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

Our regular tidbits include the monthly BB Facebook report, book sales and some Words for Thought.

Again this month I provide an extended article in addition to the bits and pieces of Article 1. Article 2 is about Inheriting Austrian Citizenship (or not). Austrian citizenship questions are extremely specific to a person's circumstances, so what is said here may not apply directly to you. The article contains a legal analysis by an Austrian lawyer for a specific case, however, I think it discusses legal generalities that may apply wider. 

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

Ph.D. Researcher Needs Interview Participants: We have been contacted by Ms. Tamar Aizenberg, a PhD candidate in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. Her profile (here) on the Brandeis website shows that she holds a BA in History and Jewish Studies from Williams College in Massachusetts. While we strongly believe that this is a legitimate research request, as always the BB does not endorse such projects nor accepts any liability should you choose to participate; you should use all appropriate caution. That said, here is Tamar's request:



Hello! My name is Tamar Aizenberg and I’m a PhD candidate and researcher in Jewish Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. I’m writing my dissertation on the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and the grandchildren of Holocaust perpetrators. I approach the topic from a historical perspective, so I’m interested in what grandchildren know about their family history, how they learn what they know, and what they do with this information.

I’m looking for grandchildren of survivors and grandchildren of perpetrators to interview. Interviews are typically around one hour long and I will keep the identities of everyone I interview anonymous. I can do the interviews in-person or on Zoom. Although I am writing this call in English, I also am happy to communicate in German.

If you are interested in being interviewed and/or have any questions, you can reach me at tamaraizenberg@brandeis.edu.

Thank you in advance!
Tamar Aizenberg, PhD Candidate
Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, Brandeis University

Lake Neusiedl Water Supply: Burgenland Governor Hans Peter Doskozil announced at a press conference last month that progress has been made on establishing a water supply line to replenish both Lake Neusiedl and the groundwater in the Seewinkel. He also said that the originally planned water supply from Hungary is "off the table." Instead, the current efforts are toward a supply line running from the Danube through Lower Austria, thus keeping control of the water in Austria's hands.

The water level in Lake Neusiedl has increased significantly compared to last year, mostly thanks to the greater rainfall in the past weeks and months. The water level is 115.47 meters above the Adriatic Sea, only eight centimeters (~3 inches) below the long-term average. "But one cannot sit back," said Doskozil, "there will be drier years again." He believes that waiting for the lake to dry up yet again is irresponsible, because, if that were to happen, "the region would die, not to mention if we had a dust desert here."



His goal is to sign a commitment with Lower Austria and the federal government before the National Council elections in the autumn. As such, talks are underway with the federal Ministry of Agriculture and the government of Lower Austria, but he expects any detailed contracts will need to wait for after the National Council election.

Doskozil noted that one positive of the prior low water levels was the increased ability to remove sludge from the Neusiedlersee, but he also stated that the condition of the nearby Zicksee, which dried up completely, remains poor. While some water has returned to the Zicksee, the water level is low and the mud is deep. This lake is dependent on the ground water level, so the plan is to pump water into it all year round in the future.



Euroskepticism On the Rise in Burgenland: A survey was carried out last month by the Austrian Society for European Politics about how people in Burgenland felt about the European Union (EU), of which Austria is a member. This survey was done about a week before the election for who will be Austria's representatives in the EU in this next term. I don't know if the survey asked directly about preferred representatives, but the survey questions about the EU itself were interesting and I present some here.

This "top line" survey question asked Burgenländers how they felt about the EU. As you can see, compared to when this question was asked in April of 2021, there has been a decrease of 9 percent in people who think membership in the EU is both noticeable and positive, with barely more than a third of respondents currently saying it is. While some of the prior positive vote (2%) shifted to the "it makes no difference" category, which now matches the positive percentage, the bigger movement (7%) was to the belief that EU membership has a negative impact on Burgenland. Nearly a quarter of respondents feel this way now.

Among other questions asked to discern the basis for this overall opinion about the EU, there was an increase in the percentage of Burgenländers in favor of more self-determination by the EU member states, rising from 45% three years ago to over 50% now. Likewise, the approval for more joint action at EU level declined from 48% percent to 37% in this survey.

While the general attitude is of increasing skepticism about the EU, Burgenländers felt that European security and in-migration are still issues to be solved together, that the European Union and its member states must work jointly to solve these problems.

