The Batschka has a temperate central European climate with
strong continental influences. By this I mean that the annual
fall in temperatures fluctuated greatly. In the middle of
January the temperature was 2.5 to 1.5 degrees below zero, while
in the middle of July it was 22.0 to 23.0 degrees Celsius (71.6
to 73.4 °F). In the summer it could be up to 40 degrees Celsius
(104 °F) under the influence of the subtropic high pressure
extreme, and in the winter it could be minus 30 degrees Celsius
under the influence of the Siberian anti-cyclone.
Air humidity and clouds
are the highest in December and in August at the lowest. With
the blue sky in July and August and the high temperatures now
and then a true Fata Morgana (Delibàb) can be seen, that is,
mirages which usually only occur in the desert.
The annual amount of
precipitation is not very high, but is to some extent well
distributed in the course of the year. In the southern part the
precipitation is still 60-700 mm on the average, in the north it
is always less, so that in places only scantily more than 500 mm
was recorded. On the average 86.5 % of this precipitation falls
as rain, 13.5 % as snow. Annually there are about 92 days with
rain, 18 with snow, and 2 with hail. The most precipitation
falls in May, June, and October. The dry months are January and
February. Typical for the land are the thunderstorms with
“Platsch rain”, on the average of 23 days a year. In the
afternoon hours of hotter, clearer summer days the upper surface
of agricultural lands or the drifting sands can warm up to 65
days Celsius, created all the conditions for the formation of
thunderstorm clouds. Under violent thunder and lightning the
“Platsch rain” started in the late afternoon and early evening
hours. Soon after the thunderstorm the sky brightened up again
and the evaporation started in large amounts. The whole thing
happened like a true tropical tornado.
The wind blows in the
winter mainly from the north-northwest, in the summer from a
northwesterly direction. The annual average speed of the wind
moves between two and three meters per second, which are
actually weak winds. The thunderstorms have a speed of more
than 10 meters per second.
The average worth of the
climatic factors are in general described as favorable in the
Batschka, but besides that there is an uncertainty co-efficient
, which can be expressed neither in numbers nor in average
worth. Whoever saw the worried look of the Batschka farmers in
the hot summer months when they scanned the horizon in the
evening looking longingly in the distance for heat lightning,
praying for much rain, hearing begging and cursing, will be able
to imagine just how very important it is here when the
precipitation falls and how literally from a wind direction,
from a temperature maximum, from a couple drops of rain a wide
stretch of land can be dependant on it.
So the climate already is
not to be described exactly as a restful climate, so perhaps one
searches in the network of bodies of water for something more
romantic: the blue Danube, the sandy colored Theiß, the Blutsee
(Blood Lake), Moostung, Schlangenbach (Snake Brook), Eselbach
(Donkey Brook), Butterbach (Butter Brook)… which all certainly
seemed beautiful. In the natural state the bodies of water had
a sluggish course and tended to become swampy, yet the people
had also formed an effect around here: the streams were leveled,
the brooks were channeled, new drainage ditches and shipping
canals were built, so that the original condition is hardly
still seen in the water network.
The Danube forms the
border of the Batschka for 306 kilometers in the west and
south. On the stretch the Danube falls from 90 meters above sea
level north of Baja to 74 meters at the mouth of the Theiß, so
it is a fall of only 52.28 mm per kilometer. Before the great
river gradients of the 19th century the fall was only
40 mm per kilometer. The water command of the Danube here also
depends much on the high water mark in May and June, the lowest
water mark in December. Near Wukowar there is also a high water
mark in May, but a low water mark in February. Flooding comes
when the snow melts and heavy rain falls together. Hundreds and
thousands of hectares of land are then flooded. It may perhaps
also be interesting to learn how much water flows down the
Danube:
Near Besdan
flows through on the
average 65,077 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Wukowar (after the
influx of the Drau)
flows through on the
average 82,779 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Slankamen (after the
influx of the Theiß)
flows through on the
average 124,705 cubic meters of water per year.
Near Titel on the Theiß
flows through on the
average 21,966 cubic meters of water per year.
The Theiß is the border
river of the Batschka in the east and had a length of 229. 5
kilometers before the regulation of this section; but since the
work of the 19th century only 179.3 kilometers. The
fall formerly amounted to only 15 mm per kilometer and today
amounts to 27.88 mm per kilometer. The water mark is at its
highest in April and at its lowest in October, where the maximum
water mark is almost eight times more than the minimum water
mark.
The largest lake in the
Batschka is the Palitsch Lake near Theresiopel with a surface of
seven square kilometers. With luck the trees on its shores were
not cut down – like on other lakes, formed a very pleasant place
for relaxation there. In the neighborhood of Palitsch one also
finds other lakes, but because of the reeds existing on the
shores they are not open to foreign traffic. In the
neighborhood of Palitsch there is also a strange “salt sea.” In
dry years its water is saturated with sodium salt and completely
dries up in the summer. The whole lake surface is then filled
up with a white salt crust which was like the salt gravel at the
desert’s edge. The Batschka is much more abundant in swamps tan
lakes, but only a very small remnant of the former expansive
swamps still exist. The “toad hole” at the edge of the village
is frequently still such a remnant of a former swamp, but also
can be made by the people, and indeed it is where he takes the
earth out to build his homes. The shipping canals are also
created by the people: the 123 kilometer length, up to 20 meters
wide and 2 meters deep of the Franzen Canal from Besdan on the
Danube to Betsche on the Theiß and 66 kilometer long Franz Josef
Canal, where the Franzen Canal near Stapar connects with the
Danube near Neusatz. In addition there are numerous kilometers
of drainage canals. The original picture of the bodies of water
has disappeared, and yet there are still some small places in
which children play and adults can dream, also when the “blue”
Danube only leads to gray-brown water and the “sandy colored”
Theiß is gray-green. In the remaining swamps the hemp was
roasted where one can reach a long way; in the “toad holes” the
toads give their concert in the evening: in the larger drainage
canals the schoolboys went fishing with baskets without bottoms…
The active person has
formed the original picture around the natural landscape. Our
ancestors decisively contributed to this conversion.
