovereign states with a single monarch, who was titled Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The Empire was formed in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War, which resulted in the expulsion of Austria from the German Confederation.

The Empire was a military and diplomatic alliance, with unified diplomatic and defence policies. The Austrian and Hungarian states were co-equal in power, each with its own parliament and prime minister. The "common monarchy" consisted of the emperor and his court, the minister for foreign affairs, and the minister of war. There was no common prime minister, and the common affairs were considered by delegations from the two parliaments.

The Austro-Hungariansection name="2">Empire was one of the major powers in Europe at the time. It was the second-largest country in Europe geographically and the third most populous, with one of the world's largest machine-building industries. However, the Empire faced internal pressures due to its multi-ethnic composition, with nationalist movements seeking independence andsection name="3">self-governance.

The Empire entered World War I in 1914 with a declaration of war on the Kingdom of Serbia, which ultimately led to its demise. By 1918, the Empire was facing economic deterioration, social unrest, and a loss of popular support for the war. It was dissolved shortly after Hungary terminated the union with Austria on 31 October 1918, with the Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic emerging as its successors.

The Hungarians of Burgenland are descendants of 11th-century frontier guards

The Hungarians of Burgenland are indeed descendants of 11th-century frontier guards. They were sent to protect the Kingdom of Hungary and had aristocratic status until 1848. Burgenland was under Hungarian rule until the 1920 Treaty of Trianon.

The Hungarian Group Advisory Council is the oldest of the official minority advisory councils in Austria. The total number of Hungarian speakers in Austria is estimated at around 40,000, with 6,600 in Burgenland. Most of the Burgenland Hungarians live near the two district capitals of Oberwart/Felsőőr and Oberpullendorf/Felsőpulya.

In the 11th century, the Hungarians of Burgenland were known as "őrök", meaning guards of the western frontier. Their special dialect is similar to the dialect of the Székelys in Transylvania. Their cultural centre is in Oberwart/Felsőőr.

The Hungarians of Burgenland were split into four groups prior to the 1921 annexation of Burgenland:

• Seewinkel region (Neusiedl District)
• District municipalities including the future capital Eisenstadt
• Oberpullendorf and Mitterpullendorf
• The (Obere) Wart with the settlements of Oberwart and Unterwart, as well as Siget in der Wart.

The first two groups were largely absorbed after World War II, especially as a result of industrialisation after 1955. When German was introduced as the official language, Hungarian was only used within the family. In the post-war school system, Hungarian was taught as a foreign language for 2-3 hours per week, even in communities with a Hungarian majority.

Economic decline in Burgenland after World War II led to emigration. The negative image of the Hungarian language at this time led to assimilation. In 1944, the Nazis began to build the Südostwall (South-east wall) with the help of Jewish forced labour and collaborating inhabitants.

In 1956, the brutally crushed Hungarian Revolution resulted in a wave of Hungarian refugees on the Hungarian-Austrian border, especially at the Andau Bridge. They were received with overwhelming hospitality by the inhabitants of Burgenland.

In 1957, the construction of the "anti-Fascist Protective Barrier" resulted in a complete sealing off of the area under Soviet influence from the rest of the world, turning the Hungarian-Austrian border next to Burgenland into a deadly zone of minefields and barbed wire.

In 1989, the foreign ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, cut the Iron Curtain in the village of Klingenbach in a symbolic act with far-reaching consequences. This enabled the escape of East Germans, who were also received with great hospitality by the inhabitants of Burgenland.

Today, Burgenland is the third-smallest of Austria's nine states. It has a notable Hungarian population of 5,000-15,000.

The Hungarian Nationalities Law (1868) reinstated full equality of all citizens

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The Hungarian Nationality Law, passed in 1868, was a significant piece of legislation that had a profound impact on the equality and rights of citizens within the Austrian Empire, specifically in the Kingdom of Hungary. Prior to this law, the Hungarian nation had a complex and often tumultuous relationship with the Austrian rulers, with periods of rebellion and struggle for independence. The law itself was a product of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary and granted a significant level of autonomy to the Hungarian state.

The Hungarian Nationalities Law was a groundbreaking piece of legislation that reinstated and guaranteed the full equality of all citizens, regardless of their nationality, within the Kingdom of Hungary. This meant that all individuals, including Hungarians, Germans, Romanians, Slovaks, and Ruthenians, were granted equal rights and protections under the law. The law recognized the collective rights of national minorities and ensured their equality in terms of language, culture, and education. It allowed for the use of minority languages in local administration, courts, and schools, and it provided for state support for cultural institutions and schools of national minorities.

The law was a significant departure from previous policies and practices that had often favored the Hungarian majority or sought to assimilate minority groups. By guaranteeing equality and recognizing the rights of minorities, the Hungarian Nationalities Law set a precedent and established a framework for the protection and promotion of cultural diversity within the region. This was particularly important given the multiethnic nature of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, where numerous ethnic and linguistic groups coexisted.

The enactment of the Hungarian Nationalities Law had far-reaching consequences and contributed to shaping the social and political landscape of the region. It fostered a sense of inclusion and representation among minority groups, who now had a legal framework to assert their rights and preserve their cultural heritage. The law also encouraged the development and flourishing of various cultural and educational institutions, promoting a rich tapestry of languages and traditions within the Kingdom of Hungary.

In conclusion, the Hungarian Nationalities Law of 1868 was a pivotal moment in the history of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, reinstating and ensuring the full equality of all citizens. Its impact extended beyond legal equality, shaping the cultural, social, and political dynamics of the region by recognizing and valuing the diversity of its peoples. The law stands as a testament to the aspirations of the time for equality, representation, and the preservation of cultural identity within a unified empire.

Austria and Hungary have shared a border since the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, also known as the Dual Monarchy, was a multinational constitutional monarchy in Central Europe that existed between 1867 and 1918. It was a military and diplomatic alliance consisting of two sovereign states with a single monarch, who was titled both Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The two countries, the Empire of Austria (Cisleithania) and the Kingdom of Hungary (Transleithania), shared a common monarch, a common ministry of foreign affairs, a common ministry of defence, and a common finance ministry responsible for financing the two "common" portfolios.

The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a major geopolitical event that occurred as a result of growing internal social contradictions, the widening gap between Hungarian and Austrian interests, and the separation of different parts of the Empire. The immediate reasons for the collapse of the state were World War I, the 1918 crop failure, general starvation, and the economic crisis. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was already effectively dissolved by the time the military authorities signed the armistice of Villa Giusti on 3 November 1918.

The Kingdom of Hungary and the First Austrian Republic were treated as the successors of the Austro-Hungarian Empire de jure. The remaining territories inhabited by divided peoples fell into the composition of existing or newly formed states. The collapse of the empire was formalized in the September 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye with Austria and the June 1920 Treaty of Trianon with Hungary.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire shared a border between the Empire of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. This border remained after the dissolution of the empire in 1918, with the Empire of Austria becoming the Republic of German-Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary becoming the Hungarian Democratic Republic.

Austrian neutrality policy did not stop the government from deploying the army at the Hungarian border during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956

The Austrian State Treaty of 1955 established Austria as a neutral country in the geopolitical cold war between the US and the USSR. However, this neutrality policy did not stop the Austrian government from deploying its army at the Hungarian border during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic and the policies caused by the government's subordination to the Soviet Union (USSR). The uprising began on 23 October 1956 in Budapest when university students appealed to the civil populace to join them at the Hungarian Parliament Building to protest against the USSR's geopolitical domination of Hungary. The protests were met with violence from the State Protection Authority (ÁVH) secret police, and Hungarians soon organised into revolutionary militias to fight against them. The new government of Imre Nagy disbanded the ÁVH, declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections.

On 23 October 1956, the Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party, Ernő Gerő, asked the USSR for military intervention to suppress the demonstration. The USSR planned to invade and occupy Hungary and to purge Hungarian society. On 24 October 1956, Soviet defence minister Georgy Zhukov ordered the Red Army to occupy Budapest.

On the same day, Imre Nagy became prime minister in place of András Hegedüs. In a national radio broadcast, PM Nagy asked for a ceasefire between the Red Army and the Hungarian revolutionaries and agreed to initiate postponed political reforms. Despite the pleas of PM Nagy, groups of revolutionaries in Budapest armed themselves and continued to fight the Red Army.

On 25 October, a crowd gathered in Kossuth Square in front of the Hungarian parliament building, which included women, children, and the elderly. At the same time, a column of Soviet tanks carrying two delegates of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) sent to Hungary was on its way to the headquarters of the Hungarian Workers' Party. Under pressure from the Soviet delegates, the Central Executive Committee relieved Ernő Gerő of his position as party leader and elected János Kádár in his place. Meanwhile, the crowd demonstrating at Kossuth Square elected a delegation to deliver their demands to Parliament, but government guards and a company of the Ministry of Defence's armoured regiment, backed by seven Soviet tanks, kept the demonstrators away from the building.

On 28 October 1956, the Nagy Communist government announced a ceasefire among the nationalist, the anti-communist, and the Communist Hungarians and that, to resolve the national crisis, PM Nagy would:

• Consider the revolt as a "great, national and democratic event", and not an anti-communist counter-revolution
• Effect an unconditional ceasefire and grant political amnesty for the revolutionaries
• Negotiate with the revolutionaries
• Disband the ÁVH security police
• Establish a national guard for Hungary
• Arrange the immediate withdrawal of the Red Army from Budapest and from Hungary

On 1 November, the Nagy government formally declared Hungary's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact and Hungary's international status as a politically non-aligned country. Because of being in power for only ten days, the National Government did not explain their policies in detail. However, contemporary newspaper editorials stressed that Hungary should be a multiparty social democracy uninvolved in the Russo–American Cold War.

On 3 November, a Hungarian delegation led by Defence Minister Pál Maléter was invited to attend negotiations on Soviet withdrawal at the Soviet Military Command at Tököl, near Budapest. At around midnight that evening, General Ivan Serov, Chief of the Soviet Security Police (KGB) ordered the arrest of the Hungarian delegation, and the next day, the Soviet army again attacked Budapest.

The second Soviet intervention, codenamed "Operation Whirlwind", was launched by Marshal Ivan Konev. The five Soviet divisions stationed in Hungary before 23 October were reinforced; Soviet forces soon reached a total strength of 17 divisions. By 21:30 on 3 November, the Soviet Army had completely encircled Budapest. At 03:00 on 4 November, Soviet tanks penetrated Budapest, and at 04:25, fired the first shots at the army barracks on Budaörsi Road. Soviet artillery and tank fire were heard in all of the districts of Budapest. Operation Whirlwind combined air strikes, artillery, and the coordinated tank–infantry action of 17 divisions.

At 05:20 on 4 November, Imre Nagy broadcast his final plea to the nation and the world, announcing that Soviet forces were attacking Budapest and that the government was remaining at its post. The radio station, Free Kossuth Rádió, stopped broadcasting at 08:07. An emergency Cabinet meeting was held in the Parliament but was attended by only three ministers. As Soviet troops arrived to occupy the building, a negotiated evacuation ensued, leaving Minister of State István Bibó as the last representative of the National Government remaining at his post.

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