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THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 296 April 30, 2019, © 2019 by The Burgenland Bunch All rights reserved. Permission to copy excerpts granted if credit is provided. Editor: Thomas Steichen (email: tj.steichen@comcast.net) BB Home Page: the-burgenland-bunch.org BB Newsletter Archives: BB Newsletter BB Facebook Page: TheBurgenlandBunchOFFICIAL Our 23rd year. The Burgenland Bunch Newsletter is issued monthly online. The BB was founded in 1997 by Gerald Berghold, who died in August 2008. |
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| Current Status Of The BB: * Members: 2755 * Surname Entries: 8623 * Query Board Entries: 5770 * Staff Members: 15 |
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1) THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen)  This
month's collection of bits and pieces in Article 1, starts us off with a meeting (in St.
Louis), a book request (concerning Veszprém Co, Hungary), a couple of lists (house number translations),
two pieces about the BB FS Films page (a correction and an enhancement), a curious bit (on Hungarian given
names) and a twist revisited (on surnames), plus our standard bits and pieces.Article 2 presents a 1986-era Hungarian take on Hungarians in Burgenland. It is about the demise of Hungarian ethnicity in Burgenland and provides some new thoughts on why this occurred. Article 3 is about Gustav Rehberger, who was an Artist and Riedlingsdorf Native Son. The article tells the story of an emigrant Burgenländer whose life in the United States was a notable success, providing both a taste of his career here while documenting his roots in Burgenland and his move to the United States. Article 4 arose out of helping researcher Jack Hockett document the roots of a non-Burgenländer who married a Burgenländer. However, the Burgenländer had roots in Magyar-Büks, which has become known as The Lost Village... and why it is called that is an interesting story. I hope you enjoy it! The remaining articles are our standard sections: Historical Newsletter Articles (this month providing the origins of two BB features), and the Ethnic Events and Emigrant Obituaries sections.  St. Louis Area  "Gathering
of Burgenländer and Descendants": Theresa McWilliams, the BB's St. Louis Research Editor, has notified us
that the next St. Louis Burgenländer Gathering has been scheduled for:Sunday, May 19, 2019, from 1 - 5 pm in its usual place: the Community Center Cafeteria, Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church, at 10235 Ashbrook Dr, St. Louis, MO. As always, she says: If you are in the area, please join us!  Looking
For A Book: Joseph I Bergmann of Allentown, PA, is searching for a copy of the (out of print, out of stock) book, "The
German Immigrants from Veszprém County, Hungary," written by Ernest Chrisbacher, and published in 2005 (LCCN:
2005930160). The full title of the book is "The German Immigrants from Veszprém County, Hungary: A Guide to Finding your
German Ancestors from Veszprém County, Hungary, Their History, Culture and Origins."Joseph says, "The book has
family-related information, as my father was born in the village of Bakonyjako, Veszprém County, Hungary. Please send me a
message if the book or an ebook (PDF, ePub, and Kindle) is available for purchase." - Halbturn was a Catholic recording location
during the full "FS Microfilm Era (1827-1895)" and was one prior to that era also, with records starting in 1724.
Thus "Halbturn [1724]" appears in its RC Parish column, indicating that Catholic records for Halbturn were
recorded in Halbturn continuously since 1724.
Reading further, it turns out that no more than two names from the first name register may be given to a child and that "based
on the Hungarian name traditions," only male-approved names may be given to boys and only female-approved names may be
given to girls. If a fantasy name has been approved for one of the sexes, it will not be approved for the other sex.
