Behind The Facade – From Mattersburg To Heinzenland (The Lost Lands #52b)

Seven years ago, I drove into the town of Mattersburg in the northern part of Burgenland. My destination was Burg Forchtenstein, a gloomy castle situated upon a slab of dolomite. Mattersburg sits 253 meters below Forchtenstein. I had not given much thought to the town beforehand. Imagining it as nothing more than a place I had to pass through on the way to the star attraction. Winding my way through the neatly kept streets and colorful houses, I felt the allure of small-town life that has been all but lost in America due to suburbanization. Mattersburg was the way I went to remember a town. People with shopping bags strode down the sidewalk, the storefronts were filled with merchandise, park benches were conveniently situated, everything was within walking distance. I was sure gelato lurked less than fifty meters from any place in the town center. What could possibly be better than that. Mattersburg struck me as the kind of place that takes pride in itself. The town was an Austrian version of Norman Rockwell.

I have my doubts about Austria with its oppressive cleanliness, neat freak neuroses, manic precision and people whose silent intensity makes me nervous. What I do not have my doubts about is that Mattersburg presents a pleasing prospect to visitors. I lost myself in a sort of nostalgic revelry for a world that I thought no longer existed and wondered if it ever really did. Mattersburg made a believer out of me. Lost in this revelry were my usual forebodings that a darker history was hidden by the happy face of Austria. I knew that conflict had happened in these small towns, and those events were still within living memory. There were still other similar ones which were not much more than a century old. The pristine image Austria now presents to the world obscures its tumultuous past. Even a provincial town like Mattersburg was not able to escape the maelstrom. In one case, they were at the center of it.

Storm warning – Lightning strikes in Mattersburg

A Bad Marriage – Powerful Versus Pugnacious
I did not learn the post-World War I history of Mattersburg (Mattersdorf until 1924/Nagymarton in Hungarian) until long after my visit. While working on my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders I came across one of those obscure footnotes of history, the Republic of Heinzeland, that keep me up at night. This led me right back to Mattersburg. The town had played an outsized role in an Austrian attempt to sever West Hungary from the newly formed First Republic of Hungary. This was not all that surprising. During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Austrian and Hungarians were bound together in the equivalent of a bad marriage where they stayed together for the kids. The marriage dissolved once the kids left home (the empire’s nine other ethnic groups) at the end of World War I. Austria and Hungary then reverted to exchanging pleasantries while subverting one another. Austria had always been the stronger sibling, while Hungary played a pugnacious role. After the war ended, both were in survival mode. Securing the future might come at the expense of a former imperial partner.

Of the two, Austrians had always been the more conniving. They had inherited this trait from centuries of Habsburg rule. The Austrians knew how to stir up unrest among different groups to benefit themselves. If this included their ethnic kin in West Hungary, they were willing to do it. There were violent movements cropping up all over the former empire after the war. Austria was a terrible mess. Famine was stalking the streets of cities, towns, and villages. Hungary, which had been the empire’s breadbasket may have had more food, but their government was weak. Revolution was in the air. Soldiers had come back from the front and were adding to the chaos. They had been militarized in the trenches. Using armed force had become a way of life. Trying to create some sense of order out of this chaos would have taxed the resources of any government. The ones in Austria and Hungary were also trying to figure out their way forward in a world where they were at the mercy of forces beyond their control.

Deceptive calm – Postcard of Mattersburg

Nation Building – Disputed Territory
The Republic of German-Austria. The name sounds like an expression of the obvious. Instead, it was the initial iteration of what was to become the First Austrian Republic. It consisted of the old Austrian Empire’s Alpine and Danubian crownlands. This rump nation needed all the ethnic Germans it could get. The idea was not to create an independent Austrian state, but to instead form a union with Germany. By doing this, the core Austrian lands would safeguard their future by becoming part of a much more powerful Germany. This made sense because if left as a standalone independent state, Austria would be weak and its territory vulnerable to attack from neighboring states filled with ethnic groups it had once ruled over such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The problem was that German-Austria’s leaders were in no position to dictate a union with Germany to the victorious powers who would decide the fate of postwar Europe.

The victors were not about to allow Austria to team up with Germany and create the kind of formidable German state they had just spent four years and the lives of millions defeating. France and Great Britain wanted Germany weakened so that it could not start another war. German-Austria was already weak. Its leaders saw an opportunity in West Hungary to boost their prospects by taking control of the territory. German-Austria could not afford to get into an outright war with Hungary. Their best bet was to stir up unrest among the ethnic German majority who made up two-thirds of the population in West Hungary. Hungarians were only the third largest ethnic group in the region. (Croatians were second). They would have trouble keeping control if there was a groundswell of popular support for the region becoming part of German-Austria. That was not going to be easy.

