The history of Weprowatz

The village of Weprowatz seems to have been named by the Slavs in 1526, after the Turks conquered and occupied the area. Before this period there may have been a small village within the boundaries of Weprowatz dating back to the Old-Hungarian era. The notary, Zónyi mentions the topographical name “Pusztatemplom in his records in 1864,” (translated this means “Puszta Church”). His records state that this is also the name of a “hill” to the west of the “public meadow,” called Hutweide. A church was said to have been on this site at one time. In 1864 there were still traces of bricks, and archeological digs uncovered bones in this area that would indicate the location of a cemetery. (1)

During the reign of the German Emperor, Leopold I (1658-1705), a settlement policy was initiated for the resettlement of the Batschka (Hungary). In 1689, a commission led by Cardinal Ferdinand Duke Kollonitsch began it’s work to grant individual rights and implement laws to repopulate areas liberated from the Turks. The war had destroyed the area, forcing the population to flee. (2)

It took until 1717, under the leadership of Prince Eugene of Savoy, that Austrian troops completed the liberation of Hungary that includes the Batschka. With this final defeat, the planned settlement policy was implemented. Initially the plots of land were granted to the colonists to use temporarily and not own, and it was not until much later, during the reign of Joseph II (1780 - 1790), that the land, houses, and fields with their crops, were granted to the settlers to own. (3), (6)

In 1758, Hungarian and Slovakian colonists started to settle in Weprowatz in what became known as the Hungarian village, which was laid out in an east-west direction. In 1763 the 130 inhabitants built a roman-catholic church made out of loam soil. Within 21 years, the loam building was replaced by a new building that even today is the tallest building in the village. By the beginning of the 19th century, the Slovakians were being assimilated by the Hungarian culture.

In 1786, German colonists started to settle into their own area in the village, in what became known as the “German village.” As a result of the two cultures and their separation in the village, Weprowatz was governed by decree from separate governmental authorities.

The 1787 census records show Weprowatz was a village of 270 homes and 1731 inhabitants. The population was about 45% Germans and 55 % Hungarian and Slovakian. There were 120 German settler homes, housing 353 families numbering approximately 780 inhabitants. There were approximately 950 Hungarian and Slovakian inhabitants. (4)

With the census of 1931, the number of inhabitants had almost doubled to 3158. There were 2551 Germans (80.6 %), 489 Hungarians (15.5 %) and 118 other nationalities (3.7 %, of which 3.69 % were slav tribes). (5)

The “German” village as well as the “Hungarian” village had two main streets and a third street, called the “New Row” in the Hungarian village and the “Back Row” in the German village. Several side streets separated the village into squares and rectangles.

Eventually, a city hall, and schools were built. Two hospitals were also built but have never been used for that purpose. A post office existed in Weprowatz in 1868. Weprowatz was connected to the railway system in 1908 and to the public utilities service supplying electricity to the village in 1937.

The first drugstore opened in 1931 and in 1933 the first veterinarian moved into the village. It is not known when the first doctor set up practice in the village but it is known that a doctor left Weprowatz in 1912 and from that time forward several doctors in the village cared for the inhabitants.

Weprowatz had its share of catastrophes. A horrible fire in the summer of 1868 destroyed almost half of the village. Every year the spring flood in the western Batschka caused severe flooding damage in the village. In 1872, a shipping channel with a pumping station was built to de-water the fields when required but was also used for the irrigation of the crops.

World War I (1914 - 1918) did not have a physical impact on the civilian population but epidemics like Typhus, Cholera and the Flu, which raged in 1918 all over the world, resulted in the death of many people.

Weprowatz borders the villages of Kula, Tscherwenka, Siwatz, Kernei, Stapar, Brestowatz, Filipowa and Kerestur. The area known as Weprowatz covered 6831 field-yokes 5 (approximately 39.6 square kilometers or 15.29 square miles) of which 5686 field-yokes 5 (approximately 33.0 square kilometers or 12.74 square miles) was agricultural land.

The census figures on 9th October 1944 known as the Day of the Refuge, noted in the Weprowatz Home Book by Nikolaus Urnauer, describes the number of working people and their occupations in Weprowatz in 1944. There were in total 606 employees, 256 farmers, 209 workers (64 hemp workers) and 141 business people and craftsmen.

The village council governed Weprowatz. It consisted of the judge (mayor), the notary (village secretary), four jurors (councilors), and the person responsible for orphan care, the treasurer and 12 village counselors.

After the peace treaty of 4th June 1920 between the allied forces and Hungary, the Batschka area, governed by Austria-Hungary until World War I, now belonged to the newly created state of the “Kingdom of Serbians, Croatians and Slovenians” (later known as Yugoslavia). The people in Weprowatz had to learn to live under new rules and customs.

The Great Depression period of 1928 - 1934 was very hard for everyone in Weprowatz although not as traumatic as in other parts of the world. The village had an economic boom by mid 1936, when the German Reich concluded a commercial treaty with Yugoslavia to buy up all the food surpluses at fixed Reichsmark prices.

The end of World War II sealed the fate of all the Germans in southeast Europe. For the inhabitants of Weprowatz, the 9th day of October 1944 is known as the “Day of Refuge.” For the German population, this was the saddest day of their lives. On this date most of the German population decided to leave Weprowatz and their homes forming a long procession out of the village taking only what they could carry. Most of them would never return. They were afraid of the Russian troops advancing on the village.

Those that stayed hoped that nothing would happen to them. Unfortunately they suffered from incidents of inhuman torture, kidnapping and death. Those who survived this period eventually left Weprowatz.

Today the children and ancestors of the former residents of Weprowatz live in the free West. Some of them live in Germany from the same areas from which their ancestors emigrated centuries ago.





Sources:

(1) Paul Scherer: Familienbuch Weprowatz Bd. I, Karlsruhe 1998

(2) Tafferner: Quellenbuch der donauschwäbischen Geschichte, München 1974, S. 48, 53-57

(3) Bács-Bodrog-Vármegye Monográfiaja von Dr. Borovski Samu, Budapest 1896, S. 355

(4) Dr. Antal Hegediš, Dr. Katarina Čobanović: Demografska i Agrarna Statistika Vojvodine 1767-1867

(5) Leopold Egger: Das Vermögen und die Vermögensverluste der deutschen in Jugoslawien, Sindelfingen 1983

(6) U. et C. Fasc. 192, Nr. 33 des Ungarischen Staatsarchivs Budapest

Heimatbuch Weprowatz 1986

Bildband Weprowatz 1989