The name of Schandorf originates from the old Hungarian name of "Csem". In 1244 it was first mentioned in documents originating from a lineage called "genus Chem". Around 1150 the German forms of the name were used due to the Bavarian settlement. These were different types like Schämendorf, Tsemensis, Schendorf and Schöndorf. The Croatian name Cemba also has its origin in the Hungarian Csemben - which means "in Csem".

The historical developement

According to the large number of archeological excavations, the area around Schandorf was one of the first settled places in southern Burgenland. Some excavations date from the late New Stone Age (in the 6th millenium BC). Very interesting finds from the middle New Stone Age (around 4000 BC) that were found in the forests around Schandorf and belonged to the government, document the early settlement. At the beginning of the Iron Age Schandorf became more famous due to the iron ore mined in the south of the village around the Pinka River beween Burg and Eisenberg. It was the custom of that time that the dead were burned and their ashes together with a burial gift of food and drink were put into earthenware vessels and then buried in mounds. In the forests of Schandorf there's one of the biggest and most famous burial hills in Europe. The iron mining in this region was at its height at around 300 BC until Christ's birth.

During the Roman Empire this area was densely populated, but the economy changed to more agriculture and the products were sold in nearby Savaria (Szombathely/Steinamanger). At the end of the 6th century, the Awares and the Slavs wandered into this region. Most of the names of the rivers in southern Burgenland come from the Slavic language. On his campain of conquest between 791-805 Karl the Great drove back the Awares. Now the Bavarians came to settle down in this area and started a new rural and nobel way of economy. At this time the christianising of the population also began. In the 2nd half of the 9th century, the Magyars set pressure on the Carolingian Empire. After the Battle at Lechfeld on Aug. 10th, 955 they had to draw back and finally settled in the Pannonian Lowland. In 976 the Babenbergans conquered the East German Mark. That was the beginning of the Hungarian Kingdom.

At this stage a new developement arose, which was very important for the following fate of the west Hungarian region. Today's Burgenland became a borderland. In 1043 under the reign of the Emperor Heinrich III, the deviding line to the Hungarian Kingdom was finally drawn along the rivers March, Leitha and Lafnitz. The Hungarian Kings created so called "frontier guarding settlements" to secure the border. Schandorf also became a border guarding settlement and it developed to a village of its own called "Kleinschandorf' (which means Little Schandorf).

Due to the invading of the Tartars, King Bela IV (1223-1270) was forced to reinforce the fortress lines and to build up a new system of frontier fortresses. He awarded the village Burg to the members of the Csem lineage ruled by Earl Mod. This place had been conquered before. In the Charter of Feb. l0th, 1244 Schandorf was first mentioned. The parish of Schandorf was also founded at the same time. Schandorf split from the early parish of Großpetersdorf and then became the Mother Parish for Hannersdorf, Burg, Kleinpetersdorf, Welgersdorf and Woppendorf until 1520, for Kisnarda till 1936 and for Schachendorf until 1939. The church building of Schandorf is of Romanesque origin. It probably emerged from an old chapel on occasion of the raising to a parish. The new construction was planned in a way so that the church could also be used as a place of refuge. Later on the house of God was rebuilt a couple of times.

The members of the Csem lineage ("genus Csem") were knights of service. Although they enjoyed the freedom of nobility, duty for the King in war was compulsory for them and they did not belong to the high nobility. As the economic structures kept on developing, new dominating authorities seized possession of more and more property. In 1489 the castle was destroyed. At the end of the l5th century, those estates melted together with the estates of Schlaining, after the owner of Schlaining, Andreas Baumkirchner, had taken possession of it. In 1527 King Ferdinand I gave the estate to the Earl Batthyany of Güssing, but it was finally taken over by the Earl in 1539. The Batthyanys possessed the whole property including Schandorf.

