The battle at
Kahlenberg (1683) was not only the starting point
for the liberation of the Hungarians from the
Turkish yoke but also for the new settlement of
those lying on the central Danube and during the 150
year rule by the Turks this was an almost
depopulated region. At the core of this new
settlement was that in the 18th century the Viennese
government carried out a large scale southeast
European settlement work that had reached its high
point with the planned settlement of German farmers
and craftsmen under Maria Theresia and Josef II,
and which finally the Donauschwaben owe their
historical origin and formation as the youngest
German tribe.
In the
Donauschwaben settlements, the settlement began in
Ofner Bergland in 1685, in the Schild mountain range
in 1691, in Buchenwald (Bakony) in 1702, in the
Swabian Turkey in 1687, in Sathmar in 1712, in the
Batschka in 1715, in the Banat in 1716, in Syrmia
and Croatia in 1718 – with their municipal centers
in Ofen, Pest, Stuhlweißenburg, Fünfkirchen,
Subotica-Theresiopel, Temeswar, Esseg and others
came relatively quickly to a considerable economic
rise and transformation of several stretches of land
that until then had been desolate into cultivated
land.
The Hungarians
as well as the southern Slavs have always called
these settlers “Schwaben” (Swabians) even though
they not only came from the west and southwest lands
(Hessen, Pfalz, Alsace, Lorraine, Baden, and
Wurttemberg) but also from Bavaria, Austria, German
Bohemia, and even from Switzerland, although only a
part of them came from Swabia. For this reason this
name gradually came to be in use by the people
themselves. As a further consequence, after World
War I, these Swabians were, to differentiate them
from the Swabians in Baden-Wurttemberg, first by the
ethnologists and the historians and then in general
called DONAUSCHWABEN.
In the
peace treaty of St. Germain and Trianon, in
which Hungary lost almost two thirds of its
region which resulted in dividing up the
Donauschwaben settlement region. After the
census of 1941, 656,000 Donauschwaben lived in
Hungary, 558,000 in Yugoslavia, and 328,000 in
Romania.
World
War II was a great sacrifice for the
Donauschwaben. Their afflictions resulted from
extermination measures in hunger and
extermination camps in Yugoslavia, from sending
them to forced labor in the Soviet Union, from
total expulsion and from the Potsdam decision
which was committed to resettlement, an action
which they did not deserve and in truth was an
act of brutal abduction and expulsion.
The
number of victims is still not always exactly
established, but the number is far over a
quarter of a million. The survivors have found
refuge and new homelands in more than 15
countries around the world. More than 479,000
of them live today in Germany, 346,000 in the
USA, Canada, and South America, 123,000 in
Austria, and also in France, Australia, and in
some other lands.
The
number of Donauschwaben still living in the old
settlement regions is not exactly recorded:
Hungary: about 254,000
former Yugoslavia: about 14,000
Romania: about 25,000
©
Donauschwaben Association in Vienna, Austria.
Translated by Brad Schwebler
[Published at DVHH.org 2004]
(Account 2)
Who are
the Donauschwaben? by Hans Kopp
