Kočevje

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Občina Kočevje

Area:

563.7 km²

Population

16,292

- males

7,965

- females

8,327

Mayor:

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Average age:

41.55 years

Residential areas:

28.45 m²/person

- households:

5,729

- families:

4,624

Working active:

8,109

- unemployed:

1,529

Average monthly salary (August 2003):

- gross:

201,019 SIT

- net:

130,850 SIT

College/university students:

480

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, census of 2002.

Kočevje (German: Gottschee) is a municipality and town in Slovenia, the largest by area, located between the rivers Krka and Kolpa, but also refers to the former county Gottschee in the Habsburg empire and its German speaking population. It is well known for its ancient forest and wild animals, including brown bears. From the middle of the 13th to the middle of the 20th century, Kočevje was a German linguistic enclave. Their language was a dialect of Bavarian called Gottscheerish or Granish. The German speakers were known for their folk songs. The Gottscheerish dialect is now considered to be critically endangered, with few remaining native speakers.

1 History
2 Notable Inhabitants
3 Bibliography
4 External links

[edit] History

Gottschee was settled in the late 1300s by the Carinthian Counts of Ortenburg initially with colonists from the Ortenburg estates in Carinthia and Tyrol, and by other settlers who came from Austrian and German Dioceses of Salzburg, Brixen and Freising. The settlers cleared the vacant and heavily forested land, and established towns and rural villages. The area of Carniola that was to become Gottschee had been a strategic part of the Holy Roman Empire since the year 800. As a result, there were a number of important fortifications in and around Gottschee. Gottschee received its municipal charter and city seal in 1471. The Gottschee ethnic and linguistic area consisted of more than 180 villages organized into 31 townships and parishes.

Gottscheer began to emigrate from their homeland around 1870, with most coming to the United States. The largest wave of immigrants came after World War II.

With the end of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, Gottschee became a part of the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Thus, the Gottscheer went from being part of the ruling ethnicity of Austria-Hungary (and the ruling group in the estates of the province of Carniola itself) to an ethnic minority in a large Slavic state.

[edit] Notable Inhabitants

Zofka Kveder (1878-1926), writer, worked in Kočevje
Viktor Parma (1858-1924), composer, worked in Kočevje
Roman Erich Petsche (1907-?), teacher, painter and 'Gerechter unter den Völkern', was born in Gottschee

[edit] Bibliography

Karl-Markus Gauß: Die sterbenden Europäer. Unterwegs zu den Sepharden von Sarajevo, Gottscheer Deutschen, Arbëreshe, Sorben und Aromunen. Zsolnay, Wien 2001, ISBN 3-552-05158-9 (Taschenbuchausgabe: dtv, München, ISBN 3-423-30854-0)
Mitja Ferenc: Kočevska, Bleak And Empty

[edit] External links

Kočevje Official Site
Pokrajinski Muzej Kočevje - Local Museum with a permanent exhibit on the History of the German Population around Gottschee.
[http://www.gottschee.de/ Many informations about the resettlement of the Gottscheer peoples and the deportation of the slovenian peoples out of her homeland in the Untersteiermark]
Endangered languages in Europe and adjacent areas