Book Discussion: The Disputed Austro-Hungarian Border: Agendas, Actors, and Practices in Western Hungary/Burgenland after World War I, by eds. Hannes Grandits, Ibolya Murber, and Katharina Tyran

Session Submission Type: Book Discussion Roundtable

Brief Description

This book deals with the ad hoc character as well as the complexity of this territorial reorganisation of the border between Austria and Hungary after the First World War - with a clear focus on the dramatic situation in the emerging new border area itself. The new state border established in the peace treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (September 1919) and Trianon (June 1920) remained in limbo until almost the end of 1921 due to the intense Hungarian paramilitary activities that became powerful after the collapse of the soviet republic, especially in this border area. Even when the course of the border was finally determined by an international commission, further border changes were negotiated and agreed upon also after 1921.
Not only did the various geopolitical conflicts of interest and politics in Vienna and Budapest play a role. The dynamics in the region itself also mattered immensely. This book offers a new and multi-facetted understanding of how these processes played out on the ground in Western Hungary/Burgenland between 1918 and around the mid-1920s, and how to place this border region within the larger post-Habsburg historical development and within the historiographies of Austria, Hungary and Central Europe. We propose to present our edited volume and embed it in a broader discussion on border drawings and the breakup of the Monarchy.

Sub Unit

• History: 1900-1945

Chair

• Hannes Grandits, Humboldt U Berlin (Germany)

Roundtable Speakers

• Michael Burri, Haverford College

• Gábor Egry, Inst of Political History HAS (Hungary)

• Maura Hametz, James Madison U

• Zora Piskacova, Harvard U