Swabia
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/S/w/a/b/Swabia.png)
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/A/l/a/m/Alamannien_Hochburgund_ca_1000.png)
Swabia (German: Schwaben, colloquially Schwabenland or Ländle; in English also sometimes Suabia or Svebia) is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
Swabia was one of the ten Imperial Circles of the Holy Roman Empire from 1500 to the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.
Geography
Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined. However, today it is normally thought of as comprising the former German state of Württemberg (with the Prussian Hohenzollern Province) and the administrative region of Bavarian Swabia.
In the Middle Ages, the term Swabia indicated a larger area, covering all the lands associated with the Frankish stem duchy of Alamannia stretching from the Vosges Mountains in the west to the broad Lech river in the east: This also included the region of Alsace and the later Margraviate of Baden on both sides of the Upper Rhine Valley, as well as modern German-speaking Switzerland, the Austrian state of Vorarlberg and the Principality of Liechtenstein in the south.
History
Suebi
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/N/E/_/4/NE_400ad.jpg)
Two thousand years ago, the Suebi or Suevi were an Elbe Germanic tribe whose origin was near the Baltic Sea, which was thus known to the Romans as the Mare Suebicum (today, the term "Swabian Sea" is applied to Lake Constance). They migrated to the southwest, becoming part of the Alamannic confederacy. The Alamanni were ruled by independent kings throughout the fourth and fifth centuries. Also, a number of Suevi (20,000–50,000[1]) reached the Iberian Peninsula under king Hermeric and established an independent kingdom in 410 in what is now northern Portugal, Galicia, and western regions of Asturias and most of León (in northwest Spain). Their kingdom was known as Galliciense Regnum and endured until 585. Its political center was Braccara Augusta (present-day Braga, Portugal).
Duchy of Swabia
Holy Roman Empire
Charlemagne's family is known to have hailed from Swabia. The major dynasties that arose out of the region were the Habsburgs and the Hohenzollerns, who rose to prominence in Northern Germany. Also stemming from Swabia are the local dynasties of the Dukes of Württemberg and the Margraves of Baden. The Welf family went on to rule in Bavaria and Hanover, and are ancestral to the British royal family that has ruled since 1714. Smaller feudal dynasties eventually disappeared, however; for example, branches of the Montforts and Hohenems lived until modern times, and the Fürstenberg survive still. The region proved to be one of the most divided in the Empire, containing, in addition to these principalities, numerous free cities, ecclesiastical territories, and fiefdoms of lesser counts and knights.
The Old Swiss Confederacy was de facto independent from Swabia from 1499 as a result of the Swabian War.
Fearing the power of the greater princes, the cities and smaller secular rulers of Swabia joined to form the Swabian League in the 15th century. The League was quite successful, notably expelling the Duke of Württemberg in 1519 and putting in his place a Habsburg governor, but the league broke up a few years later over religious differences inspired by the Reformation, and the Duke of Württemberg was soon restored.
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/S/w/a/b/Swabia_in_the_late_18th_century.jpg)
The region was quite divided by the Reformation. While secular princes like the Duke of Württemberg and the Margrave of Baden-Durlach, as well as most of the Free Cities, became Protestant, the ecclesiastical territories (including the bishoprics of Augsburg, Konstanz and the numerous Imperial abbeys) remained Catholic, as did the territories belonging to the Habsburgs (Further Austria), Hohenzollerns and the Margrave of Baden-Baden.
Modern history
In the wake of the territorial reorganization of the Empire of 1803 by the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss, the shape of Swabia was entirely changed. All the ecclesiastical estates were secularized, and most of the smaller secular states, and almost all of the free cities, were mediatized, leaving only Württemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern as sovereign states. Much of Eastern Swabia became part of Bavaria, forming what is now the Swabian administrative region of Bavaria.
Third Reich
The Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß took place in the Kingdom of Württemberg, with the Swabians shown being terrorized by Jews.
