View of Temeswar (Wood Engraving)

Anonymous wood engraving from the 17th century. The date 1713 written in ink is of a later date. The water in front of the mills is designated “Themes”. Reproduced from "Neue Banater Zeitung," 04.09.1982, Temeswar.

View of the city and fortress Temeswar at the beginning of the 18^th century
after a copper engraving by Gabriel Bodenehr, Augsburg: around 1739.
Original in the Austrian National Library, Vienna.

Votive Picture

Picture of the Virgin Mary painted in gratitude for the victories near Temeswar (Surrender of the fortress on 14 October 1716) and Belgrade (16 August 1717).

Liberation of Temeswar: 1716; Anonymous, about 1720. Pen with India Ink und brush with body colours on parchment, 82x59 cm. The parchment is mounted on wood; profiled wooden frame: mid-eighteenth century.

Based on the five lines of inscription, a 66 year old priest from Verona painted this picture on parchment in two years of hard work, as an everlasting remembrance of Maria’s help. He is asking all angels to petition Jesus and his most holy mother Mary, the queen of heaven and author of the victories near Temeswar and Belgrade, on behalf of himself, for the archdukes and for the wellbeing of the ruler. He mentions especially that a miraculous fog facilitated the victory near Belgrade.

Both events are indicated in the lower third of the painting, the minaret-dominated city of Temeswar with its fortifications on the Bega, and above it, separated by the blue horizon, the battle of Belgrade. On the left one recognizes the Danube Bridge and the imperial encampment in front of the fortress Belgrade. Columns of troops are just spreading out open the battle under clouds of fog, while to the right, on the Turkish side, there is much agitation.

This historic event actually fades into the background, as the fog emerging on the left becomes a light cloud, from which many heads of winged angels separate and in front of which appears Mary with the Child. As Princess of Heaven she is depicted with crown, sceptre, and blue, star-studded, ermine-lined coat. Her head is surrounded by a wreath of twelve stars. She is also the large sign in the sky according to the secret revelation (Rev.12,1). Like the Immaculata in uncounted baroque paintings, she is standing on the globe entwined by snakes and places one foot on the moon (Rev. 12,1; At the same time an allusion to the victory over the Turkish half moon), and the other foot on sepent of paradise, which holds the apple of Adam in its mouth.

The wars against the Turks are subsumed here under the story of salvation in which the Woman of Promise smashes the head of the satanic snake (Gen.3,15 Vulgata). She does that not out of her own power, but through her divine child, which, with a powerful gesture with the cross-shaped rod deals the deathblow to the snake.

It is customary to call this baroque type of the Madonna “Maria from Victory”. It was, therefore, likely that the priest from Verona would place the two wars against the Turks under this majestic appearance of the Madonna. This collaboration between heavenly help and imperial arms is also suggested by the painted frame of the picture, on which alternate, between rods of pearl, heads of winged angels and imperial double eagles.

The Latin text reads as follows:

Jseum, & SS^m. Matrem eius victoriarum Themisuarij, ac (mirâ fauente nebulâ) Belgradij Auctricem, coeli Imperatricem, vos omnes Angeli orate pro nobis, votisque Archiducum; Alleluia, & diuturna REGNANTIS incolumitate; Alleluia.

Opus integri biennij ad perenne marianorum munerum gratum monumentum per sacerdotem veronensem aetatis cadentis. 66 annorum valdé laborioso calamo (DIE adiuuante GRATIA) depictum jn charta membrana. Si dignum clementer judicabitur: GRATIA secundum clementiam, & deuotionem jn honorem beatae semper VIRGINIS, solitis, & ferventioribus quocunque tempore precibus pro votis (ut suprà) recognoscenda.

Detail from the Votive Picture

The Latin of this text makes a somewhat awkward impression and presents certain difficulties for the translator. The following translation should therefore be considered experimental:

"You angels all, call Jesus and his most holy mother, the originator of the victories in Temeswar and (with the help of a miraculous fog) in Belgrade, the princess of heaven, for us, for the (fulfillment of the) vows of the Archdukes, Alleluja, and for the long lasting wellbeing of the ruler, Alleluja." (It is the) work of two years to the everlasting grateful remembrance of the gifts of Maria, by a priest of Verona in the frail age of 66 years with a laborious brush (with the help of God’s grace) painted on parchment. If it is kindly found to be worthy, then the thanks should be, to the extent dictated by kindness and devotion to the honour of the ever pure virgin Mary, with customary and ever more fervent prayers for the (fulfillment of the) vows of the Archdukes, repaid.

