The municipality Rudolfsgnad, named after Crown Prince Rudolf of Habsburg (1858 - 1889) was founded in 1866). The founding of the new Community was celebrated with a field fair in the marsh situated between the rivers Danube and Theiss, on Easter Monday of 1866; it counted 1902 souls. After the first construction years Rudolfsgnad was hard hit by severe Floods in 1867, 1876, 1895 and 1907. Despite these strokes of fate a flourishing municipality developed from the daring settlement.
The words of a
poet "Out of a desert grew a flowering Eden ; out of the swamps arose a
new world" apply to Rudolfsgnad.
The fight of the Rudolfsgnaders against the forces of
nature and the adverse legal relations were described by the poet Adam
Mueller-Gutenbrunn in his novel "Bells of the Homeland" (Glocken der
Heimat).
The leaders of the
Rudolfsgnad settlers were the brothers Heinrich and Josef Kirchner as well as
the priest Ferdinand Loeschardt.
The town council
of Rudolfsgnad consisted in the first years of thefollowing members: Heinrich
Kirchner (executive committee), Josef Scheurich, Andreas Tissje, Ignaz Renaz,
Johann Wacker, Wendl Lung, Michael Dornstauder, Josef Bleess, Anton Brenner,
Johann Harle, Josef Unhold and Michael Glaser.
The first priest
of the parish, which belonged to the Csanad diocese, was Ferdinand Loeschardt,
the first teachers were Josef Kirchner and Johann Schummer.
The municipality
initially built a school appropriate for its needs, which was also used as the
house of worship, then a parsonage and the church, built in the new-gothic
style, could already be inaugurated on November 1st 1877.
The development of the population shows the following number of inhabitants:
|
1866 |
1902 Inhabitants |
|
1891 |
2971 Inhabitants |
|
1911 |
3419 Inhabitants |
|
1921 |
2967 Inhabitants |
|
1931 |
3069 Inhabitants |
|
1941 |
2891 Inhabitants |
The boundary of the municipality
Rudolfsgnad comprised 9,042 acres in addition came property of altogether 3,310
acres on neighbouring districts, so that together with the long leased fields
the Rudolfsgnad farmers worked about 5,850 hectares (14,455 acres).
On October 13,
1944 the church tower of the municipality was destroyed by detonation. The
priest Rudolf Schummer, who just happened to be on his way to the parsonage,
was killed by falling debris. This event lead to the destruction of the
municipality.
Rudolfsgnad became
in the years 1945-1948 a feared and cruel extermination camp, in which
thousands of Danube-Swabians met with death - thereby Rudolfsgnad became a
symbol of the destruction of the Danube-Swabian homeland.
Through the events
of the Second World War the Rudolfsgnaders were scattered into the four corners
of the world, yet family- and neighbourly bonds were preserved. Therefore on
July 16 and 17, 1966 the community of Rudolfsgnad could celebrate the hundred
year anniversary of the founding of the community in the sister municipality of
Leutenbach/Rems Murr-County, Germany. The sponsorship of the Danube-Swabian
community Rudolfsgnad was taken over by the municipality Leutenbach, on
suggestion of local council Josef Harle, a Rudolfsgnader, by local council
resolution on November 18th, 1955.
As a community bound by fate, the
Rudolfsgnaders feel obligated to maintain the cultural heritage of the
Danube-Swabians. With the donation of a model of the former municipality
Rudolfsgnad, which is displayed in the house of the Danube-Swabians in
Sindelfingen, Germany, a contribution to this cause is being made.
Rudolfsgnad 1866-1944 and after
1. Where
do the settlers come from in 1866?
2. Where do the Rudolfsgnaders go after October 1944?
3. Outlook - the future of the Rudolfsgnad community
1. Where do the settlers come
from in 1866?
The village community Rudolfsgnad originates
from a new settlement on the Perlaser marsh in the German-Banat border-government.
Permission ensued on December the 8th 1865 through emperor Franz-Josef I. under
condition that the border municipality might assume the name Rudolfsgnad. On
Easter Monday, the 2nd of April 1866, the origin of the village community is being
celebrated with a field fair. The village develops approximately 5 kilometers
north of where the Theiss River feeds into the Danube River - at the eastern
shore of the Theiss - approximately 50 kilometers north of Belgrade,
Yugoslavia. Rudolfsgnad counts 1902 souls at its founding.
A treatise in 1891 describes the first 25
years of the community. To this treatise is also attached a list of the
Rudolfsgnaders of the year 1891. This recording contains, besides family and
first name, also family status, year of birth, place of birth and notes
regarding the occupation of the listed persons. The directory is arranged
according to house numbers. Rudolfsgnad counts 2,971 inhabitants in the year
1891.
The information of this list was obtained by questioning the inhabitants - thus not by an analysis of the church books. The directory is - despite some errors e.g. in the specification of the birth years - a valuable contribution to the history and research of origin of the Rudolfsgnaders.
