Althütte
The first German-Bohemian Settlement in the Bukovina
Norbert Gaschler,
“200 Jahre seit der Gründung von Althütte: Der erste deutschböhmische Ort des
Buchenlandes,
in Erinnerungen an Althütte, Bukowina (Recollections of Althütte,
Bukovina),
ed. Walter Ernst, trans. Sophie A. Welisch
(Augsburg—Querfurt: Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen e.V., 2002): 29-36.
Posted on the World-Wide Web
by the Bukovina Society of the Americas,
July 26, 2006.
Diese Seite auf Deutsch
INTRODUCTION.
In the decade before the outbreak of World War II the Germans of Bukovina could
celebrate three events, which had transpired 150 years earlier: in the summer of
1932 they started in Czernowitz-Rosch and Molodia with the 150th year
celebration of the settlement of the first Swabians in Bukovina since it had
come under Austrian sovereignty; in the summer of 1936 a great ceremony took
place in Jakobeny in commemoration of the settlement of the first Zipsers in
Bukovina; and in the summer of 1937 there followed a general fest in Radautz
commemorating the settlement of the endowed settlers (Swabians) in the eight
Swabian villages of Bukovina.
A half dozen years
later marked 150 years since the founding of the first German Bohemian village
in Bukovina, and the German Bohemians would surely deservedly have celebrated
this event. However, as a result of the outbreak of war and the1940 resettlement
the celebration never took place. Perhaps a homeland researcher would have
written a “History of Althütte” for this jubilee, and there would at least be
accounts on hand from newspapers and periodicals about the founding and
development of this oldest German Bohemian village in Bukovina as was the case
with the celebrations in Rosch, Molodia, Jakobeny, and Radautz.
If one attempts to
reconstruct this narrative now, the undertaking is from the start doomed to
incompletion, since it can only be constructed from second or third-hand
accounts and therefore again only from limited sources. The chronicle,
therefore, is damned to become a torso, a comparatively meager work, which the
author has been able to assemble from the still available sources. It moreover
appears belated since for him and others the year 1793 has faded from memory. He
only recalled it after the resettled villagers from Althütte held their first
homeland reunion in their new federal state of Saxe-Anhalt on September 18-19,
1993.
THE KRASNA GLASS WORKS
1. Reasons for the first
settlement of German Bohemians in Bukovina
The main reason for
calling the first glassworkers from the Kingdom of Bohemia to Bukovina rests
with the principal resource of this region, the forests. There is no book and no
major writing about the land, which does not comment on the extensive forests of
Bukovina. In 1775 they were almost exclusively owned by the Orthodox bishops of
Radautz and the Orthodox (also called Greek Oriental) monasteries. With the
consent of Bishop Cherescul of Radautz the majority of these real estates were
put under state administration in April 1783 and from April 25, 1785 were taken
over by the newly-established Greek Oriental Religious Foundation. This
Foundation eased the administration of the former estates of the bishops and the
monasteries, which at that time had owned half the land surface of Bukovina, in
that it leased them to financially powerful men, who often sub-leased the
individual properties. Thus, for example, in 1791 Baron von Lezzeni, who at that
time lived in far-off Lemberg (Lviv, Galicia), leased the extensive estates of
the Religious Foundation in Kuczurmare Domain (near Czernowitz) and the one in
St. Onufry near Sereth for the duration of thirty years without the slightest
thought of working them himself. Accordingly, he sub-leased them the same year
to Abraham Kriegshaber, who not only must have been wealthy, but also must have
had influential friends and patrons in the district office of Czernowitz, with
the government in Lemberg or even at the Court of Vienna, since in 1794 he was
ennobled and then on December 14, 1818 raised to knighthood as Anton Adam.
In Kuczurmare
Kriegshaber created his own lending institution and leased individual estates to
sub-leaseholders. For the estates, fields and meadows he found lessees without
difficulty but not for the large forested areas. These included the widespread
forest west from Czudyn (Romanian Ciudei), which adjoined the estate of the
boyar Alexander von Ilski and which later got the name Krasna, then Krasna-Ilski.
