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

To understand the vote better, I now want to switch to demographic characteristics, specifically gender and age. I'll start with Austria and show the results of a poll presented by Statista, a global database company founded in Germany in 2007 with slogan "Empowering People with Data." They surveyed 1,248 voters in the days leading up to the election and report the following percentages (each column adds up to 100%):

I want to take a moment to note that these gender differences are both consistent yet inconsistent with modern Austrian voting behavior. A 2020 paper by Monika Köppl-Turyna looked at actual ballot data collected in the Austrian state of Vienna for the years 1954 to 1991 and confirmed previously published survey data results. She reported that ballot data showed that the traditional Austrian gender gap of males more left-leaning existed up to 1969 and then changed into the modern gender gap of females more left-leaning. She also confirmed survey-based findings that male voters support more extreme positions than female voters. The 2024 election results show females did vote mildly more leftist overall and that they voted far-right in essentially equal proportion to men plus slightly more far-left than men, so unusually extreme on the "extremist" scale.

When considering age groups, again the far-right FPÖ drew the higher percentages in the young and middle-ages groups, with the 60+ voters preferring the center-right ÖVP. Do note that 16-year-olds can vote in Austria. These results indicate a wide spectrum of current support in Austria for a right-wing agenda.

In the US election, support for the right (Republicans) was stronger among men (54%) than among women (46%), with nearly opposite support percentages for the left (Democrats): men (44%) women (53%). These US gender-based differences (8 and 7%) in party/wing preference were noticeably greater than among Austrian voters (5 and 4%).

The available age data for the US election reports different age categories than the available Austrian data... still, I think it shows a pattern that is distinct from and dissimilar to the Austrian data. Disregarding gender (see table on left below), the young and young middle-age voters lean left (Democrat) while the older middle-age voters lean right (Republican) and the oldest voters are neutral.

However, when we include gender (right table above), we see US women consistently lean left politically while all but the youngest age group in men lean right. The data in the left table comes from an exit poll of 22,509 voters carried out by Edison Research/NEP and reported via Reuters. The data in the right table is from a different exit poll of 15,590 voters reported by Statista.

As a last part of this bit, I want to talk about perception issues. In previous newsletters, I have reported that none of the other Austrian political parties are willing to form a coalition national government with the plurality-winning far-right FPÖ. This is driven in large part by the leader of the FPÖ, Herbert Kickl, who many fear may be a second coming of Viktor Orban, an authoritarian autocrat who calls the Hungarian government he has led for 14 years an "illiberal democracy." Although Orban initially took office via a free election, his manipulation of the rule of law and a rewrite of the Hungarian constitution has kept him there (and likely will keep him there until he retires or dies). His foreign policy has been largely anti-EU and pro-Putin.

Returning to Austria, the center-right ÖVP stands close to the far-right FPÖ on economic and migration issues, but it aligns far better with the center-left SPÖ and NEOS regarding the rule of law and foreign policy. Thus these parties reject Kickl as they fear he may mimic Orban.

In the US, left-wing voices (and a few centrist-right voices) have already spoken out on "stopping Trump." They raise questions about whether Trump will follow the rule of law and whether he is too pro-Putin. So in this respect, we may have another similarity between the Austrian and US elections (although the anti-Trump sentiment in the US seems not as universal as the anti-Kickl sentiment in Austria).

I'll end by talking a bit about the SPÖ "failure" in the recent Austrian federal election (third place overall). I'll also remind you that I talk more about the SPÖ than other Austrian parties because Burgenland has a majority (sole-party) SPÖ state government. Despite this state government, the SPÖ came in third in the federal election among Burgenland voters too. So why third place in both Austria and Burgenland?

As you may recall, the federal SPÖ has experienced weakening appeal to voters beginning some 30 years ago. The FPÖ (insignificant before 1990) has steadily grown and new far-left parties continue to bleed off some SPÖ voters. As a result the SPÖ has not led the Austrian federal government since the 2013 election (after being the dominant party in 15 of the 19 prior elections). A year ago, this led to the ouster of then SPÖ party leader, Pamela Rendi-Wagner, a traditional center-left politician, being a physician, environmentalist, feminist and trade unionist.

The replacement was Andreas Babler, a man who has since self-identified as a Marxist with interests predominantly in trade unions and labor struggles. His is what has been called a "materialistic" center-left party, one that dismisses “stupid identity politics” and is largely uninterested in typical-leftist feminist, migration, and ecological causes. His electoral program was publicly denounced by other SPÖ party leaders as unserious and out of touch with the 21st century. Not surprisingly, it failed to gain traction beyond his immediate party base and likely caused part of the SPÖ base to switch to the smaller further-left parties. No wonder it was last among the three major parties. In Burgenland, there likely was the added motive to snub Babler because he had beaten out Burgenland's Doskozil for the role of party leader.