[Latin-to-German translation: Dr. P. Benedikt Wagner OSB; German-to-English: N. Tullius]

Bibliography: Prinz Eugen von Savoyen, Katalog der Ausstellung zu seinem 300. Geburtstag, Wien 1963, vor allem S. 180, Nr. 153 u. Abb. 30. – Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, Freiburg i.Br., Herder, 3. Bd., 1971, Sp. 199 f. (zum Motiv "Maria vom Siege").

Quelle: Votivbild 1722, Benediktinerstift Seitenstetten, Abtei; Foto: P. Leo Heimberger OSB.

Johannes Ehardt
(13 April 1798 - 14 September 1866), Kleinjetscha

Der Große Schwabenzug – The Great Swabian Migration (18th century)

German Settlers in the Lower Danube Region; from an oil painting by Stefan Jäger.

Source: Dold, Stefan, die Einwanderung und Ansiedlung der Deutschen in Südungarn. Kurzgefasste Gelegenheits-Broschüre zur Bildenthüllung in Gyertyános (Gertianosch) am 15. Mai 1910. Temeswar (1910). 23 S. [The Immigration and Settlement of the Germans in Southern Hungary – Brochure at the Unveiling of the Painting in Gyertyános (Gertianosch) on 15 May 1910. Temeswar (1910). p. 23.]

Report on the unveiling of the painting “Immigration of the Germans in Southern Hungary” by the painter Stefan Jäger from Hatzfeld – he painted on commission idylls, landscapes ans still lives – that took place in Gertianosch.

Jäger received from the community of Gertianosch a large order for an oil painting (Tryptich: Immigration /Rest / Settlement) in the year 1906. In the same year he undertook a study trip to Southern Germany, where he studied costumes for the painting. The painting was donated to the Banater Museum in Temeswar, and is currently on loan to the Adam-Müller-Guttenbrunn-Heim cultural centre in Temeswar.

Protocolls of the founding of the
Association of Banat Swabians in Vienna, 27 Jänuary 1907

(Page 1, facsimile)

Source: Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs
[the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria]

Badge of the Association (1907)

The inside inscription:
"Bleib Deutsch" ["Remain German"] was a call against the massive tendencies to Magyarization that followed the Ausgleich [Equalization] of 1967).

Source: Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs [the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria]

Karl Kraushaar: Kurzgefaßte Geschichte des Banats und der deutschen Ansiedler

(Short History of the Banat and the German Settlers) Vienna 1923.

Title Page

Flag of the Association in Vienna
from the Peterskirche (1. Bezirk)
[First District]

Source: Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs [Archive of the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria]

Hairdressers from the Banat were 1907 cofounders of the Association of Banat Swabians.
Shown here is a hairdressing competition.
Source: Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs
[Archive of the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria]
Membership Photo:

Membership Photo: Schwabenball [Swabian Ball] in those days...
Source: Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs
[Archive of the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria

Association newspaper "Unsere Heimat" ["Our Homeland"] (Facsimile); appeared monthly, published by Karl Kraushaar "On behalf of the Association of Banat Swabians in Vienna."

Source:
Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs [Archive of the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria.

Action to Help children during and after WWI

40.000 famished Viennese children found free accommodation in the Banat between 1916 and 1930. In the “Temeswarer Zeitung” of July 4, 1922, the following can be read: “An important role was also played by the Romania-German social democrat press in the organization of aid to the children of Vienna during 1921 and 1922. This effort started in June 1921. More than 2000 Banat families struggling themselves for their existence, took over the care of these children, whose parents were mainly railway workers. The return transports took place on September 26, October 19, and November 8, 1921. During the summer of 1922, 650 children from Vienna found temporary accommodation in the Banat. Michael Schaut, editor of the socialist newspaper of Temeswar, was a member of the Banat Aid Committee that received the children trains from Vienna and organized the allocation of the children to their foster parents.

Source:
Archiv des Verbandes der Banater Schwaben Österreichs [Archive of the Association of Banat Swabians of Austria.

In the photograph:

Zum Foto: Leave-taking of the Viennese children at the Josefstädter Railway Station (today: Northern Station). In the centre: Deputy Karl von Möller, representing the Banat in Romanian parliament.

[Published at www.dvhh.org, Oct. 2006]