The lessee could not afford to allow these lands to remain unused. The need for
wood for buildings, fireplaces and ovens, for tools and household furnishings
could be covered everywhere in Bukovina by the vast forests. Thus he accepted
the suggestions of the first two military governors of Bukovina. Count Splény
had already expressed in his memoir from the year 1775 and his successor Count
Enzenberg in 1779 that it would be reasonable to establish one or more glass
works. Raimund Friedrich Kaindl wrote about this in his book about the
settlement of Bukovina [Das Ansiedlungswesen in der Bukowina seit der
Besitzergreifung durch Österreich, 1902], (p. 343): “Thus without previously
informing the Council (in Vienna, NG), Kriegshaber summoned glassmakers from
German Bohemia, who in 1793 built the first glass works in Bukovina.” For two
decades all official sources referred to it as the “Krasna glassworks.”
2. Its Development
About the operations
of this glassworks there is little that is known, Kaindl continues. He could
only state this in comparison with the two other glassworks, in Putna and
Fürstenthal (Romanian: Voivodeasa), about which he wrote in some detail. He, as
well as Wickenhauser, whose collected manuscripts and notes Kaindl obtained from
his estate, knew nothing about the sources for these two contemporaries, since
these lay in the Vienna archives. It is to the credit of Dr. Rudolf Wagner that
he had them published.
a) According to the
treasurer Johann Modes from Radautz who on April 30, 1794 wrote to retired
treasurer Ferdinand Dans: “that the glassworks in Krasna produces the loveliest
glass and that the demand is so strong that one cannot fill the orders to
satisfy all the buyers. . .” (Dr. R. Wagner, p. 186)
b) The cameral
director in St. Illie, Albert von Kugler, wrote to the same treasurer Dans on
October 10, 1794: “The glassworks in Krasna has a hollow and a plate glass oven.
These two ovens together consist of sixteen earthen vessels or crucibles . . .
The produced glass is very nice and clean although the gravel or vitreous sand
is not near the glass works but rather is brought at a high cost from Uhrynkowce,
District of Zalesczyk as is also the crucible glue (Tiegelleim) from
Dziewieczicz of the Lubaczow Domain. Only the dense forest and the ease of
making potash have produced a glassworks in Krasna” (Wagner, p. 141). Kugler
maintains that it was only the forest that had enabled a glass works to be
established in Krasna. The acquisition of gravel and crucible glue over great
distances for those times from neighboring Galicia confirms the sentiment of
Baron Enzenberg that through his many travels through Bukovina he very rarely
found the necessary ingredients for glass production, namely the fine white
pebbles in the mountain streams.
If the raw materials
for glass production had to be transported from so far a distance involving
additional expenses, then the glassworks could not have generated a very high
profit for the lessees; nonetheless, they provided the salaries and thereby the
livelihood for the glass workers and their families.
That the lessee
Kriegshaber was satisfied with the development of his new enterprise is
confirmed by the fact that as early as 1799 he began recruiting “available
lumbermen” from the region of Trenczin (at that time belonging to Hungary, now
to Slovakia), from whence especially in the spring of 1803 several hundred
Slovaks came to Bukovina, some of whom were hired by the Krasna glassworks
(Kaindl, p. 179 and Church registries).
Although it is
asserted that sales were insignificant and went primarily to Lemberg, there was
at least no threat to the continuation of the glassworks for additional ten
years. It was not so bad as to render the “ovens cold,” as the shutting down of
a glass works was termed at that time.
