The Influence of German Settlers on the Formation and Development of an Industrial Town in Habsburg Bosnia: Teslić (1878-1918)

This paper studies the formation and development of the Bosnian town of Teslić from the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 to the end of the First World War in 1918. The goal is to emphasize the significant characteristics of the town’s development: the spread of capitalism; economic modernization; the arrival of a non-Slavic, predominantly German population; and the town as the leader of industrialization in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The industrial origin of Teslić and its structure demonstrate Austria-Hungary’s need to economically integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into its state area. The aim of this paper is to show to what extent the dynamics of industrial development influenced the town’s formation and to see how the colonist population, which was mostly of German origin, influenced the industrial development and social life of the town.


Introduction
In order to form a historical picture of the town of Teslić, we need to reconstruct a period of several decades covering its formation and development as an industrial settlement, and then its position as a small town within Austria-Hungary (from the end of the 19th century to 1918).Since Teslić was built as an industrial settlement, this paper mostly devotes its attention to the industrial history of this town, which played a major role in its formation.The focus of the paper then shifts towards the role of predominantly Austrian and German colonists1 in the industri-al development, which dictated the formation of this Bosnian town and the surrounding region.The second part of the paper deals with the cultural development of the town, as well as with the labour union battles that accompanied industrialization.Both in the historiography of Bosnia and Herzegovina and of the former Yugoslavia, writing about the history of large and small towns in the form of monographs, studies, chronicles, theses and articles was mostly left to amateurs.This type of historical writing was not attractive enough for renowned historians, which is why today we can find only a few works written by professional historians who devoted their research to this part of microhistory.This paper is based on archival material on the formation and development of the town of Teslić from 1878 to 1918, as well as on data obtained from newspapers and col-lections of published sources and memoirs dating back to that period including contemporary literature, modest in scope.

A review of former research on the Teslić area
Petar Bogunović and Branislav Begović wrote rather short monographs on the history of Teslić and the surrounding region.The authors found a piece of data on the German role in the birth of this town in a manuscript by Dragiša Vasić entitled "Teslić and the Surrounding Region between Feudalism and Capitalism (1918Capitalism ( -1941))".Even though Bogunović and Begović presented some interesting and proven facts about the formation of this region and its population, both these authors gave credit for the development of Teslić to those whose political views were closest to their own.In accordance with this, the works of Branislav Begović, written in Socialist Yugoslavia, steered predominantly towards criticism of the Austro-Hungarian government and its exclusive exploitation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people, and to a certain extent, they revealed the influence of the communist political myths that the author used to attack capitalism.Besides its compulsory criticism of Austria-Hungary, the book written by Petar Bogunović, published in 1937, describes efforts that the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes made in order to industrialize this town and make it grow2.
Nevertheless, the paper was given a clear outline only with the help of data from archival records and published sources, which provided a distinct insight into how the first industrial settlement was built under Austro-Hungarian rule at the same site where several villages once stood at the time of the Ottoman Empire.This settlement then grew into the small town of Teslić which, due to its modern appearance and the significance of German and Austrian colonists, was named "Little Berlin".
The history of this town begins in 1878 when, at the Congress of Berlin, the Great Powers gave Austria-Hungary official permission to indefinitely occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina − Turkish provinces at the time − on the grounds of the sultan's inability to impose order on this region after the Herzegovina Uprising of 1875−77.Bosnia and Herzegovina, as the least developed country, thus became an integral part of the economic region of Austria-Hungary and it was surrounded by an organized state with a leading market economy, as opposed to the Ottoman Empire.Bosnia and Herzegovina was under Austro-Hungarian rule for forty years (1878−1918).In 1882, the Provincial Government, which had been active in Sarajevo since January 1, 1879, became subordinate to the Joint Ministry of Finance of Austria-Hungary, which had been entrusted with supreme authority within Bosnia and Herzegovina (Kraljačić, 1987).The head of the occupying power was an Austrian general in Sarajevo.As early as 1881, the occupied territories were incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian economic zone and monetary system.Austria-Hungary did not change the existing territorial and political organization of the country (Gavrilović et al., 2005;Kapidžić, 1955).
The most substantial progress was achieved in industrial development, which made the existing towns stronger, and also founded a new type of towns in Bosnia -industrial towns, like Teslić.