EU Election Results: As mentioned above, an election was held in June to determine who will represent Austria in the European Union parliament. I report here the uncertified results of that election. As is usually done in Austrian politics, the votes are only for political parties, not individuals. However, the parties post their "list" of who will fill the seats that they win. If, for example, three seats are won, the first three individuals named on the list will fill those seats. Here are the initial results:



First, I'll give you a cheat sheet for understanding Austria's political parties (the colored text will link you to the English-language Wikipedia pages on the parties and the political buzzwords):

Given that, I will note that the two parties that increased their share of the vote the most (FPÖ, DNA; note that the DNA party is new) are right wing (you can see the percent change in the rightmost column of the results chart), and the third greatest increase went to the extreme left wing KPÖ. The party that had the greatest loss was the ÖVP, which is the current ruling party in Austria-wide politics. This combination of right-wing gains and ruling-party loss echoes what happened in the recent EU representation vote in Germany. It also is consistent with the survey results reported in the previous bit: voters are skeptical about the EU direction and thus, apparently, are willing to vote for parties that may change that direction. However, an Austrian party must obtain at least 5% of the vote to be eligible for any seats, so the KPÖ and DNA parties will not be represented in the EU parliament.

As for Burgenland-specific voting, the ruling SPÖ party received 29.9% of the votes... a loss of 3.1% but still enough to overtake the ÖVP, which lost 7.4% compared to the 2019 election. The ÖVP came in second at 28.1%. Like elsewhere in Austria, the FPÖ had the largest increase in votes at +7.7%, for a total of 25.2% and third place.



A Stranded Preposition? No: Last month I included a bit that reported that Merriam-Webster had posted on Instagram that it’s now okay (and always had been) to end a sentence with a preposition. I ended my bit by saying:

I'm going to end this with a homework assignment for you:

In Star Trek, the five-year mission of the USS Enterprise was: "To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

This statement ends with a preposition; please provide a corrected version (and arguments as to why your correction is better!).

Within a few days, I had noted to myself that this error could not be fixed in the typical way that a stranded preposition was fixed. Being a mathematics guy (rather than an English major), I didn't know why it was an improper example of the so-called error, I just knew my challenge to you was wrong.

Now, compliments of Dr. Frederick J. Harris, Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Fordham University, I have the why. Fred wrote to say, "I just want to point out that the word "before" can be used as a preposition but also as an adverb. In the sentence quoted at the end of page 2 of the current BB Newsletter it is being used as an adverb, and so the issue of ending a sentence with a preposition does not come into play here."
 
So there you have it... my sometimes preposition (and sometimes conjunction) was acting as an adverb and my challenge was nonsense! So, if you were frustrated by this challenge, know you were right to be frustrated... it was an impossible and inappropriate challenge!



Burgenland-Area Commuter Traffic: Also last month, I wrote about commuter traffic in the Sopron area and mentioned the Schattendorf/Ágfalva border crossing and the bollard system there, which was installed to remove Hungarian commuter traffic from the village streets. Much further back, I had mentioned that Schattendorf was being sued on behalf of Hungarian commuters, with claims that the bollards were illegal under EU open-border regulations (and that damages of 0.29 Euros per day per driver were being sought).

Well, this suit finally made its way into the appropriate court and was summarily dismissed. Schattendorf can continue to block commuter traffic from its residential streets. Now we have to see if they can get the bollards functioning again so those who have real needs to cross the border there can do so!



The Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu):

Greetings, Burgenland Bunch!

I hope that you are having a great month! This month we added nine new members, bringing our membership count to 2,210! Come join us at facebook.com/share and bring your research questions! We’d be happy to help you solve some mysteries!

Member Franz Stangl shared some great photos and videos from this month’s Corpus Christi procession in Güssing. In the photos, you can see a Gothic Monstrance made of silver, which was commissioned in 1517 by a granddaughter of the knight Andreas Baumkircher and made in Carinthia. It was originally located in Rechnitz and was handed over by the Batthyány family to the Franciscans in Güssing in 1717.

