Carinthia

Carinthia (also known as Koroška in municipalities where more than ten per cent of the population speaks Slovenian).

Slovenian: Koroška; Latin: Carinthia; Italian: Carinzia; English: Carinthia

Karanto, Carantania, probably of Celtic origin; is also associated with the Old Slovenian word ‘Korotan’ (= Koroška or Koroško, originally the adjective ‘korot-sk’). Around 700 AD, the Carontani are mentioned in a written source (the Geographer of Ravenna). At the end of the 8th century, the historiographer Paulus Diaconus (also known as Paul Warnefried) refers to Carantanum.

Carinthia lies between 46° 22' and 47° 8' north latitude and 12° 39' and 15° 4' east longitude.

Area: 9,533.1 km². Carinthia lies on the south-eastern edge of the Alps and borders the Austrian Federal States of Tyrol (to the west), Salzburg (to the north) and Styria (to the north and east); to the south, it borders the Republics of Slovenia and Italy.

The country features high-Alpine terrain – particularly in the north-west, with dozens of mountains over 3,000 m. above sea level (this is where the Großglockner, Austria’s highest mountain at 3,798 m above sea level, is situated) – as well as alpine mountainous and hilly terrain (1,000–2,800 m above sea level) and basin-like landscapes. Just under 60 per cent of the country’s land area is forested.

Carinthia is a Federal State of the Republic of Austria.

In prehistory and the Middle Ages , Noricum , then Carantania, later the Margraviate of Carinthia, and finally the Duchy of Carinthia, at times comprised a significantly larger territory; modern Carinthia covered an area of around 10,300 km² until 1919. Following the Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919), the province was required to cede around 7.5 per cent of its territory: the Mieß Valley (Slovene: Mežiška dolina), the Seeland region (Zgornje-Jezersko and Spodnje-Jezersko), which today belongs to the Republic of Slovenia, and the Canal Valley (Italian: Val Canale), which is now part of the Republic of Italy.

In accordance with Article 6 of the 1996 Provincial Constitution of Carinthia, the provincial colours are yellow, red and white (on the provincial flag, three horizontal stripes of equal width). The provincial coat of arms is the historical one: a shield divided into gold and red; in the field, three black lions, each with a red tongue and red claws, one above the other; in the field, a silver bar. The crowned tournament helmet, with red and gold plumes, bears two golden buffalo horns; each is adorned on the outside with five golden rods, from which hang three black lime leaves on the right and three red lime leaves on the left.

Settlement in Carinthia began during the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic period (c. 100,000–10,000 BC). Archaeological finds from a stalactite cave on the Burgberg hill in Griffen (near Völkermarkt) provide evidence of repeated settlements with a sense of continuity during the periods around 40,000 BC, 10,000–3,000 BC and 3,000–1,900 BC. During the Eneolithic period (3,000–1,900 BC), scattered settlements emerged, indicating that the inhabitants had become sedentary. Archaeological evidence from the subsequent Urnfield period (1,400–750 BC) has been discovered at several sites. During the Hallstatt period (c. 750–c. 250 BC), there were also numerous settlements. An important settlement dating from this period can be located on the Gurina in the Gail Valley. This was a crossroads for routes from Carnia via the Plöcken Pass and the Findenig-Törl – transport links that were also used by the Veneti from northern Italy.

Noricum. Map from: ‘Austria in Roman Times’ (
), in: Friedrich Wilhelm Putzger: ‘
: Historical World Atlas of General
and Austrian History’, ed
Ernst Bruckmüller. Vienna 2000, p. 19.

Around the middle of the 3rd century, Celtic tribes migrated into the region, intermingling with the local population and, around 250 BC, founding the Kingdom of Noricum (German: Norikum) with its capital on the Magdalensberg. The Norici – a name first mentioned by Polybius and Strabo around 150 BC – soon established trade relations with the increasingly powerful Roman Empire. The hospitium publicum (treaty of hospitality) granted to their southern neighbours was more or less superseded in 15 BC by a peaceful submission to Roman rule. Both developments led to economic prosperity which, thanks to the wealth of metals in the Alpine region (primarily iron), lasted until the collapse of the Roman Empire – and, to a limited extent, beyond. Around 45 AD, Noricum became a full-fledged Roman province. The capital, Virunum, situated on the Zollfeld (near the present-day provincial capital, Klagenfurt), served as the metropolis of Noricum until the beginning of the 3rd century. As part of the Diocletian reforms (around 295 AD), it was divided into Noricum Ripense (Riverside Noricum) and Noricum Mediterraneum (Inland Noricum). Virunum remained the administrative centre of Noricum Mediterraneum until around 470 AD ; from the end of the 3rd century , this province had also included the Pannonian Colonia Poetovio (Pettau/Ptuj in what later became Lower Styria, now Slovenia).