Location of the Teslić area
The municipality of Teslić is one of the largest municipalities in Republika Srpska.It is situated in northcentral Bosnia, that is, it occupies part of the south west of the Republika Srpska entity.With a total area of 846 square kilometres it is among the largest municipalities in Republika Srpska.It borders with the municipalities of Doboj, Tešanj, Maglaj, Žepče, Zenica, Travnik, Kotor Varoš and Čelinac.The town of Teslić is located in the valley of the Velika Usora River (the Great Usora River), at an altitude of 204 m, on the main road Doboj − Teslić − KotorVaroš − Banja Luka.It is 85 km from Banja Luka, and 26 km from Doboj.
According to the preliminary data acquired from the last population census in 2013, the municipality of Teslić had 41,904 residents (in the 1991 census it had 59,854).The town of Teslić itself has about 7,500 residents today.
Teslić is a relatively new town.It was founded in the last decades of the 20th century along with the first projects of industrialization in this region.

Industrialization, urbanization and development
The Tešanj District, where the towns of Tešanj and Doboj stood out due to their size, and which also included the rising town of Teslić, was "a small version of Bosnia".It incorporated all three basic types of towns that existed in the period of Austro-Hungarian rule -the oriental and Islamic, the mixed, and the new "European" types of town.Tešanj stood out as an oriental and Islamic type of town with a "char-shia" (an oriental market-place) and narrow winding "sokaks" (small oriental streets) crammed with little wooden stores and handicraft shops, whose residents of different faiths lived in separate parts of the town at the end of the 19th century.The Austro-Hungarian government approached the process of building and developing Bosnian towns in accordance with the principles applied in the Monarchy.According to  @44.6005676,17.8557497,2715m/data=!3m1!1e3 (May 16, 2015 these principles, the old urban structure of towns remained unchanged, and new European structures were built on empty sites.Since Teslić was a town that had only just begun to grow at the time of Austro-Hungarian rule, such action was not necessary.Teslić was originally built as an industrial settlement, which then grew along with the factories and gradually took on the shape of a modern town.These three types of towns were included in industrialization but in different ways.Traditional Islamic towns had to be restructured, while mixed and European towns could start their industrialization from the start.During Austro-Hungarian rule, there were 33 industrial towns of all three types which were mentioned.The railway network was not developed, and it connected only a few towns with major mines. The process of industrialization and urbanization refers to cities and towns, and it is considered to be the most significant element in the transformation of a settlement.Changes in cities and towns are reflected in an increase of the urban population, in workforce migration, and in the transformation of the physiognomic features of towns and their surrounding area.The impact of industry on settlements can be observed through changes in the functional structure of towns and their surroundings, as well as through demographic elements (Đukičin et al., 2014).The industrial origin of Teslić and its structure demonstrated the need of Austria-Hungary to economically integrate Bosnia and Herzegovina into its state area and at the same time find which regions of that country had the greatest growth and industrial potential.On the other hand, this area successfully fit into the rudiments of industrial development.
Industrial development is studied in numerous fields of science.Developed countries of the world have gone far with regard to industrial development; thus, their experts studied this subject in depth (Kaya, 2010;Kohli, 2004;Koo, 1990;Kerr, 1983;Kerr et al.;1960).By deliberating the behaviour and arrangement of various industrial activities in space and time and establishing functional relations between them it can be seen that parallel to these processes, changes of territory also happen.One factor common to all phases of industrial development is the migrational movement of the population, in terms of its intensity and direction.A characteristic of the first phase of industrial development is urbanization -the creation of urban industrial areas that are compact by nature (Desmet & Rossi-Hansberg, 2009).
Teslić was founded in the last decade of the 19th century in an area where two rivers, the Great Usora (Velika Usora) and the Small Usora (Mala Usora), meet.The town was built in this area for several reasons − the abundant forest resources necessary for building chemical wood-processing factories in the vicinity, coal deposits3 (Zadro, 1934), the spaciousness of 3 The first geological study of Bosnia and Herzegovina was conducted at the time when this territory was a part of Austria- the valley, agricultural production in nearby villages, and the fact that apartments for factory workers and foremen were usually built near a factory.The wood processing industry was the main driving force in the economic development of Teslić.By October of 1886, the Provincial Treasury of Bosnia and Herzegovina had already signed a basic contract for a ten-year exploitation of Bosnian oak woods with the company "Morpurgo&Parente" from Trieste (AB&H, 1886).In order to facilitate exploitation, this company built a narrow gauge railway in the Usora region (from Usora, near Doboj, to Pribinić)4 (Juzbašić, 1973), where an industrial settlement was founded, which was what later developed into the town of Teslić (AB&H, 1902).
