Bleiburg
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Bleiburg ( sl, Pliberk) is a small
town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...
in the south
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n state of
Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
(''Koroška''), south-east of
Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
, in the district of
Völkermarkt Völkermarkt (; sl, Velikovec) is a town of about 11,000 inhabitants in the Austrian state of Carinthia, the administrative capital of Völkermarkt District. It is located within the Drava valley east of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt, north ...
, some four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the border with
Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
. The municipality consists of the twelve ''
Katastralgemeinde A cadastral community or cadastral municipality, is a cadastral subdivision of municipalities in the nations of Austria,Cadastral Template for Austria, web-pageCT-AT Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, ...
n'' Aich (''Dob''), Bleiburg, Grablach (''Grablje''), Kömmel (''Komelj''), Moos (''Blato''), Oberloibach (''Libuče''), Rinkenberg (''Vogrče''), Sankt Margarethen (''Šmarjeta''), Schattenberg (''Senčni kraj''), Unterloibach (''Libuče''), Weißenstein (''Belšak'') and Woroujach (''Borovje''). According to a 2001 census, 30.4% of the population are
Carinthian Slovenes Carinthian Slovenes or Carinthian Slovenians ( sl, Koroški Slovenci; german: Kärntner Slowenen) are the indigenous minority of Slovene ethnicity, living within borders of the Austrian state of Carinthia, neighboring Slovenia. Their status of t ...
(in 1971, they were 52.8%).


Geography

The border town is located in the valley of the Feistritz creek, a right tributary of the
Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...
, north of the Peca massif of the Karavanke mountain range. It is home to a district court, military barracks and to the local productive and services industry. The name of Bleiburg, literally meaning 'Lead Castle', can be attributed to the
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
mining operations in the Peca mountain.


History

The area was part of the ''Liupicdorf'' estate in the
Duchy of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (german: Herzogtum Kärnten; sl, Vojvodina Koroška) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial Sta ...
, which about 1000 Bishop Albuin I of
Brixen Brixen (, ; it, Bressanone ; lld, Porsenù or ) is a town in South Tyrol, northern Italy, located about north of Bolzano. Geography First mentioned in 901, Brixen is the third largest city and oldest town in the province, and the artistic an ...
dedicated to his brother Count Aribo. The oldest surviving document mentioning the town as ''castrum et forum Pliburch'' is dated to 1228. The comital estates of Bleiburg Castle were seized by the
Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
dukes Albert III and Leopold III in 1369, the settlement received
town privileges Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...
the next year. On 16 March 1393 Duke Albert granted the citizens the right to hold the annual ''Wiesenmarkt'' ('meadow market') fair, which has taken place on 1 September every year up to today at least since 1428. In 1601 the castle was ceded to the Thurn-Valsassina comital family, who had it rebuilt in its present
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
style and still owns it today, together with the nearby Castle Hagenegg in
Eisenkappel-Vellach Eisenkappel-Vellach ( sl, Železna Kapla-Bela) is a market town in the Völkermarkt District in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The spa town is the southernmost municipality of Austria, close to the border with Slovenia. Geography The municipal ...
. Between 1918 and 1920, Bleiburg was occupied by Yugoslav troops. In spite of the overwhelming Slovene majority in the area, the town remained in Austria after the dissolution of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
along national/ethnic lines after the end of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. In the
Carinthian Plebiscite The Carinthian plebiscite (german: Kärntner Volksabstimmung, sl, Koroški plebiscit) was held on 10 October 1920 in the area in southern Carinthia predominantly settled by Carinthian Slovenes. It determined the final border between the Republi ...
of 1920, in fact, the inhabitants of southern Carinthia rejected the proposal to unite with the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
(the later Yugoslavia), and chose to remain in Austria. In the constituency of Bleiburg, however, a slim majority of the population (51%) cast its vote for Yugoslavia. In the territory of the present-day municipality of Bleiburg, 59.8% of the voters chose Yugoslavia over Austria.


Bleiburg repatriations

On 15 May 1945,
Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...
capitulated to victorious
Yugoslav Army The Yugoslav People's Army (abbreviated as JNA/; Macedonian and sr-Cyrl-Latn, Југословенска народна армија, Jugoslovenska narodna armija; Croatian and bs, Jugoslavenska narodna armija; sl, Jugoslovanska ljudska ar ...
in Bleiburg. It was the initial location of a series of extrajudicial executions, in the course of which Partisans eliminated thousands of Croatian Home Guard and
Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croats, Croatian Fascism, fascist and ultranationalism, ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaš ...
,
Slovene Home Guard The Slovene Home Guard ( sl, Slovensko domobranstvo, SD; german: Slowenische Landeswehr) was a Slovene anti- Partisan military organization that was active during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-occupied Province of Ljub ...
and Serbian Chetnik troops, who had surrendered to the British forces in
Allied-occupied Austria The Allied occupation of Austria started on 8 May 1945 with the fall of Nazi Germany and ended with the Austrian State Treaty on 27 July 1955. After the in 1938, Austria had generally been recognized as part of Nazi Germany. In 1943, however, ...
, and were subsequently repatriated in Operation Keelhaul.Vladimir Zerjavic
''Yugoslavia, Manipulations with the Number of Second World War Victims''
hic.hr; accessed 25 May 2015.