With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Noricum initially came under the influence of the Germanic successor kingdoms. The Ostrogoths, the Skiri, Byzantium for a short time, the Lombards from 568, and from 591 Slavic tribes – who were mostly threatened by the Avars but were also allied with them at times – controlled the region. In the west, the ‘Alpine Slavs’ clashed with the Bavarians. The military conflict with their Germanic neighbours resulted in defeat. In 595 and around or shortly after 610, the Bavarians were defeated with the help of their Avar allies. These confrontations led to the formation of a vast border region which had a decisive influence on the fortunes of Central and South-Eastern Europe, not only in the Early and High Middle Ages. Owing to the weakening of the Avars, who had suffered a defeat before Constantinople (626) and were further weakened by internal tribal feuds, the Alpine Slavs under Samo were able to establish a kingdom for around three decades that stretched from the Sudeten Mountains to Carantania.

When the Carantanian Slavic prince Boruth sought assistance from the Bavarian Duke Odilo (before 700–748) in 740 against the Avars, who had regained their strength, Bavarian nobles assumed political leadership in the country. This lasted until 788, when Carantania, along with Bavaria, came under the dominion of the Carolingian Frankish Empire. Following the incorporation of Carantania into the newly organised Frankish domain, the resulting loss of the political standing previously enjoyed by the local Slavic princes led to an uprising (819–823). The victor in these conflicts was the Friulian Duke Balderich, to whom the Emperor had granted supreme authority over the region affected by the uprising. Louis the Pious (King of the Franks from 781, Emperor of the entire empire from 814) introduced the Frankish county constitution in Carantania in 828, whereby Bavarian law came to apply to most of the region’s inhabitants.

Following the takeover of the administration of Carantania (876) by Arnulf of Carinthia (c. 850–899), an illegitimate son of the Carolingian King Carloman (c. 830–880), a wave of immigration to Carantania began, spurred by numerous donations to the bishoprics of Salzburg, Aquileia and Freising, as well as to various secular ministerials. The settlers, most of whom came from a peasant background, originated predominantly from the German-Frankish region.

In 887, Arnulf of Carinthia became King of the East Frankish Kingdom, and in 896 he was crowned Emperor. A short-lived political centre during this period was the Carolingian palace of Karnburg (near Klagenfurt), the site of a monument (consisting of the remains of a Roman-Ionic column) of a special kind: the Fürstenstein (now on display in the Klagenfurt Landhaus), a symbol of justice that probably dates from the early days of the Slavic Carantanian ‘state’ and which, together with the Duke’s Chair (on the Zollfeld near Maria Saal) – probably dating from the second half of the 9th century – played a remarkable political symbolic role in the investiture of the respective rulers: in this context, the new ruler and the local nobles appeared as equal partners.

Under the Roman-German emperors Otto I (912–973) and Otto II (955–983), new territorial organisational structures were established in the south and east – including military districts encompassing Carantania – which enabled control over the Alpine passes and the road links between the Holy Roman Empire and the Italian territories.

Following a rebellion by the Bavarian Duke Henry II the Quarrelsome (951–995), Otto II removed the Margraviate of Carinthia from the Bavarian confederation and united the region with the Margraviate of Verona and the Margraviates of Istria and Carniola to form an independent duchy – the sixth in the Empire and the oldest in the Eastern Alpine region. The leading position held by the Duke of Carinthia, which lasted until the mid-12th century, highlights the particular strategic and political significance of this region in the High Middle Ages. From 1269 to 1276, the region was united for the first time with Austria, Styria and Carniola under the personal union of King Ottokar II of Bohemia (c. 1232–1278); from 1286 to 1335, Carinthia was ruled by dukes from the House of Gorizia-Tyrol. In 1335, Emperor Louis IV (1282 or 1286–1347) enfeoffed the Dukes Albrecht and Otto of Austria with the Duchy of Carinthia, which remained part of the Habsburg Empire from then on until 1918. At the transition from the late Middle Ages to the modern era, the region faced repeated Turkish and Hungarian incursions (1473–1483, 1480–1490) and peasant uprisings – most notably that of 1515.

