Glogonj

Glogonj may have had settlements during the Bronze Age and the Roman Era, based on archaeological findings in the area. [2]

From the mid 16th century to the early 18th century, Glogon was under the influence of the Turkish Ottoman Empire.

In 1718 Habsburg Monarchy had captured much of the Banat Region from the Ottomans. By the 1760's the Habsburgs were fortifying the border regions of the Banat with German-speaking colonists from all over Central Europe, (Danube Swabians). The Danube River became the natural border between the Austrian Empire and Turkish-occupied Serbia. German-speaking Catholics began to settle in and around Glogon in the 1770s and 1780s to farm the land. Many of these settlements would have a similar street design, rectangular in shape, with a large square in the center. A Catholic church (St. Anna) was first built during this era. [3]

The village of Glogon and neighboring villages on the frontier were ravaged by Ottoman Turks during the Austro-Turkish War (1788-1791). Many people died of disease shortly afterward. The Austrian Crown sent more settlers into the destroyed villages to re-populate them.[4]

In 1806 an Orthodox Church was founded in Glogon for the Romanian settlers. In 1812, a nursery of fruit trees was established in Glogon. In the 19th century, three native Glogons were accepted into the Theresian Military Academy for officer training.[5]

The population of Glogon for most of the 19th century was about a couple thousand people and most of the people spoke German. There was also a Romanian minority living there. After the formation of Austria-Hungary in 1867, Glogon and the neighboring villages fell under Hungarian jurisdiction. The Hungarian name of the village was 'Galagonyás'.[6]

By the late 1890s and early 1900s, many young men and their families from Glogon, and the neighboring villages, left their homes to migrate to the United States and Canada to start a new life.[7]

By the end of WWI, in 1920, Glogon and the surrounding areas of the Banat become part of the newly establsihed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes with Belgrade as its capital. German-speaking villages, such as Glogon, kept their autonomy [8]

In 1935, the village founded an amateur Football/Soccer Team, FK Glogonj.[9]

In April 1941, Nazi Germany Invaded Yugoslavia. The Panzer-Grenadier-Division 'Grossdeutschland' occupied Glogon and other surrounding villages as they captured Belgrade. Ethnic German men in the Banat were recruited by force to join the German 'Wehrmacht', while others wilfully joined the 'Waffen-SS'.

One particular German-speaking citizen of Glogon, Franz Lischitz, was recruited to serve the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division 'Prinz Eugen'. Lischitz refused to participate in a reprisal killing in the area around Sarajevo. He was shot because of his insubordination on 10th October 1943.[10]

Between 1941 and 1944, at an execution site near Jabuka village (south of Glogon), more than 600 Serbs, Jews and Roma were killed by German forces.[11]

In October 1944 Soviet Red Army and Yugoslav partisans captured Glogon and the surrounding villages during the 'Belgrade Offensive'. Many of the ethnic Germans in Glogon were shot, the local Catholic priest was hung in the bell tower and some of the women were raped and found dead. The new communist Yugoslav regime began reprisals and deprived all ethnic Germans their citizenship and civil rights. On October 30, 1944, special detachments of the Yugoslav People's Liberation Committee shot 128 residents from Glogon on site. The surviving ethnic Germans were taken to labor camps in nearby areas, (such as Rudolfsgnad) where most would die of disease, starvation and the cold. The empty villages were fenced off, houses boarded up and remained abandoned for years.[12][13]

By 1948, the village, (now called Glogonj) was re-populated by Macedonians and Serbs. Today, it is part of the Pančevo municipality, outside the metropolitan Belgade area. It is still a farming community to this day. Much of the swampland of Pančevački Rit, near Glogonj was drained during this period to become fertile agicultural land.[2]

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Yugoslavia was an attractive place to make low-budget B-movies. Some films were made in the area around Glogonj, notably the 1961 movie 'The Mongols'(I mongoli), starring Jack Palance as Ogatai Khan. Also a 1980 film 'Who's Singin' Over There?' (Serbo-Croatian: 'Ko to tamo peva'.[14]

After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, and the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, Glogonj was unaffected during the Yugoslav Wars. After the wars, ethnic German historians began to visit the Banat areas of their Danube-Swabian ancestors, such as in Glogonj. In the early 2000s a project was underway to renovate and repair the old German Roman Catholic cemetery outside of Glogonj. In June 2009, historian Anton Nahm, whose ancestors lived in Glogon, along with other political and church leaders, officially rededicated the cemetery and its new chapel.[15]

Between 2010 and 2012 a new Serbian Orthodox church (St. Peter and Paul) was built in Glogonj.[16]