Contrast that with the US Democrat agenda centered around the feminist, migration, and ecological causes that Babler ignored and a party tagged by the Republicans for supporting "identity politics" (whether they thought they did or not). Further, there was lingering damage from Hilary Clinton's "deplorables" comment and from Biden's recent "garbage" comment leading to a party that Bernie Sanders has since claimed has abandoned working class people so "should not be surprised that the working class has abandoned them." Effectively, there was almost no similarities between the leftist Austrian SPÖ agenda and the leftist US Democrat agenda... but the outcome was the same.

This then takes me full circle to where I started... both countries were caught up in the tilt right phenomenon that has dominated world-wide politics over the last few years in developed nations. While it is clear that this phenomenon is happening, reasons for it are less clear. Still, I can't help but think that perceived economic conditions (inflation, budget deficits) and observed worsening personal financial situations for many in both Europe and the US, along with concerns about excess migration and an associated loss of perceived national sovereign power, have led both countries to the right in a hope of reversing these trends, rejecting the incumbents along the way... but that is just a reasoned personal opinion.

I'll state one more opinion, but one related to what I said in the prior paragraph: I don't think the Republicans won the US Presidential election because of Trump nor that the Democrats lost because of Harris... I think the party platforms were the deciding factor, and that the Republicans may have won in spite of Trump. To me, the Republican majority wins in the House and Senate support my belief that party platform was decisive.

If you have a reasoned personal opinion about, or any thoughts on, aspects of either election that you would like to share with the BB community, please write. As long as it does not attack anyone, I'll be glad to share it with the group.



Lutheran Record Images: Patrick Kovacs passed along two pieces of information concerning online Lutheran church records. First, he reports that "according to Mag. Dr. Christa Grabenhofer, the curator for the Lutheran Church in Burgenland, the digitalization of the books has been completed. They're now in a review process (I guess to determine whether all pages are accounted for), and publication by year's end is still on track."

Secondly, he reports that "member Christian Ofenböck has found a "hidden collection" of Lutheran records on FamilySearch." He calls them hidden because, although they are indexed so individual records can be found, the collections are not listed in the FamilySearch catalog (meaning, say, if you look for Kukmirn in the catalog, the involved dataset will not appear there nor under a generic "Lutheran church records" heading). Thus he says it is hard to tell what is there.

He notes he has found mostly "hidden" death records from the 1930s until 1991, and for Oberschützen (one of his ancestral villages) some birth records before 1828 and after 1920, and some marriage records before 1828. He gave the following links for some of the record collections he has found:

Kukmirn Deaths 1945-1991
Markt Allhau Deaths 1944-1991
Nickelsdorf Deaths 1943-1991
Pöttelsdorf Births 1834-1900
Pöttelsdorf Births 1901-1911
Pinkafeld Deaths 1950-1991
Rotenturm Deaths 1942-1991
Zurndorf Deaths 1783-1919
Oberschützen Deaths 1783-1829

I invite you to notify me should you discover some uncataloged records or record sets (collections) for your ancestral villages... that is, records or record sets on FamilySearch from before 1828 or from after 1920 (almost all cataloged record sets for Burgenland on FamilySearch are in the ~1828 to 1920 era, so anything outside this era is what we are most interested in). Even if you can't figure out the record set number, let me know what you found and I'll try to discover the link to the collection.

While I have not done so yet, I will be adding the above links to the BB FamilySearch page.



PS: Patrick sent me another note late in this month with more Lutheran record sets of the above nature, plus a transcription of one of them. I will list the record sets below (but will not yet report on the transcription, as I have too little time due to Thanksgiving holiday activities). FYI, it appears this second list includes all the record sets listed above:

Events in Vienna and Burgenland: Patrick also wrote to say they often get questions on Facebook about the best time to travel to Austria and Burgenland? His implied answer was around "some major (well at least for our standards) events throughout the year in Vienna and Burgenland," and he said the following events have a date fixed for next year:

► Vienna Steiermark Dorf 27-30 March
► Wine Spring Deutsch Schützen/Eisenberg 2-3 May
► Vienna Burgenland Kul(t)inarium 20-23 May
► Vienna Film Festival 28 June - 31 August
► Redwine Festival Deutschkreutz 10-13 July
► Red Summer Wine Neckenmarkt 14-16. August
► Vienna Kaiser Wiesn 25 Sep - 12 Oct (sort of a miniature Oktoberfest)



Asylum Assistance and Community Service: In a previous newsletter, I mentioned that the Austrian federal government added an obligation in July requiring asylum seekers to do charitable work in order to receive financial support via the nation's "basic care" service. At the time, the federal government stated that the individual Austrian states could decide for themselves whether they wish to add a similar obligation in order to receive financial support from their state's "basic care" funds.

