The Story of the
Johann Wangler Family's Flight from KULA
Translation: from German by the Author: Johann Wangler
Part one (1).
For a long time, the idea to assemble and write down our own Family Tree had been upper most in my mind before I made a list of our Family members we ( have been) are a large Family. I was surprised though when I had more then 150 individual names on my list, as my Family History research work began to grow, the list has quickly grown to over 200 Family members.
My Nephew gave me the "CD Familienbaum” as a Christmas present, that software program made it much easier for me to go on with my research into the family history and it was possible to make the work clearer and more extensive.
I enjoyed history while in primary-school and later, I spent many hours reading books on history, I was especially interested in the history of Europe.
I asked myself many questions about my family:
Why did my ancestors leave from Germany and go to Yugoslavia and from which part of Germany did they come from and how did they live there? I planned to find factual answers to all my questions just to prove, that the history of the humble and small folks is very often fatally connected to the general history.
My Family settles in the Batschka Region
More than 250 years before the Habsburger started with the settlement of Germans into the Batschka region (Batschka), Banat region (Banat) and the so-called counties of “Schwäbischen-Türkei” Swabian-Turkey and the Sathmar.
The county of Sathmar, a region of 36,000 German speaking people (Donauschwaben) all of these German people lived in 33 villages (many of those resettled in Germany after WW II).
Following the First World War, about five-sixths of Bac-Bodrog went to Yugoslavia in the Treaty of Trianon( named after the palace in Paris where the treaty was signed). About 150.000 Germans and 200.000 Hungarians found themselves living in the Yugoslav regime.
At the end of WWII the destiny for this group of people was: to be outlawed, flight or extermination.
The reason for me to write this story and chronicle of my family is that it should be a small and humble but hopefully remaining memorial to my ancestors who created their Homeland themselves. It should also be a legacy for the succeeding generations of our family and to think in piety of their ancestors and pay them the tribute of respect which we all owe to them.
An old Family- Bible
My mother very often told me the story of a Family Bible which the first Wangler from Germany brought with him to the Batschka at the time of his immigration.
She knew even his name Michael Wangler and that he immigrated from Deggendorf, in the Black Forest in Germany. All these details were written on the first page of the said Bible, as it was the tradition of German Christians in this time period, to record into the Bible every birth, marriage and death in the family to record it for later generations. And, it was the first source for my Family Tree and my first clue to my story.
Unfortunately the Bible got lost. The sister of my grandfather, my grandaunt Maria Wangler was working in the Benedictine-Monastery in Illok, which lay across the River Danube opposite of Palanka.
When the monks learned of the existence of such a rare Book in the Batschka they asked my grand aunt to bring that Book to look at it and study it.
“The Bible was never returned to the family.”
After the Partisans marched into Syrmia the monasteries were suppressed and the inhabitants were forced to move on to Kalocsa, Hungary, where the Benedictine mother- house (cloister) for this region is situated and also the Seat of the Bishop.
It is possible that the Monks took our Bible with them to Kalocsa when they fled from Ilok and the Book is now perhaps in the possession of the Benedictine Order in Kalocsa.
The Diocesan Bishop of the district in Bacs/Bodrog is in Kalocsa, Kula belonged to that diocese and all the matriculate-duplicates were kept here of all the catholic Parishes of the diocese Bacs/Bodrog. The records of the Archive started in the year 1826, and ends in 1918 or so.
I visited Kalocsa several times, my aunt was living there, to make genealogical research in the diocesan-Archive, but I was to shy to ask for our lost Bible.
But I was successful in finding information like birth dates, marriages and also death dates of my ancestors.
The Monastery with the beautiful church was build by an Austrian Architect in baroque style, connected to the monastery, at the end of the 18 century.
To obtain information of registrations dates, earlier than 1826, the situation is more complicated because the Parishes had to give their registers and rolls, which were over 100 years old, to the municipal authorities in Yugoslavia. I was not allowed in the registry of the municipality in Kula, to look personally in this register for the purpose of Genealogical studies.
But the authority issues, on application, any copy of the matricidal-books if you know the details like the name, birth date, date of death of the person you are looking for a “small register fee.”
The Priest in Kula would have given me any matriculation register I wanted, but I already had the genealogical information (most of my relatives had given this to me) of the last 100 years.
In the archive of the court chancery in Vienna, I found the register of all those Colonists who were legally registered in Vienna before they immigrated to the Banat or to Batschka regions
Actually, immigration is not the right term, because many colonists came from territories which belonged to the Habsburgs so they moved from one part of the Habsburgs properties, to another part of the Habsburg Empire.
My ancestors came from a village Simonswald in the Black Forest, in the county Vorderösterreich which belonged to the Habsburgs. This village still exists today in Germany, in the county Baden-Württemberg, in the south of the Black Forest.
Last summer I visited Simonswald and found many Wangler-Families living there (also a lot of Tomb Stones in the Graveyard with the inscription of ”Wangler”) but whether we are related to each other, I do not know. Today Simonswald – Schwarzwäldertal as they call it now, lays in the most beautiful region of the Black Forest with about 3100 inhabitants living here.
I found in the church office, in the matriculation records, the registration of the birth of our ancestor Michael Wangler, son of Jacoby and Magdalena( -born Haberstrohin )Wangler, on August 22nd 1742.
Michael Wangler is the same man who is on the register-list of the court chancery archive in Vienna, he was recorded on July 3rd 1767 as a Colonist, in this record it says further: that he received 6 Reichsgulden as” Reysgeld” (old German word for: money for travel expenditure) and that he had travelled on to Budapest.
In Budapest I found him again registered in the so called “Banater Akten”, this Register list also called “Abfertigungslisten”, the Archive of the Reich Archives in Budapest (the imperial Archives in Budapest) under File, Number: .R 149C folio nr.1396. From Budapest he and his Family were sent to the Banat region.
In the HOG Book of Paraput (Hungarian name is: Paripas) I found once again a trace of a Michael Wangler, in this Book he is listed with Families who moved from the Banat, in 1786, to Paraput, in the Batschka.
Helpful for this research at the court-chancery was the Book of Kallbrunner and Wilhelm, written by two Officials working in the court chancery in the last century, they listed all the Colonists, who were ever registered in Vienna, in Alphabetical order, so the Files of the individual names of the Colonists can be easily found. It is useful to make an appointment before the intended visit of the archive of the court-chancery, to avoid long appointment times.
KULA IN THE BATSCHKA
Kula is a “Turkish” expression and means “tower, during the Ottoman Empire (1526-1699) there was no such settlement/town known with this name, also, no knowledge of a Tower or Fort was in this district.
