November 18, 2004 
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The situation after 568 C.E. is quite contentious among modern historians. For some, the area was empty, a res nullius, and hence its sole legitimate possessors are the Slavic tribes that followed after the Germans left. But archaeological finds--important for the centuries when few written records were created, and even fewer survived--and the transmission of Germanic place names, show that several thousand Germans remained. But they were likely assimilated by the Slavs over the next three centuries, when the area payed tribute to the Turkic Avars. The Avars were beaten by the Frankish Empire of Karl der Grosse (Charlemagne) in the Awar Wars from 791 and 803 C.E. To secure the area, the Franks founded several castles and villages in the Zips, notably on the site of Arnoldsdorf (slv. Arnutovce) and Toppertz (from Theudeberts), Mengsdorf and Lautschburg. From what is known from other Eastern areas with Frankish border defense villages, these were inhabited not only by German soldier-farmers, but by Christianized Slavs as well. After the 9th century, very little is known about the Zips for the next two centuries. Wild Magyar horsemen tumbled down the Carpathian passes in the late 9th century and conquered an area even larger than the Avar Empire: The great Pannonian plain, and the mountains around it, from Croatia in the South to Upper Hungary (future Slovakia) in the North and Transylvania in the East.
In 907 the Magyars beat the German army decisively. In 991, the Bavarian duke Heinrich der Zaenker (the quarrelsome) destroyed the Magyar army. In between, the few German villages left by the Carolingians in the 9th century may or may not have perished. No document telling us survived. After the Magyars became Christians, they wanted to develop their kingdom into a modern state. But they were few in numbers. Their slavic bondsmen were not numerous either after 4 centuries of constant warfare. And neither group was accustomed to live in cities, nor experienced in crafts and mining. The Magyars did not effectively incorporate the Zips till the mid-11th century, when they built their Gyepü (border stripes) settlements for border soldiers (landzsasok) , and the North only in the late 12th. .
2. The First German Settlers: In old Hungary, save for a small area of "clan land" taken by the seven Magyar clans at the time of conquest, the kind owned the kingdom, most of which was unsettled in the early middle ages, (the entire population of the Hungarian kingdom is estimated at 200,000 souls in the 10th century), both as king and as lord. Subjects on that land, whether nobles or non-nobles, only "owned" the hereditary right to use a certain piece of land, subject to annual payments, or military service in the case of tax-exempt nobles. The king could either remain the direct lord of a settled area, which then was a "crown land," and the peasants would pay to him both the taxes owed to him as king, and the rent owed to him as lord, for the right to till the land. Or he could assign his feudal rights to a noble, to whom the peasants owed rent. In exchange, the nobleman owed military service and had to do all the administrative work for the king for that area. To transform the forest into tax-producing farms, the Hungarian kings distributed much land to nobles, who then tried to get settlers. Some areas became royal cities (koenigliche Freistaedte) that is received charters giving them autonomy and putting them forever under direct royal rule. Most cities had lesser rights--generally they were autonomous in their administration, their burghers were not serfs, but often they were subjected to the obligation to pay rent to nobles. There was no uniform code then, each group of city-founders was able to negotiate more or less rights for their city.
Well documented is the settlement of Germans in the Zips County (Szepes Megye) during the reign of Geza II (r. 1142-1161) and especially Andreas II (r. 1204-1235). In contrast to the Germans of the Hauerland and Pressburg, whose dialect points to bavarian-franconian origins, the Upper Zipser dialect points to Northwest Germans (Lower Rhineland, Flanders) but who had settled first in neighboring Silesia. In specific cases, settlers came from other German areas as well, as in Eisdorf, whose inhabitants were brought from the Eisacktal in South Tyrol by their Lord, Bishop Ekbert of Andechs-Meran, who owned land in South Tyrol and in the Zips. He also brought settlers from his lands around Bamberg, whose bishop he was, such as to the lower Zips, the Zipser Gruende, where the children of the Upper Zips Germans intermingled with the Bavarian-Franconian miners. The dialect of the Lower Zips is quite different from that of the Upper Zips, while the area around Lublau, including Hopgarten, spoke a Silesian German dialect. Their villages had been settled by the Piasts from Krakau in Poland, until the border was set.
