The
Republic of Mucsi
(1946-1948)
Translated by Henry
A. Fischer
(This is my translation
of an article that appeared in a publication entitled, Three Hundred Years of
German Life in Hungary)
Of the four hundred
German Hungarian villages that came into being, Mucsi was located in the southern
part of Tolna County and unlike many of them, Mucsi was one of those that lost
almost its total Danube Swabian population through deportation after the Second
World War. It is almost unbelievable that a tragic-comedy took place there during
the chaotic activities of the recent new settlement of the village.
Like two dozen other villages in the county, Mucsi’s first German settlers came
from the region of Fulda
adjoining Hesse following the expulsion of the Turks in the 18th
century and that is the reason why they were called: Stifoller. This led
to the widespread public association of this name was with the tasty “Stifoller
salami” sausage, which was much beloved by the inhabitants throughout the area.
During the reconstruction of Tolna County various nationalities were involved
including Hungarians, Serbs and Germans. Many of the Hungarian peasant families
settled in the western and northern sections of the county on the most productive
soil in the region. For instance, the land on both sides of the Kapos River which
included the villages and towns of Dombovár, Dorkokez, Székely and also the area
around Ozora, Tamasi and Iregszemcse. In the uninhabited and hilly area on the
Hegykat and Volgyseg rivers, which was the almost mountainous area around Gyönk,
the majority of the ethnic German settlements in the county were to be found.
In the midst of the steep hills and mini-mountains of Tolna County, Mucsi’s
settlers found themselves eking out an existence from this rather step-motherly
soil in terms of its natural endowments. The backwardness of Hungary’s
agricultural industry was compounded by the half-feudal nature of society and the
authorities that controlled it that all had an effect on Mucsi. Among the most
prominent nobles who owned the estates in Tolna were the following families:
Batthyany, Dory, Montenuovo, Zichy and Eszterházy.
Prince Paul Eszterházy alone owned 32, 137 Katastraljoch (45,000 acres) of land
in Tolna County around Ujdombovar. From among the oldest and most well known
Hungarian noble families were the Apponyis who were the owners of Mutsching
(as the inhabitants referred to Mucsi) and who also worked a large part of their
own land holdings on their estates.
The population of Mucsi consisted of small landowners, cottage owners
(tradesmen), day labourers, servants and maids. Most families owned about 5
Katastraljoch of land. In the community, the Hungarians were exclusively from the
upper class, and the ethnic Germans formed the middle class. For the cottage
owners, who had no land there was little chance of advancing themselves due to the
lack of work possibilities. Many of the servants (hired hands) earned their
living in faraway villages. Over half of the girls at the age of twelve hired
themselves out to rich families in the towns. The Mucsingers were known
throughout the area as wooden shoemakers and cattle breeders. The village with a
population of 2,300 was famous by the end of the 19th century because
of Mucsi’s local grown wines that won a gold medal at the World’s Fair in Vienna
in 1902. During a study of soil quality in 109 villages in Tolna County, Mucsi
placed 91st. Worse soil could only be found in other nearby Swabian
villages: Mórágy, Závod, Lengyel, Duzo, Szálka, and Bátaapáti (the lowest on the
scale). One of the common features among these villages was the loss of topsoil
through constant erosion. In this hilly area it was not possible to use machinery
and fertilizers, and had to rely on backward agricultural methods instead.
In the six years of elementary school, the pupils only developed rudimentary
knowledge. They learned neither the German or Hungarian language correctly.
Their ‘Type C’ school (a designation the Hungarian Department of Education gave it
because they included several hours of German each week) did not actually provide
the students with much outside of basic reading and writing skills. Before the
time of the Bund (the Nazi influenced local German Folk and Cultural Society) the
local populace was not allowed to give expression to their ethnic German
nationality or satisfy their need to maintain their Danube Swabian identity. The
people were raised in a strict Catholic conservative spirit. The upper classes
kept them in their place and in that way they were easier to control and they
could rule over them. In terms of politics and economics they only had meagre
information to inform their discussions and thinking. The traditional Hungarian
nobles formed the upper class and were in control and were highly influenced by
the spirit of Trianon, (The Peace Treaty after the war that dismembered Hungary
forcing it to surrender vast territories to Romania and the new state of
Yugoslavia and losing large portions of its Hungarian population) their feudal
concepts and rights as the aristocracy and formed alliances with the emerging
urban middle class and ruled politically and ideologically while the farmers and
urban classes struggled against want.
