The present commemorative shows a sight typical of this region, a pair of nesting storks, and celebrates 90 years of Burgenland as part of the Republic of Austria.
In 1919, the victors of the First World War decided in the Treaty of St Germain to award German West Hungary to Austria, and in the Treaty of Trianon Hungary was then obliged to abandon this part of its territory. 

The inclusion in the Republic of Austria was regulated in the “Federal Constitutional Act on the Status of Burgenland as an Independent and Equal State within the Federal Country and its Provisional Establishment” dated 25 January 1921. In the region of Mattersburg, this led to attacks by the local population against the Hungarian gendarmerie and the Hungarian district notaries. In return, franctireurs financed by the Hungarian aristocracy pursued a partisan campaign to prevent the occupation of the region by the Austrian gendarmerie in spring 1921.

A few weeks after the establishment of the short lived Lajtabánság Republic under the leadership of the franctireur commander Pál Prónay, the territory was occupied by the Austrian Federal Army in November 1921 and officially surrendered by Hungary to Austria on 5 December 1921.
Following violent protests by Hungry, and at the mediation of Italy, a plebiscite was held in the region around Ödenburg (now Sopron), the town proposed as the capital of the new province, in December 1921. The majority of the inhabitants of the town voted in favour of remaining in Hungary, while the inhabitants of the surrounding rural regions voted for joining Austria.

Although the Austrian media expressed considerable doubts about the correctness of the plebiscite in Ödenburg/Sopron, the decision in favour of Hungary remained final and was also imposed on the pro-Austrian rural districts around the town. After the new border was drawn, a small number of districts switched both from Austria to Hungary and vice versa at their own request.
The name Burgenland was apparently first proposed by a certain Dr. Gregor Meidlinger from Frauenkirchen on 6 September 1919 after a German West Hungarian delegation had consulted with the State Chancellor Karl Renner. However, the name became official and generally used at the latest following the above-mentioned Federal Constitutional Act concerning the Status of Burgenland dated 25 January 1921.

Source: Austria Post

published October 4th, 2011