I was born in Kula, in the Batschka region, It is not my indention to write a long story about this place, their history is similar of all German establishments in the region, but a few facts of the history of Kula and of the Batschka I would like to write down here. Two reasons guided me:
1.) Kula takes a very prominent place in my Family-Tree, and second, the family of my mother comes from that place and I myself lived the first seven years of my life there.
2.) The Batschka plays a small role in the European history but is part of the history of Austria and Hungary and well connected to the Habsburg Empire and has historical importance in the colonisation of Hungary after the peace treaty of Passarowitz in 1817. Further, the history of Austria, Hungary and of the Habsburg Empire, and the history of the Batschka is part and destiny of my ancestors and so also part of my own destiny and history.
When I first started my Family Tree, a lot of relatives where still living in Kula and therefore this place has become very dear to my heart.
Those 11,079 sq. km in the Batschka region make up a big Flat Country, between the two rivers Danube and Theiß , (in Hung. “Tisa”) stretched from Baja and Subotica to Novi-Sad and the Syrmian Mountains, the Batschka was one of the richest (Comitate) counties of Hungary, the legally united counties of Bacs-Bodrog (until 1920).
Bacs-Bodrog was the official name of that Region, more common known as Bacser Comitat, or Batschka (Hung.:Bacska).
In 1802, a unified Bacs-Bodrog was first established, the new county using the old crest of the town Basc. Its significant elements were the Apostle Paul, the double-edged sword in his right hand and a book in his left. The seat however moved to Zombor,( Sombor) which is the second largest city of the region.
After the Revolution of 1848/49 the “Batschka” came back to Serbia and then after the establishment of the Austrian-Hungarian dual Empire in 1867 it went back to Hungary again. In the Treaty of Trianon in 1920( as mentioned before),after the WWI, the Batschka was torn in two parts, about 5/6 was given to the newly Founded Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenians and 1/6 was given to Hungary.
After the capitulation of Yugoslavia in 1941 Batschka again belonged to Hungary.
Batschka, after WWII, was incorporated in the communist state of Yugoslav.
Genocides, Flight, Expulsion and Expatriation led to a nearly complete disappearance of the Donauschwaben of the present Batschka.
The Town of Kula situated in the middle part of Batschka, in the autonomic Region of Wojwodina, in the Republic of Serbia, is now in the “Union of Serbia and Montenegro” as it is presently called.
THE END OF YUGOSLAVIA?
Albert Rohan, the Secretary-General of Foreign Affairs of Austria comments in the “Die Presse”: (newspaper in Austria) on February 18th 2003:
After many Problems there now appeared a new State in East Europe, called the “Union of Serbia and Montenegro” the most sceptical people called it “Solania”. Without pressure from the High Representative of the Common Foreign and Security Policy “Javier Solana” this State would have never been created. The Union of Serbia and Montenegro, with their very small political common competences has very little Chance for a long life….
THE EXPULSION OF THE TURKS OF MIDDLE EUROPE.
This part of my report I did not translate, a history already well described!
CONDITIONES FOR THE COLONISTS
*The main destinations for the Colonists have been the under imperial Administration regions in the Banat and Batschka. The Colonists had to proof their personal freedom and the possession of (at least) 200-Gilders (Gulden) and the majority of the Colonists brought even much more money with them, it was not a question of a need for life existence, but for a subsistence, (please see note 1) which made these people leave their home and immigrate to a relatively far away country.
Usually, the Austrian chancery court promised them free fare, with five years (Maria Theresia), and ten years (Joseph II) exemption of taxes, with a house and ground for free, but these were conditions which were normally given to all Colonists in the second half of the 18 century.
proceedings.
2. The History of Kula:
In 1745 the Batschka region was divided in 4 administrational regions:
1. Northern Batschka -Santovo,
2. Western Batschka-Sombor
3. Southern Batschka-Palanka
4. Middle Batschka-Kula
100 German-speaking people were living in Kula then, they came from Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Bohemia.
In 1785/1786, 60 German Families (mostly peasants) from Baden-Württemberg and from Elsaß-Lothringen arrived in Kula.
The imperial authority gave them each a plot to build a house upon, about 59 Jock, (that is about 24 ha). The plot consisted of 14 ha ground for farming, 9 ha as grass-plot, and 1 ha for the house to be built on. The Emperor in Vienna, as the landowner, did not like to have large landowners but the plots of the Colonists, should not be too small (supposition: probably because he had already large landowners–the aristocratic families and monasteries, he wanted to give the settlers a fair chance for living).
The Settlement of the German Colonists was done on unused lay land, on imperial property and not on property of other Nations. They did not come with “Empty Hands”, they brought Cash and the “Farmers Seed” in those days, and the newest agricultural machines and tools with them.
At the time of Napoleon and his wars, the local economy was suffering. The revolution of 1848 showed that the German settlers were clearly on the side of the Emperor. In the conflicts between the Hungarians and Serbians the Germans (Donauschwaben) did not interfere.
The Donauschwaben and the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy
In the year 1867, after the equalization of the Habsburg Crown and the Hungarian Aristocracy and until the outbreak of WWI, there became two historically important settlement movements.
1.) On one side many Germans changed their commitment to their national traditions and changed their Family-Names as follows:
From Haas to “Halasz”, from Roth to “Rohot” and from Schmid to “Kovacs.”
At the same time there were settlements of Lutheran and Calvinist German Families from the neighbourhood villages. In the course of ( Budapester) the industrial promotion, small and middle undertakings were set up with the help Government credits. Only few of the old-established “ Kulaer” used this advantage, like Blantz’ sche Knopffabrik (=Button- factory of Blantz, is still existing as Textile - factory). The new entrepreneurs( f.i. Heinrich Stolz) brought a new boom and new jobs. The economical increase abetted the settlement of Lutheran and Calvinists Solicitors and Medical Doctors. The not -catholic New immigrants showed always their good will for cooperation. The windows of the Lutheran and Calvinists were f.i. at the feast of Corpus Christi decorated in the same way like those of the Catholics. The Jewish fellow citizen, were given by the Emperor Joseph II the full Civil Rights, confessed in the beginning to the German language and later to the Hungarian.
As the Emperor in Vienna was very, very far way, the Government in Budapest was in control of the proceedings.
German primary school was abolished, daily arrangements had to be controlled by Hungarian Officials and the German Newspaper had to be printed in Hungarian. Only persons with Hungarian Names were accepted for state employment. The Hungarian government tried to make Hungarians (“Magyarisierung”) of these German people under compulsion, but also from one’s own accord.
Most Germans were called up into the Hungarian army (Honved), some, with reference to their Austrian citizenship, were allowed to serve in the Austrian Army. My father was also called up to the Austrian Army and was during WWI deployed in Italy.
