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Neu-Pasua From the Settlement to the
Flight
Neu-Pasua,
A Short Homeland
Book
By Mathias Huber
Translated by Henry Fischer,
Edited by Rose Vetter
Neu-Pasua is located
22 kilometers north-west
of Belgrade in the
fertile region of
Syrmia. It has
connections to the
most important railway
line in Europe that
links the north-west and
south-east portions of
the continent: Ostende-Vienna-Budapest-Belgrade-Constaninople.
The geographical
importance of the
community is heightened
by the fact that it is
located only 4
kilometers from the
Danube and not far from
the Sava estuary. After
the Second World War the
Belgrade Airport was
constructed on the site
of our former
community. The church
stood at the centre of
the community 80 meters
above sea level. In
this flat landscape the
“Pickerle” was 3 meters
higher than the village
and was the highest
elevation. The area
where Neu-Pasua was
established lay within
the Austrian Military
Frontier District and
from its founding was
administered by the
military authorities in
Peterwardein. It was
only 90 years after the
settlement that the
inhabitants of the
village elected their
first mayor, Adam Lang.
Up until then this
function had been
carried out by an older
lower ranking military
officer who was
responsible to the
officer in command in
Alt-Pasua. During this
period of strict
military governance the
use of the public stocks
as a form of punishment
was in effect.
The reasons given for
bringing our forebears
to this country were
primarily of an economic
and military nature.
When the Turks were
driven out of Middle
Europe at the end of the
17th Century they
abandoned and left
behind a sparsely
populated, devastated,
swamp infested region.
In order for that region
to be cultivated the
Austrian Empire had to
think of settling these
territories. In
addition to the former
inhabitants and newly
settled Slavs the
decision was made to
recruit German farmers
and tradesmen in south
western Germany. This
undertaking was met with
some success because the
German farmers who lived
under the burden and
demands of what remained
of the feudal system
were easy to win over.
These industrious and
ambitious farmers who
lived under terrible
economic and social
conditions in the south
western Germany
principalities not only
had to contend with the
difficulties of a new
beginning during the
settlement period in
their new homeland but
also had to undertake
military service and act
as border guards along
the frontier. During
the extensive publicity
campaign during the
reign of Empress Maria
Theresia those settlers
who responded were
overwhelmingly Roman
Catholic. It was only
under the leadership of
her son Joseph II who
issued the Edict of
Toleration that
Protestants were also
allowed to participate
and settle after 1780.
In 1790 the military
authorities in
Peterwardein assigned 62
families, all of whom
were Protestants, to
settle along the Sava
River that served as the
border with the Turks to
serve there as border
guards. These settlers,
who were our forebears,
were brought to
Alt-Pasua where Slovaks
had been settled since
1770. Because the
locale for the new
settlement was still not
defined and little
preparation had been
done this group of
settlers spent the
winter of 1790/1791
among the Lutheran
Slovaks in Alt-Pasua.
In 1791 the settlement
began on what was then
known as the “Pasua
Puszta” and had been
leased to others who had
left. It was a narrow
stretch of land and no
large fertile areas
remained to be had. It
was this primitive
remote settlement in a
swampy area close to the
Sava River that our
forebears fought for
their lives and their
families’ existence.
It would be
interesting to list the
places of origin of all
sixty-two families from
southern Germany who
were involved in the
settlement that can be
found in an article
written by Professor
Lotz. This however
would go beyond the
parameters of this
writing. Only the names
of cities, towns and
district designations
will be mentioned.
They are as follows:
Böblingen, Calw,
Emmendingen, Esslingen,
Göppingen, Heilbronn,
Kehl (Baden), Lahr,
Lörrach, Ludwigsburg,
Marbach am Neckar,
Mosbach, Nürtingen,
Reutlingen, Tübingen,
Ulm
an der Donau,
Vaihingen, Waiblingen,
Zuffenhausen
and others.
The settlement plan for
the village by
Lieutenant von
Wechselberg was done on
a scale of 1:7200. This
village plan is in the
War Archives in Vienna
under the reference
designation GJh Number
494. In the centre of
the village there was a
large exercise area used
for the military
training of the Grenzer
border guards. In this
plan, the dimensions and
boundaries of the
pastureland
and the
individual house lots
are clearly shown and
identified. Forty-one
house lots were on the
Semlin Road, (both Upper
and Lower streets) and
twenty on the Banovci
Road (Ratzen- and Zottel
Streets).
The new settlers were
confronted by virgin
swampy land and soil and
an unhealthy climate.
At the time of
settlement, the
community of Neu-Pasua
was assigned 2,500
Katastral Joch of land,
including the village
itself.
This adequately
met the needs of the
first generation of
settlers, but was not
sufficient to support
their descendants.
After one hundred years
of tireless efforts and
industriousness on the
part of
the entire
population, it became
what our poets would
describe as “a blooming
Eden brought forth in a
wasteland.” Houses and
roads were built;
ditches and canals were
dug. The growing
prosperity of the
farmers made it possible
to expand their acreage
and vineyards to ten
times the original
uncultivated wasteland
allotted to them, by
their purchase of land
in twelve communities in
the districts of
Alt-Pasua and Semlin.
Towards the end of the
18th Century and the
beginning of the 19th
numerous families moved
to Neu-Pasua, especially
from Bulkes, Cserwenka
and Werbass. Neu-Pasua
was one of the most
blessed in its large
number of children among
all of the German
communities in the
country. Before the
Flight in October 1944
there were 105 families
with five or six
children and 28 families
with seven or more
children. On one street
alone three neighbors
had twenty-five children
among them.
Because of its ongoing
economic development
over 153 years the
community could no
longer expand so that
many families were
forced to migrate
elsewhere. Daughter
communities were
established near and far
throughout the
vicinity. In addition
numerous families also
emigrated overseas.
According to the
statistics presented in
the Neu-Pasua Heimatbuch
using as the fixed date
the Flight, October 6,
1944 a perfect picture
emerges with regard to
the village inhabitants
through the compilation
of the information that
was provided. In total,
Neu-Pasua had 5,880
inhabitants. The
refugee families from
other communities that
sought safety among us
out of fear of Partisans
attacks are not included
in that number. There
were 5,812 Lutheran and
11 Roman Catholic
Germans. From among the
57 non-Germans there
were 39 Slavs and 18
Gypsies. The latter had
lived here for several
generations and spoke
the Swabian dialect
fluently. The village
counted 26 streets and
alleys. There were
1,153 houses alongside
of workshops and
stores. On the basis of
these statistics
Neu-Pasua like all of
the other German
communities had already
suffered heavy war
losses prior to the day
of the Flight. At that
time there had been 124
men that had fallen in
battle or were missing.
It was only several
years after the end of
the war that the
sorrowful balance sheet
of our losses could be
drawn up
resulting from the mass
murders carried out by
the Partisans, the
numbers of victims of
epidemics in Tito’s
internment and death
camps and the years
spent in slave
labour from 1948 to
1951.
In
total, during the Second
World War the number of
those who fell in
battle, are missing or
were put to death in an
inhumane manner in
captivity include 295
men in the military and
169 civilians primarily
the elderly, women and
children for a total of
464 persons. It is a
proven fact that the
losses suffered at war’s
end were greater than
during the actual
conflict and should be
considered unique if not
unthinkable. These
losses account for 8% of
the population compared
to 3% in the First World
War when 137 persons
lost their lives. We
need to mention that a
transport consisting of
187 of our people the
majority of which were
family members from
Neu-Pasua were forced on
trains in Ried in Upper
Austria and were shipped
back to Yugoslavia at
war’s end. This train
transport travelled as
far as Mitrowitz in
Syrmia where the vast
majority of these
destitute people
perished in utter misery
in the internment camp
there. But there were
other German communities
that suffered greater
losses than we did.
[Published at DVHH.org 18 Aug 2009]
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Agriculture; Crafts & Trade; The
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