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The
Danube Swabians
18th Century
Danube-Swabians
are ethnic Germans, originally from many areas in Germany (primarily
Würtemberg and the Palatinate), who settled in an area known as the
Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 18th century during the reign of
Empress Maria Theresa. Settlements were established east and west of
the Danube river in territories now known as Hungary, Rumania,
Croatia and Serbia.
Under
frequently difficult conditions, they cultivated the land with hard
work and perseverance. Having come from generations of strong
industrious peasants, their villages included scholars, educators,
tradesmen, craftsmen and artists as well. They valued their
culture's rich traditions and customs; faith in God and the Church
were central to their community. Loyalty and pride in their heritage
were strong qualities of this unique ethnic group that would sustain
them regardless where destiny and fate would eventually take them.
In 1944 and
following World War II, the Danube Swabians were driven from their
homeland. They were exiled, suffered persecution and sustained great
personal and economic losses. Many perished. The survivors of the
death camps where many had been interred, attest to their ultimate
sacrifice.
For those
who are interested in a more detailed history of the Danube Swabians
as well as starting your own family tree, we encourage you to visit:
"German
Genealogy : Donauschwaben"
"History of the Donauschwaben
Migrants and Their Descendants"
"Katherine
Flotz and Her Experience"
History of German Settlements in
Southern Hungary by Sue Clarkson - See story below.
Man from Banat - See story below.
Los
Angeles - 1944 - 1958
 During
the late 1940's and early 1950's, Father Mathias Lani, a Roman
Catholic Priest and great humanitarian, succeeded in bringing many
Danube Swabians from the refugee camps in Austria and Germany to
Southern California. St Stephen's Church in Los Angeles, where he
ministered, became a haven of shelter, security and fellowship. In
his wisdom and understanding of these people, he served not only as
a leader of a strong parish, but he became a beacon of light for a
diverse community with mutual interests and common bonds. He
welcomed all with open arms.
Tragically,
Father Lani died suddenly in 1955. To continue his work and fulfill
his dream of a bright future for the Danube Swabians in Los Angeles,
a visionary group of men and women founded the Donauschwaben
Association of Southern California in 1958. The purpose of the
Association was to unite the existing groups with their shared
interests and background. They believed that there was
"strength in unity", and that anything less would cause
isolation and loss of a precious cultural identity. The
Association's primary goal and purpose was, is, and always will be
" loyalty to heritage and tradition, preservation of the German
language, and faith in God."
Present
Our common
bonds are our origin, our history, and our faith. We cannot forget
the hardships and tribulations endured by our forefathers, although
we now share a new homeland, embrace new generations, and welcome
new ideas. Our goal is to encourage future generations to honor and
treasure the heritage of their ancestors. This heritage comes from a
people who faced hardship, suffering and loss with individual and
collective strength.
Today's
generations of Danube Swabians can learn to maintain their cultural
heritage and ethnic identity, while adopting the customs of their
new homeland. America, the "melting pot", has manifested
itself even in the new Danube Swabian community. The Danube Swabian
heritage is a heritage to be proud of!
  St.
Stephen's Catholic Church, now under the spiritual leadership of
Father Hermann - Joseph K. Rettig, remains literally and emotionally
the central gathering place of Danube Swabians in Southern
California. Within its walls sprang the new aspirations of a proud
people far from home. It's rare to find anyone in the Danube-Swabian
community who hasn't worshipped within its walls, or been baptized
or married there.
Today the
Danube Swabian life can be found in numerous organizations under the
banner of the Danube-Swabian Association of Southern California,
Inc. These groups include:
The Sport Association "Danubia", The Donauschwäbische
Tanzgruppe, The German-American Bowling League, & St. Emmerich
Benefit Society.
We
are also happy to say that similar group of Danube Swabians have
joined together in many other cities in The United States and
Canada. Among them are:
Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, New York,
Milwaukee, Windsor, Akron,Trenton and Toronto.
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History
of German Settlements in Southern Hungary
by Sue Clarkson
At the end of the nineteenth century, there were more than two
million Germans living in Hungary. During the eighteenth century,
the Habsburg monarchy of Austria, which ruled Hungary at that time,
had enticed Germans to emigrate to the unsettled lands of Southern
Hungary, which had been devastated by over 150 years of Turkish
occupation. From 1711 to 1750, approximately 800 villages were
founded in Hungary by German settlers. The Banat Province was one of
the primary areas of settlement.
