Hungary Germans
Encyclopedia
Germans of Hungary are the German
-speaking minority of Hungary
commonly called the Danube Swabians
(German: Donauschwaben). Danube Swabian is a collective term for a number of German ethnic groups who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary
(today's Hungary, Romania
, and several former Yugoslav
republics). Hungary Germans refers to the descendants of Germans who immigrated to the Carpathian Mountains
and surrounding regions, and who are now minorities in those areas. Many Hungary Germans were expelled from the region between 1946 and 1948, and many now live in Germany
or Austria
, but also in Brazil
and the United States
. However, many are still dispersed within the country of Hungary.
s who came in the company of Giselle of Bavaria
, the German-born queen
of the first King of Hungary
, Stephen I, entered the country.
Three waves of German migration can be distinguished in Hungary before the 20th century. The first two waves of settlers arrived to the Hungarian Kingdom in the Middle Ages (11th and 13th centuries) and formed the core of the citizens of the few towns in Upper Hungary
and in Southern Transylvania
(Transylvanian Saxons
, "Siebenbürger Sachsen").
The third, largest wave of German-speaking immigrants into Hungary occurred due to a deliberate settlement policy of the Habsburg
government after the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire
from Hungarian territory. Between 1711 and 1780, German-speaking settlers from Southern Germany
, Austria, and Saxony
immigrated to the regions of Southwest Hungary, Buda
, Banat
and Szatmár County. This influx of immigrants helped to bring economic recovery and cultural distinction to these regions. At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary contained over one million German-speaking residents. During this time, a flourishing German-speaking culture could be found in the kingdom, with German-language literary works, newspapers, and magazines being produced. A German language theater also operated in the kingdom's capital, Budapest
.
Throughout the 19th century, a strong German industrial community developed, with glass-blowing, foundries, and masonry being particularly important. In response to this, the second half of the century saw the rise of a strong Hungarian nationalist
political movement, whose purpose was to retain German economic power by assimilating the German-speaking citizens into Hungarian culture. As a mean toward this end, the German language was slowly replaced with the Hungarian language
.
By 1918, at the onset of World War I
, almost 2 million Danube Swabians and other German-speaking peoples lived in what is now present-day Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav republics. Between 1918 and 1945 several factors greatly reduced the number of German-speaking residents in the kingdom so much that only thirty percent of the original German-speaking population was left after World War II
. The number of Germans in the Hungarian kingdom was more than halved by the Treaty of Trianon
in 1920, as the kingdom was forced to make large cessions of its territory to neighboring countries.
In 1924, under the leadership of Jakob Bleyer, the Hungarian Germans' Peoples' Preservation Society (German: Ungarnländische Deutsche Volksbildungsverein) was formed to combat the forced dominance of the Hungarian language in schools and government. However, the Hungarian government proceeded with its Magyarization programs. In this situation, the German-speaking community of Hungary looked for foreign intervention in its language predicament. This fact was very interesting to Hitler
controlled Germany, and the German and Hungarian governments used the status of German-speaking peoples within the Hungarian state as a political bargaining chip. In 1938 a National Socialist German organization was formed, The Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn under the leadership of Franz Anton Basch and it became the most influential political organization among the Hungarian Germans. In 1940 it became the official representative of the Hungarian Germans and it was directly controlled from Germany. The Volksbund had representatives in the Hungarian parliament until 1945.
After the end of World War II, the German-speaking community in Hungary was seen as a scapegoat
by Communists. The advancing Red Army, referring to "security reasons", deported about 600,000 civilians and prisoners of war from Hungary, of whom 40-65,000 were Germans. On top of this, a great number of Germans, mostly members of Nazi organisations, who felt threatened by the prospect of being deported to Siberia, fled from Hungary as well (approx. 60-70,000). Many Germans were sent back to Germany, first to the American-occupied area of Germany, and later to the Soviet-occupied area. Overall, approximately 220,000 Germans were expelled from Hungary. From that point on, the history of Hungary Germans focuses on two points, the fate of Germans who remained in Hungary, and the fate of the exiles.
negotiations was the Czechoslovakian proposal of expelling the Hungarian-speaking population from Slovakia together with the Germans of the Sudetenland
. Eduard Benes demanded the expulsion of Hungarians alongside Germans from Czechoslovakian territory already in 1943 supported by the Soviet Union. (He originally planned to expel 600,000 Hungarians, around 90% of the total Hungarian population at that time.) Benes’ plan was not supported by the United States or Great Britain. Due to the diplomatic pressure from the Soviet Union the treaty imposed the expulsion of Germans on Hungary.
