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

First Decision Around Ebenfurth Loop: Last month, I wrote about the proposed Ebenfurth Loop, a short stretch of train track intended to avoid switching the engine from one end of a train to the other for travel along the Pottendorfer line between Vienna and Burgenland. That proposed track addition ran off the rails because of a citizens' initiative objection after the environmental study found insufficient harm to halt the plan. The citizens' group proposed a seemingly far worse route, one likely intended only to restart the design and review process, which was a tactic that would create additional delay and cost. The ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) rejected even the idea of a new route, instead taking the original plan for judicial review. This will create delay also, but not as much as starting over. The Federal Administrative Court evaluation process will extend at least into the summer and could last until the end of the year. However, a related decision has been made that clearly supports implementation of the original Ebenfurth Loop.

The Loop was always only a small part of a planned expansion of the Pottendorfer line in Lower Austria, and a decision was made this past month to approve the overall expansion. Those plans include building a junction for the Loop as part of the construction on the main line... and said junction will be built at the location specified by the initial Loop plan. Thus, to choose a new loop route later would waste the effort involved in building this junction and would require impeding the main line yet again for building an alternative junction.

To me, it seems the Court has signaled a likely approval of the initial route. Regardless, given the additional Administrative Court proceedings created by the objection, the Loop itself will be delayed by at least a year.



S7 Expressway, Initial Reactions: I noted last month that the western section of the Fürstenfeld expressway, the S7, had opened. Now it has been in operation for a month and some initial reactions are available, as reported by an ORF news team.

They traveled a route that started going south on the A2 (which is the western terminus of the S7), turned east onto the S7 about 6:30 am, and traveled to Dobersdorf, just beyond where the open section currently ends. They report that their GPS still wanted to direct them via the old, local-roads route, which they ignored, so they arrived in Dobersdorf ten minutes earlier than it had predicted. The mayor of Dobersdorf, who drives west in the morning between 7 and 8 am to his workplace in Hartberg in Styria, told them that the new road also saves him about ten minutes of travel time.

I checked GoogleMaps and it already includes the new road in its maps and route plans. However, it suggests a reduction in travel time (in non-rush-hour traffic) of only seven minutes. Not surprisingly, the benefit of the new road is greater when the roads are busy.

The ORF team also did what they called an "on-site inspection," observing west-bound traffic at the temporary connection to the S7. They noted that some vehicles with Hungarian license plates still continue on the local road toward Rudersdorf. The Dobersdorf mayor noted that they too have seen that, and suggested that some cars likely have not purchased a motorway sticker allowing travel on the toll A2 autobahn.

When the ORF team questioned people in Rudersdorf about whether the S7 has brought relief from heavy traffic, the general opinion was that the big difference was that the heavy truck traffic is gone, making their town quieter. Automobile traffic has not changed as much, but there is hope that it too will get better as the new road becomes better known. As for local commerce in Rudersdorf, both a merchant and an innkeeper said they have not experienced losses because the transit traffic is gone.

The mayor of Königsdorf, which is along the under-construction eastern half of the S7, commented that there has been a heavy load of dirt in the air and on the roads in recent months, and that everyone there will be happy if the eastern section opens next year as scheduled.



Schattendorf / Ágfalva Border Crossing: I have also written a couple of times about the retractable bollard system that was installed at the border between Austria and Hungary on the narrow farm road that runs between Schattendorf, Burgenland and Ágfalva, Hungary. This system was designed to allow free pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the border while restricting automotive traffic to only those who have a permit. This was done because it had become a commuter bypass route with hundreds of cars passing through the residential streets of Schattendorf each day while traveling from Hungary toward Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, and other northwestern destinations.

The bollards became operational and permitted automotive traffic began in summer 2023. However, within weeks, vandals took a hammer to the laser-based permit readers and destroyed them. The border became impassable for cars and remained so for nearly five months while new readers were ordered and installed.

