About the Fux Family from Bela Krajina in the Personal Papers of Emil Laszowski at the Croatian State Archives

Abstract

This article deals with the history of the Fux family from Metlika in the region Bela Krajina and the bonds between social elites of the town Metlika in Slovenia and the surrounding communities from Croatia. One part of the family history was taken from the personal papers of Emil Laszowski at the Croatian State Archives because he had a relationship with this family; the other part was taken from numerous published sources. The history of the Fux family was carefully researched by Jože Dular, a museologist, poet and fiction writer, who was the founder of the Belokranjski Museum in Metlika and its long-term director. He was married to the one of descendants of the Fux family and lived until his death in the house which was built in 1863 by Antonija Fux, born Wanka von Lenzenheim.
The Fux family, who had been creating wealth for years and peaked in the 18th and 19th centuries, made their social and economic position among the social elite along the border through marriages. Thanks to the diary of Emil Laszowski, which is also preserved in his personal papers at the Croatian State Archives it was possible to describe in detail the unhappy marriage and fate of Antonija Jr., born Fux and Daniel Šufflay from the nearby Croatian mansion of Brlog.
Special attention in the article is dedicated to Antonija Wanka, married Fux, and her connections with Metlika folk revivalists such as Janez Kapelle and Anton Navratil. Navratil was the founder of the town’s reading room in 1865 and in his opposition to the German influence he mobilised not only the local followers, but also the adjacent Croats, of whom it is worthy to mention the Šufflays from Brlog, the Kniewald brothers from Grič near Karlovac and the Vranitzany family from Jurovo.
We have consequently established that the social elite of such a small frontier town in the second half of the 19th century was international. In addition to the local Slovenes, it was composed of descendants of Czech immigrants (Navratil, Wanka von Lenzenheim, Horaček), Italians (Parma, immigrants from Monaster near Aquileia, Capelle) and the Germans from Kočevje (Sturm, Weibl and possibly Fux). The marriages of members of the Fux family with the border elites of neighbouring Croatia (Hranilović, Šufflay, Krištof, Lorković) were negligible. Namely, the composition of the Habsburg Monarchy and the practice of its administration encouraged ethnic pluralism and frequent migration in almost all parts of it, which was the case in Metlika too.
Finally, a few words are dedicated to the chronicle of the Fux family, which allegedly proves that they are of a noble origin. The transcript is in Emil Laszowski's personal papers. Laszowski received the template from members of the Fux family, with whom he was a friend, as well as a relative. Special attention was paid to avoid mistaking this fictional creation for a historical fact.
Although the "nobility" of the Fux family is proven to be a forgery, the question remains how this large family did not receive it at a time when families of clerks and soldiers received the nobility very easily, and the rich simply bought it. A sufficient reason for "merit and loyalty" to the emperor would be the long-term hereditary lease of an important post office in Metlika, which sent mail from Karlovac, one of the most important strategic strongholds of the Habsburg Monarchy, further to Ljubljana, Graz and Vienna.