Jagodnjak ((Croatian and Serbian pronunciation: ) sr-cyrl, Јагодњак, , ) is a village and a municipality in the

Osijek-Baranja County Osijek-Baranja County (, , ) is a Counties of Croatia, county in Croatia, located in northeastern Slavonia and Baranya (region), Baranja which is defined part of the Pannonian Plain. Its center is Osijek. Other towns include Đakovo, Našice, Val ...

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. Landscape of the Jagodnjak Municipality is marked by the

Drava The Drava or Drave (, ; ; ; ; ), historically known as the Dravis or Dravus, is a river in southern Central Europe.

river with surrounding wetland forest and by

Pannonian Basin The Pannonian Basin, with the term Carpathian Basin being sometimes preferred in Hungarian literature, is a large sedimentary basin situated in southeastern Central Europe. After the Treaty of Trianon following World War I, the geomorpholog ...

plains with agricultural fields of

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

common sunflower The common sunflower (''Helianthus annuus'') is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds, which are often eaten as a snack food. They are also used in the pro ...

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

and

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

. Jagodnjak is an underdeveloped municipality which is statistically classified as the First Category Area of Special State Concern by the

Government of Croatia The Government of Croatia (), formally the Government of the Republic of Croatia (), commonly abbreviated to Croatian Government (), is the main executive branch of government in Croatia. It is led by the Prime Minister of Croatia, president o ...

Name

Jagodnjak name is derived from the Slavic word "jagoda" ("strawberry" in English), "jagodnjak" = "strawberry bed(s)/plot(s)/patch(es)/garden". In other languages, the village in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

is known as ''Katschfeld'' and in Hungarian as ''Kácsfalu'' and is written as Јагодњак in

Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet (, ), also known as the Serbian script, (, ), is a standardized variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language. It originated in medieval Serbia and was significantly reformed in the 19th cen ...

Geography

Today's Jagodnjak settlement also includes

hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. This is often simply an informal description of a smaller settlement or possibly a subdivision or satellite entity to a larger settlement. Sometimes a hamlet is defined f ...

that mostly no longer exist: Bajmok, Bikaš, Brešće, Brod, Brod-Pustara, Čemin, Deonice, Grablje, Karaš, Mali Jagodnjak, Milina, Pjeskovi, Projina Međa, Rit, Staro Selo, Šakarine, Trbićeva Ada i Zornice. The municipality of Jagodnjak includes the following settlements: * Bolman *Jagodnjak * Majške Međe * Novi Bolman Colonist settlement of Majške Međe was established on the territory of the then Bolman nicipality during the

land reform in interwar Yugoslavia The land reform in interwar Yugoslavia was a process of redistribution of agricultural land in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia in 1929) carried out in the interwar period. The reform's proclaimed social ideal was ...

History

The first historical Municipality of Jagodnjak was established before the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

during the epoch of the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, and was settled by

Danube Swabians The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

from Hesse, they were called Stifolder. At that time the municipality was part of the

Baranya County (former) Baranya (, , / ''Baranja'', ) was an administrative county ( comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now divided between present-day Baranya County of Hungary and Osijek-Baranja County of Croatia. The capital of the county was ...

and did not include villages of Bolman, Novi Bolman and Majške Međe which constituted a separate unit called the Municipality of Bolman. Until the end of World War II, the inhabitants were

. The former German settlers were expelled to Germany and Austria in 1945-1948, following the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. During the final stage of the World War II in March 1945 the village of Bolman was the spot of the Battle of Bolman in which

Yugoslav Partisans The Yugoslav Partisans,Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian language, Macedonian, and Slovene language, Slovene: , officially the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska i partizanski odr ...

(primarily multi-ethnic units from

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

) and

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

fought against

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. The monument to the battle was constructed in 1951 and in 1971 it was protected as a registered cultural heritage site. After the integration of the region under the central government rule in the late 1990s the monument to the battle was devastated in 1999 and 2000. The municipality initiated reconstruction efforts in 2002 and the work was not completed until 2013 when the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Croatia provided funds for this purpose. The monument is allegedly target of intentional desecration with illegal waste disposal. Modern day Municipality of Jagodnjak was established in 1998 with the support of the United Nations representatives in the final stage of the UNTAES transitional administration over the region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia. It was created in order to ensure adequate Serb local self-government through the creation of municipalities in Eastern Slavonia in which the group constitute ethnic majority. Today Jagodnjak is only municipality in Croatian part of Baranya with an ethnic Serb majority. Together with other municipalities with Serb majority in Eastern Croatia it constitutes the Joint Council of Municipalities.

