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The Colonization of the Banat Following its Turkish
Occupation
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With particular emphasis on emigration
from Lorraine and Luxemburg (Southern Belgian province of Luxemburg)
Author Unknown
Translated
by Gabi Bugaisky, Lucia Stemper & Nick
Tullius.
Explanatory notes provided by
Gabi Bugaisky.
Images not included in original article.
Published in German by
Lothat Renard at
www.triebswetter.net
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The era of Turkish
occupation began in Hungary
proper in 1526 with the
Battle of Mohács1
and in the Banat in
1552 with the fall of the
marsh stronghold of Temesvár.2
The Hungarian army was
annihilated by the Ottomans
and with it, the Kingdom of Hungary. The Treaty of Passarowitz3
on 21 July 1718 between Austria and the Turks ended the Ottoman
occupation, which had lasted
over 190 years in Hungary, and more than 160 years in the
Banat. During the time of Turkish rule,
cities, towns, castles and
monasteries were repeatedly
plundered and destroyed, the
inhabitants thereof murdered
or carried away as captives. Those who could flee did so.
Starting from an original
number |
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of over 4 million Hungarians, only about 1.5 million existed at the end of the Turkish era. The depopulated land, completely reverted to marshes and gone to ruin, desperately needed the efforts of industrious farmers and craftsmen to restore its fertility. At the proposal of
Prince Eugene of
Savoy, the Banat was named a crown domain with Temeswar as the provincial capital.
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Prince Eugene |
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The
Banat is a part
of the Pannonian lowland
plain. In medieval
Hungary, a “Banat”4
was a border region under
the administration of a
"ban," a proconsul of the
Hungarian king. Today it is
the region that after the
Treaty of Karlowitz5
in 1699 was designated as
the "Temeswarer Banat."
It is bordered in the north
by the Mures6
river, in the west by the
Tisa7
river, in the south by the
Danube river, and in the
east by the
Carpathian mountains.
The Banat has an area of
28,523 km2 and is
thus about as large as Belgium. After the dissolution of
the Danube Monarchy in 1918,
the region came under a new
political order. Romania obtained about 18,000 km2 of
the territory,
Yugoslavia
10,000 km2 and Hungary the remainder.
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At the time of the
appointment in 1717 of Count
Claudius Florimund Mercy (Lorraine
field marshal, and Corps
Commander of the imperial
Banat as well as first
governor of the Banat
territorial administration),
the
Banat had only
663 towns/cities with 21,289
houses and about 90,000
inhabitants. Subjects,
including the former
inhabitants who had fled,
were encouraged to settle in
the reinvigorated villages.
Craftsmen and relatives of
members of the |
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army quartermaster corps
from the German Empire and Austrian lands came to build barracks and fortifications. These latter groups were promised 2 years freedom from taxation. Miners from Tyrol, Styria, Saxony and
Bohemia were settled in the mountainous portion of the
Banat and were freed from both personal taxes and military service. Between 1711 and 1750, about 800 villages were founded in Hungary by German settlers.
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Count Claudius Florimund
Mercy |
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The largest
waves of settlers came to
the
Banat during the three "Swabian Migrations" (Schwabenzüge).
The settlers
of the
"Swabian
Migrations" came
primarily from the southwest
of the then German Empire,
namely from Lorraine, the
diocese of Trier, the
Saarland, the Palatinate,
and "Luxemburg," the latter
which is commonly known
today as the Belgian
province of Luxembourg. A
smaller number of settlers
originated from Franconia,
Hessen, Baden, Wurttemberg, Alsace and the Sauerland (Westfalia). The term
"Schwabenzug"
was
coined by the writer Adam
Müller-Guttenbrunn. Although
few settlers actually came
from Swabia, the designation "Schwabe" became fixed in common
usage. Even today the use of the term "Schwabe" for
an ethnic German
is still widespread in the
Balkans. There were two
strong royal houses in the
German Empire: the
Wittelsbachs who ruled in
Bavaria, and
the Habsburgs. The latter
had hegemony in the
German-Austrian crown lands,
provided the German Emperor
and hence determined the
settlement policy in the
re-conquered areas of south
eastern
Europe.
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Explanatory notes:
[1] Mohatsch
(German) Location: 115 m S of Budapest, on right bank of Danube in Baranya
county, Hungary
45.99593° N 18.67985° E
[2]
Temeschburg (German) / Temesvár (Hungarian) / Timisoara
(Romanian) /
Location:
western Romania, on banks of
Timis River (Tibiscus in Roman era)
45°45′35″N, 21°13′48″E
[3] Passarowitz (German) / Požarevac
(Serbian) Location: Serbia in
Braničevo District; 44°37′12″N, 21°11′23″E
[4] The term
“banat” originates from Persian, meaning lord or master, and was introduced into
Europe by the Avars; it came to mean a frontier province or a district under
military governorship.
