The Carpathian Germans were a small German people living in the territory of today's Slovakia from the 12th century to 1945, when they suffered genocide. This are the current doings, of the people I come from. This page is provided as a private volunteer public service, and does not represent the official opinions of the Carpathian German Landsmannschaft.

Dr. Thomas Reimer May 12, 2009

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THE DESIDER ALEXY PRIZE

History of the Prize Winners 2008/2009 Schoolyear Winners 2007/2008 Schoolyear Winners 2006/2007 Schoolyear Winners 2005/2006 Schoolyear
Winners 2004/2005 Schoolyear Winners 2003/2004 Schoolyear Winners 2002/2003 Schoolyear Winners 2001/2002 Schoolyear

History of the Desider Alexy Prize

In 1999, I thought about honoring my grandfather's memory by contributing to the survival of Carpathian German culture in his former homeland through a small German language prize for Carpathian German children administered by the local KDV. The students would write an annual essay on what they know about their ancestor's history and culture. On the suggestion of the KDV, instead of three more substantial prizes restricted to members of the KDV, the competition was opened to all students in the special German minority classes (who are not all Carpathian German). Also, each of the five regions received a separate prize amount for six small prizes each, or 30 prizes total, to encourage the largest amount of children and prevent regional rivalries. The amounts are therefore rather modest, but it should not be forgotten that monthly incomes in Slovakia in 2001 were very low, and rose only slowly, especially in Central and Eastern Slovakia. The minimum wage for full time work (160 hours/months) in 2003 was 5,570 Skr/month, then about US-$140, earned by about half of the workforce. Wages are higher now. In Spring 2009, hurt by the economic crisis, I decided to fund the prize every two years instead of yearly--the next round being Schoolyear 2010/11, but increase it somewhat, especially as prices rose since the Euro was introduced in January 2009.

Each of the five KDV regions distributes three prizes for children of the 1. Kategorie (juniors, 10 to 13 years old) and 2. Kategorie, (seniors, 14 to 16 years old). Sometimes, not all prizes are awarded. The sums are:
For the 10-13 year olds: 1st prize 600 Sk, 2nd prize 400 Sk, 3rd prize 200 Sk.
For the 14-16 year olds: 1st prize 1000 Sk, 2nd prize 600 Sk, 3rd prize 400 Sk.

The children also receive a prize document, with the picture of my grandfather from 1940, when he was minister in Ratzersdorf (Rača), today a suburb of Pressburg, just before becoming head of the Diakonissenschule in Pressburg and secretary of the German Lutheran Church in Slovakia. The overall layout was done by the KDV, I only provided the picture, signature, and the quote from a speech my Opi made in 1957 to Carpathian German exiles in Oberhausen/Ruhr, who were eeking out a living in the local coalmines. To prevent any misunderstanding, his remark did not refer to the discriminatory Beneshist minority policy in the CSR, which he fought against. He referred to the day-to-day interaction of Germans, Slovaks, Magyars, Jews, Hutzuls and others in Slovakia, who, while not necessarily emoting about each other, had found a way of peacefully living together no matter what regime ruled over them, until World War II, when first Jews, and then Germans and Magyars, were singled out as a group that must be removed, by the powers of the day, Fascists, then Beneshists, then Communists.

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Winners 2008/2009 School Year

b>Winners from the Oberzips Region, in March 2009:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Ernst Abt; 2. Lukas Belejkanič, 3. Nikola Kredatusova.
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Lenka Liptakova; 2. Maria Katruškova, 3. Milos Mrozek

Winners from the Unterzips Region, Einsiedel an der Göllnitz 28 Oktober 2008, Karpatenblatt 11/2008:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Jakub Gregar; 2. Zuzana Klimkova, 3. Pavol Palaščok
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Martina Cölderova (Einsiedel); 2. Zuzana Marcinekova; 3. Milan Grega (Göllnitz)

Winners from the Hauerland (The handwritten, photocopied notes from the teachers were difficult to read--sorry for any spelling mistake):
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Miriam Neuschl; 2. Sandra Kara, 3. Ondrej Podbuzansky
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Thomas Beznoska; 2. Katarina Vlčkova; 3. Leng?