The modern era was significantly shaped by the spread of the teachings of Martin Luther (1483–1546). The estates, which since the reign of Emperor Frederick III (1415–1493) – partly as a result of the Turkish Wars – had been able to assume a politically influential position vis-à-vis the sovereign and the Habsburgs, were key players in the dissemination of Protestant teachings. In the mid-16th century, the estates’ collective – comprising 16 clergymen, two lords, 96 knights and senior retainers, as well as representatives of three towns and former ministerials, set lasting trends in educational policy and architectural development: from 1552 to 1563 with the establishment of the Collegium Sapientiae et Pietatis, 1574–1594 with the construction of the Landhaus, as well as the cathedral and parish church in Klagenfurt (completed in 1591), the largest place of worship ever built by Protestants in Austria ). The estates supported the clergyman Primož Trubar (Latin/German: Primus Truber, 1508–1586), who was repeatedly forced to leave Ljubljana, in the production and dissemination of the catechism in the ‘Windic language’ and a translation of the Bible. Trubar is regarded as the founder of Slovenian literature and the modern Slovenian written language.

The Counter-Reformation under Ferdinand II, which was at times carried out with great severity, (from 1595 Regent of Inner Austria, i.e. of Carinthia, Carniola and Styria; from 1619 German Emperor) left a psychological legacy, particularly in Carinthia, that extended well into the 20th century. In the mid-18th century, the Bamberg estates were sold to Maria Theresa (1759). Consequently, the feudal medieval system lost its significance, albeit only in terms of the relationship between the sovereign and the landlords. The social standing of the manorial estates declined following the land reform decided upon in 1848–49 and implemented in the years that followed. This was undoubtedly due in part to the effects of the French Revolution, but also to ideas from the early Enlightenment, which in Carinthia were disseminated within the ‘Herbert Circle’, through acquaintances of Archduchess Marianne (1738–1789) and in the printer and publisher Ignaz Edler von Kleinmayr (1745–1802), who were leading representatives of these ideas. Members of the Herbert family, industrialists from Klagenfurt, were associated in the last two decades of the 18th century with intellectual giants of the time such as Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Johann Benjamin Erhard (1766–1827), Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1757–1823), Friedrich Schiller (1759–1804) and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827).

Carinthia was directly affected by the Napoleonic era from a very early stage. The first skirmishes took place in 1797, 1799 and 1800. At the end of March 1797, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) captured the towns of Villach and Klagenfurt. The Treaty of Campoformio (1797) and, a few years later, that of Pressburg/Bratislava (1805) turned Carinthia into a border region after the French Emperor Napoleon I had established the Kingdom of Italy, comprising Venetia, Istria and Dalmatia.

The political unity of the province, newly achieved in 1848–49, was threatened when not only local representatives of the Slovenian-speaking population called for the creation of a united Slovenia. This demand formed the nucleus of an issue – the ‘national question’ – which would continue to pose a constant challenge to the politics of multi-ethnic Carinthia. Essentially, two camps stood opposed to one another, though they were by no means ideologically homogeneous: on the one hand, a predominantly anti-clerical and/or liberal-minded German majority population, which dominated the region politically and economically; on the other hand, a Slovenian population – partly supported by the clergy but politically of little influence – which was usually in the minority and only formed a majority in a few areas south of the Drava. Their national identity ranged from ethno-Slovenian and national-Slovenian concepts to the complex ‘Carinthian essence’. The struggle for linguistic – and thus overall cultural – equality for this ethnic group in Carinthia was multifaceted, as it gave rise to areas of conflict not only in domestic but also in foreign policy.

Polling districts in Carinthia (1920). Map from: *
*: The 1920 referendum in Carinthia, in: *10 October
1920. Carinthia’s Day of Self-Determination*. Background –
Events – Analyses, edited by the Carinthian
State Archives in collaboration with Alfred Ogris et al.,
Front cover.