In all cases, the newly-requested name must be registered according to the rules of today's Hungarian spelling in accordance
with the rules of today's spoken pronunciation (e.g., Maya instead of Maja; Gerald instead of
Dzserald, Claudia instead of Klaudia), and only the 44 letters of the Hungarian alphabet can be used in
the name. “One inconsistency is that Antal’s mother is clearly named Maria Schvarz in the marriage record but Marinha Tehete in the birth record (the writing is difficult here, but I think I properly captured the spelling of her name). I did not explore to resolve this issue, but it may be that Antal’s father remarried before Antal’s marriage.” Later I wrote: “I found another transcription of the mother’s name on Antal’s birth record: Marinka Fekete (which seems more probable than my reading).” And then the bell of experience and hard-earned wisdom tolled, so I followed that up with a final message: “I think I now understand the discrepancy on Antal’s mother’s name (the new transcription helped): ’Fekete‘ in
Hungarian means ‘Black’ in English... If we translate to German, we get ‘Schwarz’ ...less the phonetic swap of
w and v, that gives us the ‘Schvarz’ found in the marriage record! These were church records, so I presume the "scribe" involved was a parish priest... but apparently a patriotic
Hungarian priest! |
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2) HUNGARIANS IN BURGENLAND, 1986 (by Dr. Anne Atzél) (An article originally published in the Hungarian Quarterly, January 1986, titled "Burgenland" and based on the study "Burgenland" by Dr. Laszlo Juhász, Munich, Germany, a then-recognized expert on the history and the political problems of the Burgenland province.) [Editor: The following is a 33-year-old article that I think gives another interesting take on the demise of Hungarian ethnicity in Burgenland. Despite it being originally published first (in 1986), I see it as a "follow-up" to the article, The Hungarians of Burgenland (Őrvidék), that I reprinted in Newsletter #293 (that text was first published in 1998). Much of the Atzél article repeats information that we have discussed many times before. However, there remain a few new, interesting takes... which I have bolded in Dr. Atzél's text. Give it a read; I think you'll find it worth your time.]  Before the arrival of the Magyars into the Carpathian Basin at the end of the ninth century A.D., this western-most corner of the pre-World War I Hungarian Kingdom was known as the frontier of Pannónia. After the arrival of the Magyars, this strip of land, bordering on the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations, was settled by the tribe of Koppány. During the first two centuries of the Arpad dynasty, this frontier land was fortified by a long line of forts and castles for the defense of Hungary from the West. During the invasion of the Turks in the 16th century, the same Hungarian fortifications saved Austria from devastation. Today, barbed-wire fence cuts across this ancient Hungarian land, guarded by the machine gun towers of the Soviet-dominated communist regime of Hungary. West of this line stretches what is known today as Burgenland. The last free chunk of historic Hungary, four-thousand square kilometers, was granted to Austria after World War I. Previously, this piece of land did not have a name; it was a part of western Hungary. It included three counties: Moson, Sopron, and Vas. As a new Austrian province, it derived its name from burg, meaning fort, which word occurs in the German names of three towns located on this strip of land: Wieselburg, Ödenburg, and Eisenburg. The Hungarians (Magyars) still inhabiting this land, though in a minority status, were settled there during the 11th century, when the forts were built. They were from the tribe of the Székelys, who used to be professional frontier guards and were settled into the two opposite corners of Hungary; the eastern-most tip of Transylvania, and the westernmost tip of Transdanubia, or western Hungary. Dr. Sándor Torok deals with this question in great detail in his book, "Settlement History of the Carpathian Basin." He points out that most of the geographical names of today’s Burgenland are of Székely origin and correspond with names found in the eastern-most part of Transylvania, known as Székely-land. Even the Hungarian dialect spoken today in Burgenland corresponds in many aspects with the ancient dialect found among the Csangos, living in the Rumanian province of Moldova, which happened to be the easternmost frontier of the Hungarian Kingdom in the 12th century.  The German element began to move into this strip of land after the 13th century as carpenters, blacksmiths, cartwrights, bootmakers, tailors, etc. They were brought in by the Hungarian noblemen who commanded the forts and were settled inside the gates of the outer walls of the fortifications. Their purpose was not the defense of the frontiers, like that of the Székely villagers who served as manpower during the wars, but to supply the needs of the forts, which became slowly surrounded by small German towns within the protective walls. During the 150-year-long war against the Turks, these German settlers living inside the gates were much more protected than the Székely-Magyar population of the farming- and cattle-raising villages. Therefore, while the number of Magyars (Hungarians) kept decreasing, the German population multiplied. In 1910, twenty-six thousand Hungarians lived in the territory of today’s Burgenland. After the takeover by Austria in 1920, most of the intellectuals moved into what was left of Hungary, and many of the small farmers who did not speak German, and therefore were handicapped under the Austrian rule, emigrated to America. Today the western-most frontier land of the Hungarian language and culture is dwindling rapidly. Though its people were able to survive for centuries through devastating wars by leaning on their constitutional privileges such as Hungarian language schools, Hungarian administration and, most of all, being partakers of the cultural vitality of the rest of the homeland, they felt doomed being cut off and isolated in a German-speaking country. The national consciousness of the