Banat Swabians
Encyclopedia
The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German
population in Southeast Europe
, part of the Danube Swabians
. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Banat
province, which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with Turkey
. This once strong and important ethnic Banat Swabian minority has now become quite small. Most of its members were expelled to the West
by the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries after World War II
. Others left for economic and emotional reasons after 1990. At the end of World War I, in 1918, an attempt was made by the Swabian minority to establish an independent Banat Republic
; however, the province was divided according to the Wilsonian
Principles of autodetermination (this is the wish of the majority population), by the Treaty of Versailles
of 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon
of 1920. The greater part was annexed by Romania
, a smaller part by former Yugoslavia
, and a small region around Szeged
remained part of Hungary
. The German-speaking community of Banat met in Timisoara and their representatives swore to be loyal to the enlarged Romanian Kingdom.
. Besides the Banat, these groups lived in nearby western Bačka
in Vojvodina
, Serbia, in Swabian Turkey
(present-day southern Hungary), in Slavonia
, (present-day Croatia), and in Satu Mare, Romania. All of these areas were under Austrian
rule when the immigrants were encouraged to settle among local populations into the lands newly recovered from Turkish rule.
The immigrants were encouraged to settle in the Banat by the Austrian Emperors in the 18th century in order to populate a frontier province bordering the Turkish empire, and to modify the ethnic and religious composition of this newly conquered region. They were offered free land and other benefits. One important requirement for them was that they had to be Roman Catholic, as were the Italian and the Spanish immigrants to the same region. Most of the German settlers came from Alsace-Lorraine
, Austria
, Bavaria
, Franconia
, and the Palatinate. A small group can be traced to Middle Germany
. However, comparatively few came from the Swabia
n regions of what was then known as Further Austria
. It is thus unclear how the group came to be called the Banat Swabians. Most likely it is because the majority registered and embarked from the Swabian city of Ulm
. They were then transported on the Ulmer Schachteln (barges) down the Danube
to Belgrade
, where they set off on foot for their new homes.
The colonists were generally younger sons of poor farming families, who saw little chance of success in their native lands. Under Maria Theresa
, they received financial support and long-term tax relief. Many of the earliest immigrants never married, since there were few women among them. Craftsmen were financially encouraged, as were teachers, doctors, and other professionals.
Those who came from French-speaking or linguistically mixed communes in Lorraine
, maintained the French language (labelled Banat French or Français du Banat), as well as a separate ethnic identity for several generations.
Beginning with 1893, because of the Magyarisation policies of the nationalistic Hungarian State, Banat Swabians began to move to Bulgaria
, where they settled in the village of Bardarski Geran
, Vratsa Province
, founded earlier by Banat Bulgarians
. Their number eventually exceeded 90 families. In 1929 they built a separate Roman Catholic church after disagreements with Bulgarian Catholics. Some of these German-speaking families later moved to Tsarev Brod
, Shumen Province
along with a handful of Banat Bulgarian families, to another Banat Bulgarian village, Gostilya
, Pleven Province
. Between 1941 and 1943, 2,150 ethnic German Bulgarian citizens were transferred to Germany as part of Hitler
's Heim ins Reich
policy. These included 164 Banat Swabians from Bardarski Geran and 33 from Gostilya.
The Treaty of Trianon of 1920 was the beginning of the end for the Swabians of Banat. The collapse of the Austro-Hungarian rule and its replacement by Romanian rule had some benefits. In the late 19th century, Hungary had undergone a period of rapid Magyarization
, during which it attempted to assimilate all its minorities. Schools were required to teach only in the Hungarian language. Under Romanian rule, ethnic Banat Swabian could have German-language schools for the first time since 1868. Banat Swabian culture flourished. Once again there was a German language theatre in Timişoara
, and across the Banat, more Banat Swabian newspapers were established. In 1921 a cultural association called the "Verband der Deutschen in Rumaenien" (Union of Germans in Romania) was founded.
Economically, however, things did not go well in Romania, as in Europe. Black Friday and the subsequent financial crises of the 1930s hit the Banat hard. Many Swabians left the Banat to work in Argentina
, Brazil
, and the United States
, never to return.