The war against the Turks in 1529 brought serious consequences for this region. The estate in Schlaining was terribly struck by looting and fires. Several farms were deserted. The owners of the estates were forced to do something about the disastrous agricultural situation. Most important of all was to get the deserted farms settled again. On May 17th, 1524 King Ludwig II agreed to let the landowner Franz Batthyany settle some of his villeins from Croatia on the west Hungarian estates. The resettlements with its highest rate between l538 and 1545 were planned and organized very well. The Croatians in Schandorf have probably come from the Batthyany estate in Garignica. The cultivation of 1576 proves the Croatian settlement in Schandorf very clearly. By this time the village had become a community with an enormous majority of Croatians and a remarkable Hungarian minority. The report of the Canonical Visitation of 1697/98 already calls the parish a "pure Croatica". The new settlers were usually free from taxes and slave duties for a certain period of time.

Agricultural crises, plague epedemics and other occurances kept deserting farms and villages at regular intervals. Starvation followed and the people of this generation became impoverished. The inhabitants of the villages were the ones most affected by all those economic crises and wars. This is also documented in Schandorf by the varying number of inhabitants. But still the village has remained Croatian till today, because there haven't been any more settlements since then. The Reformation, the big mental and religious revolution, forced by Martin Luther, Jan Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli, brought about changes also in the west Hungarian territory. At this time, Schandorf became Calvanistic and Stefan Szilagy became the first known pastor in 1612/13. In 1628, the main Protestant Synod took place in Schandorf. In the middle of the 17th century, Schandorf became Catholic again. The attempt to transfer another protestant pastor to the village ended by banishing him in 1658. Because of the church's arguments, but mainly also for economic and social reasons, this region had to cope with many rebellions.

The Bocskay revolt in 1605, the Bethlen revolt in 1621 and the Kuruzzen wars (1704-1708) devastated the country with fire and looting. Before 1757 the village church was renovated and a new roof was set on it. The three altars, a high altar and two side altars, which dated from the 17th century, were replaced by a plain Baroque altar. The chalice from 1762 was bought by the parish. In 1764/65 there was a revolt by the farmers in the Komitat Vas to protest against the burden of taxes and working duties. The villeins refused the payments and services partly or even completely. It was the Maria Theresian land reform that brought an equal resolution for all subjects. But it took many legal proceedings against the landowners - also in Schandorf - until the manorial system was brought under control. In the following years, the development of the west Hungarian region was rather calm. In 1835 the church was enlarged and renovated.

The magnates were still in command of the political leadership. Neither the lower nobility nor the farmers, and least of all the common workers, had political rights. In March 1848, there was a revolution in Hungary and ten days later on March 13, it also broke out in Vienna. Imperial troops led by Fürst Windischgrätz and Croatian troops led by Ban Jela?i? from Croatia could suppress the democratic movement within half a year. The ideas for a democratic state that caused the revolution were shattered. The farmers however could improve their situation considerably. The privileges of the aristocrats and the subservient spirit were abolished. The farmers achieved their right of having their own property and so they were allowed to keep the land they had already been cultivating. For the loss of land due to the new liberty for the farmers the landowners were paid off by the state. But this was very difficult and often caused a lot of misunderstandings, also in Schandorf, where both Rechnitz and the priest of Schandorf were owners of some estates. By levying direct and indirect taxes, taxation was basically modernized. The aristocrats and the farmers became equal and they paid taxes according to their amount of property.

Now it was necessary to have a land register. Each village was prompted to have a land register and its taxation. The measurement of property in Schandorf was ended in 1858 and then the first land register was started. The total area of Schandorf was 1,959 acres and 590 fathoms. Until 1890 the land register was kept in the district court of Steinamanger and then it was handed over to the district court of Oberwart. In 1940 it was renewed. The registrated village covered an area of 1,120 hectares, 7 ares and 52 square meters. In l97l there was a joining of acres. The resolution of 1848 also brought about a new way of administration to the state. The villages were subordinated in all important matters to "Komitat" authorities which were a kind of earldom authority (a judge office). These overtook most of the duties the village judge (who was the mayor) originally had. From 1852 on the mayor was called " the head of the village" or village chairman. Court proceedings were taken over by the juridical district.