Burgenland Hungarians was broken down first during World War II, following the Anschluss (the union of Austria with Hitler’s Germany) when the scorn of the German national socialist authorities descended upon them for not being of the German race. After 1945, they felt ashamed for all the killings, deportations, and mock trials that went on across the frontiers in the motherland during and after the communist takeover of Hungary. As Lajos Szeberenyi, Hungarian teacher of Felsolova [Felsőlövő / Oberschützen?], Burgenland, said: “For long years were they completely sealed off from our Hungarian brethren just across the fence, in spite of the fact that some of the large Hungarian cultural centers were less than half an hour away. What could have made it worthwhile from the viewpoint of the simple people to stay Hungarian; to remain part of a vanishing minority of poor peasant folk talking a language nobody seems to understand anymore?” Another reason for the rapid decrease of the Hungarian population can be found in the fast changing way of life: the small parcels of land were unable to supply the needs of the village population, and the noblemen, turned Austrian aristocrats, became more and more mechanized and the German-speaking administrators of these estates preferred German-speaking workers. Thus, those seeking employment were forced to move into Austrian cities. The young Hungarians, who grew up around the Austrian factories, are ashamed of their native tongue and prefer to talk in German, even among themselves. In mixed marriages, always the majority nationality wins out. Hungarian clergymen are complaining that, even in the Hungarian villages of Burgenland, there is more and more demand for performing the ceremonies of marriage or christening in German instead of the Hungarian language. More and more, Hungarian parents are choosing German names for their children. While just a few miles across the Danube, in Czechoslovakia, the Hungarian minority, persecuted politically and culturally, discriminated against in every phase of their existence, is fighting a silent but fierce battle against forced assimilation. Yet the Hungarian minority in Austria is giving up its national heritage without any outside pressure. It seems the more brutal the persecution, the more force applied by a conquering nation against the conquered to rob them of their cultural heritage and to assimilate them, the more vital the resistance of that minority group is to hold to this heritage. Where there is no force involved, where the minority in question is not suffering any oppression and their rights are not being violated, the assimilation follows the practical demand of economical success. Dr. Juhász concludes his study with a question worth pondering: “At the end of the twentieth century it is not enough to just tolerate historic minorities. Their survival deserves deliberate and consistent support, since every culture, no matter how small, represents a certain color in the overall picture of a country. This certain color, if lost, can never be replaced, and its loss makes the whole less colorful, even drab. In the case of plant life and wildlife, endangered species are protected. Why would a civilized state forget to sustain an endangered nationality group in order to save it from extinction?” Interesting question, indeed. [Editor follow-up: Some of the things that were new information for me were: 1) the commonality of geographic names with Székelyland; 2) the similarity of the local Hungarian dialect with the Csangos of Moldova; 3) the explanation for survival of Germans during the Turk invasions; 4) the mixed-marriage language priority; and 5) assimilation, when not forced, followed the "practical demand of economical success."] |
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3) GUSTAV REHBERGER: ARTIST AND RIEDLINGSDORF NATIVE SON In August 2018, I received a short note offering to the BB the use of some photographs and a painting, all related to Riedlingsdorf, Burgenland:
Later, I confirmed that the adopting and birth mothers were indeed sisters ...by first finding their marriage records and
then their birth records, being daughters of Mátyás Schaden and Ersébet Rehberger (although one marriage record erroneously
lists Rehling as the mother's maiden name!). |
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4) MAGYAR-BÜKS: THE LOST VILLAGE You may have noticed that if a Burgenland village has Klein- (small) as the first part of its name, say Kleinmutschen, there is usually a nearby corresponding village with Groß- (large) as the first part of its name; in this case, Großmutschen. Likewise, an Ober- will have its corresponding Unter- (upper/lower): for example, Oberschützen and Unterschützen. Finally, a Deutsch- something, will have its corresponding Kroatisch- something (German/Croatian), Deutsch Ehrensdorf and Kroatisch Ehrensdorf being an example. Occasionally, there will also be a corresponding third or even fourth "ethnic" option: Ungarisch- and Windisch- (Hungarian/Slovene), thus, for example, Deutsch Minihof and Windisch Minihof (both in Jennersdorf district), Kroatisch Minihof (in Oberpullendorf district), and Ungarisch Minihof (over the line in Vas Megye, Hungary). However, if you do a GoogleMaps search for a village corresponding to Deutsch Bieling, you won't find one. Instead, you will need to find a pre-WW-II map to locate it: Ungarisch Bieling. To the Hungarians, Deutsch Bieling was known as Németh-Büks or Németh-Bükös (Németh simply means German in the Hungarian language). Likewise, the German-designated Ungarisch Bieling was Magyar-Büks or Magyar-Bükös to the Hungarians (both prefaces, Ungarisch- and Magyar-, meaning Hungarian). So, If you look at the old map excerpt on the left below, you will see Magyar-Büks. Had I chosen to present a slightly wider view (the excerpt shown is only about a mile wide and 0.6 mile high), Deutsch Bieling would appear less than a mile off the upper-left corner of this map and Hagensdorf a bit less than half a mile above of its top-center. In fact, Hagensdorf was the Catholic parish for Magyar-Büks, both because of its nearness and the fact that Magyar-Büks was never large enough to support its own parish. 