Member Rob Hoffmann shared a tribute to Robert Francis Kirchknopf, son of Burgenland emigrant John Kirchknopf of Mönchhof/Baratudvar. Robert enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and was involved in the D-Day invasion in Normandy. Robert was a paratrooper and sustained serious injuries in the battle, resulting in the loss of his leg. He passed away in 1980 and is buried in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Member Fred Knarr shared a fantastic video of Rainhard Fendrich’s rendition of “I am from Austria.” It will give you goose bumps! youtu.be/XRpZFblHEX4

Fred also shared some great photos and videos from the Coplay Sängerbund’s Stiftungsfest. The Coplay Sängerbund’s Heritage Committee put on another wonderful event! Choruses from Coplay, the Reading Liederkranz, the Franklinville-Schwarzwald Männerchor, and the Lancaster Liederkranz HobbyChor performed. The Emil Schanta Band provided music, as well. Upcoming events at the Sängerbund include their Oktoberfest (September 15th) and their Weinlesefest (Grape Dance) on October 13th. Please try to attend if you are in the area. They always do a wonderful job keeping our Burgenland community alive and well!

Members Janet Kroboth-Weber and Hermann Schabhüttl shared photos and videos of the catastrophic flooding in Burgenland this month. Hermann shared a video showing the severe flooding in Rudersdorf: youtu.be/u3aJDMXmplg. To our family and friends in Burgenland, you are all in our prayers!

CONNECTIONS:

Member Daniel Marino is searching for other members who are researching Pöttsching surnames include Marchhart, Scharschitz, Wendl, and Kern. If anyone would like to collaborate with Daniel, please let me know and I’ll pass along your information! My address is HooftyRN@msn.com.

That’s all for now! Take care! 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 1776 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.

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



Words for Thought:

When you are dead, you don't know you are dead, and the pain is felt by others. The same is true for stupid.

                    – paraphrased from Ricky Gervais, 2013

Dear Tom: Last year we discussed my writing an article about obtaining citizenship by descent in Austria. As you might remember, my grandfather was born in Austria. I did work on this topic, but common sense drove me to hiring an Austrian attorney for his opinion. The actual issue he was asked to research was if I was eligible for a Certificate of Citizenship and Passport. I attach a copy of his opinion and grant the Burgenland Bunch permission to publish it in order to help other Burgenlandians in my position. Caveat, before anybody relies on this opinion he/she should obtain his/her own opinion from an Austrian attorney. Regards, Douglas

What follows is this attorney's opinion, slightly edited by me to correct a few spelling errors, to substitute English words for unnecessary German words (such as and for und), to add appropriate articles (he skipped a lot of them), plus a few other minor things. Generally though, his English is excellent, betraying his primary German language in only subtle ways. However, his text is dense and the aforementioned minor "translation" issues distract from following his arguments. I also have redacted a few things for privacy reasons (indicating where that was done), as this document is specific to Douglas' case.



The Attorney Writes: Dear Mr. Drake, thank you for the information. As offered in our first e-mail from February 29th 2024, I am happy to give you a short summary on the legal background, based on your information below:

1. Facts

You were born in the United States of America. Your great-grandfather Josef Neudauer and your great-grandmother Katharina Neudauer (maiden name Müller) were both born in 1856 in Apetlon, Austria. Your great-grandmother gave birth to your grandfather Edouard Neudauer, born on March 14th 1876, in Apetlon, Austria. The only document from him is an Austrian birth certificate that indicates him to be in possession of the Austrian citizenship. Apetlon is a village situated in the district of Neusiedl am See, Burgenland, Austria. Your mother Rose Christine Drake (maiden name Neudauer) was born on March 17th 1913 in St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, United States of America. She got married to your father Harold Douglas Drake on July 26th in 1938 in Cresco County, Iowa. According to their marriage certificate, she was in possession of the Austrian citizenship. You were born in the USA on [day & month redacted] 1946.

2. Legal background

2.1. Citizenship regulation until 1945

In today’s Austrian Citizenship Act of 1985, the Austrian citizenship by descent can only be acquired from the parents, meaning that the child becomes an Austrian citizen if on his day of birth either parent is Austrian citizen. However, in citizenship law it is necessary to determine acquisition or loss of citizenship according to the law that is in force at the relevant date. This means that, for answering the question if you possibly are an Austrian citizen by descent after your mother, we first will need to check the law on your birthday and additionally check if your mother really was an Austrian citizen at that date.

