Hrastovac
(Eichendorf) was established in 1865 on the fertile,
marshy flood plains between the great rivers of Drava
in the north and Sava in the south, just a few
kilometers east of the earthquake fault line of the
Ilova River. This fault line was the divider between
the old Kingdom of Slavonia on the east side and the
old Kingdom of Croatia on the west side. Even in
Roman times there were famous mineral baths in towns
found along this fault line, including among them
Daruvar, Toplice, Krapinska and Lipik.
Map
When in 1865 the landowner of that region, Baron Tikery,
had the thousand-year old oak forest clear cut, Slavonia was part of the
Austrian Empire under the Habsburg crown. Ox
teams dragged the huge 2-3 meter diameter logs with
great difficulty to the nearest train station in
Sisak on the Sava River. Baron Tikery had the land
surveyed and the village lots were soon sold to the
sons and daughters of the ethnic German settlers in the
Hungarian counties of Baranya, Somogy and Tolna,
which comprised Swabian Turkey. A homestead in
Hrastovac, a Lutheran Evangelical village, consisted
of 6.5 Joch of personal property and community
ownership of 400 Joch, which was still a thick oak
forest. The community land was used for grazing of
cattle, horses, pigs and sheep. The purchase price
for the homestead was 40 guilder or florins.
Our settlers erected the village out of nothing. The first night was spent
under the clear sky and the first winter in rough log cabins.
By 1879 the
political winds of the Austrian Empire changed drastically and the Empire was
divided in half: the Austrian and the Hungarian part under the single crown of
the Habsburg Emperor. Hrastovac was now part of Austro-Hungary.
With a measure of
prosperity and a feeling of accomplishment, the
second generation of the original settlers took pride
in knowing that their village had been transformed
into a thriving agricultural community within a
comparatively short period of time.
20 years later with a new generation growing up,
there was a lack of arable land. Other Lutheran
villages were established near by: Kapetanovo Polje,
Franjevac (Strižicevac), Mali Bastaji, Mlinska,
Pašijan and others. See All these new communities were
branch parishes of the Mother Church in Hrastovac. A
marriage could be performed only by the pastor of the
Mother Church in Hrastovac and therefore most of the
vital events of the branch parishes are registered in
the Hrastovac church books.
By 1914 the ill winds swept not only
over all of Europe but all of the world. Our Hrastovacer suffered badly with
the rest of the globe. The Habsburgs with their German allies lost the
war by 1918 and Austro-Hungary was now
divided on eight different countries. Hrastovac found itself with the new
order of things in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
It did not stop there. On 3rd of
October 1929 its king Alexander proclaimed that Kingdom of Yugoslavia
would replace the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, which was
established back on 1st of December 1918.
The turmoil in the Balkans and the world did not
end there however, and between 1941-1945 Hrastovac was now in a different state
again: The
Independent State of Croatia.
 |
This identification card of Johann
Ernst by the Independent State of Croatia was made in 1943. - Contributed by Philipp Jung
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The second page shows the personal descriptions:
|
Contributed by Philipp Jung. |
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This Danube Swabian village, like many other eastern
European ethnic Germanic settlements, came to an abrupt end
in 1944. Most of the villagers managed to flee out of the country ahead of the
Red Army,
leaving everything
behind. Many were not so lucky and ended up in Tito's
Starvation camps.
After the end of the Civil wars between the Croats and the Serbs
and the end of WWII Hrastovac found itself once again in a different political
entity: Yugoslavia. As the original Danube Swabian settlers were
expelled, the town was resettled by Tito's ex-partisans from Lika and with the
fishermen from the Dalmatian coast.
The descendants
of the Danube Swabian pioneers, who established the once vibrant town of
Hrastovac, live today all over the
Globe.
