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Apatin, a Donauschwaben Metropolis on the Danube
By
Hans
Kopp
The Danube was the trade route of the Donauschwaben commerce prior to World
War II. By 1935 the fleet in Apatin had reached a capacity of 50,000 tons,
which was 10 % of the Yugoslavian capacity at the time. By 1940, the ship
building industry in Apatin, with several ship yards, took a leading role in
Yugoslavia. The fish industry was flourishing. The fish were no small fry
along the Danube. Fish were delivered up the river as far as Budapest. The
Danube was also used to transport timber, in addition to grain exports to
ports connecting the world, Apatin.
Apatin, once the center of the
colonization of the Danube Swabians two hundred fifty years earlier, had become
the center of the Russian’s Danube crossing in October of 1944. Although
unsuccessful, thousands of soldiers lost their lives and the blood they shed
made the Danube flow red.
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