The Habsburgs had become the ruling monarchy in Hungary in 1527,
following the death of King Louis II of Hungary. King Louis was
killed defending Hungarian territory against the Turks (Ottoman
Empire) at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526. After Mohacs, the Turks
dominated two-thirds of Hungary, including the Banat. The remaining
portion was ruled by the Habsburgs. War with the Turks continued
throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The Austrian Imperial Army commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy was
finally successful in driving them out. A peace settlement at
Karlowitz in 1699 brought Hungary, except for the Banat, under
control of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I. Later, Prince Eugene
captured the Banat, and the province was ceded to the Habsburg
Emperor Charles VI after the Treaty of Passarovitz. The Banat was
considered a crown territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1718 to
1778 and was administered from Vienna during that period.
Although there had been German emigration to Hungary prior to this
time, the expulsion of the Turks resulted in an organized settlement
program sponsored by the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs had three aims: to
fortify the land against invasion, to develop farm land, and to
further the Roman Catholic Religion in Eastern Europe. Thus they
offered Catholics of the southwest German states inducements such as
free agricultural land, home sites, construction materials,
livestock and exemption from taxes for several years. The
colonization of the Banat was entrusted to Claudius Florimund, Count
of Mercy, general under Prince Eugene of Savoy. Mercy sent agents to
the Habsburg territories in the region which is now western Germany.
Settlers came from the regions known as Baden, Wuerttemberg, Alsace,
Lorraine, the Rhinelands, Westphalia, Bavaria and Swabia as well as
from other areas. Although they came from various regions and spoke
various dialects, the Hungarians called them Swabians, and the name
came to be used in reference to all of the Germans who settled in
the Danube valley. Most were poor peasants who had farmed the land
of feudal lords, and who had been subjected to heavy taxation and
military conscription. The city
of Ulm, in the Swabian region of the German states, was a common
point of departure. From Ulm, settlers boarded boats called
"Ulmer Schachtel" and sailed the Danube to Vienna, where
they registered for their land. Covered wagons, which also followed
the Danube, were also used for transportation. The route of the
Danube took them through Budapest and into the Banat."
The colonization came to be known as "der Grosse Schwabenzug"
or the "Great Swabian Trek." The majority of the migration
took place in three phases which were named after their Habsburg
sponsors:
1. The "Karolinische Ansiedlung," or Caroline
colonization, which occurred from 1718 to 1737;
2. The "Maria Theresianische Ansiedlung," or Maria
Theresian colonization, which occurred from 1744-1772; and
3. The "Josephinische Ansiedlung," or Josephine
colonization, which took place under Joseph II from 1782 to 1787.
After 1789, the government-sponsored colonization was discontinued,
but some settlers continued to arrive in Hungary until 1829, after
whichonly those with 500 Guilders cash were allowed to migrate.
During the colonization period, people of other nationalities also
settled in the plains of the Banat. Among them were Serbs,
Croatians, Bulgarians and Romanians, and to a lesser extent,
Slovaks, Ruthenians, Czechs and a few French and Italians.
Many of approximately 15,000 German settlers from the first
colonization were killed in Turkish raids, or died from bubonic
plague. Thus, the second wave of approximately 75,000 German
colonists had to rebuild many of the settlements. They were
successful in re-establishing the towns, but their life was filled
with hard work. The third wave consisted of approximately 60,000 new
German settlers who were able to increase the economic prosperity of
the Hungarian farm land. The Banat region later came to be known as
the "breadbasket of Europe." The hardships endured by the
three groups of colonists is summarized in this verse:
Der Erste hat den Tod,
Der Zweite hat die Not,
Der Dritte erst hat Brot.
which is translated as, "The first encounters death, the second
need, only the third has bread."
Despite the hardships, more than 1,000 German villages were
established in Southern Hungary. Plans for the villages were laid
out in Vienna. The towns were generally built in a square
checkerboard pattern, with the Catholic church and its surrounding
square in the center of the town. The style of the buildings was a
modified Baroque, and came to be called "settler's
Baroque." Each village, however, had slightly different designs
for the decorative finishes on the buildings, and the differences
are still visible today.
The houses were built perpendicularly to the street, and consisted
of a series of adjoining rooms, with the parlor on the end which
faced the street, and sheds for domestic animals on the opposite
end. Long covered porch ways extended the full length of the house.
