Preparation

My father loves history. He participated in history. He was born in the same house  on the same land in the same town as was his father and his grandfather, but each generation it was in another country, from the Hapsburg Empire, to Hungary to Yugoslavia. His city of birth was called Ulmenau by the DonauSwabians, Szilberech by the Hungarians, and Backi Brestovac by the Serbians. It was an devoid of inhabitants after the Turks were repulsed at the end of the seventeenth century, and the Hapsburgs invited people to settle the land along the Danube; including Serbs and Germans and French and whoever wanted to be a free man. The Donauswabians were attracted to the state of being free as opposed to serfs, and the possibility of owning their own land was particularly compelling. The Donauswabians did not come from a particular place, instead they originated from all over German speaking territories.  They became Donauswabians when they settled along the Danube in Hungary, Romania and what is now Serbia. My grandmother’s family originated in Lothringen and were part of the original settlers in the area, whereas my grandfather’s family came from Silesia in southern Poland at a later date. They were hemp makers and did not originally own land, but were able to acquire it through marriage. Land was rarely for sale, but was handed down through the generations. Being free was a matter of pride for the Donauswabians; the Hungarians maintained a feudal system with serfs and lords and the Serbians had a similar system of indentured service.

Our journey will bring us to Belgrade, where my father served in the Serbian cavalry and attended the university to study law. We will travel to his home in the town he was born in, to the town where he went to high school and the places he visited as a child.  The Danube plays a significant role in his life and that of his family, and we will keep close to the river, crossing it over and over as we start in Austria, through Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and back to Austria. We will start in Munich, where a group of family members settled after wandering through Austria as refugees. The Donauswabians had hoped to return to Ulmenau after the Second World War, to reestablish themselves in their homes and the lives they were accustomed to. My grandmother buried her china and valuables in the ground around her house, expecting to dig up everything and start over. After finishing his Economics degree at the University of Graz in Austria, my father worked for years in an organization devoted to facilitating the return of the Donauswabian community to their homes, until it became clear to him that a homecoming was impossible, and he stopped planning and hoping and decided to start an entirely new life.