One Side of the Equation – Blurring The Lines In Deutsch Jahrndorf (The Lost Lands #38)

The lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders as they existed prior to World War I are a world rendered in black and white. This is conspicuous in historic photographs. The lack of color creates a barrier. An invisible force field that keeps the viewer at a distance. The people and structures are less vivid. This makes them seem less than real. The same effect can be found in history books covering the period. The words are black, and the background is white. Stark, austere, and lacking in atmospherics. While reading I feel far removed from both time and place. The only cure I have found for this is travel which shrinks the distance. Paradoxically, it allows me to get closer to the past through the present. This is what I plan to do at my next destination, Deutsch Jahrndorf in eastern Austria. I want to see in living color the village that was in the eye of multiple historical hurricanes. Its German inhabitants managed to weather these storms intact.

Deutsch Jahrndorf is an outlier that occupies a unique place on the Austrian frontier and German world. The village is the easternmost municipality in Austria. Since the end of World War II, it has also been the eastern extent of ethnic Germans living together in a common place. All the other German communities that had existed further to the east – many of them since the Middle Ages – were destroyed during the war or the inhabitants expelled afterward. Deutsch Jahrndorf was lucky to survive, but it did not escape the war without harm. Evidence of the combat that occurred in and around the village can be found at its Soviet war cemetery. There is little doubt that unspeakable acts of depravity were committed against the populace by marauding soldiers. The Red Army was eager to avenge the atrocities that had been committed by Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front.  Deutsch Jahrndorf could just as easily have become part of Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) or Hungary. The border between Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia was set within spitting distance of the village. Deutsch Jahrndorf spent forty years in the Iron Curtain’s shadow. This was one of many ethnically related problems that had been ongoing since the late 20^th century.

A small world – Aerial view of Deutsch Jahrndorf (Credit: Kathrin Santha)

Superficiality – A Magyar Makeover
The name looks odd to anyone other than an ethnic German. Deutsch Jarhndorf does nothing to endear me to the German language. It sounds like a provincial Teutonic delicacy. A mouthful of which would have to be washed down by copious amounts of guttural spirits. In any case, the village of 600 people has been called worse, such as its Hungarian derivation. In 1898, the Kingdom of Hungary’s Magyarization policy was in full effect. The idea was to make Transleithania’s non-Hungarians into Magyars (what Hungarians call themselves). An impossible task when it comes to language. Nonetheless, the official names of villages, towns, and cities were Magyarized. This took Deutsch Jarhndrof to a whole new level of linguistic absurdity.

Nemetjarfalu became the village’s name due to the Magyarization policy of the Hungarian government. This was one of many instances where superficial name changes occurred in the effort to make Hungarians a larger proportion of Transleithania’s population. From 1880 – 1910 they increased from 45% to 54%. Unfortunately, for Hungarian nationalists this did not alter the ethnic composition on the empire’s fringes. These areas would get taken away from Hungary by Trianon. In truth, a place like Deutsch Jarhndorf never really was Hungarian except from an administrative standpoint. The village was one of countless ethnic outliers. Non-Hungarian majority towns and villages could be found throughout Transleithania. 

Memories of war – Soviet military cemetery in Deutsch Jahrndorf (Credit: Guenther)

Ways of Life – All Mixed Up
Trying to imagine what Deutsch Jarhndorf was like in the early 20^th century is a fascinating thought experiment. I envision thrifty ethnic Germans working the land well enough to earn a living above the subsistence level. Their lives were wedded to traditions that had been passed down through the generations. Life was not easy, but with a strong work ethic and a bit of luck, they made it tolerable. The rate of change in Austria-Hungary was speeding up, but in villages it came more slowly, Technology was remaking rural life. Agriculture was becoming more efficient, and railroads could carry what was produced on the land to market quicker than in the past. The ethnic Germans of Deutsch Jahrndorf interacted daily with other ethnic groups in the nearby villages of Oroszvar (Rusovce) and Rajka. The region was a mix of Hungarians, Slovaks, Croats, and Jews.

The people identified by ethnicity and religion. What bound them together was that they were all citizens of the Austro-Hungarian empire for better or worse. Nationalism was causing conflicted feelings throughout the empire. Differences in ethnicity decided each group’s place in the economic pecking order. Nationalism threatened to upend the existing social order. The ethnic Germans in Deutsch Jahrndorf already lived in a German world that just so happened to be under the administration of Hungarians. Magyarization would have been an irritation to them, but not nearly as menacing as it must have been for Slovaks who had been under Hungarian rule for a thousand years. Each ethnic group was living in their own world, as well as a larger Hungarian administered part of the empire which infringed upon it on occasion. The Germans from Deutsch Jahrndorf were not insulated from Magyarization, but they were in a better position because ethnic Germans were still ultimately the empire’s most powerful ruling class and royalty. Deutsch Jahrndorf might have been in the Hungarian administered part of the empire, but Vienna and the Habsburgs were not far away.

Looking forward, looking back – Mother and daughter in Deutsch Jahrndorf 1933

Future Shock – Ignorance Is Bliss
In retrospect, the early 20^th century in Deutsch Jahrndorf was a golden age compared to the series of catastrophes that were soon to come. It is hard to imagine what the people there would go through after 1914. The region had been visited by wars on many occasions, but those were mainly military affairs. The coming wars consumed civilians as much as soldiers. None of Deutsch Jahrndorf’s inhabitants had the slightest idea that history was about to have its way with them. Of course, they could not see the future. Their ignorance was bliss. I guess we could all say that.