In the Zips, the first great landholder known to posterity was the above-named Ekbert of Andechs-Meran. His sister Gertrud was the wife of King Andreas II. Ekbert received from the king a large chunk of the Zips around Gross-Lomnitz and Eisdorf. Ekbert then granted the land to the Zipser abbot Adolf, whose sister was married with the knight Rutker von Matrei, the ancestor of the noble houses of Berzeviczy and Tharczay. The Berczeviczy family received from the king further lands in the Zips and founded the villages of Bierbrunn, Landeck, Altendorf, Katzwinkel and many others. By 1241, about 4,000 people lived in the Zips, mainly German settlers, plus about 1,000 Magyar border guards and their Slovak bondsmen. The Mongol invasion of 1241 (Mongolensturm) destroyed most of the settlements, German and Magyar, as well archives. In the Zips, a century of work was destroyed, and about half of the people killed by the Mongols. The others survived a heroic siege on the Zufluchtsstein (Stone of Refuge, Lapis Refugii), a fortified mountain plateau near Gross-Schlagendorf, under their commander Jordan von Gargau, ancestor of the locally important noble family of Görgey.
By now, the Kings of Hungary were more interested in making this important border area well-populated. Slovak peasants were settled from the neighboring Komitats. So were many new German settlers, called by King Bela IV (r. 1235-1270). Together with the survivors, they rebuilt the cities and villages. Having performed heroically during the Mongol invasion, Jordan received the old Carolingian village of Toppertz as seat, and went on to found in the 13th century Malthern, Schoenwald, Kreig, Scheuerberg, and Bauschendorf, as well as the mixed Slavic-German village of Windschendorf (windisch=Slavic) .
Hungary was divided in counties, administered by a Gespann and a county legislature made up of the local nobles. In 1271, 24 German cities of the Zips were consolidated into a German autonomous area, the Zipser Staedtebund (city league) within the Zips county, which remained autonomous till 1876 from the royal county administration of Zips Megye, to which it continued to belong otherwise. In that area of the Zips, the king remained Lord, or had become Lord again in the troubled time after the Mongol invasion. The Federation, for the annual payment of 300 Marks (one mark was about a half-pound) of pure silver and 50 soldiers, plus free food for the king and his court should they visit, was freed from further financial obligations towards the king--but not the nobles if their land was on land that was part of a noble estate. The original 24 cities owed no rent to area nobles. An important concession was that the governor of the autonomous area, the Zipser Staedtebund, the count of the Zips, (Zipser Graf), was not appointed by the king but elected for life by an assembly of county notables, city mayors and priests. The name remained though their number (including larger villages) grew to 43 by 1312, some of which were on noble land. Kesmark left the Bund in 1350, when it became a royal free city. The rights of these cities were codified in the "Zipser Willkür" in 1370 by king Ludwig I.
As a result, the county of the Zips, after its borders were set in the 14th century having 3,605 km2 (1,442 sq. miles), was split into several distinct administrative areas. These were the self-governing Lanzentraeger villages, 10 of them (with 29 hamlets), with its Magyar nobles, the royal free cities of Leutschau and Kesmark, and the the Saxon province with its 24 cities (of which 13 where mortgaged to Poland from 1412-1772). The Lanzenträger lost their autonomie in 1804, the Zipser cities in 1802, and the two royal free cities in 1876.
The original 24 cities of the Zipser Städtebund were Zipser Bela, Leibitz, Menhard, Georgenberg, Deutschendorf, Michelsdorf, Wallendorf, Zipser Neudorf, Rissdorf, Felka, Kirchdrauf, Matzdorf, Durlsdorf (these 13 cities were mortgaged to Poland from 1412-1772), Muehlenbach, Gross-Schlagendorf, Eisdorf, Donnersmark, Schmoegen, Sperndorf, Kabsdorf, Kirn, Palmsdorf, Eulenbach, and Dirn. In addition, there were five free royal cities, Leutschau, Zeben, Bartfeld, Eperies, Kaschau, joined in 1350 by Kesmark. In the Southern Zips, seven German cities formed the "Sieben Oberungarische Bergstädte" (Seven Upper Hungarian Mining Towns' League), that is Zipser Neudorf, (which also belonged to the 24-City League), Goellnitz, Schmoellnitz, Rosenau, Jossau, Rudau and Telken.