[5] Karlowitz
(German) /Sremski Karlovci (Serbian) / Karlóca (Hungarian)
/
Location: Batschka (Vojvodina), Serbia
on bank of Danube, 8 km from Novi Sad
45°12′N 19°56′E
[6]
Mureş (Romanian) / Maros
(Hungarian) / Marosch (German) / Marisus in
Roman era
[7] Tisa
(Romanian, Serbian) / Tisza (Hungarian) / Theiss
(German); Tissus, Tisia in Roman era, referred
to as Pathissus by Pliny.
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The First Colonization; or
First Schwabenzug
(1723-1729); or
Carolinian Settlement Period
under Charles VI (1718-1737) |
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After the re-conquest by
imperial troops, the
population of the Banat consisted mainly of Wallachians (Romanians),
Raitzens (Serbs) and
Hungarians, who lived as
herdsmen and accompanied
their animals over the
landed estates.
As Turkish subjects, Greek
and Jewish minorities had
struggled as merchants.
Under the Turks, gypsies
specialized in the gold and
silver trades. Agriculture
was considered unimportant,
and only pursued to fulfill
one’s own needs (subsistence
farming). After the Treaty
of Passarowitz, the
Banat obtained a unique position as a crown
land with its own
administration. By order of
the emperor Charles VI, the
Viennese court
chamberlain’s office
began in 1722 with the
colonization of the
desolated and depopulated
area. After the expulsion
of the Ottomans, the land,
which for the most part
consisted as marshes, was
initially settled mainly in
the higher lying border
regions of the
Banat plain.
It was only after the
construction of the
Bega
canal and the draining of
the marshes that it was
possible to develop more of
the area. The peasant
colonists (all of whom had
to be Catholic, as the ruler
decided on the religion of
his subjects) came from all
countries where the German
language was spoken at that
time, from Luxemburg
(actually the Belgian province of Luxembourg), Alsace,
Lorraine, South Tyrol and even from Spain. About 3000 families found a
new homeland in the south
and north of the
Banat. The new
settlers were brought
to preexisting settlements (Perjamosch,8
Groß-St-Peter,9 Sarafol,10
and Groß-St. Nikolaus11),
as long as they had not been
"enticed away" by force, by
Hungarian lords of the
manor. The colonists lived
under poor conditions and
suffered great hardships.
Many people unfortunately
did not survive their
settlement in boggy Hungary.
The Bega canal, which would
drain the swamps of the
Banat heath
land, was begun in 1728-1733
and finally completed in
1753. Of the approximately
15,000 settlers of the first
Schwabenzug, most succumbed
primarily to malaria. The
death rate was extremely
high.
Renewed atrocities decimated
the population, when the
Turks again overran the Banat in 1738.
Between 1737 and 1739, only
about 3000 persons entered
the region. They were
housed in pre-existing
towns, from which the
previous inhabitants had
fled or died. Saderlach12
was settled by families from
the Black Forest, Mercydorf13
with Italians and
South Tyroleans,
who were to establish silk
culture and rice
cultivation. About 500
Catholic Clementiners14
came to Rekasch15
from Bosnia (which was Muslim) and about
1000 Catholic Bulgarians
came to Winga16
and Alt-Beschenowa.17
Following the Turkish war of
1738, only about half the
population survived in the
55 villages which previously
had a total of about 20,000
German settlers. Twenty
eight destroyed villages
were neither rebuilt nor
resettled. After an
infantry battalion
introduced a plague into the
fortress of Temesvar in
1738, and the Turkish war
had caused a mass exodus
from the southern
Banat,
the achievements of the
first Schwabenzug were
almost wiped out.
After the Treaty of Belgrade
(1739), renewed efforts were
made to attract German
craftsmen, farmers and
merchants to the settlement.
Above all, skilled workers
were in demand to repair and
build fortresses and to
rebuild the destroyed
cities. With respect to
settlement policy, not much
was accomplished by Charles
VI after 1739. He died on 20 October 1740. After the
Hungarian parliament
recognized the "Pragmatische
Sanktion" (pragmatic
sanction), with which
Charles VI named his
daughter as successor, the
path was free for the
23-year old Maria Theresa to
assume rule and occupy the
throne. In the first years
of her reign, very few
settlers colonized the
Banat, as she was
financially strapped because
of the war of succession in Silesia (1748) and the Seven Years War
(1756-1763). In order to
pay her war debts, Maria
Theresa mortgaged the
Banat to the
Vienna City Bank for 10
million gulden. The bank was
adverse to investments in
the
Banat. War
debts, lack of money and an
anti-settlement attitude in
the involved government
offices hindered a larger
settlement campaign. Even so, there was an early Theresian colonization
period in 1740-1754. In
addition to Romanians from
Small Wallachia and from Bulgaria, about 2500 German settlers came to the
Banat and settled in Neubeschenowa,18
St. Andreas19
and Tschanad.20
The new borders of the crown
domain after the Turkish war
also required a new Military
Border in the southern Banat. About 1748, the “French”
colonization of the Banat
began with emigration from Lorraine and surrounding
regions. The Bega canal was
extended in 1759 under the
direction of the Dutch
engineer Max Fremaut, and
connected to the
Temesch
through a system of locks,
so that it could serve as a
navigation channel for the
arriving colonists.