For the general public in the province, the political events of the years 1918 to 1920 play a key role. Following the collapse of the Habsburg Monarchy, of which Carinthia had been a part for almost six centuries, the former crown land was confronted with territorial claims from the newly founded Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (= SHS State). The struggle over the border, following fluctuating fortunes for the opposing sides, culminated in June 1919 in a military occupation of parts of Carinthia by SHS troops, but also in a diplomatic victory in terms of the province’s historical unity, which had existed for centuries. This was because the Allied victorious powers ordered a plebiscite. Two voting zones were established. Should the first voting zone vote in favour of the SHS State, a second zone was to be held. The Carinthian plebiscite on 10 October 1920 produced a clear result: 59.04 per cent, or 22,025 eligible voters – including more than 10,000 Slovenian-speaking Carinthians – voted to remain part of the young Republic of Austria, 40.96 per cent, or 15,279 optants, voted in favour of annexation to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The national question in Carinthia was thus by no means resolved. Not least because of the experiences gained between 1918 and 1920, it remained a highly contentious issue in regional politics. This was one of the reasons why National Socialism was able to establish itself in Carinthia as early as the late 1920s and early 1930s; the National Socialists’ bloody July Putsch against the authoritarian corporative state (1934) lasted the longest in southern Austria. And following the ‘Anschluss’ (March 1938), Carinthia – formerly a model Nazi ‘Gau’ – provided three of the seven Gauleiters.

Yugoslavia’s territorial claims against Austria, 1947/
1949. Map design: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute, Vienna/
Graz; source material provided by the author, Ulfried Burz.

Nazi rule had lasting consequences, particularly for the Slovenian-speaking population. In April 1942, almost 1,000 members of this community were deported to Germany in a ‘night and fog’ operation. Protests by local representatives met with only limited success. These and other repressive measures by the Nazi rulers intensified the partisan struggle in southern Austria, which, however, was not aimed solely at liberation from the Nazi dictatorship. Until 1947/1949, victorious communist Yugoslavia officially laid claim to territory which, had these claims been realised, would have resulted in Carinthia losing 2,470 km² (around 26 per cent of the total territory) or the loss of around 180,000 inhabitants (40 per cent of the population at that time).

The resulting political climate in the border region of Carinthia further weakened the position of the Slovenes after 1945 in their repeated demands for equal rights in all areas of life. One long-standing issue, the question of place-name signs, appears to have been resolved by an agreement reached in 2011. Other concerns of the Slovenian ethnic group are still awaiting a solution.

From 1570 onwards, Carinthia’s secular administration – together with Carniola and Styria – was under the authority of the authorities in Graz. In 1747, Maria Theresa established a prestigious provincial authority reporting directly to the Vienna Chancellery; a year later, she set up three district offices: Upper, Central and Lower Carinthia. The sale of the Bamberg estates to Maria Theresa (1759) expanded the administrative area.

Villach and Klagenfurt districts. Map from: Villach
district, in: Fräss-Ehrfeld (ed.): Napoleon and his time.
Carinthia – Inner Austria – Illyria. Klagenfurt 2009,
p. 19.

During the period of Josephine centralism, Carinthia was once again administered directly by the Governor of Inner Austria, based in Graz. In 1804, Carinthia was assigned to the Graz Governorate. In 1809, the Villach district, together with East Tyrol, Carniola, Croatia on the right bank of the Sava, and Istria and Dalmatia – which had already been ceded in 1805 – were grouped together to form the ‘Illyrian Provinces’ and were governed directly by French authorities based in Ljubljana. The Klagenfurt district fell under the administrative authority (until 1825) of the Graz Governorate. For a short time (1813), Carinthia was a unified administrative region; thereafter, the Ljubljana Governorate assumed the governing role for Upper Carinthia and, from 1825, for the Klagenfurt District as well.

The declaration by the new Carinthian Provincial Assembly – elected for the first time on a broader basis (August 1848) – that the duchy was indivisible was only recognised by the imperial patent of 13 March 1849. Carinthia once again became an independent Crown Land within the Habsburg Monarchy. During the Nazi era, the Gau Carinthia was expanded to include East Tyrol and parts of what is now the Republic of Slovenia and northern Italy.

Nazi-controlled territory in the south, 1941–1945.
Map from: Maurice Williams, German edition
, edited by Ulfried Burz and Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld: Gau, Volk und Reich. Friedrich Rainer
and Austrian Nationalism.
A political biography based on personal accounts.
Klagenfurt 2005, p. 19.