An evaluation gives the following
places of origin (or places of birth respectively):
|
Etschka |
519 |
Elemir |
23 |
Betsche |
7 |
|
Sigmundfeld |
188 |
St. Georgen |
21 |
Heufeld |
7 |
|
Lasarfeld |
90 |
Malnitzdorf |
20 |
Lukasdorf |
7 |
|
Klek |
75 |
Groß-Gaj |
18 |
Nakodorf |
6 |
|
Ernsthausen |
73 |
Titel |
17 |
St. Hubert |
6 |
|
Sartscha |
48 |
Stefansfeld |
15 |
Hatzfeld |
6 |
|
Setschan |
36 |
Klein-Torak |
12 |
Deutsch-Zerne |
6 |
|
Groß-Betschkerek |
31 |
Neudorf |
9 |
Jankahid |
6 |
|
Perlas |
28 |
Dolatz |
9 |
Slankamen |
5 |
|
Tschestereg |
23 |
Tschawosch |
9 |
other towns |
176 |
The events from 1891 to 1944 and further
until 1966, are continued to be described in a chronicle by Dr. Anton Lehmann.
The village community Rudolfsgnad is shaped by the administrative and political
adversities of the founding period and the time thereafter, as well as by the
inundations in the years 1867 - 1876 - 1895 - 1907.
The successful
reconstruction in each case after the inundations and the following economic
success gives the Rudolfsgnaders a solid and self-confident nature. They call
themselves with pride the "Riedwoelfe") "Marshwolves".
The village
community ended on October 3rd 1944, when a refugee wagon train set in motion
at 9 AM, over the Theiss Bridge to leave the homeland forever. Even if some
turned back - it was not a return to a village community - fate took its turn.
2. Where did the Rudolfsgnaders
go after October 1944?
Escape,
concentration camp or deportation to Russia. Rudolfsgnad still had 3,054
inhabitants in October 1944 (80 men, as soldiers were already killed in
action). Rudolfsgnaders in military service: 716 persons; fleeing or already outside
of Yugoslavia: 1,587 persons; civilians who remained in Yugoslavia and were,
starting in October 1944, at the mercy of the Tito regime (of which 126 died,
or were put to death): 751 persons.
The fate of those
who remained in Rudolfsgnad
The fall of the village is symbolized by the detonation of the church
tower by German troops. On October 13th the priest Rudolf Schummer is so
severely wounded by debris, that he succumbs on the same day to his injury. On
the same day the Bridge over the Theiss River was blown up.
25 Rudolfsgnad
men were so badly abused by Tito partisans during the night of October 15 to
16, 1944, that seven did not survive - four of the dead were hanged from trees
in front of the town hall, to serve as "deterrence". The remaining
eighteen abused were brought to Gross-Betschkereck and some did not survive the
ongoing violations.
On April
15/16, 1945 began the internment of the remaining inhabitants of Rudolfsgnad.
In the
period of April until October 1945 a concentration camp began to develop in
Rudolfsgnad and existed until March 1948.
About 33,000
Germans passed through this concentration camp, in which periodically more than
20,000 humans were imprisoned. 9,503 persons did not survive the martyrdom,
they lie buried in the mass graves of Rudolfsgnad in the Teletschka (fields
south of the town).
The escape
On October 3rd
1944 a wagon train set in motion across the Theiss bridge to leave the homeland
forever. 1,566 Rudolfsgnaders fled across Hungary. Where did they go?
According to the records in the chronicle of 1966,
1,566 persons lived:
700 families in Germany, 140 families in Upper Austria, 20
families in Lower Austria, further 60 families lived in the USA and Canada, 20
families in France, as well as several families in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina
and England.
3. Origin of the hometown
community
View -
future of the Rudolfsgnader community, sponsorship, historical archive,
homepage.
With the
escape and expulsion from the village of Rudolfsgnad, the hometown community
Rudolfsgnad developed - a community of the former inhabitants as well as their
descendants. It is a matter of over 900 families. The hometown community
Rudolfsgnad is a member of the regional organization of Danube-Swabians in Baden-Wuerttemberg,
Germany, as well as in the Federal association of the Danube-Swabian homeland
Association in Germany. Close bonds and contacts were fostered and maintained
through 14 large international reunions and regional meetings, which today
still foster relationships, friendship- and neighborhood.
The assumption
(transfer) of sponsorship for Rudolfsgnad by the municipality Leutenbach, near
Stuttgart, Germany, on November 18, 1955, created a "crystallization
point" for the registration, preservation and processing of facts and data
pertaining to Rudolfsgnad. The creation of a "Danube-Swabian
Homeroom" in exemplary co-operation with the historical society of
Leutenbach in the local homeland museum and the start of the construction of a
historical archive in co-operation with this association and the local
administration, led by mayor Horst Gebhard, are building blocks for the listing
of the historical and personal data and facts regarding the Rudolfsgnaders.
Documents are collected and edited and are made available. For this reason this
"homepage" - a generally accessible modern source of information via
the "Internet" - has been created.
Richard Harle
Chairperson (president) of the homeland community
Rudolfsgnad