Dr. Mariana Hausleitner

Panel 5 The German Minorities

Abstract

Given that both Romania and Serbia claimed the whole region of the Banat after the First World War, the partition agreed upon by the Paris peace treaties satisfied neither side. The majority of the Romanian population were farmers with high hopes for the 1921 land reform. But the majority of Swabians, of which 76.5% were farmers according to the 1930 census, did not stand to benefit from the reform. On the contrary, the communal grounds administered by the Catholic Church, used to finance schools as well as social institutions, were appropriated by the Romanian state.

The Swabians cultural and political interests were mainly represented by teachers and priests. These local elites were largely oriented towards Hungarian culture before 1918, in a climate where assimilation served as a prerequisite for social advancement. Because of their Catholic faith they did not develop autonomous structures, a clear contrast to the Protestant Transylvanian Saxons.

In order to facilitate this reorientation away from Hungary, the Romanian state tolerated the creation of German cultural institutions until the mid-1920s, after which they were threatened by Romanianisation. Many German schools, however, remained Catholic Church’s control and received financial support from Germany. The Swabs’ dependency on Germany grew during the depression, a time when communal structures were weakened by its effects. After 1933 the financial dependency on Germany enabled the German Nazis to exert an influence on the Danube Swabians, especially on the younger generations. The representatives of the Church, as well as other members of the conservative Swabian elites, tried to warn Berlin that the propaganda and actions of young radicals could lead to a general ban of German autonomous structures in Romania. After a protracted period of conflict though, the catholic youth organisations were integrated into the NSDAP-organisation of the Germans in Romania.

In general terms, the self-definition of the Danube Swabians was predominantly built on cultural aspects; after the mid-Thirties, however, race increasingly became the central category of their self-definition and a sharp delimitation vis-à-vis the region’s Jews resulted – even though many of them were German-speaking Jews.

Related Publications

• Hausleitner, Mariana, Harald Roth (eds.). Der Einfluss des Faschismus und Nationalsozialismus auf Minderheiten in Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa. München: IKGS Verlag, 2007.
• Deutsche und Juden in Bessarabien 1814-1941: Zur Minderheitenpolitik Russlands und Großrumäniens. München: IKGS Verlag, 2005.
• Gaby Coldewey (eds.). Zwischen Pruth und Jordan: Lebenserinnerungen Czernowitzer Juden. Köln: Böhlau-Verlag, 2003.
• Die Rumänisierung der Bukowina 1918-1944: Die Durchsetzung des nationalstaatlichen Anspruchs Großrumäniens. München: Oldenbourg Verlag 2001.
• Brigitte Mihok, Juliane Wetzel (eds.). Rumänien und der Holocaust: Zu den Massenverbrechen in Transnistrien 1941-1944. Berlin: Metropol Verlag 2001.
• Monika Katz (eds.). Juden und Antisemitismus im östlichen Europa. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1995.
• Die sowjetische Osteuropapolitik in den Jahren der Perestrojka. Frankfurt a.M.: Campus Verlag 1994.
• Die nationale Frage in der rumänischen Arbeiterbewegung vor 1924. Berlin: Verlag der Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1988.