CARINTHIA
PARACELSUS – alias Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim – lived few years (~1502-1508) in Carinthia. (Another son of a MiningEngineer - R.MUSIL - was born there, but left after 1 year. HEGEL had a GrandFather from C [mine were both, too, what hopefully doesn’t make me a Hegelian…].)
According to some historians, this era was Cs best one, before the Protestants were expelled (~300 aristocratic families, lots of burgher and miner).
A.Wandruszka (a GermanNational/Nazi-historian) meant, it was this CryptoProtestantism in some valleys, what made C so anticlerical. I doubt, that those ~10% (49.000) influenced the rest so strongly, but the german-nationalistic parties did, of course, well in the Lutheran areas:
The Church was weak enough, that C. had (like the mining areas in UpperStyria) over 50% illegitimate children – already in the monarchy (what has been decreasing [!] since then).
Another reason, that C. is by far the most irreligious region in A. (after Vienna), have been the many Slovene priests, who have too often put their nation above faith.
Slovene pastoralists had settled thinly, as a result C. (including Styria) became a duchy of its own. (The german nationalists prefer to refer to Arnulf/Arnold from C., who was emperor of the EastFrancianReich before 900.)
In the late monarchy the Slovenes made up ~25%. Many came 1919 to SouthSlavia, those remaining in C. voted 1920 partly for remaining in (rest)Austria - of those entitled to vote, 70% were Slovenes, 59% was for A. (what means, that 30-40% of the minority was loyal to C.&A.):
After WWI the nationalistic Slovenes entered the LandTag, but the moderates (“Windische”) chose german parties and assimilation.
After WWII they split strongy between those supporting Titoism, KPÖ, later SPÖ and the cath.cons. ÖVP-voters. In the latest few decades they reunited in the EnotnaLista/EinheitsListe/EL, which has tried unsuccessfully to come into parliament alone or with GREENS or LiberalForum/LiF.
Slovene municipalities in Census 1971:
... and in Census 2011:
Geography:
Together with EastTyrol C. is the upper Drau-valley, but with a basin in the mid, which contains the big cities: The capital Klagenfurt (100.), the Transport-NodalPoints Villach (60.) and St.Veit (12.), Feldkirchen (14.), Völkermarkt (11.) et cet.; Wolfsberg (with a large rural surrounding 25.000 inh.) stands aside.
Economy:
Like nearby areas C’s economy relied on AgriCulture (especially forestry [creating some Furniture&Paper-Industry]), long-distance trading and mining (replaced by tourism).
Mining – formerly iron and lead, presently some magnesite – was very important, but C. was “rich of poor mines”, not competitive since the late XIXth.
Near to them stood in this or that valley lost factories, C. has had mainly small companies (1961: 132.000 were working in 26.000 enterprises, so 5 per firm). Nowadays some larger companies (Siemens in Villach aso.) can be found and C. tries to compete (like Styria) in BioTechnologies (centered around its small university).
The AgriCulture sees few big&wealthy/protestant/FPÖ farmers in the MidNorth (“KrappfeldBarone”), but C. is famous for its many very small peasants, who have to work abroad (“Keuschler”). These – and the previously mentioned irreligiosity – explain the strength of the SocialDemocrats in a once very (pseudo)rural region.
At least after WWII, the transition from the primary to the secondary sector changed the strengths of neither SPÖ nor ÖVP&FPÖ.
The rise of a cheap MassTourism in summer (lakes!) with tens of thousands of GuestHouses helped ÖVP&FPÖ to keep their rural electorate, the sharp decrease after 1980 (too small, with unpretentious comfort) pushed C. into a deep crisis (also causing the rise of J.Haider).
In the monarchy mining made C. rather wealthy, the British troops after 1945 gave the industry an advantage compared to EastA. (RedArmy!), but generally C. has been A.s (second) poorest Land (after Burgenland).
Press:
SPÖ’s “KärntnerTagesZeitung/KTZ” received lots of ads by the regional government, but died some years ago. ÖVP’s “VolksZeitung/VZ”already 1991, FPÖ’s weekly “KärntnerNachrichten/KN“ too. All of them read by for decades by few PartyMembers. The “KleineZeitung” (owned indirectly by the Church, what doesn’t mean too much) has been C.s first independent NewsPaper, accompanied since the 1980ies by a regional edition of the “Krone” (nowadays both are equally strong) and other NewsPapers from Vienna (“Kurier”, “Presse”, ”Standard”).
Parties&Elections:
Before 1918 C. played a leading role, when the (Grand)Bourgeoisie’s proCapitalist, proJewish NationalLiberalism (a la 1848) was replaced by the PetiteBourgeoisie’s aggressive antiCapitalist antiJewish (the more or less socialist/protectionist) nationalism.
In order to cooperate with the monarchy O.Steinwender (representing NW-C. in Vienna’s ReichsRat) split from v.Schönerer, an antiSemite radical, who endorsed the annexation of A. by v.BISMARCK’s GermanReich and cofounded the “DeutscheVolksPartei/DVP”. Despite being a teacher, Steinwender was also a member of the powerful “KärntnerBauernBund/KBB” (federally within the “DeutscheAgrarPartei/DAP”), a FarmersAssoc., which was nationalist&secular, but neither openly antiClerical nor antiSlovene (thus attracting some moderate Slovenes).
