Migration

Migration:    (sources, Beratz, Clarkson, Deschau)

The desire to migrate to the lands of foreign rulers is known as being a   characteristic of the German race, often called Wanderlust. When, as a result of wars, disasters, or better prospects beckon, the German individual is often ready to exchange homeland for a foreign country, to seek his fortune there. During and after the Seven Year War, the desire to emigrate was awakened. These were individuals and families mainly from the areas of medieval Swabia and duchies of Palatine of South-West Germany or the Rhineland-Palatinate.
During this period, 1760s, there were actually recruiting agents from competing nations who were seeking German immigrants to populate expanded regions within their Empires. Catherine II (the Great), German born empress of Russia, eventually attracted 26000 colonists to the lower Volga region of Russia followed later by many more thousands to the Black Sea region. These settlers were mainly protestants from the Hesson region and northern states of Germany.
Note: Ken and Norm Hochban's maternal Yauk origins were part of this Russian-Volga settlement, Their ancestors arriving in the village of Holstein, near Saratov, in 1775-76. Later, Reinhardt, with wife and four children, immigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, 21 May 1912, when Ken's mother Kay was 8-months old. Their story is quite similar to the Hungarian Banat history in most aspects, good and bad, only differing in religious practices.(Lutheran vs Catholics) 

Meanwhile, as a result of the victory of Prince Eugene of Savoy over the Turks, the Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI, had acquired several regions of Hungary, namely the Temesvar Banat. The Emperor made efforts to repopulate these regions, particularly with emigrants from the German Empire. 

The Habsburgs aims were to fortify the empire boundaries, develop farm land, and extend the Catholic Religion eastward. The first two migrations were restricted to Roman Catholics, but the third was also open to Protestants. They offered the Catholics of the southwest German states inducements such as free agricultural land, home sites, construction materials, livestock and exemption from taxes for several years. 

This emigration from Germany was reaching such a large volume that the princes of the Rhine region, still requiring soldiers and craftsmen, issued a strict prohibition of emigration. This, was happening at a time, after the Seven Years War, when this region had no surplus population. The severity of these penalties is illustrated by a sample decree: "emigrants, and their children, will be banished and not allowed to return, property will be confiscated, arrests and punishments will result". On the other hand, some local rulers saw this migration as an advantage to rid themselves of the mainly burdened poor, and an opportunity for land grab.

In spite of efforts to halt emigration to Hungary it was not successful. Most were poor peasants who had farmed the land of feudal lords, were subjected to heavy taxation and military conscription, thus their desire was great to leave. From 1711 to 1750, hundreds of  villages were founded in Hungary by German settlers. The Banat Region of Hungary was one of the primary areas of settlement along with villages near Budapest.
The Great Swabian Trek: ("der Grosse Schwabenzug" )
Three phases of migration were named after their Habsburg sponsors:

1. The Caroline colonization, Charles VI, (1718 to 1737). Many of the 15,000 German settlers were     killed in Turkish raids, or died from bubonic plague. 
2. The Maria Theresian colonization, (1744-1772). Approximately 75,000 German colonists had to rebuild many of the settlements. 
3. The Josephine colonization, Joseph II, (1782 to 1787). About 60,000 German settlers. 
Road Trip:
Families would gather to form a combined transport train, under the supervision of an individual who knew the route or was hired to transfer the emigrants to Ulm. One of the transport centers was Insheim, near Landstuhl, in the southern Pfalz, which possibly was Adam Hochbans' starting point. From the Danube river port of Ulm, the settlers continued their journey on the Danube waterway as far as Vienna where they had to be registered, then onward into Hungary.

This land trip took the emigrants through the lands of Baden and Württenberg and at night they camped by the side of the road near villages. 
Although this land trek was about 250 km long, the roads were bad and the travel time was probably several weeks. Its also likely some emigrants, acquiring boat services, may have traveled down the Necker river from Mannheim to Tubingen then picking up the wagon train to Ulm.
Danube Trip:
For the Danube trip, each head of family received a daily allowance from agents of the Hapsburgs. This travel money was given at various stations for supplies and food, each station about four days apart. The time of travel from Ulm to the Banat would approximate 3 weeks. The name "Donauschwaben" (Danau = Danube, Schwaben = from Swabia) was given to these particular settlers and the name carries on today with a corresponding symbolic emblem.
The city of Ulm was a common point of departure. From Ulm, settlers boarded boats called "Ulmer Schachtel" (Ulm Crates)and sailed the Danube to Vienna, where they registered for their land. These were barges that had wooden roofs which were later disassembled and used for building the houses in the various village settlements. Covered wagons, which followed the Danube, were also used for transportation. 

The route of the Danube took them to Budapest, where some of the migrants departed and settled in villages around this region, while the majority travelled into the Banat. Three of these towns near Budapest were named, Boglar, Szar, and Kozma. Many Germans eventually moved from here, to Banat, to villages like Zichydorf.
Adam Hochban, 1749, with his brothers, was one of the departing immigrants, arriving in the Vertes mountain town Kosma about 1765.

He married Margaretha Klien (b.1755) on 26 Apr 1774 and had 5 living children, four of whom were born in Kozma; 

Elisabeth(1775), Peter(1777), Adam(1779), and Katharina(1784). 
With his family, he moved south to Zichydorf around 1786-88 and a fifth daughter, Anna Maria was born in 1790. 

Adam married twice more, (deaths & disease prevalent), to Susanna Just, 23 Jan 1810, then Eva Ulrich, 24 Nov 1812, both in Zichydorf. The ancestor line of our Hochban tree is: 
Adam Hochban 1779.
Banat Village Layout and Names
Plans for the villages were laid out in Vienna, by Empress Maria Theresa, who enforced a village master plan. The towns were generally built in a square checkerboard pattern, with the Catholic church and its surrounding square in the center of the town. 

The village of "Billed" was her master model where the rest of villages would be build using the same general perspective. Each village, however, had slightly different local designs and villagers input.
Each time a new government came into power they often changed the names of the villages to suit their own purposes. Many of these villages have three or more names and a prime example of this is Zichydorf which changed from: Zichydorf-1819, Zichyfalva-1876, Mariolana-1918, to Plandiste-1945.