3. Batschka, The fruitful land
between the Danube &
the Theiß
The region in the
middle of the Danube came under Hapsburg ownership
at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the
eighteenth centuries. At the time wide
stretches of the land were swampy and almost devoid
of people. The emperor in Vienna wanted to see
this stretch of land in the neighborhood of the
Turkish border settled and called on people of
different nations under the dominion of the crown.
Families and clans came from the present day lands
of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia,
Hungary, Romania, and besides that accepted refugees
from Turkey: Croatia and Serbia. The people
must first create their new homeland through hard
work. The consciousness of these achievements
connected the south Pannonian people, completely the same as the
language or religion they belonged to. The
Hungarian speaking people called their new homeland
“Délvidék” and considered themselves as a new branch
of Hungarians. The Slovakian speaking people called
the land “Vojvodina” and themselves “Vojvodjani”.
The German speaking people formed the new branch of
Germans called the Donauschwaben. These three
groups determined the economical, cultural, and
political life of the south Pannonians. The
political leadership lay at times with one, at times
with the others. Like in the other Donauschwaben
settlement regions, people also lived in the
Batschka until World War II peacefully next to each
other. Then began the days in which all people
between the Danube and the Theiß have suffered and
the Donauschwaben were the actual victims of the
national hate.
The Land
Position and shape
of the upper surface
Under the
description Batschka one understands that flat land
which lies between the Danube and the Theiß, west of
the Banat and north of Syrmia. The geographical
latitude of the Batschka is somewhat south of South
Tirol, it’s geographical longitude corresponds to
that of the Danzig (Gdansk) Bay. The name Batschka
come from the place name Batsch an der Moostung, and
this goes back either to an Avarish personal name
Bech, Betsch, or to the middle age family of Bach,
Baach. How is it also that neither “Bachland” nor
“Batser Ländl” caught on, so that in the German
language the not completely simple pronunciation
“Batschka” was customary.
With a surface area
of 10,781 square kilometers the Batschka is about as
large as upper Austria or rather the governing
district of North Württemberg and Lower Bavaria.
The population in the Batschka also corresponds
fairly closely with those of upper Austria and Lower
Bavaria. Also the population density is similar in
these three lands with about 80 – 90 people per
square kilometer.
The level
countryside may appear very monotonous to
strangers. But the expert can also notice some
differences in the shape of the upper surface.
Along the Danube and the Theiß one finds a narrow
strip of young alluvial Aulands.
In the natural
condition we have at this riverside bushes (willows)
or low woods, Schilf (reeds), Rohr (reeds), and
swamp. Where the Auland is cultivated one sees oil
seeds, hemp, and vegetables. The Auland lies about
80 meters above sea level.
Some meters above
the Auland lies the Batschka Unterterrasse (under terrace). Here is the work of the river,
especially at the times of great flooding, the
formerly existing yellow silt and also in places the
white drifting sand washed out and in its place
fine, humus rich water particles were deposited.
This low terrace was formerly flooded in wide
stretches, only a few silt tips jutting out were
free of water and had a tree stand (oak, hornbeam),
while in the amp areas bushes, undergrowth
(blackberries), Shilf reeds, Rohr reeds, and tuft
grass grow. The drier stretches of land, where the
flooding was only for short a duration, had a wooden
steppe vegetation. Here the people of the land have
extensively reshaped it so one has the impression by
a view above the low terrace as they were one
individual giant agricultural surface with wheat,
corn, and some specialized crops.
With a pronounced,
10-15 meter high steep edge a gentle rolling Lößplatte
(silt plateau) raised itself above
the low terrace. This fine grainy yellow earth
which was deposited by the wind, by the lake, by the
seas, and rivers was deposited, consisting of
several meters of enormous yellow silt layers and
then a few enormous layers of humus, clay, or yellow
silt clay. The natural vegetation on the yellow
silt plateau was dominated by steppe meadows. In
places where the ground water was favorable there
were also bushes and bunches of trees. Also this
landscape was completely changed by the people,
above all in places a cultivated wheat steppe
entered the steppe meadows.
In the north of the
Batschka one finds how spread out on the yellow silt
plateau, the Sandgebiet (sand region)
consists essentially of sand dunes. These dune
combs run from northwest to southeast, corresponding
to the wind direction of the post ice age. The
difference between mountain and valley is more
pronounced than in the Löß, and so we find in these
dunes the highest elevations in the Batschka, which
is called the proud Bleiberg (Olomhegy) and reaches
a whole a whole 174 meters above sea level. In its
natural state drifting sand vegetation is found here
which were then transformed by people into vineyards
and fruit gardens.
Already the
fleeting characterization of the Batschka’s great
landscape: Auland, low terrace, Löß plateau, and
sand region were perhaps enough to show that this
land by nature was not very richly equipped. Man
searched here in vain for gold and silver, for ore
and gems. First man made one of the poorest lands
into a rich land by his draining and clearing, by
his plow and his seeding. In this way it would be
altered from its original appearance much more than
in other lands. There is hardly a spot where one
can see the puszta of his dreams, and nevertheless
the land has its charm, just because one can notice
how man has reshaped the land.
