Carinthia_(state)

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia (Kärnten, Koroška) is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern alps it is chiefly famous for its mountains and lakes.

The people are predominantly German-speaking with a unique (and easily recognizable) Southern Austro-Bavarian dialect typical of which is that all short German vowels before double consonants have been lengthened ("Carinthian Vowel Stretching"). A Slovene-speaking minority of about 13,000 people according to the national census of 2001 is concentrated in the southeast of the country. However, unofficial estimates carried out in 1991 put the number of ethnic Slovenes in the state to 50,000. The disparity in numbers may be explained on the one hand by the fact that Slovene-language users were called upon by Carinthian Slovene organizations to boycott the census, and on the other hand by a possible inclusion of people who are familiar with the language but do not consider themselves ethnic Slovenes, which for instance often is the case with people of mixed parentage.

Carinthia's main industries are tourism, electronics, engineering, forestry and agriculture. The multinational corporations Philips and Siemens have large operations there.

Name

The name (Carantania) is thought to be Celtic in origin, though two roots have been proposed:

1. carant, meaning "friend" or "relation" - giving the meaning "land of friends", which may refer to an Illyrian tribe of the Bronze Age.

2. karanto, meaning "stone, rock". If this is the case, the name shares its root with such others as Karnburg, the Karawanken and similar.

Carantania is also related to the old Slovenian Korotan, from which the modern name Koroška arose.

Geography

Carinthia consists mostly of the Klagenfurt basin and the mountain ranges of Upper Carinthia. The Carnic Alps and the Karawanken/ Karavanke make up the border to the Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia. The Hohe Tauern mountain range with mount Grossglockner (3 798 m / 12 461 ft) divides it from the northern state of Salzburg. To the east beyond the Packsattel mountain pass is the state of Styria (German: Steiermark, Slovenian: Štajerska). The main river is the Drau (Drava), it makes up a continuous valley with East Tyrol to the west. Tributaries to the Drau are the Gurk, the Lavant and the Gail. Carinthia's lakes including Wörther See, Millstätter See, Ossiacher See and Faaker See are a major tourist attraction.

The capital city is Klagenfurt, which in Slovenian language is called Celovec. The next important town is Villach (Beljak), both strongly linked economically. Other towns are Althofen, Bad Sankt Leonhard im Lavanttal, Bleiburg (Pliberk), Feldkirchen (Trg), Ferlach (Borovlje), Friesach (Breže), Gmünd, Hermagor (Šmohor), Radenthein, Sankt Andrä, Sankt Veit an der Glan (Šentvid na Glini), Spittal an der Drau, Straßburg, Völkermarkt (Velikovec), Wolfsberg (Volšperk). Some of these Slovene place names are official designations, the majority are Slovene colloquial usage.

Carinthia has a continental climate, with hot and moderately wet summers and long harsh winters. In recent decades winters have been exceptionally arid. The average amount of sunshine hours is the highest in Austria. In autumn and winter temperature inversion often dominates the climate, characterized by air stillness, a dense fog covering the frosty valleys and trapping pollution to form smog, while mild sunny weather is recorded higher up in the foothills and mountains.

History

In 745 the former Slavic principality of Carantania became a margraviate of the Frankish Empire. The March of Carinthia was created in 889 by Carloman, king of Bavaria and given to his son Arnulf of Carinthia. Having come out victorious from his quarrels with the Bavarian duke Henry II. in 976 Emperor Otto II split the then gigantic Bavarian duchy practically in two and established a new Duchy of Carinthia within the Holy Roman Empire, which for a short while comprised lands from the Adriatic almost to the Danube. After the death of duke Henry VI in 1335 it passed to Otto IV of Habsburg and was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty until 1918. When the end Holy Roman Empire was declared in 1806, Carinthia became a constituent land of the Austrian Empire and later a crown land of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

After the end of the First World War southern Carinthia was occupied by troops of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) under colonel Rudolf Maister which led to armed clashes and violent fighting. Parts of Carinthia were incorporated into the SHS-State (later Yugoslavia), which today are part of Slovenia's statistical region of Koroška (i.e. "Carinthia"). The Carinthian Plebiscite on October 10, 1920 determined the future of another, mixed-language, part and drew the final lines of division between what is today the Austrian state of Carinthia and the statistical region of Carinthia (Koroška) within Slovenia. The Canal Valley with the bordertown of Tarvisio (German: Tarvis, Slovenian: Trbiž)and its holy pilgrimage of Maria Luschari was attached to the Italian province of Udine.

Originally an agrarian country, Carinthia in the 1920s made efforts to establish a touristic infrastructure such as the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and Klagenfurt Airport as well as the opening up of the Alps through the Austrian Alpine Club. It was, however, hard hit by the Great Depression around 1930, which pushed the political system in Austria more and more towards extremism. This phenomenon culminated at first in the years of Austrofascism and then in 1938 in the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany (Anschluss). At the same time the Nazi party took power everywhere in Carinthia, which became, together with East Tyrol, a Reichsgau and Nazi leaders like Franz Kutschera, Hubert Klausner and Friedrich Rainer held the office of a Gauleiter.

In World War II the cities of Klagenfurt and Villach suffered from air raids, but the Allied forces did not reach Carinthia before May 8, 1945. Toward the end of the war, Gauleiter Rainer tried to implement a Nazi plan for Carinthia to become part of the projected Nazi National Redoubt (Alpenfestung); these efforts failed and the forces under Rainer's control surrendered to the forces of the British Army. Once again like at the end of World War I, Yugoslav troops occupied parts of Carinthia including the capital city of Klagenfurt but were soon forced to withdraw by the British forces with the consent of the Soviet Union.

Carinthia, East Tyrol and Styria then formed the UK occupation zone of Allied-administered Austria. The Allied occupation ended in 1955 by the Austrian State Treaty, which restored Austria's sovereignty. The relation between the German- and the Slovene-speaking Carinthians remained slightly problematic.

Administrative divisions

The state is divided into eight rural and two urban districts (Bezirke), the latter being the statutory cities (Statutarstädte) of Klagenfurt and Villach. There are 132 municipalities, of which 17 are incorporated as towns and 40 are of the lesser market towns (Marktgemeinden) status.

Statutory cities

Klagenfurt (licence plate code: K)
Villach (VI)

Rural districts

Politics

The state assembly Kärntner Landtag, ("Carinthian State Diet"), is a unicameral legislature, which also elects the state governor, whose ancient title is Landeshauptmann, (literally: State Captain). The other members of the cabinet are elected under a system of proportional representation based on the number of representatives of the political parties elected to the Landtag. The results of the 2004 elections were 42.5%/16 seats for the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), 38.4%/14 seats for the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ), 11.6%/4 seats for the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and 6.7%/2 seats for the Greens. The plurality of the national-liberal FPÖ is unique among all Austrian states, while the results of the conservative-clerical ÖVP are remarkably weak. In April 2005 the Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ) emerged from the FPÖ and all but one FPÖ-MPs turned to the BZÖ.

One of the BZÖ founders was former Landeshauptmann and long-time FPÖ-leader Jörg Haider. Haider was a rather controversial figure, who was elected Carinthian governor in 1989 but had to resign two years later after remarks about a "proper employment policy" of the Third Reich during a debate in the state assembly. Nevertheless he was elected again Landeshauptmann in 1999 and in 2004, this time even with the consent of the representatives of both SPÖ and ÖVP. Haider was also reproached for repeated contempt for the Carinthian Slovenes minority rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Austria.