Burgenland Croats

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The term Burgenland Croats ( Croatian gradišćanski Hrvati [ ˈɡradiʃtɕanski ˈhrʋaːti ]) refers to a Croatian minority living in the area of ​​the border between Austria and Hungary . According to the 2001 census, 19,374 Burgenland Croats live in Burgenland , which corresponds to 5.9% of the total population. The Burgenland Croats are originally refugees who fled Croatia , especially from Dalmatia and the later military border , during the Turkish wars and were settled in the west of the then Kingdom of Hungary .

history

Area of ​​origin of the Burgenland Croats on the military border

Settlement of the Croatians

In the 16th century, around 100,000 Croatians settled in what is now Burgenland. The settlement was first mentioned in a document in the case of Stinatz in 1577. The reason for these large resettlement campaigns by Croats were the Turkish campaigns against Vienna .

Because in order to fill the devastated areas, lands and abandoned villages with new life after the withdrawal of the Turkish army, “new people” were needed. Counts Erdődy and Batthyány owned extensive estates in both Croatia and western Hungary. They brought the Croatian population from the border areas to the Ottoman Empire into today's Burgenland . In addition, this resettlement campaign also resulted in a minority in Croatia because the abandoned Croatian farms were settled by the Austrian military administration with the Wallachians who had fled the Turks . In addition to the Croats, settlers from southern Germany (e.g. the Banat Swabians ) and from eastern Hungary were also settled. The resulting ethnic structure still has an effect in this room today.

Small parts of the Croatians moved further north to Marchfeld , where they settled. Individual members of the so-called Marchfeld Croats existed until the 20th century. Today only the Croatian family names remind of it.

Magyarization

The ties between the Croats who had settled in western Hungary and their mother people in their old homeland gradually fell apart. It was not until the end of the 19th century that a great interest in cultural contacts developed - encouraged by mobility. Croatian clergy in particular tried to preserve the linguistic and ethnic-cultural identity. As a result of the Magyarization policy , however, in the Kingdom of Hungary too close ties between the West Hungarian Croats and their homeland were considered treason and they were insulted as " Pan-Slavists ".

In 1910 the Croatian ethnic group had 60 Roman Catholic, purely Croatian elementary schools and almost 150 priests in 110 villages. While the school laws provided for the Croatian language in all subjects until 1907, the school laws of Count Apponyi made the Hungarian language the compulsory language of instruction in primary schools.

Origin of the Burgenland

The Burgenland

After the collapse of the Danube Monarchy as a result of the First World War and the failure of the victorious powers' plans to use the Burgenland Croats to close a Slavic corridor to the SHS state (Yugoslavia) in 1919, Burgenland was created with the Treaty of Saint-Germain . It consists of the western parts of the Hungarian counties Wieselburg , Ödenburg and Eisenburg . The Croatian settlement area was thereby divided, and most of the Croatian villages in this area with around 50,000 inhabitants came in this way to the new German Austria . The contract also contained provisions for the protection of minorities , such as teaching one's own language in primary schools , but in practice its implementation depended on the goodwill of the Austrian administrative authorities. The Croats then founded the Croatian Cultural Association , were well represented in public offices and were involved in political parties.

This changed the situation for the western Hungarian Croats fundamentally. If they had previously been a minority in Hungary together with the German-speaking population, they were now confronted with a German majority. Before the referendum in Burgenland in 1921 , there were two moods among Croatians: local farmers were strictly against joining Austria, while traders and part-time farmers had long been intertwined with the Austrian sales market and therefore in favor of joining Austria.

The municipalities had to pay in full for the Croatian-speaking or mixed-language schools. Many of the mostly small and equally poor parishes could not afford this, which is why more and more of these church parish schools were taken over by the state school authorities. Fewer Croatian-speaking teachers were chosen, for example, and after German was made a compulsory subject for five hours per week in each class, Croatian lessons also took a back seat. Another obstacle to the teaching of Croatian was the Croatian assimilants who saw the use of the majority language as a means to better professional advancement. More and more communities governed by social democrats transferred their denominational schools to state administration. The battle for the language was now fought at the level of the teaching post.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the connection of Austria by Nazi Germany in the spring of 1938, the Croatian minority in turn divided into two groups. One part, who would have preferred to stay with Hungary, was now adopting an Austrian-national stance again, while the other part was hoping for a further connection to the Greater German Reich. Initially, a commitment to being German promised better opportunities for advancement, but measures against the Croatian minority (as well as against all other minorities in Austria ) began.

