Newsletter
Dedicated to Austrian-Hungarian Burgenland Family History

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 161
DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY
(Our 12th Year - Issued monthly as email by G. J. Berghold
March 31, 2007
(c) 2007 G. J. Berghold - all rights reserved

~ BB BURGENLAND TRIP CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF INTEREST!
   CONTACT KLAUS GERGER FOR FUTURE POSSIBILITIES ~

Current Status Of The BB:
Members: 1405; Surname Entries: 4731 Query Board Entries: 3698; Newsletter Subscribers: 984; Newsletters Archived: 161; Staff Members: 14

EMAIL RECIPIENTS PLEASE READ: You are receiving this email newsletter because you are a BB member or have asked to be added to our distribution list. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email to G. J. Berghold with message "subscribe" or "remove". ("Cancel" will cancel membership, website listings and newsletter.) You cannot send email to this newsletter. If you have problems receiving the newsletter as email, it may be read, downloaded, printed or copied from the BB Homepage. There is also an archive of previous newsletters.

This first section of our 2-section newsletter concerns:

1. Correction To "The Swamp Of Germanic Genealogy"
2. Germanic Regions Often Confused With Burgenland
3. Some Thoughts Concerning The Burgenland "Anschluss" Of 1921


1. CORRECTION TO "THE SWAMP OF GERMANIC GENEALOGY"
    - see BB News No. 160A

In a message dated 2/28/07, Michael Gallagher writes: Regarding your wife's Pennsylvania German ancestry and the article below, I noticed some possible errors. Most Germans came after the Revolution, but I believe most Palatines came 1737-1800; coming before 1800 is my understanding of the term "Pennsylvania German/Dutch/Deutsch" as opposed to "German immigrants," such as my Burgenlander great-grandfather's in-laws (Bavaria & Tyrol, late 1800s).  1737 is the earliest year recorded in a book of arrivals of Palatines. My PA German ancestors (my father's maternal grandmother's family as opposed to my mother's father's father & his in-laws from Tyrol & Bavaria) came 1700-1745, and some possibly later (the "about 1700" wife's siblings & in-laws were on the ship of the "Original 13" families under Daniel Pastorius). Perhaps this can help the Glassmeyer correspondent.

Reply: Michael, your points are well made. As stated in the article, we are a Burgenland site and not an expert on genealogical matters Germanic, but, given my wife's ancestry, I have been down that path for a considerable distance and thought I could help. Even so, I should have had a better memory of the Palatinate dates.

The main thrust of the article was to point out that merely because one has a Germanic name, one should not assume that ancestors came from Germany proper or any of the particular places settled by those speaking German. I was also making the point that there was much more Germanic immigration following the Revolution (to which you agree) than before and, given a Germanic name, one should consider the full migration spectrum lacking definitive clues as to time frame. I introduced the Palatinate time frame (although I agree my dates were misleading) as being a good place for Glassmeyer to start.

Mea culpa! I believe the following excerpts from the works mentioned will correct my article and also support your comments. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to set the record straight:

From: Rupp, "30 Thousand Names"
1682-1776, Pennsylvania being the central point of emigration from Germany (sic)
1682-1702, fairly few Germans arrived (but does include the Pastorious group)
1702-1727, 40-50K German immigrants arrived

Rupp's Ships' Manifests date from 1727-1775 (Baxter "In Search of Your German Roots" says 70K immigrants arrived in PA between those dates)

From: Yoder, "Pennsylvania German (Palatinate) Immigrants 1709-1786"
(dates in the title are significant)

From Angus Baxter, "In Search of Your German Roots"
page 51: "Although the major period of German immigration into North America was the nineteenth century, the first mass entry of German colonists was in 1683 when Germantown, in Pennsylvania, was founded."

"German settlement really commenced with the arrival of the (first) Palatinates in 1709 and their settlement in New York" (he then goes on to define Palatinates as being from Rheinland-Pfalz, Baden, Bavaria, etc.)

Page 55: "The high points of immigration (from Germany) into the United States in the nineteenth century were in 1854 when more than a quarter million Germans arrived, and in the period 1866-1873 (no numbers provided)."

As in all ethnic migrations, one can even find exceptions to the above, both before and after the dates mentioned. One example will be found in Schuricht "The German Element In Virginia" (reprinted 1977). Page 22 lists some settlers in Virginia as early as 1620 who have Germanic names. Much more follows, as the book's title promises. German was spoken and printed in the Shenandoah Valley as late as the turn of the 20th century. Settlers having migrated south from the Lancaster area. There were also Germanic immigrants who entered the United States through the ports of Boston, Baltimore, Galveston, etc.