All participants came from the Gymnazium Ivana Bella in Krickerhau/Handlova

Winners 2007/2008 School Year

b>Winners from the Oberzips Region, on March 12, 2008:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Lukas Belejkanič, 2. Marie Katruškova (Svit).
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Radoslava Gombošova (Kesmark), 2. Lenka Liptakova (Kesmark)

Winners from the Unterzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Susanna Marcinekova (Göllnitz), No 2. Milan Hreha (Schwedler), Nr. 3 Hubert Franko (Schmöllnitz)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Klaudia Theiszova (Einsiedel), 2. Alzbeta Kalisova (Schmöllnitz), 3. Michael Szabo (Schwedler)

Other participants who received an Award: Patrik Schneider (Einsiedel); Rudolf Buxa (Göllnitz), Jakob Gerega (Göllnitz); Susanna Klimkova (Schwedler); Lucia Turcanikova (Einsiedel); Michaela Schneider (Einsiedel). The Karpatenblatt 3/2007 printed the essay by Alzbeta Kalisova, who attends 9th grade in Schmöllnitz, a lovely story how her grandmother, as a teen, jumped with a parachute, an exciting adventure, and told in excellent German.

Winners from the Pressburg Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Natalie Janekova; 2. Annemarie Janekova; 3. Martin Stolar
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Samuel Zenuch and Samuel Malik; 2. Juraj Cesnak; 3. Martin Bodicky

Both junior and senior winners attend the Pressburg school im Tiefen Weg (Hlboka)

Winners from the Bodwatal Region (23 April 2008, 15 students took part):
Unfortunatly, the Bodwatal KDV only sent me a list of the participants and a copy of their works, but forgot to identify the winners.

Winners 2006/2007 School Year

b>Winners from the Oberzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Maria Katrusova (Svit). No 2. Lenka Liptakova (Kesmark), 3. Jakob Cheban (Kesmark)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Radoslava Gombošova (Kesmark); 2. Kamila Imrichova (Kesmark), 3. Laura Cernakova (Kesmark)

Winners from the Unterzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Susanna Marcinekova (Göllnitz), No 2. Milan Hreha (Schwedler), Nr. 3 Hubert Franko (Schmöllnitz)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Klaudia Theiszova (Einsiedel), 2. Alzbeta Kalisova (Schmöllnitz), 3. Michael Szabo (Schwedler)

Other participants who received an Award: Patrik Schneider (Einsiedel); Rudolf Buxa (Göllnitz), Jakob Gerega (Göllnitz); Susanna Klimkova (Schwedler); Lucia Turcanikova (Einsiedel); Michaela Schneider (Einsiedel). The Karpatenblatt 3/2007 printed the essay by Alzbeta Kalisova, who attends 9th grade in Schmöllnitz, a lovely story how her grandmother, as a teen, jumped with a parachute, an exciting adventure, and told in excellent German.

Winners from the Pressburg Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Martin Stolar (Pressburg), No 2. Andrea Lazarova (Pressburg), Nr. 3 Karoline Zeleznikova (Pressburg)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Danka Havasiova (Pressburg, 2. Alexandra Durcanyova (Pressburg), 3. Henrietta Smondrkova (Pressburg)

Winners 2005/2006 School Year

Winners from the Oberzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Lidia Kredatusova (Kesmark). No 2. Lenka Liptakova (Kesmark)

This year only 4 essays were presented.

Winners from the Unterzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Susanna Marcinekova (Göllnitz), No 2. Klaudia Theiszova (Einsiedel), Nr. 3 Jakub Gerega
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Martin Palko (Göllnitz), 2. Frantisek Czölder (Einsiedel),3. Alzbeta Kalisova (Schmöllnitz)

Other participants who received an Award: Lukas Ivanco (Schwedler), Michael Szabo (Schwedler), Tamara Mitrikova (Göllnitz), Michaela Buksarova ((Schmöllnitz), Stefan Dromlikovic (Göllnitz). The topics of the essays, and the extracts published in the Karpatenblatt, 3/2006 and 4/2006 were very interesting.

Winners from the Pressburg Region:
Martin Stolar, 5th grader in Pressburg, Hlboka School, whose site notes the prize under "Projekty" (slowakized as Dezider instead of Desider), at Alexy Preis

Winners 2004/2005 School Year

Winners from the Oberzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Lucia Richtarcikova. No 2. Radoslava Gombosova, 3. Lenka Liptakova
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Otto Imrich; 2. Simona Dlugosova, 3. Jozef Dzurenda

Winners from the Unterzips Region:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Rudolf Buxa (Göllnitz). No 2. Tamara Mitrakova (Göllnitz), 3. Klaudia Theiszova (Einsiedel)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Frantisek Czölder (Einsiedel), 2. Lukas Ivanco (Schwedler), 3. Dagmara Jahodova (Schmöllnitz)

Winners from the Metzenseifen/Bodwatal Region:
Erich Schmotzer (Metzenseifen)

Winners 2003/2004 School Year

The first region to finish their essays was the Hauerland. They were judged at a meeting on November 15, 2003 in the Haus der Begegnung in Deutsch-Proben. The topic of the essay this year was the settlement of the Hauerland.

