Roma in Austria

The Roma ethnic group in Austria has been recognized by the state of Austria since 1993 . Among the autochthonous Roma groups include in Burgenland living Burgenland Roma and Lovara and Kalderash . There are also some Sinti families in Upper Austria .

While most Roma in Austria speak the Romanes- Flat dialect (also written Vlax), the Sinti speak their dialect, Sintitikes . The number of members of this ethnic group living in Austria is controversial. It is assumed that between 10,000 and 50,000 Roma live in Austria.

history

Roma and Sinti have lived in Austria since around the 15th century, especially in the eastern Austrian federal states such as Burgenland , Vienna and Lower Austria . Immigration to cities and municipalities was made difficult or banned from the start in Austria as well as in other countries such as Germany , Hungary , Slovakia and the Czech Republic . The majority population demanded that Roma should live “sedentary”, but Roma families were not tolerated in the cities. This led to the formation of Roma camp sites outside the city, in forests and in remote places. In the middle of the second half of the 18th century, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Hungary ordered the cities to be "gypsy-free". Likewise, speaking their language, Romani, was forbidden and a criminal offense. Even before and after the death of Joseph II , the legal situation had not changed significantly. The use of Romanes was prohibited with a penalty of up to twenty-four lashes with a stick.

Roma settlement in Oberwart , 1930s

Soon after the " Anschluss of Austria " in 1938, Austrian Roma and Sinti were captured and sent to various concentration camps, and subsequently to labor camps in Austria. The Lackenbach gypsy detention camp , with up to 2,300 prisoners, was the largest of these camps and was put into operation on November 23, 1940. During the Second World War , deportations were made to the Litzmannstadt ghetto and, from 1943, also to the “ Auschwitz Gypsy Camp ” in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp .

Roma in Austria with a migration background

Starting in 1960, more and more Roma immigrated to Austria as guest workers . Many of them came and still come from countries of the former Yugoslavia , especially from countries such as Serbia ( Kalderasch , Gurbeti), Kosovo ( Ashkali ) or Macedonia (Arlije). Also from Romania , the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Hungary. Thus there are local and foreign Roma in Austria who come from different Roma groups and clans and sometimes speak different dialects.

religion

The Roma mostly belong to the predominant religion of a country or region in which they live.

Thus the local Roma groups like the Burgenland Roma and the Lovara are for the most part Roman Catholic , this also applies to Roma who originally come from Austria's neighboring countries, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia .

The Roma who have immigrated can be identified most easily from a denominational point of view by their country of origin. Thus Kalderash and Gurbeti mostly Serbian Orthodox as well as the Roma from Romania ( Romanian Orthodox ).

Furthermore, there are also a few Protestant Roma who are mostly Protestant AB or Free Church Pentecostals .

The Ashkali from Kosovo and the Arlije from Macedonia are mostly Sunni Muslims .

Antigypsyism and Persecution

Memorial in Oberwart

On February 4, 1995, four Roma , Peter Sarközi (son of Stefan Horvath ), Josef Simon and Karl and Erwin Horvath, were killed in a booby trap in Oberwart ( bomb attack by Oberwart ) . The pipe bomb was attached to a sign that read "Roma back to India". When an attempt was made to remove this sign , the explosive device, consisting of around 150 grams of insulated nitroglycerin , exploded . Two days later, in Stinatz, Erich Preissler, an employee of the Burgenland environmental service, was torn to pieces by a booby trap. Both attacks were carried out by Franz Fuchs , who committed suicide in prison in 2000. The writer Stefan Horvath reflected on the murders in various books, while Elfriede Jelinek , who later won the Nobel Prize for Literature, addressed the media and political reactions to the attack in her play Stecken, Stab und Stangl .

media

The ORF 2 emits six times a year a program called "Hello, Szia, Zdravo, Del tuha" from. This is a four-language television magazine from ORF Burgenland . The languages used are: German , Hungarian , Burgenland-Croatian and Romanes . This broadcast addresses cultural and folk topics of all ethnic groups in Burgenland. In addition to the Burgenlandroma, these are the Burgenland Hungarians and the Burgenland Croats .

The presenter of this show is Gilda Horvath .

Well-known Austrian Roma

Romano Rath

Adrian Coriolan Gaspar (Romanian-Austrian jazz pianist and composer)
Gilda Horvath (Roma editor at ORF )
Stefan Horvath (writer)
Ilija Jovanović (Serbian-Austrian writer, chairman of the Romano Centro in Vienna)
Ruža Nikolić-Lakatos (Hungarian-Austrian singer)
Rudolf Sarközi (chairman of the cultural association of Austrian Roma)
Romano Rath (in German: Roma Blut) (music band from Oberwart)
Tony Wegas (singer)
Rosa Winter (Austrian concentration camp survivors)
Joe Zawinul (jazz musician, his grandmother was Sintiza)

The extended family Stojka:

Ceija Stojka (writer and artist)
Harri Stojka (musician)
Mongo Stojka (carpet dealer, musician, author and father of Harri Stojka)
Karl Stojka (artist and Porajmos survivor)

Street names

In 2001, three traffic areas in the 21st Viennese district of Floridsdorf were named at Dragonerhäufel in Romaplatz , Sintiweg and Lovaraweg . On September 12, 2014, the district chairman of Vienna-Neubau, Thomas Blimlinger , dedicated the Ceija-Stojka-Platz in front of the Altlerchenfeld church in Neubau to the eponymous writer.