post war period

After the end of the Second World War , the Croatian minority endeavored with an emphatically Austrian stance to revive their ethnic group politically and culturally. Because the political, economic and linguistic pressure to assimilate lived on even after the Nazi rule. Lorenz Karall , a Croat from Großwarasdorf , who was elected the first governor of Burgenland after the Second World War in 1946 , made a contribution to a new awareness of the ethnic group . At that time, numerous controversies arose between the Croatian Cultural Association and the Social Democrat- dominated Presidium of Mayors and Deputy Mayors of the municipalities in Burgenland , because decisions on the school issue that were anti-Croatian were often made for purely party-political reasons. Most Croatians saw their interests best protected in the ÖVP with Karall at the helm.

The proclamation of the independent Republic of Croatia in 1991 gave the Croats new self-confidence, and the increased popularity of bilingual education gave reason to hope that the Croats would not belong to the dying minorities.

Josip Seršić speaks of the fact that since the 1960s the migration of citizens of Yugoslavia and later Croatia to Austria was seen by the majority of Burgenland Croats as a revitalization of their culture, even if some Burgenland Croats were worried that they would be confused with Croatian " guest workers " .

population

distribution

The Austrian state of Burgenland covers a large part of the Croatian settlement area, which the Croats call Gradišće [ ɡradiːʃtʃɛ ]. The smaller Croatian minorities in western Hungary , southwestern Slovakia and southern Czech Republic are also often referred to as Burgenland Croats. They also use the Burgenland-Croatian written language and are historically and culturally closely linked to the Croatians in Austria. The total number of speakers in all four countries as well as in migration is estimated by representatives of the Burgenland Croats at around 55,000 people.

Population development in Austria

Around 25,000 to 30,000 people in Burgenland still profess themselves as Croats today, with a large number of Croats living in Vienna and the other federal states. Due to a lack of jobs, a significant part of the Burgenland Croats moved to Vienna, where they are now culturally and ethnically well organized.

Burgenland Croats are located in six out of seven Burgenland districts, but do not constitute the majority population in any of the districts. The largest number of Croatian-speaking Burgenlanders live in the districts of Eisenstadt and Oberpullendorf . In the municipality of Schachendorf, for example, the number of Burgenland Croats in the total population is 73%, and 20% describe themselves as German-speaking.

Culture

language

The Burgenland Croats use their own standard variant of the Croatian language , Burgenland Croatian .

Place-name sign

Traditions

Problem

Like almost all minorities (ethnic groups), the Burgenland-Croatian ethnic group has survived the attempts at assimilation in its history only through strong solidarity and a pronounced "awareness of tradition". This results in an outwardly often distorted picture of the minority. This reception is reinforced by clichés and the resulting role constraints.

In the case of the Burgenland Croats , the Burgenland Croats playing the tamburica and dancing in traditional costume and with a wine bottle on their heads quickly became a stereotype.

Due to the special socio-political and economic situation of Burgenland in general (50 years separated by the Iron Curtain , as well as in areas with poor infrastructure) and the Burgenland Croats as a minority in particular, this perception was further accelerated.

In order to avoid the assimilation pressure of politics, especially the possible negative consequences in the workplace, many Burgenland Croats tried to hide their origins from the public. On the other hand, the Burgenland Croats looked for their roots at home and followed their traditions there. So "only" their traditional culture was visible. This fact is now slowly changing.

The multilingual culture and event center KUGA in Veliki Borištof / Großwarasdorf , founded in 1982 , performances by Willi Resetarits , where he sings in Burgenland-Croatian and the group Bruji with their self-confident Krowodn-Rock, are prominent examples of a “de-folklore” of culture . In 2009 the Burgenland-Croatian band Elektrikeri took third place in the Austrian Band Contest, which was followed by an invitation to perform at the Danube Island Festival.

But again one finds self-reinforcing effects in the perception of Burgenland-Croatian cultural workers. It is for numerous reasons (including the lack of interest or knowledge of the majority population due to insufficient airtime on Austrian radio and a lack of funding for the national minorities in general, which in turn lead to an insufficient target audience) that apart from traditional contributions, little in the public reporting / opinion got. The cultural workers who therefore do not appear explicitly in Burgenland-Croatian (due to the lack of a target audience) are hardly perceived as such in public or by the mainstream.

