Thursday, June 17, 2010

Chapter 75 - Klingenbach History, Pt. 10 ... Today's Village

After many months and significantly more research than I ever expected, I come to the end of my saga of the history of Klingenbach. In the beginning I planned to do two or three blogs, but as they always say, "the best laid plans ..." There was just so much more to the story.

From prehistoric times to the present, this area has been occupied by people whose lives were frequently, as the 17th century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, said, "... nasty, brutish and short." They have been invaded or dominated by East Goths, Longobards, Awarians, Bavarian, Franconians, Magyars, Mongols, Hungarians, Habsburgs, Turks, [Napoleon's] French, Nazis and Russians. Wars, sieges, occupations, plagues - all have decimated the residents of this and other area villages. Being situated on the border of empires, lying on the main road from Sopron (and farther, Budapest) to Vienna, Klingenbach was primed for disasters of all sorts. There is no record of the number of violent deaths that occurred in this and other area villages, but I suspect we'd be shocked by the number.

Today this quiet village lies in the center of a peaceful Europe.
Europe in 2000 (Klingenbach is the red dot right in the middle).

The Cold War is over. Austria is officially neutral and at peace.

Klingenbach is more of a Croatian village than an Austrian one. After the devastating Ottoman War in 1532 when the Turks totally destroyed many of the area villages and their inhabitants (killed the men, took the women and children into slavery), this area was empty. Invited by the King of Hungary, over 300,000 Croatians abandoned their homeland where the Turks continued to terrorize them and resettled in western Hungary (this area belonged to Hungary from 955 to 1921) in successive immigrations until 1584.

Austria lies at a point of intersection of three large language families of Europe - Slavic, Roman and German. Today, of a population of around 280,000 in Burgenland, about 30,000 to 45,000 are Croatian. Among other officially recognized minorities, they have the right of bilingual education in schools, and Croatian is an officially recognized language. Among the 12 Croatian communities in central Burgenland, Klingenbach is in the middle in population but the highest in percentage of Croatians - 82%. Burgenland's 51 Croatian villages have bilingual signs (also the four Hungarian ones).

Klingenbach's Croatian name is Klimpuh; the Hungarian name is Kelenpatak.

This is the Gemeindeamt (Communal Office), like an American town's City Hall.


On a wall just inside the front door is this plaque. It states the important events in village history. It also says that the village encompasses 482 hectares (about 1,191 acres), and its elevation is 231 meters (about 758 feet).

A rough translation (at times very rough)
1153 - Martinsberger document with the place name of Jacobus
1267 - Parts of Klingenbach are given away to the Marienberg monastery
1276 - Chlingenbach first mentioned in documentary form
1276 - Odenburger [German name for Sopron] judge Pero gives possession of the the village to the Marienberg monastery
14th Century - Most of the village is owned by the Odenburger family Lukas
1351 - Parts of Klingenbach are in the possession of the Odenburger family Agendorfer
15th Century - Sale to Viennese citizen Johann Weyspriach
1419 - City of Odenburg buys Klingenbach
1501-1518 - Oldest records in "Klingenbach Missal" about the history of Klingenbach
16th Century - Attack by the robber baron of Landsee
1529 - Destruction of the village by the Turks
1532 - Plundering by the Turks of the remaining inhabitants
1543-1564 - Oldest records in the Croatian language in the "Klingenbach Missal"
1543 - Initial settlement of Croatian subjects
1564 - Settlement with Croats completed
1672 - Because tax liabilities of the city of Odenburg, Klingenbach is pledged to the Bishop of Raab
1677 - Next pledged to the Jesuits of Guens
1682 - Beginning of some kind of village history [like a parish registry]
1683 July 24 - Burning down of the village by the Turks on the occasion of the second Turkish siege of Vienna
1698 - The 200 residents of Klingenbach paid through the city of Odenburg to acquire the village from the Jesuits of Guens
1704 - Siege and plundering by the Kuruzzen [armed anti-Habsburg Hungarian rebels]
1713 - The plague claims many deaths
1740 - Construction of the church tower
1772 - Laying out the cemetery
1824 - Oldest municipality seal
1856 - Construction of the school
1914-1918 - World War I - 27 killed in action
1921 - Union with Austria
1939-1945 - World War II - 85 killed and missing
1945 April 1 - Invasion of Soviet troops
1972 - Award of the municipality coat of arms
1976 - Inauguration of the newly constructed parish church
1997 - Opening of the town center

Klingenbach has a population of 1,200 people. Besides the Gemeindeamt, it has a Catholic Church, four restaurants, two inns, a community center, athletic complex, a kindergarten (for ages three to five), a primary school (for grades one through four), several businesses (one of which is Hotwell where Bob works), two doctors' offices and many new homes and apartments. I was surprised by how dynamic the village is and the way it continues to grow.

