(Prevod teksta "Evropska godina kulturnog nasleđa", koji se, između ostalog, bavi i kulturnim nasleđem Podunavskih Švaba, na engleski jezik.)
The European
Year of Cultural Heritage
The year of 2018
is a symbol of culture and cultural heritage in Europe. Namely, the European
Commission declared the current year to be The European Year of Cultural
Heritage under the slogan "Our Heritage: Where the Past Meets the
Future". This has started up a series of events, initiatives and
activities across the old continent aimed at bringing cultural heritage closer
to the citizens, raising awareness of the importance of cultural heritage for society,
fostering exchanges, enhancing knowledge of the rich European heritage, and
strengthening the sense of belonging to a common European cultural space. Even
the general theme of the manifestation "The European Heritage Days
2018" on the level of the whole Europe is "The European Year of
Cultural Heritage - Art of Sharing".
In order to
talk about the protection, promotion or affirmation of any matter, firstly one
must know what the term covers. Cultural heritage, goods (or cultural tradition),
in short, implies goods that are inherited from previous generations or that
arise in the present times, have a specific value and symbolic significance for
people and should be preserved for future generations. They affect the identity
of a particular local community, a region or a state. They are often in the
protection regime and can economically represent a great tourist potential.
Cultural heritage is divided into material and immaterial. The first group
includes exceptional buildings (sacred or profane objects), monuments and
material artworks, while the intangible cultural heritage includes oral traditions
and expressions, language, knowledge and skills concerning nature and space;
social practices, rituals and ceremonial events, as well as performing arts and
traditional crafts. Cultural heritage is also divided on immovable and movable
goods. Immovable goods are monuments of culture, spatial and cultural-historical
units, archaeological sites and famous places, while movable cultural goods are
works of art and history, archives and films, also old and rare books. Three
most important Conventions adopted by the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is responsible for these
areas, because an increasing risk for cultural and natural heritage in the
world have been noticed during the previous years, are: the Convention on the
Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Event of Armed Conflict (more commonly
known as the Hague Convention, adopted in 1954), the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the
Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property 1970 and
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention 1972. States Parties have
their own laws and their bodies dealing with the protection of cultural
heritage in individual countries throughout the world, of course with more or
less success. The goal of protection is the preservation of the quality and
value of the cultural property, extension of its lifetime, as well as the
protection of its material structure.
It is
essential to harmonize international principles relating to the protection of
cultural heritage, where each country assumes responsibility for the
implementation of the plan within its own culture. UNESCO owns the so-called
World Heritage List, containing 936 monuments in 153 countries. Since 2006, a
special body of this organization has been engaged in the list of intangible cultural
heritage under unique criteria.
One question
arises undoubtedly. Why is it important to preserve cultural goods not only
from their (physical or material) decay and disappearance, but also from the oblivion?
It is believed that the diversity of cultural heritage in the world is an
irreplaceable source of the spiritual richness of human civilization. In
diversity, often opposed, which the culture and civilization have created and
are still creating, lie its specific significance and the special value that we
must nurture and preserve for those who will come after us. Thus, they would also
have rich and colorful foundations on which they will develop and create some
of their own cultural and artistic contents. And so for an indefinite time,
"sa kolena na koleno"(remark of the author: Serbian expression), more
precisely from generation to generation, as long as people walk, live and
create on our planet.
Cultural
heritage of the Danube Germans from the territory of the Municipality of
Indjija (Serbia)
We want to
point out that the goal of this article is not to deal with determination of
historical facts nor with valorization of any kind of (historical) data, except
to draw attention to an interesting, specific and unique topic in the European
Year of Protection of Cultural Heritage and in the magazine which, among other
things, deals with motifs related to cultural heritage (at the local level as
well). Also, the author of the text believes that certainly there are people
who possess more relevant knowledge and information related to this field, and
wants only to emphasize the importance, significance and obligation to protect
the diverse cultural (and historical) heritage that this particular region has.
Because of the limited space, neither the available data nor the sources nor
the text went deeper into the analysis of individual cases, but only general
knowledge of the public was taken into account with the part of the material
that could be presented under the term or brought into connection with the
cultural heritage of the Danube Germans on the territory of the Municipality of
Indjija, or from these areas, since it was noticed that there is a need to
constantly develop the awareness of the wealth that it brings us, about the
opportunities and potentials it provides us, even today when the Vojvodina’s
Germans have been counted almost an insignificant percentage in the ethnic
structure of the local population. On the other hand, it is also necessary to
use every possible opportunity to draw attention to the fact that it may happen
that due to negligence, nonchalance, irresponsibility or carelessness with this
heritage, whether material or non-material, cannot be passed on to future
generations, and eventually disappear and completely vanish, as if it has never
existed before.
