Editing Burgenland (section)

==History==
The territory of present-day Burgenland was successively part of the [[Roman Empire]], the [[Hun Empire]], the [[Kingdom of the Ostrogoths]], the [[Italy|Italian]] [[Kingdom of Odoacer]], the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]], the [[Avar Khaganate]], the [[Frankish Empire]], Dominion Aba belonging to the [[Aba (family)]]; Aba – Koszegi, the [[Kingdom of Hungary]], the [[Habsburg monarchy]], the [[Austrian Empire]], [[Austria-Hungary]], and lastly [[Austria]].

Burgenland is the only Austrian province which has never been part of the [[Archduchy of Austria]], [[Holy Roman Empire]], [[German Confederation]] nor Austria-Hungary's [[Cisleithania]].

===Prehistory and antiquity===
From the 4th century BC, the area was dominated by [[Celts]] and in the 1st century AD it became part of the [[Roman Empire]]. During Roman administration, it was part of the province of [[Pannonia]], and later part of the provinces of [[Pannonia Superior]] (in the 2nd century) and [[Pannonia Prima]] (in the 3rd century). During the late Roman Empire, Pannonia Prima province was part of larger administrative units, such are [[Diocese of Pannonia]], [[Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum]] and [[Praetorian prefecture of Italy]].

=== Early Germanic states ===
[[File:MajorianEmpire.png|thumb|300px|right|The Ostrogothic Kingdom in Pannonia]]
The first [[Germanic people]] to settle in this region were the [[Ostrogoths]], who came to Pannonia in AD 380. The Ostrogoths became allies of [[Rome]] and were allowed to settle in Pannonia, being tasked to defend the [[Limes (Roman Empire)|Roman borders]]. In the 5th century, the area was conquered by the [[Huns]], but after their defeat, an independent Kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Pannonia was formed. The territory of present-day Burgenland became part of the Italian [[Kingdom of Odoacer]], but at the end of the 5th century the Ostrogothic king [[Theodoric the Great|Theodoric]] conquered this kingdom and restored Ostrogothic administration in western Pannonia.

In the 6th century, the territory was included in another Germanic state, the [[Kingdom of the Lombards]]. However, the Lombards subsequently left towards [[Italy]] and the area came under the control of the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]]. For a brief period in the 7th century, the area became part of the [[Slavs|Slavic]] State of [[Samo]], however it subsequently came back under Avar control. After the Avar defeat at the end of the 8th century, the area became part of the [[Frankish Empire]]. After the [[Battle of Lechfeld]] (or [[Augsburg]]) in 955, new [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] settlers came to the area.<ref name="Fischer2011">{{cite book|author=Henry A. Fischer|title=Emigrants and Exiles: Book Three, Volume One|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wb5Wm76_6NsC&pg=PA252|date=23 February 2011|publisher=Author House|isbn=978-1-4567-4365-9|pages=252–}}</ref>

=== Medieval Kingdom of Hungary ===
In 1043, [[Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry III]] and King [[Samuel Aba of Hungary]] signed a peace treaty. On 20 September 1058, [[Agnes of Poitou]] and [[Andrew I of Hungary]] met to negotiate the border.<ref>Landeschronik Niederösterreich: 3000 Jahre in Daten, Dokumenten und Bildern, Seite 104, Karl Gutkas, C. Brandstätter, 1990.</ref> The area of Burgenland remained the western frontier of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary until the 16th century.

The majority of the population was Germanic, except for the Hungarian border guards of the frontier March (''[[Gyepű]]''). Germanic immigration from neighbouring Austria was also continuous in the Middle Ages.

===Habsburg administration===
[[File:Habsburg mortgages between 15th and 17th centuries.jpg|left|350px|thumb|Habsburg mortgages in Burgenland between the 15th and 17th centuries]]
In 1440 the territory of present-day Burgenland was controlled by the Habsburgs of Austria, and in 1463 the northern part of it (with the town of [[Kőszeg]]) became a mortgage-territory according to the peace treaty of [[Wiener Neustadt]]. In 1477 King [[Matthias Corvinus]] of Hungary had retaken the area, but in 1491 it was mortgaged again by King [[Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary]] to Emperor [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]]. In 1647 Emperor [[Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand II]] returned it to the Kingdom of Hungary (which itself was a Habsburg possession in this time).

