Bukovina Germans Trapped by Shifting Borders
Austrian Germans Cling to Their Culture As Boundaries Change
Mar 3, 2009
The story of the Bukovina Germans takes place in turbulent times with a historical backdrop of shifting power and changing boundaries.
Bukovina is just east of the Carpathian Mountains in southeastern Europe. This slice of geography was often a pawn in power games and under the domination of several countries before 1775.
Under the 1775 Treaty of Constantinople, Bukovina was ceded to Austria by the Ottoman Empire.
The Peopling of Bukovina
Austria’s Hapsburg emperor began recruiting experienced farmers, craftsmen, miners, glass workers and foresters to settle in Bukovina. Joseph II published the Patent of Settlement in 1782, promising eligible immigrants free transportation from Vienna to their new homes, a house with a garden, fields, draft animals, no taxes for 10 years and a military service exemption for the oldest son.
Several thousand Germans migrated from southwest Germany (Baden, Wurttemberg, the Palatinate), Bohemia and the Zips mountain region of what became Slovakia.
The first Germans arrived in Bukovina in 1787, the year after Bukovina became a district in the province of Galicia. Some had waited three years in Lemberg (Lviv) for assignment to a village.
Settlement Conditions Change
In 1790, the colonization program offering special privileges was rescinded, but Germans continued to arrive only to find the come-on promises didn’t exist. Most were from areas that had suffered from wars, famine and land shortages. They had little choice but to remain.
The Germans of the Bukovina villages retained the customs, language and dialects of their ancestral home, did not assimilate with other groups and kept their culture intact.
Eventually, most villages were able to build their own schools and churches.
Freedom of Religion
The 1781 Patent of Toleration guaranteed freedom of religion in Austria. About a third of the Bukovina Germans were Protestant—predominately Lutheran—and two-thirds Roman Catholic. (A tip for genealogists: Between 1791 and 1861, Milleschoutz served as the official seat of the Lutheran parish of Bukovina; beginning in 1861, Radautz was the official parish headquarters.)
In 1848-49 the new Austrian constitution made Bukovina an autonomous crown land and duchy. Next, the Compromise of 1867 resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a dual monarchy under the Hapsburgs, with the Austrian and Hungarian governments operating separately.
The Worst is Still Ahead
Finally, following World War I, all of Bukovina was given to Romania under terms of the Treaty of St. Germain, which broke up the empire. The worst was yet to come.
A companion article discusses the Bukovina German community facing communism.
SOURCE:
Rose, Mary Lee, “The Bukovina Germans in Lewis County, Washington,” Seattle Genealogical Society Bulletin (Vol. 44, No.4, 1995).
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