In 1896, an Austrian, Joseph Kranc, notified the joint minister of finance, Benjamin Kallay, of his intention to start a joint-stock company called "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta" in Teslić5 (Report on the Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1906).In 1911, a seed processing plant was opened there and it was considered to be one of the most modern of its kind in Europe at the time, in addition to another one in Budslavica in the Czech Republic (Begović et al., 1978;Begović, 1986).One of the companies that participated in establishing the joint-stock company was a company called "Aktiengesellschaft für Trebertrockung" from Kasel, that purchased a patent developed by German engineer Franz Josef Bergmann.The company was financed by capital from the renowned "Leipziger Bank", which was hit hard when the company "Aktiengesellschaft für Trebertrockung" from Kasel went bankrupt.That also caused changes in the company "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta"6 (AB&H, 1902).A steam sawmill for the destructive distillation of wood was built next to the factory and put into operation in Hungary.It was carried out by Dr. Friedrich Kacer.He estimated that "a quarter of the given quantity could be exploited − approximately 12 million tons, in other words" 4 Building of railways in Bosnia and Herzegovina was extremely important for its industrialization.Since planning and carring out of construction projects required skilled professionals, Austria-Hungary was forced to turn to foreigners because such workers were not available in Bosnia.Therefore, Germans had an extremely important role in this task.Consequently,it should not be surprising that knowledge of German language was a requirement for getting jobs in Bosnian railroads.Thus, for instance, 556 employees out of the total number of 700 employees in the railroad workshop in Sarajevo, were foreigners, while all the major repairmen were Germans.
In 1902, an electrical power station was also built and so the town of Teslić had electricity, while the neighbouring towns of Doboj and Tešanj used petroleum lamps for a long time to come.Banja Luka, which was the district capital, did not have electricity until after 19107 (Mikić, 2004;Sarajevski list, 1914).Besides that, Teslić was the first town in the Tešanj District to have a fire department, whose formation was dictated by the process of factory production.Hanrah Weisberg, a mechanical engineer, was the first commander of the fire department.Until 1910, it had 40 members, 26 of whom were colonists, and the majority of them were Austrians and Germans8 (Vasić, 2014).There are records of eight colonists who opened retail stores and three who opened taverns in the town of Teslić and surrounding villages, while "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta" opened two smaller hotels in Teslić9 (AB&H, 1924).A cinema was opened in 1915, that is, twenty years after the first showing of the film made by the Lumiere brothers and only nine years after the opening of the first cinema in Paris (AB&H, 1905).
"Majstorske kolone", buildings for mechanics (administrative workers) and "Pilanske kolone", buildings for sawmill workers were located on the main street.This is where upper-class employees of the Teslić society lived.Unfortunately, like numerous other "coal towns", Teslić also had railway tracks going through its main street (the Usora-Pribinić railway), while tracks leading to the factory and to the forests passed through most of the remaining streets.The railroad station was located in the centre of the town.The chemical factory, locomotives and dust coming from the roadways polluted the air.The chemical factory was located near the Velika Usora River and it was polluting the water.Therefore the Provincial Government in Sarajevo was forced to deal with this problem (AB&H, 1905).Negative aspects of progress and modernization in this region led to pollution, damage to natural environment and to random building in a later phase of the town's industrial development.
A school, hotels, a reading room for employees and a casino were built near the factory and the main street.The pollution in the town was lessened to some degree by planting a line of trees and by improving the town park with precious tree species10 (Mikić, 2004).
Most of the workers lived in the eastern part of the town, on the left shore of the Velika Usora.This part of the town was given the name "Radničke kolone".These were lower-quality buildings.
The buildings located on Brunnenstrasse were called shacks by the management, and that is why in 1915, the company president suggested to the Konstanz management to tear down these structures and move the foremen and better workers from "Radničke kolone" to "Majstorske kolone" (ARS, 1915).Towards the end of the First World War, three villas were built in the city park for the management of the company and of the sawmill factory and for doctors.