Also after 1933, the Nazi Party was able to gain a lot of influence among the ethnic Germans
of Eastern Europe
, including the Banat Swabians. During the Second World War, many were enrolled into the Romanian Army and served on the Eastern Front
. After 1943, a German-Romanian treaty allowed them to serve instead within the Wehrmacht or the SS trops, even without giving up their Romanian citizenship. Some were virtually forced to serve in the SS: they felt to be threatened with sanctions against their families if they refused. Towards the end of the war, some Banat Swabians openly opposed the Nazis, who executed a number of them in Jimbolia
(Hatzfeld
).
Banat Swabians who served the Nazis gained notoriety for crimes against Jews and Serbs during the Banat (1941–1944) period. Led by the infamous 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
, they alienated themselves from their non-Banat Swabian neighbors. This was one of the reasons why Tito's Yugoslavia decided to continue the cycle of reprisal and revenge and incarcerate and starve all of the Banat Swabians in Yugoslavia
.
, formerly Germany's ally, joined the Allies
on August 23, 1944. Overnight, all Banat Swabians in Romania became regarded as potential enemies of the state. The approach of the Red Army
caused a flood of refugees to the safer Hitler's Germany.
By January 1945, the country was completely under Soviet control. Early 1945, under Stalin's orders, many Banat Swabians were expelled or deported to labor camps in the Soviet Union
, where thousands of them died. Those who remained, as well as those who fled, lost their citizenship and their property was seized. In 1951 over a thousand Banat Swabian-speakers were displaced
in the Bărăgan Steppe
of southeast Romania. where they founded new villages. Almost all of the displaced were allowed to return home in 1955.
Some Swabian families from both Romanian and Yugoslavian
Banat managed to flee to Germany in the immediate postwar years, and some of them were helped by French Prime Minister Robert Schuman
to settle in France as Français du Banat .
In the 1960s, however, the political atmosphere relaxed. The policy of disfranchising and dispossessing the Nazi collaborators within the German-speaking minority ended. Once again all Banat Swabians could enjoy the full rights of Romanian citizenship. It was at this time that the final departure of the Banat Swabians for Germany began. The Transylvanian Saxons
made similar decisions. Even though the Swabian families of the Danube and Banat Swabians had lived in the region for ten generations and more, and although their culture had developed quite differently from Germany's, they no longer trusted the Romanian communist government.
In 1965, Nicolae Ceauşescu
came to power in Romania. At first he opened the country to the West, but by the end of the 1970s, he had become ultra-nationalistic and an opponent of all ethnic minorities. Under his rule, any Banat Swabian who chose to emigrate had to pay a bounty
of more than a thousand mark
s (depending on age and education) for a permanent emigration visa. Nevertheless, Banat Swabians annually left by thousands well into the 1980s. An economic crisis of the communist state, as well as a rumor concerning a village destruction project, caused 200,000 to flee Romania during that time.
After Ceauşescu's fall in 1989 and German Reunification
in 1990, almost all the remaining Banat Germans in Romania
enthusiastically left for Germany
. As a consequence, the ethnic German population in Romania is now greatly reduced. Some emigrants are returning, generally entrepreneurs with economic ambitions supported by the German nonreturnable grants for development projects outside Germany. Since the economic crisis, their wish to returned increased, but most of them sold their properties when they left.
Of about 750,000 ethnic Germans who once lived in Romania, less than 75,000 remain today. Only in cities with large populations is there a functioning German cultural life, usually aided by uninterrupted Romanian State subsidies and Romanian inhabitants' help. Still, the Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung is a strong weekly paper, and the German State Theater in Timişoara
(Deutsches Staatstheater Temeswar), subsidized by the Romanian government, produces permanent theatre shows. In Timişoara
and Arad
, there are German-language primary and secondary schools, attended mostly by Romanian students. The ethnic Germans (including Banat Swabians) left in Romania are represented in politics by the DFDR or Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien (Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
).
and Montenegro
– took over abandoned Swabian farms and houses. In March 1945, the surviving Swabians were ghettoized in "village camps", later labelled "extermination camps" by the survivors; the death rate in fact ranged as high as 50%. The most notorious such camp was in Knićanin
(formerly Rudolfsgnad), where an estimated 11,000-12,500 deaths occurred. Children, by then mostly orphaned, had their own sections in these camps; most of them were later transferred to state homes and families, and lost their ethnic identity. In 1947, the situation improved, as foreign humanitarian aid reached the camps, and their regimes were loosened. The camp system was closed down in March 1948, and the inmates were conscripted for work in the army or industry. Their flight was usually tolerated, and by the end of 1950s, around 300,000 Swabians had gradually emigrated to Western countries.