Batschka and the Banat were the favoured Regions for the state colonization. At that time the German inhabitants in the Southern-Hungarian Regions reached the same number as the Serbs and the Rumanians.
Basic approaches of German colonisation come into being in Croatia-Slavonic and Croatia-Syrmia, in the larger settlements in the cities, less in the country-side.
For the advantage of a the larger land area, the free possession and the gained freedom, the colonists had to put up with disadvantages like the partly desolate country, the abnormal climate, strange lifestyles, and also with diseases and epidemic plagues. And not to forget the nearly 100 years of warfare on a small scale, against the Turks, which was often in the Banat, and destroyed the success of all their hard work again. Of course not all of the immigrants could cope with these difficulties. So many Farmers and Craftsmen decided to resettle again. They went back to their home-countries.
To settle down in an alien environment, and to adjust to a new economy and the unusual continental climate, was, in the beginning, a burden.
A lucrative economy succeeded normally only within a period of 10-15 years.
The Donauschwaben after the break- up of the Habsburg Monarchy
In the Hungarian-part of the Austro-Hungarian dual Monarchy the German areas were split in five states and it should be remembered that those area’s of land that were taken from Hungary and given to the other countries (in the 1920 Trianon Treaty) was done so by the direction of the “allied armies” and their governments that directed them:
AUSTRIA: (in a national referendum in November 1921) a small area of the western part of Hungary was given to Austria
HUNGARY: Germans remained in Batschka (northern part of the Batschka.) in the Hungarian low mountain ranges (near Budapest).
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Bratislava (Preßburger Germans), Hauerland, Zips (East –Slovakia).
RUMANIA: Siebenbürgen, Banat (East Part).
YUGOSLAVIA: Baranya (south Part) Batschka and Banat (Western Part)
(Continued) THE HISTORY OF KULA AT 1930
In 1931, 10,336 inhabitants were recorded in Kula, there from were 2,608(=25,2%) German speaking (according to Dr. Legler: 5 Minuten Heimatkunde. “Neuland” of 04.12.1965/) At the same time in the district Kula 51 % of the inhabitants were German speaking and of German origin, (according to Biber Dusan “ Nacizem I Nemci u Jugoslaviji 1933-1941” Cankarijeva zalozba u Ljubljani 1966,480pages, p. 309).
The first Judge was the Serbian Ledjenac Djuro, the second Judge was the German Lorenz Heim.
One of the community clerks (the so-called ”Kleinrichter”) had the duty to publish the official news in the streets. He had for that purpose a drum which he had to beat before he was reading out the news of the city council, on the streets and places in Kula. The Kleinrichter Andreas Bohnert, was my grandfather, he was a well known personality in Kula. And in the book” Kula und seine Deutschen” he and many of his funny stories are described.
THE SOUTHERN HUNGERIAN GERMAN
The southern Hungarian German is the name given by the Hungarians for the Donauschwaben.
Eugen Szenklaray hit the truth in his description of the Donauschwaben when he says:
“The southern Hungarian German is in general very practical, home-like, and economically thinking man, industrious but close to stinginess in his savings. His Idol was to have a lot of money and land/property, as much as possible. The Character of the Southern Hungarian German is Ernest and composed. It is not easy to bring him to a burst of passion. In managing his own affairs he was very economical and successful.
He liked it if a stranger or his friends saw and honoured his wealth and competency. His word is very reliable and his honesty and strait-forwardness are known, he obeys the laws and he is a friend of order. To the inhabitants of Nations surrounding him he adjusts only little in his Character and habits, he kept the customs and habitual manner of his originality.
But for the education of his Children the Southern Hungarian German is prepared to spend a lot of money.
The payment of the teachers in the Batschka region was equal or better than anywhere. The Hungarian language and patriotic consciousness in the German schools have been well attended to.
They have not been satisfied that their children only go to the village schools, they wanted their children to be educated in higher schools. And they sent them to the German Gymnasiums in Temesvar, Szegedin, Subotica, Baja, or in a Grammar-school with the aim to become a Teacher, Priest, Advocates, Medical Doctor, or at least to be educated also in the Hungarian language.
Two (2) Capitals of my report are not translated, they refer to the German settlement of the Batschka following the Ottoman expulsion, a history already well described.
In the Batschka, the migration may be considered in the following stages:
1.) Entrepreneurs and Craftsman who arrived with the Troops of the Austrian-Habsburg) 1702-1723
2.) The Caroline Colonisation, 1723-1740 (under the father of Maria Theresia)
3.) The Maria Theresian Colonisation, 1740-1780
a. The early Theresian Colonisation, 1748-1762
b. The Second Theresian Settlement Period, 1763-1772
4.) The Josephine Colonisation, 1780-1790 ( Joseph II)
5.) The post-Josephine Colonisation, 1790-1900
FAMILY-HISTORY OF Wangler
My Father, Josef Wangler, born on the 20th of April 1900, son of Josef and Katharine Wangler in Palanka, his profession was the same like his father: Wood turner that was the tradition in the Wangler dynasty, the eldest son had to be educated in the father’s profession, and that was always as a Wood-turner. The last one in the line of this tradition was my brother Sepp, the eldest son of the family.
After he married my mother Elisabeth Bohnert, (born in Kula on November 11th 1905) he decided to leave the workshop of his father and establish his own workshop. He bought a house in Illok on the opposite site of Palanka and opened there a Wood turner-workshop.
Illok is situated on the slopes of the Danube and is well known for its mild and sweet wine.
But after a short time it was clear that this place in Syrmia (= SREM, county in Hungary ) was not the best place for a business like a Wood-turner. For a very simple reason, in the winter time when the Danube was covered with ice or completely frozen, it was not possible for the ship to cross the river. There was no bridge yet from Illok to Palanka and he was kept away from the markets in the Batschka. And the products which left the workshop were mainly special goods made for the markets and to be kept away from the very important weekly or monthly held market days in the Batschka was a great disadvantage for his business. For that reason my parents looked for a new settlement in another region and it was in Kula, the birth town of my mother, that they again established a workshop.
The parents of my father did not like that their son moved away from Illok. The parents of my mother of course were pleased to have their daughter near to them. The house which they bought was on the same street where my grand parents lived, only few yards down the road. The argument of my father, that in Kula, he would make a better business than he did in Illok, did not quite convince his parents.
My grandfather, Josef Wangler, was actually the first Wangler who left (the homely bird-nest) of his family in Paraput to find his luck somewhere else. He went to Palanka.
For a Newcomer to Palanka it was certainly not easy to establish a new workshop and also have success in his business. One must be bold, be lucky and efficient in his profession.