It is much easier to find Burgenland immigrant links to their places of origin due to the relatively late arrival of Burgenland immigrants (1880's to the 1950's) and family records and oral traditions as to their villages of origin. Immigrants arriving much earlier had the opportunity to migrate elsewhere and their origins are often lost and can thus become an enigma. In my wife's case, we are still looking for the birth (baptism) record of a Beck ancestor who settled in Bucks County, PA, but may have migrated there from elsewhere (NC or Virginia). Among the names mentioned in the above book, there is a Wm. Beck (Wm. is a common family given name among her Beck ancestors) - tantalizing but hardly a strong clue.

To our BB members, I apologize for straying from purely Burgenland matters. This as well as the previous article are a message for those who feel the Burgenland may be their place of origin merely because they have a Germanic or Croatian or Hungarian or Hebrew or Gypsy (Rom) or Slovene name.


2. GERMANIC REGIONS OFTEN CONFUSED WITH BURGENLAND
   - Reprinted from BB News No. 91 dated Dec. 31, 2000; edited

There have been many changes in European History. It is not easy to locate areas whose names have changed over the centuries. Historical geography is not often addressed by our schools. European historical geography can be an enigma; even the news media often get confused.

So it is with many who are studying family history in Europe for the first time. Just where are those places mentioned in cryptic family records? All too often, they end up getting identified as "Germany," since so many immigrants came from Germanic areas. Notice, I say Germanic, not German. One can write books about all of the places to which German speaking immigrants migrated. Let's look at some that are often confused with the Burgenland. These are not all Germanic areas—some have other ethnicity—but many were part of the Austro/Hungarian Empire and others still exist today (some descriptions have been taken from Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, which see for further description).

If you feel your ancestors came from any of the non-Burgenland regions below, don't contact us—except in a very few instances, we probably can't help.

Algäu - southern Germany along the Austrian border - Lake Constance to Bavaria

Alsace (Elsass) - eastern France along the SW border of Germany

Banat - Tisza River region of Romania; Swabian migration destination

Batschka - part of Hungary and Croatia; Swabian migration destination

Black Forrest (Schwarzwald) - southwest Germany, west of the Rhine, mostly Bavaria

Bohemia (Böhmen) - western part of Czech Republic

Bukovina - northern Romania

Carinthia (Karinthia, Kärnten) - province of Austria, borders Italy and Slovenia

Carniola (Krain) - region of Slovenia, just south of Croatia

Egerland - part of Czech Republic along the eastern border of Bavaria

Erzgeberge - southeast Saxony, Germany and northwest Bohemia

Franconia - northern Bavaria (north-Unterfranken, middle-Mainfranken, south-Oberfranken)

Galicia - upper part of the Dneister River, Poland and the Ukraine

Gorizia - western Slovenia along the Adriatic

Gottschee - northern Slovenia between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia

Hauerland - south-central Slovakia bordering Hungary

Hegau - southwest Germany near the Danube

Moravia (Mähren) - Czech Republic between Poland, Slovakia and Austria

Nieder-Öestereich - Austrian province of Lower Austria, west and north of Burgenland

Ruthenia - region of the Ukraine

Salzburg - city and province (Land) of Austria

Salzkammergut - region of Austria, east of Salzburg (part of Land Salzburg)

Siebenburgen - Transylvania (now part of Romania)

Slavonia - eastern region of Croatia, south of Hungary, west of the Vojvodina, north of Bosnia

Slovakia - formerly eastern Czechoslovakia, north of Hungary

Styria (Steiermark) - province of Austria, south and west of Burgenland

Tirol (Tyrol) - province of Austria, south of Germany

Transylvania - see Siebenburgen

Upper Austria (Oberösterreich) - province of Austria, mostly north of the Danube

Vienna (Wein) - capital of Austria, one of three "empire" capitals which also included Prague and Budapest-region around Vienna is also called Land Vienna