According to a study conducted in 1961 by the German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler, later supported by German emigrant organizations, 7,200 Swabians were shot by the Partisans, around 2,000 deported to the Soviet Union, and some 48,000 died in labor camps. Around 16.8% of the Swabians died during and after the war in Yugoslavia.
The Serbian census from 2002
records 3,901 Germans in Serbia, of which 3,154 were in the province of Vojvodina
. In December 2007 they formed their own minority council in Novi Sad
, which they were entitled to with 3,000 voter signatures. The president, Andreas Biegermeier, stated that the council would focus on property restitution, and marking mass graves and camp sites. He estimated the total number of remaining Danube Swabians in Serbia and their descendents at 5,000–8,000.
less than 62,000 Danube Swabians remain, but they do have political representation. One city and several villages have German-speaking mayors . Explusion of the Swabian minority from Hungary took place only between 1945 and 1948.
and in southern Germany, where most Banat Swabians now live, they maintain their customs and dialect, and offer support to those who remain in Romania.
Ethnic German
Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...
population in Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a relatively recent political designation for the states of the Balkans. Writers such as Maria Todorova and Vesna Goldsworthy have suggested the use of the term Southeastern Europe to replace the word Balkans for the region, to minimize potential...
, part of the Danube Swabians
Danube Swabians
The Danube Swabians is a collective term for the German-speaking population who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially alongside the Danube River valley. Because of different developments within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people...
. They emigrated in the 18th century to what was then the Austrian Banat
Banat
The Banat is a geographical and historical region in Central Europe currently divided between three countries: the eastern part lies in western Romania , the western part in northeastern Serbia , and a small...
province, which had been left sparsely populated by the wars with Turkey
Ottoman wars in Europe
The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...
. This once strong and important ethnic Banat Swabian minority has now become quite small. Most of its members were expelled to the West
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
by the Soviet Union and its subsidiaries after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Others left for economic and emotional reasons after 1990. At the end of World War I, in 1918, an attempt was made by the Swabian minority to establish an independent Banat Republic
Banat Republic
The Banat Republic was a short-lived state proclaimed in Timişoara on November 1, 1918, the day after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Recognized only by Hungary, the republic was invaded by the army of neighboring Serbia on November 15...
; however, the province was divided according to the Wilsonian
Wilsonian
Wilsonianism or Wilsonian are words used to describe a certain type of ideological perspectives on foreign policy. The term comes from the ideology of United States President Woodrow Wilson and his famous Fourteen Points that he believed would help create world peace if implemented.Common...
Principles of autodetermination (this is the wish of the majority population), by the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
of 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon was the peace agreement signed in 1920, at the end of World War I, between the Allies of World War I and Hungary . The treaty greatly redefined and reduced Hungary's borders. From its borders before World War I, it lost 72% of its territory, which was reduced from to...
of 1920. The greater part was annexed by Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, a smaller part by former Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, and a small region around Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
remained part of Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. The German-speaking community of Banat met in Timisoara and their representatives swore to be loyal to the enlarged Romanian Kingdom.
Banat and the Danube Swabians
The Banat colonists are often grouped with other German-speaking ethnic groups in the area under the name Danube SwabiansDanube Swabians
The Danube Swabians is a collective term for the German-speaking population who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary, especially alongside the Danube River valley. Because of different developments within the territory settled, the Danube Swabians cannot be seen as a unified people...
. Besides the Banat, these groups lived in nearby western Bačka
Backa
Bačka is a geographical area within the Pannonian plain bordered by the river Danube to the west and south, and by the river Tisza to the east of which confluence is located near Titel...
in Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
, Serbia, in Swabian Turkey
Swabian Turkey
The term Swabian Turkey describes a region in southeastern Transdanubia in Hungary delimited by the Danube , the Drava , and Lake Balaton inhabited by an ethnic German minority...
