Right in the city of Güssing there is a huge hill with a castle on its top, which actually has been built somewhen in the middle ages, at least, in 1157, as we know, a wooden castle already was there. lt was reconstructed as a fortress against enemies from Eastern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 18th century, the castle has been falling into ruin, because the Counts of Battyhany as owners could not afford the taxes no longer. After 200 years people in Güssing again got aware of the importance of this castle. lt has been renovated for a long time, even the tavern has been rebuilt. Due to the flat and hilly landscape in the Southern Burgenland, castle and the hill it is built on, the so-called ,,Schlossberg", can be seen from a long distance. From the top of the hill the view is amazing, because you can see far into Styria and across the Hungarian border. 
Until 1921, Burgenland was part of Hungary. lt was no land of its own yet, it actually had no name and no coat of arms. When the Burgenländer in America seeked a symbol for their home country, they chose the Schlossberg of Güssing, for it was well-known to most of them. Since then, a lot of Burgenländer societies made it a symbol on their heraldic representatives and flags, e.g. the ,,Coplay Sängerbund", founded in 1917 and the ,,Bruderschaft der Burgenländer-" in New York, founded in 1937. 
You can also see the Güssing castle figured on ashtrays, pocket-knives and some other things, which of course were sold very often because of the picture on them. 
That is why this symbol of Burgenland is in close connection with the immigration of Burgenländer into the States. When in 1992 the.government of Burgenland decided to make the exhibition ,,... nach Amerika" about the immigrants, the castle of Güssing was chosen location. 
This year, the ,,Burgspiele", an open-air theatre, will take place in the court in front of the castle from June 24 to July 17. The play is about the poor peasants in Burgenland and the emigration to America about 1900. It's called ,,Landflucht". 
The peasants who lived at the bottom of the castle and in the surrounding villages depended on aristocracy and had to work for them. Though in the middle of the 19th century peasants were released by law, they stayed poor unless economics even decreased. Plots of land were so small they could not feed a whole family. Things got worse when those plots were divided among a great number of children. The smaller the land the worse the Situation. Thus, people had no chance unless to go into cities or even to America. ,,Landflucht" means to flee hunger and hopelessness out in the country. 
In fact it was not only the economic pressure to force Burgenländer to leave, but also an ethnic one. Before 1921, Hungarian upper class and administration tried to push back German and Croatian language and to support Hungarian. So the mother tongue, the so-called ,,hianzisch", could survive only in the most secluded villages. 
The play ,,Landflucht" is about those topics; the language it is spoken most of the time is ,,hianzisch". American Burgenländer on vacation in Burgenland this summer would certainly recognize their own story or the story of their parents and grandparents in it. 
So come and watch ,,Landflucht". 

Walter Dujmovits jun..