The isolation the Children of the Danube experienced from the upheavals of history in the rest of Europe would no longer hold true in the second half of the 19th Century and beyond. At the outset, Emperor Francis Joseph's attempts to preserve the position of the House of Habsburg in the face of the rising power of Prussia among the German states would inevitably lead to a disastrous war. Austria's defeat set the stage for the rise of the German Empire and the struggle for supremacy in Europe among the major powers resulting in the catastrophic wars of the next century which would destroy the only life the Children of the Danube had ever known.

The agricultural sector was in a shambles in Hungary during the last decades of the century which had repercussions for the Children of the Danube among whom the landless were the fastest growing part of the population and among whom poverty had become a way of life. Land was expensive and simply unavailable. As in the past, the only remedy was emigration. The first wave of emigrants from Swabian Turkey sought their future in Slavonia recently opened for colonization. It was just the prelude for the massive emigration movement soon to take place to the New World.

Some of the surviving emigrants and exiles will meet in a railway station in a small town in Canada as the final phase of the Schwabenzug takes place and the Children of the Danube transplant their roots in their new Heimat.

The isolation the Children of the Danube experienced from the upheavals of history in the rest of Europe would no longer hold true in the second half of the 19th Century and beyond. At the outset, Emperor Francis Joseph's attempts to preserve the position of the House of Habsburg in the face of the rising power of Prussia among the German states would inevitably lead to a disastrous war. Austria's defeat set the stage for the rise of the German Empire and the struggle for supremacy in Europe among the major powers resulting in the catastrophic wars of the next century which would destroy the only life the Children of the Danube had ever known.

The agricultural sector was in a shambles in Hungary during the last decades of the century which had repercussions for the Children of the Danube among whom the landless were the fastest growing part of the population and among whom poverty had become a way of life. Land was expensive and simply unavailable. As in the past, the only remedy was emigration. The first wave of emigrants from Swabian Turkey sought their future in Slavonia recently opened for colonization. It was just the prelude for the massive emigration movement soon to take place to the New World.

Some of the surviving emigrants and exiles will meet in a railway station in a small town in Canada as the final phase of the Schwabenzug takes place and the Children of the Danube transplant their roots in their new Heimat.

As the 19th Century dawned, the pioneering days of the Children of the Danube were now mostly behind them. The new generation no longer thought of Hesse, Baden and Wurttemberg when they heard their elders talk about home. Home was what they experienced in their own insular village enclaves scattered throughout Swabian Turkey in southwest Hungary. It was the quest for a new Heimat that had spurred their ancestors to come down the majestic Danube River almost a century before. Yet, three generations later, their descendants still remained Strangers and Sojourners in the land. It was their language, faith and traditions that provided cohesion to their life together but at the same time separated them from those around them. They remained outsiders and were seen as foreigners who were resistant to every attempt at assimilation. Having established their identity in their heritage they were forced to adapt to changing situations constantly challenging them. This often meant venturing beyond their own communities and living alongside those who spoke another language, subscribed to a different creed, observed customs and traditions unlike theirs and lived an accompanying different lifestyle. In response to these outside pressures, what emerged among them was a distinct society, which was perceived as a desire to remain Strangers and Sojourners. But history was not on their side as the Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe and left their mark on the political and social landscape. The following archconservative reaction set the scene for the upheaval known as the Revolution of 1848 that swept across Europe giving birth to the Hungarian War of Independence. All of this led to repercussions from which the Children of the Danube could not escape. As that history unfolds, Habsburg Emperors along with other notable historical personages will enter the story, but it will be the little known Archduchess Maria Dorothea, wife of the Viceroy of Hungary, who would have the greatest impact on the life and future of the Children of the Danube. All of this sets the scene for the next generations who will be remembered as the Emigrants and Exiles, and their story will constitute the final volume of the trilogy: Remember To Tell The Children.