 The map to the right above is a modern-day GoogleMaps satellite view of the same area, though one where I have overlaid the red lines from the map on the left. As you can see, it is nothing but forest and a few meadow areas now. In the map on the left, the red lines represented the dividing lines between village hotters (the land assigned to a village). If you look closer at the map on the right, you will see that the red lines on the top and on the left are now part of the border dividing Austria from Hungary (the words in white on the map are Österreich and Magyarország, but they mean the same thing). More importantly, it is the placement of that 1921 border that determined the fate of Magyar-Büks! Despite the name, Magyar-Büks was a German village, with closer ties to the villages to the north than to its parent Hungarian municipal village, some three miles to the southeast (then called Nagycsákány, it became Csákánydoroszló after it was merged with Rábadoroszló). Even after the formation of Burgenland and the placement of the new national border along the edge of its hotter, the people of Magyar-Büks continued to go to church and school in Hagensdorf, sharing with its northern neighbors the mill on their branch of the Strembach (Strem Creek) that marked much of that boundary, and keeping the bridge open across it. Magyar-Büks even at its maximum extent, was just a village of 13 houses, an inn and a mill, despite existing since at least the 14th century. An 1870 trade directory indicated that, in addition to the five people who worked in the mill, there was a tailor, three weavers, a landlord and a shepherd. The inhabitants were of Swabian descent, as were those of Deutsch Bieling, Hagensdorf and neighboring Luising. But the other three communities became part of Austria after WW-I while Magyar-Büks remained in Hungary. Regardless, for more than fifty years, only decaying foundations could be found scattered in the underbrush where Magyar-Büks once stood, along with a badly-overgrown cemetery identified only by a single standing stone and a crumbling cross, plus remnants of the water mill. That changed in 2006, when civic organizations from Deutsch Bieling and Csákánydoroszló opened the roads leading to it, cleaned up the cemetery and the village pathways, and placed information signs. So what took place to cause this village to disappear? The simple answer is the end of WW-II and the "ethnic cleansing" that took place along the Austrian-Hungarian border.  The
reality was that the Hungarians (and their Soviet masters) felt the need to secure their border regions by having
"trustworthy" ethnic-Hungarians living there (and, almost certainly, to punish the German peoples for their "mass
responsibility" for the war, and to reward those who had supported the causes of the politicians now in control). Thus many
ethnic-German villages were largely emptied, with the "Germans" put on trains and shipped to Germany with only what they
could carry, regardless of whether those "German" families had lived in the area for centuries. Their homes and properties
were quickly reassigned to selected, politically-correct "true" Hungarians.The people of Magyar-Büks, however, were not willing to submit to this fate. There is a 2008 video that was prepared about the village that says this (below is my translation of the German on-screen text):
Although the details in the various reports are not consistent, apparently the ethnic-Germans voluntarily fled in the
night with their movable goods to Deutsch Bieling, with many being taken in by relatives there. Some reports said they did
not stay there long, and "the majority moved to Csákány" (however, this seems quite irrational, as Csákány [i.e.,
Csákánydoroszló] was still too close to the border and they were still ethnic-Germans, so they would have been deported
from Csákány too). It was also said that the Austrians of Deutsch Bieling who participated in the 2006 cleanup of
Magyar-Büks were relatives of the escapees (though they could have been so through the families that took in the escapees
rather than by being descendants).
