National Conflicts among Mountaineers in Slovenia before World War I

Abstract

In the introductory part, the article briefly presents the development of mountaineering in Slovenia with a focus on the second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. This was the time when the first hiking associations were established. The first were German, followed by the first Slovenian one at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, this was the time of ethnic tension between the Germans and Slovenes, tensions which were also felt in the mountains. The Germans built cabins in the Slovenian mountains and erected signs and signposts in German only. This evidently showed that they saw Slovenian soil as German. Once they established their own Hiking Association, the Slovenians resisted this, which led to conflict and tension and a fight for the mountains.