Slowenen und Jugoslawen. Zur Diskussion über die slowenische Frage in den Jahren 1912−1934
Slovenes and Yugoslavs. A Contribution to the Discussion of the Slovene Question between 1912 and 1934

Summary/Abstract: This case study of the „Slovene question“ exemplifies the ways in which old and new ideas about the nation-state were intertwined after the First World War. As a result, manifold interpretations and solutions of the national or nation-state question were proposed. The history of the „Slovene question“ is fraught with the inherent division between solutions that adhere to Slovenedom and those that privilege Yugoslavdom. On the one hand, this historical peculiarity can be understood within the local, social, cultural, economic, and political contexts of the Habsburg Monarchy, which pushed for germanization. On the other hand, the diametrically changed situation in the first Yugoslav state must be taken into account. A core issue in this debate was whether a single South Slav language should be created. For the Slovenes, such a development implied that they would give up their own language and assimilate to Croatian. Most Slovene intellectuals, however, rejected such an option. During Habsburg times, the language and the permission to use it publicly had been one of the central elements in the Slovenes’ struggle to establish and maintain a national identity. The political events since the turn of the century, however, turned the union of the Monarchy’s South-Slav lands into a legitimate political option. After the Balkan Wars of 1912/13, hopes for a South-Slav union were increasingly directed towards Serbia. At the same time, the fierce and contradictory discussions about whether to establish a merely political union or to establish also a cultural and linguistic unit comprised of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes continued unabated. During the very process of Yugoslav state-building in the second half of 1918, the Slovenes faced a number of threats. The Italian army was approaching from the west, there was conflict with the Germans at the border to the newly-established Austrian Republic, an „Independent Republic of Gottschee“ was being established in the century-old German-speaking enclave within the Sloveneinhabited lands and, not last, bolshevist-motivated clashes were taking place in Lower Carniola. Despite all of this, Slovene intellectuals and politicians were decidedly against giving up their identity in favor of a forged Yugoslav ethnic nation. As a matter of fact, the Slovenes were quickly disillusioned with the new Yugoslav state due to Belgrade’s centralistic policies. The author interprets the „autonomistic declaration“ issued by the Slovene People’s Party in 1921 as a significant step towards the establishment of a Slovene civil society. After the establishment of a royal dictatorship in 1929 and the dissolution of parliament, increased integralistic pressures quickly produced a culturally homogenous nation-state. Given the heightened atmosphere of nationalism in Europe, such an integration seemed a viable means of survival.

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