It was also a great help, that my grandpa found a girl, his wife she was the right woman in the right place. My grandmother, when she saw that the business in Palanka was not running so well, made a quick decision. She decided to go from village to village and offer the wood turning goods directly to the people for sale. Her great help in her own business venture was their big dog, he carried part of the articles of merchandise on his back for her, and proved to be an excellent Protector for her.
She must have been very successful as a retail sales woman, because after some time she stopped her business venture, because she sold more then her husband could produce. She joined her husband at home again in Palanka and helped him in the workshop and now had more time for her housework. Their diligence and good handicraft soon showed financial rewards, and they now purchased a larger house in the Town Centre of Palanka as the business was growing more prosperous.
My mother told me often of her experience’s when she had to travel over night to be on time for the market in an other town or village all on her own, because my father was in the army in Germany. She said that when she was travelling alone in the darkness, she suspected that behind each tree was a shadow from somebody who wanted to harm her. Once, on the way back from a long market day, she fell asleep on the coachman’s seat, suddenly she awoke and was wondering why the street had so many holes, she looked closer to the street and saw that the wagon did not travel on the road but on the railroad track! The Horse “Fanny, must have somewhere mistaken the railroad track for the road. The excitement of my mother was great and she had a lot of work to do in order to return back to the road again, but she managed it without harm to herself or Fanny, our horse.
We children(6 brothers and sisters) had a lot of fun in our childhood.
Sometimes my parents went out in the evening and we children were alone at home and my two older sisters would look after us younger ones. And the older sisters liked to please us and themselves, then, and as soon there was an opportunity, like when the parents were not around, they made some nut sweets (Nusstangerl). Once it happened that our parents came home earlier than expected. The sweets were not ready yet, and Anna, my oldest sister heard them coming and she quickly put the frying pan with the unfinished sweets on the top of the chest, to hide it from our parents. When my mother looked into the children’s bedroom to check up on us, Maria my youngest sister said, in childish-fidelity: Mami, Anna has made no sweets and there is nothing on top of the chest.
Later as grown ups, our childish mischief gave us something to laugh about.
My father came home on leave from Germany in 1942, I was 5 years old, and I asked my mother, who is this strange man?
OUR "FLIGHT "
60 Years have now passed since we had to flee from our home in Yugoslavia, but I still remember a lot of details that happened during this terrible time.
It was the 8th of October 1944, and I was awakened early in the morning when I heard a peculiar noise from outside the house, I heard voices loud, crying, and moaning. I quickly put on my clothes and ran outside into the yard, curious to learn what had happened. My mother was speaking with our neighbours, some were crying and all seemed excited and worried, but I still did not know what really had happened, so I ran to my older sister and asked her. She informed me, that we have to “go away” from Kula on a long journey. I was surprised and asked myself why they are worried so, and sad, as a journey is something interesting and fun. I was then seven years old.
My sister Maria, she was 4 years older than me, had a very bright and practical mind.
She asked me to help her to prepare food for the journey. She said to me, we must slaughter some chickens and fry them, as it will be a long journey. I collected some wood and tried to light the boiler-stay, which was standing in the yard for this and similar purposes. Maria was successful in catching a chicken but was not able to slaughter it, luckily at this time my mother noticed what Maria and Hans was doing and she finished the job, with our help. Also, a young pig was slaughtered fried and laid in lard, for the journey.
The command which was published in the morning, said that we should leave that afternoon, but it took one or two more days due to contradictory statements about the war, before we actually left.
Many Farmers had already left Kula days before and had travelled in horse-carriage or motor trucks. Also, my favourite aunt had already left in a motor-truck drawn carriage.
A German army officer, who spent his holiday in Kula, took over the Organization of our flight. We were to leave Kula by Ship. The Great Channel crossing to Kula, formerly known as Franzenskanal, connects the Danube with the river Theiß.
All the German inhabitants of Kula were called up to use this opportunity to flee.
But many of the Germans in Kula were determined to stay home.
Also the two brothers of my mother were against the idea to run away and tried to influence my mother and begged her to stay at home. My father, only shortly released from the German army because of illness, insisted that we run away and to escape from the enemy. He certainly had a good feeling about the things coming, and the hardships the Germans would have to face.
He actually said:
“I do not want to be slain by the Partisans and my children to be beaten to death.”
In great speed “everything” for the flight had to be prepared, much was packed in and again laid back.
What to take with you was limited, only the absolute necessities were allowed to be taken. Then everything was put on the horse-carriage. My father needed a place to lie. He was already very ill and could only be transported lying down. In the Yard and in front of our House our neighbours gathered (nearly all the neighbours) and ones from the surrounding streets. We lived in the “Serbian section, the majority of the inhabitants were Serbians and my parents had a very good relationship with these people. Many of them were crying and tried to hold us up from going away, they tried to persuade my parents with promises like “if it is necessary, they would guarantee that we would all be safe”, and nobody will harm us if we stay at home.
The son of our nearest neighbour, Novak Pejcic was in the Partisan-army, Hungarian soldiers were searching him one day in Kula. Partisans were counted as rebels and their life was at stake, if they were caught, by members of the Hungarian Army.
He asked my mother to hide him in our House because we, as Germans, would not have been searched. My mother hid him in our workshop and saved so his life. But only months later he was caught in a farm-house somewhere else in the Batschka, he had been trailed, caught, sentenced to death and executed. Today our street bears his name Novak Pejic Ulica because he is now a Serbian hero. I am sure these people (Serbians) meant it good for us, but history showed that they would not have been able to help us. We would have had the same fate as other thousands of Donauschwaben. They had to go to hunger-camps and presumably we would have not overcome.
The parents of my mother, Andreas and Anna Bohnert also the mother of my father Katharine Wangler, whom did not flee, had been dragged to such camps (Jarek) and died in great misery only three weeks after arrival. Many children and old people died in Jarek and other similar camps in Yugoslavia.
Ingomar Senz writes in his Book : “Die Donauschwaben”:
“The children of the Donauschwaben had to suffer a very sad fate, a great amount of them died of starvation, illness and negligence. Many of them were orphans because of the war and because their parents had been deported to Russia. Others have been made parentless because in the hunger-camps the children were parted from their parents and relatives. The Situation improved in the spring of 1946, the German children were given to the “Children-homes” of the state for their care, but spread them all over the entire country. They now received sufficient food and good medical care, but were brought up and educated in the Serbian language and manners and slowly lost their German identity. It was only in 1949, when, due to many efforts of the Red Cross was it made possible that many of these most helpless children (this was the outcome of the “Partisan-revenge”) were able to join their parents or relatives in Germany. The Number of children, who stayed as orphans back and were made Slavonic’s in Yugoslavia, must count into thousands.
We could only move on with our horse-carriage and bid farewell, after many tears and affirmations of our friends and neighbours as they did not agree with our going away from Kula.
