Burgenland of Hungarians rapidly declined (14,931 people, 5%). This was due to the emigration of the Hungarian civil servants and intellectuals after the union with Austria. In 1923, emigration to the United States of America, which started in the late 19th century, reached its climax; in some places up to a quarter of the population went overseas. After the Nazi German "Anschluss" of Austria, the administrative unit of Burgenland was dissolved. Northern and central Burgenland joined the district of Niederdonau (Lower Danube) while southern Burgenland joined Steiermark (Styria). The policy of Germanization also affected other minorities, especially Burgenland Croats and Hungarians.
Burgenland Croatian in 1987 parts of the law were changed and Croatian was introduced as an official in 6 out of 7 districts of Burgenland. Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian dialect with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland. It uses the Latin alphabet with the same diacritical modifiers as the Croatian alphabet. In the course of language development it acquired some of its own specialised vocabulary, sometimes different from that used in standard Croatian. The popular "The Little Prince" has also been translated into Burgenland Croatian (1998), specifically the Standard version by