In the 16th century, the medieval [[Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867)|Kingdom of Hungary]] lost its independence and its northwestern part that was not conquered by the Ottoman Empire was included in the Habsburg Empire. This Habsburg possession was known as [[Royal Hungary]] and it included territory of present-day Burgenland and western Hungary. [[Royal Hungary]] still had counties. What is today Burgenland was in those times the Moson, Sopron and Vas counties of Hungary.
[[File:Central europe 1572.png|thumb|The Kingdom of Hungary as divided into 3 parts]]

In the 16th and 17th centuries German [[Protestant]] refugees arrived in Western Royal Hungary to shelter from [[European wars of religion|the religious wars]] of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], particularly from the suppression of the Reformation in Austrian territories, then ruled by the staunchly Roman Catholic Habsburgs. After the Habsburg military victory against the Ottomans at the end of the 17th century, the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary was enlarged to include much of the territory of the former medieval Kingdom of Hungary. In the 17th and 18th centuries the region of Western Hungary was dominated by the wealthy Catholic landowning families, for example the [[House of Esterházy|Esterházys]] and [[Batthyány]]s. In 1867, the Habsburg Empire was transformed into the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary.

===Dissolution of Austria-Hungary===
According to the 1910 census 291,800 people lived on the territory of present-day Burgenland. Among them 217,072 were German-speaking (74%), 43,633 Croatian-speaking (15%) and 26,225 (9%) Hungarian-speaking. [[Romani people|Roma people]] were counted according to their native language.

In December 1918, the [[Republic of Heinzenland]] was declared by Austrian politician [[Hans Suchard]] with the goal of the territory being annexed by Austria. However, it was taken over within two days by Hungary.

From March to August 1919, Burgenland was part of the [[Hungarian Soviet Republic]].

The area had also been discussed as the site of a [[Czech Corridor]] to Yugoslavia. The decision on "German West Hungary" (''Deutsch-Westungarn'') was fixed in the treaties of [[Treaty of Saint Germain|Saint Germain]] and [[Treaty of Trianon|Trianon]]. Despite diplomatic efforts by [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]], the victorious parties of World War I set the date of Burgenland's official unification with Austria for 28 August 1921. However, on that day sharpshooters with the support of Hungary prevented the establishment of Austrian police control and customs. [[Lieutenant Colonel]] [[Pál Prónay]] and his men, the [[Rongyos Gárda]], defended western Hungary from occupation by Austrian officials and forces of the Austrian [[Gendarmerie (Austria)|Gendarmerie]]. Prónay had help from Hungarians and Croatians who did not want to live under Austrian rule, leading to the [[Uprising in West Hungary]] in 1921. Prónay occupied the whole area and created the state of [[Lajtabánság]].

=== Ninth Austrian province ===
[[File:Venediger Protokoll vom 13. Oktober 1921.JPG|thumb|Protocol of Venice from Oct.13.1921]]
With the help of Italian diplomatic mediation in the [[Venice Protocol]], the crisis was resolved in the autumn of 1921, when Hungary committed to disarm the sharpshooters by 6 November 1921. This was in exchange for a plebiscite on the unification of certain territories, including Ödenburg ([[Sopron]]), the designated capital of Burgenland, and eight surrounding villages. [[1921 Sopron plebiscite|The vote]] took place from 14 to 16 December, and resulted in a clear (but doubted by Austria){{citation needed|date=January 2013}} vote of the people who inhabited the Sopron district to be part of Hungary. Consequently, the territory was incorporated into Austria, except for the Sopron district which was united with Hungary.<ref name="Marxer2012">{{cite book|author=Wilfried Marxer|title=Direct Democracy and Minorities|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jyWiNVe3cB0C&pg=PA17|date=27 February 2012|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-3-531-94304-6|pages=17–}}</ref><ref name="Smith2018">{{cite book|author=Leonard V. Smith|title=Sovereignty at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_z5MDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA147|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-967717-7|pages=147–}}</ref><ref name="Bischof2017">{{cite book|author=Günter Bischof|title=Quiet Invaders Revisited: Biographies of Twentieth Century Immigrants to the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLt4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT126|date=12 July 2017|publisher=StudienVerlag|isbn=978-3-7065-5882-2|pages=126–}}</ref>

