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Introduction To Swabian Turkey
By Henry Fischer
The designation Swabian Turkey
refers to three bordering
counties of southwest Hungary
south of Lake Balaton with the
Danube River forming their
eastern boundary. They are the
counties of Baranya, Somogy and
Tolna. The term itself is an
attempt at describing the fact
that this area contained the
largest concentration of Danube
Swabians in what would remain of
Hungary after the First World
War, numbering over 200,000.
The local population had been
decimated during the 150 year
Turkish occupation and this
virtually uninhabited territory
received the first of the
German-speaking settlers
responding to the invitation of
Emperor Charles VI to settle in
Hungary. They were the vanguard
of the future Danube Swabians.
They came from various
principalities in southwest
Germany that were part of the
Holy Roman Empire. The
first of the settlers in this area were Swabians and
arrived as early as 1688, forerunners of the streams
of settlers that headed down the Danube throughout
the 18th century that history would remember as the
Great Swabian Migration.
Despite the
aftermath of the mass expulsions of the Danube Swabians of
Hungary between 1946-1948 their descendants still living
there have now marked over three hundred years of their
sojourn in the Heimat they brought to birth in a wilderness
and called it their home.
Unlike the
settlements in the Banat and Batschka that
were primarily established on Crown Lands
and subsidized by the ruler, in Swabian
Turkey they were located on the estates of
private landlords: nobles, churchmen and
military officers who enticed them to leave
the Imperial transports heading to the Banat
to settle on their domains. This would lead
to a totally different experience on their
part that would shape and form their
communities. Large numbers of the settlers
who followed the Swabians came from the
Bishopric of Fulda, Württemberg, the Pfalz
(Rhine/Palatinate) and Hesse. The Hessians
who settled in Tolna County on the estates
of Count von Mercy were Lutherans and
Reformed and were among the earliest
settlers to arrive along with a Patent from
the Emperor that promised them the freedom
to practice their religion.
The term Swabian Turkey was virtually
unknown to most of the emigrants who left
for the United States and Canada. In the
past it was primarily used by researchers
and now serves as a way of identifying the
region that shared a common history and
experience.
News &
Latest Additions . . .
Závod in the
Tolna -
A
summary and
partial
translation of
sections of the
Heimatbuch:
Závod in der
Tolna by
Anton Mayer.
Translated by
Henry Fischer,
2008.
Gadács and Szil:
The Two Sisters
- The history of
two of the
Danube Swabian
villages in
Somogy County
leading up to
the expulsion in
1948 that
attempts to
provide the
historical
context and
consequences of
the Potsdam
Declaration as
it applied to
the Danube
Swabians of
Hungary after
the Second World
War and the
expulsion of
their
populations as
an example of
what happened
all over Hungary
at that time. -
Henry Fischer,
14 Jun 2008
Emigration From
Somogy County To
Slavonia and the
United States. A sociological
take on the
disproportionate
numbers of
Swabians who
left Somogy at
the end of the
19th and
beginning of the
20th centuries
and actually
provides
information on
individuals and
villages from
that area
(including my
own
grandfather). -
Henry Fischer,
15 May 2008
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