The first
(agrarian) German colonists in this area of Srem from the period after the
departure of the Turks came from the province of Baden-Württemberg. These were
the so-called "Ethnic Swabians" (in the beginning, the name referred
only to those who came from the area of the Swabian dialect; during the time,
this name extended to all German immigrants, no matter what territory they came
from; the Danubian Swabians has been the term used since 1920) who formed their
first municipality, Nova Pazova, and after that they came to the municipality
of Zemun - Franctal in 1818, and from 1820 to 1840 to Ruma, Putinci and Indjija.
(The first wave of settling the Germans in the Srem area occurred in 1745).
According to available sources, “spahijstvo” (property) of the Count Pejacevic
"Moja Volja" (Municipality of Indjija) was settled between 1746 and
1750, with several Serbs, Croatians, and 173 German families. In 1786, it was
settled by 700 families from southwestern Germany. It is preserved that in the
year of 1848 in Indjija and its surroundings lived over 1500 Germans. According
to the 1981 census, Indjija's 22 inhabitants declared themselves as Germans,
while the number in 2011 was 19. And right here, on the estate "Moja Volja"
in 1885, was born the first academic Indjija’s painter, German Oskar
Sommerfeld. Since at this place we are not able to transfer in detail his
entire biography, we are going to draw attention to a couple of important
details. Sommerfeld's painting "Orac" ("Der Pflüger"),
since it depicts so well the essence of the Germans' lives in this region, their
diligence, perseverance and attachment to the land, eventually became the
symbol of the Danube Germans from Indjija and the surrounding areas. The
picture on which is written "Not with a sword, but a plow captured.
Children of Peace, heroes of Labor” is now kept in a private collection in
Austria, where the painter was buried in 1973. Sommerfeld faithfully and
efficiently transmitted on the canvas the fate of his fellow countrymen who
left the region after the Second World War and broke up around the world also
on his painting called “Beg” ("Die Flucht"), which decorates the
walls of the Palace of Nations in Geneva. In the legacy of Djordje Vojnovic in
Indjija there are several of his cartoons of at that time well-known Indjija’s
residents, among others, of Radoslav Markovic (1865, Mosorin - 1948, Indjija), priest
and writer, the person who was of exceptional importance for the municipality
of Indjija, but also a man whose written legacy has left priceless and valuable
historical and cultural data and information related to the life and work of
the Germans from this area.
(Author's note: This photo of Oscar Sommersfeld's picture "Plowman" is the property of www.dvhh.org)
When we
mentioned the name of Djordje Vojnovic and the priest of Radoslav Markovic, it is
inevitable to draw attention to their important role in the founding of the so-called
“Sokolsko drustvo” (Indjija) in 1905, or later in the construction of the “Sokolski
dom”. In that renovated building today’s Culture center of Indjija has been
situated for over ten years and on its walls can still be seen a built-in plate
with the names of the donors with donations larger than the 10,000 dinars,
among which are the local Germans, too. And the first cinema, after the
construction of the electric power station around 1912, was opened in the house
of the German Georg Miller. The first music chapel with brass instruments in
Indjija was founded by a teacher Vilhelm Gesl before 1848. The first president
of the Volunteer Firefighter Society was Joseph Wolf, who has been the president
of the municipality of Indjija for years. The first Indjia’s doctor was Franc Valter
from Jugendorf in Schlesia, and the first veterinarians were Germans. The
beginnings of a more organized sport in Indjija are also related to the local
Germans and their associations. Today's Elementary School "Dusan Jerkovic"
was founded in 1831 as a German elementary school, and the initiative for
establishing the first kindergarten in Indjija, where the children of all
nationalities were staying, originated from the Germans. This town gave birth
to Jakob Müller, who studied languages in Vienna, and was a professor at the
Gymnasium in Osijek and Zemun, and later at the Trade Academy in Novi Sad. He
and his colleague V. Djisalovic published in 1922 the "Dictionary of the
Serbian-German language with the phraseology and accents".
The Germans
were not only farmers and landowners, but also well-educated people, craftsmen,
millers, brick shop owners, furniture manufacturers and knitwears; by the time
they became industrialists and the so-called "business people". The
first Indjia’s fur factory, within which there was the production of parachutes
for the Yugoslav aviation, was in their possession. It was famous "Kneebl
and Ditrih" factory, whose building still exists, although it is in a very
bad condition nowadays.
