Gottscheer Culture Week
Few happy events mark the history of the Gottscheers. The "Gottscheer Culture Week" seems to be one of these. It was conceived and executed by one individual, the secondary school superintendent Hermann Petschauer of Lichtenbach. He founded it in 1966 and has been the director since then. It is the scholarly forum for the presentation of research on the former linguistic island of Gottschee through lectures, slide presentations, and readings. These activities take place in the lecture hall of the "Bäuerlichen Volkshochschule Dr. Arthur Lemisch" (college of agriculture) of the province of Carinthia which is housed in Schloß Krastowitz (the castle of Krastowitz). Schloß Krastowitz was greatly enlarged for this institution which allows the Gottscheers to use the classrooms and dormitory rooms for seven happy days from the end of July to the beginning of August. However, the castle
church of Krastowitz, which is less than one hundred meters from the "Bäuerlichen Volkshochschule," is the final goal of the "Gottscheer pilgrimage."
The meeting sites of the Gottscheer history and the last generation of Gottscheers are that close to each other. Coincidence? Yes and no, because as a participant in the first pilgrimages Hermann Petschauer recognized the favorable preconditions for holding an historical seminar, an idea which he had had for some time. When he requested permission to give a course on Gottscheer history at Schloß Krastowitz during the vacation, the Carinthian Department of Agriculture showed much sympathy and gave its permission. It is, however, purely coincidental that the current director of the "Bäuerlichen Volkshochschule Krastowitz," Dr. Kurt Erker, is the son of Gottscheers from Mitterdorf. He himself was born in Carinthia; his father was an administrative adviser in the provincial government.
Resolutely Hermann Petschauer set about getting lecture commitments from scholars who had developed a love-affair with Gottschee, as well as from members of the ethnic group itself. Their lectures focus on the dialect, the general and cultural history, the ethnic heritage and literature, as well as on the dialect writings of the last decades.
The dialect was represented by the editor of the Wörterbuch der Gottscheer Mundart, Dr. Walter Tschinkel, and by Prof. Maria Hornung. From now on she will continue alone since Walter Tschinkel died all too soon in October 1975.
Both of these scholars worked very closely together under the aegis of Professor Eberhard Kranzmayer, who died shortly before Tschinkel. Thus Maria Hornung was able to perform a final act of friendship for the deceased Gottscheer scholar: In his place, she read the final proofs of the second volume of his dialect dictionary.
Whereas Dr. Tschinkel emphasized the etymology of his native tongue, the Viennese Professor Maria Hornung concerns herself primarily with the significance of the Gottscheer dialect for German philology in general and for the Tyrolean-Carinthian dialects in the original settlement region of Gottschee and compares them to the linguistic island in Upper Italy. She is also the founder and director of a study group that concerns itself with expanding the knowledge about these settlement regions that were colonized from Austria.
Dr. Maria Kundegraber, curator of the "Bäuerlichen Museum" in Stainz near Graz and Viennese Professor emeritus Richard Wolfram are taking very good care of the Gottscheer folklore. Maria Kundegraber concerns herself primarily with the objects that the farmers of the former linguistic island used in their daily lives, objects that the Gottscheers still made themselves back home. In addition, she has also turned her attention to the church paintings which have not been destroyed by man or nature and gives slide lectures about them. She also traced the old pilgrimage routes of the Gottscheers to remote and nearby religious sites. The scholar only came in contact with the former linguistic island after World War II. Fortunately, she was still able to obtain numerous objects of interest to the folklorist from those who had not resettled. They are in the safekeeping of the Viennese "Volkskundemuseum" (Museum of Folklore). Besides giving lectures at the "Gottscheer Culture Week" and elsewhere, she has published many essays on her speciality, some of which are:
- "Eine Reise nach Gottschee", "Donau- und Karpatenraum", Wien 1961.
- "Die Wallfahrten der Gottscheer". österreichische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 65 (1962)233-260.
- "Bibliographie zur Gottscheer Volkskunde", Jahrbuch für ostdeutsche Volkskunde 7 (1962/63), 233-272.
- "Gottscheer Ochsenjoche". Ein Kapitel aus der Gottscheer Gerätekunde. Jahrbuch für ostdeutsche Volkskunde.
- "Heutragen und Heuziehen in Gottschee", Jahrbuch für ostdeutsche Volkskunde.
- "Das Schicksal der Gottscheer Volksliedsammlung" (1906-1912). Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 13 (1964) 143-148.
- "Zwei Andreas-Lieder aus Pöllandl in Gottschee". Jahrbuch des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 13 (1964)
131-133.
- "Entstehung und Bedeutung der Gottschee-Sammlung des österreichischen Museums für Volkskunde". Carinthia I 155 (1966) 799-834.
- "Die Kosmas- und Damian-Wallfahrt nach Oberburg". In: Festschrift für Leopold Kretzenbacher, München, 1972.
- "Gottscheer Putscherlein und mittelalterliches Pilgerfäßchen". In: Festschrift für Leopold Schmidt, Wien, 1972.