Only about half of Zips county belonged to the Zipser Town Federation. The other half, inhabited by Magyars, Germans and Slovaks, remained under the standard state administration, paying taxes to the king plus rent in cash and kind to the feudal lord who had received rights to it from the king. Soon the Zipser cities were to follow. For in 1412, king Sigismund needed a large amount of cash quickly, and borrowed it from the king of Poland. The loan was secured by mortgaging the tax income of 13 of the 24 members of the Zipser Städte Bund, including Zipser Bela, and the three cities belonging to the royal estate of Alt-Lublau (Alt-Lublau, Pudlein and Kniesen; these were old German cities but rather assimilated by Slavs by the 15th century). The mortgaged cities legally continued to belong to Hungary, but were administered by Polish officials headquartered in the castle of Alt-Lublau. The Polish administration lasted till 1772. The legal status of the cities mortgaged to the Polish king remained "frozen" as it was in 1412; they remained free from feudal dues to a lord. But this mortgaging weakened the power of the 11 remaining Zipser cities, most of which became in the 16th century part of feudal estate of the Zipser castle, having now to pay not only taxes to the king but also feudal dues to the noble family the king appointed to govern the Zips, after 1636 the Csaky family. When the 13 cities and the 3 cities of the estate of Alt-Lublau were redeemed in 1772, they could not be reunified anylonger with their 11 sister cities because their legal status was now so different. Rather, the 16 mortgaged cities became a new Bund der 16 Zipser Städte, which lasted under its autonomy was abolished in 1876.
In 1526, the Hungarian army was destroyed at Mohacs, and its king died on the battlefield, betrayed by the selfish nobles who opposed his plans to streamline administration and curtail their powers. The Hungarian capital was moved to Pressburg. The hungarian nobles then elected the Habsburgs, who were dukes of Austria and other territories, as well as elected Emperors of Germany, also hereditary kings of Hungary.
3. Lost of Majority due to War and the Plague: The German population majority declined proportionally to Slavic inhabitants beginning with the 15th century. There was the devastation left by the Czech Hussites in the 15th century, the Turkish border warfare in the 16th and 17th centuries, religious strife between Protestants and the Catholic monarch (who were Emperors as Emperors of Germany--there was no Emperor of Austria until 1803--and kings of Hungary), and the civil wars between pro- and anti-Habsburg nobles. The latter had religious overtones as well, since the anti-Habsburg forces were often Calvinists and prepared to tolerate Lutherans (usually Carpathian Germans) while the armies of the German--but more importantly, Catholic-- monarch, killed them as heretics. In 1606, the Emperor-King allowed religious freedom to Protestants, but this promise was not respected by his sharply Catholic successors. This, together with other issues, led to uprisings led by mainly Calvinist noblemen, with the support of the Lutheran German cities--with the Turks always looming in the background. After an uprising by Emmerich Thököly, Emperor Leopold I granted in 1681 at the Landtag of Oedenburg a limited religious toleration. Protestants as such were allowed to exist. But they were discriminated in their right to hold public office, and could have only 2 churches per county (the so-called Articularkirchen, from article 26 of the Treaty). These had to be entirely from wood (even no nails allowed) and outside the city walls, too--probably so that the Turks could burn them easily during raids. There was a last, terrible convulsion in the area from 1683 to 1711. In 1683, the Turkish army laid siege to Vienna, was beaten back with enormous loss of life, and by 1699 forced out of most of Hungary. Upper Hungary was now free from the threat of Turkish raids. Flush with victory, Leopold I rued his promise of 1681 and began again to persecute Protestants. The Protestants revolted in 1703 until 1711, when in the peace of Szathmar the toleration of 1681 was confirmed. The Carpathian German cities were very hard hit by these wars, and also by the plague, with that of 1710 killing perhaps 7,000 Zipser, again more in the cities. In the 17th century, most Catholic village priests (badly paid by the state, and ill-educated) were Slovaks who promoted their language among the villagers under their charge The Tax Census of 1720 showed, according to Joerg Hoensch, (2001) that Magyars were still only 4% of the local population, but Germans now only a small majority, and the rest Slovaks and Ruthenes. By 1790, the Slavs had even become a slight majority. In 1781, Emperor Joseph II in 1781 issued an edict of general religious tolerance for all Lutherans in Hungary. He also encouraged some immigration from the overpopulated Southwest of Germany to the Zips. But he also ordered in 1783 that all artisans, notwithstanding their religion or ethnicity, should be made burghers, which threatened the cultural cohesion of those cities that were still German and restricted burghership to ethnic Germans, and Magyars and Slovaks willing to intermarry and assimilate into the German people. At the same time, the overpopulation of the farming areas led many Zipser to emigrate to the Bukowina, such as the area of Zibau, where Zipser German was spoken till World War II, and the Karpato-Ukaine/Maramures area, notably the areas of Wischau and Sighet, and the Wassertal (Valea Vaser).