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5) HISTORICAL BB NEWSLETTER ARTICLES Editor: This is part of our series designed to recycle interesting articles from the BB Newsletters of 10 years ago. For this month, I pull a short piece from March 2009 by then-Editor Hannes Graf, wherein he announces the initial version of what became our "FamilySearch Microfilms and Digital Collections" section, one of the most-often-used features of the BB website. I also pull (part of) a piece by me from April 2009, wherein we introduce "The President's Corner" section to the Hannes-edited BB Newsletter... I must say I was surprised to learn that I've now been writing that section for a full ten years! THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 185 March 31, 2009  BURGENLAND
LDS FILMS (by Hannes Graf)At the first of March, I get following email: Hi Hannes, My brother Frank and I put together info on the Burgenland LDS Films. I gathered his hand-written work and put it in MS Word. We are now sending you the list (attachments) of the work done. Can you add this to the BB website for us? Eddie Tantsits Yes, we can!!! And after I come back from southern Burgenland, I do it. I added an "eighth" district, named Borderland with all LDS films I found, from the villages beside the border in Hungary. All villages with Hungarian and German names. http://www.the-burgenland-bunch.org/LDS/LDS.htm It is a great work of Ed and Frank Tantsits. 2019 Comment: The original "LDS Pages" looked quite similar to the current pages, now renamed "FamilySearch [FS] Pages", though they had no active links nor digital collection numbers. Over the years, there have been quite a few additions as we became aware of more Burgenland-area films, corrections as we detected errors, and refinements as we learned of changing recording locations. Back then, there were only microfilms... no digital collections... so active links made no sense. The addition of those links, when digital became available, was a major enhancement to the pages... but it was based on the core that the Tansits brothers so kindly provided and that Hannes first implemented. My thanks to all who have contributed to making this a great resource for all BB members! THE BURGENLAND BUNCH NEWS - No. 186 April 30, 2009 THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER (by Tom Steichen) |
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6) ETHNIC EVENTS LEHIGH VALLEY, PA Saturday, May 4: Lancaster Liederkranz Chorus Spring Concert at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Landisville. Followed by dinner at the Lancaster Liederkranz. Accordion music by Don Bitterlich. Info: www.lancasterliederkranz.com Sunday, May 5: German Maifest Service at St. John's German Lutheran Church in Reading. 11 AM - 12 PM. Live broadcast on WEEU 830AM (www.weeu.com). Choral music by the Reading Liederkranz Singers. Info: www.facebook.com/st.johnsreading Sunday, May 5: Maibaumtanz at the Coplay Sängerbund. Music by the Josef Kroboth Orchestra. Info: www.coplaysaengerbund.com Saturday, May 11: Maifest at the Reading Liederkranz. Info: www.readingliederkranz.com Saturday, May 11: Maitanz at the Lancaster Liederkranz. Music by the Josef Kroboth Orchestra. Info: www.lancasterliederkranz.com NEW BRITAIN, CT Friday, May 3, 7 pm: Heimat Abend. Austrian Donau Club, 545 Arch Street, $3. Music by Frank Billowitz. Friday, May 17, 7:30 pm: Heurigan Abend. Austrian Donau Club, 545 Arch Street, $3. Music by Schachtelgebirger Musikanten. UPPER MIDWEST Sunday, May 19, 12:30 - 5 PM: Upper Midwest Burgenland Bunch meeting, Ramsey
County Library, 3025 Southlawn Dr., Maplewood, MN. |
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7) BURGENLAND EMIGRANT OBITUARIES Johanna Neukum (née Leitner)  Johanna Johanna Groeller (née Deutsch) Johanna Groeller, 97, of Wayne, New Jersey, formerly of Little Falls, passed away peacefully on March 3, 2019. Born in Gaas, Austria, on June 5, 1921, she was a daughter of the late Anton and Anna (Laky) Deutsch. Mrs. Groeller came to the United States in 1937, settling in the Clifton/Rutherford area before moving to Little Falls where she lived for forty-one years before then moving to Wayne in 2005. Prior to retiring, she had been employed as a Machine Operator with American Cyanamid/Shulton Co., formerly in Clifton. She was a parishioner of Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church in Passaic. Mrs. Groeller was predeceased by her beloved husband, Adolf Groeller, in 1978; by her three brothers and seven of her sisters. She is survived by her two devoted children: Hilda (Bobbie) Rankin and her partner, William Baker, of Wayne and Dolph Groeller and his wife, Mary, of Mount Dora, FL; her dear sister, Clara Lahner, of Clifton; four loved grandchildren: Greg Groeller, Jennifer DeLong and her husband, BJ, Bruce Rankin and his wife, Rennie and Scott Rankin and his wife, Dana; and five cherished great-grandchildren: Ryan, Madison, Kaelyn, Jillian and Lucas. Visiting will be Thursday morning from 10:00-11:00 am at Bizub-Quinlan Funeral Home, 1313 Van Houten Avenue, Clifton. Funeral will begin following the visitation on Thursday at 11:00 am at the funeral home and 11:45 am at Holy Trinity RC Church, cor. Hope Avenue and Harrison Street, Passaic. Interment Calvary Cemetery, Paterson. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions to a charity of your choice would be appreciated. Please visit www.bizub.com for driving directions and online condolences. Helen Maron (née Franz) Helen F. Maron, 85, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, passed away peacefully on Thursday, March 14, 2019 at St. Luke's Hospice House. She was the wife of the late Andrew F. Maron. Born on May 20, 1933 in Königsdorf, Austria, she was the daughter of the late Karl and Theresia (Rössler) Franz and moved with her family to the US at the age of 6 months. Helen attended Allentown High School graduating in 1951. A highlight of high school was when she was selected as Principal-for-the-Day. Helen was a devout member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and worked for many years in the church rectory office. She greatly enjoyed her career, first as a Bell Telephone operator and later as an office nurse for Dr. Vincent P. Salvadge, until her retirement in 1995. She enjoyed reading, knitting and a good game of pinochle with her sister and friends. Throughout her life, Helen was involved with many charities donating both her time and talents to organizations like Allentown Osteopathic Hospital, The Angel Shop, The Phoebe Home and LVHN's "Nobody Dies Alone" program. Helen will be lovingly remembered and dearly missed by her friends and family: Daughters: Beth, wife of Jeff Titchenal of Macungie, Toni, wife of Jeff Barr of Bethlehem; Son: John and companion Christa Tam of Breinigsville; 9 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Sister: Theresa, wife of the late Frank Riemer. She is also survived by another son Drew and wife Dorothy of Slatington. SERVICES: Per her request, there will be no calling hours and internment will be private. A mass will be held in celebration of her life at 10:00 am, Friday March 22, 2019 at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 1040 Flexer Ave., Allentown, PA 18103. CONTRIBUTIONS: In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Mary's Shelter in Reading, PA. Published in Morning Call on Mar. 18, 2019 Agnes Feher (née Filipovits) Agnes Feher, of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, passed away peacefully at home on Monday, March 25, 2019. Devoted wife of 59 years to the late Stephen, mother of Erica Teklits (Dr. Ramesh Zacharias), cherished grandmother of Andrea Gaunce (Cameron) and Daniel Teklits. Mother-in-law to Istvan Teklits and survived by her sister, Annus Horvath, in Hungary. Born February 1, 1931 in Szentpéterfa (Petrovo Selo/Prostrum), Hungary, Agnes worked as a nurse in Budapest during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. She immigrated to Canada where she met and married Stephen Feher in 1958. She worked as a palliative care nurse at Queen Elizabeth Hospital until 1989 when she retired to help raise her grandchildren. Agnes was known for her kind, caring, unselfish spirit. She was a great role model to her daughter and grandchildren. She will be remembered for her strong faith, love of her family and unwavering friendship for all those she met. The family is grateful to Dr. Chisolm, Dr. Collins-Williams, Dr. Stein and the outpatient palliative team at the MH LHIN. Special thanks to all the kind-hearted PSW's from ESS and CBI. Although we are saddened by our loss, we are comforted knowing she will be reunited with Stephen in heaven. Friends may call at the Turner & Porter "Peel" Chapel, 2180 Hurontario St., Mississauga (Hwy. 10, north of QEW), on Friday, March 29th from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. Funeral Service will be held in the chapel on Saturday, March 30, 2019 at 10 a.m. Interment St. John's Dixie Cemetery, Mississauga. For those who wish, donations may be made to St. Michael's Hospital or Trillium Health Partners Foundation. Online condolences may be made through www.turnerporter.ca. Published in the Toronto Star on Mar. 27, 2019 Rose Stapleton (née Szabo) Rose Stapleton, age 97, passed away Sunday, March 24, 2019 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born in Unterwart, Austria on