Burgenland Croats

Burgenland Croats (Gradišćanski Hrvati) are ethnic Croats in the Austrian province of Burgenland. Although an enclave hundreds of kilometres away from their original homeland, they have managed to preserve culture and language for centuries. According to the estimation, the total number of Burgenland Croats is 50,000.

History

The Burgenland Croats were given landrights by the Austrian Crown during the Turkish wars (1533-1584). This gave the Croats refuge and also provided Austria with a buffer zone between Vienna and the Turks in the South and East. The Croats fled the Turks from the riverland areas of Gacka, Lika and Krbava, Moslavina in Slavonia and an area of present day Northern Bosnia near Tuzla. Because many villages had been pillaged by the Turks, the Crown gave the new settlers land rights and independent ecclesiastic rights. As the Croats had been driven from their homes and farms, they were happy to take up the offer granted by the Kaiser. They subsequently stayed and the present day Burgenland Croats are direct descendants from these settlers.

The Burgenland Croats also developed their own orthography during the counter-reformation, however, assimilation soon followed with the language being banned from use in churches and schools.

After falling under Hungarian rule in the Dual Monarchy, liberal laws regarding ethnicity enabled them to rekindle their language and heritage. However, when a 1900 census revealed that only 18.8% of the population of Burgenland spoke Hungarian, drastic measures of magyarisation were taken, thus revoking many individual and community rights. Sadly the Burgenland Croats were persecuted by Austro-German Nationalists after the WWI and by the Nazis in WWII and were exposed to attempts of assimilation.

The Croats gained minority status in the Austrian Treaty of Independence of 1955. Since then they and their culture have undergone somewhat of a renaissance with the language being taught at schools and spoken in Church where there is a large enough minority.

Language

The Burgenland Croats speak an older version of the modern-day Croatian language. The two variants are mutually intelligible, however, the Burgenland version of Croatian includes phrases no longer used in modern Croatian as well as certain phrases and words taken from German and Hungarian. Names are often written according to Hungarian orthography due to Magyarisation during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Nearly all Burgenland Croats are fluent in German.

Famous Burgenland Croats

• Willi and Lukas Resetarits - famous Austrian music and cabaret artists
• Peter Resetarits - famous journalist
• Barbara Karlich - tv talk show host
• Lothar Rendulic - Wehrmacht general
• Andreas Ivanschitz - football (soccer) player
• Nicole Trimmel - kickboxer
• Fred Sinowatz - former Chancellor of Austria
• Terezija Stoisits - People's Advocate (Volksanwältin)
• Norbert Darabos - Austrian Minister of Defense

See also

• Burgenland Croatian dialect
• Croats