Now, after about 4 months of operation, vandals have struck again, this time drilling a hole into the pavement and severing a safety loop coil. Such loops detect the presence of a car and do not allow the bollards to rise up again before the car has cleared them. So, the bollard system is out of operation once again and the road is closed to automotive traffic.

While this repair can likely be done quickly, the Schattendorf municipal office is considering the use of video cameras to protect the crossing from further vandalization (although doing so will require approval of the Austrian Data Protection Commission, as recording in public locations apparently requires a permit in the EU). The mayor of Schattendorf says the real victims of the current situation are the individual motorists who have valid reasons for being issued a permit to cross, not the municipality, as the road will remain closed to all automotive traffic until the repairs are made.



Ethnic Inheritance From Parents: Until May 12, AncestryDNA is offering a free feature that indicates which parent's DNA matches the predicted regions within your ethnic makeup. My report is shown below and, though I describe myself as a Germanic mutt, my ethnic regions include non-Germanic areas:

As you can see, the great majority (70%) is Germanic Europe. This makes sense as all but one of my 16 great-great-grandparents had German as their primary language (the "odd" one spoke fluent German and Polish, with a probable tilt toward Polish as her primary language). If you look further, you see that my 70% Germanic makeup was inherited much more from my mother (45%) than my Father (25%)... and that too makes sense.

My Steichen name comes through my father from the country of Luxembourg, which is near the northwestern edge of Europe. It should be no surprise that the genetics of Luxembourg fit in the England and Northwestern Europe region, and that my 17% of that predicted ethnicity came via my father. Further, another pair of great-greats on his side come from a town that is currently in northwestern Germany but only 25 miles from the border with Luxembourg. And, until 1815 (when Prussia annexed part of Luxembourg), that border was within a few yards of the town, so those ancestors also likely contributed to my 17% Northwestern Europe. Of slight (but only slight) surprise is the 7% Scotland via my father.. but Scotland's ties to England and its nearness to the northwestern coast of Europe makes a little ethnic mixing into northwestern Europe sensible.

The touch of Eastern Europe and Russia ethnicity from both parents is no surprise either, as my Polish great-great is on my father's side and we know Burgenland (my mother's mother's origin) has eastern European ties.

Perhaps the greatest surprise for me is the 4% Sweden and Denmark coming through my mother. However, her paternal line comes from a town in northern Germany that is nearly directly south of Denmark, so I suppose that could make sense!

Anyway, this is interesting to me, mostly because the "oddities" make more sense when tied only to the source parent. Perhaps your report may fascinate you too!



FamilySearch Offering a New Ancestral Fan Chart Option: I don't know if this a competitive response to Ancestry's new DNA display... regardless, it is a new option for what is already a nice, elegantly-simple fan chart, one that would be a nice addition to most genealogy reports. The default chart, as shown below, goes out to the 16 great-great-grandparents and uses subtle colors to help distinguish the family branches. It also provides space for one generation of descendants, though I've never added such info because my children are living and should decide for themselves whether they wish to be included in an online tree. My Burgenländers are on the lower right, as I connect to Burgenland through my mother's mother.



The new feature is that you can now ask it to color the chart based on where your ancestors were born, as shown below. So now the reddish color shows all my Hungarian-born (i.e., Burgenland) ancestors, and the salmon color is my Luxembourgers. My German muttness is evident from the gold color and the blue are those born in the US after emigration. As you can see, I'm a third-generation American, less one exception. 





The Dash: I recently became aware of a 1996 poem by Linda Ellis called "The Dash." The poem tells about a man speaking at a funeral who notes that it is not the dates on the tombstone that matter, rather it is the dash between those dates, as it represents the life that was led. We as genealogists often are successful at finding those encompassing dates... but perhaps less successful at discovering the life story hiding within the dash.

I suppose this is not surprising, as few of our ancestors wrote biographies detailing their lives. So instead, for those who lived before our time, we must infer what their lives were like. We can do this by noting if and when they married, discovering how many children they had (and the associated joys and sorrows for those children who were blessed with full lives or that died young), and the type of work that they did and/or the property that they owned. We visit the villages that they lived in, try to find their former homes and we gaze on their gravestones. We can read about the hardships of emigration and the difficult work involved in starting a new life.