For this, we need to keep in mind that in 1913 Austria as a Republic didn’t exist, it still was the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy that had no unified Citizenship Act, and federal citizenship, like that, is the case only since 1949. Back then we had something like a “membership in a community” and a “home right” (Heimatrecht). In cases like yours therefore, more historical research could be necessary regarding the possible home right of your ancestors in Apetlon, Austria.

According to the relevant laws of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy that were relevant until the Treaty of St. Germain, citizens who emigrated from the territory of the Monarchy permanently, lost their citizenship (§§ 9, 10 60. Kaiserliches Patent vom 24.03.1832). After the Treaty of St. Germain according to its Sec 64, Austria recognized as “Austrian citizens” all persons who, at the date the Treaty became effective (16th July 1920), had a home right inside the Austrian territory (meaning the remaining territory of Austria according to the Treaty). If we state that the information on the Austrian birth certificate is correct and your grandfather Edouard Neudauer was an Austrian citizen (meaning citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) when he came to the USA, we would then need to check if after 1920 he still had a home right inside the Austrian territory of that time. Eventually, it would also be necessary to know if at any time he voluntarily naturalized in the USA and was granted the American (or any other) citizenship and, if so, when.

So, if
  - your grandfather immigrated to the USA before 1914 (exact year is missing but his wedding to your grandmother Julia Helen Oknich took place on November 26th 1895 in St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota, so this should be the case) and didn’t return after the First World War to Austria to have a home right there and thus
  - had no home right inside the territory of Austria after the Treaty of St. Germain became effective or
  - voluntarily applied for a foreign citizenship any time later
it is quite certain that his Austrian citizenship ended. If his Austrian citizenship ended before your mother was born, the citizenship has not been passed to her and so she – really – was not Austrian citizen on your date of birth any more. Therefore, you could not acquire Austrian citizenship from her by descent.

2.2. Citizenship regulations after 1945

Even if we could assume that your mother, on your date of birth, was an Austrian citizen by means of the Treaty of St. Germain, we would need to check if it would have been possible for you to acquire Austrian citizenship from the mother’s side according to the laws of that time. The Citizenship Act of 1949 (which had a “backwards effect” and was in force since 15th July 1945) was the applicable citizenship regulation on your birthday in [month redacted] 1946. According to § 3 Citizenship Act 1949, “legitimate children born into wedlock acquire citizenship after their father.” Only if the father was a stateless person or the child was born outside of wedlock, could the child acquire citizenship from the mother’s side.

Since your father was not stateless and had clearly no Austrian citizenship, and you were not born outside of wedlock, according to the law of that time, you could not acquire Austrian citizenship after your mother.

Today’s citizenship regulations contain no possibility to base a citizenship on other ancestors than the parents. So, in your case, there seems to be no possibility to acquire Austrian citizenship based on your mother or the upgoing family line.

2.3. § 58c Citizenship Act 1985

§ 58c of today’s Austrian Citizenship Act of 1985 does not seem to be applicable either: According to that law, all direct descendants of a persecuted ancestor (children, grandchildren and great grandchildren) are eligible to apply for Austrian citizenship if their ancestor had a legitimate reason to fear of persecution by the Nazi Regime during World War II between January 30th 1933 and 1945 and therefore left Austria in connection with World War II. Your mother Rose Christine Drake was born in 1913 already in the USA and got married there in 1938. For this reason, she doesn’t fall under the exception of § 58c of Austrian Citizenship Act of 1985, because clearly your family left Austria long before World War II and not because of the persecution through the German Reich.

3. Summary

Therefore, I am afraid that there are no good chances for you to acquire Austrian citizenship based on your family line. A direct derivation from your mother fails because in 1946, for children born into wedlock, only the father’s Austrian citizenship lead to a citizenship by descent. Even though the law changed in the 1980s, this amendment had no backwards effect and lead to no changes for people who were already born at the time of the amendment. Furthermore, it is even questionable, if your mother at all was still an Austrian citizen in the means of the Treaty of St. Germain after 1920, since we can assume that she had no “home right” in the territory of Austria any more. I hope, this summary makes things easier for you to understand. Please let me know if you should have further questions and allow me to attach my invoice as agreed.

Best regards, Balazs Esztegar

[Ed Note: a Söllner was a person with a house and garden but no (or little) farmland, who usually worked as a hired-hand, businessman or craftsman. This term was used in both 1857 and 1770 [in the Mariasdorf list] to indicate the property owner's status. Those craftsman specifically identified by occupation (like the shoemakers in [Mariasdorf] houses 12 and 13) would also be in the Söllner class.

