Gottschee (, sl, Kočevsko) refers to a former German-speaking region in
Carniola
Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region sti ...
, a crownland of the
Habsburg Empire
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
, part of the historical and traditional region of
Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region.
Geography
Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...
, now in
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
. The region has been a county, duchy, district, and municipality during various parts of its history. The term often also refers to the entire
ethnolinguistic
Ethnolinguistics (sometimes called cultural linguistics) is an area of anthropological linguistics that studies the relationship between a language and the nonlinguistic cultural behavior of the people who speak that language.
__NOTOC__
Examples ...
enclave
An enclave is a territory (or a small territory apart of a larger one) that is entirely surrounded by the territory of one other state or entity. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to deno ...
regardless of administrative borders. Today Gottschee largely corresponds to the
Municipality of Kočevje
The Municipality of Kočevje (; sl, Občina Kočevje) is a municipality in southern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the city of Kočevje. Today it is part of the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region. In terms of area, it is the larg ...
. The original German settlers of the region are called Gottschee Germans or
Gottscheers Gottscheers are the German settlers of the Kočevje, Kočevje region (a.k.a. Gottschee) of Slovenia, formerly Gottschee, Gottschee County. Until the World War II, Second World War, their main language of communication was Gottscheerish, a Bavarian l ...
, and their German dialect is called Gottschee German or
Gottscheerish
Gottscheerish (''Göttscheabarisch'',Maridi Tscherne: Wörterbuch Gottscheerisch-Slowenisch. Einrichtung für die Erhaltung des Kulturerbes Nesseltal, Koprivnik/Nesseltal 2010. german: Gottscheerisch, sl, kočevarščina) is an Upper German ...
.
Geography
The Gottschee enclave encompassed a roughly oval-shaped area between 45° 46′ N and 45° 30′ N, and between 14° 36′ E and 15° 9′ E. Geographers divided the enclave into seven regions based on valleys (from west to east):
* The Suchen Plateau () in the extreme west, with the (pre-1933) municipalities of Obergras and Suchen;
* The Back District () in the west, with the municipalities of Göttenitz, Hinterberg, Masern, Morobitz, Rieg, and Tiefenbach;
* The Upper District () in the central area, with the municipalities of Lienfeld, Mitterdorf, and Seele, plus the city of Gottschee ();
* The Lower District () in the south-central area, with the municipalities of Graflinden, Mösel, Schwarzenbach, and Unterlag;
* The Forest District () in the north-central area, with the municipalities of Altlag, Ebenthal, Langenton, and Malgern;
* The Tschermoschnitz District () in the northeast, with the municipalities of Pöllandl, Stockendorf, and Tschermoschnitz;
* The Lower Side () in the southeast, with the municipalities of Nesseltal and Unterdeutschau.
History
Early history (13th century1623)
The Gottschee region was conferred upon the
Counts of Ortenburg
The Counts of Ortenburg (german: Grafen von Ortenburg) were a comital family in the mediaeval Duchy of Carinthia. Though they had roots in Bavarian nobility, an affiliation with the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Fra ...
by the
Patriarchate of Aquileia
The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an episcopal see in northeastern Italy, centred on the ancient city of Aquileia situated at the head of the Adriatic, on what is now the Italian seacoast. For many centuries it played an important part in histor ...
on 20 September 1277.
[Czörnig, Carl von. 1878. "Die deutsche Sprachinsel Gottschee." ''Zeitschrift des Deutschen und Oesterreichischen Alpenvereins'' 9: 273–287.] The territory was settled by German farmers from
Carinthia
Carinthia (german: Kärnten ; sl, Koroška ) is the southernmost States of Austria, Austrian state, in the Eastern Alps, and is noted for its mountains and lakes. The main language is German language, German. Its regional dialects belong to t ...
and
East Tyrol
East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol (german: Osttirol), is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, separated from the main North Tyrol part by the short common border of Salzburg and Italian South Tyrol (''Südtirol'', it, Alto Adige). It is c ...
between 1330 and 1400. The first settlement in the territory attested in written sources was
Mooswald ( sl, Mahovnik), which appeared in a letter from
Patriarch Bertram on 1 September 1339. A 1363 letter mentioned the settlements of
Gottschee
Gottschee (, sl, Kočevsko) refers to a former German-speaking region in Carniola, a crownland of the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg Empire, part of the historical and traditional region of Lower Carniola, now in Slovenia. The region has been a coun ...
