^{The News}
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

 

ÅÅÅÅÅÅÅ Way Back: Have you ever requested a website only to get the dreaded 404, page not found error message (or, worse yet recently, a hijacked Japanese-text page at the web address you listed)? It happens... people move or delete their sites for various reasons, so your request fails. The proper web response for a request for a non-existent page is for the server to generate a 404 error and display an appropriate, hopefully informative and helpful error page (we try to be humorous too). But what can you do?

Recently, I received a message from BB member David Huwiler; he writes:

Tom, my apologies for writing to you directly but I am trying to find material that used to be on the Burgenland site and I'm not sure whom to ask about where to find it. I am researching my Limbeck ancestors from Gols. Another member -- Richard Limbeck -- wrote to me that a genealogy for Michael Limbeck used to be on the site at the address http://www.burgenlandfamilies.com/limbeck. That page no longer exists and I am wondering whether there is any way in which it can be retrieved. Many thanks, Tom.

My reply:

Hi David, That was the Gary Portsche site… and I suspect he is very ill or has died [he did die]. But, you can still find an archived version on the WayBack Machine site: see http://web.archive.org/web/20110303075359/http://www.burgenlandfamilies.com/. The BB has/had nothing to do with either site, other than we once pointed to [Gary's site] (now removed).

So, what is this "WayBack Machine" and why did I send David there? The WayBack Machine is a internet archive that was started in 1996 with the goal to help preserve "digital artifacts of our culture and heritage," particularly by creating an Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars. The Archive collaborates with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian. Its parent organization, The Internet Archive, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that receives in-kind and financial donations from a variety of sources such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (it also gladly accepts donations from the general public). If interested, you can learn more at its homepage, http://web.archive.org.

I sent David there because I had entered the website URL he had provided into the search box on the Archive's homepage and it told me that the Portsche website had been saved once, in March 2003.

David replied: Many thanks for the quick response, Tom. I have, indeed, found the Michael Limbeck information on at the URL you sent. Best, David

By the way, the current BB website has been archived by the WayBack Machine 16 times since it was implemented in 2010. A search for the original BB website, www.spacestar.com/users/hapander/burgen.html, reveals that it was first archived in Jan 1999, some two years after it first appeared on the web. Surprisingly, the home page still has the same 'look and feel'. Click here if you want to see the BB circa 1999!



Update on book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": As I will do for a while, here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book “Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer.”

As of April 29, 534 copies had been purchased and the book is ranked at #633, meaning fewer than 633 books among the hundreds of thousands on Lulu Press, Inc. have sold more. The book is available for online purchase for a list price of $10.45, plus tax & shipping (see the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for any current discounts).

Also, the Burgenländisches Auswanderermuseum in Güssing has added the English issue to their museum store so, if you visit the Museum during a Burgenland trip, you have an opportunity to peruse the book and bring home a souvenir copy... and perhaps Walter will be available to autograph it!



On a related note, a number of you have written to me to say you were surprised to find a Family Member Mentioned in the Book. The latest is Jacquelyn Law, who writes (in part):

Dear Dr. Walter Dujmovits and Thomas Steichen,

I have just finished reading my copy of "The Burgenländer Emigration to America." Imagine my surprise when I found my grandfather's name listed on page 209 as the last president of the Chicago "Eichenstamm"! Joseph Kern was my grandfather!

My grandfather [and] sister [Anna] ...were born in Grodnau. She came to America in 1907 and he came in 1922. I don't think she ever visited her homeland. My grandfather made two visits home. The first was in 1965 and second in 1970. On both visits he was joined by my grandmother, Louise Schranz Kern. She was from Stuben [and] came to America in 1922. My grandparents never knew each other back home. They met in Milwaukee at a wedding and married in 1928, then moved to Chicago. This is where Joseph Kern, my grandfather was a waiter, a trade he learned in Vienna.

I have since ordered 2 more copies of this great book! I know my brother and sister will love seeing our grandfather's name in print. I have 2 photos that I will send separately [one shown below]. I remember going to the dances as a young child but never knew my Opa was president of the "Eichenstamm!" I wish I knew what year he was president.

