Hauerland
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Hauerland (also called Kremnitz-Deutschprobener Sprachinsel) is the German name for a region presently located in central Slovakia once inhabited by Carpathian Germans. Arisen from medieval Ostsiedlung population movements, it belonged to three German language islands within a greater Slovakian-speaking area. The other two were situated in Bratislava (‹See Tfd›German: Pressburg) and the Spiš (‹See Tfd›German: Zips) region.
Geography
[edit]The area laid within the forested Western Carpathians mountain range around the towns of Kremnica (‹See Tfd›German: Kremnitz) in the south and Nitrianske Pravno (‹See Tfd›German: Deutschproben) in the north. The term Hauerland was coined by German folklorists in the 1930s referring to several German placenames in the region bearing the suffix -hau ("hew (off)", i.e. to clear woodland). Most Hauerland villages are laid out as Waldhufendorf ("forest village") in areas of forest clearing with the farms arranged in a series along a road or stream.
History
[edit]In the Middle Ages, the Kremnica Mountains (‹See Tfd›German: Kremnitzer Berge) were an important gold mining area within Upper Hungary (‹See Tfd›German: Oberungarn) and directly subordinate to the Hungarian monarch. Numerous villages, mostly spread out in the mountainous and hilly areas, were agricultural and developed a special kind of German subculture.
In 1328, King Charles I granted Kremnica town privileges, followed by the foundation of Kunešov (‹See Tfd›German: Kuneschhau) in 1342, Sklené (‹See Tfd›German: Glaserhau) in 1360, Kremnické Bane (‹See Tfd›German: Johannesberg) in 1361, Turček/Dolný Turček (‹See Tfd›German: Unter-Turz) in 1371, Horná Štubňa (‹See Tfd›German: Oberstuben) in 1390, Krahule (‹See Tfd›German: Blaufuß) in 1422, and Janova Lehota (‹See Tfd›German: Drexlerhau) in 1487.
The largest Hauerland municipality was Handlová (‹See Tfd›German: Krickerhau), established in 1367 within the Bojnice (‹See Tfd›German: Weinitz) castle estates, where in the 19th century, coal deposits were discovered. In the northern part, the town of Nitrianske Pravno was founded about 1337, followed by Malinová (‹See Tfd›German: Zeche) in 1339, Kľačno (‹See Tfd›German: Gaidel), Tužina (‹See Tfd›German: Schmiedshau) about 1350, Vrícko (‹See Tfd›German: Münnichwies) in 1488, and Chvojnica (‹See Tfd›German: Fundstollen) in 1614.
Over the centuries, the German-speaking population of these areas gradually diminished, decimated already in the Hussite Wars of the 1420s and 1430s respectively, in the 16th century Ottoman–Habsburg wars, and again by insurgent Hungarian troops under Stephen Bocskay in 1605/06, succeeded by the forces of Gabriel Bethlen and George I Rákóczi.
See also
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