Tidy town – Mattersburg

Shadow War – A Surreptitious Setup
The First Hungarian Republic was involved in trying to keep territories on its frontiers from breaking away. To that end they sent officials from the Hungarian National Council into West Hungary to make sure this did not happen. Opposing them was the Westungarische Kanzlei (West Hungary Council) setup surreptitiously by officials in the Republic of German-Austria to lobby ethnic Germans into breaking away from Hungarian rule. Ground zero for this movement would become Mattersburg, the place that was soon to be identified with the Republic of Heinzeland.

Coming soon: A Two-Day Austrian Affair – The Hopelessness of Heizenland (Lost Lands #52c)

Secrets & Lies – Doubting Austria (The Lost Lands #46)

I knew this day was coming. I both feared and looked forward to it. Ever since I began developing my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders, one country kept raising doubts in my mind. This country was not one of the usual suspects such as Romania with its bad roads, Slovakia with the speed demon drivers, Ukraine with Russia aggression breathing down its neck or Serbia fueled with fiery nationalism. The country that I doubted the most is the most organized and prosperous. The one that if a vote was taken today, would get voted most likely to continue succeeding. A country that despite the more unsavory aspects of its history is held in high regard across the world. This country is Austria. It might come as a surprise to many, but the nation known for The Sound of Music and Sacher Torte also has a darker side. Just ask its neighbors. The Czechs and Austrians were at loggerheads for centuries. There is still tension between Italy and Austria over the divided Tyrol. Slovenia and Austria fought an armed struggle in 1918-19 over Lower Styria and Carinthia. Last, but not least is Austria’s tumultuous historical relationship with Hungary.

Light and shadow – Schonbrunn in Vienna (Credit: Zyance)

Clever & Duplicitous – Matters of State
Of all the countries that Hungary lost lands to following World War I, Austria is the most improbable. Austrians literally dragged Hungary into what turned out to be a disastrous war. Hungary’s leader at the time, Istvan Tisza tried to resist involvement, but caved in under intense pressure. This put Hungary in a no-win situation. If Austria-Hungary won the war, then it would almost certainly acquire more territory in the Balkans which would marginalize Hungary’s influence in the Dual Monarchy. Dualism could become Trialism with Slavic subjects of the empire as its third ruling component. This was a nightmare scenario for Hungarians who guarded their status as the ruling authority in their half of the empire. If Austria-Hungary lost the war, the consequences would be dire. That is exactly what happened and led to the loss of historically Hungarian lands.

To add insult to injury, the clever and duplicitous Austrians stole a march on Hungary gained what became the Burgenland (formerly known as West Hungary) at their former ally’s expense. Oddly, I have never heard a single Hungarian lament the lands lost to Austria despite the fact this led to an armed uprising. One memorable result of the uprising was a plebiscite where two-thirds of the inhabitants in the city of Sopron (Odenburg) voted to remain in Hungary. Perhaps this small win for Hungary amid all its other postwar territorial losses was enough to mitigate any lingering bitterness. Today, Hungarians share the same starry-eyed admiration for Austria that has made it the gold standard of nations in Europe. This admiration betrays little hint of just how difficult relations between Hungary and Austria have been in the past. A Hungarian once told me they see Austrians as their brothers-in-law, then added, “but we didn’t like them either.” Hungarians have numerous historical reasons to hold grudges against Austrians. They are not the only ones.

Habsburgs over Hungary – Coronation of Franz Joseph I at Matthias Church, Buda

Left Unspoken – Waldheim’s World
The First World War would not be the first, nor the last time, that Austria did better than they had any right to expect from a situation they helped instigate. Statecraft has always been one of Austria’ specialties. Personally, I find something Austria’s duplicitous behavior distasteful. They always manage to get off easy compared to the wrongs they have committed. Austria’s trickery has fooled many others who were not Hungarians. For instance, Austrians have portrayed themselves as victims of Nazi Germany’s excesses. Their argument is that Hitler’s Anschluss was irresistible because of the Third Reich’s military power. Left unsaid is that many Austrians agreed with assimilation into a greater Reich. That was the most expedient course of action at the time. When it was no longer expedient after the Second World War. Austria suddenly became a victim. This volte-face approach managed to seduce the west, which was less concerned about punishing Austria, and more focused on helping it achieve neutrality as a buffer state against the Eastern Bloc. The Austrians used this to secure themselves a peaceful coexistence with both sides.