Further border adjustments were made in 1922 by the League of Nations border committee. After their decision was approved on 17 September, 10 Settlements were returned to Hungary. That included 8 settlements in the Pinka valley: Kisnarda, Nagynarda, Felsőcsatár, Alsócsatár, Németkeresztes, Magyarkeresztes, Horvátlövő and Pornóapáti, as well as Rendek (Liebing) and Rőtfalva (Rattersdorf) north of Kőszeg. The last two were handed back to Austria in a swap agreement on 22 November in exchange for Szentpéterfa and Ólmod.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Határ Ausztriával |url=https://trianon100.hu/blog-cikk/hatar-ausztriaval |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=trianon100.hu/ |language=hu}}</ref>
[[File:Krensdorf-Tormafalu-war memorial.jpg|thumb|A memorial in [[Krensdorf]] to soldiers who died in the two World Wars]]
In contrast to all the other present Austrian states, which had been part of [[Cisleithania]], Burgenland did not constitute a specific ''[[Crown Land|Kronland]]'', and when it was formed it did not have its own regional political and administrative institutions such as a ''[[Landtag]]'' (representative assembly) and ''[[Statthalter]]'' (imperial governor).

On 18 July 1922, the first elections for the parliament of Burgenland took place. Various interim arrangements were required due to the changeover from Hungarian to Austrian jurisdiction. The parliament decided in 1925 on [[Eisenstadt]] as the capital of Burgenland, and moved from the various provisional estates throughout the country to the newly built ''Landhaus'' in 1929.

The first Austrian census in 1923 registered 285,600 people in Burgenland. The ethnic composition of the province had changed slightly: the percentage of German speakers increased compared to 1910 (227,869 people, 80%) while the percentage of Hungarian speakers rapidly declined (14,931 people, 5%). This was due mainly to the emigration of the Hungarian civil servants and intellectuals after the territory was ceded to Austria.

In 1923, emigration to the [[United States|United States of America]], which started in the late 19th century, reached its climax; in some places up to a quarter of the population went overseas.

After the [[Nazi German]] ''[[Anschluss]]'' of Austria, the administrative unit of Burgenland was dissolved. Northern and central Burgenland joined the district of [[Reichsgau Niederdonau|Niederdonau]] (Lower Danube) while southern Burgenland joined [[Reichsgau Steiermark|Styria]].{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} The Jews of Burgenland were forced to emigrate in the immediate aftermath of the ''Anschluss''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zalmon |first1=Milka |title=Forced Emigration of the Jews of Burgenland |journal=Yad Vashem Studies |date=2003 |volume=XXXI |pages=287–324 |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%207002.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050330054638/http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%207002.pdf |archive-date=2005-03-30 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The policy of [[Germanization]] also affected other minorities, especially [[Burgenland Croats]] and Hungarians. Minority schools were closed and the use of their native language discouraged.

In 1944, the Nazis began to build the ''[[South-east wall|Südostwall]]'' (South-east wall) with the help of mostly Jewish forced labor and collaborating inhabitants. Soviet troops crossed the Hungarian–Austrian border during the [[Vienna offensive]] and were only somewhat delayed by the unfinished fortifications. In the last days of the Nazi regime many executions and death marches of Jewish forced laborers took place.

=== Occupation ===
[[File:Austria Occupation Zones 1945-55 en.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Burgenland under Soviet administration, 1945–1955]]
As of 1 October 1945 Burgenland was reestablished with Soviet support and given to the Soviet forces in exchange for [[Styria]], which was in turn occupied by the [[United Kingdom]].