The development of industry and transport was accompanied by the need for a number of new professions that could not be found among the local population.For that reason, qualified manpower was brought in from other countries (Hadžibegović, 1980).Thus, skilled workers, and technical and commercial experts in Teslić were foreigners, mostly of German origin, whereas labourers were from the local population.According to the statistics of the Provincial Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1911, 41% of the supervisors and foremen in "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta" in Teslić were foreigners (Vasić, 2014).
The graphs presented here point to the conclusion that the number of foreigners among the workers was low, whereas their percentage among the foremen and supervisors was high.The graphs also show that it was necessary to hire immigrants to perform skilled jobs due to the fact that local people were undereducated, The graphs are based on the Statistics of the Provincial Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo, 1912.and also that the percentage of hired foreigners depended on the complexity of the jobs performed by the foremen and supervisors.
Until the end of Austro-Hungarian rule, the factory founded by "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta" from Teslić was managed by engineers of Austrian and German origin: Georg Ludwig, Wilhelm Strecker, Fritz Sile and Dr. Hans Zorn.
The most densely populated settlement of the industrial town of Teslić was not located in the rural municipality of Teslić, but rather on the territory of the village of Stenjak (Bogunović, 1937).The reason for this was that the industry was located in the unpopulated part of Stenjak and consequently an industrial settlement also developed in this part of the village.Since that area was separated from the rest of the village by the Velika Usora River and it also abutted onto the settlements of Teslić, the town began to grow by means of joining the rural municipality of Teslić with this part of Stenjak, which were newly populated by factory workers.

Migrations and population structure changes
During the period between 1878 and 1918, the Tešanj District, where the town of Teslić was built, remained within the same boundaries, with branch offices in Doboj, and as such it was a part of the Banjaluka region.Whereas it was mostly Slovenes who migrated to other regions of Austria-Hungary, Germans mostly emigrated to the Banjaluka region.Franz Pfanner played a key role in colonization (Zaplata, 1934).The difficulties that Germany was experiencing at that time − the growing influence of the "Kulturkampf", which was not favourable to Roman Catholics, and poor crop yields from 1876 to 1878 − soon made peo-ple show interest in Pfanner and approach him.First, families began to arrive.It was recorded that the first immigrants, 196 of them, came from Essen, followed by others from Oldenburg, Hanover and Braunschweig.The first foreign settlement bore the name of its founder Windthorst (today Nova Topola) (AB&H, ARS, PJD, DDT, Kutija građe na nemačkom jeziku (A Box of Construction Material in German)), June 16, 1915;1879).Besides Germans, settlers from South Tyrol, hit by flooding, also played a significant role in the first phase of colonization (Hauptman, 1965).The intention of the Austro-Hungarian government was clearly described by Apel, the head of the Provincial Government, who emphasized the need for colonization and its significance, and above all its aim to improve crop cultivation and provide more food for people (AB&H, 1883) − which was accomplished during the forty-year Austro-Hungarian rule.Estimates indicate that there were approximately 30,000 farmers who colonized the Teslić area (Hadžibegović, 1980).
The purpose of migrations was not only to strengthen agriculture, but to industrialize the country as well.While in the Ottoman Empire, 120 officials managed the Bosnian vilayet, after the arrival of Austria-Hungary and due to increased industrialization, there was a need for a larger administration.That is why the number of administrators increased from 689 to 13,266 during the period just after the occupation to the year 1912 (Hadžibegović, 1990).The administration consisted mainly of foreigners, mostly because the local population was not qualified enough to perform such duties due to its high illiteracy rates and undereducation11 (Sugar, 1963).
Germans held the positions with the highest levels of responsibility since they formed the adminis-tration12 (Juzbašić, 1969).In order to set in motion a period of transition to industrialization, to form an effective administration and an efficient military and administrative apparatus, to begin the construction of transport and industrial infrastructures, to found and develop educational, cultural and scientific institutions, Austria-Hungary intensified migrations from other parts of the empire to Bosnia and Herzegovina (Hadžibegović, 2007).In some regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, villages were built only for the colonists (Gavrilović et al., 2005).The Monarchy began to build roads, and by the beginning of the 20th century 1,684 kilometres of railways were built in Bosnia, which meant that conditions for the industrialization of the country were provided.
