The resistance fighter monument at Griffen Mountain

The monument in Langegg (community of Griffen) was erected at the behest of Josef Krainz, who built it in 1920 together with his cousin Thomas Krainz and Valentin Röck. It was meant to commemorate the fighters killed in the border battles. After World War II, the monument was torn down and replaced by a more modern one. Nowadays it bears the inscription: “In commemoration of the resistance fights of 18, 19 and 20 December 1918. – Via the struggle for freedom and the plebiscite, the Carinthian people liberated themselves.”

Some Carinthian resistance fighter monuments list the names of local people who perished. However, they sometimes fail to list all victims, as evinced by a comparison to church-kept death registers. Most often, the people overlooked were civilians: Children, women, and old people, who all met a violent death. On the other side, there are also monuments which commemorate all activists in general, and are thus not precisely places to remember the deceased, but instead places to commemorate heroes. An example of this is the monument in Latschach.

In contrast to the monument in Langegg, however, most resistance fighter monuments were initiated by towns, villages or traditional associations and erected much later. Outside of the combat areas or the plebiscite zone, too, several monuments can be found which commemorate the period of 1918 to 1920, with all its upheavals. This kind of remembrance focusses not on individuals, be they fallen fighters or activists, but instead on historical events.