(present-day southern Hungary), in Slavonia
Slavonia
Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...
, (present-day Croatia), and in Satu Mare, Romania. All of these areas were under Austrian
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
rule when the immigrants were encouraged to settle among local populations into the lands newly recovered from Turkish rule.
The colonists’ origins and recruitment
Alsace-Lorraine
The Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine was a territory created by the German Empire in 1871 after it annexed most of Alsace and the Moselle region of Lorraine following its victory in the Franco-Prussian War. The Alsatian part lay in the Rhine Valley on the west bank of the Rhine River and east...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Bavaria
Bavaria
Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
, Franconia
Franconia
Franconia is a region of Germany comprising the northern parts of the modern state of Bavaria, a small part of southern Thuringia, and a region in northeastern Baden-Württemberg called Tauberfranken...
, and the Palatinate. A small group can be traced to Middle Germany
Middle Germany
Central Germany is an economic and cultural region in Germany. Its exact borders depend on context, but it is often defined as being a region within the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, or a smaller part of this region .The name dates from the German Empire, when the region...
. However, comparatively few came from the Swabia
Swabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n regions of what was then known as Further Austria
Further Austria
Further Austria or Anterior Austria was the collective name for the old possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg, after the focus of the Habsburgs had moved to the...
. It is thus unclear how the group came to be called the Banat Swabians. Most likely it is because the majority registered and embarked from the Swabian city of Ulm
Ulm
Ulm is a city in the federal German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the River Danube. The city, whose population is estimated at 120,000 , forms an urban district of its own and is the administrative seat of the Alb-Donau district. Ulm, founded around 850, is rich in history and...
. They were then transported on the Ulmer Schachteln (barges) down the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
to Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, where they set off on foot for their new homes.
The colonists were generally younger sons of poor farming families, who saw little chance of success in their native lands. Under Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa of Austria
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...
, they received financial support and long-term tax relief. Many of the earliest immigrants never married, since there were few women among them. Craftsmen were financially encouraged, as were teachers, doctors, and other professionals.
Those who came from French-speaking or linguistically mixed communes in Lorraine
Lorraine (province)
The Duchy of Upper Lorraine was an historical duchy roughly corresponding with the present-day northeastern Lorraine region of France, including parts of modern Luxembourg and Germany. The main cities were Metz, Verdun, and the historic capital Nancy....
, maintained the French language (labelled Banat French or Français du Banat), as well as a separate ethnic identity for several generations.
Beginning with 1893, because of the Magyarisation policies of the nationalistic Hungarian State, Banat Swabians began to move to Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, where they settled in the village of Bardarski Geran
Bardarski Geran
Bardarski Geran is a village in northwestern Bulgaria, part of Byala Slatina municipality, Vratsa Province. It is among the several villages founded by Banat Bulgarians returning from the Banat after the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1878, and is thus predominantly Roman Catholic...
, Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province
Vratsa Province , former name Vratsa okrug) is a Bulgarian province located in the northwestern part of the country, between Danube river in the north and Stara Planina mountain in the south. It is named after its main town - Vratsa...
, founded earlier by Banat Bulgarians
Banat Bulgarians
The Banat Bulgarians are a distinct Bulgarian minority group which settled in the 18th century in the region of the Banat, which was then ruled by the Habsburgs and after World War I was divided between Romania, Serbia, and Hungary...
. Their number eventually exceeded 90 families. In 1929 they built a separate Roman Catholic church after disagreements with Bulgarian Catholics. Some of these German-speaking families later moved to Tsarev Brod
Tsarev Brod
Tsarev Brod |ford]]") is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Shumen municipality, Shumen Province. As of 2008, it has a population of 1,344 and the mayor is Stefan Zhivkov. The village lies at , 224 metres above mean sea level in the eastern stretches of the Danubian Plain...
, Shumen Province
Shumen Province
-Religion:Religious adherence in the province according to 2001 census:-Transportation:Shumen lies on the main route between Varna and Sofia and is served by numerous trains and buses serving the city. The city is also very well connected with Istanbul which serves the large Turkish community in...
along with a handful of Banat Bulgarian families, to another Banat Bulgarian village, Gostilya
Gostilya
Gostilya is a village in central northern Bulgaria, located in Dolna Mitropoliya municipality, Pleven Province. It was founded in 1890 by 133 families of Roman Catholic Banat Bulgarians from Stár Bišnov and Ivanovo in what was then Austria-Hungary...