The social structure of population of Bosnia and Herzegovina gradually began to change after 1878.The changes occurred when the Condominium entered the broader Austro-Hungarian economic and political domain and thus began to take part in new economic activities, especially industrial develop-ment, the exchange of goods and currency in villages, and migrations.However, despite industrialization, the population in Bosnia was predominantly made up of farmers13 (Selimović & Hadžić, 2008).When Teslić began to mature as an industrial town, it became necessary to settle the factory workers and management personnel in its area.Considering the fact that local management personnel were virtually non-existent, the new administration needed to encourage workers and managers to come from more developed parts of the Monarchy.While the 1879 and 1885 population censuses did not reveal a single foreigner in the Teslić region, the census conducted in 1895, after the rise of industry and construction of residential buildings for factory workers, counted 31 foreigners.Significant growth in the number of this category of the population was achieved during the period from 1895 to 1910, that is, at the time when Teslić was founded and developed14 (Mikić, 1990).According to the Report on the Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1906, there were 54 newly established settlements that accommodated 9,660 colonists, and six of them were in the Tešanj District.So, for example, in just the factory settlement in Stenjak, there were 118 German Protestants out of a total number of 191 foreigners (Report on the Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1906).According to the 1910 population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Tešanj District, with a population of 51,019 citizens, had 2,409 foreigners, of whom 769 were Germans (Population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1910).In the factory settlement in Teslić, colonists were mostly Germans, and they constituted the majority of the company's management.Therefore, during Austro-Hungarian rule, the industrial town of Teslić possessed mostly German characteristics.
Austro-Hungarian policies were undefined and in most of Bosnia and Herzegovina people continued to be engage in agriculture, especially because most of the population were of Serbian descent and they had habits and a lifestyle similar to the people in neighbouring Serbia, which was a very rural, agricultural country.Other nationalities had the same characteristics.
13 While after the occupation in 1878, 90% of the population was agrarian, in 1910, this percentage was 87.92%.14 Even in 1883, the Tešanj District was under consideration for settling Germans from South Tirol, which was hit by poor crop yields, vineyard pests and floods for several years.Several landowners from Tešanj requested that foreigners work on their peasant homesteads.However, this was not realized because German emissaries did not find enough suitable land.

The development of educational institutions
It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that local people and German people began to interact with each other, and at that time the need arose to educate the offspring of the local people.The illiteracy rate of the local population was very high at that time.At first there were language and cultural barriers, because the heterogeneous local population had only lived within their local communities in the Ottoman Empire for centuries.With the arrival of Austria-Hungary, social and cultural barriers were gradually overcome.
The arrival of Austria-Hungary in Bosnia and Herzegovina initiated the process of establishing public schools, whose main goal was integration of the local population into the cultural environment of the state.
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, schools were mostly of national and religious character.Afterwards, the education process encouraged by the state led to a situation in which more and more children from the heterogeneous local population attended public schools.
South-Slavic journalists often criticized the Austro-Hungarian administration in Bosnia and Herzegovina for doing little to improve education, which is not true, and this paper will show that.They also criticized administration for bringing foreigners to Bosnia and Herzegovina and thus jeopardizing the identity and interests of the local population.The first accusation is false because of the fact that secondary education did not even exist until 1878 (religious schools cannot be considered to be secondary schools, mostly due to the lack of precise school programs and clearly defined curricula).Even though during its forty-year rule, Austria-Hungary did not succeed in recovering the education system of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it did succeed in opening 568 public and private schools, and creating an environment in which there was one primary school per 3,504 residents, at a time when approximately 70% of the population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was under the age of 14 (Džaja, 1990).The second accusation is also unfounded.Settlers certainly did not threaten the cultural interests of the local population.There was no danger of cultural Germanization because the South Slavic regions had already experienced a cultural awakening, and the teaching staff of German descent represented the cornerstone of cultural modernization in this region.Immigrants were more educated than the local population and as such, they were more qualified to perform teaching jobs than any hastily formed group of teachers of local origin.The Provincial Government in Sarajevo exerted great effort to establish public schools because, in Bosnia, schools were denominational, and peo-ple were accustomed to attending their own religious schools separately and