There are
still many other buildings from this period, not just those in which factories,
shops and public buildings were located, but also the so-called "Swabian
houses" with very specific architecture, according to which Indjija has
been yet recognizable. However, they are mostly privately owned, many are
abandoned, collapsed and prone to fall,
many are adapted, destroyed or have the imminent fate in searching for a place
to constructing new ones and more modern living space. So, gradually and
visually disappears the architectural heritage of the Danube Germans, as well
as the treasure that exists in them, which testifies to the everyday life and
work of these people (furniture, personal items, works of art, objects related
to the social life of the community, tools, etc.). It is still not too late to
protect them and to promote them as a part of the cultural and historical
heritage remained after the Vojvodina’s Germans left these areas.
And
what is more difficult to preserve and transfer further is certainly an
intangible legacy. It encompasses the local language, oral tradition, recipes,
world and religious rituals and customs, festive events, personal memories,
anecdotes, folk costumes and play, music, in one word, all that Indjija, a rich
and developed town, made once as vividly cultural and spiritual center of the
Danubian Swabians who lived in this region.
Much
of this in the form of photographs’ recordings and documents has been preserved
and processed by writers who deal with the history of old Indjija, just to
mention some of them: Wendl Müller, Peter Pill and Josef Wilhem (book
"India"), Dr. Valentin
Oberkersch who was born in Indija in 1920 (the book "India" in two
editions and a large number of Indjija’s letters; it is interesting that none
of these works are still translated from German into Serbian language although
they represent rich and important sources for the history of this area), the
aforementioned priest Radoslav Markovic and Djordje Vojnovic, Anton N. Lukic
(book "Indjija, Indigena: records and lectures" from which a lot of
data for this article has been taken), as well as the recently deceased Ratko
Rackovic from Ruma.
Although
there is a preserved material, it is considered that the intangible heritage is
more difficult for preservation because the carries of its elements are people,
it is a living tradition and cannot exist unless its bearers are present. Any
kind of moving people from one space to another, distant space (due to
conflicts, wars, natural disasters, etc.) disrupts collective memory, since a
"space" is precisely what is one of the social frameworks in which
human memory is recorded. Collective memories of the community are reproduced
and re-formed around their stories.
Although
the uninterrupted flow of time makes its own and leaves in the life less and
less Danube Germans who were born and lived here, there are still those who are
alive and interested in renewing ties to the country where they made their
first steps, where they learned to read and write or gained the first
friendships. Their descendants, scattered all over the world, are also
interested and they can be also guardians and bearers of memories belonging to
the people who are no longer among us. Many communities throughout Vojvodina
have begun to open their doors for such visitings, contacts, dialogues,
research, establishing of clubs of Serbian-German friendships.
An
example of good practice is e.g. the Regional Association "Stara
Beska" (Beska, Municipality of Indjija), which is the founder of a museum
where you can see old photos and rare items from Beska and its surroundings.
They went one step further: every year
in partnership with the German city of Karlshud organizes the Beška Fest or the
Day of the Vojvodina-Bavarian Culture, an international event aimed at
presenting and affirmation of the tradition, customs, culture and gastronomy of
Vojvodina and Bavaria and which properly
integrates culture, art and heritage in order to promote and use the touristical
potential of our community.
Cultural
Center of Indjija and the Indjija’s Artists
Association organized an exhibition titled "Oskar Zomerfeld" in the
House of Vojnovic’s Gallery in 2008 and
thus paid off to this great and respected artist (curators Sanja Sajfert and
Zoran Milosevic). At the New Cemetery in Indjija there is a monument at the
tomb of the remains of those who died and were buried in the cemetery of Roman
Catholic and other faiths (the so-called German cemetery) which was destroyed
in the middle of the last century. Although very sad historical events at one
point separated two peoples, cultural legacy can and must be a clue between the
past, the present and the future of these geographical spaces and the people
who lived in them at one time, who live now or will live one day. Once the
Austrian composer Gustav Mahler wrote that tradition is the preservation of
fire, not the worship of ashes, so we are obliged to preserve and transfer this
rich and valuable cultural heritage to younger generations as something vivid,
unique and connecting.
Milica Zivkovic
"Indjijski kulturni kandelabar", Magazine for culture, 2018, 11th edition, Indjia, Zavicajno drustvo Djordje Vojnovi
Коментари
Постави коментар