4. The Magyar Middle Ages
At first the Magyars only settled the
land sparsely and moved around with their herds. One tribe, or
rather a large family possessed a thousand or even ten thousand
horses and beef cattle. For these animals one needed a very
large pasture, then either pasture or stable feed or some other
intensive methods could be used for these livestock breeds. The
Magyars were the masters and considered land work as undignified
for a free man. Slavic slaves regarded as farm hands did the
grain cultivation. With it they migrated from one permanent
winter settlement annually to a new summer settlement. Otto von Freising reported that on the occasion of the second crusade
through Hungary the Magyars lived in tents in the summer and in
wooden or reed houses in the winter. How such housing looked we
learn from K. Sebestyén: “In the house described as small
cottages and earth huts that consisted of only one room, were
buried in the earth and covered with wood, reed, and straw only
the farm hands, the descendants of Slavs and other prisoners,
lived. The Magyars were tent inhabitants. Pelt tents held
together with a pole framework like the nomadic Turks still use
today, also appeared to be like the construction of living
quarters for nomadic Magyars. The ground construction consisted
of man high, vertical, circular wood grid walls, its inner
surface pulled together, or rather pushed apart to adjust, its
diameter fluctuating between 3 and 10 meters. Over this
circular shaped wall which reminded one of a latticed summer
house, curving in a spherical or cone shaped roof construction.
The roof work consisted of flexible poles whose lower ends were
connected to the upper edge of the wall.”
Gradually economic change took place. The
field cultivation was always of great importance as food for
livestock breeds. This development was extensively encouraged by
the proselytizing the Magyars to Christianity and through the
kingdom created by Saint Stephan in the year 1000. Church
organization and secular administration went hand in hand. The
Batschka was administered by three komitats (counties): the
northeast by the Csongrád Komitat, the northwest by the Bodrogh
Komitat, and the south by the Bach (Bács) Komitat. The land’s
church administration belonged to the Kalotschka archdiocese,
yet it had its own cathedral capital in Batsch, which was on par
with Kalotschka. Church and state troubled themselves equally
to shape a cultivated land. For this purpose foreign people
from different folk groups and languages were sent for who then
in the course of the year and generations came to the Hungarian
nation. In greater numbers especially came Petschenegs (Bessier),
Ismaelites (Chalisier), Kumans (Kuns), and Germans (called
Franconians and Saxons) in the Batschka. Among the nobility
which one finds in the three Batschka komitats among others are
the names Benz, Dether, Drach, Marhart, Einhard, Elber, Faber,
Kelz, Potz, Sasha, Theutus, which hint at a German descent.
Different secular and religious dignitaries
of the middle ages appeared to be German, sometimes also of
French or Italian descent. The first Obergespan (top dignitary)
of the Bodrogh Komitat known by name was called Lambert, the
first archbishop of the Kalotschka Ascherich, other archbishops
with origin from foreign lands were, among others,Fulbert,
Johann von Meran, Berthold von Meran, Johannes Gümes, Dionys
Hermann, Alois Helfenstein, Ladislaus Wingard.
The most important place was the castle
Bach (Bács) on the Moostung; a strong fortress, splendid bishop
city, administrative seat of the komitat. The following cities
in this komitat are also to be mentioned: Arnath, Derzs, Funow,
Futagh, Gyala, Kysdy, Parazthy, Pesth, Zentmarton, Zund, Thlek,
Titel, Varad, and Vaskapu. In the Bodrog Komitat to be
mentioned: Apathy, Baya, Bathmonastra, Bodrogh, Hayzenthlewrinz,
Halas, Madaras, Zabathka, Zenthgergh, Zeremlen, Thowankwth,
Wyfalw. In these cities are proven French, Wallonian, Italian,
and German commercial activities. All this shows how strong the
western influence was since the time of the first Hungarian
king, Saint Stephan, in the region of the central Danube.
The ruins of Batsch,
with its gothic towers and windows, shows the past magnificence
of the splendid middle age bishop’s seat.
(Picture)
On the flat land the field cultivation
always increased more. We really have little to introduce about
the individual settlements. It appears as if there are only a
few settlers from the west in these villages. At least we learn
that there were already some German villages at the time: Rad,
Lipolthfeld, Nemety, Nemdy, Wolfer, Vilmann.
The endeavor of the government was to make
a field cultivation region fom the Batschka. Thanks to the
favorable transportation possibilities on the Danube and Theiß
it was easy to provide the more remote parts of the land with
grain from here on. This endeavor opposed the interests of the
individual landowners. Through purchase, exchange, inheritance,
marriage, gifts, and forceful appropriations large land estates
formed on which more livestock breeds were carried on as
agriculture. Repeatedly imperial commissions were used to check
on the possessions without success. The large estates were
always more powerful. The social position of the farmers were
always worse from the rejection of the agriculture, and they
rebelled in the year 1514 under the leadership of Georg Dôzsa.
This farmers’ uprising was bloodily suppressed by the large
landowners but from their newly strengthened power they could
not be protected for long, with the battle of Mohatsch in the
year 1526 the Batschka came under the Ottoman Empire and from
1543 on it was administered by the Turks.
5. The
Rule of the Turks
The farmers’ uprising and
the resulting punishment of the farmers had already extensively
depopulated the Batschka. With the battle of Mohatsch the
nobility already had to leave the land, and the Turks took the
war’s booty, what was still remaining.
At first the Batschka was
administered by the East Hungarian vassal state of Johann
Zapolyas and in 1543 it was also first formally incorporated
into the Ottoman Empire. In Ofen a pashalik (seat of a pasha)
was created, under whom 25 sandshakats were placed. The
Batschka came under the Segedin Sandshakat and it was divided
into 6 Nahien (neighborhoods) with seats in Baja, Theresiopel,
Sombor, Batsch, Titel, and Segedin. The environs of present day
Neusatz belonged to the Nahie of Peterwardein of the Syrmian
Sandshakat.