- "Die Gottscheer Frauen-Festtracht - ein Relikt mittelalterlicher Mode". In: Festschrift für Hanns Koren, Graz, 1966.
- "Das Gottscheer Hemdkleid". In: Zs. für historische Waffen- und Kostümkunde 1971 (München).
- "Die Frauenjoppe in Pöllandl, Gottschee". In: Slovenski etnograf, etwa 1970.
The foremost authority on Gottscheer folklore is without doubt Professor Richard Wolfram. His profound knowledge of this hitherto rather neglected field deserves even more esteem since the cultural commission of the German resettlement authority in Ljubljana was, thanks to an Italian chicanery, not able to initiate its folklore research before the resettlement. Not only a Gottscheer finds it fascinating to listen to and experience what was going on in the imagination of the people of the old linguistic island as revealed in the customs surrounding Christmas and
the New Year, the summer and winter solstice and Easter, as well as weddings and baptisms, that Wolfram describes. Much still stems from the time of the colonization and is of pagan origin, some of it has only been preserved in Gottschee and little of it was taken from the Slavic surroundings. Prof. Wolfram began his research in Gottschee before the Gottscheers resettled and completed it in the refugee camps. Until now, he has published six lengthy essays about the customs of the Gottscheers in the Jahrbuch für ostdeutsche Volkskunde, N.G. Elwert-Verlag, Marburg. He intends to collect them in one volume.
The author of the Jahrhundertbuch also contributed several lectures to the" Gottscheer Culture Week." Among other things, he dealt with the founding history of the former linguistic island, the genealogy of the Houses of Ortenburg and Auersperg, as well as the legends and tales of the Gottscheers.
Richard Lackner gave several readings of numerous very recent poems which demonstrate that the Gottscheer dialect is also suitable for pure, particularly lyric poetry. He himself showed that he was a stylistically well-versed and talented poet who had a keen sense of what one can and cannot attempt to do with the Gottscheer dialect as a poetic means of expression. The last generation of Gottscheers also demonstrated similar talent. For example, Lackner recited from the anthology Spätherbst (Dar schpuata Herbischt—Late Autumn), which contains poems by Bernhard Hönigmann, Ludwig Kren, Hilde Otterstädt née Erker, and Karl Schemitsch.
Quite naturally, the Gottscheer dialect poets hardly ever wrote about a theme other than the lost homeland after the expulsion. Let these two examples show what bitter melody this dialect can express:
| Dar
Pflüakh Dar Pflüakh, dos ischt main Boffa, "dar Pflüakh, dar gait mir's Proat. I bart in Pflüakh et luaßn, pis hölat mi dar Toat. Dar Toat, ar khonn di trennan von inshrar Eardn et, dü Pflüakh, dü paüascht baitar, bai's Völkh, dos schtirbat et. Bernard Hönigmann |
The
Plough The plough is my weapon, the plough, it gives me bread. I will not leave the plough, until Death fetches me. Death, he cannot separate you from our earth. You plough, you go on tilling, because the people, they do not die. |
| Ammö Nocht ischt nöch in' Doarfa, Muna schainat draüf, du ünt hant a Liachtle: Ammö ischt schon aüf. Khöchn, Bossar trugn, 's Haüsch, da Akkhra, 's Güat, khronkha Khindar shboign - Ammö khon dos güat. Man ünt baschn, höltsn ... Ischt a Galt pain Haüsch? Atte ischt in Pemman, Ammö mochat aus. Khriekh ünt Loidn, Ünracht, aus varloaarn! Begnbai hot's grut insch gatröffn? Ammö treaschtat lai. Ammö, scheandar Numa! Ibaroll gamat shi! Ammö, liabai, güatai, olla prachnt di! Ludwig Kren |
Mother It is still night in the village, moonlight shines on it, here and there a little light: Mother is already up. Cook, carry water, the house, the fields, the cattle, soothe sick children - mother does that well. Mow and wash, chop wood ... Is there money in the house? Father is in Bohemia, Mother does everything. War and suffering, injustice, everything lost! Why did it strike us? Mother just consoles. Mother, beautiful name! Everywhere she protects! Mother, dear good, all need you! |
One day of the "Culture Week" is set aside for a kind of pilgrimage. It is a" pilgrimage" because the trip from Klagenfurt to Spittal is like a return to the land of origin of our ancestors. Its actual goal is the architectural center of the city on the Drau, Schloß Porcia, which Gabriel Salamanca had built around 1527. The much-admired Renaissance structure is associated with the name of Ortenburg, but we will not go into the reasons here.
