Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar

Names

In contemporary German, the crown land was officially known as Woiwodschaft Serbien und Temeser Banat ('Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat'; die Woiwodschaft Serbien und das Temeser Banat when definite). The forms die serbische Wojwodschaft und das Temeser Banat ('the Serbian Voivodeship and the Temes Banat') and die serbische Wojwodschaft mit dem Temeser Banate ('the Serbian Voivodeship with the Temes Banat'; the -e on Banat is a now mostly obsolete dative ending) also appeared frequently in official documents. Other variations also appear as a result of grammatical inflection (see German grammar), such as der serbischen Wojwodschaft und des Temeser Banates (genitive case), but these should not be considered distinct. The spellings Woiwodschaft and Wojwodschaft are typographic variations; Woiwodschaft was used officially until 1852, Wojwodschaft from 1853.

In contemporary Serbian it was known as Vojvodina Srbska i Tamiški Banat (Войводина Србска и Тамишки Банат) and Vojvodstvo Srbija i Tamiški Banat (Војводство Србија и Тамишки Банат). In Hungarian it was known as Szerb Vajdaság és Temesi Bánság, and in Romanian as Voivodina Sârbească și Banatul Timișan.

As in German, in Serbian sources there are two somewhat different variants of the name of the voivodeship; one could be translated into English as Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat and another as Serbian Voivodeship and Temes Banat.

Also in modern English use, the term Temes Banat or Banat of Temes is sometimes incorrectly replaced with term Banat of Temeschwar or Temeschwar Banat. In the original name in all native languages, there is no mention of the city of Temeschwar (Timișoara) in the title of Voivodeship. As shown above, the reference to the Temes region is always used, and should be translated into English as Temes Banat or Banat of Temes.

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History

The Serbs had previously been granted a number of privileges by the Habsburg emperor, starting in 1691, followed by the 1779 Declaratory Rescript of the Illyrian Nation. During the Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire, a self-proclaimed autonomous province of Serbian Vojvodina was created in 1848.

In 1849, the Imperial Patent of 4th March, known as the March Constitution, imposed constitutional reorganization of the Austrian Empire, and provided (in article 72) a formal base for the creation of an official administrative unit under the name: Voivodeship of Serbia (German: Woiwodschaft Serbien), also allowing the possibility for future association of that province with other crown lands.

The Voivodeship was officially formed by a decision of the Austrian emperor in November 1849.

It consisted of the regions of Banat, Bačka and northern Syrmian municipalities of Ilok and Ruma. An Austrian governor seated in Temeschwar ruled the area, and the title of Voivode belonged to the emperor himself. The full title of the emperor was "Grand Voivod of the Voivodeship of Serbia" (German: Großwoiwode der Woiwodschaft Serbien). Even after the Voivodeship was abolished, the emperor kept this title until the end of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1918.

In 1860, the Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat was abolished and most of its territory (Banat and Bačka) was incorporated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, although direct Hungarian rule began only in 1867, after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise.

Unlike Banat and Bačka, Syrmia was incorporated into the Kingdom of Slavonia in 1860, another separate Habsburg crown land. The Kingdom of Slavonia subsequently merged with the Kingdom of Croatia, forming the new Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, which concluded an agreement with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1868, becoming an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary.

Languages

The two official languages of the Voivodeship were German and "Illyrian" (what would come to be known as Serbian).

Demographics

The Voivodeship was ethnically very mixed, since the southern parts of Syrmia, Banat and Bačka with compact Serbian settlements were not included in it, while eastern Banat, with a Romanian majority was added to it.

1846

According to the 1846 census, the territory that in 1849 formed the voivodeship included:

Vlachs (Romanians) = 417,000
Serbs = 402,000
Germans = 352,000
Hungarians = 233,000
Slovaks = 27,000
Bulgarians = 24,000
Jews = 16,000
Romani = 12,000
Rusyns = 7,000
Croats = 3,000
Greeks = 3,000

1857

In 1857, population of the voivodeship numbered 1,526,105 inhabitants, including:

Latin Catholics = 698,189 (45.75%)
Eastern Orthodox Christians = 691,828 (45.33%)
Evangelic-Lutherans = 56,871 (3.73%)
Evangelic-Reformists = 29,281 (1.92%)
Greek Catholics and Armenian Catholics = 26,244 (1.72%)
Jews = 23,203 (1.52%)
others = 489 (0.03%)

1850/51

According to the 1850/51 census, ethnic composition of the voivodeship was as follows:

Romanians = 347,459
Germans = 335,080
Serbs = 321,110 (*)
Hungarians = 221,845
Bunjevci and Šokci = 62,936 (*)
Rusins = 39,914
Slovaks = 25,607
Bulgarians = 22,780
Jews = 15,507
Gypsies/Romani = 11,440
Czechs = 7,530
Croats = 2,860 (*)
Greeks and Cincars = 2,820

(*) Total number of "Illyrian Slavs" (Serbs, Bunjevci, Šokci, and Croats) was 386,906.

According to another source, in 1850/1851, the population of the voivodeship numbered 1,426,221 inhabitants, including:

397,459 (27.87%) Romanians
335,080 (23.49%) Germans
321,110 (22.52%) Serbs
221,845 (15.56%) Hungarians
others.

By religious makeup:

In 1851, population of the voivodeship numbered 1,426,221 inhabitants, including:

Eastern Orthodox Christians = 694,029 (48.66%)
Roman Catholics = 624,839 (43.81%)
Evangelic-Lutherans = 51,724 (3.63%)
Evangelic-Reformists = 26,621 (1.87%)
Jews = 16,252 (1.14%)
Greek Catholics and Armenian Catholics = 12,756 (0.89%)

1860

In 1860, population of the voivodeship numbered 1,525,523 inhabitants, including:

432,523 Serbs
414,490 Romanians
396,156 Germans
256,164 Hungarians

Administrative divisions

At first, the crown land was divided into two districts:

Batschka-Torontal (Bačka-Torontal)
Temeschwar-Karasch (Timișoara-Caraș)

Later, it was divided into five districts (contemporary German: Districte, modern spelling Distrikte), which were largely based on the pre-1849 Hungarian counties which made the majority of the crown land. From 1851 they were subdivided into political districts ((politische) Bezirke). In the reforms of 1853, implemented in the crown land in 1854, the Districte became Kreise, which were subdivided into Amtsbezirke (formally Bezirke but of a different type than in 1851). These reforms also separated the capital, the city of Temesvár, from district-administration, placing it under the direct authority of the Statthalterei.

Administration

Great Voivodes

Francis Joseph I, (1849–1916)
Charles I, (1916–1918)

Note: the voivodeship was abolished in 1860, but Francis Joseph kept the title of "Great Voivode" until his death in 1916, and the title was also inherited by the last Emperor of Austria, Charles I.

Governors

Ferdinand Mayerhofer, (1849–1851)
Johann Coronini-Cronberg, (1851–1859)
Josip Šokčević, (1859–1860)
Karl Bigot de Saint-Quentin, (1860)