Thank you for your time. I enjoyed reading the book and enjoy the monthly Burgenland Bunch newsletter. Jacquelyn Law

Das Ersten Eisenberger Deutsch-Ung. Krankenunterstützungsverein, a precursor to the Chicago Eichenstamm: grandfather Joseph Kern, top left; sister Anna Kern Schmeltzer, seated 3rd from left; brother-in-law August Schmeltzer, row 2, 5th from left.

Interestingly, I had posted a video of the Bad Tatzmannsdorf Fasching Parade in the February newsletter. Jacquelyn was also surprised to find her cousin, Sabrina, included therein. She wrote, "How great it is to bring families closer together. She lives in Altschlaining and me in America! Thank you."

Jacquelyn tells me that she has a huge extended family in Burgenland and Vienna and has visited three times, with another visit to Stuben, Grodnau, Altschlaining and Vienna planned for September. Last year nine members of her Austrian family came to the US.

All of this also prompted Jacquelyn to review her BB membership entries and to send in an updated email address (the entries do you no good if people cannot contact you).

That said, I invite all of you to share memories and stories prompted by Walter's book (or by newsletter articles) and I do recommend that you review your membership entries and correct any errors in the data or your contact email address.



You may have an Inheritance in Burgenland! (from Joy Minns): This sounds like one of those internet scams, doesn’t it? Last fall I wrote an article about my visit to Burgenland. At that time, I met a man who put me in touch with my second cousins over there. One cousin recently learned that her mom was a 1/7 owner of a piece of property in Neumarkt im Tauchental because a person approached them wanting to buy the property. She looked into the title and found that the other owners were in the United States. The list of co-owner addresses was very outdated. I’m assuming that all of these co-owners had a common ancestor, who purchased the land in the mid-1800s.

We checked into Austrian law and learned that my cousin is free to sell the property. Her mom will receive 1/7 of the purchase price and the rest of the money will be held by the government for 30 years; after that it can no longer be claimed [it reverts to the Austrian treasury].

Below is what I’ve found on the other owners of the property. All were from the Pittsburgh area at one point. [Ed: names of listed inheritors are bolded and italicized and preceded with ► below.]

Franz and Bertha Raffel came to the US in about 1905. They had 3 children: Frank, Walter, and Harry. Bertha remarried at some point and had another son, Paul Rotermund.

► Franz (Frank) Raffel was born February 2, 1909, in Pennsylvania—perhaps in Pittsburgh. He later moved to Cleveland, OH, and he died in Parma, OH, on November 24, 1985. He was a widower and had been married to Victoria Satava.

► Walter Raffel was born on March 16, 1911 and died on May 28, 2003 in Cape Coral, Florida. His wife was named Mary, born February 21, 1909, and died April 11, 2000.

► Harry Raffel was born around 1915. He married Alma, who was born March 6, 1917. At one point they lived on Parkline Drive in Pittsburgh.

► Paul Rotermund was born November 12, 1923, and died on January 8, 2009, in Cape Coral, Florida.

Last on the list are the Gansers. Franz and Teresa Ganser immigrated from Austria-Hungary. They had 3 children: Emma, Frank, and Alice. Alice (born ~1903 in Austria-Hungary) was not listed as an inheritor.

► Emma Ganser Stasiak was born on January 23, 1910, in Pennsylvania and died on July 1, 1980, in Pittsburgh. She married Paul Stasiak, who was born about 1906. In the 1940 census, the couple had no children. Emma later married John Schneider, who had children from a previous marriage.

► Frank Ganser was born on February 12, 1908, in Pennsylvania and died February 27, 1990. His wife was named Katherine and was born around 1912. They had a daughter, Carol Ann, born around 1937. Carol Ann is the only child I can find born of any of these 6 people!

If you know of any heirs of these people, please put them into contact with Tom or me.

[Ed: After Joy submitted the above, we were able to show that Franz Raffel, father of the Raffel 'children,' is a brother to Teresa Ganser, mother of the Ganser 'children.' Also, it appears that the full names of the Raffel 'children' were Herman Frank (Frank), William Walter (Walter), and Karl H. (Harry). Also, Paul Rotermund's middle name was Gustav.]



[Editorial disclaimer: Our only purpose in publishing the above information is to help legitimate heirs of the listed inheritors claim their rightful share. Neither Joy nor myself (or the BB) will benefit in any way from this, other than the feel-good from helping someone else. Further, we know neither the value of a share nor the exact procedure that must be followed to place a claim; but Joy will try to connect potential claimants with appropriate authorities in Burgenland.]



