The Wendish question (

Prekmurje Slovene Prekmurje Slovene, also known as the Prekmurje dialect, Eastern Slovene, or Wendish (, , Prekmurje Slovene: ''prekmürski jezik, prekmürščina, prekmörščina, prekmörski jezik, panonska slovenščina''), is the language of Prekmurje in Easte ...

: ''Vendsko pítanje,'' or ''Vendiško pitanje'') in Hungarian Nationalist and Chauvinist politics concerns the origin and nomenclature of the

Hungarian Slovenes Hungarian Slovenes ( Slovene: ''Madžarski Slovenci'', ) are an autochthonous ethnic and linguistic Slovene minority living in Hungary. The largest groups are the Rába Slovenes (, dialectically: ''vogrski Slovenci, bákerski Slovenci, porábsk ...

. The traditional Hungarian term for the

Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( ), are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, Slovenian culture, culture, and History of Slove ...

living in

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

was "Wend" (). Many Slovenes in Hungary accepted this nomenclature, although in their dialect, they always referred to themselves as "Slovenes". In the last decades of the 19th century, and especially during the Horthy regime, the term "Wend" was used in order to emphasize the difference between the Slovenes of historic Hungary and other Slovenes. The term Wend received popular use among the emigre community in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

. This same community vigorously opposed the including of Prekmurje into the new Yugoslavia, lobbying the US Trianon negotiators against such inclusion. The border between

and

Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" () has been its colloq ...

was finally regulated by the

Treaty of Trianon The Treaty of Trianon (; ; ; ), often referred to in Hungary as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference. It was signed on the one side by Hungary ...

on June 4, 1920. The territory inhabited by Slovenes (the so-called ''Vendvidék'') was divided by the watershed of the two rivers

Rába The Rába (; ; ) is a river in southeastern Austria and western Hungary and a right tributary of the Danube. Geography Its source is in Austria, some kilometres east of Bruck an der Mur below Heubodenhöhe Hill. It flows through the Austrian ...

and Mura. The Mura region (

Prekmurje Prekmurje (; Prekmurje Slovene: ''Prèkmürsko'' or ''Prèkmüre''; ) is a geographically, linguistically, culturally, and ethnically defined region of Slovenia, settled by Slovenes and a Hungarians in Slovenia, Hungarian minority, lying betwee ...

), including the areas of

Murska Sobota Murska Sobota (, Slovenian abbreviation: ''MS'' ; ;''Radkersburg und Luttenberg'' (map, 1:75,000). 1894. Vienna: K.u.k. Militärgeographisches Institut. ) is a town in northeastern Slovenia. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Murska Sob ...

and Lendava, went to

, while the Raba Region ( Porabje) including nine communes around

Szentgotthárd Szentgotthárd () is the westernmost town of Hungary. It is situated on the Rába River near the Austrian border. History The town took its name from, and grew up round, the Cistercian Szentgotthárd Abbey, founded here in 1183. In 1664, it was ...

, became part of Hungary. After this separation, the two regions' economy, politics, culture and ethnicity developed independently. After the German

invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, was a Nazi Germany, German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was put fo ...

in 1941, Hungary annexed the regions lost in 1920 including Slovenian Prekmurje. It was expedient to argue that the inhabitants of the Prekmurje region were not Slovenes after all, helping to substantiate Hungary's claim to Prekmurje. Sándor Mikola, a well-known Hungarian physicist hailing from Slovenian Prekmurje, used his influence to publicize this view in his book ''A Vendség múltja és jelene'' (''The past and present of the Wends''). In the book he describes how the Wends were descended from the

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

, but assimilated into the surrounding Slavic population. This theory has no scientific foundation and is not linguistically substantiated in the language of this population. Prekmurje remained a part of

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (commonly abbreviated as SFRY or SFR Yugoslavia), known from 1945 to 1963 as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as Socialist Yugoslavia or simply Yugoslavia, was a country ...

and SR Slovenia when the Trianon boundaries were restored after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendish Question Hungarian nationalism Hungarian Slovenes Politics of Hungary Pseudohistory National questions