Manifest 2020

100 Year anniversary of the Carinthian referendum. Looking back with a look to the future

preamble

• After a painful century and decades of ethnic group dispute,
• the one with Slovenian organizations in May 2005 achieved place sign compromise,
• the on 10. October 2006 commitment expressed in a solemn declaration by the Carinthian consensus group, to work on a climate of mutual trust in the future,
• and the successful cross-border path of understanding and reconciliation in the years that followed,
• wurden mit dem gemeinsamen Gedenken der ehemaligen militärischen Gegner an die Opfer auf beiden Seiten zum 100-Jahr-Jubiläum der Kärntner Volksabstimmung wichtige Voraussetzungen für einen dauerhaften Frieden in einer lange Zeit von heftigen Konflikten geschüttelten Region geschaffen.

The prerequisites for sustainable reconciliation for securing peace

In order to reconcile former opponents, the willingness on both sides is essential. Sustainable reconciliation to secure peace

• but can only be done in a dialogue at eye level,
• without preconditions,
• with willingness, To also think about the position of the other
• und mit dem Mut auch zur Selbstkritik erreicht werden.

That is what makes it possible,

• the changeful and self-sacrificing, of quarrel, Mistrust and mutual aversions to work through history together, mit Abkehr von einer ausschließlich subjektiven Geschichtsbetrachtung.
• This requires the rejection of black and white thinking, associated with readiness, über Nachdenken und Hineindenken zum Umdenken zu gelangen.

Home service and the consensus group have also implemented a rethink

The Carinthian Home Service has these basic principles in and outside the Carinthian Consensus Group in many areas - with shared information- and cultural events and above all with common commemoration of the victims – also implemented, und damit einen wesentlichen Beitrag zur Schaffung eines Klimas des gegenseitigen Vertrauens geleistet.

An awareness of tradition and a willingness to reconcile on all sides are not a contradiction in terms

This is what the Carinthian Heimatdienst has at the 100th anniversary of the 2006 In a solemn declaration on the "Day of the Common Home of Carinthia", the Carinthian referendum was proven,

• on the one hand with a grateful reminder of the defensive struggle and subsequent confession of German- and Slovenian-speaking Carinthians for an undivided Carinthia near Austria, associated with the public appreciation of the 1918/20 particularly deserving personalities like Hans Steinacher, but without foregoing criticism that is differentiated over time,
• and on the other hand with renouncing condemnation of those, the 1920 von ihrem demokratischen Recht Gebrauch gemacht und für Jugoslawien gestimmt haben.
  The Carinthian Homeland Service makes this clear, that understanding- und Versöhnungsarbeit mit Respekt vor Kultur und Lebensweise anderer Völker nicht in Widerspruch zu nationalem und kulturellem Selbstbewusstsein stehen.

Es gibt noch viel zu tun.
Because many are still not participating in the endeavors to achieve sustainable reconciliation and peacekeeping, or expressly oppose it

since 2005 former parties to the dispute go through decades of ethnic group conflict, like the Carinthian Homeland Service, der Zentralverband slowenischer Organisationen und die Gemeinschaft der Kärntner Slowenen und Sloweninnen in der Kärntner Konsensgruppe gemeinsam den Weg der Verständigung und Versöhnung.
Implacable circles in the ranks of the Carinthian Slovenes do not go this way, aber auch in vereinzelten Bereichen der Kärntner Heimatverbände.

Das ist in einer Demokratie zu respektieren.
Der Heimatdienst kann aber Eingriffe in vereinsinterne Angelegenheiten nicht widerspruchslos hinnehmen.

Criticism and, if necessary, verbal resistance are appropriate, if

• In some German-Carinthian groups, the way of understanding and reconciliation of the homeland service is condemned as treason without readiness for a clarifying discussion,
• In accordance with national circles in Slovenia irreconcilable denial of the right to homeland service, Hans Steinacher, Without which there would be no undivided Carinthia in Austria today, to be honored on a plaque and when this
• on the other hand keep it silent, that the Carinthian Homeland Service, in the interest of a joint processing of the history of an open confrontation with Steinacher's dark sides during the Nazi era, also allowed harsh critics to have their say in an anthology. And finally, too, that
• Steinacher, who had not been accused of any Nazi crimes, was highly respected as the savior of the Carinthian regional unit throughout the post-war decades across all parties, was auch auf einer Reihe von Gedenktafeln verewigt ist.

The duty to not interfere in areas of tradition must be, without giving up criticism, apply to both sides

If the Carinthian Homeland Service does not deny certain circles in Carinthia and Slovenia the right, the "fight for the northern border" - without revision intentions – to appreciate and renounce any interference in this regard, dann erwarten wir auch den uneingeschränkten Respekt dieser Kreise vor unserem österreichbewussten Abstimmungsgedenken.
Nevertheless, our criticism of wrongdoing and negligence on the part of the other side will not prevent us from doing so, weiterhin offen auch auf alle derzeit noch Abseits stehenden Verständigungsverweigerer zuzugehen und diesen den Dialog ohne Vorbedingungen anzubieten.

With KÄRNTEN NEW THINKING, the German-Slovenian Carinthian consensus group, in cooperation with the Carinthian Homeland Service, began the path of understanding, mit KÄRNTEN NEU GESTALTEN soll nun die Versöhnungsarbeit fortgesetzt und weiter ausgebaut werden.

From the KHD board on 28. October 2020 decided unanimously
Chairman Dr. Josef Feldner