Gottschee

 ( Geography Of Lower Carniola ) 

In 1906 the ethnic Romanian Austro-Hungarian lawyer and politician Aurel Popovici unsuccessfully proposed the reorganization of Austria-Hungary as the United States of Greater Austria.Popovici, Aurel. 1906. Die Vereinigten Staaten von Groß-Österreich. Politische Studien zur Lösung der nationalen Fragen und staatrechtlichen Krisen in Österreich-Ungarn. Leipzig: B. Elischer nachfolger. Popovici's proposal included Gottschee as a separate autonomous district within the proposed state of Carniola.

Under the 1921 constitution, the traditional regions were abolished and Gottschee was made part of the Ljubljana Province () from 1922 to 1929. After the provinces were abolished, Gottschee was part of the larger Drava Banovina (Dravska banovina) from 1929 to 1941. Within the very large Kočevje District (), Dravska banovina. Pregled srezov, sodnih okrajev in krajevnih občin. 1930. Map, 1:200,000. Ljubljana: Šumarski odsek Dravske banovine. 22 local communities or small municipalities (občina) largely encompassed Gottschee territory until 1933, continuing its 19th-century organization. Many Gottschee settlements were outside the Kočevje District.Ferenc, Mitja. 2007. Nekdanji nemški jezikovni otok na kočevskem. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej, p. 16. In 1933, a Yugoslav administrative reform created large municipalities (občina) organized within the districts (srez). The Kočevje District was the largest district in the Drava Banovina, extending from Veliki Ločnik in the north to the Croatian border in the south. Krajevni leksikon Dravske Banovine. 1937. Ljubljana: Zveza za tujski promet za Slovenijo, pp. 210, 225. Gottschee territory was encompassed by 11 large municipalities, not all of which were in the Kočevje District.Ferenc, Mitja. 2007. Nekdanji nemški jezikovni otok na kočevskem. Kočevje: Pokrajinski muzej, p. 17.

During this time, political and assimilatory pressure against the German minority caused many of Gottschee Germans to emigrate: the German-language high school was closed in 1918, German was eliminated as an elective subject in schools in 1925, the majority of German business, cultural, and athletics societies were dissolved, and there was forced Slovenization of the names of villages and people. By 1941 the Gottschee German population had fallen to only about 12,500. Most of the Germans fled back to Austria or emigrated to the United States (mainly New York City or Cleveland, Ohio.) Brief History of Gottschee

While some of the Gottscheer community leaders had embraced National Socialism and agitated for "assistance" and "repatriation" to the Reich before the German invasion in 1941, most Gottscheers had no interest in reuniting with Nazi Germany or joining the Nazis.Petschauer, Erich. 1980. Das Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer. Klagenfurt: Leustik, p. 110. They had been integrated into society with their Slovene neighbours, often intermarrying among Slovenes and becoming bilingual while maintaining their Germanic language and customs since their arrival in the region in the late 14th century.

However, propaganda and Nazi ideology prevailed, and the VoMi began planning the Gottschee "resettlement" (forced expulsion) from Kočevje, which was in the Italian occupation zone, to the "Ranner Dreieck" or Brežice Triangle in Lower Styria, the region now known as the Lower Sava Valley, located between the confluences of the Krka, Sotla, and Sava rivers.

In November 1941, some 46,000 Slovenians in the Brežice Triangle region were forcibly deported to Eastern Germany for potential Germanization or Unfree labour in order to make an accommodation for the Gottschee "resettlers". Shortly before that time, a largely transparent propaganda effort was aimed toward both the Gottscheers and the Slovenes, promising the latter equivalent farmland in Germany for the land relinquished. The Gottscheers were given Reich passports and transportation to the Lower Sava Valley just after the forced departure of the Slovenes. Most Gottschee left their homes because of coercion and threats since the VoMi had a deadline of December 31, 1941 for the mass movement of both groups. Gottscheers were removed from a total of 167 settlements in 1941 and 1942.

The eviction was organized as a series of 25 resettlement groups (German: Stürme), numbered Go 1 through Go 25 and named after major settlements: Entwurf zum Generalsiedlungsplan der Grenzsiedlungszone der Untersteiermark, reproduced in: Ferenc, Mitja. 1993. Kočevska. Izgubljena kulturna dediščina kočevskih nemcev. Ljubljana: Delo, p. 33. Das Gottscheer Hochland (map)

Although from the time of their arrival to the end of the war, Gottschee farmers were harassed and killed by Josip Broz Tito's Partisans, 56 of the Gottschee ethnic Germans, who did not want to leave their homes, decided instead to join Slovene Partisans and fight against Italians in Province of Ljubljana, together with their Slovene neighbours.Zdravko Troha (2004) Kočevski Nemci – partizani fotografije. Ljubljana: Slovensko kočevarsko društvo Peter Kosler. Ulrich Weinzierl (2003) Wald und Wald und Wald, Spectrum – Die Presse, 15. November 2003.

The attempt to resettle the Gottscheers was a costly failure for the Nazi regime, since extra manpower was required to protect the farmers from the partisans. The deported Slovenes were taken to several camps in Saxony, where they were forced to work on German farms or in factories run by German industries from 1941 to 1945. The forced labourers were not always kept in formal Nazi concentration camps, but often just vacant buildings where they slept until the next day's labour took them outside these quarters. Toward the end of the war, these camps were liberated by American and Red Army troops, and repatriated refugees later returned to Yugoslavia.

The fate of the resettled Gottschee was not much better, and in some cases much worse. At the end of the war the Nazi regime in the region evaporated as soldiers and administrators fled.

• Thomas F. Bencin. Gottschee: A History of a German Community in Slovenia from the Fourteenth to the Twentieth Century. Master's Thesis 1995. Louisville, CO: Gottscheer Research and Genealogy Assn. 2003.
• Joseph Erker. Jubiläums-Festbuch der Gottscheer 600-Jahrfeier: aus Anlaß des 600-jährigen Bestandes des Gottscheer Landes. Gottschee: Pavlicek, 1930.
• Mitja Ferenc. Kočevska: izgubljena kulturna dediščina kočevskih Nemcev; = Gottschee: Das verlorene Kulturerbe der Gottscheer Deutschen. Ljubljana: Zavod Republike Slovenije za varstvo naravne in kulturne dediščine, 1993.
• Herber Otterstädt. Gottschee, verlorene Heimat deutscher Waldbauern, 1962.
• Petschauer, Erich. 1980. Das Jahrhundertbuch der Gottscheer. Klagenfurt: Hermann Leustik
• Zdravko Troha (2004) Kočevski Nemci – partizani; = Gottschee Germans – Partisans Pokrajinski. Ljubljana: Slovensko kočevarsko društvo Peter Kosler.
• John Tschinkel. The Bells Ring No More: An autobiography of the author and the history and fate of the Gottschee of Slovenia.

• www.gottschee.at Website of Gottscheer societies
• www.gottschee.de Information on history and culture of the Gottscheer Germans.
• www.gottschee.com Website with audio folklore samples from Gottscheers in the United States.
• Gottscheer Heritage and Genealogy Association (GHGA) website "founded in 1992 to preserve the culture, history, and genealogical records of Gottscheers and Gottschee (1330–1941)"
• Peter Kosler Association, Slovenia