The Swabians were known for keeping their houses and gardens clean
and carefully maintained. Each house plot was surrounded by a fence,
and the courtyard within the fence contained grape vines, fruit
trees and the household garden.
The streets in the villages were wide, and were used as pathways for
community activities, such as baptism, wedding and funeral
processions. Cattle were also led down the street to the common
pasture in the surrounding area of the village. The streets, too,
were always kept clean.
Crops were grown in the fields surrounding the village. The
specialty crops grown in this area were sugar beets and hemp. Other
crops were wheat, corn and alfalfa. The farmers also kept horses,
cattle, pigs, chickens and geese. The home gardens included grapes
for eating and for wine production, vegetables, and fruits such as
peaches, apricots, melons and tomatoes. In the villages, schools
were built in close proximity to the church. As the settlers were
allowed to bring clergy and teachers, the first school master
usually came with the settlers. Teaching was done in German. Whether
or not the people were pious, the
social customs of the village centered around church activities.
Sunday dress for the women consisted of the "tract", or
village
costume, which included a distinctive dress plus decorative shawls,
scarves and aprons. Each village had its own type of dress and hair
style. Baptisms and weddings were festive events for family and
neighbors, and included a street procession and special dinner. The
major feast of the year was called "Kirchweih," the church
consecration days, and was held on a Sunday in Autumn. The young men
wore special hats which had been created by the young women of the
village, and all took part in a procession led by a selected young
couple. The day included a special mass, a festival dinner, and
dancing in the street.
In the larger cities, where people were craftsmen and shopkeepers, a
German middle-class and cultural life developed. Here, schools in
German areas of the cities also had instruction in German. There
were also German-language newspapers and magazines. Concerts, plays
and balls were held, and Temeschburg was known for its fine German
theater events and other cultural activities.
The Habsburg rule in Hungary, which began in 1527, lasted for nearly
four hundred years, until the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy
in 1918. The German immigrants, invited by Habsburg agents at the
request of the Hungarian Parliament, often lived peacefully
side-by-side in the cities and villages with other ethnic groups.
There were many Hungarian authorities of Magyar descent, however,
who resented having to accept non-Magyar rule, and the
"Germination" effect of the Habsburgs. The loyalty of the
Swabians went to the Habsburgs, who were primarily responsible for
freeing the land from the Ottoman Empire, and for organizing the
resettlement program.
Under the Habsburgs, German replaced Latin as the official language
of Hungary, and German influence became very strong in the cities.
In 1740, even Budapest was a predominantly German city. In the
country, German peasants were the better farmers; and in the cities,
many of the master craftsmen among millers, tailors, shoemakers,
masons and other artisans were German. Throughout Hungary, Swabians
held many positions in government offices.
The Hungarian nobility wished to counteract the Swabian influence by
making Magyar (Hungarian) the official language of the country, and
supported scholars in the development of Magyar literature.
Religion, too, was a source of conflict, since the Habsburgs wanted
to advance the Roman Catholic religion in a country which had been
predominantly Protestant (Lutheran, Calvinist and Unitarian.)
The Habsburg Emperor Joseph II, who also ruled as King of Hungary
from 1780 to 1790, attempted to reduce friction between Catholics
and Protestants by passing the "Patent of Toleration" in
1781. He also introduced other reforms with the intent of improving
life for the peasantry by removing them from the jurisdiction of
feudal nobility, and by taxing the nobles to increase Hungary's
share in supporting the cost of government. After Joseph's death,
many of his reforms were reversed and Magyars began to assert
greater authority. In 1844, Hungary passed the Language Act, which
made Magyar the official language for government, education and
religion. This was the beginning of the "Magyarization
program," which was directed primarily against the
German-speaking people of Hungary. The Magyars wanted greater
independence from Austrian rule. In 1867, a compromise was reached
with the Emperor Franz Joseph which resulted in the formation of the
Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. In 1868, the Nationality Bill
assured that all citizens of Hungary enjoyed equal rights, but also
affirmed Magyar as the official language. The Educational Act of
1879 made Magyar the compulsory language of instruction, which
furthered the assimilation of ethnic minorities. The Swabians were
the largest minority group in Hungary, and some, particularly in the
cities, became assimilated to the point of changing their family
names to Magyarized versions. Access to education beyond the village
schools and to the privileges of higher social status required such
assimilation, and those minorities who accepted the Magyar way of
life were not subjected to discrimination. The rural Swabian
villages were less affected by
the Magyarization program due to their isolation, and the agrarian
lifestyle there remained relatively stable for two hundred years
after the settlements were established."
