Title: The Great Swabian Migration (translated from the German Der Grosse Schwabenzug)
Author: (of original) Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn (translated by Linda Byrom)
Year: 2012 (original German in 1913)
Media Type: Book
Lending Status: Borrow
How Acquired: ZVA purchase for SGS
Review/Description: The historical novel Der Grosse Schwabenzug by iconic Schwaben author Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn has been translated as The Great Swabian Migration by Linda Byrom. This classic book tells the fictional stories of a bride from Swabia who travels down the Danube to meet her bridegroom; a family from Pfalz that travels by wagon to find a new homeland; and Count Klaus Florimund Mercy, Governor of the Banat, who convinces his nephew to help him achieve his vision of a new paradise. Their fates intertwine in this fascinating tale which chronicles the journey of thousands of Danube Swabians who came mostly by boat to find a new homeland in the Banat, Batschka, and Schwäbische Türkei, areas which are now in Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Croatia. I found that this volume does read like a novel. I enjoyed it very much. It is full of history made painless because it is part of the story. Glenn Schwartz