Winners from the Hauerland:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Petra Beznoskova (Krickerhau). No 2. Michal Snirer (Deutsch-Proben), 3. Zuzana Pojezdalova (Schmiedshau)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Peter Obert (Klein-Proben); 2. Anni Weiss-Brummer (Oberstuben), 3. Denis Schlenker (Deutsch-Proben)
Several winners won last year already, Petra Beznoskova, Peter Obert, Denis Schlenker. Congratulations.

The event was reported by the Slovak media AlexyPreis and the Magyar newsletter of the Slovak Ministry of Culture (p. 169, under Feb. 24), at AlexyPreis

Winners 2002/2003 School Year

Several, though not all regions, published the winners in the Karpatenblatt. I also received copies of the essays from the KVD. The essays show that the kids try hard to write in German--though some obviously downloaded material from the web, too, and did not even bother to rephrase it. The essays also show at times how Beneshist propaganda has colored what they think about what happened in 1945. Two essays actually portrayed the evacuation (here in Deutsch-Proben in the Hauerland and Metzenseifen in the Bodwatal), done to protect civilians after the mass-murders of Carpathian Germans in the Hauerland in 1944, as an arbitrary Nazi-ordered act without reason, (which may have how the informant honestly felt as a child--both grandmothers who related this were about seven when these events happened, but today obviously would understand that deportation or death in a camp like Novaky happened to those who stayed), while another portrayed the reason why a old woman who visited her native Zips had left after World War II because "after the war many Slovaks decided to move to the West to find a better life," and in her case "her family decided to move suddenly." Oddly, much more accurate were the essays from the Unterzips. Indeed, the essay by Lydia Klimkova in Göllnitz/Unterzips (which alas did not get a prize, because so many from that area competed), was very accurate on that point, probably because her grandmother was 20 years old in 1945, and not 7.

Too many essays that mention 1945-46 simply negate the Vertreibung. Now these memories between Germans and Slovaks are very much split, like the memory between Turks and Armenians about events in Eastern Anatolia in 1915-16. In Turkey, jail and physical attacks are the lot of those who question the official truth. Its not that bad in Slovakia, but people there also have been shaped by a half-century of distorted history. Therefore, the truth must be introduced carefully to them, but it must. I hope that that after learning to read German, which these students showed that they did, they will also read the literature written by their people about what happened in 1945/46.

Winners from the Hauerland:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Petra Beznoskova (Krickerhau). No 2. and 3rd prizes.
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Silvia Benadikova (Deutsch-Proben); 2. Denis Schlenker (Beneshhau); 3. Peter Obert (Deutsch-Proben)

Winners from the Oberzips: 1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Tatiana Onova (Kniesen); 2. Stefania Trunkatova (Käsmark?); 3. Tomas Reginac (?)
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Maria Liptakova; 2. Gerhard Hamor; 3. Lukas Richtarcik

Winners from the Unterzips:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Ingrid Müller; 2. Klaudia Liptakova; 3. Karol Lumnitzer (Einsidel).
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Ivica Kuchtova (Göllnitz); 2. Katarina Oelschlägerova (Einsiedel); 3. Tamara Sycova (Göllnitz)

Winners from the Bodwa Valley:
1. Category (10-13 years old): 1. Jana Juhasova (Metzenseifen); 2. Slavomira Bordigova (Metzenseifen); 3. Erik Pöhm (Metzenseifen).
2. Category (14-16 years old): 1. Pavol Siroczki (Metzenseifen); 2. Magda Pospisilikova (Metzenseifen); 3. Nikola Patricia Antlova

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Winners 2001/2002 School Year

Several regions published their awards in the Karpatenblatt, though not all. I received copies from the KDV of the all prize essays, but lost those for 2001/03. From the continued use of -ova one can see how far postwar Slovakisation has gone. Until a few years ago, the -ova had to be used by law by minorities as well, but not anylonger. Most Magyars have ceased using this specifically slavic ending. Why not our Germans? This was also asked by Sepp Stark in Karpatenblatt, May 2002, p. 3.

Winners from the Unterzips:
10-13 years old: 1. I. Sentandrasiova (Schmöllnitz-Hütte), 2. I. Müllorova (Einsiedel), 3. M. Vedova (Schmöllnitz).
14-16 years old: 1. K. Oelschlägerova (Einsiedel), 2. L. Stankova (Schmöllnitz), 3. A. Koncikova (Schmöllnitz Hütte).

Winners from the Oberzips:
10-13 years old: 1. Alexandra Abtova; 2. Oto Imrich
14-16 years old: 1. Lukas Richtarc^ik; 2. Gerhard Hamor, 3. Maria Liptakova.

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