(),
Pölland (),
Kostel,
Ossilnitz (), and
Göttenitz (). The town of Gottschee acquired
market town
A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...
status in 1377.
[Prince, John Dyneley. 1931. "The Gottschee Germans of Slovenia." ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'' 70(4): 391–398, p. 392.]
With the extinction of the House of Ortenburg in 1418,
[Šumrada, Janez, & Tone Ferenc. 1991. "Kočevarji." ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'', vol. 5. (pp. 179–181). Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga.] the Gottschee area came under the control of the
Counts of Celje
The Counts of Celje ( sl, Celjski grofje) or the Counts of Cilli (german: Grafen von Cilli; hu, cillei grófok) were the most influential late medieval noble dynasty on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Risen as vassals of the Habsburg dukes ...
in 1420.
When the House of Celje died out in 1456, the territory came under the control of the
House of Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
, dukes of Carniola.
Emperor Frederick III elevated the town of Gottschee to a city in 1471.
The late 15th century began a time of unrest in Gottschee. Numerous Ottoman attacks took place in the region (in 1469, 1471, 1476, 1480, 1491, 1507, 1528, 1546, 1559, 1561, 1564, 1578, and 1584). It was partly in response to the devastation of the Ottoman raids that Emperor Frederick III granted the people of Gottschee the right to sell goods outside the territory in 1492. There were also six peasant uprisings in the territory, starting in 1515 and ending in 1662.
In 1507
Maximilian I mortgaged the Dominion of Gottschee (German: ''Herrschaft Gottschee'', sl, Kočevsko gospostvo) to Count Jörg von Thurn. The territory was purchased by Hans Ungnad in 1524, and then mortgaged to the Croatian County of Blagay in 1547. In 1574, Gottschee extended from Mount Snežnik in the extreme west to
Blatnik pri Črmošnjicah
Blatnik pri Črmošnjicah (; german: Rußbach''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 152.Ferenc, Mitja. 2007. ''Nekdanji nemški jezikovni ot ...
in the east, and from
Seč and
Gornja Topla Reber in the north to just below
Bosljiva Loka and
Osilnica in the south. In 1619 the territory was purchased by the Khisl family.
Gottschee County (1623–1791)
The territory was elevated to Gottschee County (German: ''Grafschaft Gottschee'', sl, Kočevska grofija) in 1623. In 1641 Wolf Engelbert von
Auersperg purchased Gottschee County from Count Georg Zwickl-Khisl for 84,000 florins. Engelbert abandoned the deteriorating castle at Friedrichstein and built a new castle in the town of Gottschee itself, which survived until the Second World War. Because Gottschee was a county, Engelbert thereby became a count himself.
Because he died without an heir in 1673, the county passed to his brother
Johann Weikhard of Auersperg, who had become a
prince of the Holy Roman Empire
Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( la, princeps imperii, german: Reichsfürst, cf. ''Fürst'') was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor.
Definition
Originally, possessors o ...
in 1653. He combined Gottschee with some neighboring estates into a single domain. In 1774 Emperor Joseph II issued a patent allowing the residents of Gottschee County to sell citrus fruit and oil, and the emperor issued a patent confirming peddling privileges on 27 April 1785.
Duchy of Gottschee (1791–1809)
In 1791 Emperor Leopold II elevated the territory to the Duchy of Gottschee (German: ''Herzogtum Gottschee'', sl, Kočevska Vojvodina) and Karl Josef Anton von Auersperg to the Duke of Gottschee.
Illyrian Provinces (1809–1814)
During the short-lived period of the
Illyrian Provinces
The Illyrian Provinces sl, Ilirske province hr, Ilirske provincije sr, Илирске провинције it, Province illirichegerman: Illyrische Provinzen, group=note were an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province of France d ...
, Gottschee was part of the Napoleonic
French Empire. Under this arrangement it was initially part of the Province of Ljubljana (french: province de Laybach) from 1809 to 1811, and then the Province of Carniola (french: province de Carniole) from 1811 to 1814. Gottschee constituted a separate administrative canton under this arrangement. The Gottscheers revolted against French rule during the
1809 Gottscheer Rebellion, killing the commissar of the Novo Mesto district, Von Gasparini. With the collapse of the Illyrian provinces, Gottschee was returned to Habsburg rule within the
Kingdom of Illyria
The Kingdom of Illyria was a crown land of the Austrian Empire from 1816 to 1849, the successor state of the Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces, which were reconquered by Austria in the War of the Sixth Coalition. It was established according to th ...