This is the modern fire station.


And representing the past, this is the marker for Roman era graves.


Klingenbach's elected officials consist of a mayor elected to a five-year term and 15 council members elected to five or 10 year terms (not quite sure how that works - my German didn't hold up through the explanation). Burgenland is primarily red (Social Democratic Party).

This is Klingenbach's mayor Johan Frank and his wife, Silvia.


Burgenland is also very rural. The vineyards are a prime source of income for many area residents.


We spotted this little guy on the outskirts of the village.

We have also seen weasels in the village at night but haven't been able to get a picture of them yet - they're much too fast!

We have enjoyed our time in Klingenbach. It has been interesting to experience four seasons, something we didn't have in Houston.

Klingenbach in the spring ...


in the summer ...


in the autumn ...


and in the winter ...


So I come to the end of my history of Klingenbach. We came to the village for Bob's job, little knowing of the history of the area. I was astounded by much that I learned and appreciate anew what it means to lie on the border between empires, Klingenbach's uneasy existence for a few thousand years. But Klingenbach has had 65 years of peace now although surely not for the first time. Austria joined the European Union in 1995 and adopted the Euro in 2002 so the village no longer sits on the border of empires. Of course we always think peace will remain, but war always returns, more savage and destructive than before. I just hope this lovely, quiet village can continue to live in peace.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Chapter 74 - Klingenbach History, Pt. 9 ... Cold War

For most of its history Klingenbach has sat on the border between empires. Through centuries of wars, this little village lay on the direct route of invasion, primarily on the road from Budapest to Vienna. It was completely destroyed at least twice and repopulated. Near the end of World War II it once again lay in the path of an invading army, this time the Soviet Union.

The Soviets lost more than 20 million soldiers and civilians during World War II, and they were understandably enraged after fighting their way across Poland and Hungary to reach the Third Reich. Austria had been a willing participant in the Reich, and as such was a target of the vengeful Soviet army.

The Soviets were just as brutal in Hungary which had fought (albeit mostly unwillingly) on the Nazi side. Many refugees fled ahead of the Soviet army into the Klingenbach area. One wonders if they stopped their flight in Burgenland to be eventually brutalized by the Soviets anyway or if they kept walking until they reached the Allied troops.


The Soviet army reached Burgenland in February, 1945. Of course there is a lot more information about what they did in the capital city of Vienna, but one presumes they treated the citizens of Burgenland and in villages like Klingenbach the same way. In Vienna they raped over 100,000 females from girls to old women. There was a high death rates among babies born as a result of those rapes. The Viennese citizens subsisted on less than 1,000 calories per day.

After the war Austria was divided into four occupation zones. The French occupied the purple zone, the U. S. the yellow, the British the pink, and the Soviet Union the green, which includes all of Burgenland.


The Soviets didn't include Austria in its "sphere of influence" (euphemism for Iron Curtain) in central and eastern Europe. Stalin had agreed during the war that Austria would be restored to its pre-1938 borders, but after the war Austria had to be "punished" for its responsibilities during the war. It had to be demilitarized, denazified and democratically reconstructed. The Soviets intended that Austria would develop into a Moscow-friendly, socialist state but after early elections in which the Austrian communists were repudiated by the electorate, the Soviets became even more punitive. They began a systematic plan of economic exploitation, expropriating over 450 formerly German-owned businesses during that time, and by 1955 most were close to bankruptcy. They also placed almost all of Austria's oil fields (Austria was the third largest oil producer in Europe, after the Soviet Union and Romania) under their administration.

Cold War Europe with tiny Klingenbach (marked by the red dot) in the middle again.

So look at little Austria (along with traditionally neutral Switzerland) sandwiched between the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact countries and the pro-western countries. What a spot!

This is the Zollhaus (Customs House) in Klingenbach where people entering or leaving Austria would have to stop. You can just see the border barriers that blocked the street in front of the house.


