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

1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen)

This month's random bits and pieces (Article 1) begins with a few words about rising groundwater levels in the Seewinkel and the reason for it, slides into a bit about welcome rain in the north but unwelcome flooding in the south, then veers off into a somewhat technical bit about false genetic correlations. Thereafter, we take a side trek into commuter traffic across the border and the barriers being placed to reduce it, before settling back and talking about reduced (yes, reduced!) beer consumption in Austria.

Our regular tidbits include the monthly BB Facebook report, book sales, and a word cartoon.

The remaining articles are our standard sections: A Historical BB Newsletter article, Ethnic Events and Emigrant Obituaries.



Groundwater Levels Rise: Last year, I wrote a series of bits about the drop in water level in the Neusiedlersee, the drying up of the Salzlacken, and the corresponding lowering of the groundwater levels throughout the Seewinkel region. This prompted villages in the area to do what they could to keep as much water as possible in the region. In Tadten, barrages have now been built into the drainage ditches to retain the water—and the groundwater level has risen measurably.

Side note: I had never heard of the term barrage used in this context before so I looked it up. As you might expect, it is a type of dam, and a type of weir, though not exactly either. So what are the technical differences between a dam, a weir and a barrage?

All are impervious barriers constructed across a river to raise the water level on the upstream side. In a weir the water overflows the top of the barrier; in a dam the water overflows through a special place called a spillway; a barrage, however, has adjustable gates installed in it to allow different water surface heights at different times.

Barrages are often associated with locks on rivers, retaining water so the lock works correctly but can be opened to release potentially-damaging excess water in rainy seasons or ice buildups in winter when the locks are not used.

Until six months ago, excess water from a rainfall in the Tadten area flowed into the Danube via the Einser canal, but now it is kept in the region with the help of small barrages.

As you can see from the image here, these barrages are small wooden structures embedded into the ditch banks and bottom and filled with impervious clay to retain the water. They have wood slats in the middle that can easily be removed or replaced, as needed, to retain a chosen level of water.

The project was supported by the Vienna University of Technology, says Helmut Rojatz, a hydraulic engineering expert and consultant to Burgenland. The aim is now to win over more municipalities in the Seewinkel for such projects, says Infrastructure Minister, Heinrich Dorner. "...there are many stakeholders that need to be reconciled. I'm talking about agriculture, I'm talking about tourism, I'm talking about settlement areas."

As I've noted in earlier bits, these stakeholders often have competing interests: villages want to avoid flooding; agriculture wants enough ground water for irrigating crops but not so much they lose tillable ground; tourism and villages want wetlands that attract wildlife and the resulting tourists that visit and spend money locally. An adjustable barrage may be the solution that allows an agreeable, compromise water level.



Rain—Joy In The North—Pain In The South: Since we are talking about water levels, I'd be remiss if I ignore the substantial rain that fell in early August in Burgenland. Unfortunately, what was a welcome rainfall in the north was a painful and expensive event in the south.

The Neusiedlersee/Seewinkel region received about 60 l/m² (~2.36 inches) of rain over a few days, a rainfall that was wonderful for agriculture, the salt lakes, the Neusiedlersee and, of course, the groundwater levels. Now the water level of Lake Neusiedl is almost 20 cm (~7.9 in) above last year's low, though it still remains about 30 cm (~11.8 in) below the long-term average level.

While there is now less immediate concern about water levels in the north, the experts know that remediation plans cannot be dropped. They say that, in recent decades, the number of hot days has doubled, which means more evaporation and dryer soils. And they expect that dry phases will become longer and more extreme. That is the reason why remediation measures have been started, such as barrages, reed management, a supply line from the Danube, and removal of sludge from Lake Neusiedl. While more water is needed to improve the salt lakes and groundwater, some of the salt lakes are filling after these recent rains. However, they say that does not say much: "We absolutely need the high groundwater level. Because only if we have permanently high groundwater levels can Salzlacken survive in the long term."

In addition to the remediation efforts, the withdrawal of water from the approximately 5,000 wells in the Seewinkel is to be re-regulated, with new limits on how much groundwater may be withdrawn. Still, it will take rainfalls like the recent one for any of this to matter.

