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“Who Could Be Strong When Hungry?”: Food Supply and Nutrition of the Civilian Population in Maribor at the End of and after World War I
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2024
Abstract
The end of World War I brought not only the end of a great slaughter but also the creation of new countries, great expectations of better living conditions, and the promise of an end of scarcity. In Maribor, a contested border town occupied by Slovenian troops and annexed to the newly established State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, expectations were even higher. A part of the population opposed the town's annexation to the newly established state and compared the living conditions at home with those in Austria. As early as November 1918, the Slovene City Food Council was established in Maribor to feed the city's population. It introduced measures similar to those introduced during the war, such as food ration cards. Despite these measures, food shortages and hunger were part of everyday life, especially in the winter of 1918–19. This article discusses civilians' survival strategies, as well as continuities and discontinuities between wartime and postwar measures to improve the food supply. It shows that despite the efforts of the new Yugoslav authorities, they often continued wartime practices and food remained of poor quality and difficult to access for most of the population throughout 1919.
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References
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19 Regional Archives Maribor (PAM), fund MOM, Coup documents, file no. 27564/1918.
20 At the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovenians fought for a northern national border in line with what they saw as their ethnic boundaries. The fighting ended in June 1919, when a joint Slovenian-Serbian army captured the whole of Slovenian Carinthia in present day Austrian territory. However, at the Paris Peace Conference, it was decided that a plebiscite should be held in this ethnically mixed territory. The Carinthian plebiscite was held on 10 October 1920, after which the entire territory with the Carinthian Slovenes belonged to Austria.
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29 Günter Wiegelmann, Alltags- und Festspeisen in Mitteleuropa. Innovationen, Strukturen und Regionen vom späten Mittelalter bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Münster, 2006), 14.
30 Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg, 86.
31 See also Rudolf Kučera, Rationed Life, 22.
32 Šorn, Pomanjkanje in lakota v Ljubljani med veliko vojno, 52.
33 PAM, Collection of posters and leaflets, TE: 31/1.
34 Avgust Reisman, Iz življenja med vojno (Maribor, 1939), 55; Jana Mlakar Adamič, Teknilo nam je! (Trbovlje, 2004), 15.
35 Šorn, Pomanjkanje in lakota v Ljubljani med veliko vojno, 100–02.
36 Healy, Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg Empire, 51.
37 Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg, 86; Kosi, “Med državno zapovedanimi vojnimi napori,” 127; Langthaler, “Food and Nutrition (Austria-Hungary).”
38 Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg, 99; Šorn, Pomanjkanje in lakota v Ljubljani med veliko vojno, 134–36.
39 “Dopisi. Maribor,” Straža, 13 May 1918, 2; on the lack of food also see PAM, fund Maribor District Court, TE 53, document no. 304/18.
40 “Dopisi. Maribor,” Straža, 7 June 1918, 5.
41 “Dopisi. Maribor,” Straža, 19 July 1918, 6.
42 Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg, 153.
43 “Protest delavcev proti pomanjkanju,” Straža, 27 September 1918, 4.
44 “Razglas,” Straža, 21 October 1918, 1; Bruno Hartman, Maribor – dogajanja in osebnosti (Maribor, 2009), 32.
45 According to research, the May Day Declaration was supported by more than 350,000 people. Vlasta Stavbar, Majniška deklaracija in deklaracijsko gibanje (Maribor, 2017).
46 “Nachrichten aus Steiermark. Marburg,” Arbeiterwille, 25 April 1918, 7; “Dopisi. Maribor,” Straža, 3 May 1918, 5, see complaint against Karl Rutling, PAM, fund MOM, TE: 106, file no. 19005/1918.
47 “Dopisi. Maribor,” Straža, 12 May 1918, 3.
48 Hartman, Maribor – dogajanja in osebnosti, 32; Karel Verstovšek, “Kmetje!,” Straža, 1 November 1918, 1.
49 To name just a few: Healy, Vienna and the Fall of the Habsburg; Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg; Kučera, Rationed Life.
50 Hartman, Maribor – dogajanja in osebnosti, 32.
51 “Ernährungsfrage,” Marburger Zeitung, 21 January 1919, 2; Hartman, Maribor – dogajanja in osebnosti, 56.
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55 PAM, National Government Decree No. 322/1919.
56 “Gospodarske novice,” Slovenski gospodar, 24 April 1919, 5.
57 “Die Hungersnot in Wien,” Marburger Zeitung, 5 October 1919, 2; see also Healy, Vienna and the Fall of Habsburg Empire.
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81 See also Healy, Vienna and the Fall of Habsburg Empire, 121; Cox, Hunger in War and Peace, 83.
82 Šorn, Pomanjkanje in lakota v Ljubljani med veliko vojno, 167.
83 PAM, National Government Decree No. 343/1920.
84 Reisman, Iz življenja med vojno, 55.
85 Moll, Die Steiermark im Ersten Weltkrieg, 74.
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87 Godina Golija, “Pa smo stali v procesijah,” 56.
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90 Kučera, Rationed Life, 23.
91 See also Healy, Vienna and the Fall of Habsburg Empire, 42; Cox, Hunger in War and Peace, 84.
92 Marija Remec, Varčna kuharica (Ljubljana, 1915).
93 Remec, Varčna kuharica, 207, 208, 231.
94 Maja Godina Golija, Prehrana v Mariboru v dvajsetih in tridesetih letih 20. stoletja (Maribor, 1996), 57; Adamič, Teknilo nam je!, 16.
95 Stephen Mennell et al., The Sociology of Food: Eating, Diet and Culture (London, 1992).
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99 “Zur Jahreswende,” Marburger Zeitung, 1 January 1921, 1.
100 Oto Luthar, O žalosti niti besede: Uvod v kulturno zgodovino velike vojne (Ljubljana, 2000), 57.
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102 “Arme Leute Küche,” Marburger Zeitung, 20 October 1939, 4.
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