Banater Schwaben Movement
Map route of Origin areas to
Banat
©
Alex Leeb & Tom Leihn
The Second Colonization; or
Second Schwabenzug
(1763-1770); or Theresian
Settlement Period under
Maria Theresa (1744-1773)
- New
land for the colonists
Many landed estates (about
90 fallow pasturelands) in
the northern
Banat heath (the
court chamberlain’s office
wished to settle these) were
still leased in 1763 to the
Prädien
Company (the livestock
farmers’ trading company) by
the Viennese court
chamberlain’s office (Hofkammer).
The livestock farmers
maintained enormous herds on
the leased meadows (over
50,000 animals) and
sabotaged, by any means
possible, the necessary
colonization of the landed
estates (Prädien)
by farmers and craftsmen.
Those Serbians and
Romanians who lived on the
heath farmed only for their
own needs and thus did not
enter into a conflict of
interest with the herdsmen.
Maria Theresa’s orders that
arriving colonists were to
be placed not only into
existing towns (which were
quickly overwhelmed), but
rather to establish new
towns on the steppe pastures
(puszta), were commonly
carried out with delays or
even completely ignored. The
influence of the stock
farmers extended to the
Banat Land Administration in
Temeswar, which was
responsible for colonization
and establishment of
villages. Because of that
influence, portions of the
fields were only gradually
removed from their leases,
starting in 1766, and could
consequently be settled,
built up and cultivated on a
large scale. The land, which the colonists found
and which had been allocated
to them, was for the most
part weedy, woody and in
parts still swampy,
wasteland. Much work and
diligence was necessary to
clean up the weeds, marshes
and thorny undergrowth and
to subsequently till the
land. As early as 1766, the
tax revenues (42,000 gulden)
from the new granaries
surpassed the lease fees
(30,000 gulden) for the
pastures. The Banat granary became the best tax source for the crown.
About 11,000 families (about
42,000 persons) immigrated
to the Banat in the Theresian settlement period. For settlement
of colonists, 200,000 fl
(gulden) were appropriated
annually between 1762 and
1772. Thus, the
establishment of 30 villages
and the expansion of 27
additional towns cost the
exchequer 2 million Rhenish
guldens. Immediately after
the Treaty of Hubertusburg21
(1763) between Prussia, Austria and Saxony, settlement activity was again carried out on a
grand scale. The
Bohemian-Austrian court
chancellor’s office issued
the Theresian colonization
land patent on 25 February 1763, and called
for settlement by officers,
non commissioned officers,
discharged soldiers and
military members who had
become invalids.
Villages were established,
which (unlike in the first
Schwabenzug) no longer lay
in the higher parts of the
heath, but lay instead in
the western fallow lands in
the center of the heath (in
the former swamplands) which
had been drained after the
building of the Bega canal.
The towns of Albrechtsflor,22
Billed,23
Bogarosch,24
Charleville,25
Gottlob,26
Grabatz,27
Großjetscha,28
Hatzfeld,29
Heufeld,30
Kleinbetschkerek,31
Kleinjetscha,32
Lenauheim33,
Lunga34,
Marienfeld35,
Mastort36,
Nero37,
Ostern,38 Pesag,39
Seultour,40 St. Hubert,41
Triebswetter,42
Warjasch,43
and Wiseschdia44
were built for settlement.
The external borders of the
monarchy urgently required
to be secured and from
economic considerations,
additional subjects were
called for colonization ("ubi
populus, ibi obolus"45).
With the same land patent,
subsequent to 1764 imperial
subjects were also recruited
for colonization. They
were granted a six year
reprieve from taxes, free
timber for construction and
firewood, 24 Joch46
for cultivation, 6 Joch
meadowland, 6 Joch
pastureland, and 1 Joch
housing lots. Craftsmen
received a ten year reprieve
from taxation. In the second
Swabenzug, as in the first,
only Catholics were
permitted to settle.
Protestants were either
dispersed by caning or
"converted" during the
passage through Vienna. They had to declare themselves willing
to convert to the Catholic
faith.
The Third
Colonization; or Third
Schwabenzug (1782-1787); or
Josephine Settlement Period
under Joseph II (1780 –
1790)
Joseph II
was an admirer of Frederic
II of Prussia. He perceived the imperial
coronation as a "ridiculous,
obsolete ceremony."
When he came to power, he
did not let himself being
crowned in Hungary as king of the Magyars, but rather had
the crown transported from
Budapest to Vienna like a museum piece. That enraged the
class-conscious Hungarian
nobility and started a
prolonged conflict with the
nobility, whose help Joseph
II needed urgently, as he
tried to diminish the
conflicts between Catholic
and Protestant in Hungary. His predecessors had
tried to strengthen the
Roman–Catholic religion in
mainly Calvinist Hungary.