For example, Karpfen, one of the oldest German cities in the lower Zips, whose "Saxones de Corpona" were noted in documents as early as 1135, was destroyed by the Mongols, rebuilt, flourished, and then was destroyed by the Hussites of Jan Jiskra in the late 15th century. After the Hussites had been kicked out, to rebuild the city, non-Germans were allowed to become burghers, too. The first larger group of Slovaks moved into the city. Then came the Turkish wars. In 1566, Turkish raiders killed 2 burghers and took 44 into slavery; in 1570, 20 burghers working their fields were killed; another attack happened in 1578, and in 1582 over 200 Karpfen burghers were led into slavery. For a small city, these continuous losses were hard to make up. By 1611, Karpfen had a Magyar as mayor. In 1650, only 11 German children and 87 Slovak children were born. In 1673, the German Lutheran minister left the town, because the flock had become too small to support him. By 1740, Matthias Bel reported that only a few very old people remembered that the city once had German inhabitants.
In 1847, the census counted 191,523 people in the Zips, of which 63,833 were Germans, 2,043 Jews, 500 (!) Magyars, 98,951 Slovaks and 26,196 Ruthenians. The Germans, excluding Jews, were 33.3% of the population. But after 1867, the urban Germans increasingly became Magyars, owing to the pressure of "magyarization" laws. In 1880, the census counted 172,881 people in the Zips. Of these 48,169 were German, 96,274 were Slovaks, 5,941 Jews, 16,158 were Ruthenians, and 3,526 Magyars. By 1910, the total number of inhabitants was 171,725 people, of which 38,434 were Germans, 7,475 Jews, 97,077 Slovaks, 12,327 Ruthenian, and 18,658 Magyar. Most of these Magyars were former Germans. A good example of the ethnic change was Zipser Bela, where, without any "ethnic cleansing," from 1880 to 1890 the number of Germans fell by 19 percent, from 1890 to 1900 by another 8.3 percent, and from 1900 to 1910 by another 13.5 percent while the number of Magyars exploded. (From Ladislaus Guszak, in Karpatenpost February 1969, p. 4, based on census data in Dr. Erich Fausel, Das Zipser Deutschtum, Jena, Germany, 1927, p. 111).
The small German cities in the Zips looked like this picture of the Wintergasse in Zipser Bela, in the 1920s.
4. Burghers and Robots: Social Rank in the Zips: The local nobles tried from the 14th century onwards to become feudal lords of the remaining royal areas. They succeeded especially after 1526, when the new Habsburg kings desperatly needed the support of the nobles against the Turks. This included the remaining 11 cities of the Zipser federation. While the people of these little cities kept their local self-rule and were not made into serfs, (leibeigen) they now had to pay the king's annual rent to a noble family. The rent was raised substantially in the 16th century. The rent was due in cash and in kind (goods and unpaid labor, called the robot). The family Thurzo, hereditary county administrations (Obergespann) of the Zips after 1536, became the Grundherr (lord) of much of the Zips, including Eisdorf. They were succeeded in 1636 by the Csaky family, which had already owned several villages such as Eisdorf.