My grandparents, as already mentioned before, lived on the same street. They were already waiting in front of their house when we arrived. They had decided not to leave Kula, the brothers of my mother influenced them and so they wanted to stay. Both were crying terrible they certainly felt it was a final farewell. My grandmother, a kind hearted woman, Anna Bohnert, accompanied us crying to the ship. When we passed the house of our uncle in the main street, (he was a master shoemaker) he leaned out the window and begged us again to stay in Kula. . He was known in Kula as an Anti Nazi and was not a member of the German Cultural Club (Kulturbund) and as his wife was Hungarian, he therefore thought the forthcoming events will not harm him or his family.
He said to us: “Now you are really leaving, in spite of my advice, you just need to hang a white flag out of the window on the arrival of the enemy,and nothing will happen to you, believe me. And anyhow, the chaos will be over in one or two weeks.”
He would later be proven to be very wrong as he and his younger brother Andreas Bohnert who also refused to flee, were both deported to Russia and had to serve 4 years imprisonment. And after they were released back home they were deprived of all their citizenship rights.
Andreas Bohnert was not even allowed to stay in Yugoslavia and was forced over the border into Hungary. Because his wife was Hungarian, she meanwhile had found another man and denunciated Andreas at the police station stating that Andreas made a false statement of his citizenship in Russia in order to be released earlier. That was true, as they had made a false statement, because Hungarian citizens were the first to be released. The Police in Kula deported him to Hungary.
Needless to say, all the Germans who decided to stay at home, and trusting for fair treatment from the Partisan-regime, were to regret their decision bitterly.
On Ground of the AVNOJ* resolution of November 1944 all the (Volksdeutsche) Germans in Yugoslavia were collective deprived of their civil rights. That means without a court-hearing of any kind, they lost their homes, workshops, factories, and any property along with all the monies that they had in the bank. As they had no civil rights they could not call for judicial help or ask for court help, they had for all practical purposes become outcasts, this in their own country!
On this AVNOJ* resolution of November 1944, there is still today, no change yet and this law is still in force.
The Number of Germans, who were suffering under the Tito-Regime from November 1944 was about 195, 000. From this number of people, 6,760 Germans died before they were deported to camps, 48,447 people died in the death camps during the period from 1944 till March 1948, they died from illness, starvation, and the inhuman conditions in the camps
More facts:
12, 380 Persons were in the end of 1944 deported to the Soviet-Union for forced-Labour, about 1,994 did not return from there. (Nenad Stefanovic: Ein Volk an der Donau, Seite 58.)
In the meantime we had reached the bridge over the Franzenkanal, the location where the ship waited for the refugees.
The Franzenkanal was build by the brothers “Kiss” in 1802, and the bridge was named after the German-Emperor Franz II, he gave the order to build this Channel, later he received also the title Franz I Emperor of Austria.
I still remember the mass of people who gathered near the boat and tried to get a good place for themselves and their belongings, on the ship. My mother sent my sister back to our house because she wanted to take a few other things which she did not think of in beginning. My sister soon came back and reported to us crying that all the neighbours were in the house, and that the house was nearly empty and she could not find the items my mother wanted.
MOHACS
When all the preparations of loading the ship were completed, there was a lot of crying, biding farewell to the remaining relatives and Families as the boat was moving forward in the direction of the Danube. Our boat had no engine and had to be pulled by another boat with an engine.
I saw my grandmother running on the shore in the same direction as our boat and crying in despair. I liked my grandmother very much, and when I saw her crying like that, I felt terribly sad and could not stop crying myself. My mother had to take me below deck in the hope of getting me calm again. But still today when I think back on this picture of my grandmother, even 60 years later, I get sad and tears come to my eyes.
The two brothers of my mother did not come to say good bye to their sister
As soon as our boat arrived in Mohacs, we noticed in the Danube River many Ship/smoke-stacks sticking up out of the surface, the people suspected something dangerous. Later we heard that our journey on the Danube terminated in Mohacs because of the mines floating in the Danube and that some boats had exploded when hit by a mine and were sinking.
We had to leave the boat. Each family had to carry their belongings from the boat to the Railway Station it now began to rain heavily.
The train station of Mohacs had only a small platform and there were many refugees already there waiting for a transport, we were obliged to make ourselves “comfortable” on a small strip of ground near the station embankment, and since there was no roof to shelter us, we were actually in the rain.
My father and many others that were ill and very old people were collected and brought to the local hospital in Mohacs.
We children were already very hungry and thankful for the piece of chicken my mother gave us and a piece of bread with lovely lard on it. Next day my mother even made a yeast-dough and took it to the local Baker, where she made small pastries.
On her way back to us she was confronted by a group of Jews, driven by German Soldiers. The smell of the fresh baked goods my mother carried, attracted of course the starving Jews and they begged my mother with their eyes for food, my mother began to give freely her freshly baked pastries to the Jews, when the German Soldiers noticed it, they came with pointed guns against my mother and ordered her to stop. My mother felt sorry for these people and asked the Soldiers how she could help, because she saw that some of the Jews picked up lost kernels of corn in the muddy street and put them in their mouth to eat. My mother was able to convince the soldiers to allow her collect some old bread from the people at the train station and give it to the Soldiers for the Jews.
The people at the train station had no idea of the fate these poor people were going to. We children had to be satisfied with half of the lovely pastries.
That night my mother woke us up, I felt very tired and sleepy but my mother was despaired, we had to leave Mohacs at once, as our transport guide was fortunate and had found a train, or organized other people to find one, I do not know. The train, apparently former coal wagons were still partly loaded with coal. My mother refused to leave the place because she did not want to leave my father behind in
Mohacs they forced her and our belongings into a not so very clean train. My mother had no choice, she had go on the train, but they promised her that our father would follow us the next day in a special hospital train, where the patients could be in a lying position while being transported.
MY FATHER GETS LOST
It was true, on the following day, a special hospital–train loaded with the sick from Kula left the hospital in Mohacs.
We heard later from a woman, (she was also sick and from Kula) and was being transported on the same train, she told us she saw our father during a stop of the train in a city in Germany. My father was going, helped by two nurses, to the toilette. She inquired how he was doing, he replied that he was very much suffering with pain, because there was no suitable medicals in stock, and he would prefer to be dead, he must have known that he was incurably ill.