Click here for: National Insecurity – Forgotten History: Bratislava’s Bridgehead (The Lost Lands #39)

Opening The Prison – The Road To Deutsch Jahrndorf (The Lost Lands #37)

I start to feel depressed when studying the early 20^th century demographic statistics for cities, towns, and villages in the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Those statistics make me realize how much ethnic diversity has been lost. The frontiers of Historic Hungary were home to a wide array of people, languages, and religions. Those same places today are for the most part ethnically homogenous. While multiculturalism has been all the rage in the European Union for several decades, this is nothing compared to pre-World War I eastern and Central Europe. The early 20^th century was the peak of diversity in Eastern Europe. Villages often had two, three or four sizable ethnic groups. That is no longer the norm. As part of my itinerary for visiting the lost lands, I plan on visiting villages which were once highly diverse. In a few of these, such as Rusovce and Jarovce in Slovakia, and Rajka in Hungary, a semblance of that diversity still exists today. In others, such as Deutsch Jahrndorf in the easternmost tip of Austria, the villages are even more German than they were over a century ago. Before I go there, a lesson in class hierarchy and ethnicity is in order.

In the good old days – At a guesthouse in Deutsch Jahrndorf 1908

Class Consciousness – Together & Unequal
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was called the prison of nations because of all the different ethnic groups subsumed within the empire. These groups lived in close proximity to one another in both urban and rural areas. Each had their own way of life with unique customs and traditions. They had also developed ways of interacting with each other. Coexistence was based upon hierarchy. Aristocracy played a role in the class system, but the defining factors were ethnicity and language. The two were synonymous with one another. They separated the haves and have nots. As might be expected in the Hungarian administered portion of the empire (Transleithania – east of the Leitha River) Hungarians were on top. This was followed by ethnic Germans (Swabians and Saxons), Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Romanians, and Rusyns. Of course, these are generalizations. A more nuanced view does show some of the complexities. For instance, many Hungarians were still at the level of serfdom. Aristocrats thought they were better than non-nobles though many of them were living on the edge of poverty.

Ethnic Germans in Transleithania were usually more prosperous than other ethnic groups, including Hungarians. Jews, who had been given equal rights in 1867, were the most upwardly mobile. They were skyrocketing into the professional classes. This left the previously all-powerful nobility angry. This would later lead to catastrophic consequences for Jews. Differences in equality caused tensions that threatened to explode and upset the ruling order. Nationalism aligned with ethnicity was incendiary. Hungarians were able to push policies that furthered their status. Every other ethnic group was left seething and striving – often both – for their own nations. This would prove to be an existential threat to the empire. Keeping a lid of nationalism meant the Hungarian ruling class imposed their preferences with a heavy hand. The backlash to this was kept under tight control because Hungarian leaders realized this could lead to the empire’s destruction and the end of their leading role across a large swath of Eastern Europe. They were right to worry because that is exactly what happened at the end of World War I. The ultimate outcome was Hungary losing all but its core lands in the Treaty of Trianon.

A not-so-distant memory – Austro-Hungarian era building in Rajka (Credit: Attila Terbocs)

Escape Valve – The Distant Shore
Another element that threatened to upend Austria-Hungary was technological change. It was becoming harder and harder to keep the peasants down on the farm. Technology was leading to rapid changes in the economy, transport and living standards. Those who could not get ahead due to the strictures of class and ethnicity, could try their luck by moving to the cities for jobs in factories. If this option did not work out, advances in transport allowed them to emigrate across the Atlantic. Emigration abroad was an escape valve that saved the empire from having hundreds of thousands of malcontents. The critical masses needed for a revolt dispersed to distant shores. Those who stayed behind enjoyed less competition and in some cases, greater opportunities. Others sat and stewed, eventually turning to radical ideologies that held out hope for the world to be remade for the benefit of working classes.

Industrialization added to the tinder box as the downtrodden came together to toil in undesirable conditions with few labor protections. This led to the push for worker’s rights and the pushback from conservative forces. If all this sounds like a recipe for revolution, the powers that be could see it coming. That is why they were more than happy to see the lower classes fleeing the empire. The ethnic balance was delicate. Anything that might upset it could lead to a death spiral. There simply were not enough Hungarians in the empire to establish complete dominance over all the other ethnic groups. Furthermore, great masses of Hungarians also emigrated in search of the prosperity that had for so long eluded them at home. A potential solution to all these troubles would be to share political power among all the ethnic groups. Easier said than done in societies that were marked by centuries of inequality. The Hungarians had ruled over Slovaks, Romanians, Rusyns, and to a lesser extent Croats and Serbs for so long that this seemed like the normal course of affairs to them.

Parting ways – Border crossing between Hungary and Austria at Jarovce in 1936
(Credit: Fortepan)

Magyarization – A Negligible Result
The less equal ethnic groups were finding their voice, but the Hungarian government was determined they would only have a minimal say at best. Instead, they tried Magyarization by encouraging, imposing, or trying to force all the other ethnic groups to speak, act, and think like Hungarians, This did not work very well because learning the Hungarian language was too difficult. Many a peasant would say impossible. Plus, all the non-Hungarians already had languages of their own that defined their identity. Trying to force the other ethnic groups to become Hungarians, more often led to the opposite. This goes a long way in explaining how the lost lands of Hungary were lost long before Trianon. The upshot was bitterness, vindictiveness and/or indifference. The latter sums up the experience of Deutsch Jahrndorf where Magyarization. The result was negligible. 

Click here for: One Side of the Equation – Blurring The Lines In Deutsch Jahrndorf (The Lost Lands #38)