Local museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians

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Local museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians, 2018 (02) .jpg

The local museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians presents the history of the German settlement of the place Parabutsch in Serbia , today Ratkovo, from 1786 to the expulsion in the Second World War in 1944. It is located in the community center of the community Bad Schönborn in the district Bad Langenbrücken in Baden-Württemberg, over 1000 Kilometers from Ratkovo.

History of Parabutsch (Ratkovo)

The municipality of Ratkovo, formerly Parabutsch, is located in the land between the Danube and Tisza rivers , in Opština Odžaci in the Zapadna Bačka ( Batschka ) district of the autonomous province of Vojvodina, in today's Serbia. In 1948 the place Parabuć in Ratkovo was renamed in Ratkovo after the Serbian national hero Ratko Pavlović , called "Chico". The German Catholic community there once had almost 4,000 members. Today, almost without exception, Slavic, mostly Serbian immigrants live in Parabutsch, in addition to the Serbian immigrant part that has always existed since the village was founded.

The traces of the first Slavic settlers go back to the year 1650. In 1700 they founded the village of Parabutsch and expanded it in its present form. In Ottoman records ( Defter ) Parabutsch is referred to as a barren place, as one of 150 abandoned settlements. The 150-year rule of the Turks had led to the devastation and depopulation of the entire Pannonian Plain . In 1748, as part of the second small Swabian procession, the planned settlement of 200 German families began in the village , who usually left their homeland due to the lack of fields and were given ownerless land as property here. They came from Bavaria, Württemberg, Palatinate and Baden. In addition, the French from Lorraine moved into the eastern part of the village. This immigration was completed by 1772. The first two generations still had to struggle with many hardships, with a cholera epidemic claiming more than 800 victims. The Germans, generally referred to as Danube Swabians after the area where they settled, soon saw themselves as Swabians, regardless of their actual origin.

Only the last generation of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians had achieved solid prosperity. With the end of the Second World War and the withdrawal of the German army, on October 8 and 9, 1944, most of the inhabitants of German origin emigrated to the west, as they said “temporarily across the Danube”. In total there were 2450 people, 62 of whom did not survive the escape. Some went to relatives in America, most of whom came, after many detours, to the homeland of the emigrant ancestors, in the German southwest. Bad Schönborn-Langenbrücken became a central place for them and “little by little a new home for almost 600 people”. The locals initially called the self-made settlement “Batschka”. Nobody returned, in 2018 three people of German origin still lived in Parabutsch. Around 480 of the 650 people left behind, mostly old people and children, perished in Russian or Serbian forced camps.

A partnership relationship with Ratkovo has long been maintained between the two places. After first contact visits in 2002, there was a high point in 2007 with the visit of the mayor of Ratkovo Prelic and his deputy to Bad Schönborn.

History of the museum

Local museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians, 2018 (42) .jpg
Church tower cross rescued after Bad Langenbrücken
Local history museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians, 2018 (23) .jpg
Virgin Mary statue from the Church of St. Nepomuk in Parabutsch


The multi-award-winning local history museum has existed since 1986. After extensive renovation and redesign, begun on July 20, 2018, it was reopened on October 7 of that year. The annual number of visitors at the time was given as 800.

Also in Ratkovo, in the local rectory, there is now a small museum on the history of the Parabutsch Swabians.

exhibition

The presentation of the Danube Swabian folk culture is housed in two museum rooms. In the first room, large display boards show the history of the Parabutsch people, from the settlement in Parabutsch, their escape at the end of the Second World War to their immigration to Neuenbrücken in 1946. An outstanding showpiece is a 3 × 5 meter model of the place with the street names and a list of the family names of the residents of the respective buildings from 1944. A replica of the so-called Ulmer Schachtel commemorates the arrival of the first German residents, a type of one-way boat that has been used to transport goods, passengers and troops on the Danube since the Middle Ages . It was only used for trips downstream on the Danube - even from the settlers rarely came back then.

The eventual escape and expulsion is shown with an original covered wagon. Numerous sacred objects from the home church are, as stated in a leaflet from the museum from 2018, "for the elderly compatriots with many emotional memories".

The second room on the upper floor shows the everyday life of farmers and craftsmen. In large glass showcases there are around two dozen traditional costumes that were made from original templates. In the so-called “Paradestub”, the barely used “ parlor ”, the trousseau of the young woman willing to marry is on display. Artful bedsteads inlaid with inlays as well as splendid fabrics give an idea of ​​the value of such a trousseau.

Heimatortsgemeinschaft (HOG) Parabutsch e. V.

The Parabutsch Museum is run by the Parabutsch Heimatortsgemeinschaft (HOG) based in Bad Schönborn. The management, maintenance and public relations work of the museum are in their hands. In addition to regular meetings of the members and maintenance of the customs, joint trips to Parabutsch and nearby places are organized. The Parabutscher have been holding a Whitsun meeting since 1957. In 1969, a memorial for the dead was dedicated in the cemetery, where people come together at Pentecost. A traditional dance group has existed since 1986 and has been present at regional events ever since.

At the beginning of 2001 a two-volume “Parabutsch Family Book” was presented. The "Parabuter", a monthly wall calendar with current and historical articles and photos about Parabutsch or Ratkovo and the club life of the hometown community, appears annually.

See also

  • Parabutsch homeland book . 1969
  • Family book of the cath. Parish of St. Nepomuk in Parabutsch (Parabuty, Paripas, Parabuc, Dubrava, Gutacker, Ratkovo) in the Batschka . Josef Fridrich, Working Group Danube Swabian Family Researchers, Bad Schönborn 2001
  • Photo book Parabutsch . HOG Parabutsch, 1986

Web links

Commons : Local museum of the Parabutsch Danube Swabians  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Local history museum of the Parabutsch Donauschwaben, Bad Schönborn-Langenbrücken . HOG Heimatortsgemeinschaft Parabutsch e. V., undated (2018), brochure.
  2. ↑ a b c Boris Masić: Chronicle of the settlement of Parabutsch . Last accessed January 4, 2019.
  3. ↑ MOt .: "Visit our after renovation and redesign reopened museum" . HOG Heimatortsgemeinschaft Parabutsch e. V., Bad Schönborn, undated (2018), leaflet.
  4. ^ Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum Foundation: German traces along the Danube - travel, encounter, experience - Bad Schönborn . Ulm 2019, last accessed January 6, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b c Martin Kundl: Bad Schönborn and his Parabutscher - The not everyday story of a Danube Swabian community . Last accessed January 7, 2018.
  6. ^ Ria Schneider: Whitsun meeting 2007 of the HOG Parabutsch, interview with guests from Ratkovo . In: Donaudeutsche Nachrichten , episode 5, October 2007. Last accessed January 7, 2019.
  7. ^ Petra Steinmann-Plücker (BNN): Cultural center of the Parabutscher . Homepage www.hog-parabutsch.de, News , October 8, 2018. Last accessed January 5, 2019.
  8. ↑ filipowa.at: 70th anniversary of the Heuwiesen massacre . Last change January 6, 2015. Last accessed January 7, 2019.
  9. ↑ Christoph Borgans, Katharina Müller-Güldemeister: German in the Balkans . October 7, 2016. Last accessed January 7, 2019.
  10. ↑ a b MOt .: HOG Heimatmuseum der Parabutscher Donauschwaben . HOG Heimatortsgemeinschaft Parabutsch e. V., Bad Schönborn, undated (2018), leaflet.

Coordinates: 49 ° 11 ′ 58.1 ″  N , 8 ° 38 ′ 33.6 ″  E