The common people were left to themselves, with no spiritual or political
leaders in their own ranks. The villagers of Mucsi thought “Hungary” and
“Hungarian” even when they spoke German.
The political scene and transitions that took place in Mucsi in the time
between the two world wars was much like it was in most of the Danube Swabian
communities. The population had to live through the great wave of Magyar
nationalism, the youth had to participate in the para-military Hungarian Levente
movement. In the village, a chapter of Bleyer’s UDV (Ungarn Deutsche Verein:
German Hungarian Association) was organized. (Formerly it had been the Catholic
Literary Society). After its dissolution in the summer of 1940 the Bund replaced
it and a large portion of the population was won to its cause because of its
political, economic and cultural objectives and promises. With regard to the
ideology, or having an understanding of National Socialism (Nazism) the local
members knew just about nothing about it. A simple minded Bund membership was
easy to deceive as Nazis themes and strains worked their way into the program of
the local chapters. The Hungarians and the other nationalities were just as
susceptible to Nazi ideology as were the ethnic Germans, because false gods easily
manipulate us when we begin to worship them. Because there were so few people
with an education or an understanding of their own history in Hungary there was no
one to call the Bund to account or dare to question it. At the beginning of 1943
things began to change, especially in terms of the community’s political
attitudes. It resulted from the reverses of the Nazis on the eastern front and as
the death notices began to arrive in households and they suddenly realized that
they had been taken in by the Bund and their promises. In 1943 half of the
members withdrew from the Bund organization in Mucsi. This political landslide
was associated with the organization of the True to Our Homeland Movement begun
and organized by the German Hungarians in Bonyhad. By the end of the war the
overwhelming majority of the population of Mucsi had joined the new rival
movement. Mucsi was one of the bastions of the movement in Hungary. One form
that their opposition to the Bund took was the establishment of totally Hungarian
schools in which the language of instruction was Hungarian in totally German
speaking villages.
Mucsi welcomed with the joy the ending of the war that had claimed the lives of
151 of the villagers. They assumed that a democratic system of government would
be put into effect and that social equality and guarantees to the various
nationalities and their rights would be protected. But these years following the
war did not bring freedom for the people of Mucsi, instead it was deportation to
forced labour in the Soviet Union, confiscation of the houses and land and
internment for many. As a result of the reparations Hungary was forced to make to
the Soviet Union, many of the younger people of Mucsi were taken to Russia for
forced labour, others were chosen to do slave labour in Hungary, and still others
were interned in the camp at Lengyel in Tolna County for weeks and months on end.
But the greatest shock of all was the expulsion.
Some forty families living in the village that had claimed that they were
Hungarian by nationality in the census of 1941 were allowed to remain. As for all
of the rest of the local population, they were to be expelled from Hungary and
that would be carried out in three phases. The first transport left Mucsi on June
2nd, 1946. Another on the 5th of June followed and the
final phase on June 7th. For that purpose lists were posted at the
school and village community centre that contained the names of those to be
expelled. With the beating of drums the populace was assembled and they were
handed their expulsion papers. In spite of all of that life went on in Mucsi as
the expulsion dates drew near. Some simply continued to work in their fields to
the last minute, watered he vineyards, feed their livestock for the last time, and
left additional food for the next few days as if they were just going away for a
day or two. They had about a two-week warning of the expulsion. Each person was
allowed baggage of up to 80 kilos. Their clothes, food, bedding and such were
wrapped up in blankets or they made small wooden containers.