Although fate dealt the Gottscheers and their "Ländchen" much misfortune, it also granted them some ameliorating circumstances. Not as if history passed judgment and awarded them some relief - rather it granted them a few fortunate hours so that their lot would not be totally unbearable. There were actually only four of them to 1918, but they were extremely important for the continued existence of Gottschee:
The forest law of the last Ortenburgian count, Frederick III in the year 1406 was no less decisive for the fundamental existence of the linguistic island than the purchase of the countship of Gottschee by Count Wolf Engelbrecht of Auersperg in 1641 or the elevation of the countship to an entailed estate by Prince Johann Weikhart of Auersperg, whose very successful yet unlucky life ended in 1677. However, Adolf Hauffen established the scholarly milestone on the way to a study of Gottschee when he published his work "Die deutsche Sprachinsel Gottschee" in 1895.— After 1918 the Gottscheers were denied other rays of hope, unless one considers the 600-year celebration to be one. The people from the calciferous region and its "Ländchen" seemed to be cast into historical oblivion, no longer having the right to exist as a separate ethnic entity - weighed and found too light. The first sign that it nevertheless was still alive came from the founding of the "Gottschee- Hilfswerk" in 1946. And three stations that almost are like information booths on the route to the foreseeable short future of the Gottscheer people - the concept of the "Culture Week," the "Wörterbuch der Gottscheer Mundart", and - the "Gottschee- Schau" (show) in Schloß Porcia - prove that it had no intention of giving up its traditions and memories.
The "Gottschee-Schau" owes its existence to the founder and curator of the "Bezirksheimatmuseum für Oberkärnten," Prof. Helmut Prasch. Like almost all of the scholars and supporters of Gottscheer lore, he, too, is an educator. The symbolic significance of the presence of the "Gottschee-Schau" in Spittal an der Drau in the regional folklore museum of Upper Carinthia and in Schloß Porcia needs no further clarification - it is obvious. Let it just be said that this continuous Gottschee-exhibit in its existing form would hardly have come to be or could have been improved upon elsewhere if chance had not played a role here, too. Prior to World War II, Helmut Prasch and Walter Tschinkel were teachers in two neighboring elementary schools in the district of St. Veit an der Glan. Prasch had become acquainted with Gottschee long before the resettlement. His knowledge of the origin, history, and culture of the Gottscheers was expanded to such an extent through numerous conversations with Tschinkel that he decided to add a Gottschee-section to the regional folklore museum after it was established. It was to exhibit the folklore museum founded in 1921 by the Reverend Josef Eppich in Gottschee but also to display and complete the six-hundred-year lifecycle Carinthia and East Tyrol—Gottschee—Carinthia.
If the "Culture Week" in the lecture hall of Schloß Krastowitz displays the intellectual wares of the six-hundred-year history of the Gottscheers, then the visitor of the "Gottschee-Schau" in Schloß Porcia sees many objects that surrounded the former farmers in the "Ländchen" in their daily lives and which, pushed aside by modern things, were slumbering in some attic corner awaiting the day when they would be viewed afresh. Much of what survived the resettlement and flight is displayed here - from the simplest household tool to the ethnic dress, from the
"Pütschala" to the ox-yoke, from the first edition of the Gottscheer Bote to Walter Tschinkel's dictionary. Gradually the gaps that were brought about by the haste of the resettlement are closing. Now and then the new Gottscheer Zeitung lists other items on display, among which there are often gifts from Prince Carl of Auersperg. Prince Carl, the last son of the last Duke of Gottschee, Prince Carl of Auersperg, lives in Schloß Wald near St. Pölten. Gottscheers go there again and again to exchange views. The present nominal bearer of the ducal title of Gottschee, Carl Adolf, lives in Uruguay, South America.
Both the "Culture Week" and the "pilgrimage" are covered by the press, radio, and television in Carinthia. Official representatives of the provincial legislature, the provincial government, and the senate, as well as the mayor of the provincial capital of Klagenfurt, attend the opening ceremonies of the "Culture Week" - a function undertaken by the chairman of the study group of the Gottscheer "Landsmannschaft," Dr. Viktor Michitsch - and the reception on the eve of the pilgrimage Sunday.
The former mayor, Privy Councillor Dr. Hans Ausserwinkler, went yet a step further. In 1973 he visited the former settlement region of the Gottscheers accompanied by Dr. Michitsch and Dr. Herbert Krauland, the secretary of the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Gottscheer Landsmannschaften." It should be stated that the long-time mayor of the industrial city of Sindelfingen in Württemberg, Arthur Gruber, did the same. In addition to the two named gentlemen, he was also accompanied by Hermann Petschauer and by Viktor Stalzer for the Gottscheer Zeitung.
On the outward journey, Mayor Gruber and his companions were received for a friendly visit in Ljubljana by its mayor and by government members of the Slovenian republic. The Jahrhundertbuch wishes to record this gesture since the hosts knew why the German mayor was making this trip and were also aware of the origin of his companions.
Moreover, during Arthur Gruber's term in office Sindelfingen was declared a sponsoring city of the Germans from Yugoslavia. The city very generously supported the establishment of the "Haus der Donauschwaben" (House of the Danube-Swabians) which is also always accessible to Gottscheers in memory of their former common fate in Yugoslavia. As part of its cultural activities, for example, it widely publicized the "Wörterbuch der Gottscheer Mundart" in April 1974. This had also been the case earlier in Vienna and Klagenfurt. The guest speaker in each case was its author, Dr. Walter Tschinkel.
("Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer", Dr. Erich Petschauer, 1980)
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