.
Kingdom of Illyria (1816–1849)
As part of the Habsburg Kingdom of Illyria, Gottschee was administratively part of the Novo Mesto District (German: ''Neustädtler Kreis''). The Kingdom of Illyria was succeeded by the reconstituted
Duchy of Carniola
The Duchy of Carniola ( sl, Vojvodina Kranjska, german: Herzogtum Krain, hu, Krajna) was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under House of Habsburg, Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carn ...
in 1849.
Duchy of Carniola (1849–1918)
![Gotschee](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Gotschee.jpg)
Within the Duchy of Carniola, a separate administrative Gottschee District (German: ''Bezirk Gottschee'' or ''Gerichtsbezirk Gottschee'') was set up. The district had an area of approximately and contained a total of 177 settlements (including ethnically Slovene ones and some abandoned before 1941).
[Ferenc, Mitja. 1993. ''Kočevska. Izgubljena kulturna dediščina kočevskih nemcev.'' Ljubljana: Delo, p. 7.] The Gottschee District was bordered (clockwise) by the districts of Ribnica (), Žužemberk (), Novo Mesto (), Metlika (), and Črnomelj (). Fully German or ethnically mixed Slovene-German territory extended into all of the neighboring districts.
On 31 December 1869 the entire Kočevje District had 3,473 houses and a population of 18,432. Subtracting the ethnically Slovene comminuties of Osilnica () and Kostel left a total of 2,966 houses and a population of 15,520 in ethnically German or German-majority territory in the district itself. Adding in ethnically German houses and population from communities adjacent to the district resulted in a total of 4,161 houses and a population of 21,301 in the culturally German Gottschee area.
Czörnig estimated the total Gottschee German population in 1878, accounting for population growth and men working away from home, to be about 25,000.
In 1906 the ethnic Romanian Austro-Hungarian lawyer and politician
Aurel Popovici unsuccessfully proposed the reorganization of Austria-Hungary as the
United States of Greater Austria
The United States of Greater Austria (german: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was an unrealized proposal made in 1906 to federalize Austria-Hungary to help resolve widespread ethnic and nationalist tensions. It was conceived by a group ...
. Popovici's proposal included Gottschee as a separate autonomous district within the proposed state of Carniola.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941)
Gottschee was incorporated into royal Yugoslavia (known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until 1929) as part of the prewar territory of Carniola. The Gottschee Germans accepted the new arrangement with some reluctance: in February 1918 Gottschee's ethnically German priests characterized the proposed new state as "treacherous" and sent a letter to Bishop Anton Bonaventura Jeglič in Ljubljana denouncing the plan. In October 1918 a proposal was prepared for the
Paris Peace Conference for Gottschee to become an independent republic (German: ''Republik Gottschee'') under American protection, based on the large Gottschee German population in the United States, and a Gottschee German demonstration demanding autonomy was held in New York in January 1919. There were also unsuccessful proposals to establish a Gottschee Republic with Italian backing. In 1920, the Slovene press characterized the proposal for a Gottschee Republic as communist agitation.
Under the 1921 constitution, the traditional regions were abolished and Gottschee was made part of the Ljubljana Province ( sl, Ljubljanska
oblast
An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdom of ...
) from 1922 to 1929. After the provinces were abolished, Gottschee was part of the larger
Drava Banovina
The Drava Banovina or Drava Banate ( Slovene and Serbo-Croatian: ''Dravska banovina''), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1941. This province consisted of most of present-day Slovenia and was named for the Dra ...
() from 1929 to 1941. Within the very large Kočevje District ( sl, Srez Kočevje), 22 local communities or small municipalities () largely encompassed Gottschee territory until 1933, continuing its 19th-century organization. Many Gottschee settlements were outside the Kočevje District. In 1933 a Yugoslav administrative reform created large municipalities () organized within the districts (). The Kočevje District was the largest district in the Drava Banovina, extending from
Veliki Ločnik in the north to the Croatian border in the south. Gottschee territory was encompassed by 11 large municipalities, not all of which were in the Kočevje District.
During this time, political and assimilatory pressure against the German minority caused many of Gottschee Germans to emigrate: the German-language high school was closed in 1918, German was eliminated as an elective subject in schools in 1925, the majority of German business, cultural, and athletics societies were dissolved, and there was forced Slovenization of the names of villages and people. By 1941 the Gottschee German population had fallen to only about 12,500.