In 1781
Joseph II signed the
Edict of Tolerance (Toleranz-Edikt).
Protestants were therefore
admitted to the Third
Swabian Colonization. The
region south of Temeswar had
not yet been fully settled.
Shortly after his accession
to the throne on
21 September 1782,
Joseph started with the
settlement campaign that
lasted until 1787. The
imperial settlement
proclamation promised
freedom of religion and
conscience, a new and
comfortable house with
garden for each family, and
in addition, land, fields,
farming tools, Graught and
breeding animals for the
families working in
agriculture. Craftsmen
received an additional 50
gulden for the purchase of
tools, as well as free
boarding and fare for all,
from Vienna to their
destination. Fourteen
new villages were
established. About 3,000
families are said to have
found accommodation in these
villages, as well as in
already existing villages
that were now on Hungarian
territory. As the
southern Banat became
battlefield again (Joseph II
and Catherine II of Russia declared war on Turkey)
the colonization had to
cease.
After
1789 the
government-sponsored
settlement was discontinued.
Individual settlers came to
private estates until 1829.
Whoever wanted to immigrate
after that, had to prove
possession of 500 gulden in
cash.
The
"French" colonization
The terms
"French colonists" and
"French colonization" imply
that the colonists
originated from German and
French-Lorraine, from Alsace, and from the French Departements bordering on
Alsace and Lorraine, as well as Luxemburg and southern Belgium
(the province called
Luxemburg).
As a
rule, during the
colonization of the
Banat, settler
families coming from the
same region were settled as
much as possible in the same
village. They followed
that for decades.
The
places of origin of the
settlers of the
Banat “French villages” St. Hubert,
Charleville, Seultour,
Mercydorf,
Triebswetter, Ostern,
Gottlob, Hatzfeld,
Klein-Jetscha, Segenthau,47
and others, are located
southwest of the
French-German language
border, in the region of
Metz- Saargemünd- Saarbourg-
Nancy. The indication of origin
"ex Chateau Salins" appears
extremely often in church
books. "Luxemburgers" were
well represented in
Deutsch-Rekasch. Both
"Lothringer" and
"Luxemburger" are historical
terms that do not coincide
entirely with the
contemporary regions bearing
their names. Places
located in today’s
Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland, are attributed to Lorraine in the settler
listings, while villages in
the districts of Saarbourg
and Bitburg were once part
of Luxemburg. The
Belgian city of Arlon is designated as being in Luxemburg.
The designation "aus dem
luxemburgischen" often means
the Belgian province called
Luxemburg.
While
locating the places of
origin of the French
settlers of the Banat, one
has to consider the former
territorial configuration of
the countries of origin.
The
"French" colonization of the
Banat started about 1748
with emigration from
Lorraine and
the territories bordering on
it. The settlers from Lorraine that established
Neu-Beschenowa in the summer
of 1748 had to complete a
military training ordered by
Maria Theresia, so that they
would be able to serve as
soldiers in case of war.
By 1750 the villages St.
Andreas and St. Martin48
had been established.
In an initial massive
effort, both French- and
German-speaking Lorrainers
settled St. Andreas.
Mercydorf
(Mercyfalva, named after the
Lorraine general
Mercy, who commanded the
forces in the Banat) a small
village founded 1735 only by
Italians (the only Italian
settlement in the
Banat) received
substantial reinforcement,
repeated same in a second
massive effort between 1763
and 1766. In 1756
Mercydorf
consisted of a single street
and provided shelter for 21
families from Lorraine. Because
of further arrivals during
the 1769-71 period, other
streets had to be built and
Mercydorf
became substantially
"French."
Upper
Lorraine,
which originally had a
German population, was
"Frenchicised" early on.
Occupied by the French in
the Polish Succession War,
the duchy was taken from the
husband of Maria Theresia by
the Vienna Peace Treaty of
1738 (he received Tuscany in
its place) and given as
sinecure to the Polish
ex-king Stanislaus
Leszczinsky, a protegee of
France. In accordance
with the Treaty, Upper
Lorraine reverted to France after Stanislaus’ death in
1766. The extensive
feudal estates of Falkenberg
(Faulque Mont),
Forbach, Püttlingen (Puttelanges)
and Mörchingen (Morhange)
were added. Some
districts of Luxemburg were
also given to France
(e.g., the free holding
Rollingen in 1769).
The
pauperization of
Lorraine under
Polish king Stanislaus
Leszczinsky (1733-1766)
caused people from almost
all Lorraine villages to
emigrate to the Southeast.
The French government did
not treat its new subject
gently. It exploited
the population with high
taxes and oppressed them.