Contrary to the
frequently prevailing opinion the Turks did not depopulate the
land, but populated it. Here is a comparison for confirmation
of this assertion: In the year 1520, in the Hungarian time,
there were 569 settlements with 2000 homes. In the year 1590,
in Turkish times, there were 291 settlements with 5,674
Christian homes and Turks still came as well.
Unlike the earlier
inhabitants entering rural settlements of Serbia and Wallachia
(Romania), the Turks, Tatars, Armenians, and Greeks settled in
the cities. Among the cities the most important were Baja,
Sombor, Batsch, and Titel, but also smaller market villages had
special meaning like Hodschag, Kala, Palanka, Schmatz (later
Neusatz – today Novi Sad), Betsche. How important these cities
were one can see from the 14 mosques in Sombor and eight in
Batsch. The homes in the cities had many times more floors,
built of a patchwork, with roofs of shingles. The stores were
open with two vertical closure flaps. The streets were paved
with bricks or wood.
The rural settlements
showed as a rule the picture of a hodgepodge of houses. The
houses were made of wood, patchwork, or stamped earth, but
besides that one also lived in Löß Plateau caves or earth pits.
The homes in the cities were so well cared for, that the homes
in the villages appeared to be neglected by the travelers.
The traffic developed by
water on the rivers and by land on the roads, which had to be
built by the Turks as well as the bridges. The Tatar riders
assured the postal traffic, the caravans played the part of
hotels at the time.
The economic life was
decided by the livestock breeds, then th other branches of
economic activity followed. The livestock breeders had their
place of residence in the lands of the Balkan Peninsula,
migrated with their herds to Pannonia to find the winter
pastures here. Soon after that the herd owner established their
main place of residence in Pannonia and sent their herds from
here to the summer pastures in the Balkan mountains or the
Carpathians. In the first place the sheep breeds stood. A
large family (Zadruga) owned as a rule 2000 – 4000 animals.
The horse breeds were
just as important since the Ottoman army needed very many
horses. Beef cattle were kept in large herds and there were at
the time large herds of buffaloes and camels. The pig breeds
were of little importance because the Islamic religion forbid
the enjoyment of pig meat. Hunting, bee breeding, and fishing
supplied good yields, however agriculture steadily increased.
For the provisions of the garrisons and cities with grain and
vegetables the Turkish state had to resettle farmers from the
Balkan lands to Pannonia by force.
In Turkish times
craftwork was especially blossoming. In the narrow alleys of
the cities were the individual branches of trade especially
represented. Here there were sword-, knife-, copper-, and
kettle forges, tanner, furrier, saddle maker, butcher,
confectioner, cook, then wagon maker, binder, cabinet maker,
roofer, shoemaker, tailor, weaver, potter, mason.
The trade was lively and
found on the marketplaces, “Caršija”, instead. There one could
buy wares from Vienna, Beirut, Egypt, Tripoli, or also exchange
products of the land such as cattle, hides, hay, food, etc.
Instead of the medieval
cultural landscape impressed by the Magyars, entering after the
destruction of the cultural landscape, it was impressed by the
Middle East or Balkan points of view. So just as the medieval
cultural point of view was completely destroyed, so was the
Turkish cultural landscape. As soon as the authority of the
sultans decreased, the discipline slackened. As the demand for
war was always greater, many farmers and livestock breeders
left, but also craftsmen and sales people of the Batschka went
to a protected region. In the war and revolution years of 1683
and 1711 the Ottoman cultural landscape was completely
destroyed, partly by the Ottomans, partly by the imperials,
partly by the rebellious Kuruzzen? In the Batschka only a few
people lived, perhaps one or two per square kilometer. The face
of the landscape was a kind of secondary natural landscape.
6. The New Time
The
discussions between the Turkish sultan in
Constantinople and the Roman-German emperor
in Vienna had begun in 1683 and were brought
to a provisional conclusion in the peace
treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. Prince Eugen
of Savoy had badly beaten the Turks at Zenta
two years before, and so the Turks easily
had to make peace. According to the
determinations of the treaty the Banat
remained Turkish, but the Batschka was
awarded to the emperor in Vienna.
(Picture)
The steppes
of the western Batschka were already ruled
by the city of Sombor in Turkish times. In
the 17th century the city was
described by the Turkish travel writer
Tschelebi as very ornate: the streets were
paved with wood, the homes built of
patchwork, the roofs of shingles. But
unfortunately the drinking water was very
bad, and the Tatar Khan and the poet Ghazi
Gherai wrote in a letter:
“No wonder when the
greeting was bitter before,
Because the water is
bitter in Zombor!”
After the
liberation from the Turks the Sombor (Somburg)
seat was an administrative place of the
court chamber and of the court’s war
council. In the year 1745 the city became
part of Hungary and two years later was
elevated to the imperial free state by Maria
Theresi. In the year 1802 Sombor was the
capital of the land and the construction of
the “komitat house” began, in which the
heads of the administration would be
housed. This first komitat house (county
courthouse) was demolished eighty years
later and in its place a new komitat house
was erected in 1880-1882. In this
magnificent hall of the palace depicted here
one finds the famous painting, “Die Schlacht
bei Zenta” (The Battle near Zenta) by the
great Batschka painter Franz Eisenhut.
Today the Komitathaus houses a valuable
prehistoric and early history museum, a
scientific library, and a part of the
archives of the land. Sombor was always an
important economic center and has banks, a
chamber of commerce, a stock exchange as
well as a large annual market.
At the
center of north Batschka there was a place
which was mentioned many times as a
settlement of robbers and plunderers.