Sunday, August 21, 1921, she was the daughter of the late Josef and Theresia (Sagmeister) Szabo. Her family moved to Chicago, IL in 1923. Rose married her music teacher, Bill Stapleton, in 1941. She taught piano and organ for forty years. In 2005 she moved to New Mexico to be near her daughter. Rose is survived by her daughter, Pamela Vance; her son-in-law, William Vance; her step-granddaughter and family Karina, Alain, Alexandre and Katherine Gauthier; grandson, Jeffery Vance; and brother, Joseph F. Szabo. She is also survived by many, much loved nieces and nephews, Penny Lemon, Robert and Barbara Barber, Patricia Barber, Jo-Carol Clark, Susan Stables, Peggy Szabo, Joseph C. Szabo, and Clark and Diana Szabo. Surviving friends are Ginger Tankersley and Margaret Morgan. She had many friends in Chicago, especially the Durkin family, Janiece Krajewski, Jean Turner and members of the Morgan Park Baptist Church. Rose was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, William B. Stapleton; her son, William J. Stapleton; her sister, Margaret Barber; and sister-in-law, Shirley Szabo. Burial will be private. Please visit our online guestbook for Rose at www.FrenchFunerals.com. Published in a Chicago Tribune Media Group Publication on Mar. 31, 2019 Mary Howorka (née Billovits) Mary “Mitzi” Howorka, age 85, passed away peacefully, Sunday March 31, 2019 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the devoted, caring, and loving wife of 63 years to Walter Howorka. Mary was a resident of Seven Hills, Ohio for 43 years and resided in the Cleveland area for over 63 years. Born in Steingraben, Austria, she was a daughter of the late Alois and Julia (Wilfinger) Billovits Mary was the cherished mother of Karen Sue Austin, the late Eric Walter (Patti), and Gary Allen (Robin). Cherished “Omi” to Ashley (Colin) Feehan, Lindsay Austin, Mikayla and Bryce Howorka. Oma-ma to Carter and Scarlett Feehan. Loving Aunt to her nephews Gerald and Richard Billovits, and is survived by her sister-in-law Agnes Billovits of Flushing, NY. Besides her parents, she was preceded in death by her son, Eric Walter, and her brother, Alois Billovits. Mary enjoyed skiing, cooking, gardening, dancing, and did just about everything with her husband Walter. She was the ultimate homemaker, making sure family and friends in her house were taken care of. Family and friends will be received on Saturday, April 6 from 9:00AM – 10:45AM at the DONALD A. FAULHABER FUNERAL HOME, 7915 Broadview RD (at Sprague) Broadview Heights, Ohio 44147 and followed by a mass of Christian burial at St. Columbkille Parish, 6740 Broadview Road, Parma, Ohio 44134 at 11:15 AM. Entombment will be scheduled at a later date at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery in Seville, Ohio. Memorial contributions in Mary’s name are suggested to: ALS Association Northern Ohio Chapter, 6155 Rockside Road #403, Independence, Ohio 44131, or: Midwest Hospice, 10925 Reed Hartman Hwy, #312, Blue Ash, Ohio 45242. Published in The Plain Dealer on Apr. 5, 2019 |
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Burgenland Bunch Newsletter, copyright © 2019 by The Burgenland Bunch |
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News
House Number
Translation Lists: Thanks again to Christian Ofenböck, now in Graz, Austria, but born and raised in
Neusiedl bei Güssing, we have added two more house number translation lists, these for Eltendorf and
Zahling.
Contemporary
Hungarian Given Names: While searching to identify the root of a Hungarian diminutive name, I stumbled across
a website that indicated that, in current-day Hungary, given names must be drawn from a list of
government-approved names. That, of course, made me curious... so I searched out the truth of this... and it is true!
The
specific case was discovered when I was looking for a ship manifest for passengers that should have come from Neumarkt an
der Raab (Farkasdifalva). We found one where everything on the record matched our expectations except that
the village of "Last Residence" was recorded as Ujvasar. My question, of course, was "Where the devil was
that?"
The
Facebook Bunch (from Vanessa Sandhu): 
Update
for book "The Burgenländer Emigration to America": Here is this month's update on purchases of the English issue of
the 3rd edition of Dr. Walter Dujmovits' book "Die Amerika-Wanderung Der Burgenländer."
Of
course, this prompted me to investigate the website, and I came away quite impressed! Apparently, Gustav Rehberger had a
long artistic career as a painter, draftsman, muralist, designer, illustrator, lecturer and educator. He was born in
Riedlingsdorf in 1910, emigrated in 1923 to Chicago with his family, and died in 1995 in New York City.