On the day of the expulsion the whole village was in uproar and in deep
mourning. The wagons with the deportees on board along with their luggage formed
a long column. All of the bells in the church steeple began to toll. Many people
prayed the rosary. Others wept. Some ran into the church for one last quick
prayer, others kissed the walls of the church, or they took a handful of earth
from the cemetery at the graves of loved ones, as a reminder of “home”. But over
and over again there were scenes of painful and tearful goodbyes as relatives,
neighbours and friends parted. Horse and oxen drawn wagons brought the deportees
to the train station in neighbouring Kurd. There they were loaded in cattle cars
and they began the journey into the unknown. Were they going east or west? In
each cattle car there were thirty to forty persons and their baggage. The bundles
and boxes were used to sit on during the day and they slept on them at night. A
hole was drilled in the floor as something to use to meet bodily functioning needs
or if you were fortunate you could find a bush to hide behind during a stop the
train made. There was no way you could wash. Several women from one car would
cook for the whole group when the train stopped for that purpose. Usually it was
soup: bean, potato, einbrenn. Along with that there was sausage, bacon, and hams
from home. The trip took three weeks.
When they arrived in Germany they were placed in a camp. There was very little
living space. The biggest job for everyone was to find work and a place to live.
At that time all of Germany experienced hunger and homelessness. These
“foreigners”, whose costume, speech and habits were different, were not always
well received by the local German population. Some of the homeowners were forced
to take in the “Hungarians” who the locals referred to as the Hungarian Gypsies.
As a result of the three transports in June of 1946, Mucsi lost 90% of its
Danube Swabian inhabitants. The remaining ethnic German population believed that
they would be able to remain at home. But soon there had to be place made for the
new settlers coming from Slovakia. In August 1947, this led to a further
expulsion. For the powers that be at the time it was immaterial and irrelevant
that these last deportees had given Hungarian as their nationality and German as
their mother tongue in the census of 1941 and many of them were the most vocal
leaders against the Bund. They had established the True to Homeland Movement in
the village and had been the founders of the Hungarian school. The only issue
that counted was the fact that they owned land or a house. The expulsion was
carried out quickly by common agreement that included the local press. This final
expulsion took the Swabians by complete surprise. On August 23, 1947 police
officers surrounded Mucsi in order to capture all of the remaining Danube
Swabians. It was a terrible sight to see. People were driven like cattle, many
of them elderly and were tossed up on the trucks waiting for them. A few families
still managed to escape and hid in the vineyards or meadows, neighbouring
Hungarian villages or homes, where they remained for weeks and months, sleeping in
haylofts. Some went to Budapest to hide there. All of the property and
possessions of the expellees was confiscated.
On January 28, 1948 some twenty-five to thirty families were taken by surprise
at night, awakened and made to dress and were given half an hour to pack some
necessities. But no one could have more than 5 kilos. As a result of this there
were some terrible consequences. In case of one family only the parents were
taken and had to leave their 17-year-old son and 3 and half year old daughter
behind. In another family, three siblings including a 7-year-old boy (the author)
were expelled, but the parents and grandparents were kept behind because the
father was sick.
On March 21, 1948 the last expulsion took place in Mucsi. Of the five hundred
families living in the 478 houses, only 24 families remained. There is no other
example quite like it anywhere else in Hungary.
Even before the expulsion of the Danube Swabians of Mucsi, the re-settlement
began. A few Hungarian families arrived in the village having fled Yugoslavia as
refugees. The major arrival of new residents occurred after the ethnic Germans
were expelled in June, 1946. The Hungarian settlers had found out about the
possibility of settling in Mucsi from the political parties or other nationalist
organizations or read about it in the newspapers.
Large numbers of the Hungarian families who settled in Mucsi were locksmiths,
shoemakers and bakers; mostly tradesmen and craftsmen but unfortunately none of
them were farmers. Most of them came from the south-eastern county of Békés. Land
poor and just poor families from nearby villages also settled in the Mucsi. One
day later more than a dozen Hungarian families from the north eastern counties
moved in, mostly from Heves County from the villages of Kal, Parad and
Trarnalelesz. At the same time colonists came from Bikar. In Mucsi, settlers
from 32 different areas were settled, who represented some 60 different
occupations, but most of them had no background or knowledge of farm work or
agriculture. Many of them arrived by wagon with a team of horses or oxen, while
others came by truck. Some who were not content with what Mucsi had to offer left
after spending ten minutes in the village.