Danube Swabians in the Twentieth Century
At the turn of the century, Hungary was a large, ethnically-diverse
nation occupying over 109,000 square miles in Central and Eastern
Europe. The population of more than eighteen million was 49%
Hungarian (Magyar), 17% Romanian, 13% German, 13% Slovak, 4% SerboªCroatian
and 4% from other ethnic groups. Since the formation of the Dual
Monarchy of Austria©Hungary in 1867 under the Habsburg ruler, Franz
Joseph, the Swabian peasants of the Banat had enjoyed a period of
economic prosperity due to the thriving agricultural economy of the
region. At this time, most Swabians were not politically aware or
nationality-conscious, and they were proud of their children who had
moved to urban areas and found success via Magyarization.
Land ownership was necessary for making a good living in
agriculture, and the Swabian Germans practiced the inheritance
custom known as "Anerberecht," in which land holdings were
inherited by the first-born son, keeping farm sizes large and
intact. Other sons were forced to earn a livelihood as landless farm
workers, or in other professions. This custom differed from the
Magyar practice of dividing farm lands among their sons, which
resulted in increasingly small parcels with each subsequent
generation. Large tracts of land in Hungary were still held in
possession by the upper class and the Roman Catholic Church,
leaving very little farm land for sale, and at very high prices. As
the population continued to grow, lack of available land eventually
led to wide-scale emigration, primarily to the United States and
Canada, but also to other countries. Between 1899 and 1911, over
197,000 Germans left Hungary. For many, the goal was to earn enough
money to return to Hungary and buy land, and some did return, but
most stayed in their new countries.
Other factors contributed to emigration from Hungary. In America,
industry was expanding rapidly, and steamship lines and
manufacturers sent agents to the villages to recruit factory
workers. Compulsory military service caused some young men to leave.
Under Parliamentary law, military service began when a man reached
the age of 21. After three years of active service, men were
transferred to the "Reserve," where they could be recalled
until reaching 43 years of age. Others were tired of the heavy
taxation which resulted in poverty and inequality for the peasant
class. Emigration continued in the years immediately following World
War I.
World War I was a turning point for Austro-Hungarian and its ethnic
groups. Even before the war was over, nationalities within Austria-
Hungary were eager for independence. In October 1918, the
Czechoslovak Republic was declared and the Yugoslav National Council
proclaimed independence from the Dual Monarchy. The Hungarian
Republic was formed in November and in December, the Romanian
National Assembly declared unity with the geographical regions known
as the Banat and
Transylvania. When the war ended, the Habsburgs were no longer in
power, and Austria-Hungary had been dissolved. Revised final
boundaries for Hungary were formed at the Treaty of Triton in June,
1920, and this resulted in the loss of two-thirds of her former
territory. Land in Transylvania and most of the Banat was awarded to
Romania. Yugoslavia gained land in Southern Hungary, including a
strip of the western Banat. Czechoslovakia became a new country
fashioned out of former Hungarian territory. The Swabian villagers
whose families had lived in Hungary for almost 200 years now found
themselves in three different countries.
In post-Triton Hungary, the Germans, by default, became the largest
minority group, because the people from the other minority groups
were now citizens of other countries. Although the post-war treaties
contained clauses which protected the rights of ethnic minorities,
Magyarization continued to put pressure on Germans. In part as a
counter-reaction, and also stemming from contact with Germany as a
result of the war, cultural awareness began to develop among young,
educated Swabians in urban areas. German cultural societies such as
the "Ungarischer Deutsche Volksbildungsverein" (UDV,
Educational Association of the German Peoples in Hungary) were
founded. A later group, the "Volksbund der Deutsche in
Engrain," (VDU, Union of Germans in Hungary), which was more
political than cultural, became subsidized by the German Nazis, who
were eager to promote their concept of "Herrenvolk," or
"Great German Folk." The VDU was favorably received by the
majority of youth under 35, but was rejected by most of the elder
"Swabians".
Romania inherited large numbers of ethnic German citizens as a
result of World War I. Here, freedom was granted to the Germans to
conduct school lessons and church services in their own language. A
cultural association called the "Veranda der Deutsche in
Rumanian" (Union of Germans in Romania) was founded in 1921. In
Yugoslavia, Germans set up schools where teaching was done in the
German language, and formed the "Schwaebisch-Deutsche
Kulturbund" (Swabian-German Cultural Union). The Nazi party was
also able to gain influence in these countries, as they had done in
Hungary.
