Soldaten zwischen nationalen Fronten

The Hungarian Defence Force (Honvéd) was created after the conclusion of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867 and the subsequent reforms of the armed forces. While the Honvéd gradually became a Hungarian national army, its Croatian units developed a distinctly national-Croatian character. Despite its being part of the common Austrian-Hungarian Armed Forces, for Hungary an independent army was a central aspect of its national identity. For Croatia, the primary national demand was territorial, namely the reunification of Croatia-Slavonia with Austrian Dalmatia and the Military Border. Here, the Croatian units of the Honvéd played a central role in the relations to the Habsburg common state (Gesamtstaat), the Croatian nation-building, and the relationship of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia to the Hungarian Kingdom. In these units, Croatian was not only the language of the military commands, but also the only language of communication within and between the regiments and their superiors. In contrast to the Common Army, its soldiers and officers lived in a nearly monolingual world. The Croatian Honvéd regiments were thus caught between the conflicting priorities of Hungary, Austria and the Habsburg Empire, as well as those between the Magyar-Croatian nationalities, with debates concerning language growing ever more virulent at the end of the 19th century.