The BB is helpful (hopefully) in making it easier to discover the hard facts above, but also in inferring what lives were like, as we try to document the general conditions both in pre-Burgenland and in emigrant destinations. Food, housing, types of jobs, roles of family members, even laws and customs that regulated lives, we attempt to document all of these at least in a general manner. Your stories about what you have learned about your people add specific examples that help others speculate about their own people. All this is good... and is in the sharing spirit that Gerry Berghold was attempting to encourage when he first established the BB some 28 years ago. Let's keep that spirit alive!

I won't include the poem here (as Linda is very protective of her copyright), but you can find the text easily with an online search on its title. To my taste, it is not great poetry... but it is great insight into what matters... the dash, not the dates.



Olives and Olive Oil from Mörbisch and Rust: Back in 2018, I noted that fifty-nine olive trees were growing on a hill above Lake Neusiedl near Mörbisch. Three different varieties had been transported to Burgenland from Italy and planted in spring 2016 ...and 2018 was the first harvest, albeit a very small one. The then six-year-old trees had yielded around a kilo of olives each, which was considered a success because it showed that olive trees could withstand Burgenland's winter temperatures.

More trees were expected to follow if suitable plots of land could be found, and now there are two sizeable olive orchards: more than 500 trees in Rust and around 650 trees in Mörbisch. The intent is to produce several thousand liters of oil each year, but that will take more time, as the yield is still not enough to justify a quality olive oil press. Thus, most of the olives are seasoned with herbs in olive oil and marketed as aperitif olives.

Nonetheless, the operators of the two olive groves recently presented their first olive oil, having been pressed in Italy last autumn. The test pressing yielded 17 liters of oil from just over 100 kilograms of olives. The owners of the Burgenland orchards report that the people in Italy ribbed them a little about the small size of their operations but were very surprised by the quality of the olives and resulting oil. They were also surprised by the high yield of oil per kilogram of olives.

While olive production in Burgenland is still in the development phase and the motivation is currently more passion than profit, the goal is to have a quality olive press in Burgenland by 2026 and to process most of the olives into oil.



Roma in Welgersdorf, Burgenland, Revisited: Last month, Phil Snow and I had an extended email conversation about Roma in Burgenland, which I prefaced by saying (in part) that I  "...have done some general reading in the past about Roma in Burgenland... However, I've never organized my thoughts nor the facts about the Roma so I can't say I recalled everything correctly.... If you see anything incorrect or can add to the discussion, please share your thoughts with me."

Eva Hergovich, a former president and longtime board member of the Burgenländer Club Toronto and representative of the Burgenländische Gemeinschaft in Canada, did so. I have inserted some indented comment blocks in reply and have slightly edited a couple of her lines for clarity on who/what she is addressing..

Eva writes (in part):

Hi Tom, though I am NOT an expert on the Roma, may I add a couple of comments to your conversation with Phil Snow:

• To Tom's comment that "There is not even one good history on Roma in Burgenland." A couple of years ago, the book Einfach Weg (Simply Gone), Roma Settlements that Disappeared in Burgenland, by Gerhard Baumgartner and Herbert Brettl, was published and was well received. Since 2014, Dr. Baumgartner has been head of the research project on the Roma and Sinti at the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance. Gerhard Baumgartner was born in Oberwart while Herbert Brettl comes from Halbturn, which is in the north of Burgenland, a perfect combination. Earlier, Dr. Baumgartner published a History of the Roma in Burgenland. He has been a member of the Roma Genocide Working Group. As far as I know, Einfach Weg is so far only available in German. I checked it on Amazon and it's horribly expensive at $100.00.

Comment: Eva is quite correct here, and I was aware of both books. My mea culpa is that I was thinking of online, quickly accessible sources, rather than print books... and I likely was biased toward English language sources (though I did not say either in the previous discussion). Still, I noted that "...there are some short bits about other Burgenland Roma settlements that can be found." That was in reference to some online paragraph-sized extracts from Einfach Weg about select Roma settlements... but not Welgersdorf. It however was mentioned as being among the villages that had Roma settlements and that were discussed in the full book.