The municipalities had their own administration - the municipal council. That consisted half of elected burghers and half of aged burghers with the highest taxation. In 1860 the Hungarian administration called up the local court. A judge (the mayor), a vice-judge, at least two men in the jury and the notary formed the aldermen. Minor offences went through the court of the aldermen. The expression "judge" is translated from the Hungarian word "biró" and until today the mayor in Schandorf and other Croatian speaking villages is still called "birov". The last great change in the Habsburg Monarchy was the Austro- Hungarian Compromise of 1867. With that the Hungarian kingdom was alone responsible for the legislation and administration in West Hungary, today's Burgenland. In 1868 a new law brought equal rights to all nationalities. Hungarian was the national language. It was free to choose the language spoken at court, at church and in confessional schools. The Croatian language was taught in Schandorf. Municipalities, in which confessional schools didn't fulfil the laws anymore, were forced to install primary schools. In 1900 Schandorf achieved the highest population rate ever. In 1904 there were 130 school aged children in Schandorf. The Roman Catholic school became too small. After long discussions the municipal court agreed to build a new school. But it was not finished until l911. Therefore Schandorf had two schools until 1938 - a confessional one and a municipal school.

Ever since the Croatians had settled in Schandorf, the village had always been a Croatian municipality with a Hungarian and German minority. Even after the Hungarian government had tried to magyarize the population with laws like -the Hungarian language must be taught at school because each child should be able to speak and write in Hungarian - the people in Schandorf still kept using their Croatian mother tongue. Years of insecurity for the population of Schandorf followed after the end of the First World War and the disintegration of the Danube monarchy. In the peace treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on Sept. 10th, 1919 the village was joined to Austria, but the Hungarians didn't agree with this decision. Only after long negotiations and incidents caused by Hungarian guerillas, Schandorf finally became part of Austria on Jan. 10th, 1923. Schachendorf and Schandorf became part of Austria, Felsö- and Alsócsatár, Nagy- and Kisnarda fell to Hungary.

And so a border was drawn between the two close villages of Schandorf and Narda. This was a disadvantage for both villages in the following decades. The economic situation of this area grew worse because of the separation. The living conditions became increasingly worse also due to the general economic crisis. A lot of people from the Burgenland took a new chance by emigrating overseas. In 1923 the emigration had reached its height. A lot of people from Schandorf also left their hometown. The number of inhabitants declined enormously. From 1925 till 1927 the church was renovated inside and outside and six years later a concrete floor was paved.

The political situation in the republic became critical and therefore in the Burgenland as well. The main point of ideological arguments in the new Burgenland was the question about school. The social democrats wanted national schools, the Christian socialists wanted confessional schools. Schandorf was quite involved in this argument. For one thing, there was not only a national school, but also a confessional school in Schandorf and for the other thing there was also the question about the language being taught and spoken at school. Two of the main political representatives in these arguments had close relations to Schandorf. One was Koloman Tomish, born in Schandorf, the later school inspector and a social democratic member of the Landesregierung (government in one of the States of Austria) - and the other one was Peter Jandrisevits, pastor in Schandorf and a Christian Socialist member of the Landesregierung. Both were representatives of the Croatians. Their tremendous and rather mean arguments deepened the gap between the "red" (Social Democrats) and "black" (Christian Socialists) Croatians. Although the worldwide economic crisis also struck the Burgenland, the effects weren't that dramatic because the economic structure, which was mainly farming, was rather weak anyway. After the Civil War in February 1934 all the institutions of the labour movement were forbidden. The pressure of Hitler and his National Socialists grew stronger. The result of the plebiscite in Schandorf wasn't any different from other villages in the Burgenland: 100 percent voted for the annexation to Germany.

A lot of members of the Roma ethnic group had been living in Schandorf for quite a long time and they were also integrated in village life very much. On command of the head of the government, Tobias Portschy, they were forced to hard labour. Besides the Jews, the Roma were also a group of citizens in the Burgenland, who were systematically eliminated by the Nazi- Regime. Only a few of the 70 Roma people living in Schandorf survived the brutal persecutions. The men in Schandorf were called up to military service. Many dead, missing and wounded soldiers were the price the people of Schandorf had to pay for their Nazi war delusion.