Monarchy... or Not?: Last month, we published an email exchange between cousins Fred (in the US) and Peter (in Austria) Schneidinger. At the end of it, I invited reader response and commentary. However, the first message I received was from Fred, putting me on the hook for an opinion.

Fred wrote (in part): Tom, Thanks for publishing that... just out of curiosity, who do you agree with more? Sometimes I think that I am too naive about the forces for good in this world...

I replied: I think every change (or lack thereof) has its impact, Fred. The world was tired of Monarchies… had they survived, I suspect there would have been rebellions in many parts of the various Empires. Perhaps, even probably, this would have deterred the rise of a megalomaniac like Hitler, but it would not have been a peaceful world… and having citizens fighting their own government has always been very messy. Still, that might have been better than Hitler. So, if I’m pushed, I lean toward your side: Monarchy would have deterred Hitler… but not because of the good the Monarchies might have done; rather, because their survival would have created a different target for world angst.

Janet Alesauskas also wrote (in part): Dear Tom: I enjoyed reading the interaction between Fred and Peter and I recalled my Father's feelings pertaining to WW-II and Hitler.

Just a short background... my Father was born in 1910 in the USA but was raised in "Burgenland" from 1911 until after the war, when he was able to return to the States at the age of 12. Whether the seeds of his opinion were planted during those formative years by his family or whether he developed them in later life, I do not know.

After WW-I. the Allies wanted to make the "Germans" suffer for what they had done, thus did not give financial and/or economic support to the crushed and already destitute nations. This made easy pickings for the likes of Hitler. If you will note following WW-II, the Marshall Plan of reconstruction was put into effect.

I replied to Janet (in part): Hi Janet, Without a doubt, the Allies did intend for the Germans and their allies to suffer, not only not giving them financial support, but also requiring them to pay substantial war reparations. The Treaty of Versailles declared Germany and its allies responsible for all 'loss and damage' suffered by the Allies during the war ...but the actual amount of reparations was only 50 billion marks, an amount based on the German capacity to pay, not on loss claims. Even then, the actual amount paid from 1920 to 1931 (when payments were suspended) was only 20 billion German gold marks, worth about 5 billion US dollars. Of this amount, 12.5 billion was cash (mostly from loans from New York bankers) and the rest was goods or movable assets. Austria, Hungary, and Turkey were also supposed to pay but were so impoverished that they paid very little. Interestingly, Germany was required, following WW-II, to resume payment on the money borrowed for WW-I reparations; the final installment was made in 2010!

This is not, however, the argument put forth in the Schneidinger cousins' discussion. That contention was that the continuance of the Monarchy system might have hindered the rise of Hitler. I agree with that contention, but only in that it would have led to rebellions against the Monarchies and those (substantial) disturbances would have changed the direction of the anger (internal instead of external) and Hitler would have been lost to the eddies of history.

I take it that your father's contention was that it was the economic situation (not the lack of Monarchy) that led to Hitler... I agree with that too!



Scratched Eggs from Stinatz: This past month, Bob Strauch sent a link to a Burgenland ORF article (http://burgenland.orf.at/tv/stories/2641350/) about the "Scratched Eggs" from Stinatz. As the article said, "...the typical gift for this holiday is a red egg... especially artfully decorated Easter eggs in Stinatz."

This egg scratching is a centuries-old Croatian tradition, passed on from mother to daughter, and featuring traditional patterns on red- or black-dyed blown-out eggs.

Originally, the red eggs were gifts from godparents to their godchildren. Later, black eggs were added for families who were in mourning. Although those traditions are maintained, all colors have since been added.

I found out more via a blog at http://www.zurika.com/2012/04/austria-easter-eggs-in-stinatz.html. 

Apparently, the leader of the Stinatz egg-producing group is Frau Erika Stipsits at Hauptstraße 196 in Stinatz. She, along with four or five others, have been making these eggs for 40 years. They start scratching six months before Easter, gathering in a kitchen to talk while their hands stay busy decorating egg after egg, The eggs are regular white chicken eggs, the insides blown out via tiny pinholes, then dyed. Parts of the dye are then scraped away with a razor or knife to create the, mostly flowery, traditional patterns.