The Zips had legally, till 1848, three classes of people. The nobles owned the land and had a seat in the county legislature. They were tax exempt. The Buerger, or burghers, of the remaining free royal cities paid royal taxes collectively through these. Untertanen (subjects) were the peasants and artisans of the villages and small cities that had come under feudal rule. The most common occupation, even in the cities, was that of peasant, called a Untertan, Bauer, and in the 19th century a Landwirth. The Besiztlose, consisting of Hausleute, Kleinhaeusler, Mietsleute etc were people without enough land to live from farming. They eked out what their could from their garden plots and worked as laborers or itinerant laborers or peddlers.
Probably at the end of the 12th century, two villages were founded in the township of Eisdorf, Eisdorf and the hamlet of Klein-Eisdorf 3 km away. The first surviving mention of Eisdorf is from a charter of 1209. After the Mongol invasion of 1241 Eisdorf was rebuilt but Klein-Eisdorf not. Eisdorf belonged to the Zipser Staedtebund from the very beginning. Several historians believe that the settlers of Eisdorf came from the Eisacktal in South Tyrol, (Rudolf, 78) including the ancestors of my own mother's family, the Alexy (then called Haering). Eisdorf belonged to the Zipser Bund, which means that the village, which had at its heyday at most 500 people, had city status. The township of Eisdorf since the middle ages had an area of 3635 Joch (a Joch has 5700 square meters, an acre 4040, a Joch is 1.41 acres). The village had an area of 5125 acres or about 8 square miles. By 1944, the distribution was 75% fields, 14% forests, the rest meadows, gardens and the village.
The Eisdorfer suffered from the catastrophes that shook the area. For non-nobles, life was not fun in a feudal society in the best of cases. But here, the Czech Hussites came and plundered and murdered in the 15th century. In the 16th, they were followed by the Ottoman Turks, who though stopped 20 miles south of Eisdorf, conducted regular raids northward until decisively beaten between 1686 and 1699. Eisdorf had become Lutheran in 1542. In 1672, the government banned Lutheran parishes. In November 1672, Imperial troops plundered the village, in February 1709 the rebel Kurutzen, and in May 1709 the troops of Prince Rakoczy. After that, enemy troops would not come to the village till 1945, though the young men had to suffer in far-away wars.
Eisdorf also suffered from devastating fires. The village has no riverfront or fire pond, and so fires could not be quenched in time. In 1717, 1869, 1873, 1882, 1892, 1919, 1927, 1931 and 1937, large chunks of the village burned, destroying also the stored harvest and creating famine. There also were illnesses and epidemics. In 1558, 1600, 1646 and 1710, the plague struck. In the year 1700, 73 men, 67 women and 25 children, or 165 people, a third of the village, died of the plague. The cholera was less deadly, but still...in 1831, 34 people died of the cholera, in 1855 44 people, in 1914 10 people.
2. The village economy
Even when the plague (Pest), Cholera and war did not threaten, the life of the Eisdorf peasant was not easy. Most of the villagers were Untertanen, the remainder Besitzlose. The peasants were differentiated according to whether they owned the rights to a full farm (64 Joch, that is 90 american acres, or 36.5 hectar), a half or a quarter farm. In 1821, there were 105 full and 28 half-sized farms. The peasants made fruit brandy and homespun linen. Otherwise, there were no crafts. However, in 1944, the village counted a carpenter, smith, merchant and innkeep.
The village had comparatively few meadows, and so there was not much cattle. The majority of grasslands was owned in common, with hay cut only once a year because the soil was poor. But geese and sheep, which could be feld in the scrubland, were kept in larger numbers. The fields were planted according to the three-fields rule, each peasant having a long strip in each third, the rotation of the crops (potatoes, wheat, then rye) being decided by the village elders. Every five years, to allow the thin soil to regenerate, all fields were used as pasture. After 1848 the farmers were not legally bound anylonger to cooperate in the three fields system, but continued to do so because this way of farming was necessary until fertilizers became more available--but they were not cheap.