Comparable language survey data, which is significant for the history of Carinthia in the context of figures on the region’s population development, is only available from 1846 onwards.^[1] Following a military conscription exercise, Karl Freiherr von Czoernig-Czernhausen (1804–1889) published an ethnographic map of the Monarchy. Carinthia – within its borders at that time – had a population of around 318,000 in 1846. Of these, 95,544 stated that Slovenian was their everyday language (around 30 per cent of the total population). In 1880, around 349,000 people were registered as the resident population in the province, of whom 29.3 per cent spoke Slovenian as their everyday language. In 1910, Carinthia had a population of around 396,000, 20.7 per cent of whom spoke Slovenian as their everyday language; following the First World War and the loss of parts of the province, the population stood at around 371,000, of whom 10.04 per cent spoke Slovenian as their everyday language (1923 census). In 1939, around 416,000 people lived in the region (excluding the district of Lienz!), of whom 10.4 per cent declared Slovenian and ‘Windisch’ as their everyday language.

After the Second World War, around 475,000 people lived in Carinthia, of whom 8.9 per cent spoke Slovenian and/or Windisch as their everyday language (1951 census); in 2001, the figure stood at around 559,000 people, of whom 2.2 per cent spoke Slovenian as their everyday language.

Leaving aside the still complex debate surrounding the various language survey data, it can generally be stated that the proportion of the Slovenian-speaking population in Carinthia fell from around 30 per cent in 1846 to 2.2 per cent in 2001. The reasons for this significant decline in Slovenian language proficiency include: assimilation processes, limited career prospects and restricted professional opportunities. Over the last decade, there has been a resurgence in the learning of the Slovenian language.

Agriculture and forestry have always been important. Until the mid-20th century, they provided a livelihood for the vast majority of the population. Moreover, the metal-producing industry played a not insignificant role, and not only in the last third of the 19th century. Today, Carinthia remains largely unindustrialised, apart from a few larger companies, such as Infineon Technologies Austria AG, the Wietersdorfer Group, Mahle Filtersysteme GmbH, Treibacher Industrie AG and Heraklith AG. The service sector, including tourism – a key pillar of the region’s economy – is, following the rapid social change since the 1930s, by far the largest employer: in 1981, around 52 per cent, in 2001 around 66 per cent were employed in this sector, compared with only around 18 per cent in 1923.

Territorial development of the Diocese of Gurk.
Map from: Peter G. Tropper: Das Christen
tum in Kärnten. Vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur
Gegenwart. Kehl 2005, p. 46.

Christian missionary activity in Carinthia began at the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century AD, originating from the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and was largely continued from Salzburg in the 8th and 9th centuries. At the beginning of the second millennium, important monasteries were founded in St. Georgen am Längsee, Ossiach, Gurk, Millstatt and St. Paul. The first bishoprics were established at Virunum near Klagenfurt and Teurnia near Spittal an der Drau. The Diocese of Gurk was founded in 1072, and the Diocese of Lavant in 1228. In 1578, the establishment of a Protestant church structure began in Carinthia; for a quarter of a century, the seat of the Vienna Superintendency was in Villach. Supported primarily by the Jesuits, who had been active in the region since 1604, the recatholisation of Carinthia’s public sphere appeared to be complete within a few years. Yet, particularly in the remote valleys of Upper Carinthia, a form of crypto-Protestantism persisted, despite the Habsburgs’ religious policies: In the 1730s, 180 Carinthian Protestants were resettled in Transylvania following an open rebellion against the Jesuit manorial rule in Millstatt; by 1752, a total of 851 people from 334 families had been resettled. Following Joseph II’s Patent of Toleration (1781) and, in particular, the Protestant Patent issued by Franz Joseph I (1861), the significance of crypto-Protestantism waned. In 1787, the diocesan boundaries were reorganised. At that time, the Bishop of Gurk moved to Klagenfurt. In 1859, the Diocese of Lavant became the Diocese of Marburg an der Drau/Maribor. Since then, the territory of the Diocese of Gurk has been almost identical to that of the Federal State of Carinthia.

