Their ancestors were Protestants (more specifically Lutherans), who were expelled and settled from Salzkammergut area, Austria to Transylvania near Hermannstadt (present-day Sibiu) from 1734 to 1756 under Emperor Charles VI and Empress Maria Theresa in the process of the Josephine colonization (German: Josephinisches siedlung or Josephinisches kolonization).

[6] Since Transylvania had been depopulated by the Turkish wars and the plague, the 634 expelled Upper Austrians were given vacant farms to work.

Some of the Landlers who were deported from Carinthia in 1755 joined the Hutterites in Transylvania.

Transylvania was also a very tolerant country in the past with respect to other religions or confessions as well as a prosperous land in natural resources, hence the Landlers founded the needed impetus and environment to thrive in, just like the Transylvanian Saxons did before them (see Siebenbürgenlied).

In total, c. 4,000 Protestant Austrians were expelled and settled in southern Transylvania during the Modern Age.