Bruckners in Transylvania Today

One of Friedrich Wilhelm Bruckner's descendants today. For hundreds of years, the German presence in Transylvania had enriched the cultural and economic life of that unique part of Romania. However, following the 1989 Revolution when they were at last given the freedom to leave Romania, most of the 300,000 ethnic German Saxon families left their traditional homes and homeland and emigrated to Germany, the land of their ancestors.

Thus, seven hundred years of German presence in Transylvania has come to an end. Their legacy is the many German medieval cities to be found today in the middle of an Eastern Orthodox Romania.

The Transylvanian Saxon Legacy

The German Saxon ancestors of the Bruckner family are believed to have come to the wilds of western Hungary (later Transylvania) around 1150 AD These peoples were invited to settle this land and they came to introduce better methods of farming, to bring trade to the area, and, thus, to provide higher taxes for the king. Some were freemen, but noble leaders had come as well, and because of the noblemen's presence all settlers were granted a special legal status that was, in those days, usually offered only to noble families.

Thus this "land behind the forests" has been under the rule of Hungry, of Austria, of the Austria-Hungarian federation, and of Romania as country after country in Europe was carved up and boundaries were changed.

All of these boundary changes affected the Bruckner family.

They may have lived in one place all their lives, but officially they were born in one country, married in another, and died in still another.

In America, records found for the six Bruckner brothers detail their place of origin and citizenship to have been Austria, Germany, and Hungry.

Bruckners Today in Transylvannia, Romania

Today, only one member of Friedrich Bruckner's family remains in Romania. Pictured here in traditional German Saxon/ Transylvanian folk costume, she still lives in the home and in the country of her forefathers.

A Known "Lost Link"

Karl Bruckner, the first son of the Reverend Joseph Bruckner and his wife Anna Schlattner Czikeli, was born "in the night from 28 to 29 January 1838 in Birthaelm [Biertan, Romania, today]" according to his father's recorded family history, written in the church book of the town of Schonau.

As a child Karl would have lived with his parents and family in Botsch (Batos), Mediasch (Medias), and Schonau (Sona), Transylvannia.

Later mention of him, as an adult, was made in the baptismal document (5 May 1861) of a nephew, Friederich Michael Reich, who later became an Evangelical Lutheran minister. At the time of the baptism, Karl was 23 years old and a "candidate for the forest academy."

If you have any information about Karl Bruckner, please contact the author of this page so that the family information can be updated.

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