The incorporation of Burgenland into the young Republic of Austria in 1921/22 was characterized by a variety of problems. When the government gave the order to deploy border guards, the federal army was still in the build-up phase and had by no means reached the prescribed target levels.
Nevertheless, the political authorities entrusted the Austrian Armed Forces with this challenging mission. The exact procedures and the organization of the Austrian Armed Forces in border protection in 1921/22 are described in the following first part of our history series on this topic, based on the deployment of the Alpine Infantry Regiment No. 9 (AJR No. 9) on the Styrian-Burgenland border. Political background
When the Peace Treaty of Saint-Germain was signed on September 10, 1919, this treaty, as unjust and harsh as its conditions seemed for Austria, did have one small ray of hope for our young republic: Burgenland, also known as Western Hungary at the time, was awarded to Austria. Hungary was very offended and humiliated by this decision of the Allies. After the other neighboring states had already taken a piece of Hungarian soil, parts of the territory were now to be ceded to Austria as well. This wounded national pride explains why Hungary was willing to defend itself with all political and military means. Freischärler, Hungarian paramilitary fighters supported by the Hungarian army, occupied Burgenland and fought a small-scale war with Austria that lasted for months.
The attempted invasion by the gendarmerie
At the end of August 1921, the Austrian gendarmerie was finally given the task of taking possession of Burgenland for Austria, as the Allies forbade a military invasion by federal army troops. However, this civilian seizure failed due to the determined resistance of the Hungarian irregulars. As a result, the situation on the border escalated. Not only did the advance have to be halted, but the irregulars also increasingly encroached on Austrian territory. On August 31, irregulars finally breached the Styrian border at Hohenbrugg (near Fehring) and attacked the Styrian Liaison Company No. 5 deployed there. This unit was tasked with supporting the gendarmes by establishing telephone connections. Although the enemy attack was supported by machine-gun fire, it was repulsed by the liaison company. This Hungarian attack was the trigger for the alerting of the army. The alerting of the 5th Brigade Styria
Preparatory measures for the deployment of army forces in Burgenland had already been in place since the early summer of 1920. The 5th Brigade had already alerted its troops at the end of August: All available forces of AJR No. 9 formed a separate battalion in Graz on August 30, 1920, subsequently designated as the AJR No. 9 Ready Battalion. On August 30, 1921, the battalion had a total of 19 officers, 460 non-commissioned officers and men with six HMGs, four MGs, 30 horses, three mobile kitchens, three light carts and one motor vehicle. These figures did not include the guards of the rear detachments, for example the guard for Kalsdorf. If one compares the number of soldiers ready for deployment with the target figures for a regiment (1,440 soldiers), then the low status ratios become clear. “The federal army deploys”
This was a headline in the Arbeiterwille newspaper on September 1, 1921. The deployment order was issued by the Federal Ministry of the Armed Forces at 2.53 pm on August 31, 1921. The Styrian troops had to secure the Styrian eastern border from the Lower Austrian border to St. Anna (south-east of Bad Gleichenberg). The deployment of the standby formations marked the beginning of the Burgenland operation of the Austrian army, which was to last for many months. The Styrian Border Section Command, which consisted of the regimental staff of AJR No. 9, had to move to Hartberg and was subordinated to the 1st Brigade in Wiener Neustadt. It had to lead all federal army forces in Styria. In view of its own weak forces, its task was to block the most important points of approach, whereby the troops were forbidden to enter Burgenland. This measure was intended to avoid political complications with the victorious states, as in the worst case scenario they could have revoked Burgenland’s affiliation to Austria.
On September 4, the Styrian Border Guard was organized as follows: Colonel Medicus was in command of 43 officers and 888 men, armed with ten light and ten heavy machine guns. There were also 22 cavalrymen. The border guard command, based in Hartberg, also had a cavalry platoon and a cavalry MG platoon of Dragoon Squadron No. 5, as well as an engineer platoon and the regimental liaison platoon of AJR No. 9.
On the Styrian-Burgenland border were now the two combined Alpenjäger battalions 9 and 10: the combined battalion AJR No. 9 under the command of Colonel Stegmüller with four companies (each with two hand-held machine guns), one machine gun company and one engineer platoon, and the combined battalion of the AJR No. 10 under the command of Colonel Caucig with three companies (one of them with two hand-held machine guns), one machine gun company and one engineer platoon. The low numbers of the Styrian troops were symptomatic of the entire Austrian army. A regiment with an actual strength of around 1,400 soldiers (AJR No. 9) only managed to mobilize a battalion of just under 500 men for deployment with great difficulty. The shortage of personnel was to remain a permanent problem for the First Republic’s armed forces. The reserve detachments
A so-called reserve detachment remained in the Styrian barracks from each troop unit, which was responsible for training soldiers who were not deployed. Newly recruited soldiers, soldiers on leave from the area of operations, but also those returning sick or injured from border patrol were grouped together there to perform barracks duty and guard duty or to carry out building repair work. These return detachments were the predecessors of the later supplementary units. After the Graz parts of AJR No. 9 had left the Graz garrison, the Strasser parts arrived at the Franz Josef barracks in Graz on September 1st. Together with soldiers who had stayed behind, a (combined) 4th Alpine Infantry Company was formed. This company was transferred to the border guard troops in Hartberg the very next day and consisted of three officers and 78 other soldiers, equipped with two HMGs, four draught horses, a mobile kitchen and a light carriage. Initially, it only consisted of two infantry platoons and one HMG platoon. The missing third platoon could only be formed in the following weeks. In those days, the main threat to the Republic of Austria was in the north, on the border between Lower Austria and Burgenland. The tragic climax in this context was the battle near Kirchschlag between the II Battalion of the Lower Austrian Infantry Regiment No. 5 and a superior force of irregulars on September 5, 1921. The Austrian defensive success was paid for with the death of ten soldiers and a further twelve wounded soldiers of the II/IR No. 5. In September and October, however, the focus of the irregulars’ activities shifted to the Styrian-Burgenland border region. In the next part of this series focuses on the organization of the Styrian Border Guard Command on the one hand and the Hungarian attacks in September and October on the other.