At the beginning of April 1945 the soldiers of the Red Army arrived in Schandorf. Two inhabitants were killed in a struggle between the German troops who were withdrawing and the Russian army. Four houses together with their farming quarters and four sheds were burnt down; four houses were damaged badly and thirteen slightly. The occupation forces were quartered in the village until Whit Monday. The situation slowly became normal again after the offical end of the war on May 8th, 1945. When in 1947 the newspapers and radio news mentioned a "population exchange" between Austria and Yugoslavia and that Croatians from the Burgenland were also supposed to be evacuated, the village council objected against these plans. During the intermediate stage of war, the political power was spread clearly among the Christian Socialists and other parties, but in the 50's the Social Democrats grew quite strong and for a short period there was even a Social-Democratic mayor.

Due to the new communist regime in Hungary, the disadvantages of being a village next to the border increased. The contacts to the close villages across the border in Hungary vanished. The economic situation was very hard. Although basic living conditions were a little better in the countryside than in the city, poverty after the war made 27 inhabitants emigrate overseas. The treaty of 1955 gave liberty to Austria. A year later the revolution in Hungary forced many refugees across the border. Everybody in Schandorf supplied the refugees. The Iron Curtain, drawn by the Hungarians, made Schandorf to a village in a dead corner for many decades. A radical change in the economic structure followed and this also struck Schandorf very hard. More and more people were not able to survive by farming alone and so they were forced to look for a job as a commuter in congested areas. The consequence was more migration. The results can be seen in the population statistics. Within ninety years the population declined by more than half (1900: 712, 1991: 342). Surprising is the fact that compared to the average the population is actually overaged.

The year 1971 brought a drastic change for Schandorf. Due to the law of a village structure improvement, a few small municipalities were joined to one bigger community. Since then Schandorf, Dürnbach and Schachendorf belong to the municipality of Schachendorf. As a consequence, the primary school in Schandorf was closed and the children of the new municipality were taught in the school in Dürnbach. The kindergarden in Schandorf remained and is available to all children of the three villages. In both the school and kindergarten, the children are taught bilingual. This is important because in the last decades German has been spoken far more than the original colloquial Croatian.

The maintenance of the typical Burgenland-Croatian dialect of this region, spoken especially in Schandorf, becomes more difficult. People moving to Schandorf, who are not Croatians, the influence of the media and the youth not using Croatian as the village mother tongue are facts that endanger the substance of the Croatian language. The spoken dialect is Stokavian and has clear influences from the German and Hungarian languages. Investigations show that the Schandorf Croatian language, compared to the morphology, corresponds in a large amount to the Croatian literature in the Burgenland. Yet there are some characteristic deviations. In earlier days traditions were kept up intensively but nowadays only partly. Modern life and new social structures replace the old traditions which had their origin in the customs of earlier agricultural and religious life.

A very important impulse for a possible new future of the village was brought about by the fall of the Iron Curtain at the end of June 1989. The traditional relationship to the nearby Narda came alive again. In spite of the negative results of the last decades, there's a chance for a positive development in the future. The policy of the municipality however must be specific and well planned to catch up and the population balance must be normalized again. A working village community is one of the main factors to realize the aim. More clubs and organizations could contribute greatly. Besides the fire brigade, which was set up in 1918, there is also a cultural association, which was created in 1981 and there is the tamburizza group. Furthermore, there is a money-savings organization and a tennis club. The political parties are the ÖVP and the SPÖ and both parties have one intention that is the separation from Schachendorf and to form a self governing independent municipality again. In a plebiscite more than two thirds of the persons entitled to vote voted for independence. In an independent Schandorf work would surely be more positive for the village itself.

The aims of these efforts will be to bring young families to the area, to raise the quality of life and to raise the economic power in Schandorf.