Here is a short YouTube video about the eggs:





Recipes from the German/Austrian cookbook of the Austria Donau Club: We are still waiting for Frank Paukowits to regain use of his computer room (currently domiciling a new grandchild). Recipes will return...



Genealogical Musings (in Haiku format): Traditional Haiku consist of groups of five, seven and five syllables (though more modern forms will ignore that rigidity). Conversely, the modern form more greatly emphasizes the juxtaposition of two different images or ideas than the earlier form did. The real trick, though, is to make the reader hear what you do not say. Thus my meager offerings...

Anyone wish to create and share one? If you do, please stay within the BB theme of history and genealogy... but do share!
 

...the organization began as two groups at the end of the last century. One was the Allentown Turn Verein or Turner Club, which was a gymnastic club. Its members met to do calisthenics together. They used equipment like the horse, the parallel bars and the rings.

...the other group was the Liederkranz. The word in German means "singing circle." The first such club in Allentown was organized in 1872, but it had a shaky beginning. During those early years, its members met under the auspices of the Turner Club. Then it separated and operated independently. Later it disappeared altogether.

By 1907, however, the idea for a local Liederkranz organization was ready for a revival. ...It wasn't long before the Turner and the Liederkranz groups merged for a final time, and in 1909 the united organization purchased its present site at 217 N. 2nd St. [in Allentown].

By the way, this same 1987 article referred to the club as "a 95-year-old German social club." By my arithmetic, 1987 minus 95 implies the club was founded in 1892 ...yet the indented quote above indicates both the Turner and Liederkranz were in existence in 1872, a full 20 years earlier. While I have no definitive way to absolutely confirm which, 1872 or 1892, is correct, the Reading Eagle newspaper, in its Allentown Notes section of Sep. 16, 1912, said, "The 40th anniversary of the Allentown Turner and Liederkranz was celebrated with an athletic entertainment and concert at which addresses were made by Frank Fabian and John Grafleln." This certainly supports that the club was formed in 1872.

[Ed. insertion (5/1/2014): Prompted by a message from BB Member Joan Jost (New Tripoli, PA), whose father remembers the Turner Liederkranz, I did some digging to discover where the organization met before buying the 2nd Street property. I found a digitized copy of an 1899 Allentown city directory and the club appeared on page 30 (see: http://distantcousin.com/Directories/PA/Allentown/1899/). I include an excerpt below:

This gives 22 N Seventh as the address of the club and titles it as "Allentown Turner and Liederkranz." So, clearly the combined club existed in 1899, and we now know where they met. Using the reverse lookup section of the directory, I also confirmed that 217 N 2nd St. was not in the directory; the 'odd' addresses skip from 213 to 219 on N 2nd St, indicating that 215 and 217 had not yet been assigned.]

Gerry Berghold, who was born in 1930, wrote in a 1999 article (Fate of Ethnic Clubs; NL No. 69A, November 30) that,

One of my earliest memories is accompanying my family on a Sunday afternoon walk to the [Turner] Liederkranz Austro/Hungarian Social Club on Second Street in Allentown, PA. We went there to pay our weekly sick & death benefit dues, have some refreshment, exchange ethnic newspapers and meet with relatives, neighbors and friends.

The Liederkranz was a family club, only one of many such clubs founded by immigrants. They created a piece of the "Heimat" and met there to socialize, form musical groups, sick & death benefit societies, get the latest news, etc. For many years they prospered, then as the older generations passed on, interest faded and they fell on hard times, many closing their doors.

They were given an injection of new blood with the Burgenland immigration of the 1950's, but that was almost 50 years ago, and I wonder if the lack of new immigrants will keep them going.

Like all these ethnic clubs, the Allentown Turner Liederkranz was affected by the changing needs and the Americanization of its members. Bob Strauch, in a 2007 BB newsletter article, wrote about the demise of the Allentown Italian Club, which was located in what was then a predominantly Italian neighborhood bordering the Burgenland ethnic area, both of which are now mainly Hispanic areas. He said his uncle was an early member of this Italian club "as were a few other Burgenland immigrant descendants. While their fathers were mostly members of the German Turner Liederkranz on 2nd street, many of their sons joined other ethnic clubs where they found former school chums or playmates. Was this one of the first ethnic assimilations? In the next generation (mine) there were as many Italian kids in our 'gang' as there were Burgenländers. We traded pogatchels and strudel for polenta and cannelloni and were always welcome guests in either home."