Emissaries recruiting for
the colonization of Banat,
found especially open ears
in the population of Lorraine and Luxemburg. Many liked the
prospect of finding a new
homeland in the fertile
Hungarian lands, under Maria
Theresia, the spouse of
their own legitimate duke.
Many
settlers, among them many
from Luxemburg, were
recruited 1765/66 by baron
Franz Valerius von
Hauer, working for the
margrave of Baden. Between 1765 and
1766, 3,141 families with
about 14,000 persons came to
the
Banat. The granted loan (called "Antizipation")
had to be paid back after
three free years. It was
controlled with the help
of so-called "Antizipations-Büchel"
(loan booklets). The village of Billed was the first village to be established in the
Banat heath ("Banater Heide") which was
gradually being developed.
The "hunger year" 1769
caused an unforeseen wave of
emigration from south
western Germany
and its bordering regions.
781 families came to the Banat, more than originally expected. Despite a
prohibition on emigration
and massive interventions by
the French government,
emigrants from Luxemburg and Lorraine again formed the
main part of the French
colonists when colonization
reached its apogee in
1770-71.
Often the
settlers had to leave in
secrecy, because the local
authorities refused to give
them permission to emigrate.
But the hope of achieving
personal freedom in the new
homeland and owning their
house and land in hereditary
tenure, challenged many
oppressed subjects to pack
their bags and disappear
into the night. By the
end of 1770 3,276 families
with more than 10,500
persons (half of them from
Lorraine and
Luxemburg) immigrated to the
Banat.
It became
nearly impossible to provide
housing for them in the
overcrowded existing
villages.
From 1770
to 1773 4,935 families with
16,889 persons came into the Banat. Overall, French subjects with German and
French mother tongue
constituted the majority of
settlers during the
colonisation under Maria
Theresa.
French
settlers found accommodation
in Mercydorf, Bruckenau,49 Jarmatha,50 Mastort, Heufeld,
Neu-Beschenova, Hatzfeld,
Groß-Jetscha, Csatad,
Bogarosch, Grabatz,
Deutsch-Beschenova,51 Billed,
Marienfeld, Neu-Arad,52
Segenthau, Weißkirchen53
and
Szöllös.54
Albrechtsflor55
was founded in
1770. The French
villages of St. Hubert,
Charleville and Seultour
came into being in 1771.
The villages of Ostern,
Gottlob and Triebswetter
were established by French
settlers in 1772. More
settlers from Luxemburg came
to Deutsch-Rekasch; the
village Reschitze was
founded in 1771; and the
village Steierdorf56
in the
Banat Hill Country in
1773/74.
Soon
after, the Vienna Court was forced to temporarily stop
colonization. The
administration in charge of
settlement had failed at the
exact moment when mass
immigration from Lorrain and
Luxemburg where flooding the
Banat.
The
colonization effort
collapsed. The
settlers could no longer
find accommodation.
The administration
commissioners and district
officials in Temeswar could
have prevented the
catastrophe by timely
construction of housing and
by taking local measures to
provide preventive hygiene
and medical services.
But they were mostly
noblemen who avoided
personal contact with the
immigrant peasants and
simple craftsmen, whom they
considered low-class.
While in May 1770 only 900
families had been barely
sheltered, when in the fall
of that year more than 2,300
families with many children
were cramped together and
had little to eat.
They soon caught malaria,
dysentery, and especially
typhoid (called
“Petetschenfieber” at the
time). The catastrophic
hygienic conditions caused
epidemics and infectious
diseases to spread.
Tired from weeks of travel
and weakened from
unsatisfactory provisions,
many of them, especially
older persons, did not have
enough strength left, and
just died. Even though the official recruitment for the
Banat was stopped, numerous settlers arrived in
1771 and 1772. There
was even a late-Theresian
colonization period
continued until about 1778.
The administrative body of
the Banat ("Landesadministration
des Temeswarer Banates") was
abolished by imperial decree
on 6 July 1778 and the Banat was handed over to Hungarian administration. Maria
Theresa died on 29 October 1780. With the
proclamation of his decree
of tolerance ("Toleranz
Patent") by Emperor Joseph
II on
26 October 1881,
non-Catholic settlers were
admitted as settlers of the
Banat. |
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"The Bega"
Click image to enlarge
Photo taken by Jody McKim
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[8]
Perjamosch (German) / Periam (Romanian) / Perjamos(Hungarian)
Location:
Timis
County, Romania ~ 52 km NW of Timisoara,
3 km S of
Mures
River
[9] Gross St. Peter (German) /
Nagyszentpéter (Hungarian) / Sânpetru Mare
(Romanian) Location:
Timis
County, Romania ~ 2km W of Periam;
46° 2' 60"N,
20° 40' 0"E
[10]
Sarafol (German) / Sárafalva (Hungarian) /Saravale (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania ~ 10km E of
Sânnicolau Mare;
46° 4' 0"N, 20° 43' 60"E
[11] Groß-St. Nikolaus (German) /
Nagyszentmiklós (Hungarian) /
Sânnicolau Mare (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania, 65 km NW of Timisoara
~ 3 km S of Mures River;
46° 4' 60"N, 20° 37' 60"E
[12] Saderlach
(German) / Zádorlák (Hungarian) / Zădăreni (Romanian)
Location: Arad County,
Romania, on S bank of Mureş River ~ 7 km W of Arad;
46°
7' 60”N, 21° 13' 0E
[13] Mercydorf (German) / Merczyfálva (Hungarian) / Cărani
(Romania)
Location: Timis
County, Romania, 20 km N of Timisoara
45° 54' 35" N, 21° 9' 38"E
Also see:
French &
German Settlers from Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg
& Trier
- includes 106 family names & a small
list with statements of origin.