Under Soviet occupation, people in Burgenland had to endure a period of serious mistreatment and an extremely slow economic progress, the latter induced by the presence of Soviet troops which discouraged investment. The Soviet occupation ended with the signing of the [[Austrian Independence Treaty]] of [[Vienna]] in 1955 by the Occupying Forces.

The brutally crushed [[1956 Hungarian Revolution|Hungarian Revolution]] on 23 October 1956 resulted in a wave of Hungarian refugees on the Hungarian-Austrian border, especially at the Andau Bridge ([[Brücke von Andau]]). They were received by the inhabitants of Burgenland with overwhelming hospitality.

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 (on the Hungarian side of the border): part of the [[Iron Curtain]]. Even during the era of the Iron Curtain, local trains between the north and south of Burgenland operated as "[[Korridorzug|corridor train]]s" (''Korridorzüge'') – they had their doors locked as they crossed through Hungarian territory.

Between 1965 and 1971, the minefields were cleared because people were often harmed by them,{{Citation needed|date=March 2012}} even on the Austrian side of the border.

=== Recent history ===
[[File:Centrope_Map.svg|thumb|upright=2.0|Burgenland is part of [[Centrope]], a project establishing a multinational region in four [[Central Europe]]an states: [[Slovakia]], [[Austria]], [[Hungary]] and the [[Czech Republic]].|right]]
Despite Burgenland (especially the area around the [[Neusiedler See]]) always producing excellent wine, some vintners in Burgenland [[1985 Diethylene Glycol Wine Scandal|added illegal substances to their wine]] in the mid-1980s. When this was revealed, Austria's wine exports dwindled dramatically. After recovering from the scandal, vintners in Austria, and not only in Burgenland, started focusing on quality and mostly stopped producing low-quality wine.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

On 27 July 1989, the [[foreign minister]]s 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.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Linke|first=Reinhard|date=2019-06-27|title=27. Juni 1989: Ein Foto verändert Europa|url=https://noe.orf.at/stories/3002107/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-15|website=noe.ORF.at|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628143716/https://noe.orf.at/stories/3002107/ |archive-date=2019-06-28 }}</ref> At the same time, the border crossing at Nickelsdorf (Austria) / Hegyeshalom (Hungary) was opened by the Hungarian border patrol and this enabled the escape of East Germans. Directly behind the wires special medic troops of the Austrian Red Cross awaited them and provided first assistance. Thousands of [[East Germany|East Germans]] fled to the West in this way. Again, the inhabitants of Burgenland received them with great hospitality. Later, this was often referred to as the beginning of [[German reunification]].{{citation needed|date=September 2019}}

After 1990 Burgenland regained its traditional role as a bridge between the western and eastern parts of [[Central Europe]]. In 2003 it joined an [[Interreg]] project [[Centrope]]. Cross-border links were further strengthened when [[Hungary]], [[Slovakia]] and the [[Czech Republic]] joined the [[European Union]] in 2004. All three countries became part of the [[Schengen Agreement|Schengen zone]] in late 2007, and border controls ceased to exist in the region.

In 2021, Burgenland grew by about 6,000 m<sup>2</sup>. This was due to the change of flood protection measures along the [[Lafnitz (river)|river Lafnitz]], which forms part of the border between Burgenland and Styria, in the late 1970s. As the course of the river changed somewhat along with the change of the flood protection measures, some areas belonging to Styria ended up to the east of the river and some areas belonging to Burgenland ended up to the west of the river. In 2010, it was decided by legislators together with the local councils that the areas to the west of the river would be part of Styria and the areas to the east of the river would be part of Burgenland, reflecting the perceptions and attitudes of the population. This decision was put into law in 2021.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|date=2021-08-09|title=Burgenland ist größer geworden (in German)|url=https://burgenland.orf.at/stories/3116218/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-15|website=burgenland.ORF.at|language=de|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809130245/https://burgenland.orf.at/stories/3116218/ |archive-date=2021-08-09 }}</ref>