Unlike its neighbouring regions of Tyrol and Styria, which, owing to their border location, had to take other considerations into account, Carinthia only began to assume a certain significance in military history from the mid-18th century onwards. Two barracks complexes were established in Klagenfurt around 1768 and 1773 respectively, with further ones following after the Italian campaigns (1859) and the war against Prussia (1866). Villach became the second garrison town in 1864, Wolfsberg the third from 1888, followed later by Spittal an der Drau and Bleiburg. During the Nazi era, the Waffen-SS cadet school was built in Klagenfurt-Lendorf, not only as a recognition by those in power of the NSDAP’s strong commitment during the period when the party was banned, but also, it is thought, because the military had held a special place in Carinthian society since the First World War and the subsequent Carinthian Defence Struggle.

The Millstätter Genesis, one of the oldest works of poetry in the German-speaking world, was probably written in the local monastery. Traces of literary activity in the context of the court of Duke Bernhard von Spanheim (early 13th century) can be traced in Middle High German poetry. Around 1220, Heinrich von dem Türlin composed *Der aventiure kröne*, an adventure epic comprising some 30,000 verses and of great significance to the German-speaking cultural sphere. In the 19th century, Adolf Ritter von Tschabuschnigg (1809–1877, who also served as Austrian Minister of Justice, amongst other roles) attracted nationwide attention with his works. In the 20th and 21st centuries, the relatively small region of Carinthia has provided lasting impetus. In the 1950s, Austria’s literary avant-garde made repeated visits to the Tonhof in Maria Saal. Nationally and internationally renowned writers include: Ingeborg Bachmann, Bernhard C. Bünker, Gerhart Ellert, Antonio Fian, Humbert Fink, Egyd Gstättner, Michael Guttenbrunner, Maja Haderlab, Peter Handke, Milka Hartmann, Alois Hotschnig, Gustav Januš, Gert Jonke, Christine Lavant, Florjan Lipuš, Lorenz Mack, Janko Messner, Lydia Mischkulnig, Engelbert Obernosterer, Josef Friedrich Perkonig, Peter Turrini, Dolores Viesèr, Josef Winkler, Werner Winkler, Guido Zernatto, though it was not uncommon for them to leave the country; such as, for example, Ingeborg Bachmann (1926–1973), after whom a prestigious prize is named, which has been awarded as part of a literary competition since 1977. It is one of the most important cultural events in the German-speaking world.

Carinthia looks back on a long tradition in the history of music, particularly in the field of folk music. The number of choirs and small singing groups is truly vast. Notable figures include Anton Anderluh, Hanzi Artač, France Czigan, Stefan Gerdej, Gerhard Glawischnig, Josef Inzko, Thomas Koschat, Günther Mittergradnegger, Justinus Mulle, Valentin Polanšek and Hans Streiner. In recent years, contemporary compositions by local musicians – Günther Antesberger, Norbert Artner, Nikolaus Fheodoroff, Dieter Kaufmann, Gerd Kühr, Thomas Modrej, Gerhard Prinz and Bruno Strobl – have also gained significance far beyond the region.

Works of architecture and the visual arts from prehistory, antiquity and the 11th to the 16th centuries, originating from or located in Carinthia, are among the most outstanding of their time: tools and ritual objects from the Hallstatt culture (e.g. Frög), architectural remains of early Christian church complexes (e.g. Hemmaberg near Globasnitz/Globasnica), mosaic floors from Teurnia and Virunum, Romanesque buildings (e.g. Gurk, Millstatt, St Paul in the Lavant Valley) and Gothic buildings (e.g. Friesach, Kötschach, Villach). In the 20th century, Günter Domenig gained international recognition for buildings such as the Steinhaus on Lake Ossiach, the exhibition building in Heft/Hüttenberg and the extension to the Klagenfurt City Theatre.

Visual artists such as the painters of the Nötsch Circle (Sebastian Isepp, Anton Kolig, Anton Mahringer, Franz Wiegele), Werner Berg, Hans Bischoffshausen, Herbert Boeckl, the artists Kiki Kogelnik and Bruno Gironcoli, and the generation of artists centred around Karl Brandstätter, Otto Eder, Werner Hofmeister, Giselbert Hoke, Lisa Huber, Cornelius Kolig, Maria Lassnig, Valentin Oman, Arnulf Rainer, Meina Schellander and Hans Staudacher are among the most successful international representatives of their genres.