So it is no surprise that the gymnastics of the Turner Liederkranz had already given way by the 1940s to softball, baseball, basketball and bowling. By the end of the 1970s, membership had dwindled and it was obvious that its future would not be as a German social club. The leadership tried a new course: it turned the banquet hall into a disco, which gave the place a whole new following, but the remaining core of old-time members fled in horror. The only ones who hung around were the few who were members of the club's bowling league.

The disco was popular for a while but eventually its appeal faded and the club found itself sorely missing the money it once earned. When a series of financial disasters hit, the club had trouble paying its bills and eventually went broke. It folded in 1988.

By 1991, the building had been sold and was being turned into a Hispanic Puerto Rican social club, with dancing, a bar and a restaurant. But the owners were busted for drug distribution before it opened and the government tried to confiscate the building. While I could not completely confirm its fate, it is likely that it was, at least in part, forfeited to the government. Today, it is a Hispanic Pentecostal Church of God religious facility.

"...cession of the Burgenland was conducted in a manner very different from that of Northern, Eastern, or Southern Hungary." He states that what Austria received was "given her grudgingly, with strict regard for the principle of nationality and with none of the concessions to economic advantage so generously lavished elsewhere. It is hardly probable that Hungary would have retained Oedenburg had the rival claimant been Roumania or Czechoslovakia, nor that the frontier would, in such a case, have run so closely along the edge of the hills."

§ 5. The comment above was a lead-in to the section Macartney titled Economic and Administrative Conditions since 1920. As he says in reference to Burgenland's economics, "the principal problem -- and one which no goodwill and no effort can ever completely overcome -- is one of communications." He is, of course, tying Burgenland's odd geography to its economics and notes that "the loss of Oedenburg, the natural centre on which the entire rail and road system converges," left only a single road through the narrow strip between the "Ödenburg loop" and the Rosaliengebirge.

He also argues that farther south, the situation was even more difficult: "the northern districts have easy access through open country to Wiener Neustadt and Vienna; but the valleys of the centre are the natural complement of the plain, from which they are now cut off, and their natural markets are Güns and Steinamanger."

He provides some discussion of the construction of the Fürstenfeld-Friedberg-Vienna railway but notes that it is a single line, "which winds a slow, laborious, and costly way through mountains of some altitude. Traffic along it can never be either quick or cheap, while the hardly less important construction of a line from Güssing to Fürstenfeld has not yet been undertaken at all, for lack of funds."

Surprisingly, he recognizes, even in 1937, that "there is clearly a much greater future for motor traffic." However, he notes that the roads, when Austria took them over, were in a deplorable state. "The few which possessed any pretensions were those leading down the valleys into Hungary; transverse communications were poor, roads into Austria almost non-existent." He even notes that a 1919 Austrian roadmap "divided the entire system into roads which were respectively impassable, passable with difficulty, and fairly well passable in wet weather; the last-named category being much the smallest." Regardless of condition, however, he reports that the problem remains that all traffic from the Central Burgenland "must make a long and difficult journey before reaching any market in Austria."

Curiously, he also reports that, because of the poor roads, Burgenland "remained for many years a closed book to the conservative and incurious Viennese, not to mention foreign tourists, and does not get anything like the share of tourist traffic to which its natural beauties and interest entitle it." However, he says that the world depression that "set in in 1929 proved an unexpected boon to the Burgenland. Owing to the general impoverishment, and to the difficulty of exporting currency out of all Central European countries, foreign travel almost ceased, and the Viennese began to discover this cheap and agreeable land which lay at their doors."

He goes on to argue that the loss of Ödenburg also had economic consequences (however he also says of its loss, "but its inconveniences to Austria may have been exaggerated at times for obvious political reasons.") He notes that what became Burgenland was merely a strip of land cut out of the western edge of four separate Hungarian Counties. "All the higher administrative, economic, and educational apparatus was centred in the various county towns, not one of which was allotted to Austria." Burgenland was nothing but "a number of rural districts, isolated from each other and lacking any apparatus more elaborate than had been required by local needs." He argues that it would have been far more economic, when Ödenburg was given back to Hungary, to partition the country between Lower Austria and Styria and says that the decision to adhere to the original plan, of constituting the Burgenland as a separate province, "seems to have been taken partly out of a desire to spare the political susceptibilities of the Burgenlaender, by giving them a status equal to that of the Styrians and Tyrolese, partly as a gesture of defiance and hope that Oedenburg might after all one day come to Austria (some say that an element of caution was present also; the fear that the Burgenland might one day be lost again, and the desire to avoid complications if that day ever came)."