While in the rural parts of present-day A. the Cath.Cons. (later ”ChristianSocials/CS”) were dominating, in C. they had few pockets in remote valleys in the far west (towards EastTyrol) and east (LavantTal).
In 1907 an alliance of GermanNationalists and SocialDemocrats won nearly everywhere, in 1911 the nationalists alone took 8/10 seats (SD and CS 0-2)
The SDs conquered soon the larger MiningAreas.(Hüttenberg,...) and had a not so small membership, but had to rely strongly on small ShopKeepers and peasants, not to forget RailwayEmployees (1920: 7/18 LandTag-members), and was before 1928 led by “foreigners” (Saxony, Bohemia, Styria,...).
During the FirstRepublic the - unsuccessful - defence followed by the successful referendum resulted in some TeamSpirit, also caused by the fact, that the dominating antiAustroMarxists were too divided, especially the domianat GermanNationalists fell apart into the peasants (now “LandBund/LB”), established TownsPeople (“GroßDeutsche/GD”) and the NationalSocialists (centred in Villach [DNSAP 1920: 50%]).
(darkgreen = LB, 1984ff. nonleft GREENS [“VereinigteGrüneÖ.s/VGÖ”]; darkblue = ”EinheitsListe/EL, 1923 LB+CS+GD, 1927 CS+GD; lightblue = VdU, later BZÖ; purple = 1930 the authoritarian blue&black “HeimatBlock/HB”, 1945 the - slightly monarchist - “DemokratischePartei/DP”)
A list of the regional FirstMinister (“LandesHauptmann/LH”):
So - contrary to the rest of A. - C. has been ruled by either Red or Blue, never by Black (ÖVP’s Zernatto was tolerated by SPÖ).
1921 the nonSlovene antiAustroMarxists received only 21/42 of the seats and as a result had to elect a SD. 1923 was the only time they were united (coalition EL, supported by NS), 1927 LB’s Schumy was refused by the CS, 1930 HB and NS, who weren’t too interested in cooperating within parliamentary democracy, made the SDs the secret masters.
Between 1920 and 1960 all LandTag-elections were held on the same day as the NationalRat-elections, giving sometimes small differences:
Also, 1923-1930 women and men used differently coloured BallotPapers.
1923 e.g.:
1945-1955 C. was occupied by British troops. Already in May 1945 SPÖ’s Piesch became leader of the provisional government, after the Attlee-victory he was appointed by the British MilitaryGovernment. (Therefore some historians have stated, that the UK caused the SPÖ-dominance until 1989.) Piesch had to step down in 1947, because he had been – this is C. after all - a NSDAP-member (working in a “race&settlement-office”).
Many Nazis fled to C., as the conditions there were the best in Germany and Austria.
While ÖVP absorbed those moderate&old LB-farmers, who had mostly endorsed the Dollfuß-regime of the “VaterländischeFront/VF”, the younger and more radical elements of LB&GD, who normally had switched to NS, were rebuffed by ÖVP (its federal EducationMinister Hurdes, a Carinthian, was especially hostile towards them), while the SPÖ, which was able to offer thousands of jobs in the CivilService, was very open. Especially initially SPÖ had to rely heavily on the (blackmailable) Nazis – a study found out, that in Styria ~2/3 of the SPÖ-AcademicAssociation (“BundSozialistischerAkademiker/BSA”) had been NSDAP-members , in C. the share was certainly even higher – and these “Brownies” made it possible, that already in 1948 SPÖ assembled 569 CivilServants (ÖVP 260, 822 PartyFree).
The SPÖ-NewsPaper was for example jubilant ~1948, that “300 NS-teachers persecuted in ÖVP-Länder found here an exile”. (The teachers in C. had been strongly nazistic: 21% of the NSDAP-MunicipalityLeaders had been instructors.)
Naturally increasing its influence among teachers was crucial for SPÖ. In 1987 70% of C.s SchoolDirectors were SPÖ-members. ÖVP was entitled to a low influence among BasicSchools, yet the TU-elections of their instructors resulted e.g. 1991 in 55.2% SPÖ (35.5% ÖVP, 9.2% FPÖ), 1995 59.5% SPÖ (32.7% ÖVP, 7.7% FPÖ). Nontheless, this brown-red group caused SPÖ’s decline: A desperate teacher, whose career had been blocked by LH Wagner, shot and injured him so seriously, that the PM had to be replaced shortly before the election 1989 – optimal for J.Haider.
An important role played once the german-nationalist “KärntnerHeimatDienst/KHD” (1984: 50.000 members, 250.000 reading their magazine; 1996: 20. and 100.).