In response, Burgenland has prepared an amendment to their asylum law to require community service, and it will be voted on in the state parliament in December. Previously, the state government established an upper limit of 330 people who can receive basic care support at the same time. When announcing the pending vote, Governor Doskozil said, "Migration must be financially and socially sustainable, that is a question of justice."

If the amendment passes, the basic provision for asylum seekers who are able to work will be linked to charitable work. The announcement went on to say that anyone who refuses job offers twice will no longer receive benefits from the basic supply. In the event of a negative asylum decision, the benefits from the basic provision are automatically discontinued with one month's notice, but there will be a one-time "return assistance."

Doskozil is sticking to his demand for an upper limit of 10,000 asylum applications per year for Austria, claiming Burgenland is "making advance payments" here, as it is particularly affected by "uncontrolled migration" as a border region. That is, he believes it is being forced to host and pay for an unfair share of asylum seekers while their applications are being assessed.

The Austrian Ministry of the Interior said that around 140 asylum seekers had been assigned to Burgenland for basic care this year, meaning about 250 are currently in basic care there.



The Subtleties of Language: I've never been trained in the German language. What I know of the language, I've learned on my own because of my studies into genealogy and family history. So, if it is German words related to births, marriages, deaths, occupations, illnesses and other things of this ilk, I probably know or will recognize the words (likewise, I know a lot of Hungarian words for these same things). And yes, I can put together simple German sentences (but do not ask me to get the gender of nouns correct!) and also yes, I have expanded my vocabulary a little into other areas over the years. Most certainly, however, do not ask me to speak German, as I pronounce everything as if they are English words or letters... and that makes my utterances mostly unintelligible! So, when I saw the following sentence in a news article, I resorted to GoogleTranslate:

Aus der „Fachhochschule Burgenland“ wird die „Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften Burgenland.“

Now I know Hochschule is University (but I must consciously not translate it to High School, a temptation because of my native language!) and Wissenschaft is Science, so adding an -en must make is Sciences. Der and die are forms of the (but I seldom know which version to use). What else? Aus is from or out of, and für is for or of, and of course I know Burgenland. So that leaves wird, Fach and Angewandte... and bafflement as to what exactly this says! Thus to GoogleTranslate, which yields:

The “University of Applied Sciences Burgenland” becomes the “University of Applied Sciences Burgenland.”

And yes, I reported that to you correctly! Whoa! Right?

Now I was fine with the machine translation of wird to becomes, but GoogleTranslate insisted the two sections quoted above translate to the same thing! So I resorted to my Langenscheidt Encyclopedic Dictionary for translations of my missing words:

Fachhochschule: specialized institution of higher learning; professional school.

Angewandte: applied.

So Angewandte Wissenschaften is Applied Sciences and the new name makes good sense: University of Applied Sciences Burgenland.

But how did Fachhochschule become University of Applied Sciences too?

Here is my speculation: My translating dictionary was last revised in 1974... but language constantly changes and I suspect the old meaning of Fachhochschule has evolved to (nearly) exclusively (or preferably) mean a professional school for applied sciences, whereas, other professional schools took on other, more occupation-specific names.

Regardless, there was an Austrian law amendment in July that allowed Fachhochschulen to rename themselves Hochschulen für Angewandte Wissenschaften, a name form that is said to be more understandable and more comparable to other such institutions in the world.

However, I think my Langenscheidt gives another hint as to why such a school might wish to change its name. This translating dictionary gives the phrase, Fachhochschule idiot, which it says is colloquial, contempt, meaning one-track specialist.

The schools themselves, however, will note that Fachhochschulen have developed enormously with a broad range of courses and greatly expanded areas of research and training. Point in fact, the Burgenland University of Applied Sciences currently offers a total of 15 Bachelor's and 13 Master's degree programs as well as a further 40 university courses, so why not credit it for what it has become?



Purchasing Power of Burgenländers: I'm sure you are aware that a key reason for the high emigration rate from the Burgenland area was how poor the people were. Even when Burgenland became part of Austria, it entered as its poorest province (and remained so for many years). Things have changed, however.

A recent study by the OGM-Institute (Austrian Society for Marketing Corporation) shows that real purchasing power in Burgenland is now around five percent above the Austrian average, and only Lower Austria has a greater value. Further, Burgenland's improved purchasing power is a result of rising incomes coupled with a low cost of living. Burgenland has moved up to fifth place in per capita income among the nine provinces of Austria, with women earning well in comparison to those of other provinces, while maintaining the lowest cost of living.

