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"In the beginning there was the forest..."

So begins the saga of the German-speaking people who, in the 1300's settled in what is now southern Slovenia, just north of the river Kulpa.

The tale of these settlers, mainly farmers and carpenters, is one of tranquility and tragedy, of war and peace. The sound of that unique accent that developed from the original Bavarian/Austrian dialect is slowly fading into the distance as the last generation of native-born Gottscheers become senior citizens. When this happens, the book will be closed on the last chapter of Gottschee, except of course in the hearts of those of us descendants who attempt to preserve some of our heritage.

A brief History of Gottschee

Contributed by John Turney of Albuquerque, NM

In the early 1300s, this region, the Holy Roman Empire of German Nations, was owned by the Count of Ortenburg. In 1350, 300 Franconian and Thurlugian families were asked by the Count to settle this virgin and barren land. When the families arrived, they saw a beautiful lake which they called "God's Sea" or in German, "Gottcheer."

While these Germanic people cultivated the land and paid taxes to the Count, they also served as a buffer from the invading Turks in the East, who had burnt their villages three previous times. They farmed and hunted midway between the Sava River and the Adriatic Sea. Though they lived among several Balkan nationalities, mostly Slavs, they maintained their Germanic traditions. Gottschee became a small Austrian duchy in 1791 and was later owned by Adolph Wilhelm (1821-1885), the Prince of Auersperg, and later his sons. There were approximately 184 villages, and about 30,000 people.

In the mid-1880s, the land became overcrowded and the people, who remained relatively poor, began emigrating. Those who came to the United States settled in Ridgewood, New York, to be near Brooklyn's factories and knitting mills, and in Cleveland, Ohio. Before World War I, thousands of Gottscheers had left. After the war, their land, part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, became part of the newly-created Jugoslavia. But a pact between Adolph Hitler and Italy, during World War II, gave the land to Italy and many more of the people, their homes plundered by war, became refugees, fleeing to the U.S., Austria and Canada.

At the wars end, the land fell to the Communists, and more Gottscheers fled their native land. In recent times, as Soviet Communism fell and nationalists movements within the former Soviet bloc nations created new nations, it has become known as Kocevje, Slovenia.

From: http://www.best.com/~hwk/ks/gottschee.html