DAS BRENNENDE DORF

"A governor will come, a governor will go, blood and tears will flow!"

The border zone of Southern Corinthia in Austria is inhabited by a German-speaking majority and a Slovenian-speaking minority. In the little theatre of Trotamara, a few amateur actors have the boldness to rehearse the famous German New Wave director Rainer Werner Faßbinder’s adaptation of Lope de Vega’s play The Burning Village– in the Slovenian language. While the Slovenian speaking troupe are symbolically acting out the revolution against the oppressor on stage, the German-speaking patriots are planning their festivities for their national holiday, celebrating the defensive action against the Slovenes in 1920 and praising their regional "governor", right-wing populist politician Jörg Haider. They are protesting against bilingual schools and place name signs, although these are established in the Constitution.

The war on bilingual signs has a long history in Corinthia. The whole controversy started when a man refused to pay a speeding fine in a village because the village sign was "invalid", since it was not bilingual. When the High Court demanded 2 years ago that the law be respected regarding bilingual signs, Jörg Haider accused its president Adamovich of "unpatriotic behaviour" and claimed: “with such a name, Adamovich should be asked for his residence permit in the first place”!

The polemic on bilingual signs seems futile, especially in a European context, but it is a symbol for the eternal issues of national identity and belonging.