In Hungary, the Potsdam decision was the starting point of the expulsion process, whereas for Poland and Czechoslovakia the Allied Powers’ decision gave official recognition to the ethnic cleansing that had already been carried out. Moreover, Hungary, unlike other countries, had never demanded a total expulsion of her Germans and did not start to expel the German speaking population after the end of the war. The Hungarian Government rejected the idea of collective responsibility, for as long as it could. The expulsion of Germans from Hungary was opposed by both the government
and the population of Hungary.
The expulsion of German-speaking people from Hungary began in 1946 in Budapest and continued until 1948. The Hungarian government was forced to take action by the occupying
Soviet
forces. All of their objections were rejected by the US and UK governments.
The Hungarian Parliament decided in the summer of 1945 that the German-speaking population must be expelled from Hungary, and they passed laws forming the framework of such a movement on December 22, 1945. They took effect under an executive order issued January 4, 1946. The expulsion orders affected anyone who claimed German nationality or German as a mother language in the 1941 Hungarian census
, anyone who was a member of a German ethnic organization, former members of the SS
, and anyone who changed their Hungarianized surnames back to their German equivalents. At first, expelled Hungarian Germans were sent to the American-occupied section of Germany, but this was stopped on June 1, 1946, because the Americans would not allow Hungary to pay its war debts by simply returning seized assets to the displaced Germans. Approximately 170,000 Germans were sent to the American zone of occupied Germany in this time period. Another round of expulsions began in August 1947, but this time the expelled Germans were sent to the Soviet-occupied area of Germany. Many times, Germans were expelled from Hungary because of forced evictions from their properties. This phase of expulsions was more haphazard and unplanned, as some villages of Germans were expelled, whereas others were left untouched. Most Germans removed in this round of expulsions moved to refugee camp
s in the Soviet-controlled German province of Saxony.
of the Germans who remained in Hungary was revoked in 1945, and they were then considered to be stateless. However, they were regranted their citizenship in 1950, and given personal identification
. However, a difficult period ensued between 1950 and 1956, when -among others- Hungarian Germans were portrayed as enemies to the state and had to work, often for little or no pay, for kulak
s, wealthy farmers who owned a majority of the land. Hungary Germans were still conscripted
into the Hungarian military
, but were often given no weapons and substandard training, as they were viewed as expendable. Even given these conditions, the men were expected to serve three-year tours of duty.
Many Hungarian Germans abandoned the country in 1956 during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
. Many moved to West Germany
, Austria, the United States, Canada
, Brazil or Australia
.
However, things began to improve for minority groups, including the Hungarian Germans, under a program of economic liberalization called Goulash Communism
. This movement, led by the then- General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, János Kádár
, guaranteed certain economic rights to minority groups, as well as rights to practice their own cultures. In 1955, a new organization, the Association of Hungarian Germans , was founded. Its main goals included the interests of the Hungarian German ethnic group, including the release of the Hungarian Germans from Hungarian rule. Another major focus of the group was the teaching of the German language in Hungarian schools. Because of the government's position on German culture in the recent past, very little German was taught in schools at the time, and the group's organizer feared that "a mute
generation" had been raised by the Hungarian school system. The group's organizers felt that the Hungarian German youth had a very poor command of the German language, including limited speech comprehension, which they found disturbing. The group met with success in the 1980s, when German gained status as a minority language
, thus gaining legal standing in the Hungarian school system. The number of bilingual schools has continued to rise. In 2001, 62 105 people declared to be German http://www.nepszamlalas2001.hu/eng/volumes/18/tables/load1_30_1.html and 88 209 people had affinity with cultural values, traditions of the German nationality.http://www.nepszamlalas2001.hu/eng/volumes/18/tables/load1_31.html
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-speaking minority 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...
commonly called 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...
(German: Donauschwaben). Danube Swabian is a collective term for a number of German ethnic groups who lived in the former Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
(today's Hungary, 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...
, and several former Yugoslav
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
republics). Hungary Germans refers to the descendants of Germans who immigrated to the Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
and surrounding regions, and who are now minorities in those areas. Many Hungary Germans were expelled from the region between 1946 and 1948, and many now live in 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...
or 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...
, but also in 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...
. However, many are still dispersed within the country of Hungary.
History
The immigration of German-speaking peoples into Hungary began in approximately 1000, when knightKnight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
s who came in the company of Giselle of Bavaria
Giselle of Bavaria
Blessed Gisela of Hungary was the first queen of Hungary.- Biography :Gisela was a daughter of Henry II, Duke of Bavaria and Gisela of Burgundy....
, the German-born queen
Queen consort
A queen consort is the wife of a reigning king. A queen consort usually shares her husband's rank and holds the feminine equivalent of the king's monarchical titles. Historically, queens consort do not share the king regnant's political and military powers. Most queens in history were queens consort...
of the first King of Hungary
King of Hungary
The King of Hungary was the head of state of the Kingdom of Hungary from 1000 to 1918.The style of title "Apostolic King" was confirmed by Pope Clement XIII in 1758 and used afterwards by all the Kings of Hungary, so after this date the kings are referred to as "Apostolic King of...
