The city sent its men to the fronts of a war fought for a monarchy that did not survive it. The factories turned to war production, food was rationed and grew short, and the wounded filled improvised hospitals. When Austria-Hungary collapsed in the autumn of 1918, nobody here knew which state the city would end up in: the Slovak National Council declared for a common state with the Czechs at Turčiansky Svätý Martin on 30 October 1918, but this was a German- and Hungarian-speaking city that had not asked to join it. For a few weeks there was even a serious proposal to make it a neutral free city named after the American president — Wilson City. Nothing came of it, and the decision was made by soldiers instead.Mesto poslalo svojich mužov na fronty vojny, ktorú viedla monarchia, čo ju neprežila. Továrne prešli na vojnovú výrobu, potraviny sa prideľovali na lístky a ubúdalo ich, provizórne nemocnice sa plnili ranenými. Keď sa na jeseň 1918 Rakúsko-Uhorsko rozpadlo, nikto tu nevedel, v ktorom štáte mesto skončí: Slovenská národná rada sa 30. októbra 1918 v Turčianskom Svätom Martine prihlásila k spoločnému štátu s Čechmi, lenže Prešporok bol nemecky a maďarsky hovoriace mesto, ktoré o to nežiadalo. Pár týždňov sa dokonca vážne uvažovalo o tom, že by z neho bolo neutrálne slobodné mesto pomenované po americkom prezidentovi — Wilsonovo mesto. Nebolo z toho nič a rozhodli namiesto toho vojaci.