That
nascent talent would lead his parents, on their return to Riedlingsdorf (they had been working in Chicago from 1913 to
1920), to place ten-year-old Gustav in the local Bürgerschule in neighboring Pinkafeld—"like a prep school for
special students," he explained—and where he continued to be singled out for his art. The watercolor on the right is
from 1920... and it is a splendid composition for a ten-year-old child... though it, too, shows he had not yet mastered
another skill he would later become known for: the use of a light source (and its resulting shadowing) to
breath life into three-dimensional objects. If you look closely at the watercolor, you'll see it would require the sun to be
in multiple places to account for the conflicted shading he put in the sketch. Yes, he already knew shading was important...
but he hadn't yet worked out the full mechanics of it.
This
birth record also includes a note (far right, in Hungarian) that reads (per my language expert [Julia Szent-Gyorgyi
...thanks Julia!]):
mother
Elisabeth Piff, and siblings Johann, Theresia and Gustav. After arriving in New York harbor and going through Ellis Island,
they take the long train ride to Chicago, arriving late in the evening and waking the next day to the fireworks of July 4th!
Adding to that memory for Gustav was that his cousin took him to his first-ever movie... a Western! He even reported in his
Ellis Island Oral History interview, that "I'm still a Western fan. I never got over that, it was so exciting."
Even
his
homework
assignments in high school were minor works of art, and he provided numerous drawings for his high school yearbook (the
Schurzone) and the school's journal, "The Literary Dijest." In 1929, he was elected class president.
and
map publishers. From 1929-1931, he also was Art Director at Reuben H. Donnelly Corporation in Chicago,
publishers of telephone directories.
Sidney
Seeley, director of the Fort Custer army illustrators, wrote of Gustav's work: "This young man’s contribution will be
among the most important to military life from an art standpoint. It possesses a dramatic quality we expect from military
art. Without question, he is one of the best military artists we have."
-
Harwood's Blended Canadian Whisky
American illustration and design." Among his extensive list of magazine clients, for whom he accompanied dozens of
articles, are:
Gustav
reports that 1968 was the year he started his transition from commercial illustration to fine art, eventually
taking a position teaching figure drawing, anatomy and composition at the Art Students League of New York in
1972, where he would remain until 1993. Many famous artists have been instructors, lecturers and students at the League,
names such as Thomas Eakins, Thomas Hart Benton, Alexander Calder, Georgia O’Keeffe, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Man
Ray, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein, to name a few.
During
this time, he also developed his interest in classical music into an early form of a "multi-media"
event, wherein he draws an image onstage before a live audience during the extent of a piece while seemingly "conducting"
the orchestra with his flying hands and chalk. These evolved out of his classroom drawing demonstrations, wherein he tried
to engage his students and animate their painting and drawings. He is best known for his performance art drawings of
Beethoven, to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and for drawings of horses, to the Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner
and Pines of Rome by Respighi.
and
his many paintings and drawings of them would incorporate all the power and turbulence and muscularity that defined so much
of his work and, in truth, himself.
Initially
during the Cold War, a double barbed-wire fence was installed 50 meters (160 ft) from the border, taking it through the edge
of much of old Magyar-Büks; the space between wire and border was laden with land mines. The minefield was later replaced
with an electric signal fence (about 1 kilometer (0.62 mi) back from the border) and a barbed wire fence, along with guard
towers and a sand strip to track border violations. Thus all of Magyar-Büks became a no-man's land.
As
we know, eventually the Iron Curtain was dismantled and the barbed wire removed, with the Hungarian outer fence being the
first to come down. However, in recent years, a high game fence was erected on the old Magyar-Büks border to
prevent capital stags (trophy red deer) and wild boar from accidentally crossing into Austria,
as the local forests had been turned into a private game preserve and hunting ground. Thus new economic barriers replaced
the old political ones.
Magyar-Büks,
a park which was inaugurated in 2013. About four hundred attendees came to the event from both sides of the border,
including descendants of those who had once lived there and Maria Wolf, the last known survivor who had lived
in the village before fleeing across the border in 1946. 
[Editor:
I'll not show the text concerning the relationship of the BB to the BG but I'll note that you can read it in our
archives, if interested, and that the relationship remains strong, still carrying the distinctions made in that article. The
purpose of this "recycling" was to remind you of why we have a "President's Corner" in the newsletter, though the
need for it is less while I carry both the President and Newsletter Editor titles. However, back then, just a
half year after Gerry's death, Hannes' taking over as Newsletter Editor, and the end of Gerry's direct guidance for the BB,
pushing my presence more into the BB mainstream made good sense. So far, I do not believe I've "painted myself into a
corner" in my presidential section ...but there is still time!]