Names

In a previous blog I mentioned the town of Deutschfeistritz. There are a number of place names in the area that contain the word 'Deutsch' in them, such as Deutschlandsberg to the south of here. It is a curiosity that merits some explanation. Graz is located in the extreme southeastern corner of the German-speaking world. The Slovenian border to the south and the Hungarian border to the east are each less than an hour away. Since the dissolution of the Roman Empire until the 17th century this area was the first defense against the incursion of Slavic and Magyar tribes, and later against the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Central Europe. The decisive turning point which saved Europe from becoming a Moslem vassal state was the Battle of Vienna in 1683. In the Middle Ages the apellation 'Deutsch' would have referred to cultural affiliation, not to a political entity.

On the way north by train from Graz, or on the Autobahn, one of the first towns is Judendorf-Straßengel. I wondered about the derivation of the name Judendorf and have since discovered that there are many towns with similar names in the German-speaking world. There is a Judenburg to the west of here as well as several other towns with the name Judendorf in the Steiermark. As I suspected, these names were acquired in the Middle Ages, when Jews were sometimes given permission to live in designated towns. Reading the German-language wikipedia entry or the official website of Judendorf-Straßengel, there is no mention whatsoever of the derivation of the first part of the town's name, although the derivation of the second part is given (it stems from a Slavic word, 'straza'). I was only enlightened when I read an article in the Jewish Encyclopdia on-line which offered a comprehensive history of the Jews in the Steiermark. It is the usual tale of persecutions, brutality, disenfranchisement and evictions. Perhaps the worst atrocity, only outdone by the total annihilation of the Jewish population by the Nazis, was an event which took place in Judenburg in 1421, when seventy Jews were burned at the stake by their Christian neighbors on the ridiculous grounds of having 'desecrated the host'. One can only surmise that the official website of Judendorf-Straßengel wishes to avoid this sticky part of its history and its treatment of Jews throughout the centuries.