Most of the Germans fled back to Austria or emigrated to the United States (mainly New York City or Cleveland, Ohio.)
[Brief History of Gottschee]
Second World War
After the outbreak of World War II in 1939,
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
initially remained neutral, but after a coup in 1941 adopted a staunch anti-
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
*Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinate ...
position. This led to a German and Italian invasion and occupation of the Kingdom. The Gottscheers were in the
Italian occupation zone after Yugoslavia's surrender, which
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...
could not abide.
Nazi racial policy
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented in Nazi Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, based on a specific racist doctrine asserting the superiority of the Aryan race, which claimed scientific legi ...
dictated that these Germans had to be brought back into the Reich. The Nazis established a branch of the Resettlement Administration (, or "VoMi") at
Maribor
Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...
for this purpose.
![Provincia di Lubiana1941-1943](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Provincia_di_Lubiana1941-1943.jpg)
While some of the Gottscheer community leaders had embraced
National Socialism
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...
and agitated for "assistance" and "
repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a thing or a person to its country of origin or citizenship. The term may refer to non-human entities, such as converting a foreign currency into the currency of one's own country, as well as to the pro ...
" to the Reich before the German invasion in 1941, most Gottscheers had no interest in reuniting with
Greater Germany
Pan-Germanism (german: Pangermanismus or '), also occasionally known as Pan-Germanicism, is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify all the German-speaking people – and possibly also Germanic-speaking ...
or joining the Nazis. They had been integrated into society with their Slovene neighbours, often intermarrying among Slovenes and becoming bilingual while maintaining their Germanic language and customs since their arrival in the region in the late 14th century.
However,
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
and Nazi
ideology
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
prevailed, and the VoMi began planning the Gottschee "resettlement" (forced expulsion) from
Kočevje
Kočevje (; german: Gottschee; ''Göttscheab'' or ''Gətscheab'' in the local Gottscheerish dialect; it, Cocevie) is a city in the Municipality of Kočevje in southern Slovenia. It is the seat of the municipality.
Geography
The town is loc ...
, which was in the
Italian occupation zone, to the "Ranner Dreieck" or
Brežice
Brežice (; german: Rann ) is a town in eastern Slovenia in the Lower Sava Valley, near the Croatian border. It is the seat of the Municipality of Brežice. It lies in the center of the Brežice Plain ( sl, Brežiško polje), which is part of the ...
Triangle in
Lower Styria
Styria ( sl, Štajerska), also Slovenian Styria (''Slovenska Štajerska'') or Lower Styria (''Spodnja Štajerska''; german: Untersteiermark), is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy o ...
, the region now known as the
Lower Sava Valley
The Lower Sava Valley ( sl, Posavje, also ''Spodnje Posavje'' and ''Posavska regija''Ferenc, Tone. 1995. "Posavje". ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'' vol 9. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 155–156.) is a region in southeastern Slovenia on the border ...
, located between the confluences of the
Krka,
Sotla, and
Sava
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally th ...
rivers.
In November 1941, some 46,000 Slovenians in the
Brežice
Brežice (; german: Rann ) is a town in eastern Slovenia in the Lower Sava Valley, near the Croatian border. It is the seat of the Municipality of Brežice. It lies in the center of the Brežice Plain ( sl, Brežiško polje), which is part of the ...
Triangle region were forcibly deported to Eastern Germany for potential Germanization or
forced labour
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
in order to make an accommodation for the Gottschee "resettlers". Shortly before that time, a largely transparent propaganda effort was aimed toward both the Gottscheers and the Slovenes, promising the latter equivalent farmland in Germany for the land relinquished. The Gottscheers were given Reich passports and transportation to the
Lower Sava Valley
The Lower Sava Valley ( sl, Posavje, also ''Spodnje Posavje'' and ''Posavska regija''Ferenc, Tone. 1995. "Posavje". ''Enciklopedija Slovenije'' vol 9. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, pp. 155–156.) is a region in southeastern Slovenia on the border ...
just after the forced departure of the Slovenes. Most Gottschee left their homes because of coercion and threats since the VoMi had a deadline of December 31, 1941 for the mass movement of both groups. Though many Gottscheers did receive farmland and households, these were of lesser quality than their own, and many were in disarray from the hasty forced expulsion of the Slovenians. Gottscheers were removed from a total of 167 settlements in 1941 and 1942.