in accordance with their religious beliefs.As far as Muslim schools were concerned, "sıbyanmektebi" (primary school) schools were the most numerous and remained so until the end of Austro-Hungarian rule.Since public school attendance among Muslim children was poor until the beginning of the 20th century, the authorities strived to reorganize the school programs in SıbyanMektebi schools in accordance with contemporary needs15 (Ćurić, 1983).Thus, "mektebiibtidai" schools were opened.However, from the beginning of the 20th century, the number of children in both schools increasingly declined because of low motivation among teachers due to low salaries, poorly equipped schools, and also because the government was not interested in their survival (Selimović, 2008).Orthodox schools, attended by the Serbs since 1879, were run by church and school boards, and most of the teaching staff consisted of Serbs from Vojvodina and Croatia.Even after the arrival of Austria-Hungary, the vast majority of Serbian pupils continued to attend these schools.When in May of 1913, Bosnia and Herzegovina declared a "state of emergency" due to the Balkan Wars and the potential danger that the wars would reach the border with neighbouring Serbia, temporary measures were introduced to close down Orthodox cultural institutions, and in October of 1914, Orthodox schools were permanently closed down (Bogićević, 1965).Consequently, a much greater number of Serbian pupils were integrated into public schools (Selimović & Hadžić, 1982).Franciscan schools attended by Roman Catholics remained open even after 1878.They did not have the support of the government, which was fearful that if it supported Franciscan schools, a great number of children would not attend public schools16, and their liquidation lasted until 1885.Hence, denominational schools of all three ethnic groups encountered problems and the government did not help to overcome them because it was not in its interest to lower the attendance of public schools.It should also be pointed out that for the entire duration of Austro-Hungarian rule, there was a negative attitude among the local population towards sending girls to schools.This atti-tude was a result of the inherited notion that there is no need to educate female children17 (Population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1910).That attitude was especially characteristic of the Bosnian Muslims and Serbs18 (Bougarel, 2009;Spasojević, 1991).Thus, for example, in the district capital of Banjaluka, the first public school was opened in 1879 and not a single female pupil attended that school until 1903.The local Bosniak and Serbian population had a similar attitude towards a public school in Teslić, founded in 1899 by the company "Bosansko a.d.za preradu drveta" with the aim to provide education for its employees' children.In 1910, only 4.44% of Serbs in the Tešnjak District were literate, mainly for the following reasons: the great majority of Serbs were peasants; not a single school was opened in the villages; and the rural population had a negative attitude towards education.The percentage of literate Bosniaks was just over 4.59%.The literacy rate was the highest among the Roman Catholic population − 22.82% − and that was due not only to the local Croatian population, but for the most part, to Roman Catholic colonists19 (Population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1910).The first teacher in the public school in Teslić was Albert Zerbs, "an American journalist of German descent", who taught his pupils in German.Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 20th century, children from the local population gradually began to attend the school, and so two more teachers were hired -Vilma Jusić and Milan Simović.By 1903, the school had 91 pupils and by 1905 that number had increased to 109 (AB&H, 1906).17 In the Tuzla District, for instance , there were 148,190 women (94.90%) who were completely illiterate.For more detailed information on illiteracy see "Rezultati popisa žiteljstva Bosne i Hercegovine, 1910.godinu u oktobru" 18 In 1914, in Tešanj, only one pupil attended the public primary school, while at the same time 45 pupils attended the Serbian Orthodox school.19 There were districts in Bosnia and Herzegovina with an even lower literacy rate than in the Tešanj District.For instance, the literacy rate among people aged over seven was 11.95% for the whole territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Results of the population census in Bosnia and Herzegovina from September 27, 1910, pp.LIV-LXII, 18-47.
However, as we can see from this Table, the number of Austrian and German pupils in the first and second grades at the Public Folk School in Teslić was still higher, even though their percentage in the overall population was smaller.It is also obvious that the local population enrolled a small number of girls in schools, while that was not the case with children who attended classes held in German.Finally, the Table also shows the number of children enrolled in the second grade, which gives us information on the enrollment of immigrant children in the school in Teslić.
In June of 1912, after a four-day inspection of the school in Teslić, it was concluded that the school could offer classes to 150 children, and that only 88 children had enrolled because "the education law had not been enforced at the beginning of the school year, and that not a single Muslim child had been enrolled to school out of the 839 Muslims living in the school district" (AB&H, 1912).Nevertheless, the situation improved the following year and 14 Muslim children were enrolled into the school.In the same year, religious studies was introduced in the German department of the Teslić School for 14 Evangelical pupils and these lectures were given by the priest George H. Funk from Derventa (AB&H, 1913).