Today that building is called the Upper House and is owned by Hotwell It contains several flats and a doctor's office,and we hold parties in the basement.


This is typical of the parties held in the basement that used to be the detention area.


Now here's one I don't get. Everything in the basement from the Cold War era is gone - except this one, old, nonworking typewriter that sits on the end of the bar.


These refugees fleeing the Soviet Zone came right through Klingenbach in 1951. Notice that the barrier is up - the Austrians were very welcoming of refugees from the Eastern Zone.


Things continued in this way for several years. Contrary to earlier promises, Stalin refused to remove Soviet troops from eastern Austria. Not until after his death in 1953 did significant numbers of Austrian POWs return home, and not until the emergence of Nikita Khruschev in 1955 did the Soviet Union finally pull its troop from Burgenland. Historians believe that Austria was Khruschev's showcase for his policy of "peaceful coexistence." Final negotiations among the four occupying powers required Austria to proclaim "everlasting" neutrality, a price the Austrian parliament agreed upon on October 26, 1955, a national holiday ever since.

During the Soviet occupation life continued in Burgenland. The farmers continued to plant the vineyards. This picture is from 1950.


This picture of a Burgenland woman in traditional peasant dress also dates from ca. 1950. One wonders how fashion changed for women during this era or if it did at all. The Soviets have never been known for "fashion sense."


The residents of Klingenbach must have been relieved when the Soviet troops left in 1955, but they were shocked beyond belief a year later when the Hungarian Revolution, a popular uprising by democratic forces, was brutally crushed on October 23, 1956. A shockwave of Hungarian refugees flooded over the border, many of them into Klingenbach.

They came on foot of course, but also ...

by bus ...


by wagon ...


by car ...


by truck ...


by horse-drawn wagons ...


even by tractor.


So the Cold War continued. I've heard that sometimes the traffic jams to cross the border (I presume both ways) could be days long.

The Austrian border at Klingenbach ...


and the Hungarian border at Sopron - just a few hundred feet down the road.


Nowadays you just drive straight through both checkpoints, the traffic only slowing down enough not to run into the booths. I wonder why they don't tear them down, but then I've heard that over here it costs too much to tear things down; they just let them rot and fall apart.

Here are Customs Officers in 1970.


The Soviets constructed the "anti-Fascist Protective Barrier," or as we in the West called it, the Iron Curtain from the Baltic Sea to Yugoslavia. The border near Klingenbach was a deadly zone of minefields and barbed wire. Local trains traveling from the north to the south of Burgenland operated as "Corridor trains," with doors locked as they traversed Hungarian territory.

This is one of the Hungarian border watchtowers.


And a similar, abandoned, watchtower today. Note that the woods have grown up around it.


So things continued for decades. The Soviets did cleanse the minefields from 1965 to 1971 because people were often harmed by them, even on the Austrian side of the border. Some thought this was a sign that the Soviet Union was considering opening the borders, but things didn't really change until Mikhail Gorbachev took power in the Soviet Union in the 1980s and inaugurated his policy of glasnost.

Some historians say that the Cold War ended in Klingenbach. On July 27, 1989 the Foreign Ministers of Austria and Hungary, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, cut the Iron Curtain in Klingenbach.

It was ostensibly just a symbolic act, but it had far-reaching consequences. Hungary's budding opposition organized a picnic at the Austrian border to press for greater political freedom and to promote friendship with their Western neighbors. There were 80,000 Soviet troops stationed in Hungary, but these Hungarians were undaunted. There were greater things destined for that day because among the 10,000 participants were 600 East Germans who had more than a picnic on their minds - they planned to escape to the West. A decision by a simple Hungarian border guard not to fire on them changed history. The East Germans entered Austria through Klingenbach where they were heartily welcomed. Tens of thousands of East Germans followed later, many of them entering the West through Klingenbach. It must have been heady times for this little village!

After 1990 Burgenland - and Klingenbach of course - regained its traditional role as a bridge between the eastern and central parts of Central Europe. When Hungary and Slovenia later joined the European Union, the cross-border links were further strengthened. And then in 2007, border controls ceased to exist in the region. Indeed, we now drive frequently to Hungary to dine, shop or sightsee. The Cold War, except for the dilapidated border crossings, is just a memory.