What is your opinion of Austria-Hungary?

**Turul Karom** · 12-15-2021, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by Dunai

Székelys were always Hungarian speakers but even Hungarian Medieval chronicles named them separately from regular Hungarians, since they had a special privilege of social autonomy. Educated people shouldn't have any difficulty identifying Székelys as part of Hungarians.

More than speakers: ethnic Hungarians. Are we supposed to take these chronicles seriously when talking about demographics and why some land should belong to group x or group y? Understand the contextualization of the comment I was making. Most people don't know what a Székely is and might think of them as a different ethnic group under these contexts. Like the way Cumans were different from Hungarians, and they will frame the Székely-Magyar situation in the same light when that's not accurate at all. Romania already tried that with an astro-turf movement but fell flat on their face:

https://www.theapricity.com/forum/sh...NOT-Hungarians

**Longbowman** · 12-15-2021, 01:41 PM

I don't care but my dad is such a big fan. All of his family is from Austro-Hungary (largely the far east) and his grandfather and great-grandfather served the Kaiser in WWI. We have a huge framed antique map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the house and he even pursued (successfully) Austrian citizenship and attends functions at the Austrian embassy.

**Turul Karom** · 12-15-2021, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by Longbowman

I don't care but my dad is such a big fan. All of his family is from Austro-Hungary (largely the far east) and his grandfather and great-grandfather served the Kaiser in WWI. We have a huge framed antique map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the house and he even pursued (successfully) Austrian citizenship and attends functions at the Austrian embassy.

I would be more interested in hearing about your family's relationship with A-H. Maybe make a thread about it. Do they feel some affinity for any particular state within it or the constructed Empire as a whole?

**Longbowman** · 12-15-2021, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by Turul Karom

I would be more interested in hearing about your family's relationship with A-H. Maybe make a thread about it. Do they feel some affinity for any particular state within it or the constructed Empire as a whole?

My dad feels clear affinity to Austria. His family was German-speaking and so is he, so even though they lived in what is now Ukraine and Poland, they felt German to a degree, until the 1930s of course. Plus, the borders and demographics in the old homeland have changed a lot, what with the Holocaust, Ukrainian ethnic cleansing of the Poles, German migration and forced migration west, and Soviet boundary changes that it's hard for someone even who was raised there (like my grandfather's generation) to feel real affinity.

My grandfather felt betrayed by Austria, though, because of the Anschluss. He refused to visit again his whole life. But that, too, is a sort of affinity.