In the period between the wars, the lifestyle of Germans in rural
villages in all three of the countries remained much the same, and
the isolated villagers were much less affected by the political
concerns which arose in the cities. However, the rise of Hitler in
Germany and the outbreak of World War II forced even rural Swabians
to become conscious of their status as ethnic Germans. Hungary and
Romania were initially aligned with Germany, although they both
changed alignment later, while Yugoslavia sided with the Allies.
In Hungary, with the full sanction of the Hungarian government,
Swabians could enlist either in the Hungarian army or the German
army. The Nazis recruited Hungarian Germans by bringing them into
Germany for youth camps, summer schools and sports programs, where
they were indoctrinated with propaganda. Many youths volunteered
freely for the German army to avoid the discrimination they were
sure to receive in the Hungarian army. The German army encouraged
those who had Magyarized their names to change them back. Many were
recruited to the Wafer Sachets Stifle (Wafer SS, the military
militia). In Romania, Swabians could also enlist in the Germany army
and remain Romanian citizens, and more than ten per-cent of the
German population did so. Yugoslavian Germans also enlisted in the
Wafer SS, many of them into the all- Swabian Prince Eugene Division,
named after the Austrian military hero who had freed Hungary from
the Turks. After Germany overran Yugoslavia and occupied the country
in 1941, Yugoslavians of German descent were forced into the German
army. Feelings among Swabians, however, were not unanimously in
favor of the Nazi party, and there were as many who resisted the
movement as there were who supported it.
As German defeat became imminent, German military leaders initiated
plans to evacuate ethnic Germans from the many Eastern European
countries in which they lived. In Hungary, many refused to leave the
only homeland they had ever known, but some 50,000, primarily those
most closely associated with Nazi Germany, did leave in convoys of
horse- drawn peasant wagons. The Soviet communists took control of
the country, and in some Swabian villages, most of the adult German
men and women who remained were deported to forced labor camps in
the Soviet Union. Those who did not die in the harsh conditions in
the camps were returned to Hungary in 1946, but found that they were
no longer welcome. In 1945, German-owned land had been seized by the
government without compensation, and non-Magyarized Germans had been
expelled as traitors. Germans were considered non-Magyarized if they
had listed German as their nationality or as their mother tongue on
the latest census, if they had changed Magyarized names back to
German, or if they were members of a cultural association of the
Wafer SS. The
expulsions took place in 1946, and resulted in 170,000 Germans being
transported to the American Zone of West Germany, and 50,000 to the
Soviet Zone in East Germany.
The Russians liberated Romania from the Germans in 1945. About
100,000 Swabians had left Romania when the Soviet troops began to
arrive. There were no reprisals or expulsions in Romania, but
property of German-speaking citizens was confiscated without
compensation. Under Soviet authority, 75,000 adult German men and
women were deported to labor camps in the Russian Ukraine. The 85%
who survived the difficult conditions in the camps were released
from 1945-1951. About half of
those released did not return to Romania, but went instead to West
Germany, East Germany or Austria.
In Yugoslavia, 60% of the Swabians left the country in horse-drawn
carts with the retreating German army as Soviet troops invaded.
Those who remained were declared traitors, and were subjected to
cruel and harsh treatment due to their association with the German
soldiers who had occupied their country during the war. Since 1941,
the German occupation had created high levels of resentment among
the predominantly Serb-Croatian population. The German Army had
executed thousands of Yugoslavian hostages in retribution for the
killing and wounding of German soldiers during the occupation. The
result was that
in 1944, Germans were stripped of citizenship, and their property
was confiscated. Approximately 27,000 to 37,000 were deported to the
Soviet Union, and others were placed into concentration camps which
had been made from Swabian villages, resulting in 35,000 to 45,000
children being separated from their parents. Thousands died in the
camps from starvation, malnutrition and disease, but other thousands
escaped an Prior to World War II, approximately 1.5 million Danube
Swabians lived in Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. The result of war
deaths, expulsions, deaths in labor and concentration camps, and
emigration was a reduction of two©thirds of that number. In 1983,
only 550,000 Swabians were estimated to remain (270,000 in Hungary,
250,000 in Romania, and 30,000 in Yugoslavia). Of the approximately
one million refugees who went to Germany and Austria, about 250,000
later emigrated to other countries, including the United States,
Canada, Australia, France and the South American countries of
Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Emigration still continues
particularly from Romania, even though it is difficult to get
permission from the government to leave.