(Mercydorf
1734-1934
by Peter
Schiff - II. Settlement ~ c.)
[14]
Originally an Albanian tribe
[15] Rekasch (German) / Rekas (Hungarian) / Recas (Romanian) Location: Timis
County,
Romania, 25 km E of Timisoara;
45° 47'
56"N, 21° 30' 3"E
[16] Winga (German) / Vinga (Hungarian) / Vinga (Romanian) Location: Arad
County, Romania, 15km S of Arad;
46° 1' 0"N, 21° 11' 60E
[17] Alt Beschenowa (German) / Óbeba or
Óbesenyő (Hungarian) / Dudeştii Vechi or Beba
Veche (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania, 20km SE of Szeged Hungary;
46° 2' 60"N, 20° 28' 60"E
[18]
Neubeschenowa (German) /
Ujbesenyö (Hungarian) / Dudestii Noi (Romanian)
Location: Timis County, Romania, 15 km NW of Timisoara;
45° 50' 16N, 21° 6' 2E
[19]
Sanktandreas (German) /
Szentandrás (Hungarian / Sânandrei
(Romanian) Location: Timis County, Romania, 12 km N of Timisoara
45° 51' 11N, 21° 10' 5E
[20] Tschanad (German) / Csanad (Hungarian) / Cenad
(Romanian)
Location: Timis County, Romania, at bank of Mureş River ~ 35 km SE of Szeged, Hungary;
46° 7' 60N, 20° 34' 60E
[21] Hubertusburg is a palace in Saxony, and famous for the treaty signed here. It
is between the towns of Oschatz (51° 18′ 0″ N, 13° 7′ 0″ E) and Grimma
51° 13'
0" N, 12° 43' 0" E
[22]
Albrechtsflor, Kleintermin (German) / Kisteremia, Teremé
(Hungarian) / Teremia Mica (Romanian) Location: Timis County,
Romania
45° 57' 27" N 20° 29' 47"
E
[23]
Billed (German) / Bilyéd (Hungarian) / Biled (Romanian)
Location: Timis County, Romania
45° 53' 11" N,
20° 57' 32" E
[24]
Bogarosch (German) / Bogáros (Hungarian) / Bulgărus
(Romanian) Location: Timiş County, Romania
45° 55' 0"
N, 20° 49' 12" E
[25]
Charleville (German) / Károlyliget (Hungarian) / Sarlevilu
/ currently Banatsko Veliko Selo (Serbian) Location: North Banat District, Vojvodina Province, Serbia
45° 49′ 23″ N, 20° 36′ 22″ E
[26]
Gottlob (German / Kisösz (Hungarian) / Gotlob(b) (Romanian)
Location, Timis County,
Romania
45° 56' 2" N, 20° 42' 36" E
[27]
Grabatz, Grawatz (German) / Garabos, Grabacz, Grabac
(Hungarian) / Grabat(i) (Romanian) Location, Timis County,
Romania
45° 52' 38" N, 20° 44' 36"
E
[28]
Großjetscha (German) / Nagyjecsa (Hungarian) / Iecea Mare
(Romanian) Location: Timis County, Romania
45° 50' 57"
N, 20° 53' 21" E
[29]
Hatzfeld (German) / Zsombolya (Hungarian) / Jimbolia (Romanian) Location: Timis County,
Romania
45° 47' 29" N,
20° 43' 2" E
[30]
Heufeld (German) / Kistöszeg (Hungarian) / Novi Kozarci, (Serbian )
Location: North Banat District, Vojvodina Province, Serbia
45° 46' 54" N
20° 37' 20" E
[31]
Kleinbetschkerek (German) / Kisbecskerek (Hungaryian) /
Becicherecul-Mic (Romanian) Location: Timis County,
Romania
45° 49' 45 N 21° 3' 5 E
[32]
Kleinjetscha (German) / Kisjecsa (Hungarian) / Iecea Mică
(Romania) Location: Timis County, Romania
45° 49' 20”
N, 20° 55' 18” E
[33]
Lenauheim (German) / Csátád (Hungarian) / Lenauheim (Romanian)
Location: Timis County Romania
45° 52' 19” N, 20° 47'
58”E
[34]
Lunga (German) / Lunge (Hungaryian) / Lunga (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County,
Romania
45° 52' 53N Long (DMS) 20° 35' 9E
[35]
Marienfeld (German) / Nagyteremia, Mariafölde (Hungarian) /
Teremia Mare, Marjafeld, (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County
Romania 45° 56' 7” N 20° 31' 30”
E
[36]
Mastort (German) / Kistöszég (Hungarian) / Novi Kozarci
(Serbian) Location: North Banat District, Vojvodina Province, Serbia Yugoslavia
45° 46' 54”N 20° 37' 20” E
[37]
Nero (German) / Nyero (Hungarian) / Nerău (Romanian)
Location:
Timis
County, Romania
45° 58' 8” N, 20° 33' 29” E
[38]