, Stephen I, entered the country.
Three waves of German migration can be distinguished in Hungary before the 20th century. The first two waves of settlers arrived to the Hungarian Kingdom in the Middle Ages (11th and 13th centuries) and formed the core of the citizens of the few towns in Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary
Upper Hungary is the usual English translation for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia...
and in Southern Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(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...
, "Siebenbürger Sachsen").
The third, largest wave of German-speaking immigrants into Hungary occurred due to a deliberate settlement policy of the Habsburg
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...
government after the expulsion of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
from Hungarian territory. Between 1711 and 1780, German-speaking settlers from Southern Germany
Southern Germany
The term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...
, Austria, and Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
immigrated to the regions of Southwest Hungary, Buda
Buda
For detailed information see: History of Buda CastleBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian.Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's...
, 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...
and Szatmár County. This influx of immigrants helped to bring economic recovery and cultural distinction to these regions. At the end of the 18th century, the Kingdom of Hungary contained over one million German-speaking residents. During this time, a flourishing German-speaking culture could be found in the kingdom, with German-language literary works, newspapers, and magazines being produced. A German language theater also operated in the kingdom's capital, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
.
Throughout the 19th century, a strong German industrial community developed, with glass-blowing, foundries, and masonry being particularly important. In response to this, the second half of the century saw the rise of a strong Hungarian nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
political movement, whose purpose was to retain German economic power by assimilating the German-speaking citizens into Hungarian culture. As a mean toward this end, the German language was slowly replaced with the Hungarian language
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
.
By 1918, at the onset of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, almost 2 million Danube Swabians and other German-speaking peoples lived in what is now present-day Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav republics. Between 1918 and 1945 several factors greatly reduced the number of German-speaking residents in the kingdom so much that only thirty percent of the original German-speaking population was left 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...
. The number of Germans in the Hungarian kingdom was more than halved by 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...
in 1920, as the kingdom was forced to make large cessions of its territory to neighboring countries.
In 1924, under the leadership of Jakob Bleyer, the Hungarian Germans' Peoples' Preservation Society (German: Ungarnländische Deutsche Volksbildungsverein) was formed to combat the forced dominance of the Hungarian language in schools and government. However, the Hungarian government proceeded with its Magyarization programs. In this situation, the German-speaking community of Hungary looked for foreign intervention in its language predicament. This fact was very interesting to 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...
controlled Germany, and the German and Hungarian governments used the status of German-speaking peoples within the Hungarian state as a political bargaining chip. In 1938 a National Socialist German organization was formed, The Volksbund der Deutschen in Ungarn under the leadership of Franz Anton Basch and it became the most influential political organization among the Hungarian Germans. In 1940 it became the official representative of the Hungarian Germans and it was directly controlled from Germany. The Volksbund had representatives in the Hungarian parliament until 1945.
After the end of World War II, the German-speaking community in Hungary was seen as a scapegoat
Scapegoat
Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any party for unmerited negative treatment or blame. Scapegoating may be conducted by individuals against individuals , individuals against groups , groups against individuals , and groups against groups Scapegoating is the practice of singling out any...
by Communists. The advancing Red Army, referring to "security reasons", deported about 600,000 civilians and prisoners of war from Hungary, of whom 40-65,000 were Germans. On top of this, a great number of Germans, mostly members of Nazi organisations, who felt threatened by the prospect of being deported to Siberia, fled from Hungary as well (approx. 60-70,000). Many Germans were sent back to Germany, first to the American-occupied area of Germany, and later to the Soviet-occupied area. Overall, approximately 220,000 Germans were expelled from Hungary. From that point on, the history of Hungary Germans focuses on two points, the fate of Germans who remained in Hungary, and the fate of the exiles.
Expulsion
The main factor that brought the expulsion of Germans from Hungary into focus during the Potsdam AgreementPotsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
negotiations was the Czechoslovakian proposal of expelling the Hungarian-speaking population from Slovakia together with the Germans of the Sudetenland
Sudetenland
Sudetenland is the German name used in English in the first half of the 20th century for the northern, southwest and western regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by ethnic Germans, specifically the border areas of Bohemia, Moravia, and those parts of Silesia being within Czechoslovakia.The...
. Eduard Benes demanded the expulsion of Hungarians alongside Germans from Czechoslovakian territory already in 1943 supported by the Soviet Union. (He originally planned to expel 600,000 Hungarians, around 90% of the total Hungarian population at that time.) Benes’ plan was not supported by the United States or Great Britain. Due to the diplomatic pressure from the Soviet Union the treaty imposed the expulsion of Germans on Hungary.