Unfortunately for southern Burgenland, the news there was flooding and damage, with the districts of Oberwart, Güssing and Jennersdorf being particularly affected. It was so bad that soldiers of the Austrian Armed Forces were deployed to assist the local fire brigades in Güssing and along the Zichenbach and the Strem river in erecting flood barriers and filling more than 5,000 sandbags. Over three days, about 9 inches of rain fell in the Strem watershed and the gentle stream become a raging river, overflowing its banks. Nearby basements, roads and fields flooded and trees were uprooted.

Downstream there was flooding too. The Strem empties into the Pinka and then into the Raab river. In Neumarkt an der Raab, the Raab burst its banks and some pumpkin fields were flooded.

What remains are the consequences. Crops under water, roads closed, trees and buildings damaged, and mud to be cleaned up. Emergency services have pumped out basements and removed fallen trees from the roads. Damage to roads, bridges and buildings will need to be assessed. But perhaps the most immediate problem is the damage to grain fields.

At this point, the conditions make the grain harvest in the south, which should be underway, impossible. In some cases, a total failure is expected. The heavy rains have made the fields impassable and many grain crops have been totally knocked down into the mud, meaning harvesting them will be difficult, even when tractors can get into the field, and they may rot if the wet conditions remain too long.

Cereals such as rye, spelt, oats or ancient grains for bread are grown. But, if these grains stay in the field too long, they overgrow and become unusable as food. "While they might be used as fodder, they otherwise are no longer harvestable," explained farmer Albert Müllner, who has his fields in Glashütten.

The crop failure has also hit organic farmers in the region hard. Their fields cannot be mowed and the grain is so moist that the drying costs may be too high, so some farmers even speak of a total failure of their harvest.

It is expected that around 1,000 hectares (~2500 acres) of grain will be affected by the heavy rainfall in Burgenland.  And insurance does not cover the damage.



Is it DNA? Or Not? Statistically speaking, highly-educated people tend to weigh less. But that correlation alone doesn’t really tell you much as there are lots of plausible explanations. Maybe the reason is that educated people have access to healthier foods. Or maybe people who can afford college tuition can afford gym memberships too.

In 2015, a study in Nature Genetics introduced a new possibility: weight and education may be connected because they share genetic roots. Using genetic data, the authors searched for pairs of traits that were correlated with the same genes. For each pair they calculated a “genetic correlation” that quantifies how similar the genes for one trait are to those for another trait. Among trait pairs having significant genetic correlations was body mass index (BMI) and years of education—as well as more obvious pairs like type-2 diabetes and blood glucose levels.

Now, a new study in Science shows that this idea is illusory. It suggests that geneticists must also consider what comes before people’s genes: their parents. Even if two traits are statistically associated with the same genes, that same pattern can also appear if people with those traits tend to mate with each other.

Almost certainly, people with many years of education, who are likely to be of a higher social class, tend to seek out partners who display markers of similar social standing like money, a low BMI and more education. If so, their children will then have genes linked to both high education and low weight. And if this happens repeatedly across a population, the two traits will appear to share some of the same genetic causes even if such causes are unrelated.

In another study earlier this year, statistical geneticist Laurence Howe and a team of researchers compared siblings with each other, and observed no genetic correlation between BMI and years of education. It was parents, not genes, that had made weight and education seem genetically connected.

But Howe’s study didn’t explain exactly how parents played a role. Parents don’t just pass down genes to their kids—they also pass down their socioeconomic status, which has consequences for both schooling and diet. And, of course, parents typically choose whom they reproduce with, which could—in theory—inflate genetic correlations. But no one had yet produced concrete evidence that it did.

The new Science study found that evidence. Using a computational approach that followed marital trends observed in the real world, it simulated a population of people who paired off into couples. These imaginary couples reproduced, and their children found mates, and their children’s children—and so on. The scientists tracked the genes and traits of all these simulated individuals, and, using that information, they were able to calculate genetic correlations across each generation. What they found confirmed their suspicions—even if two traits were totally genetically unrelated in the first generation, if people who had those traits tended to mate with each other, the genes eventually started to seem correlated. The simulations indicated that such mating could explain as much as half of the genetic correlation between BMI and education.