The essence of Austria’s duplicitous behavior was native son Kurt Waldheim, who first ascended to the position of Secretary General of the United Nations and later to the presidency of Austria. While campaigning for the presidency, Waldheim’s role in Nazi atrocities leaked out. This included a stint at the Jasenovac concentration camp in Yugoslavia where he denied knowledge of the horrific crimes against humanity that took place there. The most remarkable aspect of Waldheim’s amnesia was not his cynicism, but that the rest of the world had been gullible (or culpable) enough to believe him. This same type of duplicitous behavior continues with the current Austrian government, which remained notably silent about Russia’s war in Ukraine. The not so dirty little secret is that Austria continues to make a mint off its economic connections to Russia. These examples prove that Austria abuses the trust other nations place in it.

Splendor and Gloom – Austria under the cover of clouds (Credit: Thomas Pintaric)

Throwing Shade – From The Top Down
Austria is the one country in my lost lands itinerary that is as much a source of depression as it is fascination. I view Austria as an opportunistic nation that plays by its own cleverly devised rules, or more precisely, malevolent ruses. How they manage to do this repeatedly without ever getting called out is a tribute to their sleight of hand diplomatic machinations. It is not hard to see how the Austrian led Habsburg Empire ruled over such a large swath of central and eastern Europe for hundreds of years. In any deal, economic, geopolitical or otherwise, Austria always finds a way to come out on top. I cannot help but believe that vanity plays a large role in Austria’s influence with its friends and foes. An alliance with Austria is like marrying a millionaire who then demands you pay their bills. All of this throws shade on my journey to the lost lands of Historic Hungary in the Burgenland. That said, there are still aspects of this overlooked part of Austria that I look forward to exploring further in depth.  

Click here for: Split Ends – Neusiedler See’s Inflows & Outflows (The Lost Lands #47)

Consumer Culture – A Place Called Parndorf (The Lost Lands #45)

The town of Parndorf in northern Burgenland is well known for one thing that has nothing to do with the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. This is a shame because from my perspective the town of 4,800 has a lot to recommend it. Parndorf, Pandorfalu, Pandrof was one of the first things I noticed while researching the town. The first two names did not come as much of a surprise, the third is what caught my eye. Parndrof is the town’s Croatian name. This was evidence that the ethnic Croatian presence in the town is more than nominal. I was able to verify this by locating a city limits sign that had the Croatian name beneath the German one. This is a relative rarity in Burgenland when compared to signs where the second name is in Hungarian. Such details might seem trivial, but I am willing to dig deep to find the multicultural roots of Burgenland.

Parndorf’s Croatian name getting second billing on the sign is a bit of poetic justice that links back to its early history. In those dark ages, the town was named Perun, after a Slavic mythological deity.  Thunder, lightning, rain, and storms were all part of Perun’s powers. Since he came from Slavic lore, Perun fits in well with Croatians. They are the only Slavs of the three main ethnic groups in the Burgenland. The latest Austrian census showed that Burgenland Croatians made up 17% of the town’s population. Visitors to Parndorf have little time to think about this. Though I have not visited Parndorf, I can say with assuredness that the hundreds of thousands who do, have consumer culture rather than Croatian culture on their minds. That is because the town’s star attraction is the Designer Outlet Parndorf. 

Consumer culture – Outlet Mall in Parndorf (Credit: Steindy)

Power of the Purse – Watchtowers to Wallets
Burgenland brings to mind lots of images for me, one of them is not an outlet mall. The opposite is true for the legions of shopaholics who descend on the place each day. Clothes, shoes, handbags, and all kinds of other material objects are their fixation. The last thing they would want to discuss is the ethnic history of Parndorf. History cannot compete with consumerism. It is an intellectual endeavor; the Parndorf Designer Outlet is an emotional one. The differences between the two are easy to discern. History uses dates to establish chronology, Outlet malls use deep discounts to attract the masses. They do a much better job than historians do to get the masses interested in the past. If all the marketing and salesmanship that goes into Designer Outlet Parndorf went into teaching and understanding the multi-ethnic history of Burgenland, the masses would have a greater history of their shared past.

I should not have been surprised that Parndorf had an outlet mall. If there is one thing all western societies have in common it is consumerism. Some areas more than others. Just 25 kilometers east of Parndorf is another large outlet mall across the Hungarian border to Hegyeshalom. I cannot imagine what the thousands of tourists who make the journey from Vienna to Budapest must think when they first cross the Hungarian border and find a large outlet mall. Rather than being aghast, perhaps all they can say is “charge it” in both a physical and monetary sense. How things have changed in less than two generations across this borderland. Travelers to the Eastern Bloc used to be greeted by watchtowers, frozen faced border guards, and eyed with the deepest suspicion. Now they are given an open invitation to capitalism at its finest. The same holds true for Austria which is well versed in a more prosperous version of socialism. This does not preclude their citizenry from spending small and large fortunes at the Parndorf Designer Outlet.  

