Bleiburg
| Pliberk Bleiburg |
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 Bleiburg
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| Country | Austria |
| State | Carinthia |
| District | Völkermarkt |
| Mayor | Štefan Visocnik (SPÖ) |
| Area | 69.72 km2 (27 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 479 m (1572 ft) |
| Population | 3,932 (1 January 2011)[1] |
| - Density | 56 /km2 (146 /sq mi) |
| Time zone | CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) |
| Licence plate | VK |
| Postal code | 9150 |
| Area code | 04235 |
| Website | www.bleiburg.at |
Bleiburg (Slovene: Pliberk) is a small town in the south Austrian state of Carinthia (Slovene: Koroška), south-east of Klagenfurt (Slovene: Celovec), in the district of Völkermarkt, some four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the border with Slovenia.
It is an old border town located in the valley of the Feistritz (Slovene: Bistrica) river, north of the Petzen massif of the Karawanken (Slovene: 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 mining operations in the Petzen mountain.
According to a 2001 census, Bleiburg has about 4,100 inhabitants. 30.4% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes (in 1971, they were 52.8%). The municipality consists of the twelve Katastralgemeinden 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). It can be further divided into 23 villages:
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[edit] History
The oldest surviving document mentioning the town as Pliburch is dated to 1228. Bleiburg received town privileges in 1370. The annual Wiesenmarkt (meadow market) has taken place every year at least since 1428 on September 1.
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 along national/ethnic lines after the end of World War I. In the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, in fact, the inhabitants of southern Carinthia rejected the proposal to unite with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), and chose to remain in Austria. In the district of Bleiburg, however, the majority of the population cast its vote for Yugoslavia.
In May 1945, Bleiburg was the initial location of the Bleiburg massacre, in the course of which Yugoslav Partisans executed thousands of Ustasha and Slovenian Home Guard, as well as civilians, who surrendered to the British forces under Harold Macmillan only to be forcibly repatriated.[2] In early September 2004, the Austrian media reported that the Croatian government had decided to purchase a plot of land near Bleiburg in order to erect a monument to commemorate the massacre, which sparked some minor political controversy in Austria.
[edit] Controversy over the bilingual place sign
The town of Bleiburg (Slovene: 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 the decade-long Carinthian place sign struggle (Slovene: Boj za postavljanje dvojezičnih napisov na Koroškem)(Kärntner Ortstafelstreit).
In December 2005, the Constitutional Court of Austria 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.[3] In February 2006, the then Governor of Carinthia Jörg Haider personally moved the German sign for a few meters, hoping to create a new legal situation that would require a new decision of the Constitutional Court.[4]
However, already in March 2006, the district commissioner of Völkermarkt issued an official ordinance, ordering the erection of a bilingual sign in accordance to the decision of the Court.[3] However, the right wing governor Jörg Haider refused to carry out the ordinance of the commissioner, further fanning the controversy's flames. In August of the same year, Haider personally added a 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 the governor Haider and his deputy Gerhard Dörfler for official misconduct in the case of the Bleiburg place sign.[5] Haider died in a traffic accident near Köttmannsdorf (Slovene: Kotmara vas) on 11 October 2008, aged 58.
[edit] Gallery
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Bleiburg, church
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Bleiburg, view to a street with another church
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Einersdorf, church
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Aich. chapel
[edit] Politics
Seats in the municipal council (elections as of 2003):
- ÖVP: 9
- SPÖ: 8
- Enotna Lista: 5
- FPÖ: 1
Currently, the mayor of Bleiburg is Stefan Visotschnig from SPÖ and a member of the local Slovene minority.[6]
[edit] Notable people
- Kiki Kogelnik, artist, born January 22, 1935 in Bleiburg, died February 1, 1997 in Vienna
- Anton Webern, composer, spent Easter and summer vacations at his family's estate called Preglhof, in the countryside near Bleiburg, until 1912
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Statistik Austria - Bevölkerung zu Jahres- und Quartalsanfang, 2011-01-01.
- ^ Yugoslavia, Manipulations with the Number of Second World War Victims - Vladimir Zerjavic
- ^ a b http://24ur.com/novice/slovenija/pliberk-bleiburg-ali-oboje.html
- ^ http://kaernten.orf.at/stories/88204/
- ^ http://www.demokracija.si/index.php?sekcija=clanki&clanek=10007
- ^ http://www.siol.net/slovenija/novice/2009/03/enotna_lista_na_avstrijskem_koroskem_prvic_osvojila_mesto_zupana.aspx
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