3. Its transfer
In the region of the
central Bohemian Forest the circumstances which befell the Krasna glass works
had already existed for more than 200 years, namely, the surrounding forest was
slowly but steadily cleared and the glass works had to be relocated. Josef Blau
devotes a special chapter, ”Glashütten wandern” (glassworks wander) to
this phenomenon in his book, Die Glasmacher in Böhmer- und Bayerwald
(The glassmakers in the Bohemian and Bavarian Forest). On p. 27 he notes: “The
initial glassworks was almost always a roaming enterprise. When the supply of
wood in a valley was exhausted, the glassworks ate its way ever further and
higher into the forest, similar to the nomadic wandering shepherds, who with
tent and herd always traveled further, looking for patches of grass.” And he
complained to the central government that from 1651 the glassmasters from
Bohemian Seewiesen had twice penetrated the forest. This was likewise noted in
1599 of the Schönbrunn glassworks in the Bavarian Forest, which in about 1650,
i.e., forty years later and again seventy years afterwards, had had to
”move on” to richer stands of wood.
The same thing
happened to the Krasna glassworks after the gradual depletion of the wood supply
in close proximity. Glass production began to decline between 1812-1814 and
closed down between 1814-1817. Finally the building collapsed (Kaindl, p. 346).
For this reason in 1816 a new glassworks was constructed in the dense forest in
the area of Czudyn, about a half-hour away. It was simply called Neuhütte (new
glass works) to distinguish it from Althütte (old glass works). Consequently a
new settlement arose, at first officially called Czudyner Hütte. A number of
workers from the old glassworks moved on to Neuhütte. In that many of the
original 1793 settlers or else their descendants were no longer alive, unable to
work, did not want to relocate, or in the meantime had changed their occupation,
the number of specialists did not suffice for the new glass installation. Lessee
Kriegshaber had to renew his recruitment of glassworkers from Bohemia. Their
number is not noted; in any event, the population of Neuhütte increased
substantially through migration. The new names are later recorded in the Church
books and affiliated records.
4. The end of
the new glass works
In 1821 the
thirty-year lease had expired and the owner, the Religions Foundation—Kuczurmare
Domain, reclaimed the glassworks’ buildings in order to run them itself. For
this purpose, the Domain signed a contract with the residents of Althütte and
Neuhütte for 1821-1827. Relatively speaking, much is known about the conditions
of ownership, property taxes and corvée labor during this period but nothing
about the glassworks itself. Therefore, nothing more can be reported about it.
This also holds true for the next decade. Before Kaindl concludes his chapter
about Althütte and Neuhütte with the number of residents, the historian notes in
1902: “The glass factory in Neuhütte has also been closed for many decades. The
colonists turned to other pursuits; only a few found employment in the glass
factory of Lunka Frumosa, the last of the Bukovina glassworks.” (Kaindl, p. 353;
The yearbooks of the Bukovina Industrial Council and Commercial Council, founded
in 1851, have not yet been researched.)
4. The origin
of the settlers
b) The Slovaks
Old extant reports
about the first settlers of Krasna, respectively about Althütte and Neuhütte,
state that they came “from Bohemia,” more specifically “from west Bohemia.” A
reason for this vague reference to the region of origin lies in the fact that
the researcher had no access to the parish records for Althütte until the 1820s,
although they had already been maintained for the earlier years. More about this
elsewhere.
Based on names which
have sustained themselves in the community for over 150 years and also on the
few references to the place of birth of individual persons, we can assume that
they all came from the central Bohemian Forest (illustrated through recent
research by Michael Augustin at the 2002 convention of the Landsmannschaft
der Buchenlanddeutschen [Regional Association of Bukovina Germans]), where
there had once existed a long chain of glassworks, among them two which by 1793
had fallen into economic distress. Two of the grandchildren of glassmakermaster
Johann Georg (Hansjörg) Hafenbrädl (died May 5, 1769 at age eighty-five), who
had risen in wealth and prominence, were in a state of indebtedness. One, Hans
Wenzel Hafenbrädl, glassmaster of the Gerl glassworks near Seewiesen, had
incurred debts of 9,000 florins and 15,000 florins, i.e., 24,000 florins
for delivered potash, which he had received from two firms. He hoped to recover
financially by building a new crystal glass works in Rozineczka near Lubaczow in
Galicia and to take a number of his glassworkers with him. This happened in
1793. Six years later he had incurred a debt of 10,000 florins and declared
bankruptcy. His possessions in the old homeland were also auctioned off. The
proverb, “glass and luck, how easily they break!” became harsh reality for him
personally and for his compatriots. The latter sought new luck and in 1797 came
to Krasna, where the second glass works of Bukovina had been constructed.