Voralberg - province of Austria, south of Germany, north of Italy

Walachia - southern Romania

Wienerwald - Vienna woods

NAMES THAT DO REFER TO THE BURGENLAND

Translated literally, Burgenland means "castle land" - as such, people may feel it refers to any place with castles. Not so, the Burgenland is the ninth province of Austria, created in 1921 from parts of the Hungarian counties, or Megye, of Vas, Moson and Sopron. These counties (parts of which still exist in Hungary today) were the extreme western part of Hungary in the region known as Transdanubia. The parts comprising today's Burgenland were transferred to Austria by the Treaty of Trianon, mainly because most (84%) of the inhabitants were of Germanic origin. While more of the Hungarian counties mentioned were also slated for transfer, they were allowed (by plebescite) to remain in Hungary if the villages were mostly inhabited by people of Hungarian origin. This is why the Austrian-Hungarian border is so convoluted today. The remaining 16% of the Burgenland population is composed of people of Croatian origin (14%) who migrated there in the 16th century and a few (2%) of Hungarian, Slovene, Hebrew and Rom (Gypsy) origin.

Hügelland - literally "hill country", but here defined as the eastern foothills of the Alps which encompasses much of the Burgenland

Rosalia - northwest Burgenland-region of the Rosalian mountains including Drassburg, Forchtenstein, and Matterburg.

Seewinkel - "Lake Corner," area around the Neusiedler See in northern Burgenland

Transdanubia - the region just west of the Danube Bend (imaginary line drawn from Budapest to Mohacs)


3. SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING THE BURGENLAND "ANSCHLUSS" OF 1921

I recently reread Robert Unger's "Twenty Five Years Of My Life In My Homeland." Unger immigrated to Chicago in 1922. He had been involved with the Hungarian military in WW-I and local politics following the war. He had much opportunity to observe what was happening in western Hungary and the actions that resulted in the formation of the Burgenland. His book, in German, was translated by his son and reissued a few years ago through his efforts and the help of BB staff member Bob Unger (no relation). It contains an excellent account of the reasons for the inclusion, as well as exclusion, of various areas and villages in the region annexed to Austria.

The treaties ending WW-I (St. Germain & Trianon) called for the dismemberment of the Austro/Hungarian Empire. Both Austria and Hungary lost vast amounts of territory. The philosophy followed by the allied commissions was US President Wilson's ideas of "self-determination" - the ethnic establishment of nations. Thus western Hungary with its heavy Germanic population was considered a good addition to Austria. However, there were many factors at work. It's like trying to create new cities from New York on the basis of ethnic determination. Certainly there are Hispanic, Afro, Italian, German, Jewish, etc. districts in New York but these districts have a mix of varying intensity. There would be no way of satisfying everyone.

In addition to the ethnic, racial and religious differences, which existed throughout western Hungary, there were other factors. Unger's book mentions some of them.

Plebiscite - while Pan-German and other interests demanded that all of the Burgenland region be transferred to Austria, Hungarian and other interests strongly resisted. The allied powers decided that a plebiscite or vote of the inhabitants in the contested areas should decide.

Monarchial Preferences - in 1921, aristocracy was still a powerful force in Austria and Hungary. While the end of an Austrian monarchy was in sight, there was still the possibility of it being re-established in Hungary. Thus, many aristocrats, (Unger specifically mentions the Erdody family and other books mention the Esterhazy family) were very interested in seeing their lands and holdings remain in Hungary. They thus exerted much influence to further their ends. (Hungary did not again become a monarchy and, with the establishment of the communist regime following WW-II, the aristocrats later lost Hungarian holdings.) 

Church Preferences - many church holdings owed their formation to aristocratic gifts. The church thus often favored aristocratic preferences and influenced their parish to whatever extent possible. It is fairly obvious that the church did engage in local politics. At least one priest is known for having lied to the allied commission relative to the desires of his parishioners.

Merchant & Industrial Preferences - for numerous reasons, those who controlled the wealth of the region opted for Hungary or Austria depending on what favored them the most. Some were antagonized by the brief communist regime of Bela Kun in Hungary following the armistice and feared its return. Their fears were justified following WW-II! Others saw commercial or competitive advantages one way or another.

Landowner Preferences - given land holdings split by a new border, owners wished to be on one side or another, ethnic or political desires not withstanding.

Austrian Political Party Preferences - 400,000 votes were at stake. Given the birth of a new Austrian republic, existing and newly formed political parties saw this as a major challenge.

Geographic Preferences - roads, railroads and rivers provide transportation. The Hungarians were successful in retaining all of the better transportation networks, mainly because they were able to retain the city of Sopron and accompanying area. It wasn't until the end of WW-II that Burgenland was able to reestablish a good transportation network. Had Sopron been included, it would have been the largest city in Burgenland and probably the provincial capital.

