Germans in Bulgaria

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Germans (Bulgarian: немци, nemtsi or германци, germantsi) are a minority ethnic group in Bulgaria (German: Bulgarien). Although according to the 2001 census they only numbered 436,[1] the settlement of Germans in Bulgaria has a long and eventful history and comprises several waves, the earliest in the Middle Ages.

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[edit] Early settlement

Groups of Saxon ore miners (called саси, sasi in Bulgarian) are known to have settled in the ore-rich regions of Southeastern Europe. In the 13th-14th century, Germans from the Upper Harz and Westphalia[2] settled in and around Chiprovtsi in modern northwestern Bulgaria (then part of the Second Bulgarian Empire) to extract ore in the western Balkan Mountains, receiving royal privileges from Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman.[3] According to some theories, these miners established Roman Catholicism in this part of the Balkans before most of them left following the Ottoman invasion, the rest being completely Bulgarianized (by marrying Bulgarian women) and merging with the local population[4] by the mid-15th century.[5] Along with spreading Roman Catholicism, the Saxons also enriched the local vocabulary with Germanic words and introduced a number of mining techniques and metal-working instruments to Bulgaria.[2]

Germans are also thought to have mined ore in the Osogovo and Belasica mountains (between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia),[6] as well as around Samokov[7] in Rila and various parts of the Rhodope Mountains[8][9] and around Etropole,[10] but were assimilated without establishing Catholicism there.

After their expulsions from Hungary (1376) and Bavaria (1470), a significant number of Germanic-speaking Ashkenazi Jews settled in the Bulgarian lands.[11] For their history, see History of the Jews in Bulgaria.

[edit] Liberated Bulgaria (post–1878)

Following the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 and its restoration as a sovereign monarchy, all four Bulgarian monarchs were of German descent: Prince Alexander I of Battenberg, as well as Ferdinand, Boris III and Simeon II, all three of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. A significant number of German intellectuals, such as architects Friedrich Grünanger and Viktor Rumpelmayer, arrived in Bulgaria to foster its cultural development.

Until World War II, there also existed a small but notable rural German population in several villages scattered in northern Bulgaria. Banat Swabians from Austria-Hungary began to settle in the village of Bardarski Geran, Vratsa Province, beginning with seven families in 1893, with their total number later exceeding 90 families. In 1936, they numbered 282. In Bardarski Geran, the Germans built a separate Roman Catholic church around 1930 due to conflicts with the local Banat Bulgarians, who had founded the village in 1887. In 1932, a German school was established in Bardarski Geran.[12] In its peak year, 1935, it had a total of 82 students, of whom 50 Germans and 32 Bulgarians.[13]

Other Danube Swabian colonists from the Banat settled in another Banat Bulgarian village, Gostilya, Pleven Province, as well as in Voyvodovo, Vratsa Province, which they shared with Evangelist Czechs, Slovaks and Banat Bulgarians. Another notable German colony was Tsarev Brod (old name Endzhe), Shumen Province, where the Germans lived with Banat Bulgarians and had a private German school.[13] In the beginning of the 20th century, it was inhabited by around 70 families, and consisted of both Dobrujan Germans and Banat Swabians.[14]

A German community was also present in Southern Dobruja, a region before 1913 and since 1940 part of Bulgaria, and particularly in the village of Ali Anife (Kalfa), today Dobrevo, Dobrich Province, which was inhabited by Dobrujan Germans and in 1943 still had 150 Catholics. It was briefly named Germantsi (“Germans”) in the 1940s.[15] German sources list its population in 1939 as 285, of whom 129 Germans.[16]

The bulk of the German population in Bulgaria was resettled within the borders of the Third Reich according to Hitler's Heim ins Reich policy. As a result, 2,150 ethnic German Bulgarian citizens were deported from the country in 1943, including 164 from Bardarski Geran and 33 from Gostilya.[17] Only a handful of Bulgaria's rural German population remained: for example, in 2003 there were only two elderly German women remaining in Bardarski Geran, Maria Dauerbach and Franziska Welsch;[18] they had not been deported because they had married local Bulgarians.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Етнически малцинствени общности (Bulgarian). Национален съвет за сътрудничество по етническите и демографските въпроси. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
  2. ^ a b Списание Космос, бр.7 от 1972г., стр.40 (Bulgarian). Kosmos.pass.as. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  3. ^ Чипровското въстание 1688 г. Рударството в Чипровско и развитието на града (Bulgarian). Knigite.Abv.bg. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  4. ^ Чипровци (Bulgarian). OMDA.bg. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  5. ^ A hint at their assimilation is the presence of German names with Slavic suffixes in the registers at the time. Гюзелев, Боян (2004). Албанци в Източните Балкани (in Bulgarian). София: IMIR. ISBN 954-8872-45-5. 
  6. ^ За лексикалните особености на песните от сборника “Веда Словена” (Bulgarian). BulTreeBank. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  7. ^ История на Самоков (Bulgarian). Zone Bulgaria. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  8. ^ Град Мадан (Bulgarian). Професионална гимназия Васил Димитров, град Мадан. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  9. ^ Върху стотици хиляди декари търсели руда из Пловдивско (Bulgarian). Марица Днес (1999-06-28).
  10. ^ В Етрополе почитат Слънцето и зетьовете (Bulgarian). Standart News. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
  11. ^ The Virtual Jewish History Tour: Bulgaria. Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved on 2006-11-26.
  12. ^ Нягулов, Благовест (1999). "Банатските българи в България", Банатските българи (in Bulgarian). София: Парадигма, p. 91, pp. 120-125. ISBN 954-9536-13-0. 
  13. ^ a b Slavtcheva-Raiber, Anna. Geschichte, Entwicklung und Sprachwerbetätigkeit der deutschen Schulen in Bulgarien im Zeitraum 1900–1939 (in German). Universität Mannheim. 
  14. ^ Petersen, Handwörterbuch…
  15. ^ "Глава III. 1. Никополската епархия – консолидация под външен натиск", Католиците между двете световни войни (1918–1944) (in Bulgarian). IMIR. 
  16. ^ Stumpp, Karl (1938). Von der Urheimat und Auswanderung der Deutschen in Bessarabien (in German). Stuttgart: Kurier-Verlag. OCLC 20272199. 
  17. ^ Нягулов, p. 125.
  18. ^ Von Valentin, Louis (4 January 2003). Bulgarien: Das etwas andere Dorf. Schwäbische Kultur zwischen Donau und Balkan (German). Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung / Das Ostpreußenblatt. Retrieved on 2007-03-26.

[edit] Further reading

  • Nörr. (1929). Deutsches Leben und Wirken in Bulgarien (in German). Darmstadt: Rhönring 36: Landesverband Hessen d. Vereins f. d. Deutschtum im Ausland. OCLC 72852722. 
  • Petersen, Carl (1933–1938). Handwörterbuch des Grenz- und Auslanddeutschtums (in German). Breslau: Ferdinand Hirt. OCLC 64304187. 

[edit] External links

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