Croatian connection – Sign of Parndorf-Pandrof

Charge It – The Euro Zone
The outlet mall in Parndorf is both a competitor and compliment to the one at Hegyeshalom. There is enough shopping to go around for everyone since Vienna, Bratislava, and Sopron are all within an hour’s drive. I seriously doubt that when the border between Austria and Hungary was being negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, any of the experts had an inkling that the area would one day become a hub for outlet malls. It is incredibly ironic that this is a sign of progress. One way of bringing Germans, Hungarians, and Slavs together is by shopping. The latest in fashion at up to 50% off is something they can all agree on. A plebiscite is held each day in Parndorf with consumers signaling approval by voting with their wallets. The Parndorf Designer Outlet is a byproduct of open borders between Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. Nothing stands in the way of shoppers from all three countries converging on it.

Parndorf’s Outlet Mall is strategically placed not far off the A4 motorway. This allows for easy access so everyone can find a bargain. Never mind that outlet malls are as soulless as any group of buildings one is liable to find in Austria or on earth. They are the consumer equivalent of a casino. There is nothing historic about them. Nor will they ever be. Outlet malls are shopped and then dropped. Parndorf’s outlet mall tries to take the concept to a higher level, by using the term “designer.” The stores have high end brands at a deep discount. Sales slogans that allude to the region’s history are not en vogue, but I feel it necessary to offer a couple of options for cost conscious shoppers.  Make money not war and make peace with every purchase. This is the stuff outlet sales are made of.

Unknown Parndorf – Pfarrkirche (Parish Church) in town center (Credit: Jacquesverlaeken)

Deep Discounts – Coming In First
Discovering the outlet, designer or otherwise, did not endear me to Parndorf. The idea of purchasing the latest striped shirt and slacks as I straddle a geopolitical fault line in blissful ignorance shows just how far this part of Europe has come. It also shows how far humanity has fallen. While I decry the banality of the outlet mall, I must admit that it is much better than hot or cold wars. Capitalism has helped tame the region. It is a lot easier to open one’s wallet or purse than dodge bullets. In that sense, Parndorf Designer Outlet is a winner. And let’s face it, the winners are usually the ones who write history. As for the town’s ethnic Croatians, they will have to wait in line.

Click here for: Secrets & Lies – Doubting Austria (The Lost Lands #46)

Invisible Forces – Making A Mint in Burgenland (The Lost Lands #44)

For all my misgivings about Austria, I am still susceptible to its charm offensive. Austrians have a way of making you think everything is perfect even when it is not. I remember one of the first times I realized this was at the Vienna Hauptbahnhof (Central Station). While waiting in line to purchase a ticket, a Viennese pensioner decided to jump the line in front of me. My stunned disbelief lasted longer than it should have. I was confused. Everything I had experienced in Vienna up to that moment was neat, clean and uber organized.

Surely, an Austrian would not dare to cut in front of me for a train ticket. In any other European country except Germany, I would have shrugged it off. In this case, I did the opposite and ordered the man to take his rightful place in line behind me. He acted surprised that anyone, let alone a foreigner, called him out. This was not my last experience with line cutters in Austria. I told myself not to be fooled again. Of course, Austria and Austrians have seduced me several more times since then. The oddest part is that I felt complicit in these affairs. I thought there must be something wrong with me. Austrians were a representation of their country, picture perfect.

Down the road – Rural pleasure in Winten, Burgenland (Credit: Darinko)

Perfectionistic – A Lifetime Supply of Anti-Depressants
I wonder how many Hungarians realize that Austria pulled West Hungary right out from under them. These lands were lost due to the Treaty of St. Germain-en Laye (set Austria’s border) and Trianon (set Hungary’s borders). This inspired a short-lived uprising where Hungary managed to claw Sopron back into its borders. Then the issue was never raised again. The Austrians probably had Hungarians thinking they got a good deal. Anytime a Hungarian crosses the border into Burgenland (formerly West Hungary) they are probably like me, wondering why everything can’t run as smoothly in their own country as it does on Burgenland’s roads.  One of the things I am looking forward to in revisiting the area is the blissfully perfect highways. Ribbons of pavement unwind across rolling hills. It is enough to make me want to let the road, rather than the map, lead me to the next destination. The scenery, while subdued by Austria’s alpine standards, induces a state of trance. There is bucolic, and then there is Burgenland.

The rural landscape is covered with immaculately manicured fields, interspersed with inviting forests. Vineyards climb hillsides, low mountains loom in the distance, castles and palaces await discovery. The villages look as though they were painted yesterday. The effect is like a lifetime supply of antidepressants. Burgenland values cleanliness, order, and thrift above all. A scrap of paper blowing down a sidewalk could be considered scandalous. There is a seductive ease in Burgenland that disguises the mania that lurks behind the perfectionistic streak. It is as though Austrians have done everything possible to hide any blemishes. They must be proud of all they accomplished, even if in Burgenland it came at the expense of those who spent centuries molding the land and townscapes. Today the expenses are paid by tourists. Prior to 1920, it was Hungarians, Croatians, and Jews in addition ethnic Germans. The non-Germans are as much a part of Burgenland’s past as the Austrians who now dominate it. This is hard to see without history or guidebooks pointing the way.

