It began in the land of Hesse

The Great Swabian Trek during the 18th century consisted of a series of massive waves of settlers from various regions of southwest Germany who travelled down the majestic Danube River into the farflung and devasted reaches of the Kingdom of Hungary after the destructive 150 year occupation by the Turks that had left it a wasteland. This ongoing migration would give birth to the Children of the Danube, part of a larger ethnic group that future ethnologists would later designate as the Danube Swabians.

This site invites you to join that adventure and migration into a virtual wilderness that was undertaken by these courageous men, women and children who boarded flimsy rafts, crowded barges and single masted ships and headed out into the unknown following the course of the Danube River in their quest to find the Promised Land both for themselves and the generations who would follow them.

In maintaining their traditions, language, culture and faith they developed an identity uniquely their own as the Children of the Danube, while also creating an economic miracle in the heavily forested hills and valleys of what would become Swabian Turkey in the Counties of Tolna, Somogy and Baranya.

Their lives, struggles, experiences, history and tragic destiny are the focal point of this site focussing on the extended families of four of these settlers who ventured down the Danube from Hesse. Young Konrad Tefner of Weichersbach, Johann Gottlob Frischkorn and his family from Neuen Gronau, Johann Christoph Bitz, his wife Maria Margaret and their small children from the Odenwald and Adam Fischer, who unlike the others did not provide his home address in Hesse because he probably left illegally. But that’s all part of the larger story. One they shared with all of the other families who experienced the same history and would suffer a similiar fate with them as the Children of the Danube along with the generations who followed them.

Be sure to visit the news section to view news, updates or post a comment. Also, visit the Articles and Genealogy sections for other information that will help provide an historical understanding of the origins of the Children of the Danube in Hungary, their subsequent development and the later destruction of their communities.

 

2 Responses to “ Introducing ”

  1. Angelika Macioszek says:

    Entlich konnte ich die Seite öffnen und in die deutsche Sprache übersetzen lassen. Ich stöber schon einige Tage in all den Geschichten. Es ist so spannend und aufschlußreich, dass es mich schon eine lange Zeit fesselt hält. Wie schön das dieses geballte und gesammelte Wissen über unsere Vorfahren in dieser Form für alle Interessenten zur Verfügung steht. Danke!!

    Gruß Angelika

  2. Michael Weissmann says:

    Dear Ladies, Dear Gentlemen!

    By looking for “Danube Swabian in the USA”, using the Internet, I found your e-mail address.
    Maybe I have contacted you already before, which I do not know, because I have lost everything.

    My Name is Michael Weissmann (Weisman / Weismann / Weiszman / Weiszmann), e-mail “WeissmannDonau@gmx.de”.

    My paternal grandparents are Anton Nikolaus Weissmann and Magdalena Hammang (If I remember well today).

    My great uncle was Stefan Weissmann, his wife, my great aunt, was Barbara Weissmann, née (maiden name) Muschong.

    Many of my ancestors, so my father Nikolaus Anton and my Uncle Michael, were born in Saint Hubert – Banat – Jugoslavia.

    The age of my ancestors — when they had to leave their village — typically was 15 to 20 years, so all of them (so far as I had known them) died meanwhile.

    As it is in life, I lost the chance to get more information about my ancestors, and I lost all information I had (it’s a longer story).

    Now it is time (it’s high time) to find somebody somewhere, who has still some information about Saint Hubert – Banat – Jugoslavia, stories about the life there, photos, postcards, books, music, words in the dialect of Saint Hubert (Mundart-Spezialitäten von St. Hubert. For example “was “sladoled” typically used there, what was it in St. Hubert and where was it possible to buy), information about clubs (Vereine), shops, companies which were located in Saint Hubert before everything went down and may be information about my ancestors and / or their relatives, otherwise everything is lost forever.

    So I am looking for somebody somewhere, who has some information as above mentioned, and I am looking for “Heimatbuch der Banater Schwesterngemeinden St. Hubert, Charleville, Soltur”, may be as a PDF. So, if there is somebody who has information and is seriously interested in any contact, I will give him my full snail-mail address, phone, fax etc. by e-mail as soon he has sent me a message to “WeissmannDonau@gmx.de”.

    Best regards

    Michael Weissmann

Trackbacks & Pingbacks:

Leave a Comment