According to the OGM researcher, this upswing is a consequence of the extensive subsidies to Burgenland from the EU after Austria joined the EU in 1995 and benefits from the fall of the Iron Curtain, which moved it from a peripheral location in Europe toward its center. Influx (of both affluent people and earnings) from Vienna is also a factor, especially in northern Burgenland, giving the district of Eisenstadt-Umgebung the highest purchasing power in Burgenland. Further, while there remains a north-south divide, it is much less pronounced today than it used to be.

Governor Doskozil was quick to claim that the strong purchasing power and higher incomes are the result of "consistent regional development and clever investments" while the opposition FPÖ argues that the "much-vaunted purchasing power is not generated to a considerable extent here, but in the neighboring provinces such as Vienna, Lower Austria and Styria." Regardless, Burgenländers are apparently doing well.



Could Thatched Reed Roofs Make a Come-back in Burgenland? While I do not know the exact legal status of thatched reed roofs in Burgenland, my impression is that they have largely been banned in new construction by villages for many years. The main problem with them, of course, was that in a time when whole villages had thatched roofs and houses were sited close together, if one rooftop burned, the whole village could burn. These roofs were threatened externally by blowing embers and also internally, as there often was no protection from a rising ember.

Reed roofs were desirable in Burgenland because they had excellent insulating qualities (both for heat and sound) due to the hollow nature of each reed, and their availability and low cost due to the large reed beds in the Neusiedlersee (whereas alternatives were often unavailable or expensive). In modern times, reeds also are recognized as a renewable resource and for net sequestering carbon rather than net releasing it, as is true for production of most alternative roofing materials. These features mean that reeds remain viable in modern times as wall insulation material, where they can be encased in less flammable materials.

Well, with all that for prologue, I'll report that a new reed-roofed, wood-construction detached single-family home in Weiden am See won the "Builder's Award" this year. But it wasn't without a fight! The homeowner said it took two years to convince local authorities that his planned home wouldn't be a fire hazard. Eventually, he even had to build a model thatched-roof house and set it on fire to demonstrate its burning characteristics.

It turns out that the traditional thatched roofs were such a fire hazard because of the largely open area under the reeds, allowing for air to suck up from below in the event of a fire, which led to sudden flashover of the roof and blowing embers. The new design has an impermeable layer right below the reeds, blocking air from feeding a fire from below. Without this rising air, the tight-packed reeds burn slowly and essentially "dissolve" in place. Other aspects of modern construction (new heating and cooking systems, full room ceilings, etc.) reduce or eliminate starting the roof on fire from inside the house.

The homeowner, Jacobus van Hoorne, was a strong proponent for a thatched roof house because he is a reed cutter, roofer and builder. The house itself, designed by a Viennese architect, is a modern timber building with an S-shaped floor plan and a strongly sloping roof that the architect says "is progressive because it's very ecological. It shows the qualities and possibilities of the reeds."

The "Builder's Award" jury called the house "architecturally exciting, but also sustainable and forward-looking." A properly-constructed reed roof should last 40 years, is a natural raw material with great insulating properties, is easily recyclable when it must be replaced, and has a negligible carbon footprint. Sounds like a win for nature (and for the homeowner, business wise!).



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

I hope that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving celebration. As we move towards the holiday season, we will have lots of great seasonal content to share in our group (now 2270 members with 21 added last month). Stop by and check us out! We have lots of recipes, music, and conversations about our families’ Burgenland traditions. We at the BB wish those who celebrate a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!
Find us here: facebook.com/share/.

Member Steve Huber shared a nice video (youtu.be/WhBg30EcCTs) featuring the winemaking Krutzler family of Deutsch Schützen. Their winemaking dynasty spans many generations and has yielded several exceptional wines that have been critically acclaimed by many. Steve also shared a nice tribute to Joe “Butch” Weber of the Joe Weber Orchestra. Joe was an extremely talented musician who helped keep our Burgenland music alive in the Lehigh Valley for his entire career. Please enjoy some of his beautiful music here: “Hallo Ihr Freunde”: youtube.com/watch?v=6tzAFU0GYWw.

Member Brigitte Kurtz shared some beautiful photos of Kroatisch Ehrensdorf.

Member AJ Cajta shared a nice photo of the Kriegdenkmal Schachendorf.

New member John K. Fabsits shared a great photo of himself standing next to the sign for the village of Stinatz. The photo is from his first trip to Austria to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his grandfather’s immigration to the United States.