Kleinhäusler is a related term and is also used in the list, but only in the 1857 entries; it may imply a (semi-)retired person/couple or widow/widower, again with house and garden but no farmland. Regardless, it is a subset of Söllner.

At the top of non-noble medieval peasant village society were the farmers (Bauer). A certain amount of farmland (enough to support a family and the required tenths to the manor and church) was required before you were considered a Bauer. Some lesser nobles also were in this class.

In addition, the term holte is used to describe some individuals in the 1770 entries. Initially, we thought this was an odd spelling of holde or hulde, German terms related to the status of Holden. Fritz Königshofer suggested that, since zsellér is the Hungarian form of Söllner, perhaps holte was a Hungarian form of holde. The problem with this proposal is that Holden were the poorest of the poor in feudal society, having neither house nor land, so it makes no sense that six people in this list would be designated holte=Holden, given they are in a list of property owners. (The term I've seen in village houselists for apparent Holden is Inwohner, which is Austrian dialect for lodger/renter.) However, hólte (note the accent) can translate to 'dead' in Hungarian, a status that works in the property owners list... but why would one obscure Hungarian word be used in 1988 in an otherwise German text, especially when the original 1770 list likely would have been written in Latin, not Hungarian? We are baffled! So, if you have a suggestion as to what the term holte meant in this list, please write and share your thought.]

Part of what complicates our understanding of these terms is that language lives... words changes meaning with time... though the words may be rooted in the distant past, the old meanings can slowly erode and take on new interpretations. Further, the spellings of words may change with time, causing the once-obvious connections to their root meanings to be lost. Or both changes may occur... with both spellings and meanings diverging from the original words.

An example is the term, Söllner, one of the peasant classes listed above. In fact, we have its 18th and 19th century interpretation correct as listed above. However, you may recall that in the bits and pieces of Article 1 in this newsletter, in the item labeled Deutscheck/Deutschegg, I provided a short transcription and noted that a word therein, Söldners, deserved more interpretation. The transcribed text was:

“Johann Pfister, Schuhmachermeister, des Franz Pfister, Söldners in Deutschegg Gemeinde Welten No.19 Pfarre St. Martin in Ungarn, …”

This text was a part of a marriage record, giving the name and status of the groom plus that of the parents (though I cut off the transcription before getting to the mother). So, we have the groom, Johann Pfister, a master shoemaker, and his father, Franz Pfister, a "Söldners" in house 19 in the Ort of Deutschegg (Deutscheck) in the municipality of Welten, in the parish of St. Martin in Hungary.

But what is a Söldners? If you drop the final 's', Söldner (in German) translates to mercenary (in English). However, I had seen this spelling fairly frequently in Burgenland houselists where its obvious meaning had to be Söllner! I assumed the difference was nothing more than a phonetic-spelling variation.

However, I asked Fritz about this word anyway. He replied:

I agree with your reading of Söldner as a variation of Söllner. The likelihood of it meaning a mercenary (though Söldner is clearly the German word for mercenary) is very low.

  ...and in a follow-up message:

Söldner was the original spelling. It was derived from the fact that a person with less land than was required to feed a family, had to find additional income as a farmhand, day-worker, craftsman. In other words, he had to work for a "Sold," a term originally meaning a soldier's pay, but later meaning "payment for work." Here one can see the connection to Söldner (mercenary).

So, here we have a word, Söldner, that had one meaning, 'a soldier's pay,' that evolved into another meaning, 'payment for work,' and then morphed into another spelling, Söllner, that became a class of peasant and, in the process, lost both its original meaning and spelling.

The term holde (Holden), however, has kept its spelling but apparently changed its meanings somewhat over time, with 1767 being a crucial year affecting its interpretation during the time of interest to us. This is the year that Maria Theresa issued her Urbarial (Robot) Patent for Hungary, which redefined (or, more accurately, reconfirmed) the relationship of peasants to landholding nobility. However, I'll first go back further in time, to the Middle Ages, which is usually defined as the interval from the 5th to the 15th centuries.

[Ed. note: The following text is mine but is derived from research by both Fritz Königshofer and myself, plus the discussions we shared on the topic. I will take blame for any interpretation errors while crediting Fritz for his substantial contributions.]