Around 1525 the group’s leader Jovan Crni
(Black Hans) was housed here, who with his
Serbian team once entered for the candidate
to the throne, Johann Sapolya, and once for
Ferdinand of Habsburg. During the Turkish
times a modest little city, Sabathka was a
fortress which was placed under the control
of the court’s war council in Vienna. In
1743 Sabathka was elevated to a city under
the name St. Maria and to the imperial free
city as “Maria-Theresiopolis” in 1779.
The settlement with city ordinances and
privileges was a village with the appearance
of a city. The one story homes on the wide
streets, the herds of beef cattle and pigs
dominated the city scene. Practically only
two streets had a city appearance: from the
train station to the city hall. The city
hall portrayed here was built shortly before
World War I. With its red, white, and green
colors it stressed that it was a Hungarian
city. As the city became a part of the
Kingdom of SHS (Yugoslavia) in 1918 it was
the only settlement of the new nation which
had over 100,000 inhabitants. The largest
village was to be the only large city.
Today
Subotica-Theresiopel still has a border of
915 square kilometers and with this it has a
surface area making it the largest community
of Yugoslavia. However with 118,000
inhabitants the city first stood in sixth
place among the Yugoslavian cities. Neusatz
still had not reached the census of
Theresiopel, but that was soon achieved
because Subotica had the unfortunate
position to be at the nation’s border making
it a dead city.
The center
of the northwestern Batschka is the city of
Baja, lying at the high shore of the
Danube. It was established at the time of
Karl (Charles) the Great in 801 or 803.
More exact statements are missing and in a
document in 1260 it is first called
“Francovilla, or Baja.” Quite modest in the
middle ages and during Turkish time, the
village hardly had 20 homes when it fell
into Hapsburg hands. For strategic reasons
the court’s war council still settled here
during the duration of the hostilities of
the business activities with the farmers, to
have a good stage on the Danube. The city
developed extraordinarily quick so that it
was called Little Pest. The traffic on the
Danube, the shipments of wood and grain, the
products of craftsmen made Baja into a rich
city. The streets and homes have an urban
appearance and still at the end of the 18th
century the Komitat assembly would rather
meet in the beautiful city of Baja than in
the neglected village of Sombor. The
construction of the railroads shifted the
traffic, so Baja remained at the end of the
19th century back behind the
other cities.
After World
War I Baja was the administrative seat of
the rest of the Bács-Bodrog Komitat, today
it is a quiet college town in which there is
also a German speaking grammar school and a
German speaking teaching institute. Many
retirees go to Baja to retire. This city
still has not succumbed to the noise of the
new times and at the Danube there is a
rewarding destination for pedestrians.
At first
the land was administered by the court’s war
council, that is, the war ministry, because
the Kuruzzen rebellion still raged. Where
it was possible, the region was gradually
transferred to the administration of the
court chamber, that is, the finance
ministry. After the Sathmar peace with the
Kuruzzen, the emperor decided to place the
Batschka under Hungarian civilian
administration, the archbishop of Kalotschka
was named top dignitary of the almost
unpopulated Batsch Komitat. But the komitat
administration could only intersperse with
difficulty because once the nobility were
absent as holders of such an administration
and because the second war council and court
chamber still also had a deciding word. The
court’s war council was subject to the
military security of the border against the
Turks, the whole east of the Batschka and
indeed as part of the “Theiß-Marosch
military border”, to which the cities of
Sombor and Theresiopel also belonged. In
1751 the greater part of this region was
transferred to the komitat administration,
the Titel Tschaikist district in the
Danube-Theiß corner was administered
directly from Vienna until 1872. The court
chamber in the Batschka, other than in the
Banat, the only ones who acted as
administrators were the wealthy of the
crown, that is more as private rulers than
as administrative authorities.
All of the
land, for no objection free property rights
could be proven, were declared as the domain
of the crown and placed under the court
chamber. Only through this measure was it
possible in the sense of social and economic
ideas to populate the land with capable
farmers.
Political,
social, and economic crossed the interests
of different forces in the Batschka. Vienna
wanted to have a province near the Turkish
border where in peace and war times grain,
riding and draft animals as well as good
stages and soldiers could be ready. This
goal one believed could be achieved through
true free farmers and craftsmen. The large
Hungarian landowners had other wishes: the
land should not be settled with foreign
people, the settlers should only be serfs
and not property owners. The Serbian herd
owners and oxen traders had still other
interests: the land should remain meadowland
and in no case be divided among the field
cultivating farmers. National and religious
questions played hardly a roll in this
connection. Vienna interspersed its will
extensively and settled Serbs, Croatians,
Slovakians, Ruthenians, Hungarians, or also
Germans. Each diligent person willing to
settle was accepted, each received the same
rights, the same freedom. There was not
racial, national, or religious intolerance,
or even hate among the individual folk
groups until the Hungarian revolution came
in 1848.
On the
roads of the Batschka one saw imperial,
Hungarian, Serbian, Croatian, and Russian
soldiers. After the collapse of the
revolution from the Batschka, the Banat, and
parts of Syrmia the kingdom “Serbian
Woiwodschaft and Temeser Banat” started, yet
it did not exist long, it was dissolved in
1860, and the Batschka was again a part of
Hungary, with the exception of the
Tschaikist district which remained until
1918.
At the end
of World War I the land was occupied by
French and Serbian troops. In the Treaty of
Trianon the Batschka was divided up so that
one sixth went to Hungary and five sixths
went to the newly established kingdom of
Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. In the new
nation the Batschka was very dependant on
Belgrade, then through planned settlements
the Serbian orthodox element was
strengthened. The Hungarians were
suppressed, the Germans were either
encouraged or suppressed.
