Dudeștii Noi

Dudeștii Noi is situated at the south-eastern part of the Banatian moorland as part of the Great Hungarian Plain, 84–99 m above sea level. The village has a population of 2,501, with 46 inhabitants per km² (both status 2008) on an area of 54 km², and is located off rural highway no. 6 Timișoara–Sânnicolau Mare, 13 km north-west of Timișoara, with railway access since the end of the 19th century. Dudeștii Noi has continental climate, with cold winters and hot summers, as well as short springs. The average annual temperature is 10.6 °C. The farmlands are highly fertile and have Loess soil with a low water table.

Dacians, Romans, Goths, Huns, Gepids, Awards, Serbs, Slovenes, Mongols and Turks attacked or settled in the Banat over the centuries while thrusting aside or annihilating each other in mutual confrontations. The name of the village, Bessenovo, originated from an earlier settlement by the Pechenegs. It was first documented in the papal registers in 1333. In 1551, the Ottomans entered the Banat. The occupation only ended when Prince Eugene of Savoy and the Austrian troops took Timișoara on October 13, 1756. By now the whole area had become depopulated, impoverished and marshy. In the Treaty of Passarowitz the Banat of Temeswar was subordinated to the Hofkammer in Vienna as crown land of the Kaiser on July 21, 1718. Field Marshal Claudius Florimund Count de Mercy was assigned in 1720 with the administration, reclamation and administration of the Banat. Initially he recruited immigrants predominantly from his native country Lorraine for the province entrusted in his care. The Lorrainian Johann Oßwald, living in the Banat since 20 years already, recruited 60 German-Lorrainian families (290 souls) from the area around Mainz and Trier to settle in Beschenowa. 1748, as part of the Great Swabian Migrations of the Danube-Swabians, this first group of voluntary Imperial colonists arrived, most of which came on floats called Ulmer Schachtel traveling on the river Danube from the German town of Ulm for about two or three weeks. 1750 a further group of settlers arrived. The name of Neubeschenowa was adopted to distinguish the village from Altbeschenowa, Bulgarian Dudeştii Vechi, also located in the Banat. Following the unrests by the Salpeters in the shire of Hauenstein, Black Forest, several families were deported by force and resettled in Neubeschenowa. Several decommissioned soldiers also settled in the community in 1763. The family of Habsburg-Lorraine signed over politically the Banat of Temeswar to Hungary in 1778.

August 9, 1849 saw the deciding battle of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 close to Neubeschenowa. 30,000 soldiers of the Austrian army with 108 cannon, led by Count Julius Jacob von Haynau met at the Nyarad Creek the 55,000 soldiers and 108 cannon strong Hungarian army under the command of the Generals Henryk Dembiński and Józef Bem. The victory of the Austrian troops ended the siege of Temeswars after 107 days, and the Banat becomes Austrian crown land once again. Following the Ausgleich between Austria and Hungary in 1867, the Banat and Transylvania come under Hungarian rule again. 325 emigrants left Neubeschenowa for North America 1906–1908, of which 65 returned later. The emigrants transferred 375,000 Kronen back home.

During World War I, 127 persons died or were missing in action. Following the collapse of the k.u.k. monarchy, the Banat Republic was proclaimed in 1918. In 1918–1919 (confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 and Treaty of Trianon of 1920), most of the Banat and Neubeschenowa became now part of Romania. The first National Socialist labour camp of the Hitler Youth of Banat was held in Neubeschenowa during the summer of 1933. During World War II, 37 men die in the service of the Romanian army, and 83 men in the German Army. After Romania changed sides and joined the Allies, 19 families fled in September 1944, and all remaining inhabitants were evacuated to the neighbouring community of St. Andreas during September 29 – October 10. During the organised Expulsion of Germans from Romania after World War II, 297 men and women were deported for reconstruction works to Ukraine in January and February 1945, of which 68 died in the coal mines as forced labourers. The remaining German population was expropriated. The first Romanian colonists arrived in July, and in 1947 almost every house in Neubeschenowa was occupied by Romanians. 1951–1956 saw the deportation of 62 families to the Bărăgan Plain to a makeshift shanty town by the name of Bumbacâri , north-east of București, after the Soviet model of the Gulag. 22 of the 170 deported did not return.

Following the Family Reunion Treaty between Germany and Romania in 1978, and later after the fall of the Ceauşescu regime in December 1989, most of the Danube Swabian/German population of Neubeschenowa left in 2 large waves of emigration, mainly to Germany. The community participated actively in the events that led to the Romanian Revolution of 1989. Since 2004, Alin Adrian Nica, member of the Partidul Naţional Liberal (PNL), is Mayor of Dudeștii Noi.

Other sites

• 1834 a new school building was constructed by Wilhelm Quiring of Neu-Arad, cost: 2,439 guilders.
• 1915 a Zeppelin hangar was built on the common grasslands of the community. After the retreat of the German troops the hangar was improperly demounted by civilians and, as a result, collapsed on May 15, 1919, causing several casualties and 5 dead.

Traditional dressing from Neubeschenowa, 1988

The Heimatortsgemeinschaft (HOG) Neubeschenowa, the Home Town Community, upholds the German traditions of Neubeschenowa. The goals of the association are to foster relations between original residents and fellow countrymen living abroad, as well as to preserve traditional customs. The community meets regularly since 1957, and biannually since 1981 in the area of Augsburg, Germany. Holy Masses are said and Church Services are held during those gatherings, followed by traditional Church Consecration Festival (Kirchweih, Kerweih) dance presentations and parades in traditional costumes, to the tunes of traditional oompah-style brass bands.

• Chiquita Mischke, Superintendent Haus Lebensquell de:Chiquita Mischke
• Josef Nischbach, Professor of Theology, Vicar Capitular und Papal Prelate de:Josef Nischbach
• Johann Heinrich Schwicker, Hungaro-German Historian de:Johann Heinrich Schwicker
• Ede Tomori Hungarian photographer

• Petri, Dr. Anton Peter – Neubeschenowa: Geschichte e. moselfränk. Gemeinde im rumän. Banat, Pannonia-Verlag, 1963
• Petri, Dr. Anton Peter, Biographisches Lexikon des Banater Deutschtums, 1992, 2198 Sp., Marquartstein (Th. Breit).
• Diplich, Hans – Deutsches Bauernleben im Banat. Hausbuch des Mathias Siebold aus Neubeschenowa, München, Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk 1957
• Chronik Neubeschenowa – Ein Banater Dorf im Wandel der Zeit

• ENG – Neubeschenowa in Banat
• ENG – History Neubeschenowa as per Dr. Anton Peter Petri
• GER – Virtuelles Neubeschenowa
• GER – BANATerra – Banat Enzyklopädie
• ROM – Comuna Dudeștii Noi

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  Map of Neubeschenowa, 1963
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  Sign on the way into the village, 2003
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  Street Impression, 2003
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  Impression of the school building, Banatian Calendar 1998
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  Catholic Church of St Wendelin, 2003
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  Orthodox Church of St Dimitrios, 2006
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  Cemetery with Rochus Chapel, 2003
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  Tombstone, 2003
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  Haus Lebensquell, 2005
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  Neugasse 357, street view, 2003
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  Neugasse 357, side view, 2003
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  Formation of dancers from Neubeschenowa wearing traditional costumes marching in, 1988

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