Numerous histories and studies of the Great Swabian Migration of the 18th century have been written and published, and the tragic fate of many of their descendants in our own time has also been chronicled. Most of these are available in languages other than English. Much of that research forms the backdrop of Children of the Danube, which is the author's attempt at telling the stories behind the history. Personal stories that weave the tapestry of the lives of his extended family with those of the other families and individuals who joined them after venturing down the majestic, sometimes turbulent, Danube River, taking them on a quest that is common to all people: the search for the Promised Land. That is what they sought in the devastated Kingdom of Hungary, recently liberated after an oppressive one hundred and fifty year occupation by the Turks. Leaving the Danube River behind them, they would be confronted by a wilderness, disease-ridden swamps, dense forests, isolation, primitive living conditions, marauders and brigands. nobles, and would have to endure the final onslaught of the Counter Reformation in their pursuit of religious freedom. This is what awaited them, in responding to the invitation of the Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI. It was hardly what the handbills circulating throughout south western Germany had promised. How they would respond, who they would become as a result of it, and what sustained and formed them into the Children of the Danube, as a distinctive and unique people among the Danube Swabians will unfold, in the telling of their tragic and yet heroic story.

The Children of the Danube were on the move again. They were the descendants of the settlers who had joined the trek down the Danube River in the Great Swabian Migration from Germany to the Kingdom of Hungary in the early 18th century. Perhaps like their forebears, adventure may have been the driving force for some of them, while desperation drove others as they sought to make a life for themselves and their families. They were faced with limited options if they remained in their original settlements: where land was running out, restrictions against the Lutherans and Reformed were becoming more intolerable and the increasing and often unjust demands of the nobles made it more and more difficult to provide for their families. For those reasons and others, the Children of the Danube were on the move everywhere but wherever they went they planted their roots deeply into the soil of Hungary and their faith, customs, traditions and language thrived and flourished among them in this new emerging environment for the succeeding generations. The Pioneers tells this story through the lives and loves of three generations of the Tefner family in the unfolding story of Drnberg where their lives intersected with the families who would eventually become part of the author's extended family and which they shared with all the others who were part of their life together. They found themselves isolated, confronted by a wilderness and created an economic miracle. Destructive fires and raging floods, famine and drought, bandit raids and epidemics tested them but did not overcome their indomitable will, which was sustained by their faith. A faith that was outlawed but continued underground unabated until theEdict of Toleration granted them freedom of conscience. Nor would they simply cower before the injustices inflicted upon them by the nobles and authorities without protest. Their lives were lived within the broader scope of the history of their times that played a vita

The isolation the Children of the Danube experienced from the upheavals of history in the rest of Europe would no longer hold true in the second half of the 19th Century and beyond. At the outset, Emperor Francis Joseph's attempts to preserve the position of the House of Habsburg in the face of the rising power of Prussia among the German states would inevitably lead to a disastrous war. Austria's defeat set the stage for the rise of the German Empire and the struggle for supremacy in Europe among the major powers resulting in the catastrophic wars of the next century which would destroy the only life the Children of the Danube had ever known.

The agricultural sector was in a shambles in Hungary during the last decades of the century which had repercussions for the Children of the Danube among whom the landless were the fastest growing part of the population and among whom poverty had become a way of life. Land was expensive and simply unavailable. As in the past, the only remedy was emigration. The first wave of emigrants from Swabian Turkey sought their future in Slavonia recently opened for colonization. It was just the prelude for the massive emigration movement soon to take place to the New World.

Some of the surviving emigrants and exiles will meet in a railway station in a small town in Canada as the final phase of the Schwabenzug takes place and the Children of the Danube transplant their roots in their new Heimat.

The isolation the Children of the Danube experienced from the upheavals of history in the rest of Europe would no longer hold true in the second half of the 19th Century and beyond. At the outset, Emperor Francis Joseph's attempts to preserve the position of the House of Habsburg in the face of the rising power of Prussia among the German states would inevitably lead to a disastrous war. Austria's defeat set the stage for the rise of the German Empire and the struggle for supremacy in Europe among the major powers resulting in the catastrophic wars of the next century which would destroy the only life the Children of the Danube had ever known.

The agricultural sector was in a shambles in Hungary during the last decades of the century which had repercussions for the Children of the Danube among whom the landless were the fastest growing part of the population and among whom poverty had become a way of life. Land was expensive and simply unavailable. As in the past, the only remedy was emigration. The first wave of emigrants from Swabian Turkey sought their future in Slavonia recently opened for colonization. It was just the prelude for the massive emigration movement soon to take place to the New World.

Some of the surviving emigrants and exiles will meet in a railway station in a small town in Canada as the final phase of the Schwabenzug takes place and the Children of the Danube transplant their roots in their new Heimat.

