„Le roi est mort – vive le roi!” vom Kaiserreich ins Königreich Jugoslawien 1918/1919

Abstract

The conclusion of the First World War also entailed the end of Slovenian loyalty to the Habsburg crown. A Slovenian caricature of Emperor Francis Joseph published on December 1, 1918 in the satiric newspaper Kurent marked a first strong sign of the break with old traditions and loyalty. Until the collapse of the monarchy, such an attitude towards the Emperor had been inconceivable among the Slovenes. But the short-lived State of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and its successor the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes provided the opportunity to discard everything old and create a new South Slavic understanding. These changes posed rather difficult issues on different levels to Slovenian political leaders. The new state had to be constituted bottom-up from its foundations. The first years of the new Kingdom proceeded under the pressures of elections, constitutional debates, new territorial border questions, economic changes, and the introduction of a new currency, among others. Many of these issues led to political crises which destabilized the young state. At the same time, the Slovenian political parties often did not agree on key political issues. Consequently, the Slovenes faced turbulent times in the post-imperial transition period.