Tamburica and customs

The Burgenland-Croatian customs differ significantly from those of the German- or Hungarian-speaking Burgenlanders. Influences of the neighbors can be noticed (in both directions). However, especially in the last few decades, due to increased mobility and the assimilation policy, much of the customs have been lost or have been overlaid by those of the German-speaking neighbors.

A common misconception among Burgenland Croats is that the tamburica (also spelled tamburizza in German ) is the traditional instrument of the Burgenland Croats. The tamburica did not come to the Burgenland Croats from Croatia until 1922, where the first and therefore oldest tamburica group in Burgenland was founded in the municipality of Baumgarten .

Current problems

The Croatian ethnic group complains about a lack of Croatian-speaking kindergartens and middle schools as well as the non-implementation of Croatian as an administrative language. In addition, the minorities criticize the censuses of the past decades as an inadequate means of determining the size of a minority. They were each a method of statistical “denationalization”. A misdirection already arises during the survey, which is then reinforced in the evaluation. In any case, according to these censuses, the Croatian ethnic group is disappearing.

Meanwhile, the Croatian broadcasts of the ORF enjoy a significantly higher audience rate than Croatians are statistically available, and censuses by the Catholic Church also show a different picture.

For many of the Burgenland of the Croatian ethnic group, membership of this group is no longer desirable today. The thinning of culture and the spoken language has resulted in them largely identifying with the German-speaking majority, which means that those affected no longer see themselves as Burgenland Croats and also articulate this in censuses and surveys. The Croatian-language offer in schools is therefore no longer as accepted as hoped. Which suggests that the Burgenland Croats will continue to assimilate in the future, although the representatives of the ethnic group have announced countermeasures.

This development has led to a polarization of attitudes among those affected. The protectors of an independent Burgenland-Croatian culture are criticized by the more German-speaking Croatians as conservative and arrogant. The keepers argue that the loss of Croatian identity would cause great damage to the entire region and its culture.

Personalities

Well-known Burgenland Croats or personalities of Burgenland Croatian origin are or were:

See also

literature

  • Josef Breu: The Croatian settlement in Burgenland and the adjacent areas. Deuticke, Vienna 1970.
  • Stefan Geosits (ed.) With Nikolaus Bencsics, among others: The Burgenland Croats through the ages. Edition Tusch, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-85063-160-5 .
  • Ursula Hemetek: Croatians, Burgenland. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7001-3045-7 .
  • Inzko 1988: VI, The systematic Germanization. Letting life is not enough. Minorities in Austria (ed. By R. Henke). Vienna, 80ff.
  • Austrian Rectors' Conference (Hrsg.): Situation and perspectives of the ethnic groups in Austria. Vienna 1989.
  • Klemens Ludwig : Ethnic minorities in Europe. A lexicon. Beck, Munich 1995, 235 pages.
  • Nikolaus Wilhelm-Stempin: The settlement area of ​​the Burgenland Croats: in Austria, Hungary, Moravia and Slovakia. Norderstedt: BoD 2008
  • Arnold Suppan: Yugoslavia and Austria 1918–1938. Bilateral foreign policy in the European environment . Publications of the Austrian Institute for East and Southeast Europe, Volume 14. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-7028-0328-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ p. 23 ( Memento of July 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Josip Seršić: Croats in Austria: They came - and stayed . The standard . November 25, 2013 (excerpt from the book: "Croatian Vienna - Hrvatski Beč")
  3. ↑ http://www.hrvatskicentar.at/
  4. ^ Minorities in Europe, Croatian in Austria ( Memento of February 25, 2004 in the Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ http://burgenland.orf.at/stories/359291/ ORF - Band Contest: Third place for electricians
  6. ↑ Van Uffelen, Hüning, Vogl: "Music - Language - Identity"
  7. ↑ Baumgarten / Pajngrt nature park community, Burgenland. Retrieved December 10, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Dobar dan Hrvati "- ORF's weekly Croatian broadcast. Archived from the original on September 2, 2017 ; accessed on September 1, 2017 .
  9. ↑ http://derstandard.at/?id=3041485
  10. ↑ Fewer and fewer students speak Croatian
  11. ↑ Dobar dan Hrvati ( Memento from September 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) on Volksgruppen-ORF from October 15, 2017, accessed on October 20, 2017.