In the 16th century, Eisdorf, like the other members of the Zipser Staedtebund that were not mortgaged to Poland, was now too weak to
protect its liberties, and was assigned to the estates of the noble family (Counts) Csaky. For the right to use a full farm (90 American
acres), a peasant family now owed the Csaky family annually until 1848:
In addition, each farm had to pay several kinds of taxes to the king/state, plus the tenth to the Catholic Church, which was the
state church, and a city tax. I'm still trying to understand the particulars of some of these taxes (Portengeld, notably):
4. Living on the farm The lifestyle of the village of my ancestors was rough. The climate did not allow large gardens. Hence, vegetables and fruit were uncommon at meals. As Adalbert Wannhof remembered from his youth in the 1930s, farmers breakfasted with hot sweet milk-coffee and bread and butter. There was a second, more substantial, breakfast at 9 AM. Food was simple. Because there were few meadows and gardenland, vegetables and milk were not plentiful. The staple for breakfast, lunch and dinner was the potato, cooked in ingenious ways, and served with bacon or some milk product.
Life was characterized by ceaseless labor to eke out a living from a harsh land, even after the Robot for count Csaky had ended. Houses were seen not as homes in a romantic sense, but as mere dwellings, with the limited resources being rather put into improving the stalls rather than the living room. After the large farms began to be subdivided, the large homes became cramped--even though the number of villagers dwindled. Usually, the large farmsteads were inhabited by the parents and several adult children, including married children.
Looking at old birth registers, it is noticable that many births up to the 1930s were stillbirths, because pregnant women worked as long as they could on the fields. The birthrate began to drop after the 1880s, with the average number of children born to a married woman surviving her entire fertility cycle dropping from the usual 10 to 15 of the mid-19th century to 5 to 8. Below a picture from the 1930s.
5. Population:
In 1700, the population was about 500 people.
In 1921, the census counted 608 people, of which 582 were German, 10 Slovaks, 4 Magyars, 2 ethnic Jews and 10 others.
By religion, 420 were Lutherans, 167 Catholics, 2 Jewish.
In 1930, the census counted 641 people. Of these 624 were German, 10 Slowaks, 2 Magyars, 3 ethnic Jews, 2 other. By religion,
428 were Lutheran, 207 Catholic, 3 Jewish, 3 other.
6. For the Spirit: Churches and Schools: The Catholic St Nicolas' church was built in the 13th century, (oft modified) and has parish registers beginning with 1672. Many Eisdorfer became Lutheran in 1542. The list of all Lutheran ministers has been kept. But Catholicism was the state religion. Until 1782, Lutherans could worship only in a few churches. Births and death of Lutherans in Eisdorf were registered at the Catholic parish until 1782, then at the Lutheran church was in nearby Menhardsdorf (Vrbov). Around 1830, a Lutheran church was built in Eisdorf, and a parish book begun in 1850. For a list of archival material, see below.
In the 19th century, the two parishes organized parish grade schools. In the 20th century, a kindergarten was built as well.
There were not many societies. There was a Lutheran Maennergesangverein (male glee club) and a relief society (Bruderverein). Every 24th June, St John's Day, the "brothers" shared the "Bruderbier." In city hall, there was a small public library with smoking room, the "Casino." Young men also joined the volunteer firefighters.
Not much is known about the Jews of Eisdorf. Their births and deaths were not recorded in either the Catholic or Lutheran records. Until Jewish emancipation in the mid-19th century, Jews were confined to small trading and peddling, and moneylending, and Eisdorf was too small to host a larger, permanent group of such Jewish residents, unlike nearby Hunsdorf, from whence Jewish peddlers came to Eisdorf for business. In the late 19th-early 20th century, some stayed long enough to have children born in Eisdorf, though most did not stay long in the village, according to Yad Vashem records online. In 1858 Eduard Low was born to Ernestina Low, no father named. He then lived in Deutschendorf/Poprad. Other Jewish births listed for Eisdorf/Zips were Jakob Winkler (1880), Andre Ben Yirmiyahu (1888), Schlomo Bugler (1905), Jakob (1901) and Margita (1910), Feuermann, children of Tzvi and Zhana Feuermann, who seem to have been long-term residents, Malvina Friedmann (1918), Laszlo Bass (1921). Also, Iliya Langer was a merchant in Eisdorf till 1944. I welcome any more details about the history of Jews in Eisdorf and Zipser Bela.