The most important educational institution in the province is the Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt (since 2002) – originally founded in 1970 as the University of Educational Sciences – which comprises four schools: Cultural Studies, Engineering, Economics, and Interdisciplinary Research and Continuing Education. In the 2012/2013 academic year, around 11,000 students, including around 1,700 international students, were enrolled here.

Other research, documentation and educational institutions, some of whose significance extends far beyond Carinthia, include the Carinthian State Archives, which publishes extensively; the Robert Musil Institute for Literary Research, integrated into the Alpen-Adria University,Carinthian Literary Archive, the Carinthian Educational Institute and the Carinthian Historical Society. Events held regularly in the region include the Carinthian Summer, the Ossiach Choir Academy, the International Choir Competition at Porcia Castle in Spittal an der Drau, the Millstatt Music Weeks, the Viktring Music Forum, the Trigonale and the Wörthersee Classics Festival. A wide range of other cultural events are offered by the Burgarena Finkenstein, the Friesach Burghofspiele, the Komödienspiele Porcia (Spittal an der Drau) and the South Carinthian Summer Festival. Notable venues include the Theater am Stiftshof (Eberndorf) and the Theater auf der Heunburg.

• Rotraud Stumfohl: Carinthian Bibliography. Literature on Carinthia from 1971–1975, 1976–1980. Klagenfurt 1984, 1989.
• Friedrich Zopp: Carinthian Bibliography. Literature on Carinthia from the years 1945–1959, 1962–1965, 1966–1970. Klagenfurt 1961–1975.
• Institute of History at the University of Klagenfurt (ed.): Austrian Historical Bibliography; CD-ROM edition (Klagenfurt 1993); online edition: wwwg.uni-klu.ac.at/oehb/.

• Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld: History of Carinthia. Vol. 1: The Middle Ages. Klagenfurt 1984. Vol. 2: The Estates Era. Klagenfurt 1994.
• Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld (ed.): Napoleon and His Era. Carinthia – Inner Austria – Illyria. Klagenfurt 2009 (Archive for Patriotic History and Topography 96).
• Paul Gleirscher: Carantania. Slavic Carinthia. Klagenfurt 2000.
• Carinthian Provincial Archives (ed.), Alfred Ogris, Wilhelm Deuer, Barbara Felsner, Wilhelm Wadl, Evelyne Webernig (contributors): 10 October 1920. Carinthia’s Day of Self-Determination. Background – Events – Analyses. Klagenfurt 1990.
• Carinthian Provincial Government (ed.), Peter Karpf, Thomas Kassl (eds.): Carinthia Documentation. Special Volume 01. The Place-Name Sign Issue from an Expert Perspective. A Critical Examination. Klagenfurt 2006.
• Stefan Karner (ed.), Peter Fritz, Peter Pirnath, Stefanie Vavti (contributors): Carinthia and the National Question. 5 vols. Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Vienna 2005. Vol. 1: Stefan Karner, Janez Stergar (eds.): Carinthia and Slovenia – ‘Thickets and Paths’; Vol. 2: Claudia Fräss-Ehrfeld, Helmut Rumpler (eds.): Carinthia and Vienna. Between the Idea of the State and Regional Identity; Vol. 3: Ulfried Burz, Heinz-Dieter Pohl (eds.): Political Festive Culture – Unity without Consensus?; Vol. 4: Werner Drobesch, Augustin Malle (eds.): The National Question and the Public Sphere; Vol. 5: Stefan Karner, Andreas Moritsch (eds.): Resettlement – Deportation – National Struggle.
• Rudolf Leeb, Maximilian Liebmann, Georg Scheibelreiter, Peter G. Tropper: History of Christianity in Austria. From Late Antiquity to the Present Day. Austrian History. Supplementary Vol. 3. Vienna 2003. Of particular relevance to Carinthia: pp. 33ff., pp. 46–49, pp. 162ff., p. 170, pp. 174–176, pp. 308–319, pp. 418–421.
• Friedrich Wilhelm Leiter: Carinthia Romana and the Roman World. Festschrift for Gernot Piccottini on his 60th birthday. Klagenfurt 2001 (From Research and Art 34).
• Andreas Moritsch (ed.), Harald Krahwinkler (ed.): Alps-Adriatic. On the History of a Region. Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Vienna 2001.
• Janko Pleterski: Slovenian or German? Processes of National Differentiation in Carinthia (1848–1914). Klagenfurt 1996.
• Helmut Rumpler (ed.), Ulfried Burz (contrib.): Carinthia. From German Border Region to Austrian Federal State. Vienna et al. 1998 (History of the Austrian Federal States since 1945 6/2).
• Peter Štih, Vasko Simoniti, Peter Vodopivec: Slovenian History. Society – Politics – Culture (Publications of the Styrian Provincial Historical Commission 40 / Zbirka Zgodovinskega Časopisa 34). Graz 2008.
• Arnold Suppan: Yugoslavia and Austria 1918–1938. Bilateral Foreign Policy in the European Context. Vienna 1996 (Publications of the Austrian Institute for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe 14), in particular pp. 473–558; pp. 677–688; pp. 746–813; pp. 854–867; pp. 875–885; pp. 967–1012.
• Hellwig Valentin: The Special Case. Carinthian Contemporary History 1918–2004/08. Updated and expanded new edition. Klagenfurt, Ljubljana, Vienna 2009.
• Hellwig Valentin, Susanne Haiden, Barbara Maier (eds.): The Carinthian Referendum of 1920 and Historical Research. Achievements, Shortcomings, Perspectives. Klagenfurt 2002.
• Wilhelm Wadl (ed.): Remaining Credible. 500 Years of the Protestant Adventure. Academic companion volume to the 2011 Carinthian Provincial Exhibition in Fresach. Klagenfurt 2011 (Archive for Patriotic History and Topography 101).
• Thomas Zeloth: Population Movement and Economic Change in Carinthia 1918–2001. Demographic Survival Strategies of an Austrian Peripheral Region. Klagenfurt 2002 (Archive for National History and Topography 86).