During the Middle Ages, most peasant people were serfs, being vassals of the local feudal lord, with no property of their own. Thus, all peasants were Holden (in English, think ‘beholden’ to their medieval lord). Some became Grundholde (tied to the lord through the land they were assigned as fiefs)… these eventually became the Bauer class of peasants.

Those farmers who worked directly on the manorial estate without being granted a stake in a home and land, now became Holden… the lowest of the low, totally dependent on the lord for food and shelter. Later, you often see people like the village shepherd or blacksmith or miller still being listed as Holden… the shepherd hut and the smith and the mill belonging to the lord (via the village) but were used by the shepherd and blacksmith or miller while working in the role (but absolutely no ownership was implied). They were ‘free’ of taxes and were not tied to land or lord, but they mostly lived day-to-day (never earning ownership of anything) and their pay was comparatively meager; part of it was a place to live. So it was a strange status… free but very poor… and comparatively looked down on in a farm village.

After Maria Theresa’s Urbarial Patent of 1767, you start seeing “ownership” of homes being part of the Holde situation… they became more like Söllner. Of course, in 1848, peasantry was officially terminated, but the class labels persisted for some time in various places (as you had to be called something!).

Having said all the above, I must also say that neither Fritz nor I have yet to find a single reference that comprehensively addresses this topic for western Hungary. We have pieced it together from various, often partially contradictory sources (the apparent ‘contradictions’ largely arising, I think, because they address different (unidentified) time periods or different (unidentified) places, and the words changed meanings with time and place). Even our own BB newsletters contain somewhat contradictory explanations, I think for this same reason!

My overall take is that, in the years after the Urbarial Patent of 1767, there arose three major classifications of peasants in manorial society: Bauer, Söllner, and Inwohner.

Bauern were farmers with a home and enough land to feed a family solely from the yield of the land while still being able to pay the required tithes/taxes and while doing the required corvée (required labor for the lord).

Söllner were people with a home but not enough land to feed a family… they worked as craftsman, carters, hired hands, etc.… still owed some tithes/taxes and/or corvée, but not as much as Bauern. The Holden eventually evolved into being part of this class.

Inwohners were adult live-ins (didn’t own their own home). They often were relatives or adult children (or semi-retired parents) but some were also unrelated hired hands, often living in the farm sheds.

All other ‘titles’ are variation of these (often being more descriptive), such as Bergler (a Söllner who lived up the mountain/berg-side to escape the higher taxes of the farm village) or Kleinhäusler (a person who lived in a small house), or were references to the same classes but in a different language, such as the Hungarian Zsellér = Söllner; kisbirtokos = Kleinhäusler, etc.  

Interestingly, in our BB houselists, I find the German Kleinhäusler term most often used with widows/widowers, implying retired or nearly retired people rather than the active craftsman/workers of ‘full’ Söllner status. However, the seemingly equivalent Hungarian kisbirtokos term is more often used with younger adults and in the "smallholder" sense, implying a healthy young worker who has some land but must also work for others to make ends meet.

To give some perspective about the amount of land allocated to the various classes, I'll provide material from a (German-language) webpage by Konrad Unger [webpage no longer available], wherein Konrad quotes Father Graisy's text about Wallern, in particular, about peasantry classes and property ownership in Wallern in the year 1865 (note that this is well after 1848, the year when peasantry was officially terminated).

In 1865, Wallern had 154 tax-paying households in 122 houses, consisting of:

• 26 whole Bauer (in 26 houses)
• 44 half Bauer (in 22 houses)
• 24 Söllner (in 17 houses)
• 36 Holden (in 33 houses)
• 24 Kurialisten (in 24 houses)

The Kurialisten were a ‘class’ of peasant apparently unique to Wallern (I’ve never seen them mentioned in any other village [Editorial note: Well after writing this text, I found the term used in a southern Burgenland village. Further, the "Kurial" part (Curia?) of their name implied there that the Catholic church had provided these small houses and acreages]). Before the Einser Canal was built (started 1895, completed 1909), Wallern had a lot of low, wet ground along its southern border. This swampy land, which likely grew reeds and produced some peat for fuel, but likely was not good for much else except in dry years, was assigned to the Kurialisten. They must have worked for other people or on the Manorial land or they would have starved.