• To Phil: There really are Roma all over the place... this is correct according to Dr. Baumgartner. He talks about Roma being in every village of Burgenland. In Einfach Weg, Roma settlements in Burgenland are listed and Welgersdorf is one of them.

• Attitudes towards the Roma have changed for the better since the attack on February 4th, 1995 in Oberwart where four Roma died. Austria has six official minority groups and the Roma are one of them. This is a clear sign that they are officially accepted as part of the fabric of Austria and they are being supported by the government culturally.

• Somewhere in your discussion (I can't find it right now) it was mentioned that after WW-II, there was no real presence of the Roma. Not so. I was a kid in the fifties and I can clearly recall a young Roma family coming to my village, settling across the cemetery in a tent and repairing pots and pans. They had a small child and the husband went from house to house asking if anyone needed their pots repaired. He accumulated about 10 pots, repaired them and then returned them to the rightful owners. I watched the entire process. If someone could not pay with money, they accepted agricultural products instead. I remember my mother explaining to me that they are nomads as this was their lifestyle. But there was no negative connotation that I can remember. I do remember that the government promoted settlement and eventually they did settle (e.g. in Oberwart where the attack occurred).

Comment: I think this is in reference to my reply to the "where" part of Phil's comment that he is "...hoping to get a better idea of if or where there were any gypsy "settlements" in town [Ed: in Welgersdorf] or if they assimilated early and were just among the population." I replied that town maps would not help: cadastral maps because they were from before most settlement of Roma in Burgenland, and modern maps because (as I wrote about the Roma last month): "Given most of them were deported or murdered by the Nazi’s in WW-II, those settlements were destroyed and the land returned to pasture, so the modern layout of the town won’t help."

That comment was in reference to Roma settlements, not individual Roma or Roma families, and I think it was valid. Herbert Brettl, one of the authors of Einfach Weg, has a blog and he wrote this (in part) about the Roma settlement in Halbturn, where he is from:

Of the 42 Roma registered in the village in 1936, only 11 returned to their home community of Halbturn after 1945. Most of the returnees did not find their relatives, their possessions or their houses, which had been destroyed after the deportation. ...The Roma who had returned home were met with similar reservations by the population as they had been before the war. These discriminations caused many to leave the town and Burgenland to start a new life in the anonymity of the big city. ...In 1953, after losing his job as a shepherd, Georg Ujvari was the last Roma to leave Halbturn to settle in the surrounding area near Vienna, where other family members were already living. This marked the end of the almost 200-year history of the Ujvari family in Halbturn.

I discovered this blog post while looking for the "short bits about other Burgenland Roma settlements" that I claimed above were from Einfach Weg, as I wanted to know if those paragraphs were in German (they were, and that page is here). Brettl's complete blog post is here: Roma verlassen den Ort. It is in German too but was extremely consistent with what I had read previously. None of this says Eva's experience in her town was invalid, but even she notes that that single Roma family eventually moved to the Oberwart area where there was an actual Roma community to take part in. 

Okay Tom, this is just about the end of my wisdom. I wish Phil good luck in his research. Eva



Smiling Faces? Not On Old Photos: I came across an Ancestry.com Blog article that discussed why people rarely smiled in old photographs. It argued that "it wasn’t that they had nothing to be happy about or they never smiled throughout their day. Rather, smiling in old photos was unrealistic or frowned upon," so people "...opted for that look of pensive stoicism so commonly associated with old photographs."

To the right is a photo of my Burgenländische grandmother, Barbara Weiss, taken in the US in the 1910s when she was still a young adult. "Pensive stoicism" seems an apt description of her expression. Yet I knew that she constantly smiled in her older years and seldom had a stern or stoic look... she just enjoyed her grandchildren and her life too much. I suspect you recall similar things about your elders from this era.