• www.uni-klu.ac.at/ (Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt)
• www.kath-kirche-kaernten.at/ (Archive of the Diocese of Gurk)
• www.fh-kaernten.at/ (Carinthia University of Applied Sciences)
• www.landesarchiv.ktn.gv.at/ (Carinthian State Archives)
• www.landesmuseum.ktn.gv.at/210225_DE (Carinthian State Museum)
• www.geschichtsverein.ktn.gv.at/ (Carinthian Historical Society)
• www.naturwissenschaft-ktn.at/ (Carinthian Natural History Society)

[1] Sources: 1880: Imperial and Royal Central Statistical Commission (ed.): Special Gazetteer of Carinthia. Vienna 1883 [Imperial and Royal Central Statistical Commission (ed.): Comprehensive Gazetteer of Carinthia, Vienna 1883], p. 98; 1910: Central Statistical Commission (ed.): Special Gazetteer of the Austrian Provinces. Compiled on the basis of the results of the census of 31 December 1910. Carinthia (Vienna 1918), p. 86; 1923 and 1951: Austrian Central Statistical Office (ed.): Directory of Places in Austria. Compiled on the basis of the results of the census of 1 June 1951. Vienna 1953, p. 167; 1939 (Population): Statistical Overviews for the Reichsgau Carinthia. Compiled by the Statistical Office for the Reichsgaus of the Ostmark. Vienna 1939, p. 1; Data on the Slovenian and ‘Windisch’ vernaculars for 1939 according to Arnold Suppan: The Austrian Ethnic Groups. Trends in their Social Development in the 20th Century. Vienna 1983 (Publications of the Institute for Austrian Studies), p. 18; 2001 (Population): Statistics Austria (ed.): 2001 Census. Main Results II – Carinthia. Vienna 2004, p. 40; Data on the Slovenian and ‘Windisch’ vernaculars for 2001, based on Peter Ibounig: Counting Ethnic Groups – Through Censuses? Data on Vernaculars in Austrian Censuses / Preštevanje narodnih skupnosti – s pomočjo popisov prebivalstva? Data on the spoken language in Austrian population censuses. In: Peter Karpf, Thomas Kassl, Werner Platzer, Udo Puschnig (eds.): Carinthia Documentation. Vol. 27. Klagenfurt am Wörthersee 2011, pp. 63–82, here p. 71; the percentages relating to the proportion of Slovenian speakers in Carinthia’s total population are based on the author’s calculations.

Ulfried Burz: Carinthia. In: Online Encyclopaedia on the Culture and History of Germans in Eastern Europe, 2014. URL: ome-lexikon.uni-oldenburg.de/54127.html (accessed 12 October 2021).