He wraps up his economic analysis in a rather long but interesting assessment. He leads off by saying (in 1937):

Progress has thus necessarily been slow, and the country still wears a somewhat forlorn and ragged aspect. In respect of public works of all kinds -- roads, drainage, public buildings, etc; the Burgenland is still the most backward of all the Austrian Länder and is likely to remain so for long years to come. The roads are still rough, the countryside poverty-stricken, signs of any life more spacious than the village are rare, except for some few modernized castles and the ancient but tiny 'royal free cities' of Rust and Eisenstadt.... Nevertheless, the progress has been real, and cannot possibly be denied by any person acquainted with the country as it was in 1920 and as it is today. It has also ... been more rapid on the Austrian than on the Hungarian side of the new frontier.

He further notes that the transfer to Austria has proved of great economic advantage to most of the inhabitants of the Burgenland.

The cereals, sugar beet, wine, fruit, poultry, and fat cattle of the northern districts, in particular, are products of a kind in which Hungary is only too rich, whereas many of them are entirely lacking in the greater part of Austria. They can thus count on a ready market, lying, moreover, at their very door -- far nearer than Budapest. Not only is the market secure, but agricultural products of all kinds have ever since the War commanded far higher prices in Austria than in Hungary, so that the independent producers have benefited very largely.

However, he somewhat chides Austria because it "alone among the Successor States, has carried through no land reform on any large scale." While he notes that Austria's restraint in this regard has avoided many political complications with Hungary (because much of the land was held by Hungarian nobility), the result was to increase economic and social difficulties, especially among the "dwarf-holders and landless peasantry" of the Burgenland. He claims that independent farmers suffer because competition for the limited available land has driven up prices to an uneconomic level. Nonetheless, he says "exactly the same evils, however, exist in Hungary. Austria has not created a difficult situation; she has only failed to remedy one which already existed."

He ends his economic analysis by speaking of "the important forestry industry," which he says is in far less satisfactory condition than agriculture, and of industry. Where Austria is poor in cereals and Hungary richly endowed, the reverse is true of timber. Moreover, the forests lie for the most part in the centre of precisely that district in which communications are easiest towards Hungary, most difficult and expensive towards Austria. Thus the forestry industry in Burgenland suffers from oversupply and lack of accessible markets.

Of industry, Macartney says large-scale industrial establishments are very rare; the overwhelming majority of persons engaged in industry being independent artisans, working alone or employing at the most one apprentice. He argues that:

Owing to the close relations between the two countries which existed before 1919, the establishment of any frontier which constituted a real barrier was bound to have a disturbing effect, and the present arrangement has admittedly ruined a certain number of establishments. The effects have not, however, been altogether so bad as might have been feared, owing to the very small scale and local importance of most undertakings. The workers would probably have suffered far more severely had they been cut off from Wiener Neustadt; in addition, they reap the benefit of the far more advanced system of social legislation prevailing in Austria.

§ 6. Macartney's next major section is Political Feeling Among the Germans. He claims that:

...the Germans of the Burgenland today, when asked their opinion on the comparative merits of Austrian and Hungarian rule, generally answer by a reference to markets and prices. The older people, who remember the days before the War, will most usually reply that they were better off in the old days, when not merely Hungary, but the Austro-Hungarian monarchy itself, was intact. If, however, Austria and Hungary were to be divided, then almost all agree that under present conditions they are better off in Austria than in Hungary. This answer will be given both by the farmers, who enjoy better prices and a more secure market, and by the workers, who receive better wages and enjoy a more advanced system of social insurance.