Ostern, Kleinkomlosch (German) / Kiskomlos (Hungarian) /
Comlosul Mic (Romanian) Location: Timis County, Romania
45° 50' 58” N 20° 39' 57”E
[39]
Pesag, Pesak (German) / Pészak
(Hungarian), Pesac (Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania
45° 59' 39”
N ,20° 49' 57” E
[40]
Seultour, Soltur (German) / Szent Borbola,
Szoltur, Szeultorn (Hungarian) / Solturu, currently
Banatsko Veliko Selo (Serbian) Location: North Banat
District, Vojvodina Province, Serbia
45° 49′ 23″ N, 20° 36′ 22″ E
[41]
St. Hubert (German) / Szent Hubert (Hungarian) /Sveti Hubert,
currently Banatsko Veliko Selo (Serbian) Location: North Banat District, Vojvodina Province, Serbia
45° 49′ 23″ N, 20° 36′ 22″ E
[42]
Triebswetter (German) / Nagyösz (Hungarian) / Tomnatic
(Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania
45° 59' 16”
N, 20° 39' 27” E
[43]
Warjasch (German) / Várjás (Hungarian) / Variaş
(Romanian)
Location: Timis
County, Romania
46° 1' 0” N, 20°
56' 60” E
[44]
Wiseschdia (German) / Kisvizésdia (Hungarian) / Vizejdia
(Romanian) Location: Timis
County, Romania
45° 56' 32”
N , 20° 39' 11” E
[45] The
phrase "ubi
populus, ibi obolus" is difficult to translate precisely, but generally means that the sooner
a place is populated, the sooner it will generate revenue.
[46] One joch
is the area of a square 40 klafters (about 83 yards) on a side (1klafter»1.9m)The Joch thus comes to 0.5755 hectare (1 hectare=10000 m2) or about
1.422 acres. Joch is also the German word for a yoke, so this unit represents an
area that could be plowed in a day by a yoke of oxen.
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The Voyage down the Danube
In the year 361 the Romans
already used the
Danube for
transporting their soldiers.
The crusaders valued the
Danube as a transportation
route originating in Ulm. During the Carolinian, Theresian and
Josephine Colonization's,
Ulm played only a
secondary role as a hub for
the assembly and embarkation
of colonists headed for the
Banat or Hungary. It became the main
departure point for all
German settlers (mostly from
Württemberg), that travelled
to
Russia and the Black Sea, starting about 1880. Their "ships" were
essentially rafts made of
wood, popularly known during
the nineteenth century as
"Ulmer Schachteln" - "Ulmer
Zillen" or "Ulmer Plätten." Even so, about 30 persons arrived in Ulm every day wanting to travel to the Banat. The voyage on the Danube toward Hungary and the Banat started mostly in Ehingen,
Biblingen, Lauingen,
Marxheim, Donauwörth,
Günzburg (belonging to
Swabian Austria) or in Regensburg. Günzburg und Regensburg
were the main hubs for the
assembly and embarkation of
colonists headed for the
Banat. The travel
passes for continuing their
journey on the Danube were
issued by Austrian
Commissioners in
Regensburg.
These passes permitted the
entry of the colonists to
the Imperial States at
Engelhartzell. The activity in Regensburg was hectic. Many
folks from south and west
Germany gathered there, from
Hessen, Franconia,
Nassau,
Westphalia, from the Rhineland Palatinate, from
Luxemburg, Elsaß and
Lothringen. The means
of transportation on the
Danube soon had
to be upgraded. Not enough
"ships" were available.
Uneven water levels, rapids,
sandbanks, and rocks in the
navigation channel presented
insurmountable difficulties
for large ships with deep
draught. The only
practical "ships" were light
rafts-type vehicles, steerable by oars, usable
only for down-river travel.
Various sizes could carry
20, 80, or 150 passengers.
They were also known
as "Zillen" or "Kehlheimer
Plätten."
The rafts
were carpenter-made,
unrefined and untarred.