Swabian settlements abroad
Outside of Germany, many Swabians settled in eastern Croatia (Slavonia and Syrmia), and southern and eastern Hungary, including part of what is now Serbia and Romania (the Danube Swabians and Swabian Turkey) in the 18th century, where they were invited as pioneers to repopulate some areas. They also settled in Russia, Bessarabia, and Kazakhstan. They were well-respected as farmers. Outside of Europe, Swabian settlements can also be found in Brazil, Canada, and the United States. The town of Swaffham, Norfolk, means "homestead of the Swabians", some of whom must presumably have settled[citation needed] in England alongside the Angles and Saxons. Among the Germans who emigrated to the United States in the 19th century, Swabians in some areas maintained their regional identity and formed organizations for mutual support.[2] Almost all of the several million Swabians were expelled from Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia during the period 1944–1950, as part of the ethnic cleansing against their German minorities.
In several languages of eastern and southeastern Europe, the local name for "Swabian" has come to be used as a colloquial name for "Germans" in general.
Character, culture and stereotypes
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/W/i/r/k/Wirkoennenalles.jpg)
In the past, Swabians were the target of many jokes and stories where they are depicted as excessively stingy, overly serious, prudish, or as simpletons, for instance in "The Seven Swabians" (Die sieben Schwaben) published in Kinder- und Hausmärchen by the Brothers Grimm. However, this has ceased to a large extent, while Swabians are nowadays said to be frugal, clever, entrepreneurial and hard-working. In a widely respected publicity campaign on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Baden-Württemberg, economically the most successful state in modern Germany, the Swabians famously replied to the former jokes with: "We can do everything—except speak Standard German" (Wir können alles. Außer Hochdeutsch), alluding to the region's distinct local dialect.
Many Swabian surnames end with the suffixes -le,-er, -el, -ehl, and -lin. Examples would be: Schäuble, Egeler, Rommel, and Gmelin. The popular surname Schwab is derived from this area, meaning literally "Swabian".
As of 2013, "Swabian" has been used, particularly in Berlin, as shorthand for prosperous Germans from southern Germany who live in gentrified neighborhoods such as Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. "Swabians" were reported to have fought back with spätzle and absurd separatist demands. There was a serious side to this dispute which mirrors a genuine divide between the states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg and the remainder of Germany which to a certain extent is financed by subsidies collected from the more prosperous south.[3]
Angela Merkel has praised the "thrifty Swabian housewife" and suggested Swabian women's supposed practice of making lots of money but saving it rather than spending it as a model for Europe, to the irritation of many outside Germany.[4] This is expressed by the saying "Schaffe schaffe, Häusle baue" (literally "working working, building a house" meaning "you've got to work a lot, then you'll be able to afford a nice home").
Pejorative usage of "Swabian"
In Switzerland, "Schwab" (or stronger "Sauschwab", pig swabian) is a derogatory term for Germans, derived from the Swabian War of 1499. In Macedonian, Polish, and Bulgarian, "Shvab" or "Szwab" may be a pejorative term for any German, not just one from Swabia. In parts of the former Yugoslavia (i.e., Serbia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina), the more neutral term Švabo is somewhat applied to all German peoples who lived in those regions until shortly after World War II (called Danube Swabians though most of them came from neighboring Lorraine and the Palatinate), and to their descendants; it is even occasionally used as a slang or derogatory term to refer to all German speakers including Austrians and Swiss Germans.
Swabian dialect
- For detailed linguistic information on the distinct Swabian dialect see Swabian German.
![](/2014-wikipedia_en_all_02_2014/I/media/A/l/e/m/Alemannic-Dialects-Map-English.png)
Swabian (Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic German dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia, present in the North-Eastern area of the Alemannic Sprachraum. A separate version of Wikipedia is maintained in Alemannic German.[5]
Famous Swabians
The following is an abbreviated list of individuals who hailed from the region. Inclusion in this list is not indicative of descent from the original Swabians.
