Place:Dunajská Streda, Dunajská Streda, Slovensko, Czechoslovakia

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Dunajská Streda is a town located in southern Slovakia (Trnavský kraj). Dunajská Streda is the most culturally significant town in the Žitný ostrov area. The town has a population of 22,730, with ethnic Hungarians forming the 72% majority.

History

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According to archeological evidence the territory was inhabited in the Neolithic, Bronze, Roman and Great Moravian period. The region was part of the arising Hungarian state since the 10th century.

During the Middle and Modern Ages the settlement was a small market town located in the southern part of Pozsony county. It also functioned as a commercial and administrative centre for the neighbouring villages. After 1808, after 1854, and in 1960 it became amalgamated with several smaller settlements.

The population of the town has been predominantly Hungarian at least since the late Middle Ages. The first detailed description of the town came from a charter of King Charles I of Hungary from 1341 when the king gave the estate of Pókafölde to comes Tamás. In the middle of the 15th century Szerdahely became an oppidum, or market town. The first conscription of the population happened in 1574 (26 royal serf families and 3 noble families). The next conscription in 1646 indicates that most citizen were craftsmen. The town was under the feudal jurisdiction of the Pálffy family between 1600 and 1848. Many Jews came in the 18th century. In 1880 the town had 4182 inhabitants out of which 3531 (84.43%) were Hungarian and 416 (9.95%) were German by mother tongue. The number of the Jewish population was 1,874 (44.81%). In 1910 there were 4,679 (98.26%) Hungarian speakers (by mother tongue) from a total population of 4,762. In 1930, the town had 5,706 inhabitants, including 2,944 (51.6%) Hungarians, 2,186 (38.31%) Jews (mostly Hungarian-speaking) and 503 (8.82%) Slovaks. According to the 2021 census, 16,577 Hungarians, 4,386 Slovaks, 108 Czechs, 87 Romani people, 31 Russians, 30 Vietnamese, and 29 Ukrainians live in the city, meaning a Hungarian majority of over 70%, the second highest Hungarian population among Slovak municipalities (after leading Komárno with 17,696 ethnic Hungarians).

After WWI

In 1919 the town became part of Czechoslovakia. It was ceded to Hungary once again by the First Vienna Award in 1938, but was returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 after World War II. On June 15, 1944 2,970 Jews from Dunajska Streda and vicinity were sent on a transport to Auschwitz.

In 1947–48, a portion of the town's Hungarian population was expelled to Hungary in accordance with Czechoslovakia's policies based on collective guilt and later by the Czechoslovak-Hungarian population exchange. These people also had their Czechoslovak citizenship and all their estates and movables forfeited by the Czechoslovak state.

After WWII

During the communist era the town underwent rapid modernisation and industrialisation, which has left over 85% of the city's historical centre demolished and replaced with social-realist concrete buildings typical of the era. This has also caused the city to lose its previous character. In the 1990s the centre of the town was totally rebuilt and revitalised according to the plans of Imre Makovecz, a Hungarian architect of the "organic" school. Today, it is one of the centres of the Hungarian national community in Slovakia and is the fastest growing city of southern Slovakia.

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