Off roading – View from Oberwarter Strasse in Burgenland (Credit: Funke)

Home Economics – Ties That Bind
The legacy of the Hungarians, Croatians, and Jews that lived in the Burgenland during the early 20^th century can be difficult to discern. Those still living there today are mostly invisible. Rediscovering their lives and legacies is one of the reasons I am putting several places in the Burgenland on my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Burgenland offers a unique challenge for anyone looking at its multiethnic past. While the Austrians do nothing overt to disguise that past, prosperity has made the non-ethnic Germans more likely to assimilate. Grappling with the past is harder when the future is filled with the promise of comfort and leisure.

How can Hungarians in Burgenland complain about the region not being part of Hungary when they have won the lost lands version of the lottery? Why would Croatians in Burgenland want to go back to the land of their ancestors when by comparison they are enjoying the good level. Consider that Burgenland has the lowest average GDP per person in Austria at 32,000 Euros. This is almost twice as high as the average GDP per person in Hungary and Croatia. No one is going to raise a banner for revanchism with the kind of pay they are getting in Burgenland.

A thick wallet filled with euros will go a long way in making people enjoy the present and look forward to the future. Hungarians in the lost lands can find plenty to complain about politically, economically, and socially. In Burgenland, they enjoy a livelihood that their ethnic kin can only dream about. All of them must be relieved that Burgenland stayed west of the Iron Curtain. I once met an ethnic Hungarian who now lives in America who told me his father moved from Burgenland back across the border to Hungary. He felt Hungary was the right place for him due to family ties. Then the Iron Curtain descended. His son had made the economically based decision to get out for good. If the man’s father had stayed in Austria, the son would likely be living in Burgenland today. 

Lasting legacy – Forchtenstein Castle in Burgenland was one of the Hungarian Esterhazy family’s castles (Credit: Fortepan – Akos Schermann)

Wealth Management – A Notable Exception
Burgenland is the lost land by which all the other lost lands should not be judged. The province has managed to escape its past. Hungary just happens to be a nearby neighbor with historical ties. Those ties are still strong, but that is because of cross border trade and travel.  Ethnic Hungarians in Burgenland are relatively few. For those that remain, Austria is a welcoming place. They enjoy the benefits of Austria while carrying little of the historical baggage that Hungarians in Slovakia, Romania, and Serbia do. Burgenland has been so good to its Hungarian and Croatian populations that I barely noticed their existence during my first visit. This next visit will be different.

Click here for: Consumer Culture – A Place Called Parndorf (The Lost Lands #45)

Kuruzzenschanze – Tracing A Path To Parndorf (The Lost Lands #43)

One of the most satisfying aspects of travel is stumbling upon something very different than what was expected. Such surprises have a way of upending expectations, and becoming the memory that lingers longest after a trip has ended. One example that comes to mind for me occurred in Vienna, at the Michaelerplatz, a star-shaped square in front of the Habsburg’s most famous royal palace, the Hofburg. That was where I came upon a site so stunning that the surrounding Baroque architecture might as well have vanished. These were the ruins of civilian houses that stood just beyond the walls of Vindobona, a 1,900-year-old Roman Legionary camp.

The rather modest ruins were such a counterpoint to the surrounding splendor that they caught my attention. Such was their age and association with ancient Rome, that the Hofburg looked like a pretentious, distant cousin that was trying way too hard for attention. The ruins of Vindobona turned out to be one of my most enduring memories of Vienna. Every time I read something referencing the Hofburg, I think of the ruins instead. The thrill of that moment is one I hope to repeat no matter where I go in the lost lands beyond Hungary’s border. While researching the next stop on my itinerary, I came across another understated historical scene stealer close to the town of Parndorf.

Losing more than land – World War I monument with Hungarian names in Parndorf
(Credit: Jacquesverlaeken)

Ground Truths – Tracing The Past
Many years ago, I lived in Wyoming, the most sparsely populated state in America. Because of the dry climate and lack of development there are still unique traces of history that can be seen. I was guided by a friend who had intimate knowledge of the Overland Trails (Oregon, California, Mormon Pioneer and Pony Express) that pioneers used to travel west in pursuit of land and gold. The path of iron wheels (known as trail ruts) had been carved into the earth by tens of thousands of wagons making the trek. Some of the trails looked as though the pioneers had just passed that way a few hours earlier. The passage of time and human development had only eroded, but not erased many sections of the trail. Following the trail ruts reminded me that history preserved in situ is often more powerful than when it is preserved in a museum. History does not happen in a vacuum. Place is one of its most powerful contexts.