In each town one wagon was uncoupled and the sick were taken to the local hospital. Unfortunately the woman did not notice in which town the wagon my father was in, had been uncoupled, so, she could only guess in which town the wagon of my father was unloaded. My mother was trying her utmost to find him, through the Red Cross and other medias, but in vain, we never again heard from my father. It was presumed that he died in the hospital somewhere in Upper-Silesia. He had a Saving’s Book of a Bank in Berlin with him and all our personal documents and also some Hungarian money (Pengö) (that might have been a good reason to bury him anonymous, so as to avoid his family from getting the money). We had all these valuable items in a big leather-bag. At home, the bag was used for going to the market and keeping the change and the larger notes in it. My father said that our money and documents would be safer with him, (that was just before he was taken in to the hospital in Mohacs), he said: “in this chaos here in the train station, it will be safer if I have the documents and money with me”
My mother had a very hard time without money and any documents in a foreign country to manage with the every day needs and to feed us children.
My eldest brother Sepp was in the army some where, we did not know of his whereabouts. But my mother was very brave, she looked for a place to work and found it with a rich woman, who was looking for a cook. My two elder sisters Anna and Katharina, were employed as auxiliary nurses at a nearby military hospital.
I have in my possession many letters and postcards from my father. He wrote them to his wife and his son Sepp, they joined together in the military-service in Germany, but they were stationed in different towns of Germany.
I presume that my father was already ill at this time because many of the letters and cards were written in a Spa Bad-Ems ( then a recovery Resort/soldiers recovery hospital)
I love to read this correspondence, unfortunately they are written in pencil and the letters are fading away and it takes a lot of effort to read them. I learned a lot about my father from reading his letters sent to his wife and son. He loved his wife and was worried how she and the children were doing and how the workshop was also doing at home. He gave his son a lot of instructions on how he should behave and what to eat and general guidance for his life.
In 1949, my father was officially declared dead, from a magisterial court in Vienna.
IN CRIMMITSCHAU
That was the city in East-Germany (Saxon) where we finally arrived and stayed till the war was over.
Actually Vienna was named to us as the destination of our trip at the beginning from our guide, the German officer, but when we arrived in Vienna, it must have been in the first half of October 1944 many people were already unloading their belongings, when the order came that we must travel on. Vienna was at this time under heavy bombing from the American or British Air force and it was not possible to stay. The transport leader decided to take us to Crimmitschau, his home town in Germany.
Our journey was not without problems, many times the train stopped because of bombing or of lack of coal. We crossed the Czechoslovakian Republic, (this country was occupied by Hitler’s German military), we went on and crossed Prague and arrived at last in Crimmitschau.
We were put up in a school, straw was brought and put on the floor of the classrooms and my mother made a warm bed for us in the straw, the first for a very long time. The people of Saxony were friendly towards us, we found only their dialect strange, but I suppose they found our dialect also very strange.
I can remember, there was soon developing a good relationship between us and the local people.
For me it was time to start the primary school, but we did not study any lessons because nearly every day there were bomb alarms and we had to go to the cellar and sit in the air raid shelter instead in the classroom.
Luckily enough not one Bomb was dropped on Crimmitschau though the nearby cities like Dresden or Chemnitz were nearly completely destroyed. We heard later the reason for it, when the Russian army marched into town, they removed the machines from all the textile factories (there were quite a lot in this town), and transported the machines to Russia therefore there was no need to bomb Crimmitschau.
We spent more time in the cellar than anywhere else during that time. Also, when I was not at school, I was in our camp, the air-raid shelter their, was only a tunnel dug into the side of the opposite hill of our building, and I had the impression when the bombs were falling, in the neighbour villages the whole tunnel trembled and the lights were flickering and sometimes the light went out completely and we were left sitting in the dark. It was very frightening for me but I tried not to show it.
After the war was over, the American Soldiers came to Crimmitschau.
Our school was surrounded by an iron fence and had a big entrance. When it was pronounced that the Americans were coming, the entrance was closed and quickly locked. No one knew what would now happen. But curious as I was, I was standing at the fence and watched the military vehicles that were passing by on the road. A few days later, we children were playing in the school yard, suddenly there was some excitement, at the entrance, some American Soldiers were standing there and calling to us something we could not understand, but, we run to the gate because we saw the Soldiers wanted to give us something. They were very friendly to us, gave us sweets and chocolates, I enjoyed the chocolate. I never tasted such delicious chocolate.
But then something sensational happened, I noticed a Black Soldier. I was so astonished that I was running to my mother on the second floor and called her to come quick, there is a man in the yard who has never yet washed himself and is completely black in his face. He was the first Black Man that I had ever seen.
The Americans eventually informed the people that they would draw back from Saxony and go to Bavaria and that the Russians would occupy the town. The military hospital with the sick and wounded German Soldiers would be moved into the West. This news my sisters brought to us and also, that they (the American Soldiers) had invited them to join the transportation to Bavaria with the whole family, as there was still room in the trucks. But my mother did not want to leave her friends from Kula and so we stayed in Crimmitschau. We had no news as to what was going on in Yugoslavia and the people wanted to go back home, as did my mother.
RETURNING HOME TO KULA
After the American military moved to Bavaria the Russians came to Crimmitschau.
We did not like to stay longer, we were very afraid of the “enemy” A preacher of the reformed Church (unfortunately I cannot remember his name) organized for all of us transportation by train, under the slogan “returning home again,” there was no information available to us of what had happened meanwhile in Yugoslavia.
The Pastor who organized our train took over the leadership of the transportation. There was also a group of Yugoslav labourer’s who were forced by the Nazi to do forced labour in Germany, they heard somehow of our transport to Yugoslavia and they asked whether they might join us. So it happened that one of the carriages was filled with real native Yugoslavs and the rest of the train with Donauschwaben who pretended to be Yugoslavs. (Otherwise we would have never received the permission from the Russians for such a transport).
What I can remember is that we had been with many other Families from Kula in one wagon without compartments, perhaps used to transport animals. Once again we were on a journey looking back I must say it was not a luxury train. We were put up with 3 or 4 other families in one wagon but the thought was that (for the people) we are going home and nothing else mattered. In Cottbus, a town near the border of Poland, our train was standing in the train station for a long time, on the other rails were many trains waiting and nobody knew why and what was going on. All the other trains were filled with German Soldiers, round the trains heavily guarded by Russian Soldiers. Soon we heard that this trains were all heading for Siberia.
I watched an incident, that at first I did not know what it meant.
The Soldiers were holding their valuable items like small pocket knives, rings, and wristwatches through the holes and slots in the wooden-walls of their train-wagons, in the desperate attempt not to be taken away by the Russians. But it was in vain the Russian Soldier’s just went around the train from outside and collected the items like you would pick the ripe apples from a tree. From the German Soldiers we also heard that at the same time, they were ripped off their valuable belongings also inside the wagon as well. For us it was a dangerous situation if the Russians found out that we are Germans, we could have possibly been taken also to Siberia. But fortunately our transport-leader began to organize (he collected money, gold-rings and other valuable items in order to purchase coal), the hunt for coal, as this was the reason why our train did not travel on, the locomotive had run out of coal. My mother gave up her wedding-ring up for that purpose, so soon after this coal was purchased and loaded, our train moved on in the direction of Czechoslovakia.