7. The End after 800 Years: Slovakia became independent in March 1939. In the great European civil war between the two ideologies, its leaders allied themselves with Hitler, who was not yet a mass-murderer in 1939, rather than with Stalin, who had already murdered 15 to 20 million men, women and children by that time. The Slovak Army participated in the campaign against Poland and then against the Soviet Union. Until 1943, when a German defeat appeared possible, few Slovaks had complaints about that alliance, despite what their official history claims today.
But as the tide of war turned, in Summer 1944, there was a Communist-led partisan revolt in Central Slovakia. Over 3,000 ethnic Germans were massacred. The uprising failed. Yet, as the Soviet Army rolled nearer, Carpathian German civilians were evacuated. The children of Eisdorf were evacuated to Austria on September 21, 1944, led by their teachers, the boys to Glognitz and the girls to Rabenstein. On January 10, most women and old men were evacuated with the last trains from the railroad station in Kaesmark. On January 23, the 85 men who had stayed packed their belongings on 55 carts, with 112 horses, and began a long trek through the snow-covered and wolf- and partisan-infested countryside until they reached Bischofsteinitz in the Sudetenland on February 25, having trekked for 350 miles. Once the fighting was over, they expected to be able to return to their little village.
But when the war was over, the great self-anointed humanitarians who fought the "good war" allowed the Czech government to torture some, kill others, and ethnically cleanse all of them from their homes of 800 years. Today, Eisdorf only survives in the memories of families who live in the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria, the United States and Canada.
[To the top of the Webpage] 8. Sources: Rudolf, Rainer, Pater, et alii, Zipser Land und Leute, (Vienna, Austria: Karpatendeutsche Landsmannschaft 1982), esp. 45-60. Wanhoff, Adalbert. "Eisdorf, ein deutsches Dorf in der Oberzips," Karpatenjahrbuch 1990, 77-88.
Church Records:
For further research, the church records of Eisdorf and Menhard have been microfilmed by the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). The Eisdorf
records, 1850-1944 are on films 1791927 and 1791928. The first pages of the birth records are missing, unfortunatly. The records for the Lutheran
church of Menhard cover Eisdorf till 1850. The microfilm for Menhard is 1791920 and 1791921. Alas, the marriage records are entirely missing
until the 1860s, so that no Eisdorf marriage until 1850 can be perused on the microfilm. Also, while otherwise neatly written, the records before
1850 do not indicate any house numbers, which, since many cousins marry, makes identifying families difficult at times.
The Lutheran ministers were Rev. Johann Schönwiesner (Schönviszner) from 1851 to 1868, followed for a short time by Jacob Ganovsky (who I think was minister in Menhard) until in 1868 Rev. Julius Szekely became minister. He was succeeded by Rev. Andor Nikelsky till about 1902, Rev. Gustav Hajso, and then by Rev. Eduard Hönsch around 1920 who remained until the End.
The Eisdorf Catholic parish registers, which except for the 1840s were not microfilmed, have been photocopied and put into a database by John Long, in Seatle, Washington. For more information, contact him at John Long
Strangely enough, parts of the church archives for Eisdorf, Bierbrunn, as well as Deutschendorf and Niederschwaben, have ended up in
Russia, at the Military Archives, ul. Wyborgskaya, Moscow, and are finally accessible to the public there. The Fonds Number
is 1295, Religious Organizations. The web catalog is available at
Moscow Sonderarchiv
A dancing song from the Zips
From Karpatenpost June 1968, p. j1.
Wu gejst hin, wu gejst hin, du schworzes Porailchen?
En die Mihl, en die Mihl, mein liebes Frailchen.
Wos sollst du en der Mihl, du schworzes Porailchen?
Mohln, mohln, mohln, mohln, mohln, mein liebes Frailchen.
Wos sollst med Mahl dank tun, du schworzes Porailchen?
Of mein Hochz, of mein Hochz, mein liebes Frailchen.
Wann wed dein schejn Hochz sein, du schworzes Porailchen?
Wanns Mihlchen pfeift, 's Korn a"uch reift, mein liebes Frailchen.