The major reason Macartney gives for this first preference for the old Austria-Hungary is the more complex and heavier taxation due to the increased cost of administration. Since Hungary was not a bureaucratic country, its administration was simple and cheap; as Macartney says, "virtues much cherished by those fortunate enough to enjoy them." Although the old system has been retained in part, sufficient modifications were made that involved the introduction of a considerable staff of new officials, some 800 in all; Macartney claims that "the Burgenländer are inclined to regard many of their activities as superfluous." Nonetheless, he says these drawbacks weigh but little in comparison with the economic advantages, which decisively favor Austria.

When considering the question of the how the population would feel about being moved back under Hungarian rule, Macartney says:

The Germans of today [1937] are not, however, the Germans of 1919. In the last twenty years they have become conscious of their 'Deutschtum', and they would no longer tolerate assimilation to Hungarian culture....

If the Burgenland returned to Hungary tomorrow, any attempt to return to the old Hungarian system would meet with violent opposition; and the fear that such an attempt might be made weighs heavily with the local population. If only on cultural grounds, nearly all the Germans of the Burgenland would today oppose a reversal of the decision of 1919; the more so as Austria, alone of all the Successor States, has escaped the reproach of over-centralization and forcible assimilation....

The decision to constitute the Burgenland a separate 'Land' entailed heavy economic and financial burdens, but politically it was wise....

For their home to be placed on a footing of equality with Styria or the Tyrol was flattering for them, and they are gradually developing a provincial patriotism similar to that which prevails in those territories.

In § 7, Macartney speaks of The National Minorities, commenting that the "minority problem" is comparatively unimportant and that the larger number are at least equally content with Austrian rule, while none, so far as he could ascertain, had any real grounds for complaint. He presumes that most of the Magyars would prefer to return to Hungary, but notes that it is admitted even in Budapest that they are well treated and have no cause for complaint. Of the Croats, he says that they, like most minorities in a similar position, "probably feel little genuine attachment in their hearts to either party." Of the Gypsies, he says that, as a general rule, they are strongly attached to Hungarian culture. He says this also has proved true in the past of the Jews, "but most of the West Hungarian Jews undoubtedly welcomed the transfer to Austria, which took place just when the White Terror in Hungary was at its height. Today that movement has spent its force, and a Nazi Austria, either as part of Austria or merely gleichgeschaltet [Ed: made to conform], would hold out far more terrors to the Jews than any régime which seems at all likely to take power in Hungary. Hitherto, however, the Jewish voice, such as it is, has been in favour of Austria."

§ 8 of Macartney's text is titled The Position of Oedenburg, however, it also "positions" the parts of Burgenland. He begins with northern Burgenland, saying:

For Austria, the acquisition of the Northern Burgenland, at least, has been of great advantage. Vienna draws from the Burgenland a considerable proportion of its requirements in garden produce and smaller quantities of dairy produce, live stock, and cereals, and Austria's balance of payments is thus relieved of a burden which it could ill afford to shoulder. The fears expressed by the Hungarian delegates at the Peace Conference that these districts would prove a drain on Austria have fortunately not been justified; neither has Budapest suffered notably from the diminution of its supplies, which the other rural districts of Hungary have easily been able to make good.

However, his view of the rest of Burgenland differed substantially:

The Central and Southern Burgenland, on the other hand, have proved of little value to Austria, whereas their timber would have been important for Hungary, and is much more easily transported to Hungary than to Austria.

In speaking of Ödenburg, he says:

Of the towns which the Treaty left just within the Hungarian frontier, Oedenburg has been placed in by far the most difficult position. ... It has lost much of its position as a market and centre for local traffic, this having been largely captured by Mattersburg; the loss is the more important since the peasant of the present Burgenland has far more purchasing power than the labourer on the estates in the Hungarian plain. Oedenburg's importance as an administrative centre has declined also.

The general decline in prosperity is, however, far less than logic would lead one to suppose. ... It is a considerable centre of tourist traffic, its beautiful old buildings and picturesque surroundings attracting many visitors from Hungary and other countries. ... It has developed into an educational centre... It has certain activities as a railway centre and even as a frontier station, and it has developed since the War a medium-scale industry which had been unable to flourish before, owing to the proximity of Vienna.