Furthermore, Teslić had 193 Evangelical residents and as such, it represented one of the branches of the Banjaluka Evangelical Church Municipality.The school grew along with the town.At the onset of the First World War, the school had 164 pupils.Consequently, two school buildings were erected with three classrooms in each, located parallel to the main street, across from "Činovnička kolona" (residential buildings for administrative workers), next to the chemical factory and to the entrance into the sawmill factory.The school was equipped with an abacus, a globe, maps of Bosnia and Herzegovina, maps of Austria-Hungary and of Europe, with pictures of human anatomy and zoology, with a small ore collection and a set of physical education equipment (AB&H, 1913).There were no vocational schools introduced by the Austro-Hungarian administration., 1878-1941(Teslić and the Surrounding Area between Feudalism and Capitalism, 1878-1941).

Cultural Societies
The beginning of the 20th century marked the appearance of the first cultural societies on Teslić's scene.Cultural activities led towards respect for the cultural differences between different ethnic and religious communities, as well as towards preservation of the cultural differences of one's own ethnic and religious community.At that time Аustro-Hungarian cultural politics tended to respect the cultural differences between all peoples that inhabited its territory.
Cultural societies were established with respect to nationalities.They strived to maintain folk tradition and folk dances; they supplied books and magazines in the languages of their members, and provided assistance in the education of less privileged, but gifted pupils and students.In the beginning, Teslić exuded the spirit of Austria and Germany, and the first cultural society was founded under the name "Deutscher Verein".Its centre was in Sarajevo and it had 15 branches within Bosnia and Herzegovina.The Austrian and German population obviously took a very active part in this society since there arose a need for another branch in the nearby village of Čulić, thus Teslić practically had two branches (Išek, 2002).After 1909, several more German societies were established in Teslić.
The "Schützenvereinigung" society (an archery club, one of the only two that existed in Bosnia and Herzegovina) was a leader among them when it came to opening their doors to members of other nationalities.In addition to this society, two more German societies were founded − "Flotennverein" (Society for Navy Assistance) and "Arbeitervereinigung" (Labour Society with social democratic orientation, one of 77 such societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina).
"Arbeiterleserverein", the first reading room for employees in Teslić, was founded in 1899 on the initiative of Austrian and German workers from "Bosnische Holzverwertungs-Aktiengesellschaft"20 (Sugar, 1963).The Tamburitza Society, very noted in Bosnia, also performed its activities in the reading room and it founded a school of tamburitza for the children of employees.In addition, company employees also participated in the organization of humanitarian aid during the First World War (Sarajevski list, issue 305, December 19, 1917).
For easier control over labour unions and their battle for workers' rights, the management of "Bosniescher Holzverwertungs-Aktiengesellschaft" took advantage of the fact that they were divided into factory workers, sawmill workers, miners, railroad workers and forest workers, then into colonists and farmers, skilled and unskilled workers, and foreign and local workers.Foreign workers in Bosnia and Herzegovina were better organized because they were educated and better paid.They brought labour organization experience from the developed countries of Central Europe.Therefore, they created labour organizations that fought for the economic and political rights of workers.The Central Labour Union of Bosnia and Herzegovina was founded in 1905 and that is where the Social Democratic Party, which was founded in 1909, developed and found its major source of support (Hadžibegović, 1980).One of the means of fighting for worker's rights was strikes (Madžar, 1975).In August of 1911, factory workers showed great solidarity when Schwarzbrenner, an Austrian foreman, was dismissed from his job.The strike lasted for two days.However, the management of the factory refused to give in, and Schwarzbrenner was left without a job (Madžar, 1988).The biggest strike in Teslić occurred in 1912 and lasted from February 13 to March 9. Approximately 350 workers went on strike due to low wages and dismissals from jobs.