Town sign controversy

Bleiburg/Pliberk became famous in Austrian and Slovenian media in the years 2005 and 2007, due to a long controversy over the erection of a bilingual place name. The controversy was part of a decade-long Carinthian "place sign struggle" (''Ortstafelstreit'', sl, Boj za postavljanje dvojezičnih napisov) between representatives of the Carinthian Slovenes and
right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...
politicians of the German-speaking mainstream society. In December 2005, the
Constitutional Court of Austria The Constitutional Court (german: Verfassungsgerichtshof or ) in Austria is the tribunal responsible for judicial review. It verifies the constitutionality of statutes, the legality of ordinances and other primary and secondary legislation, sec ...
ruled that the topographic sign at the entrance to the town of Bleiburg was unconstitutional, since it was written only in German, and ordered the erection of a bilingual, German-Slovene sign. In February 2006, the Carinthian governor
Jörg Haider Jörg Haider (; 26 January 1950 – 11 October 2008) was an Austrian politician. He was Governor of Carinthia on two occasions, the long-time leader of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and later Chairman of the Alliance for the Future of ...
made a great stir by personally moving the German sign for a few meters, hoping to create a new legal situation that would require a new decision of the Constitutional Court. However, already in March 2006, the district commissioner of Völkermarkt issued an official ordinance, enforcing the erection of a bilingual sign in accordance to the decision of the Court. Nevertheless Governor Jörg Haider refused to carry out the ordinance, further fanning the controversy's flames. In August of the same year, Haider personally added a small plaque with the Slovene name of the town (''Pliberk'') under the German one. In December 2006, the Austrian Constitutional Court declared such action illegal, reiterating its decision that proper bilingual signs should be erected. In February 2007, the Carinthian Regional Prosecution started a legal procedure against Governor Haider and his deputy
Gerhard Dörfler Gerhard Dörfler (born 29 May 1955) is an Austrian politician, who served as Governor of Carinthia from 27 October 2008 (acting since 11 October), following Governor Jörg Haider's sudden death in a car accident, to 28 March 2013. Dörfler is a ...
for official misconduct in the case of the Bleiburg place sign. Investigations were scrapped after the governor had died in a traffic accident on 11 October 2008. Upon another verdict by the Constitutional Court on 9 July 2010, proper bilingual signs were finally erected at the behest of Haider's successor Gerhard Dörfler.


Gallery

Image:Bleiburg, kerk1 foto8 2011-07-21 16.07.jpg, Bleiburg, church Image:Bleiburg, kerk2 in straatzicht foto2 2011-07-21 16.10.jpg, Bleiburg, view to a street with another church Image:Einersdorf, kerk foto4 2011-07-21 16.34.jpg, Einersdorf, church Image:Aich, kapel foto1 2011-07-21 16.56.jpg, Aich. chapel


Politics

Seats in the municipal council (elections as of 2003): * Austrian People's Party: 9 *
Social Democratic Party of Austria The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...
(SPÖ): 8 *
Enotna Lista The Unity List ( Slovene: ''Enotna lista'', german: Einheitsliste) or EL seeks to represent the indigenous Slovene minority in Carinthia. It came into existence in 1991, replacing the "Club of Slovenian Local Councillors" (Slovene: , German: ), ...
: 5 *
Freedom Party of Austria The Freedom Party of Austria (german: Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Austria. It was led by Norbert Hofer from September 2019 to 1 June 2021.Staff (1 June 2021"Aus ...
: 1 The mayor of Bleiburg is Stefan Visotschnig from SPÖ.


Notable people

*
Milka Hartman Milka Hartman (11 February 1902 – 9 June 1997) was a Slovenian poet. She worked as a teacher for home economics in Slovenia and Carinthia Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost Austrian state, in the Eastern A ...
, slovenian poet (born 11 February 1902, Bleiburg – died 9 June 1997) * Kiki Kogelnik, artist (born 22 January 1935, Bleiburg – died 1 February 1997,
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
) *
Johann Kresnik Johann "Hans" Kresnik (12 December 1939 – 27 July 2019) was an Austrian dancer, and theater director working in the tradition of German Tanztheater (dance theater) who is known for his politically charged approach to dance. Early life Johann Kr ...
, dancer, theater director (born 12 December 1939, Sankt Margarethen, Bleiburg – died 27 July 2019,
Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
) *
Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stea ...
, composer whose family estate, "Preglhof", was located in the countryside near Bleiburg * Karlheinz Miklin, jazz musician (saxophones, flutes) composer and university teacher (born 3. November 1946 - died 15. Juni 2019)


References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Völkermarkt District