My ancestors in/from Eisdorf were, starting with my Opi (grandfather) as 1st generation:
1st Generation:
Desider Paul ALEXY (x 24 May 1905 Bierbrunn, + 24 May 1963 Stuttgart/Germany)
married 23 Jan. 1931 in Pressburg
Martha BOEHM (x 23 Jan. 1911 Pressburg, + 12 Aug. 2001 Stuttgart)
The couple had three children, 11 grandchildren (including yours truly) and 20 great-grandchildren as of 2001.
Desider Alexy was ordained in 1928, and served as priest for diaspora communities such as in Hedwig-Bries, where he initiated their German school house. He became minister in Ratzersdorf in 1932, and in 1941 head of the Diakonissen-Anstalt in Pressburg, while serving as secretary of the new German Evangelical Church in Slovakia, under bishop Johann Scherer. In Pressburg, he was also active in the foundation of the Deutscher Kulturverband in 1925, and the Karpatendeutsche Partei in 1930. He remained its regional chairman till 1939. He was inactive in the DP, whose Nazi-orientation he opposed. After the war he co-founded the Hilfskommittee der evang.-luth. Karpatendeutschen, which he chaired from 1946 to his death in 1963, while being also vice-speaker of the KDL and chairman of its Baden-Wuerttemberg state organization. He was also active in many other ways, chairing this and initiating that, such as the Karpatenland building cooperative. He was devoted to the welfare of the little people he was born into.
Matthias was ordained a Lutheran priest in 1877, and served from 1877-1890 in Rissdorf (today Ruskinovce), then till 1912 in Bierbrunn, (Vibornej), after which he was able to transfer to the wealthy Danube Suebian parish of Buljkesz in the Batschka. He retired in 1930. The couple had 16 children. My Opi was the 15th.
Children: (I only noted those that survived childhood):
Matthias Alexy, b. 1853, noted above.
Jakob Alexy, (x March 4, 1848 Eisdorf, + after 1860 since he was confirmed that year).
Johann Alexy, (x 1851 Eisdorf). He married on Jan. 29, 1878 his cousin Susanna Alexy (born 1856, daughter of Martin Alexy and Maria Kunsch). They had four children in Eisdorf. One died young. The three others (Jakob, b. 1882; Johann, b. 1885; Matthias, b. 1887) may have emigrated with their parents to Philadelphia.
Susanne Alexy, (x April 23, 1855 Eisdorf), married in Eisdorf June 28, 1880 the farmer Michael BREYER, from Eisdorf.
Maria Alexy, (x March 12, 1857 Eisdorf), + after 1869 since confirmed that year.
Michael Alexy, (x Sept. 29, 1860 Eisdorf), married Nov. 17, 1887 Pauline RAAB from Menhard.
Samuel Alexy, (x March 15, 1867 Eisdorf, + Nov. 6, 1937 Eisdorf ), married 1891 in Eisdorf Maria SCHERFEL (1869-1935). Samuel inherited the farm Nr. 101, which in 1930 was renumbered into Nr. 136. Samuel's daughter Maria Alexy (1895-1936) married in 1919 her first cousin Matthias Alexy (a grandson of Paul Alexy, 1822-1908) from Farm Nr. 97. Their daughter Julianna (b. 1921) married Matthias Forberger. In Jan. 1945, farm 101 (136 new number), as the rest of the village, was abandonned before the onslaught of the Red Army.
Johann RENNER, peasant in Eisdorf. (x 18 June 1806 Eisdorf, + 1831 Eisdorf)
married 15 Nov. 1825 Eisdorf
Eva ROTH (x 15 Sept. 1810 Eisdorf, + Jan. 17, 1846 as wife of Martin Ratz, who then married after 1847 Maria Schmidt, widow Alexy)
Children:
Jakob ALEXY, noted above
Michael ALEXY, (1835-?), peasant in Eisdorf, married 1856 Katharina Ratz, daughter of Martin Ratz and Eva Roth, widow Renner, noted above.
Paul ALEXY, (1822-1908). He was a peasant in Eisdorf and married his cousin Katharina Alexy.
Paul SCHMIDT, married 19 Nov. 1780 Eisdorf with
Susanna SCHIMKO
Matthias RENNER, (x 16 Feb. 1762 Eisdorf)
married to
Catharina MITSCHKO, (x 23 Sept. 1776 Eisdorf)
Jacob ROTH married to Catharina KUTSCHAR