Zillertaler Inklinanten

Date: 1837
Location: Zillertal
Surnames/tags: Austria Zillertal

The "Zillertaler Inklinanten" are a group of 427 Protestants who were expelled from the "Ziller Valley" in 1837 because of their faith.

As the valley was divided between Salzburg and Tyrol (until 1803), a group of clandestine Protestants managed to stay; in 1826 numerous families left the Catholic church, a development which representatives of the province of Tyrol, the nobility and the church regarded as being dangerous for the religious unity of the province. The Zillertaler Inklinanten invoked the Patent of Toleration (1781) without success: Emperor Franz I expressed his explicit rejection, Emperor Ferdinand I forced them into emigration.

The expelled Protestants from the Tyrolian Zillertal throw a last glance at their home. After a painting from Mathias Schmid.

Between 31 August and 4 September 1837 427 people – in four "treks" – left their home valley. 11 emigrated to tolerated communities in Carinthia and Styria, but the vast majority of 416 Protestants emigrated to Erdmannsdorf in Silesia, Prussia (later called Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf, now Mysłakowice in Poland).

Already in the next years some Protestants left Silesia again: 44 emigrated to Styria and Carinthia, 62 to Middle Franconia in Bavaria in 1838/39. Some emigrated to Poland and Russia, the families of Fankhauser and Geisler to Australia.

Between 1856 and 1860, 54 Inklinanten emigrated to Chile and settled near the Llanquihue Lake. Their descendants are still living there.

The last of the emigrants died 1922 in Silesia. After the Second World War, the descendants of the Zillertaler Inklinanten in Zillerthal-Erdmannsdorf - like other people of German origin - were expelled from the newly annexed territories of Poland. They are living now in different parts of Germany, Suisse, France and the USA.

This site relies heavily on the works of Helga and Horst Bast, who spent years of steady work studying the families, the emigration, their path vom Zillertal to Silesia, and their new life there. Their work can be found online [1], and the genealogy of the families and a description of their new homes in Silesia also in a 2012 published book [2].

Contents 1 The Inklinanten 1.1 Carinthia / Styria (11) 1.2 Silesia (416) 1.3 Chile 1856-60 (54) 2 Sources

The Inklinanten

Carinthia / Styria (11)

To do

Silesia (416)

To do

Chile 1856-60 (54)

• Brugger
• Fleidl
• Klocker
• Hechenleitner
• Heim
• Schönherr
• Kröll
• Wechselberger

Sources

• Zillertaler Inklinanten (english), AEIOU, in: Austria-Forum, das Wissensnetz [3]
• Zillertaler Inklinanten, in: Wikipedia (deutsch) [4]
• www.1837-auswanderer.de, by Helga and Horst Bast (deutsch) [5]
• Helga und Horst Bast: Die Familien der 1837 ausgewanderten Protestanten aus dem Zillertal – Ihre Vor- und Nachfahren, die Auswanderung, der Weg, die Ansiedlung, ihre Häuser und ihr Leben im Hirschberger Tal. Cardamina Verlag, 2012 [6]