Banat Swabians
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The Banat Swabians are an ethnic German population in Southeast Europe, part of the Danube Swabians, who immigrated over 200 years ago from different parts of Southern Germany into the Banat, since it had been sparsely populated after wars with Turkey. This formerly strong and important German minority has now become quite small, many of its members having returned to Germany as a result of the Second World War and again for economic reasons after 1990. The Banat was divided between several countries by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, and the Treaty of Trianon of 1920: the greatest part was included into Romania, a smaller part into Yugoslavia, and a small strip in the area of Szeged into Hungary.
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[edit] Banat and the Danube Swabians
The Banat colonists are often grouped together with other German-speaking ethnic groups in the area under the name Danube Swabians. Besides Banat, these groups lived in nearby western Bačka, in Swabian Turkey (present-day southern Hungary), in Slavonia, and in Sathmar. All these places were then under Austrian rule.
[edit] The Colonists' Origins and Recruitment
Most of the settlers came from Alsace-Lorraine, Austria, Bavaria, Franconia, and the Palatinate; another small group can be traced to Middle Germany; however, only a small few actually came from the Swabian regions of what was then known as Further Austria. Therefore, it is unclear how the group came to be called the Banat Swabians. It is probably due to the fact that the majority of the immigrants were registered and enbarked at the Swabian city of Ulm, and then were transported with Ulmer Schachteln on the Danube to Belgrade, where they then set off on foot to found their new homeland.
The majority of the colonists came from agricultural areas, and were the younger sons of poor farming families, who saw little chance for success in their native land. Under Maria Theresa they received financial support and long-term tax relief. Later many failed to get married, because the gender-ratio had become too skewed, and there were not enough women. Many craftsmen were financially assisted, as were teachers, doctors, and other professionals.
[edit] Banat Swabians 1920-1944
The Treaty of Trianon of 1920 was the beginning of the end for the Swabians of Banat. Of course, the end of the empire and the assumption of most of Banat by Romania had many positive effects as well. Towards the end of the 19th century, Hungary had undergone a period of Magyarization, when it attempted to assimilate all of its minorities. With the end of the monarchy, it was possible to have German schools for the first time since 1867. German culture was flourishing: once again there was a German theatre in Timişoara, and across Romania more German newspapers were being established.
Economically, things did not go so well. Black Friday and the subsequent financial crises of the 1930s hit Banat hard. This caused many Swabians to leave Banat to work as cheap labor in such places as Argentina, Brazil, and the United States to seel their fortunes and never return.
Also, after 1933, the majority of Banat Swabians, like most ethnic Germans in Eastern Europe, became supporters of Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich in its mission for economic and military strength. In the Second World War, many were drafted into the Romanian army. After 1943, a German-Romanian treaty allowed them to fight with the SS. Towards the end of the war, some Banat Swabians also opposed the Nazis, which executed some of them in Jimbolia (Hatzfeld).
[edit] Life After 1944
The Kingdom of Romania, formerly a German ally, changed sides and joined the Allies on August 23, 1944. Overnight, all Germans living in Romania became potential enemies of the state. The approach of the unstoppable Red Army cause a flood of refugees to flee from all parts of the country into Germany.
In Yugoslavian Banat, the Red Army sent another wave of refugees westwards. After the Soviet occupation, came Serbian partisans who killed more than a thousand men and forced more into exile. In the last week of the war, not only German soldiers, but entire villages were imprisoned. Lasting from 1944 to 1945, this marked the end of Banat Swabians in Yugoslavia.
Life in Romania was not much better. By 1945, the nation was completely under Soviet influence. The head of the Communist Party, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, was called a Romanian Stalin. In 1944, much of the German population was deported to labor camps in the Soviet Union. Thousands died. Those who remained (as well as those who fled West) lost their citizenship and were disspossessed. In 1951 more than a thousand German-speakers were displaced and forced to found new villages in the Bărăgan Steppe of southeast Romania. The majority were allowed to return in 1955.
In the 1960s the Romanian political atmosphere relaxed significantly. Gradually the policy of disenfranchising and dispossessing the German minority was retracted. Once again they could enjoy all the privileges of a Romanian citizen.
It was during this time that the final departure of the Banat Swabians for Germany began. The discrimination and economic adversity were too much, and before long, many had developed a desire to emigrate permanently, which also took hold among the Transylvanian Saxons. Although the families of the Danube and Banat Swabians had lived in the area for around ten generations, and even though their culture and way of life had grown to be different from that of Germany, they still wanted to leave.
[edit] The Ceauşescu Era
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 nationalistic and a great opponent of the ethnic minorities. This did not keep him from making a profit from them though. Under his rule, any German willing to emigrate would have to pay the regime a bounty of up to more than a thousand marks (depending on age and education). In this way over ten thousand Germans left Romania. The departing families would need the right papers to emigrate and to get them, they would have to pay a bribe, or else wait for years. This doubled Ceauşescu's income from the emigrants. Nevertheless, the Banat Swabians' continued going to Germany into the 1980s. The extreme economic crisis of this time, as well as increased persecution of minorities - including a village destruction project - caused 200,000 to flee Romania during that decade.
[edit] The "Bleeding" after the Fall
After Ceauşescu's fall in 1989 and German Reunification in 1990, almost all the remaining Germans in Romania left the country for Germany. The German population in Romania is much reduced, and skewed towards older people because it is mainly young people who leave. Individual emigrants are returning, usually entrepreneurs with economic ambitions or as part of a development project.
In Serbia and Croatia the situation is similar, whereas in Hungary there are still over 200,000 Danube Swabians left[citation needed], who also have political representation. One city and many towns have German-speaking mayors [citation needed]. Displacement and dispossession of the German minority took place in Hungary only between 1945 and 1948.
[edit] The Current Situation
Of around 750,000 Germans who once lived in Romania, less than a tenth remain there today. The remaining population is too small and aged to build a functioning society. Only in a few places with large populations is there a functioning German cultural life, sometimes helped along by Romanian inhabitants. 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, still produces good German theatre. In the cities of Timişoara and Arad there are still German language secondary schools, attended mostly by Romanian students.
The Banat Swabians that emigrated to Germany are generally well integrated into the society in which they live. They keep contact through cultural organisations (Landsmannschaften). Notably in Vienna and in South Germany, where most Banat Swabians now live, they maintain their customs and dialect, and support those who remain in Romania.
The remaining Germans (including Banat Swabians) in Romania are represented in politics by the DFDR or Demokratisches Forum der Deutschen in Rumänien (Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania).
[edit] Famous Banat Swabians
- Johnny Weissmuller (born Johann Weißmüller), American actor and swimmer
- Nikolaus Lenau, writer
[edit] References
- The information in this article is based on and translated from that found in its German equivalent.
- German-speaking Europe
