Interwar Plebiscite & Border Identity

1809 - 1920

Napoleon's forces occupied Carinthia in 1809, redrawing borders and disrupting the old Habsburg order. In this upheaval, folk traditions crystallised into documented form: the Gailtaler Kufenstechen was first written down in 1804 (though described as 'centuries-old'), and the Villacher Fasching first appeared in history books in 1867. Villach — a Drau trade city chartered in 1240 — grew into the region's commercial hub and its carnival tradition became one of Austria's largest. But the 19th century also brought nationalist polarisation: German-language Carinthian historiography developed the Windischentheorie (Martin Wutte, 1927), which artificially divided the Slovene-speaking population into 'Windisch' (allegedly loyal, distinct from Slovenes) and 'nationale Slowenen,' reducing the minority's demographic weight — a theory now refuted by linguistic science and 'tabooed' in Carinthian public discourse, yet one that shaped census categories for decades. The era ended with the 1920 Carinthian Plebiscite, in which 59% of voters in the contested Zone A chose Austria over Yugoslavia — a result celebrated as democratic self-determination by the German-speaking majority but experienced by the Slovene minority as the imposition of a border that divided their community.

1938 - 1955

The Anschluss of 1938 brought Nazi rule and the deportation of Carinthian Slovenes from the southern valleys in 1942 — an act of ethnic cleansing that drove many into the mountains as partisans. The Carinthian Slovene partisan resistance, fighting against deportation and Germanisation while also advocating unification with Yugoslavia, used remote farmsteads like the Peršmanhof as bases. In late April 1945, Nazi forces massacred partisans and the farm family at the Peršmanhof; today it is a museum and annual memorial site. On May 15, 1945, at Bleiburg (Pliberk) on the border, British forces refused the surrender of an Axis-affiliated column and directed them to surrender to Yugoslav Partisans; forced death marches and summary executions followed. The victims included both armed collaborationist forces and civilians. The annual Bleiburg commemoration draws tens of thousands of Croatian diaspora pilgrims and is politically contested: for Croatian participants it is a victim memorial, while critics — including Austrian authorities and anti-fascist organisations — identify it with Ustaše nostalgia. Austrian authorities have increasingly restricted the event. The partisan memorial at the Peršmanhof and the Bleiburg commemoration represent two parallel and conflicting memory calendars that still shape the region's ritual landscape.

1590 - 1809

The Counter-Reformation did not simply create Carinthia's pilgrimage traditions — it captured and institutionalised practices that likely had older roots. The Vierbergelauf — a barefoot pilgrimage across four mountains on the Dreinagelfreitag (second Friday after Easter) — is first described in writing around 1485–1502, but ethnographic evidence reveals pre-Christian folk-magic elements: pilgrims gather clubmoss, boxwood, ivy and juniper for apotropaic protection against thunderstorms, a practice rooted in pre-Christian plant lore. The Counter-Reformation fixed the pilgrimage to a specifically Catholic calendar anchor (the Three Nails of the Crucifixion) and the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt promoted it actively — in 1592 the Cathedral Provost Karl Grimming led a formal pilgrimage, and Protestants who attacked pilgrims in 1606 were suppressed. At Millstatt, the Jesuits took over in 1598 and imposed stern Counter-Reformation discipline, provoking a peasant revolt in 1737; their Baroque high altar (1648) and onion-domed steeples (c.1670) still dominate the Romanesque structure. St. Paul im Lavanttal rebuilt its Romanesque core into a Baroque showpiece after 1650. The Klagenfurt Landhaus, built 1574–1594, gained its Great Heraldic Hall (Wappensaal) with over 665 coats of arms — a visual catalogue of Habsburg territorial power. When the Historical Association for Carinthia moved the Prince's Stone to the Landhaus in 1862, it completed the transformation of a Slovene-language peasant ritual object into a Habsburg dynastic symbol.

From 1955

Since the Austrian State Treaty of 1955, Carinthia has built a layered present where medieval, Baroque and modern traditions coexist — sometimes contentiously. The Vierbergelauf still draws thousands each Dreinagelfreitag; pilgrims gather apotropaic plants as their predecessors did centuries ago, while the Diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt publishes the date and celebrates a bishop's mass. The Gailtaler Kufenstechen runs every Whit Monday in Feistritz an der Gail, listed as UNESCO intangible cultural heritage and organised by the Burschenschaft Feistritz. The Villacher Kirchtag — rooted in a parish fair (Kirtag) and expanded by the Bauerngman association (founded 1908) into a major folk event — now draws 500,000 visitors each August. The Villacher Fasching, documented since 1867, is one of Austria's largest carnival celebrations. The Hemma pilgrimage at Gurk Cathedral continues year-round, with the Hemmapilgerweg route connecting sites across Carinthia. In 2005, Slovenia depicted the Prince's Stone on its 2-cent euro coin; in 2006, Jörg Haider moved the stone to the Landhaus Heraldic Hall — reciprocal political acts claiming the same symbol. The Ortstafelstreit was partly resolved by Constitutional Court rulings, but bilingual signage remains contested. At the Peršmanhof, annual memorial gatherings honour the partisan resistance. In Weitensfeld im Gurktal, the Gurktaler Speckkirchtag and the community's baroque municipal flag — over 200 years old — anchor a village-scale tradition of Kirchtag celebration. Velden am Wörther See exemplifies the lakeside tourism that now overlays older seasonal rhythms with summer event calendars. Today, Carinthia's living traditions carry visible traces of every era before them — if you know how to read the layers.