- Friedrich Adler, Jugendstil and Art Deco designer
- Roland Asch, race driver
- Dieter Baumann, Olympic gold medalist and anti-doping activist
- Albrecht Behmel, writer and historian
- Götz von Berlichingen, "the knight with the iron fist"
- Robert Bosch, inventor, industrialist and philanthropist
- Berthold Brecht, poet and playwright
- Gottlieb Daimler, developer of the second modern car (presented November 1886), 10 months after Karl Benz' patent of January 29, 1886. Founder of Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, today: Daimler
- Dieter Dengler, Wildberg-born US pilot & Vietnam POW
- Rudolf Diesel, Engineer & Inventor of the Diesel Engine
- Josef Eberle, Swabian Poet who versed Swabian poems
- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate
- Siegfried Einstein, poet
- Georg Elser, tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1939
- Roland Emmerich, Hollywood director
- Gudrun Ensslin, a founder of the German terrorist group Red Army Faction or RAF, a.k.a. the Baader-Meinhof Gang
- Johann Georg Faust, protagonist of tales and dramas
- Wilhelm Groener, railroad chief in the German General Staff, Minister of Transportation, Minister of Defense, and acting Minister of the Interior in the Weimar Republic
- Alfred Haag, Communist & member of German Resistance
- Lina Haag, Communist & member of German Resistance
- Philipp Matthäus Hahn, priest and inventor
- Erich Hartmann, highest-scoring ace of WWII, 352 victories
- Wilhelm Hauff, poet
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, philosopher
- Martin Heidegger, philosopher
- Ernst Heinkel, aircraft designer
- Herman the Cripple, blessed of the Catholic Church and author of the "Salve Regina"
- Hermann Hesse, poet, writer, 1946 Nobel laureate for Literature
- Theodor Heuss, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Friedrich Hölderlin, poet
- Uli and Dieter Hoeneß, former football players and managers
- Friedrich Gustav Jaeger, German officer during World War II who participated in an assassination attempt on Hitler
- Alfred Kärcher, Inventor, founder of Kärcher Cleaning equipment
- Johannes Kepler, astronomer and mathematician
- Justinus Kerner, poet
- Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer, biologist
- Kurt Georg Kiesinger, former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Jürgen Klinsmann, football (soccer) player, current coach of the U.S. national soccer team, and former coach of the German national team
- Jürgen Klopp, football coach
- Manfred R. Kühnle, inventor, with over 600 patents worldwide
- Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Studios in Hollywood
- Johannes Liechtenauer, Fencing GrandMaster
- Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype
- Eduard Mörike, poet
- Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—the family originally came from Swabia
- Gerd Müller, former football (soccer) player
- Reinhold Nägele, World War I soldier, painter
- Johannes Nauclerus, historian, university rector/chancellor
- Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer, theologian, philosopher and patron of Hegel
- Erwin Rommel, World War II general
- Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, philosopher
- Friedrich Schiller, historian and writer, Wilhelm Tell, Die Räuber, Maria Stuart, "Ode an die Freude"/"Ode to Joy"
- Harald Schmidt, late-night talk show host
- Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, highest scoring nightfighter ace of WWII, 121 victories
- Hans Schober, structural engineer
- Hans Scholl, founder of the White Rose resistance against the Nazis
- Sophie Scholl, member of the White Rose resistance against the Nazis
- Bernd Schuster, former football player and coach
- Gustav Schwab, writer, most popular for "die schönsten Sagen des klassischen Altertums"
- Claus von Stauffenberg, leader of the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler
- Margarete Steiff, toy maker
- Andreas Stihl, founder of Stihl Maschinenfabrik
- Ludwig Uhland, poet
- Richard Vogt, aircraft designer
- Richard von Weizsäcker, former President of the Federal Republic of Germany
See also
- Danube Swabians (Donauschwaben), Banat Swabians, Germans of Serbia, Sathmarer Swabians
- Duke of Swabia
- Swabian children
- New Swabia
- Swabian League
- Schwaben Redoubt (World War I)
- Baden-Württemberg
- Switzerland
References
- ↑ Their number would be comparable, but probably inferior, to that of the Vandals who passed into África after residing together in Galaecia for 10 years. See Victor Vitense Persecutiones, I.
- ↑ "The story of the Schwaben Halle".
- ↑ Nicholas Kulish (January 17, 2013). "Swabian Separatists Fling Spätzle to Make Their Point". The New York Times. Retrieved January 18, 2013.
- ↑ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/17/angela-merkel-austerity-swabian-housewives
- ↑ Wikipedia in Alemannic German
External links
![]() |
Look up Swabia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Swabia. |
![]() |
Wikisource has the text of the 1905 New International Encyclopedia article Swabia. |
- D'alemannisch Wikipedia
- "Danube Swabian Resources".
"Swabia". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911