, Pleven Province
Pleven Province
Pleven Province is a province located in central northern Bulgaria, bordering the Danube river, Romania and the Bulgarian provinces of Vratsa, Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech. It is divided into 11 subdivisions, called municipalities, that embrace a territory of 4,333.54 km² with a population, as...
. Between 1941 and 1943, 2,150 ethnic German Bulgarian citizens were transferred to Germany as part of Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Heim ins Reich
Heim ins Reich
The Heim ins Reich initiative was a policy pursued by Adolf Hitler starting in 1938 and was one of the factors leading to World War II. The initiative attempted to convince people of German descent living outside of the German Reich that they should strive to bring these regions "home" into a...
policy. These included 164 Banat Swabians from Bardarski Geran and 33 from Gostilya.
Banat Swabians 1920-1944
Magyarization
Magyarization is a kind of assimilation or acculturation, a process by which non-Magyar elements came to adopt Magyar culture and language due to social pressure .Defiance or appeals to the Nationalities Law, met...
, during which it attempted to assimilate all its minorities. Schools were required to teach only in the Hungarian language. Under Romanian rule, ethnic Banat Swabian could have German-language schools for the first time since 1868. Banat Swabian culture flourished. Once again there was a German language theatre in Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
, and across the Banat, more Banat Swabian newspapers were established. In 1921 a cultural association called the "Verband der Deutschen in Rumaenien" (Union of Germans in Romania) was founded.
Economically, however, things did not go well in Romania, as in Europe. Black Friday and the subsequent financial crises of the 1930s hit the Banat hard. Many Swabians left the Banat to work in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, never to return.
Also after 1933, the Nazi Party was able to gain a lot of influence among the ethnic Germans
Volksdeutsche
Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...
of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, including the Banat Swabians. During the Second World War, many were enrolled into the Romanian Army and served on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
. After 1943, a German-Romanian treaty allowed them to serve instead within the Wehrmacht or the SS trops, even without giving up their Romanian citizenship. Some were virtually forced to serve in the SS: they felt to be threatened with sanctions against their families if they refused. Towards the end of the war, some Banat Swabians openly opposed the Nazis, who executed a number of them in Jimbolia
Jimbolia
Jimbolia is a town in Timiş county, Romania. In 2004, it had a population of 11,605.-History:The earliest record of a community in this location is a place identified as Chumbul in a papal tax record in 1333. This place came under Turkish administration in 1552. As a result of the Treaty of...
(Hatzfeld
Jimbolia
Jimbolia is a town in Timiş county, Romania. In 2004, it had a population of 11,605.-History:The earliest record of a community in this location is a place identified as Chumbul in a papal tax record in 1333. This place came under Turkish administration in 1552. As a result of the Treaty of...
).
Banat Swabians who served the Nazis gained notoriety for crimes against Jews and Serbs during the Banat (1941–1944) period. Led by the infamous 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen
The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen. was formed on March 1942 from Volksdeutsche volunteers from Vojvodina, Croatia, Hungary and Romania, it was initially called the SS-Freiwilligen-Division Prinz Eugen....
, they alienated themselves from their non-Banat Swabian neighbors. This was one of the reasons why Tito's Yugoslavia decided to continue the cycle of reprisal and revenge and incarcerate and starve all of the Banat Swabians in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
.
Romania
The Kingdom of RomaniaKingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
, formerly Germany's ally, joined the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
on August 23, 1944. Overnight, all Banat Swabians in Romania became regarded as potential enemies of the state. The approach of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
caused a flood of refugees to the safer Hitler's Germany.
