Exploring Novaki: A Gottscheer Village In Austria

Novaki, Austria, was indeed a Gottschee village. Gottschee, also known as Gottschee County, was a German-speaking region in Carniola, a crownland of the Habsburg Empire, now in modern-day Slovenia. Gottschee was founded in the 13th century and was settled by German farmers from Carinthia and East Tyrol between 1330 and 1400. The region was divided into seven districts, with the town of Gottschee at its centre, receiving market town status in 1377. The Gottscheers, as the German settlers of the region were known, developed their own customs and a distinct dialect of German called Gottscheerish. In the 20th century, the region underwent several changes in administration, becoming part of Yugoslavia after World War I and later being occupied by Italian and German forces during World War II. As a result of the war, the Gottscheers lost their homeland and were resettled or fled to various countries, including Austria, Germany, the United States, and Canada. Today, the largest number of Gottscheers and their descendants reside in the United States, particularly in New York and Ohio, preserving their cultural heritage and traditions.

Gottschee's history and culture

The history of the Gottschee people, or Gottscheers, dates back to the end of the 13th century when the region was founded by German settlers. The territory was conferred upon the Counts of Ortenburg by the Patriarchate of Aquileia in 1277, and German farmers from Carinthia and East Tyrol settled the land between 1330 and 1400. The first settlement in the territory mentioned in written sources was Mooswald (Slovene: Mahovnik), which appeared in a letter from Patriarch Bertram in 1339. The town of Gottschee, the most prominent German town in the region, received market town status in 1377.

In the following centuries, the region changed hands several times, passing from the Counts of Ortenburg to the Counts of Celje in 1420, and then to the House of Habsburg in 1456. Emperor Frederick III elevated Gottschee to a city in 1471. The region faced unrest in the late 15th and early 16th centuries due to Ottoman attacks and peasant uprisings. In 1507, Gottschee was pledged to Jörg von Thurn, who was hated by his subjects for his heavy-handed tax collection, leading to his murder by Gottscheer peasants, which sparked the Slovene peasant revolt.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the territory was owned by various noble families, including the Khisl family and the House of Auersperg. In 1791, Emperor Leopold II elevated Gottschee to a duchy. During the Napoleonic era, from 1809 to 1814, Gottschee was occupied by French forces and incorporated into the Illyrian Provinces. The Gottscheers revolted against French rule during the 1809 Gottscheer Rebellion.

In the 19th century, Gottschee continued to change hands, becoming part of the Kingdom of Illyria, the Duchy of Carniola, and later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1918. The incorporation of Gottschee into Yugoslavia was met with resistance from the Gottschee Germans, who lobbied for their right to self-determination. During this period, the German population of Gottschee faced discrimination and assimilation pressures, leading to emigration to the United States and Canada.

During World War II, the Gottschee region was occupied by German and Italian forces, and the Gottscheers, as ethnic Germans, were resettled by the Nazis to the Rann Triangle region in Lower Styria. This resettlement was a failure, as the Gottscheers faced harassment and attacks from Yugoslav partisans. After the war, most Gottscheers fled to Austria and eventually immigrated to the United States, Canada, and other parts of Europe.

Today, the largest number of Gottscheers and their descendants live in the United States, particularly in New York City and Cleveland, with smaller communities in other countries. They continue to preserve their history and culture through organizations and gatherings.

Gottschee's language and dialect

Gottscheerish, also known as Göttscheabarisch, is a dialect of Old German that was the main language of communication among the Gottscheers in the enclave of Gottschee, Slovenia, before 1941. It is occasionally referred to as Granish or Granisch in the United States, derived from the German word Krainisch, meaning 'Carniolan'. Gottscheerish is an Upper German dialect, belonging to the Southern Bavarian dialect group, with the Bavarian dialects of Carinthia being the most closely related.

Gottscheerish evolved independently for over 600 years from the settlement of the first German-speaking settlers from Eastern Tyrol and Western Carinthia around 1330. The Gottscheer Germans used Gottscheerish as an oral language for daily communication, while their written language was Standard German. Folk songs and folk tales collected in the 19th and 20th centuries have been published in Gottscheerish.

The Gottscheer dialect shares many similarities with the Bavarian dialects of the German language islands in the eastern Alps, including Cimbrian in Veneto, Sappada (Pladen), and Timau (Tischelwang) in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Sorica (Zarz) in Upper Carniola, Slovenia. It also shares many similarities with Slovene, due to the proximity of the two languages and the influence of Slovene on Gottscheerish.

The phonological inventory of Gottscheerish differs from Standard German, especially regarding palatal consonants. The phonemes /s/ and /ʃ/ merged to yield /ɕ/, and the phonemes /z/ and /ʒ/ merged to yield /ʑ/. The phoneme /r/ is rarely realised as [ʁ], and the phoneme /l/ is realised as [ʟ] after front vowels and after labial/velar obstruents. Gottscheerish also has a large inventory of vowel clusters and diphthongs.

Written representation of Gottscheerish has varied considerably, as it was primarily or exclusively a spoken language. The symbol ə for schwa is often incorrectly replaced by the partial differential symbol ∂ or the umlauted ä in representations of Gottscheerish.

Today, Gottscheerish is considered a "critically endangered language" by UNESCO. Most of its speakers live in the United States, with a significant community in Queens, New York City. In Slovenia, some families have preserved Gottscheerish despite the ban on the language after World War II, particularly in the Moschnitze valley between Kočevske Poljane and Črmošnjice, where some Gottscheer families collaborated with the partisan movement. However, there are probably no children learning Gottscheerish as a first language today.

Gottschee's population and emigration

Gottschee, also known as Kočevsko, is a former German-speaking region in Carniola, now in modern-day Slovenia. The original German settlers of the region are called Gottschee Germans or Gottscheers.

Gottschee was founded at the end of the 13th century, carved out of the uninhabited mountain forests in what is today the south-central part of Slovenia. The county of Gottschee was colonized in 1300 by the Carinthian counts of Ortenburg with settlers from Carinthia and Tyrol, and by other settlers from the Austrian and German Dioceses of Salzburg, Brixen, and Freising. In 1350, 300 families from Thuringia in Germany were brought over, forming the basis of the population of Gottschee County as a German-speaking island in a duchy mostly inhabited by Slovenians.

In the late 1800s, the Gottschee ethnic and linguistic area of 331 square miles consisted of 176 villages organized into 19 townships and 18 parishes. The population was about 26,000 and, like many other Europeans, Gottscheers began to emigrate from their homeland to various areas in the United States and Canada, with large numbers settling in Cleveland, Ohio, and Brooklyn, New York.

Between 1880 and 1941, the Gottschee population decreased from 26,000 to 12,500 due to emigration and anti-German discrimination in the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During this time, political and assimilatory pressure against the German minority caused many Gottschee Germans to emigrate. The German-language high school was closed in 1918, German was eliminated as an elective subject in schools in 1925, and the majority of German businesses, cultural, and athletic societies were dissolved.

After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Yugoslavia initially remained neutral, but after a coup in 1941, it adopted a staunch anti-Axis position, leading to a German and Italian invasion and occupation of the kingdom. The Gottschee Germans were in the Italian occupation zone, which Hitler could not abide, as Nazi racial policy dictated that these Germans had to be brought back into the Reich. The Nazis established a branch of the Resettlement Administration (Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, or "VoMi") at Maribor to plan the Gottschee "resettlement" (forced expulsion) from Kočevje to the Brežice Triangle in Lower Styria.

In November 1941, some 46,000 Slovenes from the Brežice Triangle region were forcibly deported to Eastern Germany for potential Germanization or forced labor to make room for the Gottschee "resettlers." The Gottscheers were given Reich passports and transportation to the Lower Sava Valley straight after the forced departure of the Slovenes. Most Gottschee left their homes due to coercion and threats since the VoMi had set a deadline of December 31, 1941, for the mass movement of both groups. Gottscheers were removed from a total of 167 settlements in 1941 and 1942.

By 1945, nearly all Gottscheers had fled the Rann Triangle for Austria, and stragglers were interned and later expelled in the aftermath of treaties between the defeated Germans and the Yugoslav Partisans. In the aftermath of the war, around 3,000 stayed in Austria, 2,000 immigrated to Germany, and the remainder immigrated to the United States and Canada. By all accounts, less than 400 ethnic Germans found themselves in the new Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Today, the largest number of Gottscheers and their descendants live in the United States, mainly in New York City and Cleveland, with smaller numbers in Kitchener, Ontario, and those remaining in Europe.

Gottschee's villages and geography

Gottschee, now known as Kocevsko, is a former German-speaking region in Carniola, a crownland of the Habsburg Empire, which is now in Slovenia. The region has been a county, duchy, district, and municipality during various parts of its history. The term often also refers to the entire ethnolinguistic enclave regardless of administrative borders.

The original German settlers of the region are called Gottschee Germans or Gottscheers, and their German dialect is called Gottschee German or Gottscheerish. The Gottschee enclave is a roughly oval-shaped area that geographers have divided into seven regions based on valleys. These are, from west to east:

• The Suchen Plateau (Suchener Hochtal)
• The Back District (Hinterland)
• The Upper District (Oberland)
• The Lower District (Unterland)
• The Forest District (Walden)
• The Tschermoschnitz District (Moschnitze, Mosche)
• The Lower Side (Untere Seite)

The Gottschee region was conferred upon the Counts of Ortenburg by the Patriarchate of Aquileia on 20 September 1277. The territory was settled by German farmers from Carinthia and East Tyrol between 1330 and 1400. The first settlement in the territory attested in written sources was Mooswald (Slovene: Mahovnik), which appeared in a letter from Patriarch Bertram on 1 September 1339. A 1363 letter mentioned the settlements of Gottschee (Kočevje), Pölland (Kočevske Poljane), Kostel, Ossilnitz (Osilnica), and Göttenitz (Gotenica). The town of Gottschee acquired market town status in 1377.

In 1350, the emperor made available 300 families from Thuringia in Germany, and this group formed the basis of the population of Gottschee County as a German-speaking language island in a duchy mostly inhabited by Slovenians. The people of Gottschee continued to preserve the customs of their ancestors and developed a distinct German dialect called Gottscheerish.

In 1471, Gottschee received the municipal charter and city seal. In 1574, Gottschee extended from Mount Snežnik in the extreme west to Blatnik pri Črmošnjicah in the east, and from Seč and Gornja Topla Reber in the north to just below Bosljiva Loka and Osilnica in the south. In 1619, the territory was purchased by the Khisl family.

In 1641, Wolf Engelbrecht of Auersperg bought the county (Grafschaft) of Gottschee. In 1770, Maria Theresa ordered a count of all males in order to be drafted into the Austrian army. In that same year, all urban and rural dwellings were counted and recorded.

In the late 1800s, the Gottschee ethnic and linguistic area of 331 square miles consisted of 176 villages organized into 19 townships and 18 parishes. The population was about 26,000 and, like many Slovenians and other Europeans, Gottscheers began to emigrate from their homeland. Many immigrated to various areas in the United States and Canada, with large numbers settling in Cleveland, Ohio, and Brooklyn, New York.

During World War II, the Gottscheers lost their homeland. When the German and Italian armies invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, an agreement between Italy and Germany gave control of the Gottschee land area to Italy. Nine months later, the German government resettled the Gottschee ethnic Germans from their 650-year homeland. This was done in December 1941 and January 1942, when almost 12,000 Gottscheers were relocated to Brezice (Rann), Slovenia, which had been incorporated into the German Reich during the war.

Between 1941 and 1943, many of the Gottschee villages were destroyed in battles between the Yugoslavian partisans and the Italian forces. At the end of the war, the Gottscheers were forced to flee into Austria. Some of the refugees eventually found new homes in Austria and Germany, however, most immigrated to the United States and Canada, where they had friends and relatives who had immigrated to those countries prior to World War II.

Today, the largest number of Gottscheers and their descendants live in the United States, many living in Ohio and New York, with smaller numbers living in Austria, Canada, Germany, and Slovenia.

Gottschee's post-WWII fate

The Gottschee Germans, or Gottscheers, were expelled from their homeland in the 1940s. In 1941, an agreement between Italy and Germany gave control of the Gottschee land to Italy. In December 1941 and January 1942, almost 12,000 Gottscheers were relocated to the Rann Triangle in Lower Styria, which was between the confluences of the Krka, Sotla, and Sava rivers. This was done under the guise of "resettlement" by the Nazis, who wanted to bring these Germans back into the Reich. However, the Gottscheers were not thrilled about the Italian occupation of Gottschee and had expected to become part of the German-occupied territories.

The "resettlement" was a failure, and many Gottscheers were harassed and even killed by Yugoslav partisans. The attempt to resettle the Gottscheers required extra manpower to protect the farmers from the partisans. The Gottscheers were dissatisfied with their new properties, which were often in disarray and of lesser value and quality than their original lands.

At the end of World War II, the Gottscheers were forced to flee into Austria. Some found new homes in Austria and Germany, but most immigrated to the United States and Canada, where they had friends and family. A small number, fewer than 400, remained in the new Socialist Republic of Slovenia.

Today, the largest number of Gottscheers and their descendants live in the United States, with smaller numbers in Austria, Canada, Germany, and Slovenia. Organisations such as the Gottscheer Heritage and Genealogy Association are working to preserve the history and traditions of the Gottschee Germans.

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