Travel for us to Yugoslavia was possible because in our official transport papers we were listed as Yugoslavia citizens, therefore, our transport was able to pass all Russian control- inspections and also the border of Czechoslovakia.
IN PRAGUE
Our transport arrived at the Capital of Czechoslovakia during a dramatic period, many Germans (Sudetendeutsche) were killed in the streets of that city or driven out of their country, Programs against the Germans were at their peak.
Our Pastor warned us to leave the train and the Train Station at once.
But then it happened, we were already sitting for 3 days in the Station with the train unable to leave the dangerous place because we had run out of coal again. Suddenly a group of people arrived at our train location, it was the Yugoslav Representative in Prague with a group of Police. He held a list in his hands and started to read aloud (if not shouting) our First names: Anna. Käthe, Elisabeth, Jakob, Johann…you want to be Yugoslav’s! Then he started to curse us, using bad words (which I don’t want to repeat).
He said also: “There will be no more white bread growing in my country for you, you will never see Yugoslavia again” (he was wrong, I went very often, sometimes with my mother, as visitor’s to Kula, to visit my relatives, as mentioned before).
The Czech-Soldiers commanded the women to stand on one side and for the men to stand on the other side and for the children to stand apart from their parents, everyone in our group was crying in fear and despair.
So why did that happen?
The Yugoslav’s from our transport “reported us” to their ambassador and he wanted us to stop going further and to give us into the hands of the Czech’s authority.
Our Pastor was able to contact the office of the Russians at the Train-Station and begged for help. He came back with a few Russian Officers to the scene and stopped the Czechs in their evil plan, and the truth is that the Russians saved us in this dangerous situation, and perhaps our life. They stopped the Czechs from doing us any harm. The very astonished “Czech civilians” who were already stealing our belongings from the train, had to put everything back into our train. Then the Russian soldiers helped us even more, they made it possible that our train could continue on its journey out of Prague towards the Austrian border, whether the Russians accompanied us to the border, I cannot remember.
But now it became obvious to our people that returning home was out of the question, and also the question of what to do now, no one could answer.
IN VIENNA
After a long travel from Crimmitschau we arrived in Vienna, the train stopped in Stadlau on an unused railway-track, Stadlau, formerly a small village is to-day part of the 22 nd district of Vienna. Some of our people, mostly the men of the families, went to Vienna to look for work and food. The fact that this terrible war was over, helped many to find work, the city had been heavily bombed and helping hands were welcome. But for my mother, (she had no man in the family) the situation now became very difficult.
The food which my mother brought from Germany was running out and we stayed without provisions and food, and, we could not buy anything because we had no money and no food stamps. And without food-stamps it was hard to get any food. So we often went hungry.
One day we discovered a Russian camp near our train and watched the soldiers eating their Lunch. Every Soldier received from a large steaming pot, a scoop-full of soup, and a slice of very dark bread. For us hungry children it seemed paradise. Soon, the Soldiers discovered us curious children watching them, but to our surprise the Russian soldiers acted in a friendly way to us and an officer invited us to come nearer. After they realized that we are hungry they gave food to us from their lunch and invited us to come every day and bring a bowl with us. We received a daily portion from their food. Sometimes they even gave us milk. The Russian soldiers helped us children a lot.
But, for my mother, I believe it was a very sorrowful time, but again she organized work for my two older sisters in Vienna.
My sister Anna worked for a Lady in Vienna, the Lady’s husband was a Police Officer and he made it possible for us to leave the train after a few weeks, and move to Vienna.
We were brought into a school, now used as refugee camp, in the 3rd district, the building was bombed and had only a portion of the roof left, many other Refugees were already there. But we were happy that we were in Vienna now and in a refugee camp and hoping somehow to get a chance to go on. In the Camp we received every day, soup and a slice of white bread. The situation around the school was chaotic as nearly all the buildings were destroyed or partly damaged by bombs. We children played in the ruins around us.
Every day new refugee’s were arriving, most of them from Czechoslovakia, Germans driven out from Iglau and Znaim (Jihlava ,Znojmo,) came on foot, many of them completely exhausted ……… died within a few days. The camp was soon overcrowded with Refugee’s. With a horse-driven wagon they brought our Lunch. Every day the same-pea soup and a slice of bread, but the peas were old and dead beetles were swimming on the top of the soup. My mother said: “They are Pepper corns and not beetles”, but still we would not eat the soup. Only the slice of bread did we eat.
The same wagon that was used to bring our food, was also used to transport the people, who had died during the night before, to the grave yard, the dead bodies were wrapped only in blue paper.
My sister Maria had as always a good idea, she went in front of a bakery and when the people came out with their lovely smelling bread and rolls she asked the Ladies for a roll. She was a good looking girl and that made her very successful in begging, and we were lucky and had fresh rolls nearly every day or even a loaf of fresh bread.
About 3 months after the camp had been taken over, the British Soldier’s and we were removed from Vienna to the English administrated zone of Styria, in the refugee camp Eisenerz.
(I shall continue this story in my second part of the introduction to our Family-Tree.)
The Donauschwaben after the WW II
From Yugoslavia escaped compatriots we heard of the sad fate of those who stayed at home. They told us of the shooting and killings to torture. But, some escaped from the death-camps where thousands of Donauschwaben starved to death. My mother was very worried when she heard this because of her parents at home, (as mentioned above) and we had still no news from them.
Only some years later we learned their sad and tragic destiny in Jarek.
The Partisans (the only winner of the war in Yugoslavia) did not know what to do with the old people, the small children, the crippled and the sick ones. Therefore they decided to install starvation camps and one of these camps was called Jarek. Jarek, now called Backi Jarak, was a clean German village, not very big but empty, because all the Germans fled, nobody stayed back. The village was surrounded by barbered wire and very few were allowed to come in or go out of the camp ……. the inhabitants were left to starve to death or they received poisoned food. I have this knowledge from my aunt, she is the sister of my father, we called her “Nenna” she only escaped this inferno because a Serbian neighbour of hers bought her as unpaid labour. They left camp Jarek, she and her 10 year old son were now safe. But her mother died in this camp. My grandparents died only after three weeks in Jarek.
