Setschan
At about the same time in history that the American colonies were struggling to free themselves from England and develop the frontier, another frontier was being colonized in Eastern Europe. The Austrian Imperial Army defeated the Ottoman Empire and claimed The Banat, an area now divided between Hungary, Romania and the country formerly known as Yugoslavia.
The Banat became a crown territory of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1700’s and colonial plans were made and administered from Vienna. According to a paper written by Sue Clarkson, the aim was to develop farmland, defend the border of the empire against invasion and to spread the Roman Catholic religion. They used inducements of free land, construction materials, livestock and exemption from taxes to bring in German settlers.
The German colonists ultimately built about 1,000 villages. They had to build dykes and dams, drain marshlands and build roads. The area of the Banat was flood plain and is subject to devastating flooding to this day. Those settlers became known as the Danube Swabians. They were the ancestors of my German-speaking grandparents.
The Banat grew and prospered during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It became a breadbasket of Europe. Mechanization, industrialization and competition from American farmers, and others, caused economic decline by the end of the 1800’s. As a result thousands of the young Danube Swabians immigrated to the United States.
According to Dave Dreyer, there was a pattern of migration when members of a Danube Swabian village went to the same areas of the United States. He tracked ship manifests and identified over 700 Danube Swabians who settled in Mansfield, Ohio. Among them were my great-grandparents: Vogels, Gildes and Eichofs.
A large number of the Danube Swabians in Mansfield came from the Village of Setschan, including the Eichof’s and the Gilde’s. The Vogel family came from the area around Temesvar; however, most of them married Setschan villagers and their descendants, including my grandfather, Michael Vogel. They all had similar backgrounds, belonged to St Peter’s Catholic Church and for a time maintained their cultural heritage within the Mansfield community.
Setschan still exists. It is now a part of Serbia and is called Secanj. An elaborate website is maintained by a German organization of genealogy researchers. The text is all in German, but it is loaded with pictures. Scroll through the pictures under “Fredi’s Reisen” to see current photos of the homes, workplaces and church in Setschan. There are loads of pictures from the early 1900’s as well.
If you read the Clarkson paper about the Banat you will see why all of the villages have at least three different names. The Germans founded the villages and maintained their language and separate schools. When the Hungarian government took over the Banat in the mid-1800’s there was pressure to “Magyar-ize” the German community. Each village has a Hungarian or Magyar name. After World War I the Banat was divided among Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. The borders were shifted again after World War II and again after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s.
The Village of Setschan can be listed under the following names:
German: Setschan, Setschany, Petersheim
Hungarian: Szecsany, Torontalszecsany
Official: Secanj
The Banat became a crown territory of the Holy Roman Empire in the 1700’s and colonial plans were made and administered from Vienna. According to a paper written by Sue Clarkson, the aim was to develop farmland, defend the border of the empire against invasion and to spread the Roman Catholic religion. They used inducements of free land, construction materials, livestock and exemption from taxes to bring in German settlers.
The German colonists ultimately built about 1,000 villages. They had to build dykes and dams, drain marshlands and build roads. The area of the Banat was flood plain and is subject to devastating flooding to this day. Those settlers became known as the Danube Swabians. They were the ancestors of my German-speaking grandparents.
The Banat grew and prospered during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It became a breadbasket of Europe. Mechanization, industrialization and competition from American farmers, and others, caused economic decline by the end of the 1800’s. As a result thousands of the young Danube Swabians immigrated to the United States.
According to Dave Dreyer, there was a pattern of migration when members of a Danube Swabian village went to the same areas of the United States. He tracked ship manifests and identified over 700 Danube Swabians who settled in Mansfield, Ohio. Among them were my great-grandparents: Vogels, Gildes and Eichofs.
A large number of the Danube Swabians in Mansfield came from the Village of Setschan, including the Eichof’s and the Gilde’s. The Vogel family came from the area around Temesvar; however, most of them married Setschan villagers and their descendants, including my grandfather, Michael Vogel. They all had similar backgrounds, belonged to St Peter’s Catholic Church and for a time maintained their cultural heritage within the Mansfield community.
Setschan still exists. It is now a part of Serbia and is called Secanj. An elaborate website is maintained by a German organization of genealogy researchers. The text is all in German, but it is loaded with pictures. Scroll through the pictures under “Fredi’s Reisen” to see current photos of the homes, workplaces and church in Setschan. There are loads of pictures from the early 1900’s as well.
If you read the Clarkson paper about the Banat you will see why all of the villages have at least three different names. The Germans founded the villages and maintained their language and separate schools. When the Hungarian government took over the Banat in the mid-1800’s there was pressure to “Magyar-ize” the German community. Each village has a Hungarian or Magyar name. After World War I the Banat was divided among Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. The borders were shifted again after World War II and again after the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990’s.
The Village of Setschan can be listed under the following names:
German: Setschan, Setschany, Petersheim
Hungarian: Szecsany, Torontalszecsany
Official: Secanj
posted by Cliff Vogel | 11:11 AM
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