These are factors to consider when we wonder why one village along the border is in Austria and another in Hungary. The border itself was also later adjusted to meet some local geographic preferences.

Newsletter continues as number 161A.

THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 161A
DEDICATED TO AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN BURGENLAND FAMILY HISTORY
(Our 12th Year - issued monthly as email by G. J. Berghold
March 31, 2007
(c) 2007 G. J. Berghold - all rights reserved

~ BURGENLAND GOVERNMENT DELEGATION TO VISIT IN APRIL - SEE BELOW. ~

~ MAJORITY OF BB STAFF TO MEET IN ALLENTOWN AT THE SAME TIME~

This second section of our 2-section newsletter concerns:

1. Burgenland Government Delegation To Be Met By BB Staff
2. Phonebooks Can Aid In Establishing Origin
3. Rechnitzer Surname
4. Italian Ethnic Club Closes In Allentown
5. BB-BG Sponsored Trip To Burgenland Cancelled
6. Taste Of The Burgenland - Kürbis or Pumpkin


1. BURGENLAND GOVERNMENT DELEGATION TO BE MET BY BB STAFF

As mentioned in newsletter number 160A, a Burgenland Government Delegation (including vice-governor Franz Steindl), accompanied by Dr. Walter Dujmovits, president of the BG, will visit Burgenland ethnic enclaves in the US and Canada April 13-24. Below is their itinerary:

April 13-16 New York
April 17-19 Allentown
April 20-21 Chicago
April 22-24 Toronto

A number of the BB Staff will take advantage of this opportunity to meet and greet the delegation in Allentown. As of this writing it appears that Gerry Berghold, Tom Steichen, Bob Strauch, Anna Kresh, John Lavendoski, Margaret Kaiser, Maureen Tighe-Brown and Klaus Gerger (part of the delegation) will attend. Gerry Berghold will be staying at the Four Points Sheraton (as will the delegation and some of the BB staff). While a number of affairs are being planned, please contact Anna Kresh or Bob Strauch if you wish to attend any that will be open to the public. This is the first meeting of such a large group of the BB staff and we will use the occasion to plan future growth and organization of the BB.


2. PHONE BOOKS CAN AID IN ESTABLISHING ORIGIN

Some time ago a correspondent asked if I could help locate his ancestor's village of origin. His surname was not listed with us and his time frame of research slightly pre-dated the start of Burgenland emigration. I suggested he try the Austrian on-line phone book for a clue. He was offended that I would suggest such a search and responded that  phone books were hardly a place to do genealogical research. I did such a search for him and supplied two villages with a number of families with his surname. The connection was obvious; to-date I've never had reply or thanks.

We must not lose sight of the fact that only a little over one hundred years have passed since the great wave of Burgenland emigration started in the late 1800's. This means that family can still probably be found in the villages of origin. Like America, most families now have telephones and are listed in the phonebooks. While some movement has undoubtedly taken place in the intervening years and some families have died out, the probability of finding distant cousins in the villages of origin or nearby is still very high. Of course this probability decreases with time; a search for an 18th century family name may well be fruitless. In my own case, given the earliest family migration date of 1902, I can still find many family names listed in the original villages of origin.

If you have had no luck using our lists or the Ellis Island data, try the online phonebooks. You will find their addresses in our Homepage URL listing maintained by Anna Kresh. I might mention that there are commercial sites who will offer to find your village of origin. I'm sure some use the available on-line phone listings to a great extent.


3. RECHNITZER SURNAME

In a message dated 3/4/07 pushhard(at)televar.com writes: I have done the research on my family, who are all Danish. The first Rechnitzer I have found was a Simon who died in Hamburg in 1828. He was a Jew. His son was orphaned and adopted by his aunt and taken to Denmark where he was baptized into the Danish Lutheran Church. I wrote to the mayor of Rechnitz a number of years ago and he said the name didn't originate there.
 
I am planning on being in Vienna the latter part of May and thought I would like to engage a researcher or someone who might know of a family tree that listed a Simon Rechnitzer. My previous contacts with the Jewish Rechnitzers has been fruitless and I have inquired of 5 listed in the phone book, with responses that varied from one extreme to the other.
 