My aunt, after escaping from Yugoslavia, was now living in Graz. She told me that she and her son Andrew, he was 10 years old then, were driven in the spring of 1945, on foot, from Palanka to Jarek. Her oldest son was in a deaf-and dumb school in Austria and was spared such a fate. She told me also her dreadful experiences in the camp, every morning the people who had died during the night had to be placed in front of the houses. The corpses were collected by other camp personnel who were put in charge. They had to strip the corpses naked and put them on a trolley or on a horse driven wagon and were driven to the grave yard and put in a mass grave. None of the relatives or other people, have been allowed to be present at this “funeral”. Also, my aunt could not be there when her mother died. The clothes of the dead people had to be delivered to a special location. Unfortunately I cannot ask my aunt anymore why they were taken to a special location, she died a few Years ago. But I suppose the prisoner on duty, had to bring the clothes to the “stores” just to check for money or other valuable things and to use the good clothes for themselves?
I can image that the most dreadful situation must have been, when a relative died and the person on duty this day had to treat his mother or father like that.
It happened that a young woman was shot dead, because she went secretly at night to the grave yard to pray for her father who was killed by the Partisans, the previous day.
Where did all this hate come from towards the German and the Hungarian minorities and the typical “concept of the enemy” from people in their own home country? People who had lived for hundreds of years in peace together?
But it was the declared intention of all Serbian groups, to eliminate all minorities from the future state of Yugoslavia, the Croatian group under their leader General Mihailovic, made their decision in November 1942 in Sahovici. Montenegro, Titos communist Partisan Movement made their decision at a council of the AVNOJ-(Antifascist Council of the Socialist People’s Republic Yugoslavia)) End of November 1943 in Jajce, even the Serbian first minister, who worked with the Germans together, General Nedic, said yes to that intention.” (I. Zenz) 11
After the fall of Belgrade on the 20th of October 1944 the Russians occupied the region in the north of the rivers Sava and Danube. The German Population which did not flee or had been evacuated was now, with minor exemption, in the reach of communist Russians or Partisans military-organisations.
And soon after the Russian front moved northwards, in the individual communities, there came into being the so called “city freedom boards” and most members were local Serbians. They tolerated personal acts of revenge and lootings.
As a consequence, the regular Partisans units installed military Administration, carried on their organized tyranny until February 15th 1945. In the Vojvodina, a civil Board of Freedom was started from this date. (Befreiungskommitee)
The reign of terror was based most of all on two actions:
1.) The first was the immediate arrest of members of ethnic or Reichsdeutsche(citizen of Germany) combat-organisations all men between the age of 17-60 years.
Those arrested had to suffer many hours of interrogations and brutal mistreatment, and were penned up in cellars or Prison rooms.
Kubin, Pantschowa; Weißkirchen, Werschetz, and Kikinda in the Banat region and also to camps in Sombor and NoviSad in the Batschka region.
2.) The second action led, in connection with the first one, to bulk liquidation like: on the 22nd and the 24th of October in Startchowa and Deutsch-Zerne where an unknown number of victims died. On the 23rd. and the 25th of November again in Zerne 100, and Hodschag 183, and in Filipowa 213 were shot (of course none with a trial).
Many were killed on the way to the camps and in the camps. ( Source : I. Senz: Die Donauschwaben, p.128 and p. 129)
In 1983 I met in Vienna, a woman from Hodschag. I was employed as a clerk in our parish, and she came to me to order a mass. She told me her terrible experience she had in Yugoslavia. She was a young and healthy woman in 1945 and a Serbian farmer bought her (for free) from the camp. One morning she was washing up in the kitchen of the farm, she looked accidentally out of the window and saw that a group of Partisans drove about 80 German men in front of them. She noticed that they stopped about 50 meters from the farmhouse, there was a group of trees, the men had to dig a pit and then they had to undress and to position themselves on the edge of the pothole.
The witness heard a little later many gunshots.
To solve the problem of the Donauschwaben interns, there was allowed in the province of Vojvodina, in the summer of 1946 (as told from the camp-inhabitants) a so called “black escape” and between 1946 and late autumn of 1947 it was the period of the “white escape”. After paying a head-money to the camp management you were allowed to “flee.” In a document located in Bonn it was estimated that 30,000-40,000 Donauschwaben escaped like that from Yugoslavia to Hungary and Rumania.
In the design to bring families together, it was possible, in the fifties and sixties, to bring about 90,000 Donauschwaben from Yugoslavia to the Federal Republic of Germany. As the resettlement nearly came to a complete stop in the seventies, It was believed that in the north territories of the multiple national state of Yugoslavia, no longer a German–Donauschwaben culture existing. But at that time, a momentum was developing on its own in the south Slavic individual States there were suddenly, thousands of Germans, their nationality, especially from the Vojvodina (Batschka region), Slavonic and East Croatia. Many of them had for centuries, in order to avoid prosecution and discrimination, announced themselves as Croatians or Serbians, now they dared to declare openly their true nationality.
They gather now in two Organisations together, the Association of the Germans and Austrians in Esseg (Osjek) and Association of the Germans in Agram (Zagreb).
See: Der Donauschwabe of the 25.08.1993, page 3.
LITERATURE LIST:
Kula und seine Deutschen, FRANZ BLANTZ 1976
Hw Verlag Christof Hase, Peter Wranesch, 7302 Ostfilden 3
Die Donauschwaben. Ingomar Senz 1994
Langen Müller in der F.A. Herbig Verlagsbuchhandlung Gmbh, München
Ein Volk an der Donau Nenad Stefanovic 1999
Verlag Donauschwäbischen Kulturstiftung, München 1999
Die Österreichisch-Ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild
Wien 1891, Druck und Verlag der kaiserlich-königlichen Hof-Staatsdruckerei
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Note 1.
Dear Reader, here are some explanations /comments on Emigration:
* I changed the sentence below and hope it is now more understandable for the English reader.
The reasons for the transmigration/emigration of our ancestors:
I am sure there has been several reasons for Emigration, but not hardship in their home-countries was the only reason, as they brought 200 Gilders and many other valuable items with them and some brought much more money with them than was required, therefore, it seems that hardship cannot be the reason to leave their home-country. But there is always some reason why young people emigrate.
I was working in the South African Embassy in Vienna for a long time, in the Immigration Section as a local clerk.
I think the reasons for a decision for somebody to emigrate will not have changed much in the last 200 years, it is a blending of many factors like adventure, looking for better prospects and conditions of life and in his profession, looking for more personal freedom, self-fulfilment or religious freedom.
The fact of the heavy recruitment for colonists in Germany at this time and their Temptations with a variety of benefits offered to the Colonists, might have made the decision for our ancestors easier.
Joseph II offered in his Settlement-patent, 10 years exemption from taxation, freedom, of conscience and religion, and for every family, a house and a plot of free land. Also, the eldest son of the family was exempted from the military service and there are many other benefits that are listed in the “Ansiedlungspatent” (Settlement patent)
With the warmest regards,
John Wangler
Part two (2) to follow later.