Thus its results demonstrated that previous reports have likely overestimated the true genetic similarity between many traits. Keep this in mind when evaluating what testing companies tell you.



Open Borders and Commuter Traffic: Back in 2015, I wrote a "bit" with this same title. What that bit said was that the Austrian border villages of Schattendorf and Sankt Margarethen were getting tired of the increased commuter traffic that was coming through their villages from Hungary (mostly Sopron) and heading to Eisenstadt or even further destinations such as Vienna or Wiener Neustadt. Hungary had joined the EU in 2004 and the borders were opened then. Initially, commuter traffic from Sopron into Austria took Hungarian Route 84 to the border, which is a two-lane highway that becomes Austrian Route 16, also a two-lane highway but one that bypasses the local towns before accessing the 4-lane A3 autobahn or the various two-lane, limited-access Schnellstraßen (expressways) in Austria.

Other local roads across the international border had been blocked off during the Iron Curtain era, and remained closed after that era because they were not official entry points with border-crossing stations. With the advent of the EU open-border era, the villages near the Austrian-Hungarian border resumed family and social ties that had been severed. A natural result was that the once-closed narrow farm roads between them eventually were rehabilitated and opened across the border. In the Sopron region, such roads between the villages of Schattendorf, Austria (in the Mattersburg district of Burgenland) and nearby Ágfalva, Hungary (in the Sopron district), as well as the one between Sankt Margarethen (in Eisenstadt district) and the Hungarian village of Sopronköhida, were reopened to facilitate easy local access.

However, these minor roads quickly degenerated into Pendlerrouten (commuter routes) used morning and evening mainly by Hungarian commuters from the Sopron area. When that traffic reached Schattendorf, it ran through narrow villages streets, past the cemetery and church, and into a residential neighborhood before emptying into a minor highway through the center of town. In Sankt Margarethen, the traffic passed through a residential neighborhood before dumping into the Hauptstraße through the heart of the town.

Here is a map of the various locations, with the preferred commuter route (84/16) running past Klingenbach:



By 2015, a traffic survey by Austria showed that an average of 2,300 vehicles used the local route through Schattendorf daily, well exceeding the design capacity of the road and the tolerance of its citizens. That prompted an effort by the Schattendorf village council to close the road between 5 and 8 am and between 4 and 7 pm. It was this effort that I reported on back then.

Now let's jump to recent months. Back in December, Sankt Margarethen implemented a driving ban on their local road. The only exceptions were if the source and destination of the traffic was one of its surrounding communities. In February, the corresponding traffic signs were unveiled, so the driving ban became enforceable. Compliance with the driving ban is monitored by the local police and, if necessary, by state personnel.

Schattendorf took it one step further, closing the road to all automotive traffic in March and turning the border area into a pedestrian zone. There was discussion about crossing permits for cars for citizens of Schattendorf and Ágfalva, at a cost of 160 euros per year, but I do not know if this was implemented.

The news this month (and why I'm doing an update), is there is now a lawsuit claiming the Schattendorf border barrier does not comply with the Austrian constitution and thus is a violation of EU law. An application for judicial review has been submitted to the Austrian Constitutional Court, as well as a complaint filed with the European Commission for infringement of EU law. The Schattendorf municipality lawyer, Johannes Zink, responded, saying "everything had been legally checked and handled in accordance with the law."



Beer Consumption in Austria Declining? Austria typically ranks second in the world in per capita beer consumption (the Czech Republic, where beer is cheaper than bottled water, is always first, and the US typically lingers around 20th), and while Austria hasn't lost its place in the rankings, sales for its domestic breweries declined in the first half of 2023, an unusual situation.

Austria's brewery sales were down by five percent in the first half of this year. However, they say this should not be "over-hyped." Rather, last year was a record-breaking year for many breweries, so this is probably "catch-up effects" and mere "leveling off." However, there were sharp price increases by many breweries last year that may have had influence on sales also.

Still, beer remains the favorite alcoholic beverage in Austria and the average Austrian drinks more than 100 liters per year (FYI, such beer consumption is calculated by dividing the total volume of beer consumed in a country by its population aged 15 and older). The latest-available estimate (for 2020) is 107.8 liters per capita, which is equal to about 304 12-oz beers (the US number is 228).

