Safety In Serbia And Austria: A Comparative Overview

Austria and Serbia have had a tumultuous history, with tensions between the two countries dating back to the Great Turkish War and the Habsburg-occupied Serbia. The assassination of the Austrian Archduke by a young Bosnian Serb in 1914 served as a catalyst for World War I, with Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia shortly after. Despite this, the two countries have established foreign relations, with embassies and consulates in each other's capitals. Serbia is a candidate for European Union membership, while Austria is already a member. With a significant Serbian population in Austria and a history of Serbian prisoners of war being held in Austrian camps during World War II, the two countries continue to navigate their relationship in the modern era.

Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia in 1914

On July 28, 1914, exactly one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were assassinated by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, effectively starting World War I.

Austria-Hungary was threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe and decided to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia. After securing the support of its powerful ally, Germany, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum on July 23, 1914. This ultimatum demanded that all anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia be suppressed and that Austria-Hungary be allowed to conduct its own investigation into the archduke's killing. Although Serbia accepted all of Austria's demands except for one, the Austrian government broke diplomatic relations on July 25 and continued with military preparedness measures.

Russia, Serbia's mighty supporter in the Balkans, began its initial steps towards military mobilisation against Austria-Hungary. The rest of Europe, including Russia's allies, Britain and France, watched with trepidation, fearing the outbreak of a Balkans conflict that could explode into a general European war. Despite lobbying from the British Foreign Office for an international convention to moderate the conflict, the German government advised Austria-Hungary to proceed with its plans.

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia responded by ordering mobilisation in the four military districts facing Galicia, its common front with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austrian artillery divisions initiated a brief bombardment of Belgrade across the Danube River. This series of events ultimately led to the major powers in the Western world, with the exception of the United States and Italy, declaring war on each other and flinging themselves into World War I.

Serbian nationalists and the Austro-Hungarian government

The annexation of Bosnia by Austria-Hungary in 1908-09, which violated the Treaty of Berlin, was another source of tension. This led to the so-called "Pig War", an economic conflict between Austria and Serbia from 1906-1909. It also contributed to the rise of pan-Serb nationalism, which was a significant factor in the lead-up to World War I.

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Bosnian Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914, marked a turning point. The Austro-Hungarian government used this as an opportunity to deal with the threat of Slav nationalism and quash Serbian independence, which it viewed as a threat to the future of the empire. This ultimately led to the July Crisis, a series of diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe, which resulted in the outbreak of World War I.

During World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Armed Forces occupied Serbia from late 1915 until the end of the war. The occupation was marked by harsh measures, including massacres of civilians, deportations, forced labour, and economic exploitation. The goal of the Austro-Hungarian administration was to denationalise the Serb population and exploit the country's economic resources.

The occupation ended in September 1918 when Allied forces, led by the Serbian Second Army and the Yugoslav Volunteer Division, broke through the Salonica front, leading to the liberation of Serbia and the retreat of Austro-Hungarian troops.

Serbian claims and the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was an agreement that altered the constitutional structure of the Austrian Empire to better account for the large Hungarian minority within the state. Hungary had been under military rule since 1849, when the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was suppressed, and its traditional privileges within the Austrian Empire had been revoked. This arrangement proved costly for the government in Vienna to maintain and failed to quell nationalist sentiment in Hungary.

Hungarian political leaders during the negotiations had two main goals. The first was to regain the traditional status (both legal and political) of the Hungarian state, which had been lost after the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. The second was to restore the series of reform laws (the so-called April Laws) of the revolutionary parliament of 1848, which were based on the 12 points that established modern civil and political rights and economic and societal reforms in Hungary.

The Compromise established the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, a military and diplomatic alliance of two sovereign states. The agreement restored Hungary's territorial integrity and its old historic constitution. Hungary's traditional rights and privileges were restored, and the Hungarian Diet or parliament was reconstituted. Henceforth, the Austrians and Hungarians would rule the Austrian Empire in association with one another. Both states would continue to be ruled by the House of Habsburg, with Franz Joseph continuing as Emperor of Austria and resuming the title of King of Hungary.

The Compromise only partially re-established the former pre-1848 sovereignty and status of the Kingdom of Hungary, separate from, and no longer subject to, the Austrian Empire. The relationship of Hungary to Austria before the 1848 revolution had been a personal union, whereas after the Compromise of 1867, its status was reduced to a partnership in a real union. Thus, Hungarian society widely considered the Compromise as a betrayal of vital Hungarian interests and the achievements of the 1848 reforms.

The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 did not lead directly to any migration to or from Austria or Hungary. However, it had migratory implications. After two decades of political, military, economic, and social repression in Hungary, the country was finally liberated in 1867. In the following years, the Industrial Revolution, which had arrived belatedly to the Austrian Empire in the middle of the nineteenth century, began to impact Hungary and other lands adjoining it in Croatia and Slavonia. Over time, between 1870 and 1920, living standards, life expectancies, and birth rates improved, leading to a spike in population levels. Eventually, many people began to leave Hungary altogether, initially in small numbers, and then in large numbers as the first wave of settlers in places like the United States facilitated larger waves in subsequent decades.

Austria-Serbia foreign relations

Austria and Serbia have had a long history of relations, dating back to the Great Turkish War and the Habsburg-occupied Serbia (1686-1691). The Kingdom of Serbia (1718-1739) was once a province of the Habsburg monarchy, and the two countries have had several conflicts and tensions over the years, including the 1906-1909 "Pig War" and the assassination of the Austrian Archduke by a young Bosnian Serb in 1914, which contributed to the start of World War I.

During World War I, Austro-Hungary launched three unsuccessful offensives against Serbia, and with the help of German and Bulgarian forces, conquered and divided the country into separate occupation zones. The northern three-quarters of Serbia was placed under Austro-Hungarian rule until it was liberated by Allied forces in 1918. After the war, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was destroyed, and Serbia annexed much of its former holdings in the Balkans to become the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

Today, Austria and Serbia continue to have foreign relations and maintain embassies in each other's capitals. There are between 200,000 and 300,000 people of Serbian descent living in Austria, and approximately 3,000 Austrian expats in Serbia, making it the largest Austrian population in Eastern Europe (excluding Romania).

Austria is a member of the European Union, while Serbia is a candidate for membership. In recent years, Austria has shown commitment to Serbia's rapid progress in European integration, with high-level visits and participation in summits focused on migration and economic cooperation. In 2022, the total exchange of goods and services between the two countries reached almost 2.6 billion euros, with over 450 Austrian companies present in Serbia.

Serbian prisoners of war in German-annexed Austria during World War II

During World War II, Serbia was invaded and partitioned by Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, and the NDH (Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia). Rump Serbian territory was placed under German military administration, with the help of a civil puppet government led by Milan Nedić. In response to a large, Communist-led uprising in Serbia, the German military executed 30,000 Serb civilians and Jews in just two months.

Serbian prisoners of war were among Allied POWs held in several German POW camps and forced labour subcamps in German-annexed Austria. These included Stalag XVII-A, Stalag XVII-B, Stalag XVIII-A, Stalag XVIII-B, Stalag 317/XVIII-C, and Stalag 398. Nazi Germany operated around 1,000 prisoner-of-war camps during World War II, the most common types being Oflags ("Officer camp") and Stalags ("Base camp" for enlisted personnel).

The Third Geneva Convention of 1929, which Germany signed, established norms for the treatment of prisoners of war. Articles 27-32 detailed the conditions of labour, with enlisted ranks required to perform whatever labour they were asked to do if they were able, as long as it was not dangerous and did not support the German war effort. Senior non-commissioned officers were to work only in a supervisory role, while commissioned officers were not required to work at all, although they could volunteer. Article 76 ensured that prisoners of war who died in captivity were honourably buried in marked graves.

However, Germany largely disregarded the Geneva Convention when it came to Soviet prisoners of war. Around 3 million out of almost 6 million captured Soviet prisoners died, mainly due to starvation and disease, but also executions. Conditions in the camps were described as bad, but they improved for POWs from the Western Allies as the war progressed, as the Germans had to consider that they held a significant number of German POWs and could face retribution.

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