Upon their arrival in Vienna, Pest, or any Hungarian port, they were dismantled
and the logs could be sold
for firewood, or used as
building material for the
houses of the settlers in
the
Banat. In
the middle of the rafts
there was 10-foot high
shack, divided into two
rooms. In the rooms,
things were lying, sitting,
or standing on top of each
other. In addition to
household utensils, the
settlers took along farming
utensils, scythes, saws,
axes, clothing, and domestic
animals. For their
overnight stays, passengers
that could not afford to pay
for room and board at the
inn, carried along their own
straw mattresses, kettles,
pans, and groceries.
As they did not travel at
night, the trip took six to
nine days to Vienna. Under adverse conditions such as
rain and fog, it could take
12 to 14 days. Most
emigrants chose the months
of May and June for their
departure, when it was
neither too warm nor too
cold for travelling.
The emigrants needed to have
a lot of patience, as they
often had to wait days for
their departure. Those who
helped with the rowing did
not pay a fare and received
free food (although the
sailors were not exactly
gourmets!). The others
paid one Kreuzer for each
person and mile. The
complete trip from
Regensburg to Vienna cost 4 Gulden per person. That was
a lot of money in those
days, for a river voyage
that not without
considerable risks. Because
of the light construction of
the rafts, the lives of the
passengers were at risk
especially while on the
upper
Danube.
Cliffs, rapids, and
sandbanks hampered the trip.
During floods or high water
levels, the cliffs could not
be seen. Many rafts
were smashed or capsized in
the rapids and travellers
drowned in the waters of the Danube.
The rafts
travelled via Straubing to Passau. In Passau they stopped for a day, and the emigrants received
the first installment of
their travel allowance from
the Austrian administration:
3 Gulden per person for the
travel to Vienna; in Vienna they
received another 3 Gulden
per person for the travel to Hungary. At Engelhartzell, on
the Bavarian/Austrian
border, the boats rested
another day for customs
clearing. The Austrian
customs agents collected
duty and subjected the
emigrants to a thorough
inspection. Lutheran
Bibles were confiscated and
burned. The voyage
continued to
Linz. From
there it was only three days
to Vienna. Before getting there, they had to
pass the most dangerous part
of the trip: the cliffs of Düppstein (two days after
passing Engelhartzell).
A large rock in the middle
of the Danube caused the vortices feared by passengers and
sailors alike. The
oars were pulled in and the
sailors asked the passengers
to pray an "Our Father" each
in his own language.
Then the raft was left to
the floods, as no steering
was possible. After
another day they reached Vienna. The rafts
entered the Donaukanal at
the Nußdorf customs station
and landed in Rossau, a
suburb of
Vienna.
Here the colonists had to
stay close to the river port
and wait for information
regarding their departure.
Since most could not afford
to stay over night at the
inn, they to eat and sleep
in the open. Bad
weather caused many
colonists to get sick and
died later. Also in
Vienna, the
emigrants had to present
themselves at the Imperial
Chamber to receive their
documents for the
Banat (a warranty certificate or even a
settler’s pass). When
the time for departure came
and the emigrants were
already gathered on their
raft, an employee of the
Imperial Chamber appeared
and handed them the second
installment of their travel
allowance (3 Gulden per
person) for the their
continuing journey to Ofen
(Budapest). To keep
track of the costs, the
names of all colonists were
entered in a clearing list
("Wiener Abfertigungslisten").
These lists play a major
role in genealogical
research. The colonists were
expected to make true
statements about their place
of origin, occupation, and
religion.
Those
falsely claiming to be
farmers, only to obtain land
and fields in the Banat, were whipped and turned away. Religion was
also taken very seriously.
Only Catholics were
accepted, as the Crown
wanted to reinforce the
Catholic element in
Protestant Hungary. If
somebody was suspected of
being Evangelical, he was
either beaten up and chased
away, or taken to the priest
at the church Maria am Gestade for religious
instruction. If he did
not bring back the proper
attestation, he did not get
a settler’s pass.
Often the
journey on the Danube came
to an end in
Vienna or Ofen
(old designation of Budapest). Every raft was dismantled and sold, as it could
not travel up the
Danube to its
home. The sooner the
owners of the raft could
sooner journey was ended and
the raft was sold. When they
arrived in Vienna, many “raft-dismantlers” were waiting to
take the rafts apart and
sell the wood. Many
rafts never made it beyond
Vienna.
The raft personnel returned
home by land, and the
“captain” lived dangerously
because he carried the money
received from the sale of
the wood. Some rafts
continued down the
Danube, past
Ofen and Peterwardein57 to Titel58 on the river Theiß/Tisza
and then up the Bega canal
to Temeswar. The Bega
canal had been built in the
1728 to 1733 period for the
purposes of draining the
extensive swamplands in the
Banat and
providing a waterway between
Temeswar and the Theiß.
During the early years of
colonization, the settlers
left their “ships” at Pantschowa59 and Neupalanka.60
From 1736 to 1748 they were
taken over by the
Banat | | | |