The events which forced the Swabians from their homeland triggered a
heightened awareness of their unique ethnic identity. In Austria,
there now exists the Danube Swabianmuseum, the Danube Swabian
archives, and the "Has der Donauschwaben" at Salzburg. In
Germany, many cities have active Danube Swabian organizations, and
Danube Swabian newspapers and other special publications exist. In
Sindelfingen, the Has der Donauschwaben has cultural exhibits and a
research archive. There is also a genealogical association which is
totally dedicated to genealogical research on Danube Swabian
families.
Ethnic clubs also exist in Australia, South America, the United
States and Canada. Many of the clubs sponsor special events
commemorating their cultural history. In the U.S., the national
Danube Swabian Association of the USA, Inc., was founded in 1956,
and has its base in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The eventual result of the emigration of the Danube Swabians from
Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia is the disappearance of their
cultural influence in the region. Those Germans who remained in
Yugoslavia are already "invisible" even though the past is
still evident in the architectural appearance of the villages. The
remaining German populations in Hungary and Romania are too small to
make a cultural impact. Since so many members of younger generations
have left, the number of German children being born continues to
diminish. Although the emigrants continue to preserve memories of
their cultural heritage, first-hand knowledge of the traditions will
disappear. Change is inevitable in all societies, and it is
fortunate that so many associations have been founded in so many
countries to preserve the history of the Danube Swabians.
Bibliography
------------
Clark, Charles Upon. "United Romania." New York: Arena
Press & the New York Times, 1971.
Engelmann, Nicholas. "The Banat Germans." Translated by
John Micelles. Bismarck, ND: Univ. of Mary Press, 1987.
Free, Katherine Stinger. "The Danube Swabians: A People with
Portable Roots." Belleville, Ont., Canada: Mika Pub. Co., 1982.
Grammar, Sultan. "From the Danube to the Hudson: US Ministerial
Dispatches on Immigration From the Habsburg Monarchy:
1850-1900." Foreword by Steven Bell Vary. Program in the East
European and Slavic Studies Publication Number 9.
Atlanta: Hungarian Cultural Foundation, 1978.
Koehler, Eve Accrete. "Seven Susannah: Daughters of the
Danube." Milwaukee:Danube Swabian Societies of the US and
Canada, 1976.
Macartney, C.A. "Hungary: A Short History" Edinburgh Univ.
Press, 1962.
Marcela, Henry. "Hungary in the Eighteenth Century."
Introductory essay by Harold W. V. Temporally. Cambridge: Cambridge
Univ. Press, 1910; reprinted., New York: Arena Press and the New
York Times, 1971.
Packrat, Geezer C. "The Danube Swabians." The Hague:
Martinis Nijhoff, 1967.(Note: the most thorough and well-documented
work on the Danube Swabians.)
Setoff-Watson, Robert William. "Treaty Revision and the
Hungarian Frontiers."London: Eire and Spottiswood Ltd., 1934.
Spira, Thomas. "German-Hungarian Relations and the Swabian
Problem." Eastern European Quarterly. New York: Columbia Univ.
Press, 1977.
Springenschmid, Karl. "Our Lost Children: Janissaries?"
Translated, with additional notes, by John Adam Kohler and Eve
Eckert Koehler. Milwaukee: Danube Swabian Assoc. of the USA, 1981.
Originally published under thetitle, "Janitscharen? Die Kinder
Tragoedie im Banat", Vienna: Eckartschriften.
Steigerwald, Jacob. "Donauschwaebische Gedankenskizzen aus USA
- Reflections of Danube Swabians in America." Winona, MN:
Translation and Interpretation Service, 1983.
Steigerwald, Jacob. "Tracing Romania's Heterogeneous German
Minority from its Origins to the Diaspora." Winona, MN:
Translation and Interpretation Service, 1985.