Since Rechnitz is in Burgenland can you point me in the direction of where I might find some genealogies of people named Rechnitzer? Thank you, Paul Rechnitzer

Reply: your assumption that the name Rechnitzer identifies someone from Rechnitz may not necessarily be valid. Common surnames were taken (given via fiat in the case of most Jews) mostly in the early 16th century. Some were taken from place of origin (Hamburger, Sorger, Unger, etc.) so, yes, Rechnitzer could mean someone from Rechnitz. Of course it could also stem from a literal translation of Recht (correct) and Nitzer (the nick-name for Nicholas). The "correct Nicholas." Given what follows, however, I think your assumption is correct but I wonder why the German equivalent... why not the Hungarian one? When was the name given? Was Simon also an orphan? (I notice that in 1858, the Jewish community in Rechnitz owned some houses. How were they used - orphanage, hospice, boarding house?

Let's look at the Rechnitz village possibility. Rechnitz is the German name for the Hungarian village (pre 1921) of Rohonc which was in the county (Megye) of Vas, Hungary, now in the district of Oberwart in the province of Burgenland, Austria. It is one of the larger Burgenland villages with an ancient history dating in its present form from about 1260 or earlier. Settled by Germans as early as early as the 9th century, it was one of the villages of Hungary ceded to Austria by the Treaty of Trianon following WW-I. In 1873, Rechnitz had a population of 2340 Roman Catholics, 1079 Lutherans and most importantly for you, 479 Jews. There was a RC and Lutheran church as well as a Jewish synagogue (dating from 1649). In scanning an 1858 list of householders, I find no one by the name of Rechnitzer (my source says 850 Jews lived there in 1850, 311 in 1900, so if there were Rechnitzers there at that time, you would expect them to be shown in the 1858 house lists). However, since Simon died in Hamburg in 1828, it's very possible he could have lived in Rechnitz much earlier than 1850. Many years in which to migrate!

You may well question why someone would move from western Hungary to northern Germany, but the Jews were limited in their ability to secure certain jobs and they did tend to be more mobile than the normal peasantry. The Batthyany family were the overlords of Rechnitz during the time in question. Many Jews worked as clerks for the aristocracy. The Esterhazys-princes of the Empire, whose domain was the Northern Burgenland, had many Jewish employees and even protected them with documents; since they controlled Frauenkirchen, is there a possibility there was Rechnitzer migration north from Rechnitz?

I do believe you would do best to continue your search in Jewish records given that Simon was Jewish. The Rechnitz synagogue records from 1834-1895 are available from the LDS (Mormon library in Salt Lake City) at any of their family history centers. The microfilm number for those records is 0700726. Although dated after Simon's death, they may well contain some other family records.

I notice that in the BB surname list, there is mention of one Vilmos Rechnitzer from the village of Frauenkirchen (in the north of Burgenland near the Neusiedler See). The BB member supplying that data may still be active.

I can well understand the Bürgermeister of Rechnitz in that he may only have access to later records (1896 forward). Not all Hungarian records were transferred in 1921. The LDS secured theirs from the Hungarian State Library in Budapest. There is no one with the Rechnitzer name in either Rechnitz or Frauenkirchen today.

Your best bet is to continue following the possible origin in Austro/Hungary and, given the time frame involved, I would think that search should be in the Jewish records. I'd certainly start with those LDS Rechnitz records and trace those possible Frauenkirchen Rechnitzers. You may even find earlier records. Of course your research is hampered by the loss of records occasioned by WW-II, but the Jewish organizations are doing an excellent job of accumulating extant records. Like our own research, it is necessary to try to pinpoint places of origin. Perhaps a Viennese Jewish organization may be able to help.

You can find a bit more about Rechnitz by scanning some of the material available from the BB Homepage. Let me know if you have any success.


4. ITALIAN ETHNIC CLUB CLOSES IN ALLENTOWN
    - courtesy Bob Strauch

Italian immigrants founded the Allentown Italian Club in 1887. In 1916, the building association sold about 600 shares to help pay for construction of the building at 823 Jordan St. At one time the club had over 4000 members, with a ladies auxiliary and Saturday night dances. On Sundays, after Mass, it was standing room only at the bar, and the cries of the Bocce players, in the field behind the building, could be heard through the open windows. The club was recently dissolved and the building sold.

