Nemški pogledi na vzroke razkola med Nemci in Slovenci
German Views on the Causes of the Rift between Germans and Slovenians

Summary/Abstract: In the middle of the 19th century, the first serious differences between the German and Slovenian political camps can be perceived. A national struggle can be said to have taken place since the 1860s onward. The national struggle did not arise from national motives, as one might expect, but from political ones – due to the antagonism between Slovenian conservatives and German liberals. As the national struggle escalated, both sides surprisingly started from the same point of view and reacted in the same way. Slovenian authors claimed and proved that Slovenians as a minority in Austria-Hungary were threatened, so Slovene politicians demanded a better status of the Slovenian language, culture and nation, as well as more political rights. German media and the stories of German people show that the Germans also understood their situation as a minority issue, which is generally overlooked in Slovenian literature. German politicians claimed that their nation was threatened with extinction among the majority Slovenian population. They warned against assimilation and worked to preserve the German language and German culture. With the German opposition to the Slovenian national movement, it is also necessary to emphasize the German upper classes’ fear of losing their leading political position in the provinces with a majority Slovenian population.

• Details
• Contents