The land allocations are given in small joch (= 1200 Quadraklafter = 1.06453 acre) in Father Graisy's work, but I will convert to acres, as that unit is better understood by most BB readers. [Note: there was also unit of measure in Austria called a Katastral joch (= 1600 Quadraklafter) but the small joch was usually used in Western Hungary.]

Whole Bauer: 43.73 of field, 7.56 of meadow, 1.09 for house, yard and garden; for a total of 52.38 acres.

Half Bauer: 21.87 of field, 3.78 of meadow, 0.545 for house, yard and garden; for a total of 26.19 acres.

Söllner: 1.6 of field, no meadow, 0.17 for house, yard and garden; a total of 1.76 acres.

Holden: no field, 5.32 of meadow, 2.55 of pasture, 0.17 for house, yard and garden; a total of 8.04 acres.

Kurialisten: no field, 2.1 of swamp meadow, 0.03 of hay, 0.06 for house, yard and garden; a total of 2.19 acres.

It is interesting to compare these classes. Note that, in comparison to Bauern, the other classes either had no arable field or just a token amount. In addition, Söllner and Holden had only a sixth of the space for house, yard and garden than whole Bauern had (and the Kurialisten had even less -- an eighteenth). You should also note that Holden had meadow and pasture, whereas Söllner had neither, implying that Holden likely worked as shepherds (likely for the Bauern) while Söllner did jobs not requiring land. Lastly, note that even the Kurialisten had more land than Söllner, though it was only "swamp meadow" land.

It is also interesting that the Söllner and Holden titles were still used to define people, even though it had been 17 years since peasants could own land and official servitude had ended.

There is also a (German-language) webpage about the village of Sopronbánfalva (Wandorf) that gives additional perspective on these issues, though it speaks to the situation before and at the time of the Urbarial Patent of 1767. Wandorf is just west of Sopron (and initially was intended to be part of Burgenland in 1921), so its situation was likely quite similar to other villages in West Hungary that did become Burgenland.

For Wandorf, the term "Lehen" is used to designate a fief (the land assigned to a whole farmer [= a Sessio, in Latin]) and "Ansässigkeiten" is used to refer to the people who lived in the settlement and their houses and land: i.e., the residents and their residences. However, in keeping with my above text, I will merely call these a farm or house.

In 1694 (or 1715; the text is not clear), Wandorf had 74 households (apparently in 59 houses), consisting of:

• 18 half Bauer
• 10 quarter Bauer
•   9 Alte Hofstatt ("Söllner mit Haus")
• 22 Kleinhäusler
• 15 Holden ("Söllner ohne Haus")

Here, Alte Hofstatt (= "old farmstead") is used to designate the property for a Söllner.

Also, Holden are explicitly called "Söllner without a house," so we know that, during this time, they were considered a subset of Söllner but were not granted a home of their own.

In 1765, Wandorf had 97 properties, of whom 73 were for tenant-farmer Bauern (of various "sizes") and 24 were Söllner. There also were 22 Holden (Söllner without a house) plus 14 Söllner with house of the Pauline Order monastery, who apparently were not counted as Wandorf property owners [Ed Note: These also, I suppose, could have been labeled Kurialisten]:

•   2 half Bauer
• 44 three-eighths Bauer
•   6 quarter Bauer
• 21 one-eighth Bauer
• 24 Söllner mit Haus
• 22 Holden ("Söllner ohne Haus")
• 14 Söllner mit Haus (of the Pauline Order monastery)

Thus, right before the 1767 Urbarial Patent, Holden are without homes but considered a subset of Söllner.

For this time period (1765), the land allocations (in acres) for Bauern in Wandorf are given:

Note that this is somewhat less than in Wallern in 1865, where the acres for a half-farmer were: 0.545 for house, 21.87 of field, and 3.78 of meadow, for a total of 26.19 acres (the big difference being in the field allocation). Do note, however, that field allocations depended on the fertility of the local land, so this may merely imply that Wandorf had better land than Wallern.

Perhaps what is more surprising is that the bulk of Wandorf farmers were 3/8 Bauern (44 of 73), with only 2 half-Bauer and no whole-Bauer. In contrast, all of Wallern farmers were whole-Bauer (26) or half-Bauer (44)... but Wallern farmers (in 1865) were able to purchase land to increase their holdings.

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