@papipeguy
Burgenland is the easternmost region of Austria with a beautifull landscape, settled and cultivated since roman times. It is ethnically diverse with hungarian and croatian miniority population as well as some Roma and Sinti settlements. It is also Austrias foremost red wine region know for the local varietal Blaufraenkischer.
After WWII it was ten years under russian occupancy which lead amongst other things to the mass exodus to the US. For more than 40 years it was Europes ultimate eastern frontier to the Warsaw Pact Nations encircled by the Iron Curtain. But in 1989 it was there were Austrians and Hungarians cut through the barbwire to rejoin a region commonly shared for hundred of years - the Berlin Wall fell a couple of weeks later...
It is still estimated that there a more people of burgenlaendisch lineage in the US than in Burgenland itself (current population est. 290,000).
So if you have the chance to pinpoint were your grandparents came from I'm sure you will find there nowadays a small prospering village and a good place to reconnect with your familial roots.
Burgenland is the easternmost region of Austria with a beautifull landscape, settled and cultivated since roman times. It is ethnically diverse with hungarian and croatian miniority population as well as some Roma and Sinti settlements. It is also Austrias foremost red wine region know for the local varietal Blaufraenkischer.
After WWII it was ten years under russian occupancy which lead amongst other things to the mass exodus to the US. For more than 40 years it was Europes ultimate eastern frontier to the Warsaw Pact Nations encircled by the Iron Curtain. But in 1989 it was there were Austrians and Hungarians cut through the barbwire to rejoin a region commonly shared for hundred of years - the Berlin Wall fell a couple of weeks later...
It is still estimated that there a more people of burgenlaendisch lineage in the US than in Burgenland itself (current population est. 290,000).
So if you have the chance to pinpoint were your grandparents came from I'm sure you will find there nowadays a small prospering village and a good place to reconnect with your familial roots.
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