Schandorf
Encyclopedia
Schandorf is a village in the district of Oberwart
in Burgenland
in southeast Austria
.
arranged for Schandorf and other villages to be repopulated by immigrants from Croatia
, and for centuries, the village was an island of Croatian language and culture, surrounded by speakers of Hungarian and German. A dialect of Croatian unique to the village gradually evolved, rich in loanword
vocabulary from Hungarian. With ever-increasing intermarriage, outmigration, and cosmopolitan influence of German, this dialect is today endangered.
For centuries the village was part of Hungary
; its Hungarian name is "Csém". Following the First World War, with the breakup of the old Austrian Empire
, the division of the land between the new nation states of Austria and Hungary was accompanied by turmoil; for details, see "Burgenland
". The final establishment of the boundary in 1921 had the unfortunate effect of separating Schandorf from nearby Croatian-speaking communities, which remained Hungarian. The separation became extreme after the Second World War, when the Iron Curtain
descended blocking almost all passage across the border. This would have been a particularly salient fact of life for residents of Schandorf, whose outskirts lie only about 400 metres (1,312.3 ft) from Hungarian territory.
Schandorf has not prospered in recent times; lack of economic opportunity has led to outmigration, particularly to the United States and Canada. Between 1900 and 2005 the population declined from 720 to 297. Municipal government was suspended in 1972, but restored in 1996.
Oberwart (district)
Bezirk Oberwart is a district of the state ofBurgenland in Austria.-Municipalities:Towns are indicated in boldface; market towns in italics; suburbs, hamlets and other subdivisions of a municipality are indicated in small characters.Where appropriate, the Burgenland Croatian and Hungarian names...
in Burgenland
Burgenland
Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
in southeast Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
.
History
The earliest record of the village's existence dates to 1244. In the first half of the 16th century, the region was devastated by attacking Turkish troops, and villages were depopulated. The Hungarian magnate Franz BatthyányBatthyány
Batthyány is the name of an old distinguished Hungarian Magnate family. The members of this family bear the title count or countess respectively prince or princess Batthyány von Német-Ujvár...
arranged for Schandorf and other villages to be repopulated by immigrants from Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
, and for centuries, the village was an island of Croatian language and culture, surrounded by speakers of Hungarian and German. A dialect of Croatian unique to the village gradually evolved, rich in loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
vocabulary from Hungarian. With ever-increasing intermarriage, outmigration, and cosmopolitan influence of German, this dialect is today endangered.
For centuries the village was part of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
; its Hungarian name is "Csém". Following the First World War, with the breakup of the old Austrian Empire
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
, the division of the land between the new nation states of Austria and Hungary was accompanied by turmoil; for details, see "Burgenland
Burgenland
Burgenland is the easternmost and least populous state or Land of Austria. It consists of two Statutarstädte and seven districts with in total 171 municipalities. It is 166 km long from north to south but much narrower from west to east...
". The final establishment of the boundary in 1921 had the unfortunate effect of separating Schandorf from nearby Croatian-speaking communities, which remained Hungarian. The separation became extreme after the Second World War, when the Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
descended blocking almost all passage across the border. This would have been a particularly salient fact of life for residents of Schandorf, whose outskirts lie only about 400 metres (1,312.3 ft) from Hungarian territory.
Schandorf has not prospered in recent times; lack of economic opportunity has led to outmigration, particularly to the United States and Canada. Between 1900 and 2005 the population declined from 720 to 297. Municipal government was suspended in 1972, but restored in 1996.
Culture
Schandorf is the home of a tamburrizza orchestra, a reflection of its Croatian ethnic heritage. (The tamburizza is a traditional Balkan folk instrument, widely played in Croatia.) The orchestra performs frequently, often outside the village.External links
- www.schandorf.at - town website (in German/Croatian)