Apače

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Apače
stables
Apače coat of arms Map of Slovenia, position of Apače highlighted
Basic data
Country SloveniaSlovenia Slovenia
Historic region Lower Styria / Štajerska
Statistical region Pomurska (Mur region)
Coordinates 46 ° 42 '  N , 15 ° 55'  E Coordinates: 46 ° 41 '48 "  N , 15 ° 54' 40"  E
height 218  m. i. J.
surface 53.5  km²
Residents 3,516 (January 1, 2019)
Population density 66 inhabitants per km²
Post Code 9253
License Plate MS
Structure and administration
Mayor : Dr. Andrej Steyer
Mailing address Apače 42b
9253 Apače
Website
Freudenau estate and castle in the Schirmdorf district, around 1820
Interior of the church

Apače ( German : Abstall ) is a village and since March 1, 2006 an independent municipality in Slovenia . Before that it belonged to the municipality of Gornja Radgona ( Oberradkersburg ) for several decades . It is located in the historical Spodnja Štajerska ( Lower Styria ) region, but now belongs to the statistical region of Pomurska .

geography

location

The municipality borders on Austria , with the Mur forming the state border. On the other side of the Mur are the Austrian cities of Bad Radkersburg and Mureck .

Community structure

The municipality comprises 21 localities. The German exonyms in brackets date from the middle of the 19th century and are no longer used today. (Population figures as of January 1, 2019):

  • Apače ( stable ), 521
  • Črnci ( screen village ), 275
  • Drobtinci ( Proskersdorf ), 128
  • Grave ( Trench ), 109
  • Janhova ( Jauchen ), 47
  • Lešane ( Windisch-Haseldorf ), 186
  • Lutverci ( Leitersdorf ), 351
  • Mahovci ( Machersdorf ), 118
  • Nasova ( Nassau ), 168
  • Novi vrh ( Neuberg ), 23
  • Plitvica ( Plippitz ), 107
  • Podgorje ( Absberg ), 183
  • Pogled ( sight ), 51
  • Segovci ( Sögersdorf ), 315
  • Spodnje Konjišče ( Unterrosshof ), 37
  • Stogovci ( Miethsdorf ), 137
  • Vratja vas ( Frattendorf ), 81
  • Vratji Vrh ( Frattenberg ), 75
  • Zgornje Konjišče ( Oberrosshof ), 88
  • Žepovci ( scooping village ), 354
  • Žiberci ( Seibersdorf ), 162

Neighboring communities

Mureck ( A ) Halbenrain ( A ) Bad Radkersburg ( A )
Šentilj Neighboring communities Gornja Radgona
Sveta Ana

history

Before World War II

In the area of ​​today's municipality of Apače, which almost entirely includes the approximately 40 km² Apaško polje / Abstaller field, surrounded by the Mur and Windischem Bühel, there was a majority German-speaking population . Until 1919 to the political district of Radkersburg . At that time, Abstalls were taught in German in the three schools. That changed with the peace treaty of St. Germain in 1918: In 1919 the Abstaller Feld was also legally assigned to the Kingdom of SHS of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . From 1920, Slovenian became the official language, which in turn changed radically at the end of the 1930s with the rise of the National Socialists . With the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in 1938 there were two different opposing poles:

  • The strengthening of Germanness was also welcomed by the stallers.
  • Not the entire ethnic group of the “Slovenian Germans” was caught up in the Nazi ideology during World War II. On the contrary, right from the start, numerous members of the ethnic group kept their distance from the regime, some even drafted official protest resolutions to representatives of the Third Reich.

In any case, the Balkan campaign (1941) was accompanied by a policy of resettlement and resettlement in order to Germanize Slovenia. This damaged the reputation of the German speakers in the Abstaller Feld, assets were confiscated and thousands of Slovenes were relocated.

After the Second World War

With the end of the Second World War and the decline of the Nazi regime, resentment against the German-speaking Abstaller (regardless of whether they were former Nazi sympathizers or not) followed, which finally culminated in the following tragedy in 1946: On January 13, 1946, the Germans of Lower Styria became who had escaped the execution squads of the Tito partisans or the soldiers of the Tito partisans and had survived camps such as Sternthal (Strnišče) , Tüffer (Laško) , expelled from their homeland by the OZNA and deported.

After the British occupying power had closed the border, the approx. 2500 autochthonous Abstaller could not be driven over the natural Mur border to Austria. That is why the undesirable Germans were to be transported through Russian-occupied Hungary to Vienna, which was occupied by the Four Powers. First brought to Oberradkersburg / Gornja Radgona by truck, meticulously pearled and crammed into cattle wagons waiting there, which were locked from the outside.

The train journey went via Croatia to the border station Murakeresztúr , southern Hungary, with the destination Vienna. It was officially stated that the occupants of the trains were Austrian citizens who had settled in Slovenia after 1941. Several deportation trains came to Vienna between January 10 and 16, 1946, but were refused by the Allies because the Tito regime was not authorized to evict or resettle people. The trains had to leave Austria and stopped in Murakeresztúr because the Tito authorities refused to allow them to re-enter Yugoslavia. Parked on a siding, 77 people died of hunger and cold and were buried in a mass grave. The death list is in the local parish Murakeresztúr.

Those who survived and were still able to come to Austria, the expected but hard times: psychological consequential damage, loss of all property, rejection by their own relatives and silence of the past are still stressful.

Courageous victims and victim representatives erected a memorial above the mass grave in the 1970s . Every year on October 26th, Lower Styria, who survived this humanitarian catastrophe with scars and emotional wounds, travel to Murakeresztúr to commemorate the deceased.

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Apače  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ General state law and government gazette for the Crown Land of Styria. 1850 (supplement Marburg district)
  2. Population tables of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia ( Slovene )
  3. http://www.kleinezeitung.at/steiermark/damals/5163475/Damals-in-der-Steiermark_1946_Vertrieb-aus-dem-Abstaller-Feld
  4. ^ Günther Kollau, diploma thesis: The fate of the German Lower Styrians in the Abstaller field . University of Graz
  5. ^ Stefan Karner, Graz historian
  6. ^ Anneliese Gassner: For the cultural association Brücken in Marburg ad Drau . Wildon on October 3, 2016
  7. ^ Alfred Schaffer, Colonel i. R .: Der Untersteirer , 50th year, No. 1/2017 p. 4
  8. The Martyrs of Tokwon, Father Kanut (Benedict) Count des Enffans d'Avernas ( Memento of December 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) - ( Missionsbenediktiner )