In 1788 the second
grandchild, Felix Hafenbrädl, acquired the Storn glassworks near Eisenstein. He
had connections to firms in Milan and Amsterdam and was the first in the family
known as a manufacturer. As his cousin, he, too, incurred debts, but not in the
same dimension, and likewise for potash, which a commercial firm in Prague
delivered to him. While staying in Amsterdam in the winter of 1791-1792 in order
to sell the glass that had been sent there, he was arrested for indebtedness and
unable to sell his glass. His mother-in-law no doubt bailed him out because in
the spring of 1792 he was free. But his Storn glassworks in the meantime lay
inactive. The enterprise again resumed production and continued until 1808.
The “cold oven” in
Storn in the years 1791-1792 was perhaps a suggestion that the unemployed
glassmakers of this glass installation had accepted Krieghaber’s recruitment and
came to Krasna. Thence arises the thought that the first settlers near Krasna-Althütte
hailed from the vicinity of the Storn glassworks north of the Spitzberg near
Eisenstein in the Bohemian Forest. If this is only a speculation, then their
economic need, on the other hand, is a certainty they led them to take this
step. They namely came based only on oral promises of salary as well as lodgings
and without written agreement. At home they were without work and bread, but
they had their little home or at least a place to live, which they now
surrendered based on oral promises; nor could they take their household
furnishings and utensils on the long trip and moreover on foot through “virgin
forest” to Krasna. This was a huge gamble to which the people committed
themselves 200 years ago, since one thing they knew with certainty: all that
awaited them was forest, otherwise nothing. But their hopes for a better life
were stronger than all other considerations. It can be assumed that they were
primarily young people, who are generally the most mobile of the population when
it comes to migration.
b) The Slovaks
In 1803 this hope
also motivated Slovaks to come to Bukovina when the lessee Kriegshaber solicited
them. For them the same proverb held true: “He who travels with hope, has
poverty as the coachman.” We know of no other reason why they may have left
their homeland. They came from the administrative district of Trenczin in former
Upper Hungary, Trentschin, today officially Trenčin in the Slovak Republic,
which lies about 100 kilometers northeast of the capital city of Pressburg/Bratislava.
Of the several hundred Slovaks, some came as lumbermen for the Krasna
glassworks. As with the German Bohemians who had arrived a decade earlier, a
more exact number is likewise unknown. Thirty years later fifty-one Slovak
families (between 1835-1841) were recorded for Althütte and Neuhütte at which
time most of them were lumbermen. According to official records these Catholic
Slovaks were recorded as residents of these villages, although in actuality they
were living elsewhere in the domain of the Religious Foundation in Kuczurmare.
After their
unsuccessful 1821 petition to Emperor Francis I for allotment of properties,
forwarded on January 25, 1822 by the Court Council in Lemberg to the Bukovina
authorities, about forty families from Krasna settled in the new community of
Pojana Mikuli in 1841. The negative reply of the district inspector, Franz
Schubert, is noteworthy. On June 29, 1822 he wrote that there is no longer a
domain that has more land on which to settle about eighty or 130 families (from
Krasna and Tereblestie) as a compact group and continued: “They settled near the
glassworks near Krasna where the lessee assigned them forested lands for
building purposes and where they could use the wood. The German Bohemians are
also there but do not consider asking for settlement since they know that they
can sustain themselves by the exertion of their energy and have no fortune other
than their healthy arms” (Kaindl, p. 213). A recognition and official praise for
the German Bohemian co-residents.
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