Vas county

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vas_County_%28former%29

Vas (German: Eisenburg, Slovene: Železna županija or Železna) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now in western Hungary, eastern Austria and eastern Slovenia (Prekmurje). The capital of the county was Szombathely.

Vas County shared borders with the Austrian lands Lower Austria and Styria and the Hungarian counties Sopron, Veszprém and Zala. It stretched between the river Mura in the south, the foothills of the Alps in the west and the river Marcal in the east. The Rába River flowed through the county. Its area was 5472 km² around 1910. Part of „Burgenland“ is also belong to Vas county (Eisenburg ) (other parts to Wieselburg (Moson) and Ödenburg (Sopron))

Anfang 1919 wurden von Österreich auch Teile des Komitats Pressburg (slowak. Bratislava, ungar. Pozsony) für das Burgenland beansprucht. Man schlug daher im Juni 1919 den Namen „Vierburgenland“ vor. Mitte August 1919 zeichnete sich aber in den Friedensverhandlungen ab, dass Pressburg an die Tschechoslowakei ging. Der Politiker Karl Renner empfahl (von St. Germain aus), den Namen auf „Dreiburgenland“ zu ändern.

Der Name Burgenland wurde angeblich vom Frauenkirchener Gregor Meidlinger erstmals vorgeschlagen, und zwar am 6. September 1919 nach der Vorsprache einer deutsch-westungarischen Delegation bei Staatskanzler Karl Renner.[7] Dieser Name wurde spätestens mit dem Bundesverfassungsgesetz über die Stellung des Burgenlandes als gleichberechtigtes Bundesland vom 25. Jänner 1921 allgemein gebräuchlich.

• History

Vas County arose as one of the first comitatus of the Kingdom of Hungary.

In 1918 (confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon 1920), the western part of the county became part of the new Austrian land Burgenland, and a small part in the southwest became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia). The remainder stayed in Hungary, as the present Hungarian Vas County. A small part of former Sopron county went to Vas county. Some villages north of Zalaegerszeg went to Zala County, and a small region west of Pápa went to Veszprém County.

Since 1991, when Slovenia became independent from Yugoslavia, the Yugoslavian part of former Vas county (known in Slovenian as Prekmurje) has been part of the Republic of Slovenia. In 1919 there was briefly proclaimed the Republic of Prekmurje, but it existed only 6 days, alike the Lajtabánság.

• Subdivisions
• In the early 20th century, the /subdivisions District (járás)/ of Vas county were:

1. Celldömölk
2. Felsőőr see discussion
3. Körmend
4. Kőszeg
5. Muraszombat (SI Murska Sobota)
6. Németújvár (AT Güssing)
7. Sárvár
8. Szentgotthárd
9. Szombathely
10. Vasvár

*	Urban districts (rendezett tanácsú város)	

1. Kőszeg
2. Szombathely

The towns of Oberwart and Güssing are now in Austria; Murska Sobota is now in Slovenia

• Demographics around 1900 418,905 people
  • linguistic communities: Hungarian: 222,474 (53.0%); German: 125,570 (30.0%),Croatian: 17,896 (4.3%),Slovak: 284 (0.1%),Romanian: 43 (0.0%),Serbian: 21 (0.0%),Ruthenian: 4 (0.0%),Other or unknown: 52,613 (12.6%)
  • religious communities: Roman Catholic: 313,858 (74.9%),Lutheran: 83,340 19.9%),Calvinist: 12,151 (2.9%),Jewish: 9,429 (2.3%),Greek Catholic: 47 (0.0%),Greek Orthodox: 47 (0.0%),Unitarian: 15 (0.0%),Other or unknown: 18 (0.0%)