Beer is also very popular in Burgenland (and brewed there too), even though the province is better known as a wine region. The local breweries, mostly in Gols (Neusiedl am See district) and Kobersdorf (Oberpullendorf district), claim that they have not noticed any significant declines yet this year. So: Ein Prosit, ein Prosit, der Gemütlichkeit! Oans, zwoa, drei, Gsuffa!



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

This summer has just zipped by! It is hard to believe that is almost September already. Several of our members are currently visiting Burgenland and we have been traveling vicariously with them through their photos. Fred and Mary Knarr are doing such a fantastic job of chronicling their travels—they are sharing lots of beautiful photos and great travel advice as well. Our group continues to grow steadily. We added 10 new members, bringing our team to 2066 strong! Please join us if you haven’t already! facebook.com/groups/TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL/

Member Heidi Frank shared a helpful site showing surname distribution in Austria. You can find it here: https://namenskarten.lima-city.at/en/

Member Janet Kroboth-Weber shared a link to an article describing urgent repairs being done to the roof of Güssing Castle following damage from a recent storm. The article also mentions that events and a special exhibition are being planned there next year. The exhibition will focus on 500 years of the Batthyány family in Güssing. https://burgenland.orf.at/stories/3221441/

Member Brigette Kurz shared a post about the restoration of Schlossberg’s wooden bell tower. The Güssinger Historical Society completed the project and the bell tower was blessed on August 5th.

Member Franz Stangl shared some fantastic content this month. He shared a video and some photos of Güssing’s Portinkulakirtag on August 2nd, some photos of the Schlossberg bell tower dedication, and the Mariazell pilgrimage from Güssing to Steiermark. The pilgrimage takes 4 days if traveling on foot, arriving at Mariazell to venerate a wooden image of the Virgin Mary. More information about the Mariazell Basilica and pilgrimage can be found here: basilika-mariazell.at

Last month’s Burgenland Bunch newsletter featured an article about Burgenländers Living In Chicago, 1890-1945: A-H, penned by our own Tim Hermesdorf. It was very helpful to many members and we are really looking forward to the remainder of the list. Great job, Tim!

If you are in or near the Lehigh Valley Burgenländer enclave, please check out the Coplay Sängerbund’s Oktoberfest. It is being held on Sunday, September 10, 2023 from 2:30-7:00 pm. The Sängerbund’s Heritage Community always does a great job. The event is open to the public. Admission is $5 per person. The parade begins at 2:30 pm. The Auerhahn Schuhplattlers will be performing. Music will be provided by the Josef Kroboth Orchestra. There will be a Masskrugstemmen (beer stein lifting) competition and lots of delicious food and German beer. coplaysaengerbund.com

Have a wonderful month. Stay safe and healthy!

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 1737 copies, as interested people purchased 13 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 a profit so we can avoid dealing with the income tax consequences and so you can obtain the book at as low a cost as possible!), plus tax & shipping. Unfortunately, the price above is somewhat higher than in previous months, as our on-demand publisher, Lulu, recently raised is printing prices by 9.5%, meaning we must charge more. See the BB homepage for a link to the information / ordering page and for information about current discounts (there is at least one discount on price or shipping available most of the time... if not, wait a few days and there will be one!).

The book is an excellent read for the Burgenländers in your family.



Burgenland Recipes: none this month...



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!



Cartoon of the Month:

NOTICE (Informal Terms and Conditions): The Burgenland Bunch (BB) was formed and exists to assist Burgenland descendants in their research into their heritage and, toward that end, reserves the right to use any communication you have with us (email, letter, phone conversation, data upload, etc.) as part of our information exchange and educational research efforts.
    ● If you do not want your communication to be used for this purpose, indicate that it is "confidential" and we will attempt to abide by that request.
    ● Correspondents who communicate with the BB without requesting confidentiality retain their copyright but give a non-exclusive license to the BB allowing us to forward to BB members, publish in our monthly newsletter or on our website, and/or subsequently and permanently archive all or parts of such communications.

The formal Burgenland Bunch Website Usage Agreement can be found here: Agreement

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

Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, copyright © 2023 by The Burgenland Bunch
All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided.