Odžaci
Encyclopedia
West Backa District
West Bačka District is a northern district of Serbia. It lies in the region of Bačka, in the autonomous province of Vojvodina. It has a population of 215,916...
of Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
. The town of Odžaci has a population of 9,832 people, while the population of the municipality of Odžaci is 35,474 people (2002 census).
Name
The name Odžaci means "chimneys" in SerbianSerbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
. Formerly, the settlement was also known as Odžak ("chimney"). The Slavic/Serbian word "odžak" (or plural "odžaci") is a modification of the Turkish word "Ocak" (bearing the same pronunciation), meaning "fireplace".
In Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
, the town is also known as Odžaci, in Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
as Hódság, and in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
as Hodschag.
The old Hungarian name of the settlement was "Kéménd", first mentioned in 1522, and meaning "with chimney". Derived from the aforementioned Serbian word "Odžak" was the new Hungarian name "Hódság" (also later called "Hódsági Járás" (Hódsági district)), as well as the German name "Hodschag".
Origins
While there is speculation about a village named Odos or Hodos being mentioned by Catholic records as early as the 14th century, the first reliable mention of the Hungarian village of Kéménd was in 1522. This village was destroyed during the Ottoman invasion, and the Ottomans founded a new village on the near-by location. This village is mentioned in the Ottoman defterDefter
A Defter was a type of tax register in the Ottoman Empire. The information collected could vary, but tahrir defterleri typically included details of villages, dwellings, household heads , ethnicity/religion , and land use.The defter-i hakâni was a land registry, also used for tax...
s in 1557 under the name Ucsak. It was part of the nahiya of Bač
BAC
- Arts and entertainment :* Batman: Arkham City, a 2011 video game* Battersea Arts Centre, London, England, United Kingdom* Benedicta Arts Center, St...
.
The 1579 Ottoman defter mentions a village named Tatar Ocak with 28 Serbian and also some Muslim families. In 1610, the village of Ocsak is mentioned as part of the sanjak
Sanjak
Sanjaks were administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. Sanjak, and the variant spellings sandjak, sanjaq, and sinjaq, are English transliterations of the Turkish word sancak, meaning district, banner, or flag...
of Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
. However, due to heavy taxation, the population of the village fled to the north and east.
Habsburg administration
Starting in 1687, the village was under Habsburg administration, and in 1690 it was populated with new Serbian settlers. During the Hungarian uprising of Ferenc II. Rákóczi (1703–1711), the village of Ocsak was destroyed.Ocsak is mentioned again in 1728, while in 1733 it was populated with 100 Serbian
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
and Šokac families, but they were soon resettled. With the pretext that Serbs do not pay taxes, the empress Maria Theresa decided in 1755 to resettle those Serbs from this territory and to populate Ocsak with Germans. The first group of Germans came a year later from the Schwarzwald. About 300 German families were brought into the area. Some Hungarians also settled here in 1752.
By 1767, the villagers had erected a Roman Catholic church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
. At times Germans spelled the village's name "Hocsak", but it soon became and remained "Hodschag", as a variant of the Hungarian "Hódság". By 1813, it was a "field town", giving it the right to grant citizenship to settlers (who continued to come), as well engage in fairs and other economic activity. As in some other parts of the Vojvodina, its economy was based on hemp
Hemp
Hemp is mostly used as a name for low tetrahydrocannabinol strains of the plant Cannabis sativa, of fiber and/or oilseed varieties. In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food and fuel with modest...
, the rope derived from it being very important in agricultural applications of the day, and became fairly well-developed, enlarging its church, and having a post office, telegram access, and a train station.
The 1813 National Census records that the village consisted of 4,344 inhabitants, in 704 houses, of whom 3,798 gave their language as German, 460 as Hungarian, 45 as Slovakian, and 29 Serbian, and of whom 4,224 gave their religion as Roman Catholicism, 37 as Calvinism, 34 as Lutheranism, 32 as Greek Orthodoxy, and 8 as Judaism.
Between the World Wars
During the interbellum period, Odžaci was part of the Kingdom of YugoslaviaKingdom of Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a state stretching from the Western Balkans to Central Europe which existed during the often-tumultuous interwar era of 1918–1941...
. The first football club in Odžaci was founded in 1919, and in 1920, the beer factory also began operating.
Second World War
During the Axis invasion, the JewsJews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
of Odžaci left, or were transported to face a grim fate in concentration camps.
Recent developments
Since the end of World War II, a peace has returned to the town, but the demography is much changed. The economy and the architecture have also modernized, reflecting the typical modern but not especially dynamic nature of mid-size towns of the Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
.
In 1994, a group of former German residents sponsored the reconstruction of the destroyed Catholic cemetery and its chapel, and erected a memorial inside the chapel with the names of 955 residents murdered either in Odžaci or in other camps in Yugoslavia.
Inhabited places
The municipality of Odžaci encompasses the town of Odžaci, and the following villages:- Bački BrestovacBacki BrestovacBački Brestovac is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 3,469 people ....
- Bački GračacBacki GracacBački Gračac is a village located in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District of Serbia. It is situated in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. The population of the village is 2,913 people , of whom 2,810 are ethnic Serbs.-Name:Old Serbian name of the village was Filipovo...
- BogojevoBogojevoBogojevo is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has an ethnic Hungarian majority and its population numbering 2,120 people .-History:...
(Hungarian: Gombos) - DeronjeDeronjeDeronje is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population is 2,847 people .-Historical population:*1869: 2,241...
- KaravukovoKaravukovoKaravukovo is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 4,991 people ....
- LalićLalicLalić is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, in the West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village is ethnically mixed and has population of 1,646 people , including several ethnic groups, among them 796 Slovaks, 702 Serbs, and others...
- Ratkovo
- Srpski MiletićSrpski MileticSrpski Miletić is a village in Serbia. It is situated in the Odžaci municipality, West Bačka District, Vojvodina province. The village has a Serb ethnic majority and its population numbering 3,538 people .-External links:*...
Note: For the village with Hungarian ethnic majority, the name is also given in Hungarian.
Ethnic groups (2002 census)
The population of the Odžaci municipality:- SerbsSerbsThe Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
(82.84%) - Hungarians (4.41%)
- SlovaksSlovaksThe Slovaks, Slovak people, or Slovakians are a West Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language.Most Slovaks today live within the borders of the independent Slovakia...
(2.81%) - Roma (2.35%)
Settlements with Serb ethnic majority are: Odžaci, Bački Brestovac, Bački Gračac, Deronje, Karavukovo, Ratkovo, and Srpski Miletić. The settlement with Hungarian ethnic majority is Bogojevo. Ethnically mixed settlement with relative Slovak majority is Lalić.
Economy
There is a textileTextile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
industry, chemical industry, agricultural machine industry in this town.