SPÖ-C. being in a neither urban nor industrial region, was a strange&weird bunch. Infamous for its nepotism and its LHs bonapartism, a collection of exNazis – many (most?) of SPÖ’s PostWar-politicians had this BackGround; when, for example, i was climbing in the 1990ies the stairs of the SPÖ-HeadQuarters, i saw a PhotoGraphy proudly presenting a boy in a top-ranking HJ-uniform: exLH Wagner... -, StateSlaves, (1965: at least 37% of the PartyMembers), SportOrganisations (C. is filled with all kind of clubs), WorkersChoirs (like TheValleys or the SouthSlaves C.-men love singing [“2 Carinthians are 1 choir”]) – and (for decades antiSemitic) FreeMasoners (combining nazistic & non-nazistic SPÖ, FPÖ and ÖVP-BigBusiness; very powerful in C., J.Haider claimed in 1994 “elect me or one of the 3 FreeMasoners” [SPÖ, ÖVP, LiF]). SPÖ was before J.Haider only endangered in 1949, when VdU was surging and SPÖ had a freshly elected grey PartySoldier. (That he – Wedenig – became also a popular incumbent is good news for Kaiser.) Another SPÖ-crisis happened in 1972, when SPÖ’s Kreisky and the authoritarian LH Sima agreed on setting up shields with MunicipalityNames in German and Slovene. (A high-ranking SPÖ-instructor, naturally with brown BackGround, shouted publicly at Kreisky: “You dirty Jewish sow!”) and 1973 (unpopular merger of municipalities; the Titoist-Slovenes no longer endorsing SPÖ). SPÖ lost Klagenfurt and other cities in the LocalElections 1973, Sima was replaced by HJ-Wagner. But i doubt, that the SocialDemocrats would have lost their (seat)majority in 1975.
ÖVP-C. was 1960 led by K.Schleinzer, a promising young AgroEngineer (federal minister for defence,&agriculture 1961-1970, leader of the federal ÖVP 1971-1975), but he too didn’t achieve a BreakThrough. Not even 13/36 seats (giving ÖVP the possibility to blackmail SPÖ by abstaining from parliament) were doable. (FPÖ was now and again bought by SPÖ with relatively small concessions.)
FPÖ-C. was always the most national and the least liberal branch of the party. A new generation in the 1970ies were called “exchangers” (“Instead of remaining an old-fashioned OutSider-party decreasing steadily, let us exchange the electorate by becoming a liberal party like the FDP!”). They hired a young man from UpperA. – coming from the NS-aristocracy, but perceived to be (left)liberal - as Partysecretary: Jörg Haider. But in order to push those liberal on the top (first in C., then in Vienna) aside, Haider naturally adapted himself to the (semi)brown morass. 1984 was his first election-victory, when he gained – despite an unpopular SPÖ&FPÖ-coalition in Vienna – 4.2%, what made him the big/only hope for most in the party to survive federally the next election. 1989 was Haider’s BreakThrough and ÖVP made him LandesHauptmann. Officially a remark on Hitler’s “decent EmploymentPolicy”, in reality his unreliable populism, which pushed ÖVP in OpinionPolls downwards towards 10%, led to his deselection by SPÖ&ÖVP and SPÖ granted ÖVP the PM for 8 years. In 1999 the Haider-triumph was too high for prolonging resistance and ÖVP made Haider LH once again. 2004 – when ÖVP&FPÖ was ruling federally – started a blue-red (“Chianti”) coalition, which collapsed soon and brought Black back from banishment. Haider demerged from FPÖ, founded the “BZÖ” and died 2008 in a TrafficAccident. The elections 2009 was mainly one of commemoration, BZÖ+BZÖ obtaining 48.65%. Yet, series of FPÖ/BZÖ/FPK-scandals – most expensive were guarantees in billions of the Land, granted once by FPÖ (but supported by SPÖ+ÖVP), for its bank, which was finally enormously indebted and had to be rescued by A. – resulted in SnapElections 2013 with a RecordMinus of 28% for FPK and a coalition of SPÖ+ÖVP+GREENS, which abolished the ProportionalRepresentation in the regional government.
Among CivilServants and mayors SPÖ has always survived the era Haider, has never lost its iron grip:
Mayors 2003+2009+2015:
ElectionAnalysing:
SORA:
2004:
www.sora.at/themen/wahlverhalten/wahlanalysen/ltw-ktn04.html2009:
www.sora.at/themen/wahlverhalten/wahlanalysen/ltw-ktn09.htmlwww.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2009_ltw-ktn_wahltagsbefragung_wahlanalyse.pdf2013:
www.sora.at/themen/wahlverhalten/wahlanalysen/waehlerstromanalysen/ltw-ktn13.htmlwww.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2013_ltw-ktn_wahlanalyse.pdf www.sora.at/fileadmin/downloads/wahlen/2013_ltw-ktn_wahlanalyse-grafiken.pdfPeterHajek:
2009:
www.peterhajek.com/media/pdf/Wahlanalyse_LTW%20Kaernten%202009.pdf2013:
www.peterhajek.com/media/pdf/Wahlanalyse_LTW%20Kaernten%202013.pdfInst.f.Wahl/Sozial/Methoden-Forsch.:
2013:
www.wahlforschung.de/de/download.html