The remnants of the Overland Trails are the Euro-American equivalent of ancient ruins. I was astonished that in a country as developed as the United States such remnants still existed and only a miniscule amount received so much as a historical marker. In Eastern Europe, the remnants of those who came before are usually sculpted in stone. Ruins from Ancient Rome can still be found in Austria, Hungary, Romania, and the Balkans. No matter the climate, stone has a much better chance of surviving the natural and human upheavals of history. Whatever was not made of stone is likely to vanish with very few traces.

Many archaeological sites have been discovered by accident because they either got buried beneath the earth or became an imperceptible part of it until some happy accident of serendipity brought it to light. Much of the fertile land in Central and Eastern Europe has been worked and reworked for several thousand years obliterating earthen traces of history. A prime example is Austerlitz in Moravia. Most of the battlefield where Napoleon won his most famous victory is now farmland. When I visited, it was hard for me to believe that so many men fought a world historical battle on a landscape that bore few traces of the fighting. On the ground traces of the battle had long since disappeared beneath the plow. This is why I immediately think of stone anytime that I hear about historic ruins in Europe. 

Ground truth – Kuruzzenschanze (Credit: Robert Hellinger)

Past Tense – Magyar Monuments
The most prevalent traces of the past that can be found in the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders are castles, fortifications, and buildings. Many of the latter from the 19^th and early 20^th century are still in use today. When Hungarians either voluntarily or forcibly moved from the lost lands, newly dominant ethnic groups moved in to use the existing housing stock. This was especially true in the aftermath of the Second World War in regions like Burgenland that were the scene of vicious fighting. Housing was in short supply after the war and anything that had not been rendered uninhabitable was deemed usable. Other remnants of the ethnic Hungarian presence in the lost lands such as monuments and statues erected during the most intense periods of Magyarization were destroyed or removed so the stone could be put to other uses. There are still a few of these around, but compared to how many once stood, they are few and far between.

Interestingly, one surviving monument in Parndorf was erected after it had become part of the Burgenland. The Hungarian World War I monument in Parndorf lists the Magyarized names of those from the town who died in the conflict. Surviving remnants associated with Hungarian history prior to the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) are much rarer. One of the rare exceptions can be found stretching from the Danube through the Parndorf area and onward to Neusiedl am See. This is the Kuruzzenschanze (Kuruc rakpart) built by Habsburg Austrian troops to defend against kuruc incursions that threatened Vienna during Rakoczi’s War of Independence from 1703 – 1711. The kurucs were Hungarian (and Slavic) forces from the middle or lower nobility and peasantry. They were fighting to free Hungary from Habsburg rule which was being reinstated with a heavy hand after the Turks had been expelled from Hungarian territory. The Kurucs were aligned with Protestantism and opposed the Catholic Habsburgs and the Hungarians who sided with them. Kuruc forces had also been responsible for uprisings during the Turkish occupation, sometimes aligning with their foes.

Line on the horizon – Kuruzzenschanze (Credit: Josef Moser)

Tracer Fire – Tangible Proof
The Kurucs were a formidable fighting force that was a cross between guerrilla warriors and a voluntary army. They won many victories against Habsburg forces, but never complete victory in war. Their threat was taken with the utmost seriousness. This can be seen in an 18-kilometer section of the Kuruzzenschanze that is still visible and runs through the Pandorf area. That might not seem like much but finding anything of military value that existed prior to the 19th century not sculpted in stone can be an impossible task. The Kuruzzenschanze is more than just a fortification line. It is tangible evidence of the conflict between Austrians and Hungarians that defined the history of East-Central Europe in the early modern period. The evidence of their conflict has mostly vanished, but not in Burgenland.

Click here for: Invisible Forces – Making A Mint in Burgenland (The Lost Lands #44)

I Could Do This Forever – Burgenland: Canvas For Curiosity (The Lost Lands #42)

I could do this forever. From the armchair or preferably on the road. At some point while developing my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders, I became entranced by the idea of spending weeks, months, years, going from one place to the next and finding anything of interest related to the multi-ethnic history of Burgenland. The idea of doing this has brought me to a point of complete intoxication. All I need is curiosity and a map. There are an infinite number of places, people, events, and topics waiting to be explored. A multiplicity of details worthy of investigation in the pursuit of greater truths past and present. Burgenland is first and foremost on my mind at this moment. That is bound to change whenever I step across the next border. The languages and cultures may shift, but my focus remains the same. To experience and learn everything possible while on this ever-expanding journey.

