Paper short abstract:

1. Every year in October the streets of Klagenfurt (Celovec) are used to commemorate the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920. 2. At the site of J. Haider’s death a commemoration is held every year. Author raises questions about ritual: selfpresentation, inclusion, exclusion, production of conflict and reconciliation.

Paper long abstract:

Every year on the 10th of October a procession winds through the main streets of Klagenfurt (Celovec). The streets of the city are used to commemorate the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, during which inhabitants of Carinthia voted in favor of Austria, one of the successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This year, on the 90th anniversary of the plebiscite, there were more than 17.000 active participants in this event of self-presentation and approximately 5-6.000 visitors. From October 10th to 11th of 2008, the then Carinthian governor Joerg Haider died on the street near Klagenfurt (Celovec). A monument to him was erected at the site of his death, and a commemoration held at the monument every year .

In both cases we can raise the question as to who and how is selfpresenting at this site? How far does ritual behavior include Germanness as the Carinthian Self, and to what extent does it exclude the Other either in the form of the region's autochtone minority, ie. Slovenians, or in the form of foreign migrants (Tschetschnia, ...). Is it possible to talk about different structuration of ritual discourse on "German" and "Slovenian" side? How are these sites a source for the ritual production of conflict, and do any new ritual practices in the direction of reconciliation emerge?