German-Italian Commissions in Transylvania 1940-1943. A crucial key study for italian diplomacy
German-Italian Commissions in Transylvania 1940-1943. A crucial key study for italian diplomacy

Summary/Abstract: The end of the Great War and the Treaty of Trianon represent a crucial moment in Hungarian history, a new political season in which revisionism would soon assume a central role. After many years, only between 1938 and 1940, supported by Italy and Germany, Hungary had the chance to put on the political agenda the complex issue of borders revision. The summit held in Vienna in August 1940, led to a revision of the Transylvanian borders, giving the North of that region to Budapest, while relations between Hungary and Romania still remained precarious, both sides lacking to reach an effective political solution. In the study of Romanian-Hungarian relations between 1940-1943 in fact, it is easy to observe how these have been mainly determined by the unresolved situation in Transylvania. The complex situation led Italy and Germany to formally intervene willing to assume a monitoring role. The issue of Orthodox Church in Hungary, the critical assessment on the education sector, the plight of minorities in the armed forces, the failure to define a shared boundary line and the lack of security, all these problems were brought to the attention of the Axis powers. The Altenburg-Rogeri committee (1940); the Rogeri-Hencke committee (1942) and the Military commissions in Kolozsvár and Braşov, represent an interesting attempt to control the complex situation in the Danube region, even if the Transylvanian issue remained unresolved and continued to represent a dangerous treat for the Axis “New Order”, while the task of minorities protection was often jeopardized by temporary political opportunity. On the other hand, the commissions could be seen as a contribution to a clearer definition of the dynamics within the Tripartite. This vision offers not only an interesting insight into the Hungarian-Romanian relations, but also the opportunity to observe in detail the political action of the alliance and analyze a matter of great interest such as the minority politics in Transylvania during the Second World War.

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