Member Manuel Wukicsevics shared a fantastic resource for those researching Heugraben. He created an Excel file containing all of the births/baptisms, marriages and deaths in Heugraben from the years 1738-1934. Thank you for all of your hard work, Manuel! It is greatly appreciated!

BB Staff member Terry Horace McWilliams shared lots of great photos of the gathering of Burgenland descendants held this month in St. Louis. She writes “We had a wonderful Gathering of Burgenland Descendants in St. Louis this past Sunday! It is so fun making connections and celebrating our heritage. We even had a surprise visit from the Motts who are currently on assignment with Familysearch.org in St. Louis. Joe Mott is a Burgenland descendant. They were notified of the gathering by their daughter who lives in Alaska and reads the BB Newsletter.”

CONNECTIONS

Member Jan Harrison writes “Researching my great aunt's father's side. Anyone researching the Ohr family in what is now Markt Allhau in the Burgenland? The families lived in Alho, houses 75 and 205. Her dad Josef Ohr was born on 1893 in house 205 and married to Elizabeth Ritter. My great aunt can't do the research because her vision is fading. Thank you. Found out three children were born in house 204 and my aunt's father was born in 205, next door. They were peasants, not landowners. And surprise, my aunt's grandfather did not inherit house 75, his sister did. Still need to see if she was taking care of her parents.”

Member Brien Vokits writes “Can anyone help with a dead end? I’m looking for parents, spouse, siblings, children of Stefan Vukits (Wukits), born 19 Oct 1914, in Schachendorf, Burgenland and killed in military action on the Russian front, 15 Sep 1942, Romanowo/14 Km Nordostw Sytschewka. There is a freestanding memorial in his honor on the way to Durnbach. He should not be confused with Stefan Vukits, born 20 Apr 1919, in Dürnbach im Burgenland and killed in military action 21 Sep 1941, 1 km südw. Straßengabel Liza - Murmansk - Liza - "Ura-Guba". I have his parents and genealogical path. The names/dates are so similar, and they lived in adjacent villages. I have exhausted all my avenues and would be grateful if someone can help solve this piece of the puzzle. Thank you so much.”

Member Daniel Marino is looking to collaborate with others researching Pöttsching.

If anyone has any information for Jan, Brien, or Daniel, please let me know and I will be happy to connect you with them! You can reach me at HooftyRN@msn.com.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy! Enjoy the holiday season!

Vanessa



Update for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": 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."

Current total sales are 1802 copies, as interested people purchased 6 books during this past month.

As always, the book is available for online purchase at a list price of $8.89 (which is the current production charge for the book, as we purposely choose not to make any profit so you can obtain the book at as low a cost as possible!), plus tax & shipping. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page.

Christmas is soon and the book is an excellent read for the Burgenländers in your family... so get theirs now!



Burgenland Recipes: (none this month... got one for us?)



Note: Our recipes sortable list has links directly to the recipes or food-related articles published in our past newsletters. You can access the list by clicking our recipe box (to the right). Thanks to the contributions of our members over the years, we have quite a collection of Burgenland recipes, some with several variations.

However, whenever we use up our unpublished recipes, this recipe section will become dormant. So, if you have a favorite family recipe, please consider sharing it with us. We will be happy to publish it. Our older relatives, sadly, aren't with us forever, so don't allow your favorite ethnic dish to be lost to future generations.

You can send your recipe to BB Recipes Editor, Alan Varga. Thanks!



Words for Thought:



Please, please... I know some of you immediately got mad at me, thinking I published this to poke fun at President-elect Trump... and others howled thinking it is so very appropriate, but my real purpose was to stir all of you up by asking you to think about these words.

The author, Henry Louis Mencken (1880–1956) was an American journalist, essayist, satirist, and cultural critic with a very combative rhetorical and prose style. He wrote this text in the build-up to the first presidential election after WW-I, when a Democrat was in power (Woodrow Wilson) and a Republican sweep was likely in the offing (Warren Harding essentially campaigned against Wilson—even though Wilson was not the Democrat's candidate, James Cox was—by calling for a "return to normalcy" and a rejection of Wilson's foreign and economic policies and the recession brought on by WW-I).

In truth, Mencken was an outspoken opponent of populism and representative democracy, which he viewed as a system in which inferior men dominated their superiors and that he called "the worship of jackals by jackasses." Larry S Gibson described Mencken as an elitist who believed that humans consisted of a small group of those of superior intelligence and a mass of inferior people, so democracy made no sense to him. It was the system he rejected in these words, not the electee... his words call the Office of the President "the inner soul of the people" ...and that, to him, was objectionable!

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