By January 1945, the country was completely under Soviet control. Early 1945, under Stalin's orders, many Banat Swabians were expelled or deported to labor camps in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where thousands of them died. Those who remained, as well as those who fled, lost their citizenship and their property was seized. In 1951 over a thousand Banat Swabian-speakers were displaced
Baragan deportations
The Bărăgan deportations were a large-scale action of penal transportation, undertaken during the 1950s by the Romanian Communist regime. Their aim was to forcibly relocate individuals who lived within approximately 25 km of the Yugoslav border to the Bărăgan Plain.-Reasons:After relations...
in the Bărăgan Steppe
Baragan Plain
The Bărăgan Plain is a steppe plain in south-eastern Romania. It makes up much of the eastern part of the Wallachian Plain. The region is known for its black soil and a rich humus, and is mostly a cereal-growing area....
of southeast Romania. where they founded new villages. Almost all of the displaced were allowed to return home in 1955.
Some Swabian families from both Romanian and Yugoslavian
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
Banat managed to flee to Germany in the immediate postwar years, and some of them were helped by French Prime Minister Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman
Robert Schuman was a noted Luxembourgish-born French statesman. Schuman was a Christian Democrat and an independent political thinker and activist...
to settle in France as Français du Banat .
In the 1960s, however, the political atmosphere relaxed. The policy of disfranchising and dispossessing the Nazi collaborators within the German-speaking minority ended. Once again all Banat Swabians could enjoy the full rights of Romanian citizenship. It was at this time that the final departure of the Banat Swabians for Germany began. The Transylvanian Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
made similar decisions. Even though the Swabian families of the Danube and Banat Swabians had lived in the region for ten generations and more, and although their culture had developed quite differently from Germany's, they no longer trusted the Romanian communist government.
In 1965, Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
came to power in Romania. At first he opened the country to the West, but by the end of the 1970s, he had become ultra-nationalistic and an opponent of all ethnic minorities. Under his rule, any Banat Swabian who chose to emigrate had to pay a bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
of more than a thousand mark
German mark
The Deutsche Mark |mark]], abbreviated "DM") was the official currency of West Germany and Germany until the adoption of the euro in 2002. It is commonly called the "Deutschmark" in English but not in German. Germans often say "Mark" or "D-Mark"...
s (depending on age and education) for a permanent emigration visa. Nevertheless, Banat Swabians annually left by thousands well into the 1980s. An economic crisis of the communist state, as well as a rumor concerning a village destruction project, caused 200,000 to flee Romania during that time.
After Ceauşescu's fall in 1989 and German Reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
in 1990, almost all the remaining Banat Germans in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
enthusiastically left for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. As a consequence, the ethnic German population in Romania is now greatly reduced. Some emigrants are returning, generally entrepreneurs with economic ambitions supported by the German nonreturnable grants for development projects outside Germany. Since the economic crisis, their wish to returned increased, but most of them sold their properties when they left.
Of about 750,000 ethnic Germans who once lived in Romania, less than 75,000 remain today. Only in cities with large populations is there a functioning German cultural life, usually aided by uninterrupted Romanian State subsidies and Romanian inhabitants' help. Still, the Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung is a strong weekly paper, and the German State Theater in Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
(Deutsches Staatstheater Temeswar), subsidized by the Romanian government, produces permanent theatre shows. In Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
and Arad
Arad, Romania
Arad is the capital city of Arad County, in western Romania, in the Crişana region, on the river Mureş.An important industrial center and transportation hub, Arad is also the seat of a Romanian Orthodox archbishop and features two universities, a Romanian Orthodox theological seminary, a training...
, there are German-language primary and secondary schools, attended mostly by Romanian students. The ethnic Germans (including Banat Swabians) left in Romania are represented in politics by the DFDR or Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien (Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
The Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania is a centrist political party representing the German minority in Romania. It was founded at the end of 1989. Despite originally being a German minority party, the party is popular also with many ethnic Romanians, notably in parts of Transylvania...
).
Yugoslavia
While the Swabians from other areas of Yugoslavia were lucky enough to escape, or were just expelled, the destiny of Banat and Bačka Swabians was less fortunate. Due to the high level of conscription among males, mostly women, children and elderly people remained in the villages, and they were unwilling or unable to flee. Following the Red Army invasion in October 1944, women were subject to indiscriminate rape by Red Army soldiers. Later on, Swabians who had been in any way involved – or were suspected of having been involved – with military administration were placed in provisional concentration camps. Many were tortured, and at least 5,800 were killed. Others were used as forced labor. After Christmas 1944, around 30,000 younger people, chiefly women, were transferred to labor camps in the Soviet Union by train, escorted by Partisans. In the framework of agricultural reform, partisan families – chiefly migrants from war-torn Bosnia, LikaLika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...
and Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
– took over abandoned Swabian farms and houses. In March 1945, the surviving Swabians were ghettoized in "village camps", later labelled "extermination camps" by the survivors; the death rate in fact ranged as high as 50%. The most notorious such camp was in Knićanin
Knicanin
Knićanin is a village in Serbia. It is located in the Zrenjanin municipal area, in the Banat region , Vojvodina province...
