Documentation exists from as early as 1015 that the area where the village now stands was given as a gift by King Stephen to the Abbey of Pécs/Pécsvarad. In the twelfth century the lands were in the possession of the abbey of Báta as part of the endowment of Ladislaus the king at that time. In 1308 the family of Bodo de Györgi were owners of the area. During this period extensive renovations were undertaken of the second church building over which a quarrel broke out that was finally settled by the Vatican. After the flight of the Turks from the region in the face of the advancing Imperial armies of the Habsburgs, the renowned fierce anti-Protestant Habsburg counsellor Archbishop von Kollonics assumed ownership of the devastated estates from 1694-1706, followed by Baron von Jany who became landlord of Batáapáti that in the Middle Ages also went by the name of Magyarki.
At the turn of the century, Count Zinzendorf who had purchased the Domain of Högyesz included Batáapáti in his landholdings. He in turn sold his extensive estates to the great Claudius Florimundus von Mercy the governor the Banat in 1722. The Conscription Lists of 1715-1720 do not include the village as one of the inhabited areas on his Domain. There is the possibility that Count Zinzendorf had begun to re-settle the undeveloped holdings, but only with Count von Mercy would a planned settlement take place. It is certain that German Lutherans and Reformed settlers arrived in large numbers as early as 1724. They were followed by the arrival of a much larger group in 1736. The early records both civic and church are silent about the origin and arrival of the original German colonists. The dialect and costume worn in the village differ from that of Gyönk. The dialect closely resembles that of Hidas according to Dr. Johann Weidlein. The settlers came from a wide area of southwest Germany. Some of them were from Alsace and Lorraine. There are many names of French origin or derivation. But the later settlers after 1730 were all Hessians.
The settler contract on the whole is written with tone of benevolence on the part of County von Mercy. For instance, all Robot (free labour) is eliminated for an annual payment of 150 Florins. Shortly after settling in Batáapáti the settlers supported the establishment of a school. The teacher was referred to as the Ludimagister. He taught the children and also functioned as the community notary. Most of them were simple men with no academic preparation and yet their sacrificial service served the early German Lutheran settlements and congregations well. The first church records begin in 1736. In that year Konrad Hoppmann or Hoffmann was called from Batáapáti to serve in Keszöhidegkút. He later taught in Harta (1741) and then in Györköny (1750). His successor in Batáapáti was Johann Dietz, followed by Dominic Haass who later left for Gyönk in 1746 to teach there. He had previously taught in Kötcse in Somogy County. He served in Gyönk faithfully for fifteen years, much loved and respected by the pupils and people of the village and when he left to serve in Harta he did so with a heavy heart. He married Katharina Barabara Hess in Kötcse on 27.11.1742. There is a strong possibility that he had first served in Mucsfa following his arrival in Hungary from the Pfalz.
His immediate successor in Batáapáti is unknown. In 1769 the third Count von Mercy appointed a new teacher to the position in the village and at the request of the villagers his appointee had to be a Lutheran and not Reformed. There are statistics for the year 1771 compiled by order of the Empress Maria Theresia with regard to the state of the school system in Hungary. From this report we learn that in 1771 Johann Adam Krauss served as the teacher in Batáapáti supported by the community, including in his keep were a house and land. There were some one hundred school children that attended “the winter school”. During the time he served as teacher there were one hundred and thirty-nine families in the settlement according to the Urbarial Contract of 1767.
Despite many difficulties at the very outset, Lutheran church life managed to develop and through the benevolent policies and support of the Counts von Mercys the survival of the congregation was never put into doubt during the troubling times ahead. It was often because of their own energetic opposition against any hindrances the County attempted to impose upon them in practicing their faith or convert them to Catholicism that often led to a withdrawal of the measures that had been taken against them. The pastors of the Mother Church in Kismányok were able to serve the congregation with little molestation. But the fate of all of the Lutheran congregations in Tolna County was precarious at best after 1773 when the last of the von Mercys sold the family estates to Count Apponyi a staunch defender of the Roman Catholic Church and an “avenging whip of the heretics” as he was proud to assert of himself. But all of his efforts eventually failed and Toleration under Joseph II was just around the corner in 1781.
Working out the terms of the Edict took some time for the individual Lutheran congregations. Churches were built and many of the filial congregations became self- sustaining Mother Churches. Batáapáti took both steps in 1783 and young, energetic Josef von Bene became the first pastor and served for five years, leaving to serve the congregation in Ráckozár in Baranya County. For a contemporary reader it might seem surprising that he was twenty years old at the time of his ordination. He married Anna Maria Barany de Szenice at Kistormás 08.09.1788. She was the daughter of Gabriel de Szenice and grand-daughter of the esteemed George Barany the founder of the Church District. He had studied at Leutschau, Käsemark and Pressburg because foreign study was forbidden for Protestants in Hungary.
During the latter part of the eighteenth century there was a large-scale movement of families from Batáapáti to Somogy County that included some of the following: Sierer, Becker, Bernhardt, Frey, Steger, Schissler, Kretschmann, Schäfer, Götz, Kähler, Haass, Kiefer, Steller and Tilk.
The deportations ordered at Potsdam by the victorious allies in 1945 were carried out in Batáapáti on May 19, 1946. At the time the village had a population of 1,200 persons. On the 17th of May the people were informed of their deportation to take place on Sunday the 19th of May. A list of the names of the deportees was posted on the doors of the local Wirtshaus. The deportees were taken by wagon to the railway station in Morágy and were shipped off into the unknown in cattle cars.
Only ninety-seven persons were left behind and as a result there was no longer the possibility of having a resident pastor and as a result the remnant congregation became a filial of nearby Alsónana that had also suffered major losses of its own.
No Responses to “ Bataapati in the Tolna ”