Demographics

Population

There are 2,537 inhabitants in the municipality (2001 census), including

* Serbs of Croatia, Serbs (64.72%) *

Croats The Croats (; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other neighboring countries in Central Europe, Central and Southeastern Europe who share a common Croatian Cultural heritage, ancest ...

(26.65%) *

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

(2.88%) *

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

(1.18%) Before

there was a substantial

Danube Swabian The Danube Swabians ( ) is a collective term for the ethnic German-speaking population who lived in the Kingdom of Hungary in east-central Europe, especially in the Danube River valley, first in the 12th century, and in greater numbers in the 17 ...

minority here but they were all expelled by the

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

regime of

Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito ( ; , ), was a Yugoslavia, Yugoslav communist revolutionary and politician who served in various positions of national leadership from 1943 unti ...

after 1945.

Languages

Due to the local minority population, the Jagodnjak municipality prescribe the use of not only Croatian as the official language, but the

Serbian language Serbian (, ) is the standard language, standardized Variety (linguistics)#Standard varieties, variety of the Serbo-Croatian language mainly used by Serbs. It is the official and national language of Serbia, one of the three official languages of ...

and

alphabet as well.Izvješće o provođenju ustavnog zakona o pravima nacionalnih manjina i o utošku sredstava osiguranih u državnom proračunu Republike Hrvatske za 2008. godinu za potrebe nacionalnih manjina, Zagreb, 2009. As of 2023, the legal requirements for the fulfillment of bilingual standards have only been partly carried out. Official buildings do have Cyrillic signage, as do street signs, but not traffic signs or seals. Cyrillic is only used on a few official documents. There are no public legal and administrative employees proficient in the script. Preserving traditional Serbian place names and assigning street names to Serbian historical figures is legally mandated, but not carried out.

Religion

Politics

Joint Council of Municipalities

The Municipality of Jagodnjak is one of seven Serb majority member municipalities within the

Joint Council of Municipalities The Joint Council of Municipalities in Croatia (; ; abbr. ЗВО, ZVO) is an elected consultative sui generis body which constitutes a form of cultural Self-governance, self-government of Serbs of Croatia, Serbs in the eastern Croatian Podunav ...

, inter-municipal

sui generis ( , ) is a Latin phrase that means "of its/their own kind" or "in a class by itself", therefore "unique". It denotes an exclusion to the larger system an object is in relation to. Several disciplines use the term to refer to unique entities. ...

organization of ethnic Serb community in eastern Croatia established on the basis of

Erdut Agreement The Erdut Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Erdutski sporazum, Ердутски споразум), officially the Basic Agreement on the Region of Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, is an agreement reached on 12 November 19 ...

. As Serb community constitute majority of the population of the municipality it is represented by 2 delegated Councillors at the Assembly of the Joint Council of Municipalities, double the number of Councilors to the number from Serb minority municipalities in Eastern Croatia.

Minority councils

Directly elected minority councils and representatives are tasked with consulting tasks for the local or regional authorities in which they are advocating for minority rights and interests, integration into public life and participation in the management of local affairs. At the

2023 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections The 2023 Croatian national minorities councils and representatives elections () were held on 7 May in certain regional (counties) and local administrative units (municipalities and towns & cities). Background Elections were announced in Nar ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

and

Serbs of Croatia The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Хрватски Срби, Hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in C ...

each fulfilled legal requirements to elect 10 members municipal minority councils of the Jagodnjak Municipality.

Notable natives and residents

József Angster József Angster (7 July 1834 – 9 June 1918) was a Germans of Hungary, Hungarian German Organ (music), organ-making master. He was the founder of the Angster dynasty, one of Central Europe's most sought after in the craft, and an important figure ...

Maja Dombi

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Populated places in Osijek-Baranja County Municipalities of Croatia Baranya (region) Joint Council of Municipalities Serb communities in Croatia