As the 19th Century dawned, the pioneering days of the Children of the Danube were now mostly behind them. The new generation no longer thought of Hesse, Baden and Wurttemberg when they heard their elders talk about home. Home was what they experienced in their own insular village enclaves scattered throughout Swabian Turkey in southwest Hungary. It was the quest for a new Heimat that had spurred their ancestors to come down the majestic Danube River almost a century before. Yet, three generations later, their descendants still remained Strangers and Sojourners in the land. It was their language, faith and traditions that provided cohesion to their life together but at the same time separated them from those around them. They remained outsiders and were seen as foreigners who were resistant to every attempt at assimilation. Having established their identity in their heritage they were forced to adapt to changing situations constantly challenging them. This often meant venturing beyond their own communities and living alongside those who spoke another language, subscribed to a different creed, observed customs and traditions unlike theirs and lived an accompanying different lifestyle. In response to these outside pressures, what emerged among them was a distinct society, which was perceived as a desire to remain Strangers and Sojourners. But history was not on their side as the Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe and left their mark on the political and social landscape. The following archconservative reaction set the scene for the upheaval known as the Revolution of 1848 that swept across Europe giving birth to the Hungarian War of Independence. All of this led to repercussions from which the Children of the Danube could not escape. As that history unfolds, Habsburg Emperors along with other notable historical personages will enter the story, but it will be the little known Archduchess Maria Dorothea, wife of the Viceroy of Hungary, who would have the greatest impact on the life and future of the Children of the Danube. All of this sets the scene for the next generations who will be remembered as the Emigrants and Exiles, and their story will constitute the final volume of the trilogy: Remember To Tell The Children.

The Children of the Danube were on the move again. They were the descendants of the settlers who had joined the trek down the Danube River in the Great Swabian Migration from Germany to the Kingdom of Hungary in the early 18th century. Perhaps like their forebears, adventure may have been the driving force for some of them, while desperation drove others as they sought to make a life for themselves and their families. They were faced with limited options if they remained in their original settlements: where land was running out, restrictions against the Lutherans and Reformed were becoming more intolerable and the increasing and often unjust demands of the nobles made it more and more difficult to provide for their families. For those reasons and others, the Children of the Danube were on the move everywhere but wherever they went they planted their roots deeply into the soil of Hungary and their faith, customs, traditions and language thrived and flourished among them in this new emerging environment for the succeeding generations. The Pioneers tells this story through the lives and loves of three generations of the Tefner family in the unfolding story of Drnberg where their lives intersected with the families who would eventually become part of the author's extended family and which they shared with all the others who were part of their life together. They found themselves isolated, confronted by a wilderness and created an economic miracle. Destructive fires and raging floods, famine and drought, bandit raids and epidemics tested them but did not overcome their indomitable will, which was sustained by their faith. A faith that was outlawed but continued underground unabated until theEdict of Toleration granted them freedom of conscience. Nor would they simply cower before the injustices inflicted upon them by the nobles and authorities without protest. Their lives were lived within the broader scope of the history of their times that played a vita

Numerous histories and studies of the Great Swabian Migration of the 18th century have been written and published, and the tragic fate of many of their descendants in our own time has also been chronicled. Most of these are available in languages other than English. Much of that research forms the backdrop of Children of the Danube, which is the author's attempt at telling the stories behind the history. Personal stories that weave the tapestry of the lives of his extended family with those of the other families and individuals who joined them after venturing down the majestic, sometimes turbulent, Danube River, taking them on a quest that is common to all people: the search for the Promised Land. That is what they sought in the devastated Kingdom of Hungary, recently liberated after an oppressive one hundred and fifty year occupation by the Turks. Leaving the Danube River behind them, they would be confronted by a wilderness, disease-ridden swamps, dense forests, isolation, primitive living conditions, marauders and brigands. nobles, and would have to endure the final onslaught of the Counter Reformation in their pursuit of religious freedom. This is what awaited them, in responding to the invitation of the Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI. It was hardly what the handbills circulating throughout south western Germany had promised. How they would respond, who they would become as a result of it, and what sustained and formed them into the Children of the Danube, as a distinctive and unique people among the Danube Swabians will unfold, in the telling of their tragic and yet heroic story.