While the history I am pursuing is very old, it is all new to me. I have no prior association with the lost lands other than the few months I have spent in them over the past twelve years. And yet I feel a deeply personal connection with these regions. An intuition that makes my curiosity come alive. The only way I can explain this urgent obsession is to say that it feels like the first time you fall in love. It is unlike anything you have ever experienced before or ever will again. You cannot imagine what it was like before falling in love, and you cannot imagine what it would be like to fall out of that love. You are smitten. Only later do you realize that the object of affection is something you cannot live without. This is followed by the perpetual fear that one day you could lose it all. And that day you will lose it all.

Golden path – Birch trees at a park in Burgenland

Visiting Rights – A Canvas For Curiosity
The lost lands are a vast canvas where my curiosity is set free. While maps make the lost lands look finite, in the mental makeup of those who long to have them back, they go on forever. Officially, they are all the lands Hungary lost due to the Treaties of Trianon and St. Germain-en-Laye. Another, way of defining them is that they are all the lands surrounding the borders of present-day Hungary, and then some. In certain places those lands expand, such as from the Crisana to Transylvania in Romania or from the Danube in southern Slovakia to the Polish border. In the Burgenland, they are a narrow strip of land stretching from the edge of Bratislava all the way down to the Croatian border. Not unlike a defile that empires, nations, and peoples have fallen into. They have spent over a century trying to pull themselves back out of that defile. Try as they might, the force of geopolitical gravity pulls them back down.

Everyone has their limit, but the lost lands do not. Their spiritual existence is much larger and stronger than their physical one. Imagine living in a country that is besieged on all sides by its own past. They get to see their ex being repeatedly ravished by someone else. The European Union has given them visiting rights, but even that has prolonged the suffering. The relationship between past and present never made a clean break. Rather than a fresh start, there is a festering wound. One that no amount of fury, resolve or romanticism will ever cure. Time does not heal all wounds. In the lost lands it has hardened them, except in a couple of unique cases. The most noticeable of these is the Burgenland.

On the border – Map showing the location of Burgenland

The Happy Face – Well Above Average
Burgenland is the closest thing to a happy face that anyone could put on Trianon. All the boxes have been checked by Austria. Minority rights, check. Prosperity, check.  Assimilation and allowance for differences, check. If the ethnic minorities they inherited cannot be Austrians, at least they will be good Europeans. The situation is as good as it will get for ethnic Hungarians and Croatians. The Austrian government implicitly asks nothing more than that they abide by the law, work hard, and enjoy the benefits that the creation of wealth bequeaths to all the citizens of Austria. Why make trouble, when there is none. Go about your business and everything will work out for the best. I doubt many ethnic Hungarians or Croatians in the Burgenland care to dredge up the ghosts of Trianon. Where would they go with historical grievances except back across the Hungarian border. That is a chance few would care to take. This is the paradox of being part of the ethnic minority abandoned by force of a treaty. The country which adopted them was better than the one they were meant to call their own. .

The Austrians made a beautiful world out of the Burgenland. It is also different in many respects from the rest of the country. Burgenland comes with wine rather than beer, castles and palaces that look like they were built for tourists rather than wars, Hungarians and Croatians who speak fluent German and do not mind doing so. Burgenland ranks last in GDP per person in Austria, and the standard of living is well above average. The mountains are low, the forests are tame, the ground fertile. This is a part of Austria that defies its popular image. One where foreigners are few, and the wanderer is left to their own devices. A lost land that no one is looking to recover. These paradoxes and contradictions are sources of exhilaration that inform my latest obsession. I long to make a separate peace with the Burgenland.

The unknown Austria – Water well and thatched structure in Burgenland (Credit: Corradox)

The Outlier – A Breed Apart
I never cared for Austria before the Burgenland. It was a nation that adhered to the straight and narrow. Stiff, stodgy, and snobbish. The finer things in life honed to their sharpest image and then ground down to extreme dullness. Burgenland is a breed apart. Something about it does not feel completely Austrian to me. I suspect it has something to do with the lost lands. A legacy it wears so lightly that it barely ever gets noticed. It is that legacy which is luring me onward to a place called Parndorf.

Click here for: Kuruzzenschanze – Tracing A Path To Parndorf (The Lost Lands #43)

The Places In Between – Journey To Kittsee (The Lost Lands #41)

Twenty years ago on a single trip I managed to visit Havre, Harlem, Inverness, Kremlin, and Zurich all on the same day. These visits occurred over a four-hour period. I did not even need a passport because I was in Montana. As the story goes, when the American railroad baron James J. Hill was trying to decide the names for towns that would spring up on his Great Northern Railway he came up with a novel idea. Hill would spin a globe and whatever place his finger landed upon would be a town name along the Great Northern. This name game was a sales pitch. Exotic place names would help immigrants to settle one of the remotest regions in the United States. The Great Northern Railway made Hill’s vision a reality. The exotic place names still mark tiny towns on US Highway 2 across the aptly named Hi-Line.