The blog article, instead, says that the primary reason why people didn’t smile in old photos was due to the technical limitations at the time. That is, early photography required long exposure times and, since people wanted their photos to come out perfectly, they chose a pose that they could hold.

Even slight movement could ruin a shot back then and a smile is difficult to hold for a long period. Because of this, people chose other, easier to hold expressions. Smiling may not seem particularly strenuous, but a smile can be difficult to hold for longer than a few seconds, as it calls for big movements of the small facial muscles. However, even as the time required to take a photo decreased, smiling still wasn’t the norm, so there were other factors at play.

One explanation was that a smile typically is a temporary response rather than something you held in a conversation or activity. Because of this, there was a belief that smiling in photographs painted an unrealistic or negative picture since, more often than not, people did not have smiles on their faces. When people were portrayed with smiles in art, they were usually children, fools or drunks, so there was a social stigma associated with smiling in photographs.

Further, photographs were not common occurrences, so people wanted to be seen as respectable and serious. They were trying to create a formalized ideal of themselves rather than attempting to capture a moment in time.

Another factor was that people often likened photography to painted portraits, where people usually looked stern because of the formality of a portrait and the inability to hold a smile during those long sitting.

It wasn’t until the 1920s that people started smiling in photographs, and as the 1900s progressed, smiles became more commonplace. Part of this was due to the popularity of motion pictures, which represented a wide range of human emotions over a period of time rather than the still, once-in-a-lifetime representation of a portrait or early photograph. Now of course, we have a tough time getting everyone in a group photo to act serious. Times change, yes they do.



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

Spring has finally sprung! Our group is doing well, adding 11 new members last month. We now have 2,194 members. You can find us here to join in the fun! facebook.com/share/mibextid=K35XfP

We’ll start with some fun upcoming events - our own Alex Meixner is going to be hosting a concert at the Coplay Sängerbund this Thursday, May 2, 2024, at 7 pm. Alex is an extremely talented musician who comes from a long line of musical Meixners. Alex has been Grammy nominated and starred in the Hormel Pepperoni commercials. He also recorded music with Jack Black for the 2016 movie “The Polka King”. Alex was inducted into the International Polka Association’s Hall of Fame in 2022. Alex’s family hails from Eisenberg an der Pinka. He always puts on a great show! Tickets can be purchased in advance using link: WMUH Presents The Alex Meixner Band.

On Sunday, May 5, 2024, the Coplay Sängerbund will be hosting their Maifest from 3-6 pm. Music will be provided by Dave Betz. The Auerhahn Schuhplattlers will be performing a maypole dance. This is always a fun event... check it out if you're in town!

Member Steve Huber shared a video of his band, The Happy Austrians, performing the “Wandern und Singen” polka at Mayfair in 1991; youtu.be/L4_7k2k3K54

Member Pat Dolan shared some nice photos taken in 2019 during her visit to her father's homeland (Illmitz and Tadten). Among the photos were pictures of the soldier memorial in St. Michael’s churchyard, honoring the parish members who served in or died in both World Wars.

Member Brigitte Kurz shared some beautiful photos of the church at Maria am Weinberg, which has a visually stunning interior. Brigitte also uploaded more than 50 photos of the memorials at Friedhof Kroatisch Ehrensdorf. Thank you so much for all of your help, Brigitte!

Member Fred Knarr shared photos of his meetup with his cousin Brittni Stangl, who he connected with through the Burgenland Bunch while researching their Stangl families from Badersdorf. It is always great to see long-lost Burgenland cousins finding each other across the miles. I think that our ancestors would be happy to know that our bonds remain strong after many generations.

Have a wonderful month, and enjoy the sunny days ahead!

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 1772 copies, as interested people purchased 3 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 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... get theirs now!



Burgenland Recipes: (none this month... can you share one?)



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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In speaking of Ödenburg, he says:

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

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

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

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

Macartney says further that:

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

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

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

However, he also notes that:

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

Macartney finishes his chapter by saying:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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