§ 9. Macartney's final section is titled International Considerations, which, considering the proximity of 1937 to the outbreak of WW-II, has added interest. Hungary had a "policy of revision," by which she hoped to reacquire Magyar-dominated lands along her border... and war is always a catalyst. Although Hungary had publicly stated she had "no intention of raising the Burgenland question as a practical issue," Macartney argues that:

Hungary felt the loss of the Burgenland to be an unkinder cut than that of Transylvania, Slovakia, or the Voivodina. The Serbs, Czechs, and Roumanians, she felt, were enemies, from whom hostile conduct was only to be expected; but Austria was a friend and an ally. Therefore, even if any separatist feeling had existed in West Hungary (which she denied), Austria ought not to have taken advantage of it. Her conduct amounted to a treacherous stab in the back.

Macartney says further that:

Burgenland itself is small; the number of Magyars in it is positively insignificant, and their treatment by Austria has, by common consent, been equitable; nor has Hungary lost in the Burgenland any important part of her economic system. Thus her grievance against Austria is so small, by comparison with those which she cherishes against her other neighbours, as not to preclude the possibility of friendly relations, which she has, in fact, maintained with Austria for some years past.

However, Macartney notes that, "in nearly every other respect she stands to gain rather than to lose by treaty revision," so is not opposed to the idea...

Thus the curious situation has arisen that while the Burgenland is the one area, of all which she has lost, the loss of which has been the least important to Hungary, the restoration of which would remove the fewest justified grievances -- it is yet the only one which she has any prospect, however faint, of recovering by negotiation.

However, he also notes that:

Since the Allies treated Austria with such strict justice, as compared with their lavish generosity towards the Little Entente, any local revision, if carried out on either economic or on ethnographical grounds, would go in Austria's favour and not in Hungary's. The Burgenland remains a torso without Oedenburg, the incorporation of which would certainly be of great economic and administrative advantage. More than this: the German population east and south of the Neusiedlersee has in recent years, despite all official pressure, awakened to new national life.

Macartney finishes his chapter by saying:

But if Germany should consummate the Anschluss with Austria, or if Austria came wholly under German influence, a different situation might arise. It might be that Germany would leave Hungary unmolested, or even cede certain areas to her, calculating, as Herr Hitler has hitherto done in the case of the South Tyrol, that a grateful ally was worth the 'Deutschtum' of a few score of thousands of peasants.

On the other hand, she might stretch out her hand, as some Hungarians fear, over Wieselburg and Altenburg and as far as the Balaton itself.

What would happen is speculation; but the possibilities are interesting and various. The little Burgenland may yet become the scene of great events.

Of course, we now know what happened after the 1937 publication of this chapter... Hungary forced border revisions during 1938-1940 with the Czechoslovak Republic and Romania, gaining back Magyar-ethnic lands, joined the Axis in 1940, and later invaded and annexed Yugoslav territories before itself being occupied by Germany in 1944. Regardless, at the end of the war, the Allies reverted Hungary's borders back to the pre-1938 locations, where they have remained ever since.

Throughout this period, the status of Burgenland remained unchanged with respect to Hungary. However, with the Anschluss in 1938, Burgenland was dissolved and merged into adjacent Austrian districts, but was re-established in October 1945.

I found the chapter to be interesting because it gave a "snapshot" of how Burgenland was viewed in 1937 and of the progress, or lack thereof, made in transitioning to Austria. If you are interested in reading the full chapter (or the full book), you can do so at the web addresses I gave at the beginning of this article.

It was really moving to watch all the pageantry unfold. How our immigrant parents would have enjoyed all this!

More pictures of the AACS 2014 Austrian Ball can be found at http://aacs-pit.org/photos/2014_ball/show_2014_ball.html.

Although we have no more future debs in the Kresh family, our grandson, Patrick Kresh, the third escort in the above photo of Vicky and Matthew, also accompanied a 2014 deb and will now be eligible to participate in a future Court of Honor. So we will still be watching the beautiful Austrian Ländler at our next Austrian Ball.



[Ed note: Prior to the Ball, BB VP Klaus Gerger, with wife Heidi, flew into Washington, DC, and spent a few days as tourists there. When they departed (via rental car) for Pittsburgh and Butler, PA, they stopped along the way and visited for an hour with me and my wife, Lois, in Greencastle, PA. After the Ball (and all the touring via Vicki), they drove to New York City for yet more tourist activities before heading home to Vienna for a well-deserved rest! My thanks to Klaus for stopping by and to Anna for providing this nice article about the featured event during their trip. It looks like a nice time was had by all.]