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Man from Banat
Chapter One The
history of Mathias Bohr
Mathias
Bohr Immigrant from Banat
During the
government furlough, I started a project that I had wanted to begin
for a long time. I have always known that my grandfather, Mathias
Bohr, came from some place in central Europe, called Banat. I have
also known that my grandfather was a German. But I did not know how
the Germans got to Banat. Why did they leave Germany? The paragraphs
that follow contain the information that I have compiled so far. If
you find mistakes or facts that are different then you remember
please let me know. If you have additional information, I would also
like to hear about it. Please ask questions ! A newspaper interview
with my grandfather quoted him as saying that the Germans had moved
there about 200 years earlier after the Turks were forced out of
Europe about 1760 - 1770. That would mean that the Germans had been
in Banat for about 124 years when my grandfather was born in 1889 or
about 6 or 7 generations. My mother remembers that he had told her
that his ancestors had moved there from Ulm and that they had moved
because of religious persecution. Mathias Bohr’s father was also
named Mathias and his mother’s name was Anna Retzler. Mathias had
a sister who was also named Anna. Great grandfather Bohr worked as a
farm manager for a baron. In his later years he worked as a guard in
a bank. He also was in the Army and fought against the Turks. Sister
Anna came to America after Mathias, she settled in New York City. In
the late 1920’s after her husband died she returned to Banat.
Mathias Bohr came to America in 1908 when he was 18 years old. He
went to school until he was 14 years old, then he apprenticed with a
wagon maker to learn the trade of carriage painting. His father
became convinced that the future of Banat was so uncertain that he
encouraged both his children to immigrate to America. This turned
out to be a very wise advice, the junior Mathias was always grateful
his father had helped him to decide to immigrate, but he never got
to see him again after he left. He could not find the money to
travel to Banat. When he came to Cleveland he found a job painting
carriages and later worked painting automobiles and trucks.
Eventually he became a foreman of the painting department of
American Coach and Body Company. He worked in this business until he
retired at age 65. Mathias met his wife in Cleveland. They went to
school and learned to read, write and speak English. At this time
when a man became a citizen his wife automatically also became a
citizen. Mathias was very active in the community. He was one of the
founders and first president of the Banater Club. He was a sports
enthusiast and played and managed the soccer team sponsored by the
German Club. He was also very active in the formation of the
automobile union and was blackballed at various auto companies
because of his union activities. Banat is a region in southeastern
Europe. It extends over an area that is present day western Romania,
northeastern Serbia and southern Hungary. It is approximately 100
miles by 100 miles square. The name Banat is derived from the word
ban, the local name for a provincial governor. Banat was an Ottoman
province from 1552 to 1718, when it became part of Hapsburg Austria.
It remained in the Austria-Hungarian Empire until the end of World
War I (1914-1918). The Treaty of Trianon (1920) broke Banat up into
parts of Romania, Yugoslavia and Hungary. Banat is bounded by the
Danube river on the South, the Marosch River on the North, the
Thiesse river on the West and by the Carpathian foothills on the
East. From the swampy confluence of rivers in the south-west to the
rolling hills in the north and east, Banat is part of the Hungarian
Plain. Banat is relatively flat grassland. Roads stretch off to the
horizon unadorned by trees or shrubs. Banat has a fairly uniform
distribution of small villages with a few strategically located
cities that were the site of ancient forts. In the summer a
glimmering heat hovers over the land a natural greenhouse. The
ground is deep layers of fine soil that forms into clouds of dust
when disturbed. When it rains the dust is transformed into a dark
pasty mud. In the Southwest the roads are on dikes which allows
travel between cities and into the heartland fields of corn and
wheat. The beauty of the land is in these fields of growing and
ripening crops that from a bird's eye view appear to be a limitless
vista of checkerboard patterns. The trill of larks and the croaking
of frogs add natural songs to the pastoral pageantry. The villages
themselves almost all have a very orderly core that is derived from
central planning in Vienna. These were new towns two hundred years
ago. The developments of daily life have disturbed the symmetry, but
the order is in the people also. There is a spaciousness to the
villages with a very regular array of streets and houses. They have
large central plazas dominated by the church. The villages serve as
marketplaces and as cultural centers. Many are modified baroque
forms reflecting the styles of the Holy Roman empire of the 18th
century. They have the idealistic nature of new towns or colonies
that are created from a utopian view of a transplanted and perfected
way of life. The order imprints the people with a spirit and
philosophy of life that protects them from the darkside of history
past and future. When some of the people leave the land of Banat
they carry the village with them to new lands. They recreate the
village in only slightly modified forms and they pass it on in their
genes to future generations. Because it is a plain and because it is
bordered by the primary river of central Europe, Banat has had the
misfortune to be the easiest route of transfer and as a result it
has been historically a cultural crossroads. It is accessible from
the North through the Carpathian mountain passes and the Marosch
valley. In the southeast corner the Danube passes through the
Carpathian Mountains in a very tortuous pass that is known as the
“Iron Gate”, a term more derived from hope than reality. From
the earliest times before it was known as Banat this plain was known
as the locale of long vanished people. Its key location between east
and west has defined its destiny. Chaos flows around the mountains
and overflows the rivers disrupting the pastoral life of the plain.