In April
1941 Hungarian troops marched into the
Batschka. In all aspects the land had a
Hungarian appearance: everywhere the
Hungarian flag flew at half mast, everywhere
one found the lawn map with the outline of
Hungary of 1918, everywhere one heard the
chorus “Mindent visza!” (everything back),
they tried, to create the appearance in the
train stations and state buildings exactly
as it was before 1918, all Serbs coming into
the Batschka after 1918 were referred to the
land as indigenous Serbs and were killed in
large numbers in the Tschaikist region, at
different points of the land the Hungarian
Ischango from Romania settled.
In October
1944 the Russian troops conquered the
Batschka and after their withdrawal the Tito
partisans took over the power. The whole
hatred of these people was directed towards
the Germans and towards the German speaking
citizens who were punished, imprisoned, and
starved for foreign offenses in the name of
a collective guilt. The purpose was to
seize the fortunes of the wealthy citizens,
then no legal judgment was found against the
people who had roamed into the concentration
camps. Administratively the Batschka with
its southern five-sixths now belonged to the
People’s Republic of Serbia and the northern
sixth to Hungary.
(Picture)
At one
place where one comes relatively easily over
the Theiß, Alt-Betsche exists on the right
shore of the river. Up until the most
recent time this place was actually only a
village, although the community numbered
more than 20,000 inhabitants. In Alt-Betsche
Hungarians and Serbs lived next to each
other. In the picture one sees the Serbian
orthodox church. This church could stand
anywhere in Bavaria or lower Austria, and
under these baroque towers hardly anyone
suspected a church with oriental rites. The
grounds to search this fact is in the
imperial Hapsburg decree. There it says
that the orthodox church is also allowed to
build in the Hapsburg lands, but these
houses of God must be built in the “usual
style of the land”, which one understood as
just Baroque at the time. In the interior
of the orthodox churches distinguished
themselves from other Christian churches in
that the choir is separated by a wall of
icons (Ikonostase) from the believers, and
there were no benches and no organ. The
Serbian orthodox believers of the Batschka
belonged to the Neusatz diocese which the
patriarchs in Karlowitz were placed under.
Alt Betsche – Stari Beče) is the most
important marketplace of eastern Batschka.
On the löß and humus the adhesive Theiß
wheat grew, the “fair Theiß” is rich in fish
and on the whole border good livestock
breeding was carried on.
(Picture)
From the
head of the bridge of the Peterwardein
fortress the present day, the city of
Neusatz, capital of theBatschka and the
Vojvodina developed. After the liberation
from the Turks the region belonged to the
Veinnese court’s war council. As Belgrade
again fell to the Turks in 1739, many
Belgrade citizens fled into the Peterwardein
entrenchments and established a new city
there which on the 1st of
February 1748 which received the name
Neusatz from the Empress Maria Theresia.
The new imperial free city soon developed
into an important center for trade and
commerce. The era of the railway and Danube
regulations brought still more advantages to
Neusatz. After World War I Neusatz was the
center of the south Slavic Germans who had
the seat their economical and cultural
organizations here. Also the German press
was represented with two daily newspapers
and several weekly and monthly papers. The
old core of the city lay around the Gothic
city parish church which is seen on the
right side of the picture. As Neusatz was
the administrative seat of the Danube (banschaft?)
in 1929, the new part of the city was built
between the Catholic church and the Danube.
The wide avenue decorated with trees on the
right side of the picture led to the Danube
bridge past modern palaces. The largest
palace is the Banus building, still the
administrative seat today (in the center of
the picture). Here found the leading
voices of the “Autonomous Province of
Vojvodina”, in which allegedly all folk
groups should have their cultural autonomy.
7. The
Romanians, Armenians, Greeks,
Albanians & Bulgarians
We begin with the Romanians who are
certainly regarded as the oldest inhabitants of
the Batschka. Old or not age played no roll
because we could not admit whether the Romanians
are descendants of the old Daker, Sarmats, or
Romans. In the Banat this question played a
greater roll, but not in the Batschka because
there were only a few Romans. They did not form
any closed community either in national or in
religious respect. In the 18th
century there was a larger number of Romanians
in the Batschka, and in the cities as well as
livestock breeders in the south Batschka. But
they went out in the 18th century in
the Serbian and Hungarian eras. Together with
the Serbs they had a common church organization,
with the same state institutions with the
Hungarians.
The
Armenians came during Turkish times and in
the cities of the Batschka in 1738-39. They
were above all salespeople and arranged for
merchandize to move from Constantinople to
Vienna and in reverse. The Armenians were
regarded as the most skillful merchants of
southeastern Europe because of what it says in a
proverb: “A Jew is as crafty as three Christian
merchants, a Greek is as crafty as three Jews,
and an Armenian is as crafty as three Greeks!”
The Armenians especially formed a large
community in Neusatz. There they had until our
days their own Armenian Catholic congregation
and a large church in which the church service
was prevented in Armenian rites.
The
Zinzaren
were livestock dealers found only in the
cities. They became friendly with the
Armenians, Greeks, or Serbs. The Klementiner
or Catholic Albanians came as
refugees from the Ottoman Empire into the
monarchy, above all to Slavonia. Only a few
came to the Batschka. They settled down in the
Croatian villages. Of the Catholic Bulgarians
the greater number fled to the
Banat, only individuals came to the Batschka.
They did not form any large community.
There were
already Greeks as merchants at the time
before the Hungarian land acquisition. In the
middle ages we find them here and there as
dealers and again later in Turkish times. As a
specialty the Greek merchants regarded the trade
with food and consumables. While the Armenians
had large department stores in the cities, the
Greeks would rather go to the annual market.