The eviction was organized as a series of 25 resettlement groups (German: ''Stürme''), numbered Go 1 through Go 25 and named after major settlements:
Although from the time of their arrival to the end of the war, Gottschee farmers were harassed and killed by
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
's
Partisans, 56 of the Gottschee ethnic Germans, who did not want to leave their homes, decided instead to join
Slovene Partisans
The Slovene Partisans, formally the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Slovenia, (NOV in POS) were part of Europe's most effective anti-Nazi resistance movement Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2013): ''In Spies We Trust: The Story of Western ...
and fight against Italians in
Province of Ljubljana The Province of Ljubljana ( it, Provincia di Lubiana, sl, Ljubljanska pokrajina, german: Provinz Laibach) was the central-southern area of Slovenia. In 1941, it was annexed by Fascist Italy, and after 1943 occupied by Nazi Germany. Created on May ...
, together with their Slovene neighbours.
[Ulrich Weinzierl (2003]
Wald und Wald und Wald
Spectrum – Die Presse
''Die Presse'' is a German-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vienna, Austria. It is considered a newspaper of record for Austria.
History and profile
''Die Presse'' was first printed on 3 July 1848 as a liberal (libertarian)-bourgeoi ...
, 15. November 2003.
The attempt to resettle the Gottscheers was a costly failure for the Nazi regime, since extra manpower was required to protect the farmers from the partisans. The deported Slovenes were taken to several camps in
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, where they were forced to work on German farms or in factories run by German industries from 1941 to 1945. The forced labourers were not always kept in formal
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as concen ...
, but often just vacant buildings where they slept until the next day's labour took them outside these quarters. Toward the end of the war, these camps were liberated by American and Red Army troops, and repatriated refugees later returned to
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
.
The fate of the resettled Gottschee was not much better, and in some cases much worse. At the end of the war the Nazi regime in the region evaporated as soldiers and administrators fled.
Postwar Yugoslavia
After the war, the Gottschee area was partially resettled by Slovenians from various places, creating a
mixed dialect area. Only a few hundred Gottscheers remained.
List of Gottschee German villages
This table includes villages in the 19th-century Gottschee District based on maps in Mitja Ferenc's works (2007, 2011–2013).
Notes
References
Further reading
* Thomas F. Bencin. Gottschee: A History of a German Community in Slovenia from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century. Master's Thesis 1995. Louisville, CO: Gottscheer Research and Genealogy Assn. 2003.
* Joseph Erker. Jubiläums-Festbuch der Gottscheer 600-Jahrfeier: aus Anlaß des 600-jährigen Bestandes des Gottscheer Landes. Gottschee: Pavlicek, 1930.
*
Mitja Ferenc
Mitja Ferenc (21 March 1960) is a Slovenian historian, educator, and author.
Ferenc was born in Ljubljana, the son of renowned historian and partisan Tone Ferenc. He graduated from modern history at the University of Ljubljana in 1985. Since 2 ...
. Kočevska: izgubljena kulturna dediščina kočevskih Nemcev; = Gottschee: Das verlorene Kulturerbe der Gottscheer Deutschen. Ljubljana: Zavod Republike Slovenije za varstvo naravne in kulturne dediščine, 1993.
* Herber Otterstädt. Gottschee, verlorene Heimat deutscher Waldbauern, 1962.
Petschauer, Erich. 1980. ''Das Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer''. Klagenfurt: Hermann Leustik
*
* Zdravko Troha (2004) Kočevski Nemci – partizani; = Gottschee Germans – Partisans
okrajinski muzej Kočevje, Arhiv Slovenije Ljubljana: Slovensko kočevarsko društvo Peter Kosler.
* John Tschinkel. The Bells Ring No More: An autobiography of the author and the history and fate of the Gottschee of Slovenia.
External links
www.gottschee.atWebsite of Gottscheer societies
www.gottschee.deInformation on history and culture of the Gottscheer Germans.
www.gottschee.com Website with audio folklore samples from Gottscheers in the United States.
Gottscheer Heritage and Genealogy Association (GHGA) website"founded in 1992 to preserve the culture, history, and genealogical records of Gottscheers and Gottschee (1330–1941)"
{{coord, 45, 38, 23, N, 14, 51, 41, E, type:adm3rd_region:SI_dim:36km, display=title
Geography of Lower Carniola
German diaspora in Europe
German communities
Forced migrations in Europe