Gottschee 1406–1627

About the Book

Drawn exclusively from original source documents, GOTTSCHEE 1406 – 1627 is an authentic look into the life and government of a feudal domain on the strategic frontier of the Holy Roman, Habsburg, and Austrian Empires, showing the interaction of the subjects, the ruling nobility, and the royal government of the duchy of Carniola, including: • Petitions for redress of grievances • Tithes, taxes and feudal duties • Opening of new farms and villages • Unique rights of land-register subjects • Military frontier obligations • Church and pastoral affairs • Habsburg system of leasing domains • Royal audits and investigations Plus, hundreds of ancient Gottscheer village and family names – ancestors of a distinct German linguistic group that existed there for over 650 years.

About the Author

Georg Widmer was born in 1879 into a farm family in the village of Koflern, in Gottschee. He attended the grade school run by the Catholic nuns in Mitterdorf; the middle and high schools in the City of Gottschee; and the University of Graz in Austria’s Duchy of Styria. He became a professor of History and Geography in Leitmeritz, in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), and later taught in Prague. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, Widmer served as a professor and later as director of the upper school in Vienna’s Ottakring district. His research in the several state archives in Vienna and Graz led to his most significant work, Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte des Gottscheerländchens. He was also one of the directors of the Society of German Gottscheers in Vienna, which published his book in 1931. In 1936 Austria’s chancellor, Engelbert Dollfuss, relieved Widmer of his teaching position due to Widmer’s outspoken support of the Südmark movement, which advocated the protection and furtherance of the Germanspeaking ethnic communities in countries south of Austria. After a long and incurable illness, Widmer died on October 16, 1941 in Graz. He was interred in Vienna’s Hietzing district next to the remains of his wife, Theresa Rom Widmer. Andrew J. Witter was born in November 1969 in Arlington Heights, Illinois and is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. He has been translating between English and German full-time since 1992. His translation specializations are in the fields history, genealogy, law, and medicine. He resides in Donnellson, Iowa. The Gottscheer Heritage and Genealogy Association was founded in 1992 and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in the State of Colorado in 1993. It was established to preserve the history, culture, and family records of Gottschee, now the Kočevje region of the Republic of Slovenia. The Association works closely with Gottscheer organizations in Europe and North America and with cultural entities in Slovenia. One of its principal purposes is the translation of significant historic books into English, such as this one, that provide insight not only into the history of Gottschee, but also into the larger context of Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire, and European history.