There they purchased produce and sold their
exotic wares. In Neusatz and Theresiopel they
had large communities. One part of the Greeks
moved to Turkey when the emperor came to the
Batschka, the rest went to Serbia where they
were brought together in a common orthodox
church. One noteworthy chapter of Greek history
played itself out in the Batschka after 1945.
General Markos,
who fought against his government in Greece was
supported by Yugoslavia. The people who
evacuated from the battle regions were brought
to Bulkes as the homes were free of expulsed
Germans. After the collapse of the revolution,
Bulkes became a “Greek republic” because Greek
laws were regarded as valid, Greek was the
official language, Greek money was used, and
there was even some Greek military besides Greek
schools, and a Greek “national theater.” But
this Greek republic did not last long. When
Stalin and Tito began to dispute the Greeks in
the Batschka republic also split: the EAM Greeks
listened absolutely to Moscow, the ELAS Greeks
were friendly to Belgrade. Repeatedly there
were bloody arguments and real fights between
these two groups on Batschka soil in which
Yugoslavian troops finally moved the refugees
out. At first they were moved to Hungary and
from there to Czechoslovakia.
Czechs
also came at different times to the Batschka.
When officials of the court’s war council and
the court chamber came they were already in the
land at the beginning of the 18th
century. Then there was a certain number of
retired army musicians who moved into the
Batschka and finally they came in greater
numbers as officials (Bachhussaren) between 1849
and 1867. They never had importance as a group.
Some
Russians already stayed on the land in 1848,
others came in the course of World War I as war
prisoners and stayed. After World War I a
larger number of so-called “White Russians” came
who belonged to the ragged army. They formed
some communities and were placed in office and
dignity by the south Slavic kingdom. So
everywhere there were Russians as math teachers
and drafting teachers, actors, archivists, and
surveyors. In the course of World War II a
military unit (“Russicher Korpus”) was put
together with Russian volunteers who were put in
against the communist units in Syrmia.
The imperial
Yugoslavian state needed a good many Slavs in
its statistics to justify its claim to power.
For that reason it gave only two columns for
Slavs in the questionnaires. The one was called
“Serbocroatoslowenen”, the other was called
“other Slavs”. So it was easy to enter many
members of the “state’s people” on the national
census.
8. The Jews and
Gypsies
In the time
of Turkish rule there were some so-called
“spaniolische” Jews, most of whom had small
stores. With the end of the Turkish rule
they moved to Bosnia and Macedonia. In
their place came the eastern Jews from
Galicia, especially after Josef II issued
his religious tolerance act. The numerical
development of the Jews appeared as
follows:
1840:
7,131
1900: 18,793
1910:
19,644
1942: 28,000
The mother
tongue of the Jews in Hungary in 1890
without Croatia amounted to around 2/3
Hungarian speaking and 1/3 German speaking.
At the national census they were asked:
“Which language do you prefer to speak the
most?” Of the Jews somewhat over 1/5 gave
German as their mother tongue and almost 4/5
as Hungarian.
The Jews
belonging predominantly to the Eschkenazim
sect formed their rather closed community
and because of it they had little contact
and also hardly any friction with the other
nations. In the German villages they were
predominantly grain dealers. The Swabians
brought their produce to them and received
their money for it. So it went somewhat
frictionless and there was hardly any enmity
as in the Hungarian or Serbian communities,
where the Jews were landlords and where
alcohol and guilt produced hate. The
chroniclers of the Batschka German
communities referred to the Jews positively
so that there was no hate between the
Germans and the Jews. When the Batschka
Jews were pursued, abducted, and robbed in
1943 and 1944, the Germans did not take part
in it. The “Swabians” also had hardly
anything to say because they were either the
state power or were German tops in the
Batschka. For the wrong reasons the
Swabians of the Batschka were charged after
the war with complete guilt for all the
wrongdoings, which were begun by people of
other nations sometime, somewhere. The
Swabians may not have raised their voiced
over it, but with luck they heard of the
competent Jewish personalities that the
Swabians have much to thank them for.
Already in
1918 when the Serbians cam to the largest
part of the Batschka, many Jews from
Theresiopel and Sombor went to Budapest.
Then as the clouds of the thunderstorm of
World War II appeared, many emigrated to
North America and South Africa. After the
abductions at the end of World War II many
went to Israel, there in states with the
new social orders hardly any place remained
for private economic initiatives.
The gypsies
of the Batschka were not exactly numerically
recorded and therefore only a more or less
rough estimation could be given.
1800: 1000
1900: 1200
1942: 1600
1957: 2000
In these
numbers all gypsies are included, although
one must strictly differentiate between the
white and the black gypsies. The white
gypsies called themselves “úri czigány”,
that is gentlemen gypsies. They are those
people whose music sticks in the blood and
created their own sentimental romanticism.
Our Banat poet Nikolaus Lenau said in his
poem:
|
The
Three Gypsies |
|
I once
found three gypsies |
|
lying
in a meadow |
|
as my
cart with tired torment |
|
crept
through the sandy heath. |
|
Held
the one for himself alone |
|
the
fiddle in his hands, |
|
played, gleaming by the evening
light, |
|
a
fiery little song. |
|
Held
the second the fife in his mouth. |
|
Look
at his smoke. |
|
Happy,
as if he by the world |
|
Needed
nothing more than luck. |
|
And
the third comfortably leaned |
|
and
his cymbal hung on the tree, |
|
over
the strings the breeze ran,
|
|
over
his heart a dream went. |
|
On the
clothing bore the three |
|
holes
and colored spots, |
|
but
they stubbornly offered free |
|
mockery of the earth’s layers. |
|
Threefold they have shown me |
|
When
our life comes to an end, |
|
How
one smoked, looked sleepy and lost |
|
and it
is threefold despised. |
|
After
the gypsies still looked long |
|
I had
to continue on, |
|
after
the faces dark brown, |
|
the
black curly hairs. |
The white
gypsies who played in the planned locales,
wearing proper tailcoats and patent leather
shoes, are gladly seen by all nations. In
the Batschka they mostly speak Hungarian and
are Catholic.