I had Hill’s innovative approach to creating place names in mind as I started scouring the map of Burgenland (Austria’s easternmost province) for places to visit. These would be part of my itinerary for the lost lands beyond Hungary’s borders. Picking out random spots on the map would help me resist the urge to follow in my own footsteps from an earlier trip to Burgenland. As much as I enjoyed that trip, new discoveries must be made. I want to find places that give me a sense of the region’s multi-ethnic character both past and present. 

Hidden away – Road sign for Kittsee (Credit: Izmaelt)

Hungarian Influences – Searching For Signs
My previous visit to Burgenland left me baffled. I found it hard to believe the region had been part of Hungary only a century ago. Burgenland was so thoroughly Austrian that anyone without knowledge of its pre-1920 history would have believed it had always been that way. There were just a few Hungarian reminders to jog the memory. One was the bilingual road signs with the city, town, or village’s name listed in German on top and below that in Hungarian. I later discovered that there are also some signs that have the Croatian names of towns and villages. What a thrill it would be to find a few of those. Speaking of road signs, they also announced Hungary’s presence by pointing the way out of Burgenland to cities such as Sopron and Szombathely across the border. When Austrians see these signs, low prices begin dancing in their head. A drive across the border for bargain shopping in Hungary happens frequently. Austrians have been known to refer to Szombathely as the discount store.

Another reminder of the Hungarian historical legacy is what I call the Esterhazy effect. The family name needs no introduction for Hungarians. The Esterhazy’s were one of the country’s most famous aristocratic families. They managed to stay on good terms with the Habsburgs by siding with them over the centuries. Sometimes this meant going against the broader interests of the Hungarian people. Staying close to the Habsburgs helped the Esterhazy’s acquire massive land holdings. With their wealth they built castles and palaces, many of which can still be visited today. A couple of the Esterhazy’s most famous holdings are in Burgenland. The previously mentioned Forchtenstein Castle, and the delightful crème colored Esterhazy Palace in the center of Eisenstadt (Kismarton). These are among the most obvious signs of Hungarian historical influences. Finding others requires more detective work.

Destination known – Finding Kittsee

Action Packed – An Inspired Choice
Searching a map of Burgenland for a place to start my journey began by looking beyond Deutsch Jahrndorf, which was the last place I listed on my lost lands itinerary. I had traveled several of the nearby roads on previous trips to Bratislava and the Roman ruins at Carnuntum in Lower Austria. I noticed one road in particular – Number 50 – that had eluded me on those earlier journeys. This road went through the town of Kittsee. I have virtually no knowledge of the German language, but Kittsee did not sound very Teutonic to me. Its Hungarian name, Kopcany. did sound intriguing. That was enough to pique my interest. My hopes were not high for Kittsee, but I had to start somewhere. The choice proved to be an inspired one. For a small town, it had much more going on historically than I could ever have imagined.

Kittsee had been the marshalling ground for a crusader army, the site of a royal wedding, a treaty signing, the meeting place for one of Hungary’s greatest military heroes and a visit from a future Holy Roman Emperor. Kittsee had also been in the path of Ottoman Turkish forces on their way to besieging Vienna. It is common historical knowledge that the Ottoman Turks failed twice to conquer Vienna in 1529 and 1683. Along the way they destroyed Kittsee both times. The Esterhazy’s ended up gaining title to the town. Later, the Batthyánys – another of Hungary’s most exalted aristocratic families – took ownership of Kittsee. Hungarian connections extended into the early days of Burgenland. In the province’s first year as part of Austria, a Hungarian physician and member of the Batthyány family founded its first hospital which still serves today as a medical center in the area. For a town of 3,100, Kittsee packs a historical punch far beyond its size. 

A rich history – Rendering of Kittsee Castle in 1680 (Credit: M Greischer)

Going Deep – Needle & Vein
Kittsee serves as a reminder that the present often disguises the depth of a place’s past. Just because Kittsee gets bypassed by travelers rushing between Bratislava and Vienna, does not mean it lacks interest. Kittsee is an example of Burgenland’s multi-layered history. Do a little bit of digging in a small town or village and the surprises will start cropping up. All of us would do well to remember that there are hundreds of Kittsees in East-Central Europe, The cumulative weight of all that has happened in them serves as a counterweight to the more popular places which dominate historical narratives. We should never forget that there are more needles than haystacks in history. Kitssee is one needle worth sticking in a vein to see what can be drawn out. I will take the Kittsees of Burgenland any day over all the cities such as Vienna that monopolize the past. A town like Kittsee is only anonymous to those who have yet to discover it. 

Click here for: I Could Do This Forever – Burgenland: Canvas For Curiosity (The Lost Lands #42)