(formerly Rudolfsgnad), where an estimated 11,000-12,500 deaths occurred. Children, by then mostly orphaned, had their own sections in these camps; most of them were later transferred to state homes and families, and lost their ethnic identity. In 1947, the situation improved, as foreign humanitarian aid reached the camps, and their regimes were loosened. The camp system was closed down in March 1948, and the inmates were conscripted for work in the army or industry. Their flight was usually tolerated, and by the end of 1950s, around 300,000 Swabians had gradually emigrated to Western countries.
According to a study conducted in 1961 by the German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler, later supported by German emigrant organizations, 7,200 Swabians were shot by the Partisans, around 2,000 deported to the Soviet Union, and some 48,000 died in labor camps. Around 16.8% of the Swabians died during and after the war in Yugoslavia.
The Serbian census from 2002
Demographic history of Serbia
This article presents the demographic history of Serbia through census results. See Demographics of Serbia for a more detailed overview of the current demographics from 2002 census.- 1349 :...
records 3,901 Germans in Serbia, of which 3,154 were in the province of Vojvodina
Vojvodina
Vojvodina, officially called Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is an autonomous province of Serbia. Its capital and largest city is Novi Sad...
. In December 2007 they formed their own minority council in Novi Sad
Novi Sad
Novi Sad is the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, and the administrative centre of the South Bačka District. The city is located in the southern part of Pannonian Plain on the Danube river....
, which they were entitled to with 3,000 voter signatures. The president, Andreas Biegermeier, stated that the council would focus on property restitution, and marking mass graves and camp sites. He estimated the total number of remaining Danube Swabians in Serbia and their descendents at 5,000–8,000.
Hungary
In HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
less than 62,000 Danube Swabians remain, but they do have political representation. One city and several villages have German-speaking mayors . Explusion of the Swabian minority from Hungary took place only between 1945 and 1948.
Swabians in Emigration
The Banat Swabians who emigrated to Germany are generally well integrated into the society in which they live. They keep contact through cultural organisations (Landsmannschaften). In ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
and in southern Germany, where most Banat Swabians now live, they maintain their customs and dialect, and offer support to those who remain in Romania.
Notable Banat Swabians
- Herta MüllerHerta MüllerHerta Müller is a Romanian-born German novelist, poet and essayist noted for her works depicting the effects of violence, cruelty and terror, usually in the setting of Communist Romania under the repressive Nicolae Ceauşescu regime which she experienced herself...
, poet and recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Literature - Geza von CziffraGéza von CziffraGéza von Cziffra was a Hungarian and Austrian film director and screenwriter.- Life :Cziffra was a Banat German in origin, born in 1900 in Arad in the Banat region, at that date in the Kingdom of Hungary, now in Romania....
, film director - Johnny WeissmullerJohnny WeissmullerJohnny Weissmuller was an Austro-Hungarian-born American swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in movies. Weissmuller was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. He won fifty-two US National Championships and set sixty-seven...
(born Johann Weißmüller), American actor and Olympic swimming gold medalist - Nikolaus LenauNikolaus LenauNikolaus Lenau was the nom de plume of Nikolaus Franz Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau , was a German language Austrian poet.-Biography:...
, writer - Stefan JägerStefan JägerStefan Jäger was a painter known for his depiction of and deep identification with the Danube Swabian community to which he belonged....
, painter - Helmuth DuckadamHelmuth DuckadamHelmuth Robert Duckadam is a retired Romanian footballer who played as a goalkeeper.He was dubbed "the hero of Seville" due to his heroics in the 1986 European Cup Final, won by his main club, Steaua Bucureşti...
, football goalkeeper, winner of European Cup and current record holder for most penalty kicks saved in a shootout.