A newspaper in Tolna carried an article in its February 14, 1968 edition
entitled: “The Republic of Mucsi” and refers to
happenings in Mucsi in 1946.
“For a long time Mucsi was a state within a state,
even though due to some rather clever politicking no ministerial titles were
awarded. Mucsi was a republic in which many naive, dramatic and cheerful
conflicts summed up its life together. As a consequence a legend has resulted and
Mucsi is a byword for liberation. Raising a white flag the new settlers announced
that they had capitulated and gave up their sovereignty of Mucsi. The native born
at that time were the subjects and the new settlers who due to the fact that they
were from every other section of the country had come here to find their destiny
in trying their luck at being the rulers.
Even though there is no official documentation covering the
years 1946 to 1950 Mucsi has been resettled by some 42,000 persons and just as
many people have forsaken the place. This would make it equal to a major city in
southern Transdanubia.
This almost hidden community lures settlers like a California
gold strike! One would almost believe it was the land of Canaan: large hams hang
in the food lockers, there are barrels and barrels of wine in the cellars worth
much gold, in the pig pens fat hogs root around and the houses beckon you with
their well furnished rooms and all of this is yours just for the asking! One
would be led to believe that all you had to do was harvest the wheat and find
yourself a real El Dorado.
In June of 1946 to all intents and purposes the village was
deserted. Just the many valuables were left behind. All you had to do is walk in
and sit down and it was yours. In the hope of striking it rich, hordes of
settlers from all parts of the country arrived in Mucsi, even from Budapest and
other cities, people from the underworld living a precarious existence, among them
graphologists, extravagant city slickers from rich neighbourhoods in Budapest,
sword and sabre rattlers, professional card players and gamblers, unemployed
visionaries, exiled Seventh Day Adventist preachers, Arrow Cross fanatics, war
criminals and all kinds of other people. And from the southern Batschka there are
heroes and hired hands that take over the houses, goods and properties of the
Danube Swabians.
Everyone tries to live according to his own rules. In the
tavern run by Stefan Binder and Joseph Kerterz the drinking sessions on workdays
and Sundays begin early in the morning and last until late at night. Most of the
heads of wheat fall to the ground because the new settlers only harvested one
hundred Klafters (a quarter acre) because they believed that should last them at
least a year. At the time of gathering in the grapes the sabre rattlers and the
professional card players rode into the vineyards on horseback, accompanied by a
Gypsy orchestra, also on horses. This golden life attracted and lured some 42,000
people to Mucsi.
The village lived like a Republic all on its own right in the
middle of the County. It even had its own little king.
Often it had its own local unrest. The people grabbed hoes and
shovels and headed for the community centre. They held the teacher and all of the
local officials in custody and practically all of the other people who wanted to
obey the law and kept the whole group in constant fear.
In this kind of chaos and confusion it was not that difficult to
get around the law. The new settlers sold 250 of the houses and just as many
outhouses were torn down at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s.
The lumber was sold for ridiculous prices and delivered all across the
countryside.
During these times all of the decent law abiding families,
whether old time residents or new settlers were the absolute minority. They had
no say in anything.
At the beginning of the 1950s things became clearer. The
cleverest among them saw they needed to do something about the way things were
going. No one was coming to replace them anymore, because it was not to anyone’s
advantage to do so. The cellars and food lockers were now empty and bare. The
only way to survive now was to work…
There are still some older people who remember how the police
set the sheriff of the County free and the villagers raised the white flag and
surrendered. But the young people in Hungary today believe this is only a
fairy-tale.
Meanwhile advertisements are being run in newspapers in south
western Germany inviting would be new settlers to come and meet the challenge of
finding new opportunities in Hungary. Apparently there have been a few inquires
from Fulda.
