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Description

This map is based on Hannes Stein’s novel, Der Komet taking place in an alternative version of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. According to this novel, the Great War never took place, the monarchy survived and was transformed according to the plans of the reformist Archduke Franz Ferdinand from a ‘prison of nations’ into a prospering federal state. Interethnic relations are harmonious to a degree that a number of other regions are seeking to join the country, such as the formerly Austrian Silesia.

In order to move away from the system of dualism that had only been favouring Germans and Hungarians on the cost of other nationalities, consecutive revisions of the Empire’s constitution established a unique form of a federal state wich segregated political power into three levels:

    1.     The Union Government based in the Union Capital City of Preßburg / Pozsony / Prešporok;

    2.     15 Federal States based on the Empire’s historic constituent regions (such as Bohemia and Moravia) as well as on ethnic homelands (e.g. Slovakia);

    3.     11 Language Communities corresponding to the Union’s 10 main ethno-linguistic groups (the 11th community being a mixed one).

The newly established Empire, rebaptised as the Danubian Union, is a constitutional federal monarchy ruled by the House of Habsburg, although its rule is mostly ceremonial and symbolic, representing the unity and continuity of the realm.

The Union retains a considerable "common heritage". This includes justice, defence (the Danubian Army), union police, social security, public debt and other aspects of public finances, nuclear energy, and State-owned companies (such as the Danubian Railways, Motorways and Airways, or the Union Postal Services). The Union is responsible for the obligations of the Danubian Union and its federalized institutions towards the foreign political and military allies. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs, however the dissolved Federal States have considerable competencies on these fields too.

The Union Capital City, Pressburg (Preßburg / Pozsony / Prešporok) is an entity not forming the part of any of the Federal States nor Language Communities. It’s heritage as a trilingual city, home of Hungarian coronations and important Slovak and German cultural institutions, Pressburg is the ideal seat of common Union institutions.

The 15 Federal States (FS) have dissolved competences in fields connected with their territory in the widest meaning of the term, thus relating to the economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit, and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies and have economic, trade and political ties to powers outside of the Union. In order to create economically functioning entities based on centuries-old organic regions not torn apart along ethno-linguistic lines, FSs are not fully corresponding to ethno-linguistic divisions and thus are not having competences over fields related to language and culture.

The FSs are:

    -       Empire of Austria, Vienna

    -       Kingdom of Bohemia & Moravia, Prague

    -       Kingdom of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

    -       Kingdom of Croatia, Zagreb

    -       Kingdom of Dalmatia

    -       Kingdom of Hungary, Budapest

    -       Kingdom of Illyria, Laibach

    -       Kingdom of Ruthenia, Lemberg

    -       Kingdom of Western Galicia, Cracow

    -       Grand Duchy of Transylvania, Clausenburg

    -       Duchy of Silesia, Breslau

    -       Principality of Bukovina, Czernowitz

    -       Principality of Slovakia, Schemnitz

    -       Markgraviate of Istria and Trieste, Trieste

    -       Voivodeship of Bačka-Banat

The 11 Language Communities (LC) exercise competences only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture (including media), education, the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly attributed to the language comprise health policy and assistance to individuals (protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, etc.). Although territorially defined, LCs are allowed to have jurisdiction over minority populations outside of their territory. This mainly occurs in ethnically mixed urban areas where minorities are provided with language facilities on their mother tongues by their LC.

The capitals of the Language Communities serve as unofficial cultural capitals of the communities. The LCs may have ties to other linguistic communities and can join linguistic organisations outside of the Union.

Description

This map is based on Hannes Stein’s novel, Der Komet taking place in an alternative version of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. According to this novel, the Great War never took place, the monarchy survived and was transformed according to the plans of the reformist Archduke Franz Ferdinand from a ‘prison of nations’ into a prospering federal state. Interethnic relations are harmonious to a degree that a number of other regions are seeking to join the country, such as the formerly Austrian Silesia.

In order to move away from the system of dualism that had only been favouring Germans and Hungarians on the cost of other nationalities, consecutive revisions of the Empire’s constitution established a unique form of a federal state wich segregated political power into three levels:

    1.     The Union Government based in the Union Capital City of Preßburg / Pozsony / Prešporok;

    2.     15 Federal States based on the Empire’s historic constituent regions (such as Bohemia and Moravia) as well as on ethnic homelands (e.g. Slovakia);

    3.     11 Language Communities corresponding to the Union’s 10 main ethno-linguistic groups (the 11th community being a mixed one).

The newly established Empire, rebaptised as the Danubian Union, is a constitutional federal monarchy ruled by the House of Habsburg, although its rule is mostly ceremonial and symbolic, representing the unity and continuity of the realm.

The Union retains a considerable "common heritage". This includes justice, defence (the Danubian Army), union police, social security, public debt and other aspects of public finances, nuclear energy, and State-owned companies (such as the Danubian Railways, Motorways and Airways, or the Union Postal Services). The Union is responsible for the obligations of the Danubian Union and its federalized institutions towards the foreign political and military allies. It controls substantial parts of public health, home affairs and foreign affairs, however the dissolved Federal States have considerable competencies on these fields too.

The Union Capital City, Pressburg (Preßburg / Pozsony / Prešporok) is an entity not forming the part of any of the Federal States nor Language Communities. It’s heritage as a trilingual city, home of Hungarian coronations and important Slovak and German cultural institutions, Pressburg is the ideal seat of common Union institutions.

The 15 Federal States (FS) have dissolved competences in fields connected with their territory in the widest meaning of the term, thus relating to the economy, employment, agriculture, water policy, housing, public works, energy, transport, the environment, town and country planning, nature conservation, credit, and foreign trade. They supervise the provinces, municipalities and intercommunal utility companies and have economic, trade and political ties to powers outside of the Union. In order to create economically functioning entities based on centuries-old organic regions not torn apart along ethno-linguistic lines, FSs are not fully corresponding to ethno-linguistic divisions and thus are not having competences over fields related to language and culture.

The FSs are:

    -       Empire of Austria, Vienna

    -       Kingdom of Bohemia & Moravia, Prague

    -       Kingdom of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo

    -       Kingdom of Croatia, Zagreb

    -       Kingdom of Dalmatia

    -       Kingdom of Hungary, Budapest

    -       Kingdom of Illyria, Laibach

    -       Kingdom of Ruthenia, Lemberg

    -       Kingdom of Western Galicia, Cracow

    -       Grand Duchy of Transylvania, Clausenburg

    -       Duchy of Silesia, Breslau

    -       Principality of Bukovina, Czernowitz

    -       Principality of Slovakia, Schemnitz

    -       Markgraviate of Istria and Trieste, Trieste

    -       Voivodeship of Bačka-Banat

The 11 Language Communities (LC) exercise competences only within linguistically determined geographical boundaries, originally oriented towards the individuals of a Community's language: culture (including media), education, the use of the relevant language. Extensions to personal matters less directly attributed to the language comprise health policy and assistance to individuals (protection of youth, social welfare, aid to families, immigrant assistance services, etc.). Although territorially defined, LCs are allowed to have jurisdiction over minority populations outside of their territory. This mainly occurs in ethnically mixed urban areas where minorities are provided with language facilities on their mother tongues by their LC.

The capitals of the Language Communities serve as unofficial cultural capitals of the communities. The LCs may have ties to other linguistic communities and can join linguistic organisations outside of the Union.