In Hungary, the Potsdam decision was the starting point of the expulsion process, whereas for Poland and Czechoslovakia the Allied Powers’ decision gave official recognition to the ethnic cleansing that had already been carried out. Moreover, Hungary, unlike other countries, had never demanded a total expulsion of her Germans and did not start to expel the German speaking population after the end of the war. The Hungarian Government rejected the idea of collective responsibility, for as long as it could. The expulsion of Germans from Hungary was opposed by both the government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
and the population of Hungary.
The expulsion of German-speaking people from Hungary began in 1946 in Budapest and continued until 1948. The Hungarian government was forced to take action by the occupying
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
Soviet
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....
forces. All of their objections were rejected by the US and UK governments.
The Hungarian Parliament decided in the summer of 1945 that the German-speaking population must be expelled from Hungary, and they passed laws forming the framework of such a movement on December 22, 1945. They took effect under an executive order issued January 4, 1946. The expulsion orders affected anyone who claimed German nationality or German as a mother language in the 1941 Hungarian census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, anyone who was a member of a German ethnic organization, former members of the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
, and anyone who changed their Hungarianized surnames back to their German equivalents. At first, expelled Hungarian Germans were sent to the American-occupied section of Germany, but this was stopped on June 1, 1946, because the Americans would not allow Hungary to pay its war debts by simply returning seized assets to the displaced Germans. Approximately 170,000 Germans were sent to the American zone of occupied Germany in this time period. Another round of expulsions began in August 1947, but this time the expelled Germans were sent to the Soviet-occupied area of Germany. Many times, Germans were expelled from Hungary because of forced evictions from their properties. This phase of expulsions was more haphazard and unplanned, as some villages of Germans were expelled, whereas others were left untouched. Most Germans removed in this round of expulsions moved to refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
s in the Soviet-controlled German province of Saxony.
Treatment in Post-War Hungary
The citizenshipCitizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
of the Germans who remained in Hungary was revoked in 1945, and they were then considered to be stateless. However, they were regranted their citizenship in 1950, and given personal identification
Identity document
An identity document is any document which may be used to verify aspects of a person's personal identity. If issued in the form of a small, mostly standard-sized card, it is usually called an identity card...
. However, a difficult period ensued between 1950 and 1956, when -among others- Hungarian Germans were portrayed as enemies to the state and had to work, often for little or no pay, for kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
s, wealthy farmers who owned a majority of the land. Hungary Germans were still conscripted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
into the Hungarian military
Military
A military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
, but were often given no weapons and substandard training, as they were viewed as expendable. Even given these conditions, the men were expected to serve three-year tours of duty.
Many Hungarian Germans abandoned the country in 1956 during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
1956 Hungarian Revolution
The Hungarian Revolution or Uprising of 1956 was a spontaneous nationwide revolt against the government of the People's Republic of Hungary and its Soviet-imposed policies, lasting from 23 October until 10 November 1956....
. Many moved to West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, Austria, the United States, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Brazil or Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
However, things began to improve for minority groups, including the Hungarian Germans, under a program of economic liberalization called Goulash Communism
Goulash Communism
Goulash Communism or Kádárism refers to the variety of communism as practised in the Hungarian People's Republic from the 1960s until the collapse of Communism in Hungary in 1989...
. This movement, led by the then- General Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, János Kádár
János Kádár
János Kádár was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, presiding over the country from 1956 until his forced retirement in 1988. His thirty-two year term as General Secretary makes Kádár the longest ruler of the People's Republic of Hungary...
, guaranteed certain economic rights to minority groups, as well as rights to practice their own cultures. In 1955, a new organization, the Association of Hungarian Germans , was founded. Its main goals included the interests of the Hungarian German ethnic group, including the release of the Hungarian Germans from Hungarian rule. Another major focus of the group was the teaching of the German language in Hungarian schools. Because of the government's position on German culture in the recent past, very little German was taught in schools at the time, and the group's organizer feared that "a mute
Speech disorder
Speech disorders or speech impediments are a type of communication disorders where 'normal' speech is disrupted. This can mean stuttering, lisps, etc. Someone who is unable to speak due to a speech disorder is considered mute.-Classification:...
generation" had been raised by the Hungarian school system. The group's organizers felt that the Hungarian German youth had a very poor command of the German language, including limited speech comprehension, which they found disturbing. The group met with success in the 1980s, when German gained status as a minority language
Minority language
A minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...
, thus gaining legal standing in the Hungarian school system. The number of bilingual schools has continued to rise. In 2001, 62 105 people declared to be German http://www.nepszamlalas2001.hu/eng/volumes/18/tables/load1_30_1.html and 88 209 people had affinity with cultural values, traditions of the German nationality.http://www.nepszamlalas2001.hu/eng/volumes/18/tables/load1_31.html