One of the many ethnic clubs in Allentown, it was located in what was then a predominantly Italian neighborhood (north of Tilghman Street to Cedar (as far as the bridge over the Jordan Creek leading to Fullerton) and west from Meadow street to about 6th street). It bordered a Burgenland ethnic area (south of Tilghman and west from Meadow to 5th). Both areas are now mainly Hispanic.
My uncle, William L. Sorger, the only son of my maternal grandfather, Burgenland immigrant Alois Sorger, was an early member of this 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 Burgenlanders. We traded pogatchels and strudel for polenta and cannelloni and were always welcome guests in either home. The fine hospitality of both Burgenländer and Italian is legendary.
It appears that the Austrian/Hungarian Veterans' Club (includes a Burgenland group) on 4th Street may well become the last of the ethnic clubs in Allentown.


5. BB-BG SPONSORED TRIP TO BURGENLAND CANCELLED

While a number of BB members expressed an interest (planned for July 2007) only six people signed up for the trip with the tour operator. A minimum of 20 was required. As a result, the tour operator had to cancel the trip. We are very sorry if the six who applied have been inconvenienced as a result. This was the third attempt on our part to respond to membership requests for such a trip. A lot of effort and planning are required. We may again offer such a trip in 2008, but it could well be our last attempt. It is unfortunate that out of over 1400 BB members, we cannot muster a minimum group. As previously stated, the trip, as offered, is a once in a lifetime opportunity to visit the Burgenland with the help of BB & BG staff and Burgenland members.

* BB Burgenland Editor Klaus Gerger sends the following:
Hello Gerry, the July 2007 Burgenland tour, continues to be problematic. Today I had a long phone call with Mr. Kirnbauer from Blaguss. He informed me that he has to cancel the trip because all arrangements (reservation of flight and hotels) are based on a group of at least 20. Up to today, we all tried hard but just 6 persons booked.
Attached you can find the cancel notice from Blaguss. I feel really sorry because I invested a lot of time. Mr. Kirnbauer told me that he will support hotel bookings if any of the group does the trip on an individual basis. So I can offer to act as a guide either in Eisenstadt or in Southern Burgenland for a few days. Since some of the potential participants stated that they will go probably next year, Mr. Kirnbauer offered to repeat the offer for a tour 2008. What do you think about this? Sorry Klaus.

* Message to the six parties reserving a spot on the tour:
Dear sir or madame, I'm really sorry, but we have to cancel the Burgenland trip. The reason is, that there are only 6 (maybe 8) people signed in. The trip is calculated with 20 people, so the price would  increase dramatically. I was really looking forward to welcome you in our beautiful country. Mr. Gerger will send you an e-mail, the next few days, because he is planning to do (offer) the trip in the year 2008.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Michaela Horvath
Resebüromitarbeiterin in Ausbildung
Blaguss Touristik GmbH
7350 Oberpullendorf, Wiener Straße 26
E: mhorvath(at)blaguss.at


6. TASTE OF THE BURGENLAND - KÜRBIS OR PUMPKIN

Those born in the United States identify pumpkin with Halloween or the Pilgrims' Thanksgiving. However, if you visit the Burgenland in late summer or early fall you will find heaps of pumpkins stacked in the fields and village courtyards (Hofs.) I'm not sure when the pumpkin came to the Burgenland, but it is now an integral part of Burgenland cuisine. Made with sour cream it was one of my grandmother's favorites.

The first thing many Burgenlanders do with pumpkin is remove the seeds and process them for pumpkin seed oil, a distinctive Burgenland specialty, very heavy, dark green with a nutty flavor. The flesh can be cooked as a dish with sour cream or made into a very nice cream bisque soup. We had this last at a great lunch in Mattersburg. It was one of those wet lunches that last for hours. There is also a pumpkin strudel which I've never tasted or encountered. If there is too much pumpkin left it is dried and used as an addition to the feed for farm animals.

Recently Bob Strauch sent me a clipping from the Allentown Morning Call. They published two pumpkin soup recipes, one from "Culinaria Hungary" the other from a Whitehall immigrant family.

The only recipe I have is for a cold squash soup. If any of our members have an original immigrant recipe for pumpkin soup, I'd be pleased to publish it. Send it to G. J. Berghold in plain text, no graphics.

END OF NEWSLETTER

The Burgenland Bunch homepage (website) can be found at:
http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org

We can also be reached from: http://go.to/burgenland-bunch (this address also provides access to Burgenländische Gemeinschaft web site)

Use our website to access our membership, village and surname lists, archives, internet links, maps, instructions, ethnic song book, frequently asked questions and other information.

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