The peace is temporal, chaos is eternal. The history of Banat is
characterized by periods of peace from decades to centuries long
sandwiched between very short eras of cataclysmic disruption. The
history is very complex and what is described in the following
paragraphs is a superficial summary that seeks to capture a sense of
history but leaves out many details. The earliest unrecorded history
is imagined to be a series of waves of nomadic tribes first settling
and then being pushed off the plain by other nomadic tribes that
were either greater in number or fearsome in battle. The Romans used
Banat as a staging area to launch attacks against the Dacian Empire.
They established a number of city-forts such as Temesvar in central
Banat. The Romans were later forced to leave by an influx of
Germanic tribes, who themselves were never able to establish
permanent residence. In 100 AD the Hungarian king St. Stephen
established dominion over Banat making it part of the Hungarian
monarchy. However, after approximately two hundred years of relative
peace Banat was overrun by Ghengis Kahn and towns and villages were
turned into rubble and ashes. The region barely had time to recover
before it came under the threat of the expanding Ottoman Empire. The
rest of Europe thought of Banat as the defensive wall of
Christianity against the Turks. However in 1526 it fell to the Turks
in the battle of Mohacs and remained under Turkish control until
freed by the campaigns of Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1718. The
rebuilding of the land was entrusted to the Imperial General Count
Claudius Foorimund Mercy. Mercy was the executor of a plan developed
by Prince Eugene to transport German Catholics into the invasion
corridors and establish Banat as a province of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Mercy oversaw the building of a set of fortresses at key
points in Banat and between 1722 and 1726, 15,000 settlers were
transplanted into 46 German villages. People choose to immigrate
because of the predatory wars with the French and because of the
extreme taxes required to support the frivolities an extravagances
of their own nobility. In addition very powerful advertisements
exaggerated the benefits of the move, but most certainly the
strongest incentive was the promise of a free homestead, free
passage and three years free of all taxes and assessments. In the
next decade the Germans settlers established a thriving
civilization. Unfortunately in 1738 the Turks returned setting off
another siege of terror. The non-German population join in the
pillaging the German towns along the Danube. Also at this same time
there was an episode of the plague that reaped its own terrible
devastation. It took another decade to reestablish security and
initiate a second migration. In a colonization decree Maria Theresa
invited commissioned and non-commissioned soldiers to settle in
Banat. It is in this period between 1763 and 1770 that is the most
likely time for the Bohrs to have immigrated to Banat. Verbal
history recounts that they came from Ulm boarding barges called
“Ulmer Schachtels” and that they floated down the Danube. The
Thesesian settlement was successful in establishing a life style for
the next hundred and twenty-five years. Although the Germans drained
the swamps and built villages they were afflicted with sever
epidemics of swamp fever and cholera. And in 1788 the Turks returned
and destroyed over 100 villages. In 1777 the total population was
320,000 of which 181,000 were Romanians, 78,000 were Serbians and
43,000 were Germans -- an ethnic mixture. It was the
Austria-Hungarian Empire that held things together, but in the next
several decades the Empire turned more responsibility over to local
kingdoms. In the case of Banat this meant an increasing influence
and friction with the Hungarian kingdom. There was a Magyarization
which tried to replace German city and region names with Hungarian
names. The kingdom also tried to surpress the German language and
replace it with Hungarian. The Germans struggled against
Magyarization actually petitioning the empire to have their own
German Count assigned and to be under the direct protection of the
empire rather that the Hungarians. This was extreme behavior for the
Germans because their natural tendency was not to be involved in
politics but to focus on the day to day business of farming and the
daily life of their village communities. The best characterization
of the prevailing influence of the empire is captured in the story
Nervous Splendor, which interestingly takes place in Vienna the year
before the birth of Mathias Bohr which also was the birth place and
time of Adolph Hitler. Mathias Bohr wisely left Europe before Adolph
Hitler caused it to be torn apart. Back in Banat imagine what
happened during and following two world wars. Imagine how the
Germans were treated by the indigenous people and by the Russians.
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