In complete
contrast to them stand the black gypsies.
They have nevertheless remained nomads by
any measure and they are suspected of being
thieves and most communities forbid them to
stay. Some attempts were made to make them
settle, like somewhat in Gombosch-Bogojewa
which brought only partial success. Among
them one finds the wandering wood and metal
workers. Serbs doing livestock breeding
probably brought gypsies to make appliances
and weapons but they were so despised that
they were taken over by the Serbs as well as
other people because there were not many
wandering gypsies remaining. Their religion
is orthodox Catholic, or Muslim, and they
speak Serbian or Romanian. Here and there
in a German village one also finds a gypsy
who belongs to the village where he
maintains: “Ich bin a deiitscher Zigeiner!”
(I am a German gypsy).
The gypsies
came either from Armenia or from Egypt or
perhaps the musicians came from Armenia and
the wanderers came from Egypt. During
Turkish times migrated in larger numbers.
The English traveler Ed Brown described the
gypsies of the Ottoman Empire about 1685 in
the following manner: “A characteristic
ethnographic picture offered by many
gypsies, those in Hungary, Serbia, and
Macedonia very frequently occurred and
advanced to the northeast up into the
Wallachia. They live by all kinds of means
and are crafty thieves. It is even
therefore recommended to dismount in private
homes and not in the caravan, which have
large rooms in which the gypsies steal from
the overnighters with great skillfulness.
9. The
Slovakians, The Ruthenians & The Slovenians
The
Slovakians were mainly settled under Joseph
II and came from the thickly settled upper
Hungarian komitats (counties) at the time,
where often in the surrounding are of the
Lutherans German mining cities they were
also often Lutheran. In a biological
respect this was very favorable, socially
less. Only 1/3 of the agricultural workers
were employed by the Slovakian owners, and
also of those “owners” almost half owned
less than 5 katastral yokes (about 3
hectares). The general judgment of the
Slovakians was: “peaceful and diligent.”
After World War II many Slovakians
conspicuously committed inhumane treatment
which was hardly in harmony with their
general character.
The Slovakian girls and women
loved garish colors in their
traditional dress. Light blue
and light red occurred most
frequently besides white. The
traditional dress of the
Slovakian girl illustrated was
made in the parent’s house. The
farmer sowed, roasted, chopped,
and weaved linen. The
farmer’s wife bleached, colored,
cut, and sewed it. The
stockings and shoes came from
the wool of some sheep, which
the people washed, spun,
colored, and knitted. – The
diligent and strong Slovakian
girls were also often active as
servants in the cities and
treasured by their Hungarian,
Serbian, or German employers.
For the male servant who married
the servant girl, the new couple
was often “equipped” for example
with kitchen furnishings,
furniture, or bedding.
(Picture)
The Ruthenians immigrated 1780–1790 and
1851–1855 from the Zemplin Komitat from
present day Karpato-Ukraine and settled in
the Batschka in Kerestur and Kutzre in the
Kula district. They belong to the
Greek-Catholic (United) religion. They are
gifted, frugal, and diligent. After World
War II they were cheered up when they
returned to the old homeland in the
Carpathians, yet it appeared that they have
lived so much in the lowland and together
with other people that they remain in the
land.
There were always only individual
Slovenians, at the most a couple dozen,
before 1918. After that they came in
greater numbers as officials of the post
office, in the banks, of the police, or as
specialists in the industry.
They always understood to go with the
stronger: once they were the great
Hapsburgs, once the anti-Hapsburgs, if it
was suitable they would pretend to be
turncoats and the next day be the Slavic
blood brothers of the Serbs. But the
sophisticated Slovenians were nevertheless
generally treasured in the German
communities.
The first
of these people coming from the west were in
recent times soldiers of Prince Eugene of
Savoy, who stayed after the Turkish war as
officials and craftsmen of the land. The
nationalities played no roll, but religion
probably did. So under Karl VI and Maria
Theresia only Catholic “members of the
empire” came to the Batschka. Under Joseph
II Lutherans and Calvinists were also
allowed. When the Holy Roman Empire was
dissolved in 1806, it was also with the
further settlement of the Germans. The
region of origin of the Germans was above
all the overpopulated southwestern German
regions: at first the Hapsburg lands of
Lorraine, Alsace, Vorder-Austria, then
Luxemburg, the Pfalz (Palatine), Hesse,
Baden and Württemberg lands. But in this
great work the southeast settlements were
also shared with all the other German
speaking lands.
The Viennese court chamber
decided to situate a large
German settlement on the Danube
on which to settle the populated
land. Rustic settlers, arriving
on ships found here a blossoming
city with jolly countrymen, so
the homesickness was not all
that bad. Those settlers
intended for the Banat drove
further, those who had set out
for the Batschka went here and
stayed in Apatin to adapt to the
climate. After some time they
went to the villages to which
they were assigned. – The city
hall pictured here symbolized
the prosperity of the Apatin
craftsmen and farmers. It also
shows that Apatin’s peaceful
conscience as a “city” could be
described. Other ornaments of
Apatin were: two Catholic
churches, the brewery, the
German grammar school, the
avenues and the Danube shore.
(Picture)
(page 42 and 43 from Joseph Schramm's book
about the Batschka)