During the First World War, Teslić was a very lively and populated place.An increase in the number of workers due to the increased need for acetone resulted in the construction of new residential buildings.Because of high population growth, workers' quarters were of poor quality, built only for temporary lodging, and with the hope that the situation would improve after the war.There were no suitable apartments either for technical experts or for sales professionals.A letter written in 1915 says that a doctor lived in the apartment of an engineer, a chemist in the loft of an administrative building and an engineer in the apartment of an administrator (ARS, PJD, DDT, Wohngebäude, May 11, 1915).Nevertheless, the Monarchy made every effort to provide normal life for its skilled workers.Unfortunately, plans for building a new modern hospital were not realized.However, another cinema was opened (ARS, PJD, DDT, May 29, 1917).
When the war ended, the period in which the town grew according to the Austro-Hungarian model also ended, and the German population was sidelined.Teslić found itself in a new country, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.The National Government in Sarajevo immediately made a decision to re-place Eduard Sonnenfeld, the district chief of German nationality (Isović, 1962).This was followed by the departure of colonists from Bosnia and Herzegovina.An order for the expulsion of foreigners was issued at the beginning of May of 1919.That order pertained to the following foreigners: colonists who came to Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war, foreigners without permanent employment, foreigners engaged in shady businesses, and foreigners who were unreliable with regard to "national loyalty", that is everyone who was not in the good graces of the new government (Šehić, 1991).Thus began the expulsion of Germans who had built this town.There is evidence that indicates that the expulsion did not take place only during the first year after the new country was formed.It also continued in the years to come.In 1921, three years after the establishment of the new country, "twelve workers were driven out along with their families", and by 1935, only one German remained in the wood distillation factory (ARS, PJD, DDT, February 20, 1935).According to the 1921 population census, only 67 Germans still lived in the town.Records from the population census conducted on the whole territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina on January 31, 1921 and data from "Narodno jedinstvo" from the beginning of 1919, show that there were 72,372 "foreigners" living in the country, whereas after 1921 this number decreased to 21,682.With the establishment of the new country and the hostile attitude of the authorities towards the German population in Bosnia and Herzegovina, this "Little Berlin" obviously lost its German population, and after a great economic crisis hit the country in the thirties, the town lost its former industrial potential as well.Nowadays, the observant eye of an expert can still notice beautiful traces in the architecture of the town that carry evidence on how this progressive, small industrial Bosnian town was created and developed.
An understanding of the local imagination and the social-political context in which the architec tural consciousness developed and produced its buildings can be found in the litera ture (Yerolympos, 1993).

Conclusion
The arrival of Austria-Hungary marked the beginning of the industrialization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, the time of establishing first industrial settlements that would later grow into towns.
It was because Austria-Hungary expanded to the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina that the town of Teslić developed into an industrial area during the spread of capitalism at the end of the 19th century.The foundation of this town was greatly influenced by its location − a region with rich forest resources, in the vicinity of a railroad that ran along the river valley of Bosnia − in other words, it attracted foreign capital due to its geographic position.The industrial settlement, which gradually grew into the town of Teslić, was built after the construction of a railway from Usora to Pribinić and because the chemical industry was located in this region.Sudden industrial development had negative consequences as well, such as increased pollution and the random spread of towns, which had been built according to plan at the very beginning of the industrialization period.Since the industry required skilled workers that the local population could not provide, people from other parts of Austria-Hun-gary, mostly Germans, started to move to this region and they gradually built this town.Because they made up the majority, and due to their influence on the growth of the town, Teslić was given the name "Little Berlin".Thanks to colonists from German-speaking regions, the town of Teslić took on the urban appearance typical of the architecture of industrial cities in Central Europe, the education in the town was expanded and improved and labour unions that fought for workers' rights were formed.Mingling native people with immigrants brought about the foundation of the first cultural artistic societies, as well as a waking up of the population to the sense of community, which Austro-Hungary especially encouraged.Nowadays, not much of the German and Austro-Hungarian heritage is left in Teslić.In the communist period, in the second half of the 20th century, most factories were expanded on sites where industrial objects from the last decades of the 19th century first stood.By the beginning of the 21st century most of the factories were abandoned and neglected.The reason for that is dubious privatization and foreign capital, so this heritage can be encountered only in traces.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The geographic position of Teslić in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Figure 3 .
Figure 3. List of industrial towns in Bosnia under Austria-Hungarian rule

Figure 4 .Figure 5
Figure 4. Teslić at the beginning of the 20 th century

Table 1 .
A report on the pupils enrolled at the Public Folk School in Teslić in the 1905/1906 school year