Styria was one of the few lands in Cisleithania where there existed elected district assemblies. For these elections the electorate was divided into 4 groups according to the principle of »interests«. It was the group of »great landowners« which became the bone of contention in the Southern parts of Styria, especially in the district of Cilli (Celje). Intended as a means to bring to bear the influence of agricultural landowners, the group of»great landowners« was opened by local officials to urban voters as well. Some great landowners protested against such an encroachment of the particular structure of»their« group and they took the matter to the Ministry of the Interior and then to the Administrative High Court. Apparendy a quarrel as to the proper representation of interests (bound up with different types oftaxes) the case soon turned out to stand proxy for the national strife: by changing the national composition ofthe electorate in the group of»great landowners« the national structure of the entire district assembly could be changed. Up to the late eighties the district assembly of Cilli had been dominated by the Germans, from 1889 onwards it was the Slovenes — by far the greatest ethnic group among the population as a whole — that formed the majority in the district assembly; a result which was achieved not in the least by the active support of the Administrative High Court.